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. III.
TO THIS VOLUME IS PREFIXED A THIRD DISSERTATION ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM.
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. LXXXI.
CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS in the THIRD VOLUME.
SECTION XIX. p. 1.
PETRARCH'S sonnets. Lord Surrey. His education, travels, mistress, life, and poetry. He is the first writer of blankverse. Italian blank-verse. Surrey the first English classic poet.
SECTION XX. p. 28.
Sir Thomas Wyat. Inferior to Surrey as a writer of sonnets. His
fe. His genius characterised. Excels in moral poetry.
SECTION XXI. p. 41.
The first printed
Miscellany
of English poetry. Its contributors. Sir Francis Bryan, Lord Rochford, and Lord Vaulx. The first true pastoral in English. Sonnet-writing cultivated by the nobility. Sonnets by king Henry the eighth. Literary character of that king.
SECTION XXII. p. 60.
The second writer of blank-verse in English. Specimens of early blank
verse.
SECTION XXIII. p. 70.
Andrew Borde. Bale. Anslay. Chertsey.
Fabyll's ghost
a poem. The
Merry Devil of Edmonton.
Other minor poets of the reign of Henry the eighth.
SECTION XXIV. p. 87.
John Heywood the
epigrammatist.
His works examined. Antient unpublished burlesque poem of
Sir Penny.
SECTION XXV. p. 97.
Sir Thomas More's English poetry.
Tournament of Tottenham.
Its age and scope. Laurence Minot. Alliteration. Digression illustrating comparatively the language of the fifteenth century, by a specimen of the metrical Armoric romance of
Ywayn and Gawayn.
SECTION XXVI. p. 135.
The
Notbrowne Mayde.
Not older than the sixteenth century. Artful contrivance of the story. Misrepresented by Prior. Metrical romances,
Guy, syr Bevys,
and
Kynge Apolyn,
printed in the reign of Henry. The
Scole howse,
a satire. Christmas carols. Religious libels in rhyme. Merlin's prophesies. Laurence Minot. Occasional disquisition on the late continuance of the use of waxen tablets. Pageantries of Henry's court. Dawn of taste.
SECTION XXVII. p. 161.
Effects of the Reformation on our poetry. Clement Marot's Psalms. Why adopted by Calvin. Version of the Psalms by Stern
old and Hopkins. Desects of this ver
ion, which is patronised by the puritans in opposition to the Choral Service.
SECTION XXVIII. p. 180.
Metrical versions of scripture. Archbishop Parker's Psalms in metre. Robert Crowley's puritanical poetry.
SECTION XXIX. p. 190.
Tye's
Acts of the Apostles
in rhyme. His merit as a musician. Early piety of king Edward the sixth. Controversial ballads and plays. Translation of the Bible. Its effects on our language. Arthur Kelton's
Chronicle of the Brutes.
First
Drinkingsong. Gammar Gurton's Needle.
SECTION XXX. p. 209.
Reign of queen Mary.
Mirrour of Magistrates.
Its inventor, Sackville lord Buckhurst. His life.
Mirrour of Magistrates
continued by Baldwyn and Ferrers. Its plan and stories.
SECTION XXXI. p. 220.
Sackville's
Induction
to the
Mirrour of Magistrates.
Examined. A prelude to the
Fairy Queen.
Comparative view of Dante's
Inferno.
SECTION XXXII. p. 256.
Sackville's Legend of
Buckingham
in the
Mirrour of Magistrates.
Additions by Higgins. Account of him. View of the early editions of this Collection. Specimen of Higgins's Legend of
Cordelia,
which is copied by Spenser.
SECTION XXXIII. p. 269.
View of Niccols's edition of the
Mirrour of Magistrates.
High estimation of this Collection. Historical plays,
whence.
SECTION XXXIV. p. 283.
Richard Edwards. Principal poet, player, musician, and buffoon, to the courts of Mary and Elisabeth. Anecdotes of his life. Cotemporary testimonies of his merit. A contributor to the
Paradise of daintie Devises.
His book of
comic histories,
supposed to have suggested Shakespeare's
Induction of the Tinker.
Occasional anecdotes of Antony Munday and Henry Chettle. Edwords's songs.
SECTION XXXV. p. 298.
Tusser. Remarkable circumstances of his life. His
Husbandrie,
one of our earliest didactic poems, examined.
SECTION XXXVI. p. 311.
William Forrest's poems. His
Queen Catharine,
an elegant manuscript, contains anecdotes of Henry's divorce. He collects and preserves antient music. Puritans oppose the study of the classics. Lucas Shepherd. John Pullayne. Numerous metrical versions of
Solomon's Song.
Censured by Hall the satiri
t. Religious rhymers. Edward More.
Boy-bishop,
and
miracle-plays,
revived by queen Mary. Minute particulars of an antient
miracle-play.
SECTION XXXVII. p. 329.
English language begins to be cultivated. Earliest book of Criticism in English. Examined. Soon followed by others. Early critical systems of the French and Italians. New and superb editions of Gower and Lydgate. Chaucer's monument erected in Westminsterabbey. Chaucer esteemed by the reformers.
SECTION XXXVIII. p. 355.
Sackville's
Gordobuc.
Our first regular tragedy. Its fable, conduct, characters, and style. Its defects.
Dumb-show.
Sackville not assisted by Norton.
SECTION XXXIX. p. 372.
Classical drama revived and studied. The
Phoenissae
of Euripides translated by Gascoigne. Seneca's Tragedies translated. Account of the translators, and of their respective versions. Queen Elisabeth translates a part of the
Hercules Oetaeus.
SECTION XL. p. 395.
Most of the classic poets translated before the end of the sixteenth century. Phaier's
Eneid.
Completed by Twyne. Their other works. Phaier's Ballad of
Gad's-hill.
Stanihurst's
Eneid
in English hexameters. His other works. Fleming's Virgil's
Bucolics
and
Georgics.
His other works. Webbe and Fraunce translate some of the
Bucolics.
Fraunce's other works. Spenser's
Culex.
The original not genuine. The
Ceiris
proved to be genuine. Nicholas Whyte's
Story of Jason,
supposed to be a version of Valerius Flaccus. Golding's
Ovid's Metamorphoses.
His other works. Ascham's censure of rhyme. A translation of the
Fasti
revives and circulates the story of
Lucrece. Euryalus and Lucretia.
Detached fables of the
Metamorphoses
translated.
Moralisations
in fashion. Underdowne's Ovid's
Ibis.
Ovid's
Elegies
translated by Marlowe.
Remedy of Love,
by F. L.
Epistles
by Turberville. Lord Essex a translator of Ovid. His literary character. Churchyard's Ovid's
Tristia.
Other detached versions from Ovid. Antient meaning and use of the word
Ballad.
Drant's
Horace.
Incidental criticism on Tully's Oration
pro Archia.
SECTION XLI. p. 432.
Kendal's
Martial.
Marlowe's versions of Coluthus and Museus. General character of his Tragedies. Testimonies of his cotemporaries. Specimens and estimate of his poetry. His death. First Translation of the
Iliad
by Arthur Hall. Chapman's
Homer.
His other works. Version of
Clitophon and Leucippe.
Origin of the Greek erotic romance. Palingenius translated by Googe. Criticism on the original. Specimen and merits of the translation. Googe's other works. Incidental stricture on the philosophy of the Greeks.
SECTION XLII. p. 461.
Translation of Italian novels. Of Boccace. Paynter's
Palace of Pleasure.
Other versions of the same sort. Early metrical versions of Boccace's
Theodore and Honoria,
and
Cymon and Iphigenia. Romeus and Juliet.
Bandello translated. Romances from Bretagne. Plot of Shakespeare's
Tempest.
Miscellaneous
Collections
of translated novels before the year
1600. Pantheon.
Novels arbitrarily licenced or suppressed. Reformation of the
English Press.
SECTION XLIII. p. 490.
General view and character of the poetry of queen Elisabeth's age.
A DISSERTATION ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM.
TALES are the learning of a rude age. In the p
og
ess of letters, speculation and enquiry commence with refinement of manners. Literature becomes sentimental and discursive, in proportion as a people is polished: and men must be instructed by facts, either real or imaginary, before they can apprehend the subtleties of argument, and the force of ref
ection.
Vincent of Beauvais, a learned Dominican of France, who flourished in the thirteenth century, observes in his MIRROR of HISTORY, that it was a practice of the preachers of his age, to rouse the indifference and relieve the languor of their hearers, by quoting the fables of Esop: yet, at the same time, he recommends a sparing and prudent application of these profane fancies in the discussion of sacred subjects
SPECUL. HIST. Lib. iii. c. viii.
ol. 31. b. edit. Ven. 1591.
. Among the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum we find a very antient collection of two hundred and fifteen stories, romantic, allegorical, religious, and legendary, which were evidently compiled by a professed preacher, for the use of monastic societies. Some of these appear to have been committed to writing from the recitals of bards and minstrels: others to have been invented and written by troubadours and monks
MSS. HARL. 463. membran. fol.
. In the year 1389, a grand system of divinity appeared at Paris, afterwards translated by Caxton under the title of the COURT OF SAPYENCE, which abounds with a multitude of historical examples, parables, and apologues; and which the writer wisely supposes, to be much more likely to interest the attention and excite the devotion of the people, than the authority of science, and the parade of theology. In consequence of the expediency of this mode of of instruction, the Legends of the Saints were received into the ritual, and rehearsed in the course of public worship. For religious romances were nearly allied to songs of chivalry; and the same gross ignorance of the people, which in the early centuries of christianity created a necessity of introducing the visible pomp of theatrical ceremonies into the churches, was taught the duties of devotion, by being amused with the achievements of spiritual knight-errantry, and impressed with the examples of pious heroism. In more cultivated periods, the DECAMERON of Boccace, and other books of that kind, ought to be considered as the remnant of a species of writing which was founded on the simplicity of mankind, and was adapted to the exigencies of the infancy of society.
Many obsolete collections of this sort still remain, both printed and manuscript, containing narratives either fictitious or historical,
—Of king and heroes old,
Such as the wise Demodocus once told
In solemn songs at king Alcinous' feast
Milton. AT A VACATION EXERCISE, &c.
.
But among the antient story-books of this character, a Latin compilation entitled GESTA ROMANORUM seems to have been the favorite.
This piece has been before incidentally noticed: but as it operated powerfully on the general body of our old poetry, affording a variety of inventions not only to Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, but to their distant successors, I have judged it of sufficient importance to be examined at large in a separate dissertation: which has been designedly reserved for this place, for the purpose both of recapitulation and illustration, and of giving the reader a more commodious opportunity of surveying at leisure, from this intermediate point of view, and under one comprehensive detail, a connected display of the materials and original subjects of many of our past and future poets.
Indeed, in the times with which we are now about to be concerned, it seems to have been growing more into esteem. At the commencement of typography, Wynkyn de Worde published this book in English. This translation wasre printed, by one Robinson, in 1577. And afterwards, of the same translation there were six impressions before the year 1601
See supr. vol. ii. p. 18. seq.
. There is an edition in black letter so late as the year 1689. About the year 1596, an English version appeared of
"Epitomes des cent HISTOIRES TRAGIQUES, partie extraictes des ACTES DE
ROMAINS et autres, &c."
From the popularity, or rather familiarity, of this work in the reign of queen Elisabeth, the title of GESTA GRAYORUM was affixed to the history of the acts of the Christmas Prince at Grays-inn, in 1594
Printed, or reprinted, in 1688. 4to.
. In Sir GILES GOOSECAP, an anonymous comedy, presented by the Children of the Chapel in the year 1606, we have,
"Then for your lordship's quips and quick jests, why GESTA ROMANORUM were nothing to them
Lond. Printed for John Windet. 1606. 4to.
."
And in George Chapman's MAY-DAY, a comedy, printed at London in 1611, a man of the highest literary taste for the pieces in vogue is characterised,
"One that has read Marcus Aurelius, GESTA ROMANORUM, the Mirrour of Magistrates, &c.—to be led by the nose like a blind beare that has read nothing
Act iii. pag. 39.
!"
The critics and collectors in black-letter, I believe, could produce many other proofs.
The GESTA ROMANORUM were first printed without date, but as it is supposed before or about the year 1473, in folio, with this title,
Incipiunt
HISTORIE NOTABILES
collecte ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM
et quibusdam aliis libris cum applicationibus eorundem
Much the same title occurs to a manuscript of this work in the Vatican,
"Historiae Notabiles collectae ex Gestis Romanorum et quibusdam aliis libris cum explicationibus
orundem."
Montfauc. Bibl. MANUSCR. tom. i. pag. 17. Num. 172.
. This edition has one hundred and fifty-two chapters, or GESTS, and one hundred and seventeen leaves
Without initials, paging, signatures, or catch-words.
. It is in the Gothic letter, and in two columns. The first chapter is of king Pompey, and the last of prince, or king, Cleonicus. The initials are written in red and blue ink. Thi
dition, slightly mutilated, is among bishop Tanner's printed books in the Bodleian library. The reverend and learned doctor Farmer, master of Emanuel college in Cambridge, has the second edition, as it seems, printed at Louvain, in quarto, the same or the subsequent year, by John de Westfalia, under the title,
Ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM HISTORIE NOTABILES
de viciis virtutibusque tractantes cum applicationibus moralisatis et mysticis.
And with this colophon, GESTA ROMANORUM
cum quibusdam aliis
HISTORIIS
eisdem annexis
ad MORALITATES
dilucide redacta hic finem habent. Quae, diligenter correctis aliorum viciis, impressit Joannes de Westfalia in alma Vniversitate Louvaniensi.
It has one hundred and eighty-one chapters
The first is of king Pompey, as before. The la
t is entitled De ADULTERIO.
. That is, twenty-nine more than are contained in the former edition: the first of the additional chapters being the story of Antiochus, or the substance of the romance of APOLLONIUS of TYRE. The initials are inserted in red ink
It h
s signatures to K k.
. Another followed soon afterwards, in quarto,
Ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM
Historie notabiles moralizatae,
per
Girardum Lieu,
GOUDAE, 1480. The next edition, with the use of which I have been politely favoured by George Mason esquire, of Aldenham-Lodge in Hertfordshire, was printed in folio, and in the year 1488, with this title, GESTA RHOMANORUM
cum Applicationibus moralisatis et misticis.
The colophon is,
Ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM
cum pluribus applicatis Historiis de virtutibus et viciis mystice ad intellectum transsumptis Recollectorii finis. Anno nre salutis
MCCCCLXXX viij
kalendas vero februarii
xviij. A general, and alphabetical, table, are subjoined. The book, which is printed in two columns, and in the Gothic character, abounding with abbreviations, contains ninety-three leaves. The initials are written or flourished in red and blue, and all the capitals in the body of the text are miniated with a pen. There were many other later editions
For which see supr. vol. ii. p. 15.
. I must add, that the GESTA ROMANORUM were translated into Dutch, so early as the year 1484. There is an old French version in the British Museum.
This work is compiled from the obsolete Latin chronicles of the later Roman or rather German story, heightened by romantic inventions, from Legends of the Saints, oriental apologues, and many of the shorter fictitious narratives which came into Europe with the Arabian literature, and were familiar in the ages of ignorance and imagination. The classics are sometimes cited for authorities; but these are of the lower order, such as Valerius Maximus, Macrobius, Aulus Gallius, Seneca, Pliny, and Boethius. To every tale a MORALISATION is subjoined, reducing it into a christian or moral lesson.
Most of the oriental apologues are taken from the CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA, or a latin Dialogue between an Arabian Philo
opher and Edric
EDRIC was the name of ENOCH among the Arabians, to whom they attribute many fabulous compositions. Herbelot, in V. Lydgate's CHORLE and THE BIRD, mentioned above, is taken form the CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA of Alphonsus.
his son, never printed
MSS. HARL. 3861. And in many other libraries. It occurs in old French vers
, MSS. DI
. 86. membran.
"L
Romaunz
de Peres Aunfour coment il aprist et chastia son fils belement.
"
[See supr. vol. ii. EMEND. and ADD. at pag. 103.]
, written by Peter Alphonsus, a baptized Jew, at the beginning of the twelfth century, and collected from Arabian fables, apothegms, and examples
See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, vol. iv. p. 325. seq.
. Some are also borrowed from an old Latin translation of the CALILAH U DAMNAH, a celebrated sett of eastern fables, to which Alphonsus was indebted.
On the whole, this is the collection in which a curious enquirer might expect to find the original of Chaucer's Cambuscan:
Or,—if aught else great bards beside
In sage and solemn tunes have sung,
Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forests and inchantments drear,
Where more is meant than meets the ear
Milton's IL PENSEROSO.
.
Our author frequently cites GESTA ROMANORUM, the title of his own work. By which I understand no particular book of that name, but the Roman History in general. Thus in the title of the SAINT ALBANS CHRONICLE, printed by Caxton,
Titus Livyus
de GESTIS ROMANORUM is recited. In the year 1544, Lucius Florus was printed at Paris under the same title
Apud Vascosan. 4to.
. In the British Museum we find
"LES FAIS DE ROMAINS jusques a la
in de l' empire Domician, selon Orose, Justin, Lucan, &c."
A plain historical deduction
MSS. RE
. 20 C i.
. The ROMULEON, an old manuscript history of Rome from the foundation of the city to Constantine the Great, is also called de GESTIS ROMANORUM. This manuscript occurs both in Latin and French: and a French copy, among the royal man
scripts, has the title,
"ROMULEON, ou des FAIS DE ROMAINS
MS. 19 E. v.
."
Among the manuscript books written by Lapus de Castellione, a Florentine civilian, who flourished about the year 1350, there is one,
De Origine
URBIS ROMAE
et de
GESTIS ROMANORUM
See supr. vol. ii. p. 19.
. Gower, in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, often introduces Roman stories with the Latin preamble,
Hic secundum
GESTA. Where he certainly means the Roman History, which by degrees had acquired simply the appellation of GESTA. Herman Korner, in his CHRONICA NOVELLA, written about the year 1438, refers for his vouchers to Bede, Orosius, Valerius Maximus, Josephus, Eusebius, and the
Chronicon
et GESTA ROMANORUM. Most probably, to say no more, by the CHRONICON he means the later writers of the Roman affairs, such as Isidore and the monkish compilers; and by GESTA the antient Roman history, as related by Livy and the more established Latin historians.
Neither is it possible that this work could have been brought as a proof or authority, by any serious annalist, for the Roman story.
For though it bears the title of GESTA ROMANORUM, yet this title by no means properly corresponds with the contents of the collection: which, as has been already hinted, comprehends a multitude of narratives, either not historical; or, in another respect, such as are either totally unconnected with the Roman people, or perhaps the most preposterous misrepresentations of their history. To cover this deviation from the promised plan, which, by introducing a more ample variety of matter, has contributed to encrease the reader's entertainment, our collector has taken care to preface almost every story with the name or reign of a Roman emperor; who, at the same time, is often a monarch that never existed, and who seldom, whether real or suppositious, has any concern with the circumstances of the narrative.
But I hasten to exhibit a compendious analysis of the chapters which form this very singular compilation: intermixing occasional illustrations arising from the subject, and shortening or lengthening my abridgement of the stories, in proportion as I judge they are likely to interest the reader. Where, for that reason, I have been very concise, I have yet said enough to direct the critical antiquarian to this collection, in case he should find a similar tale occurring in any of our old poets. I have omitted the mention of a very few chapters, which were beneath notice. Sometimes, where common authors are quoted, I have only mentioned the author's name, without specifying the substance of the quotation. For it was necessary that the reader should be made acquainted with our collector's track of reading, and the books which he used. In the mean time, this review will serve as a full notification of the edition of 1488, which is more comprehensive and complete than some others of later publication, and to which all the rest, as to a general criterion, may be now comparatively referred.
CHAP. i. Of a daughter of king Pompey, whose chamber was guarded by five armed knights and a dog. Being permitted to be present at a public shew, she is
educed by a duke, who is afterwards killed by the champion of her father's court. She is reconciled to her father, and betrothed to a nobleman: on which occasion, sh
receives from her father an embroidered robe and a crown of gold, from the champion a gold ring, another from the wise man who pacified the king's anger, another from the king's son, another from her cousin, and from her spouse a seal of gold. All these presents are inscribed with proverbial sentences, suitable to the circumstances of the princess.
The latter part of this story is evidently oriental. The feudal manners, in a book which professes to record the achievements of the Roman people, are remarkable in the introductory circumstances. But of this mixture we shall see many striking instances.
CHAP. ii. Of a youth taken captive by pirates. The king's daughter falls in love with him; and having procured his escape, accompanies him to his own country, where they are married.
CHAP. vi. An emperor is married to a beautiful young princess. In case of death, they mutually agree not to survive one other. To try the truth of his wife, the emperor going into a distant country, orders a report of his death to be circulated. In remembrance of her vow, and in imitation of the wives of India, she prepares to throw herself headlong from a high precipice. She is prevented by her father; who interposes his paternal authority, as predominating over a rash and unlawful promise.
CHAP. vii. Under the reign of Dioclesian, a noble knight had two sons, the youngest of which marries a harlot.
This story, but with a difference of circumstances, ends like the beautiful apologue of the Prodigal Son.
CHAP. viii. The emperor Leo commands three female statues to be made. One has a gold ring on a finger pointing forward, another a beard of gold, and the third a golden cloak and purple tunic. Whoever steals any of these ornaments, is to be punished with an ignominious death.
This story is copied by Gower, in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS: but he has altered some of the circumstances. He supposes a statue of Apollo.
Of plate of golde a berde he hadde,
The wiche his brest all ovir spradde:
Of golde also, without fayle,
His mantell was, of large entayle,
Besette with perrey all aboute:
Forth ryght he straught his fynger oute,
Upon the whiche he had a rynge,
To seen it was a ryche thynge,
A fyne carbuncle for the nones
Moste precious of all stones
Lib. v. fol. 122. b.
.
In the sequel, Gower follows the substance of our author.
CHAP. x. Vespasian marries a wife in a distant country, who refuses to return home with him, and yet declares she will kill herself if he goes. The emperor ordered two rings to be made, of a wonderous efficacy; one of which, in the stone, has the image of Oblivion, the other the image of Memory: the ring of Oblivion he gave to the empress, and returned home with the ring of Memory.
CHAP. xi. The queen of the south sends her daughter to king Alexander, to be his concubine. She was exceedingly beautiful, but had been nourished with poison from her birth. Alexander's master, Aristotle, whose sagacity nothing could escape, knowing this, entreated, that before she was admitted to the king's bed, a malefactor condemned to death might be sent for, who should give her a kiss in the presence of the king. The malefactor, on kissing her, instantly dropped down dead. Aristotle, having explained his reasons for what he had done, was loaded with honours by the king, and the princess was dismissed to her mother.
This story is founded on the twenty-eighth chapter of Aristotle's SECRETUM SECRETORUM: in which, a queen of India is said to have treacherously sent to Alexander, among other costly presents, the pretended testimonies of her friendship, a girl of exquisite beauty, who having been fed with serpents from her infancy, partook of their nature
[See supr. vol. i. p. 132.] This I now cite from a Latin translation, without date, but evidently printed before 1500. It is dedicated to Guido Vere de Valencia bishop of Tripoly, by his most humble Clerk, Philippus: who says, that he found this treatise in Arabic at Antioch,
quo
ar
bant L
ini,
and that therefore, and because the Arabic copies were scarce, he translated it into Latin
This printed copy does not exactly correspond with MS. BODL. 495. membr. 4to. In the last, Alexander's miraculous horn is mentioned at fol. 45. b. In the former, in ch. lxxii. The dedication is the same in both.
. If I recollect right, in Pliny there are accounts of nations whose natural food was poison. Mithridates, king of Pontus, the land of venomous herbs, and the country of the sorceress Medea, was supposed to eat poison. Sir John Maundeville's Travels, I believe, will afford other instances.
CHAP. xii. A profligate priest, in the reign of the emperor Otto, or Otho, walking in the fields, and neglecting to say mass, is reformed by a vision of a comely old man.
CHAP. xiii. An empress having lost her husband, becomes so doatingly fond of her only son, then three years of age, as not to bear his absence for a moment. They sleep together every night, and when he was eighteen years of age, she proves with child by him. She murthers the infant, and her left hand is immediately marked with four circles of blood. Her repentance is related, in consequence of a vision of the holy virgin.
This story is in the SPECULUM HISTORIALE of Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about the year 1250
Lib. vii. cap. 93. seq. f. 86. b. edit. Ven.
.
CHAP. xiv. Under the reign of the emperor Dorotheus, a remarkable example of the filial piety of a young man, who redeems his father, a knight, from captivity.
CHAP. xv. Eufemian, a nobleman in the court of the emperor of Rome, is attended by three thousand servants girt with golden belts, and cloathed in silken vestments. His house was crouded with pilgrims, orphans, and widows, for whom three tables were kept every day. He has a son, Allexius; who quits his father's palace, and lives unknown seventeen years in a monastery in Syria. He then returns, and lives seventeen years undiscovered as a pilgrim in his father's family, where he suffers many indignities from the servants.
Allexius, or Alexis, was canonised. This story is taken from his Legend
See Caxton, GOLD. LEG. f. ccclxiii. b.
. In the metrical Lives of the Saints, his life is told in a sort of measure different from that of the rest, and not very common in the earlier stages of our poetry. It begins thus.
Lesteneth alle and herkeneth me,
Ȝonge and olde, bonde and fre,
And ich ȝow telle sone,
How a ȝought man, gent and fre,
By gan this worldis wele to fle,
Y born he was in Rome.
In Rome was a doȝty man
That was y cleped Eufemian,
Man of moche myȝte;
Gold and seluer he hadde ynouȝ,
Hall and boures, oxse and plouȝ,
And swith wel it dyȝte.
When Alexius returns home in disguise, and asks his father about his son, the father's feelings are thus described.
So sone so he spake of his sone,
The guode man, as was his wone,
Gan to sike sore
Sigh.
;
His herte fel
Felt.
so colde so ston,
The teres felle to his ton
Feet.
,
On her berd hore.
At his burial, many miracles are wrought on the sick.
With mochel siȝt
Sig
s.
, and mochel song,
That holy cors, hem alle among,
Bischoppis to cherche bere.
Amyddes riȝt the heȝe strete
High-street.
,
So moche folke hym gone mete
That they resten a stonde,
All the sike
They sighed.
that to him come,
I heled wer swithe sone
Of fet
Feet.
and eke of honde:
The blinde come to hare
Their.
siȝt,
The croked gonne sone riȝt
Strait.
,
The lame for to go:
That dombe wer fonge
Found.
speeche,
Theȝ herede
The true physician.
god the sothe leche
Heried. Blessed.
,
And that halwe
Hallowed.
also.
The day ȝede and drouȝ to nyȝt,
No lenger dwelle
Tarry.
they ne myȝt,
To cherche they moste wende;
The bellen they gonne to rynge,
The clerkes heȝe
High.
to synge,
Everich in his ende
At his seat in the choir.
.
Tho the corse to cherche com
Glad they wer everichon
That there ycure wer,
The pope and the emperour
By fore an auter of seynt Savour
Ther sette they the bere.
Aboute the bere was moche liȝt
With proude palle was bediȝt,
I beten al with golde
MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. Cod. 57. supr. citat.
.
The history of Saint Alexius is told entirely in the same words in the GESTA ROMANORUM, and in the LEGENDA AUREA of Jacobus de Voragine
HYSTOR. lxxxix. f. clviii. edit. 1479. fol. And in Vincent of Beauvais, who quotes GESTA ALLEXII. SPECUL. HIST. Lib. xviii. cap. 43. seq. f. 241. b.
, translated, through a French medium, by Caxton. This work of Jacobus does not consist solely of th
legends of the saints, but is interspersed with
multis aliis pulcherrimis et peregrinis historiis,
with many other most beautiful and strange histories
In the Colophon.
.
CHAP. xvi. A Roman emperor in digging for the foundation of a new palace, finds a golden sarcophagus, or coffin, inscribed with mysterious words and sentences. Which being explained, prove to be so many moral lessons of instruction for the emperor's future conduct.
CHAP. xvii. A poor man named Guido, engages to serve an emperor of Rome in six several capacities, or employments. One of these services is, to shew the best way to the holy land. Acquitting himself in all with singular address and fidelity, he is made a knight, and loaded with riches.
CHAP. xviii. A knight named Julian is hunting a stag, who turns and says,
"you will kill your father and mother."
On this he went into a distant country, where he married a rich Lady of a castle. Julian's father and mother travelled into various lands to find their son, and at length accidentally came to this castle, in his absence; where telling their story to the lady, who had heard it from her husband, she discovered who they were, and gave them her own bed to sleep in. Early in the morning, while she was at mass in the chapel, her husband Julian unexpectedly returned; and entering his wife's chamber, perceived two persons in the bed, whom he immediately slew with his sword, hastily supposing them to be his wife and her adulterer. At leaving the chamber, he met his wife coming from the chapel; and with great astonishment asked her, who the persons were sleeping in her bed? She answered,
"They are your parents, who have been seeking you so long, and whom I have honoured with a place in our own bed."
Afterwards they founded a sumptuous hospital for the accommodation of travellers, on the banks of a dangerous river.
This story is told in Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE
Fol. 90. edit. 1493.
, and in the metrical Lives of the Saints
MSS. BODL. 1596. f. 4.
. Hence Julian, or Saint Julian, was called
hospitator,
or the
gode herberjour;
and the Pater Noster became famous, which he used to say for the souls of his father and mother whom he had thus unfortunately killed
Ibid.
. The peculiar excellencies of this prayer are displayed by Boccace
DECAM. D. ii. N. 2.
. Chaucer speaking of the hospitable disposition of his FRANKELEIN, says,
Saint Julian he was in his own countre
PROL. v. 342. See supr. vol. i. S
CT. xvii. p. 438.
.
This history is, like the last, related by our compiler, in the words of Julian's Legend, as it stands in Jacobus de Voragine
HYSTOR. xxxii. f. lxii. a.
. Bollandus has inserted Antoninus's account of this saint, which appears also to be literally the same
ACT. SANCTOR. tom. ii. JANUAR. p. 974. Antv. 1643.
. It is told, yet not exactly in the same words, by Vincent of Beauvais
SP
CUL. HIST. Lib. ix. c. 115. f. 115. Venet. 1591.
.
I take this opportunity of observing, that the Legends of the the Saints, so frequently referred to in the GESTA ROMANORUM, often contain high strokes of fancy, both in the structure and decorations of the story. That they should abound in extravagant conceptions, may be partly accounted for, from the superstitious and visionary cast of the writer: but the truth is, they derive this complexion from the east. Some were originally forged by monks of the Greek church, to whom the oriental fictions and mode of fabling were familiar. The more early of the Latin lives were carried over to Constantinople, where they were translated into Greek with new embellishments of eastern imagination. These being returned into Europe, were translated into Latin, where they naturally superseded the old Latin archetypes. Others of the Latin lives contracted this tincture, from being written after the Arabian literature became common in Europe. The following ideas in the Life of Saint Pelagian evidently betray their original.
"As the bysshop sange masse in the cyte of Usanance, he saw thre dropes ryghte clere all of one gratenesse whiche were upon the aulter, and al thre ranne to gyder in to a precyous gemme: and whan they had set thys gemme in a crosse of golde, al the other precyous stones that were there, fyllen
Fell out.
out, and thys gemme was clere to them that were clene out of synne, and it was obscure and darke to synners
Caxton's GOLD. LEG. f. ccclxxxxviii.
, &c."
The peculiar cast of romantic invention was admirably suited to serve the purposes of superstition.
Possevin, a learned Jesuit, who wrote about the close of the sixteenth century, complains, that for the last five hundred years the courts of all the princes in Europe had been infatuated by reading romances: and that, in his time, it was a mark of inelegance, not to be familiarly acquainted with Lancelot du Lake, Perceforest, Tristan, Giron the Courteous, Amadis de Gaul, Primaleon, Boccace's Decameron, and Ariosto. He even goes so far as to say, that the devil instigated Luther to procure a translation of Amadis from Spanish into French, for the purpose of facilitating his grand scheme of overthrowing the catholic religion. The popularity of this book, he adds, warped the minds of the French nation from their antient notions and studies; introduced a neglect of the scriptures, and propagated a love for astrology, and other fantastic arts
BI
LIOTH. SELECT. Lib. i. cap. 25. p. 113. edit. 1593.
. But with the leave of this zealous catholic I would observe, that this sort of reading was likely to produce, if any, an effect quite contrary. The genius of romance and of popery was the same; and both were strengthened by the reciprocation of a similar spirit of credulity. The dragons and the castles of the one, were of a piece with the visions and pretended miracles of the other. The ridiculous theories of false and unsolid science, which, by the way, had been familiarised to the French by other romances, long before the translation of Amadis, were surely more likely to be advanced under the influence of a religion founded on deception, than in consequence of Luther's reformed system, which aimed at purity and truth, and which was to gain its end by the suppression of antient prejudices.
Many of the absurdities of the catholic worship were perhaps, as I have hinted, in some degree necessary in the early ages of the church, on account of the ignorance of the people; at least, under such circumstances they were natural, and therefore excusable. But when the world became wiser, those mummeries should have been abolished, for the same reason that the preachers left off quoting Esop's fables in their sermons, and the stage ceased to instruct the people in the scripture-history by the representation of the MYSTERIES. The advocates of the papal communion do not consider, that in a cultivated age, abounding with every species of knowledge, they continue to retain those fooleries which were calculated only for christians in a condition of barbarism, and of which the use now no longer subsists.
CHAP. xix. When Julius Cesar was preparing to pass the Rubicon, a gigantic spectre appeared from the middle of the river, threatening to interrupt his passage, if he came not to establish the peace of Rome. Our author cites the GESTA ROMANORUM for this story.
It was impossible that the Roman history could pass through the dark ages, without being infected with many romantic corruptions. Indeed, the Roman was almost the only antient history, which the readers of those ages knew: and what related even to pagan Rome, the parent of the more modern papal metropolis of christianity, was regarded with a superstitious veneration, and often magnified with miraculous additions.
CHAP. xx. The birth of the emperor Henry, son of earl Leopold, and his wonderful preservation from the stratagems of the emperor Conrade, till his accession to the imperial throne.
This story is told by Caxton in the GOLDEN LEGENDE, under the life of Pelagian the pope, entitled,
Here foloweth the lyf of Saynt Pelagyen the pope, with many other hystoryes and
gestys of the Lombardes, and of Machomete, with other cronycles
Fol. ccclxxxxvii. b.
. The GESTA LONGOBARDORUM are fertile in legendary matter, and furnished Jacobus de Voragine, Caxton's original, with many marvellous histories
See his LEGEND. AUR. fol. cccxv.
. Caxton, from the
gestes of the Lombardis,
gives a wonderful account of a pestilence in Italy, under the reign of king Gilbert
Ubi supr. f. lxxvi.
.
There is a LEGENDA SANCTORUM,
ive HISTORIA LOMBARDICA, printed in 1483. This very uncommon book is not mentioned by Maittaire. It has this colophon.
"Expliciunt quorundam Sanctorum Legende adjuncte post Lombardicam historiam. Impressa Argentine, M. CCCC. LXXXIII
Fol.
."
That is, the latter part of the book contains a few Saints not in the history of the Lombards, which forms the first part. I have neither time nor inclination to examine whether this is Jacobus's LEGENDA: but I believe it to be the same. I think I have seen an older edition of the work, at Cologne 1470
Fol. See also
"Legenda Sanctorum quae et LOMBARDICA dicitur."
Lugd. 1509. fol.
.
I have observed that Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE is taken from Jacobus de Voragine. This perhaps is not precisely true. Caxton informs us in his first preface to the first edition of 1483
Fol
at Westminster. This is one of the
nest of Caxton's publications.
, that he had in his possession a Legend in French, another in Latin, and a third in English, which varied from the other two in many places: and that MANY HISTORIES were contained in the English collection, which did not occur in the French and Latin. Therefore, says he,
"I have wryton ON
OUTE of the sayd three bookes: which I have orderyd otherwyse than in the sayd
Englysshe Legende,
which was so to fore made."
Caxton's English original might have been the old METRICAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS.
CHAP. xxi. A story from Justin, concerning a conspiracy of the Spartans against their king.
CHAP. xxii. How the Egyptians deified Isis and Osiris. From saint Austin. As is the following chapter.
CHAP. xxiv. Of a magician and his delicious garden, which he shews only to fools and to his enemies.
CHAP. xxv. Of a lady who keeps the staff and scrip of a stranger, who rescued her from the oppressions of a tyrant: but being afterwards courted by three kings, she destroys those memorials of her greatest benefactor.
CHAP. xxvi. An emperor, visiting the holy land, commits his daughter and his favorite dog, who is very fierce, to the custody of five knights, under the superintendance of his seneshall. The seneshall neglects his charge: the knights are obliged to quit their post for want of necessaries; and the dog, being fed with the provisions assigned to the knights, grows fiercer, breaks his three chains, and kills the lady who was permitted to wander at large in her father's hall. When the emperor returns, the seneshall is thrown into a burning furnace.
CHAP. xxviii. The old woman and her little dog.
CHAP. xxx. The three honours and three dishonours, decreed by a certain king to every conqueror returning from war.
CHAP. xxxi. The speeches of the philosophers on seeing king Alexander's golden sepulchre.
CHAP. xxxiii. A man had three trees in his garden, on which his three wives successively hanged themselves. Another begs an offset from each of the trees, to be planted in the gardens of his married neighbours. From Valerius Maximus, who is cited.
CHAP. xxxiv. Aristotle's seven rules to his pupil Alexander.
This, I think, is from the SECRETA SECRETORUM. Aristotle, for two reasons, was a popular character in the dark ages. He was the father of their philosophy: and had been the preceptor of Alexander the Great, one of the principal heroes of romance. No
was Aristotle himself without his romantic history; in which he falls in love with a queen of Greece, who quickly confutes his subtlest syllogisms.
CHAP. xxxv. The GESTA ROMANORUM cited, for the custom among the antient Romans of killing a lamb for pacifying quarrels.
CHAP. xxxvi. Of a king who desires to know the nature of man. Solinus, de MIRABILIBUS MUNDI, is here quoted.
CHAP. xxxvii. Pliny's account of the stone which the eagle places in her nest, to avoid the poison of a serpent.
CHAP. xxxix. Julius Cesar's mediation between two brothers. From the GESTA ROMANORUM.
We must not forget, that there was the Romance of JULIUS CESAR. And I believe Antony and Cleopatra were more known characters in the dark ages, than is commonly supposed. Shakespeare is thought to have formed his play on this story from North's translation of Amyot's unauthentic French Plutarch, published at London in 1579. Montfaucon, among the manuscripts of monsieur Lancelot, recites an old piece written about the year 1500,
"LA VIE ET FAIS DE MARC ANTOINE le triumvir et de sa mie CLEOPATRA, translatè de l' historien Plutarque pour tres illustre haute et puissante dame Madame Françoise de Fouez Dame de Châteaubriand
Bibl. MANUSCR. tom. ii. p. 1669. col. 2.
."
I know not whether t
is piece was ever printed. At least it shews, that the story was familiar at a more early period than is imagined; and leads us to suspect, that there might have been other materials used by Shakespeare on this subject, than those hitherto pointed out by his commentators.
That Amyot's French version of Plutarch should contain corruptions and innovations, will easily be conceived, when it is remembered that he probably translated from an old Italian version
See BIBL. FR. de la Croix, &c. tom. i. p. 388. Amyot was a great translator of Greek books; but I fear, not always from the Greek. It is remarkable, that he wa
rewarded with an abba
y for translating the THEAGENES and CHARICLEA of Heliodorus: for writing which, the author was deprived of
bishoprick. He died about 1580.
. A new exhibition in English of the French caricature of this most valuable biographer by North, must have stil
more widely extended the deviation from the original.
CHAP. xl. The infidelity of a wife proved by feeling her pulse in conversation. From Macrobius.
CHAP. xlii. Valerius Maximus is cited, concerning a column at Rome inscribed with four letters four times written.
CHAP. xliv. Tiberius orders a maker of ductile glass, which could not be broken, to be beheaded, le
t it should become more valuable than silver and gold.
This piece of history, which appears also in Cornelius Aggrippa DE VANITATE SCIENTIARUM
Sandford's English TRANSLAT. cap. 90. p. 159. a. edit. Lond. 1569. 4to.
, is taken from Pliny, or rather from his transcriber Isidore
ORIG. lib. xvi. cap. xv. p. 1224. Apud Auct. LING. LAT. 1602.
Isidore's was a favorite R
PERTORY of the middle age. He is cited for an account of the nature and qualities of the Falcon, in the Prologue to the second or metrical part of the old
Phebus de deduiz de la chass
des B
stes sauvages et des oyseaux d
Proye,
printed early at Paris without date, and written, as appears by the rubric of the last section, by
Le Comte de Tankarville.
. Pliny, in relating this story, says, that the temperature of glass, so as to render it flexible, was discovered under the reign of Tiberius.
In the same chapter Pliny observes, that glass is susceptible of all colours.
"Fit et album, et murrhinum, aut hyacinthos sapphirosque imitatum, et omnibus aliis coloribus. Nec est alia nunc materia sequacior, aut etiam PICTURAE ACCOMMODATIOR. Maximus tamen honor in candido
NAT. HIST. Lib. xxxvi. cap. xvi. p. 725. edit. Lugd. 1615.
."
But the Romans, as the last sentence partly proves, probably never used any coloured glass for windows. The first notice of windows of a church made of coloured glass occurs in chronicles quoted by Muratori. In the year 802, a pope built a church at Rome, and,
"fenestras ex vitro diversis coloribus conclusit atque decoravit
DISSERT. ANTICHIT. ITAL. tom. i. c. xxiv. p. 287.
."
And in 856, he produces
"fenestras vero vitreis coloribus, &c
Ibid. p. 281.
."
This however was a sort of mosaic in glass. To express figures in glass, or what we now call the art of painting in glass, was a very different work: and, I believe, I can shew it was brought from Constantinople to Rome before the tenth century, with other ornamental arts. Guiccardini, who wrote about 1560, in his
Descrittione de tutti Paesi Bassi,
ascribes the invention of baking colours in glass for churchwindows to the Netherlanders
Antw. Plantin. 1580. fol.
: but he does not mention the period, and I think he must be mistaken. It is certain that this art owed much to the laborious and mechanical genius of the Germans; and, in particular, their deep researches and experiments in chemistry, which they cultivated in the dark ages with the most indefatigable assiduity, must have greatly assisted its operations. I could give very early anecdotes of this art in England. But, with the careless haste of a lover, I am anticipating what I have to say of it in my HISTORY OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND.
CHAP. xlv. A king leaves four sons by his wife, only one which is lawfully begotten. They have a contest for the throne. The dispute is referred to the deceased king's secretary, who orders the body to be taken from the tomb; and decrees, that the son who can shoot an arrow deepest into it shall be king. The first wounds the king's right hand: the second his mouth: the third his heart. The last wound is supposed to be the successful one. At length the fourth, approaching the body, cried out with a lamentable voice,
"Far be it from me to wound my father's body!"
In consequence of this speech, he is pronounced by the nobles and people present to be the true heir, and placed on the throne.
CHAP. xlviii. Dionysius is quoted for the story of Perillus's brasen bull.
Gower in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS has this story; which he prefaces by saying that he found it in a
Cronike
Lib. vii. f. 161. b. col. 1.
. In Caxton's Golden Legende, Macrobius is called a chronicle.
"Macrobius sayth in a cronike
Fol. lxii. b.
."
Chronicles are naturally the first efforts of the literature of a barbarous age. The writers, if any, of those periods are seldom equal to any thing more than a bare narration of facts: and such sort of matter is suitable to the taste and capacity of their cotemporary readers. A further proof of the principles advanced in the beginning of this Dissertation.
CHAP. xlix. The duchess Rosmilla falls in love with Conan, king of Hungary, whom she sees from the walls of the city of Foro-Juli, which he is besieging. She has four sons and two daughters. She betrays the city to Conan, on condition that he will marry her the next day. Conan, a barbarian, executed the contract; but on the third day exposed her to his whole army, saying,
"such a wife deserves such a husband."
Paulus, that is, Paulus Diaconus, the
historian of the Longobards
is quoted. He was chancellor of Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards; with whom he was taken captive by Charlemagne. The history here referred to is entitled GESTA LONGOBARDORUM
See Lib. iv. cap. xxviii. Apud Muratorii SCR
PTOR. ITAL. i. p. 465. edit. Mediolan. 1723. Where she is called Romilda. The king is Cacan, or Cacanus, a king of the Huns. There are some
ine circumstances of distress in Paulus's description of this siege.
.
CHAP. l. From Valerius Maximus.
CHAP. li. From Josephus.
CHAP. lii. From Valerius Maximus.
CHAP. liii. From the same.
CHAP. liv. The emperor Frederick's marble portico near Capua.
I wonder there are not more romances extant on the lives of the Roman emp
rors of Germany; many of whom, to say no more, were famous in the crusades. There is a romance in old German rhyme, called TEUERDANK, on Maximilian the first, written by Melchior Pfinzing his chaplain. Printed at Nuremberg in 1517
Fol. on vellum. It is not printed with moveable types: but every page is graved in wood or brass. With wooden cuts. It is a most beautiful book.
.
CHAP. lv. Of a king who has one son exceedingly beautiful, and four daughters, named Justice, Truth, Mercy, and Peace.
CHAP. lvi. A nobleman invited a merchant to his castle, whom he met accordingly upon the road. At entering the castle, the merchant was astonished at the magnificence of the chambers, which were overlaid with gold. At supper, the nobleman placed the merchant next to his wife, who immediately shewed evident tokens of being much struck with her beauty. The table was covered with the richest dainties; but while all were served in golden dishes, a pittance of meat was placed before the lady in a dish made out of a human scull. The merchant was surprised and terrified at this strange spectacle. At length he was conducted to bed in a fair chamber
where, when left alone, he observed a glimmering lamp in a nook or corner of the room, by which he discovered two dead bodies hung up by the arms. He was now filled with the most horrible apprehensions, and could not sleep all the night. When he rose in the morning, he was asked by the nobleman how he liked his entertainment? He answered,
"There is plenty of every thing; but the scull prevented me from eating at supper, and the two dead bodies which I saw in my chamber from sleeping. With your leave therefore I will depart."
The nobleman answered,
"My friend, you observed the beauty of my wife. The scull which you saw placed before her at supper, was the head of a duke, whom I detected in her embraces, and which I cut off with my own sword. As a memorial of her crime, and to teach her modest behaviour, her adulterer's scull is made to serve for her dish. The bodies of the two young men hanging in the chamber are my two kinsmen, who were murthered by the son of the duke. To keep up my sense of revenge for their blood, I visit their dead bodies every day. Go in peace, and remember to judge nothing without knowing the truth."
Caxton has the history of Albione, a king of the Lombards, who having conquered another king,
"lade awaye wyth hym Rosamounde his wyf in captyvyte, but after he took hyr to hys wyf, and he dyde do make a cuppe of the skulle of that kynge and closed in fyne golde and sylver, and dranke out of it
GOLDEN LE
. f. ccclxxxxvii. a. edit. 1493. The compilers of the SANCTILOG
probably took this story from Paulus Diaconus, GE
T. LON
OBARD. ut supr. Lib. ii. cap. xxviii. p. 435. seq. It has been adopted, as a romantic tale, into the HISTOIRES TRAGIQUES of Bellef
rest, p. 297. edit. 1580. The English reader may find it in Heylin's COSMOGRAPHI
, B. i. col. i. p. 57. And in Machiavel's HISTORY OF FLORENCE, in English, Lond. 1680. B. i. p. 5. seq. See also Lydgate's BOCHAS, B. ix. ch. xxvii.
."
This, by the way, is the story of the old Italian tragedy of Messer Giovanni Rucellai planned on the model of the antients, and acted in the Rucellai gardens at Florence, before Leo the tenth and his court, in the year 1516
See supr. vol. ii. p. 411.
. Davenant has also a tragedy on the same subject, called ALBOVINE
king of the Lombards his Tragedy.
A most sanguinary scene in Shakespeare's TITUS ADRONICUS, an incident in Dryden's, or Boccace's, TANCRED and SIGISMONDA, and the catastrophe of the beautiful metrical romance of the LADY of FAGUEL, are founded on the same horrid ideas of inhuman retaliation and savage revenge: but in the two last pieces, the circumstances are so ingeniously imagined, as to lose a considerable degree of their atrocity, and to be productive of the most pathetic and interesting situations.
CHAP. lvii. The enchanter Virgil places a magical image in the middle of Rome
For the necromancer Virgil, see supr. vol. ii. p. 229.
, which communicates to the emperor Titus all the secret offences committed every day in the city
In the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE. Nov. vii.
.
This story is in the old black-lettered history of the necromancer Virgil, in Mr. Garrick's collection.
Vincent of Beauvais relates many wonderful things,
mirabiliter actitata,
done by the poet Virgil, whom he represents as a magician. Among others, he says, that Virgil fabricated those brazen statues at Rome, called
Salvacio Romae,
which were the gods of the Provinces conquered by the Romans. Every one of these statues held in its hand a bell framed by magic; and when any province was meditating a revolt, the statue, or idol, of that country struck his bell
SPECUL. HISTOR. Lib. iv. cap. 61. f. 66. a.
. This fiction is mentioned by the old anonymous author of the MIRABILIA ROMAE, written in the thirteenth century, and printed by Montfaucon
DIAR. ITAL. cap. xx. p. 288. edit. 1702. Many wonders are also related of Rome, in an old metrical romance called THE STACYONS OF ROME, in which Romulus is said to be born of the
duches of Troye.
MSS. Cotton. CALIO. A. 2. fol. 81.
. It occurs in Lydgate's BOCHAS. He is speaking of the Pantheon.
Whyche was a temple of old foundacion,
Ful of ydols, up set on hye stages;
There throughe the worlde of every nacion
Were of theyr goddes set up great ymages,
To every kingdom direct were their visages,
As poetes and Fulgens
Fulgen
ius.
by hys live
In bokes olde plainly doth dyscrive.
Every ymage had in his hande a bell,
As apperteyneth to every nacion,
Which, by craft some token should tell
Whan any kingdom fil in rebellion, &c
Tragedies of BOCHAS, B. ix. ch. i.
t. 4. Compare supr. vol. ii. p. 69.
.
This fiction is not in Boccace, Lydgate's original. It is in the above-cited Gothic history of Virgil. Gower's Virgil, I think, belongs to the same romance.
And eke Virgil of acqueintance
I sigh, where he the maiden prayd,
Which was the doughter, as men sayd,
Of the emperour whilom of Rome
CONFESS. AMANT. L. viii. f. clxxxix. a. col. 2.
.
CHAP. lviii. King Asmodeus pardons every malefactor condemned to death, who can tell three indisputable truths or maxims.
CHAP. lix. The emperor Jovinian's history.
On this there is an antient French MORALITE, entitled,
L'Orgueil et pre
omption de l'Empereur
JOVINIAN
See EMEND. and ADD. to vol. i. at p. 197.
. This is also the story of ROBERT king of Sicily, an old English poem, or romance, from which I have given copious extracts
Vol. i. p. 184.
.
CHAP. lx. A king has a daughter named Rosimund, aged ten years; exceedingly beautiful, and so swift of foot, that her father promises her in marriage to any man who can overcome her in running. But those who fail in the attempt are to lose their heads. After many trials, in which she was always victorious, she loses the race with a poor man, who throws in her way a silken girdle, a garland of roses, and a silken purse inclosing a golden ball, inscribed,
"whoso plays with me will never be satiated with play."
She marries the poor man, who inherits her father's kingdom.
This is evidently a Gothic innovation of the classical tale of Atalanta. But it is not impossible that an oriental apologue might have given rise to the Grecian fable.
CHAP. lxi. The emperor Claudius marries his daughter to the philosopher Socrates.
CHAP. lxii. Florentina's picture.
CHAP. lxiii. Vespasian's daughter's garden. All her lovers are obliged to enter this garden before they can obtain her love, but none return alive. The garden is haunted by a lion; and has only one entrance, which divides into so many windings, that it never can be found again. At length, she furnishes a knight with a ball or clue of thread, and teaches him how to foil the lion. Having achieved this adventure, he marries the lady.
Here seems to be an allusion to Medea's history.
CHAP. lxiv. A virgin is married to a king, because she makes him a shirt of a piece of cloth three fingers long and broad.
CHAP. lxv. A cross with four inscriptions.
CHAP. lxvi. A knight offers to recover a lady's inheritance, which had been seized by a tyrant; on condition, that if he is slain, she shall always keep his bloody armour hanging in her chamber. He regains her property, although he dies in the attempt; and as often as she was afterwards fued for in marriage, before she gave an answer, she returned to her chamber, and contemplating with tears her deliverer's bloody armour, resolutely rejected every sollicitation.
CHAP. lxvii. The wise and foolish knight.
CHAP. lxviii. A woman understands the language of birds. The three cocks.
CHAP. lxix. A mother gives to a man who marries her daughter a shirt, which can never be torn, nor will ever need washing, while they continue faithful to each other.
CHAP. lxx. The king's daughter who requires three impossible things of her lovers.
CHAP. lxxii. The king who resigns his crown to his son.
CHAP. lxxiv. The golden apple.
CHAP. lxxv. A king's three daughters marry three dukes, who all die the same year.
CHAP. lxxvi. The two physicians.
CHAP. lxxix. The fable of the familiar ass.
CHAP. lxxx. A devout hermit lived in a cave, near which a shepherd folded his flock. Many of the sheep being stolen, the shepherd was unjustly killed by his master as being concerned in the theft. The hermit seeing an innocent man put to death, began to suspect the existence of a divine Providence; and resolved no longer to perplex himself with the useless seveties of religion, but to mix in the world. In travelling from his retirement, he was met by an angel in the figure of a man; who said,
"I am an angel, and am sent by God to be your companion on the road."
They entered a city; and begged for lodging at the house of a knight, who entertained them at a splendid supper. In the night, the angel rose from his bed, and strangled the knight's only child who was asleep in the cradle. The hermit was astonished at this barbarous return for so much hospitality, but was afraid to make any remonstrance to his companion. Next morning they went to another city. Here they were liberally received in the house of an opulent citizen; but in the night the angel rose, and stole a golden cup of inestimable value. The hermit now concluded, that his companion was a Bad Angel. In travelling forward the next morning, they passed over a bridge; about the middle of which they met a poor man, of whom the angel asked the way to the next city. Having received the desired information, the angel pushed the poor man into the water, where he was immediately drowned. In the evening they arrived at the house of a rich man; and begging for a lodging, were ordered to sleep in a shed with the cattle. In the morning the angel gave the rich man the cup which he had stolen. The hermit, amazed that the cup which was stolen from their friend and benefactor should be given to one who refused them a lodging, began to be now convinced that his companion was the devil; and begged to go on alone. But the angel said,
"Hear me, and depart. When you lived in your hermitage a shepherd was killed by his master. He was innocent of the supposed offence: but had he not been then killed, he would have committed crimes in which he would have died impenitent. His master endeavours to atone for the murther, by dedicating the remainder of his days to alms and deeds of charity. I strangled the child of the knight. But know, that the father was so intent on heaping up riches for this child, as to neglect those acts of public munificence for which he was before so distinguished, and to which he has now returned. I stole the golden cup of the hospitable citizen. But know, that from a life of the
trictest temperance, he became, in consequence of possessing this cup, a perpetual drunkard; and is now the most abstemious of men. I threw the poor man into the water. He was then honest and religious. But know, had he walked one half of a mile further, he would have murthered a man in a state of mortal sin. I gave the golden cup to the rich man who refused to take us within his roof. He has therefore received his reward in this world; and in the next, will suffer the pains of hell for his inhospitality."
The hermit fell prostrate at the angel's feet; and requesting forgiveness, returned to his hermitage, fully convinced of the wisdom and justice of God's government.
This is the fable of Parnell's HERMIT, which that elegant yet original writer has heightened with many masterly touches of poetical colouring, and a happier arrangement of circumstances. Among other proofs which might be mentioned of Parnell's genius and address in treating this subject, by reserving the discovery of the angel to a critical period at the close of the fable, he has found means to introduce a beautiful description, and an interesting surprise. In this poem, the last instance of the angel's seeming injustice, is that of pushing the guide from the bridge into the river. At this, the hermit is unable to suppress his indignation.
Wild sparkling rage inflames the Father's eyes,
He bursts the bonds of fear, and madly cries,
"Detested wretch!"—But scarce his speech began,
When the strange partner seem'd no longer man:
His youthful face grew more serenely sweet,
His robe turn'd white, and flow'd upon his feet;
Fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair;
Celestial odours fill the purple air:
And wings, whose colours glitter'd on the day,
Wide at his back their gradual plumes display.
The form ethereal bursts upon his sight,
And moves in all the majesty of light.
The same apologue occurs, with some slight additions and variations for the worse, in Howell's LETTERS; who professes to have taken it from the
speculative
sir Philip Herbert's CONCEPTIONS to his Son, a book which I have never seen
Vol. iv. LE
. iv. p. 7. edit. 1655. 8vo
. These Letters were published about the year 1650. It is also found in the DIVINE DIALOGUES of doctor Henry More
PART i. p. 321. DIAL. ii. edit. Lond. 1668. 12mo. I must not forget that it occurs, as told in our GESTA, among a collection of Latin Apologues, quoted above, MSS. HARL. 463. fol. 8. a. The rubric is,
D
Angelo qui duxit Heremitam ad diversa Hospitia.
, who has illustrated its important moral with the following fine reflections.
"The affairs of this world are like a curious, but intricately contrived Comedy; and we cannot judge of the tendency of what is past, or acting at present, before the entrance of the last Act, which shall bring in Righteousness in triumph: who, though she hath abided many a brunt, and has been very cruelly and despightfully used hitherto in the world, yet at last, according to our desires, we shall see the knight overcome the giant. For what is the reason we are so much pleased with the reading romances and the fictions of the poets, but that here, as Aristotle says, things are set down as they should be; but in the true history hitherto of the world, things are recorded indeed as they are, but it is but a testimony, that they have not been as they should be? Wherefore, in the upshot of all, when we shall see that come to pass, that so mightily pleases us in the reading the most ingenious plays and heroick poems, that long afflicted vertue at last comes to the crown, the mouth of all unbelievers must be for ever stopped. And for my own part, I doubt not but that it will so come to pass in the close of the world. But impatiently to call for vengeance upon every enormity before that time, is rudely to overturn the stage before the entrance into the fifth act, out of ignorance of the plot of the comedy; and to prevent the solemnity of the general judgement by more paltry and particular executions
Ibid. p. 335.
."
Parnell seems to have chiefly followed the story as it is told by this Platonic theologist, who had not less imagination than learning. Pope used to say, that it was originally written in Spanish. This I do not believe: but from the early connection between the Spaniards and Arabians, this assertion tends to confirm the suspicion, that it was an oriental tale.
CHAP. lxxxi. A king violates his sister. The child is exposed in a chest in the sea; is christened Gregory by an abbot who takes him up, and after various adventures he is promoted to the popedom. In their old age his father and mother go a pilgrimage to Rome, in order to confess to this pope, not knowing he was their son, and he being equally ignorant that they are his parents: when in the course of the confession, a discovery is made on both sides.
CHAP. lxxxix. The three rings.
This story is in the DECAMERON
i. 3.
, and in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE
Nov. lxxi.
: and perhaps in Swift's TALE OF A TUB.
CHAP. xcv. The tyrant Maxentius. From the GESTA ROMANORUM, which are cited.
I think there is the romance of MAXENCE, Constantine's antagonist.
CHAP. xcvi. King Alexander places a burning candle in his hall; and makes proclamation, that he will absolve all those who owe him forfeitures of life and land, if they will appear before the candle is consumed.
CHAP. xcvii. Prodigies before the death of Julius Cesar, who is placed in the twenty-second year of the city. From the CRONICA, as they are called.
CHAP. xcix. A knight saves a serpent who is fighting in a forest with a toad
The stories, perhaps fabulous, of the serpent fighting with his inveterate enemy the weazel, who eats rue before the attack begins, and of the serpent fighting with and being killed by the spider, originate from Pliny, NAT. HIST. x. 84. xx. 13.
, but is afterwards bit by the toad. The knight languishes many days: and when he is at the point of death, the same serpent, which he remembers, enters his chamber, and sucks the poison from the wound.
CHAP. ci. Of Ganterus, who for his prowess in war being elected a king of a certain country, is on the night of his coronation conducted to a chamber, where at the head of the bed is a fierce lion, at the feet a dragon, and on either side a bear, toads, and serpents. He immediately quitted his new kingdom; and was quickly elected king of another country. Going to rest the first night, he was led into a chamber furnished with a bed richly embroidered, but stuck all over with sharp razors. This kingdom he also relinquishes. At length he meets a hermit, who gives him a staff, with which he is directed to knock at the gate of a magnificent palace, seated on a lofty mountain. Here he gains admittance, and finds every sort of happiness unembittered with the laest degree of pain.
The king means every man advanced to riches and honour, and who thinks to enjoy these advantages without interruption and alloy. The hermit is religion, the staff penitence, and the palace heaven.
In a more confined sense, the first part of this apologue may be separately interpreted to signify, that a king, when he enters on his important charge, ought not to suppose himself to succeed to the privilege of an exemption from care, and to be put into immediate possession of the highest pleasures, conveniencies, and felicities of life; but to be sensible, that from that moment, he begins to encounter the greatest dangers and difficulties.
CHAP. cii. Of the lady of a knight who went to the holy land. She commits adultery with a clerk skilled in necromancy. Another magician discovers her intrigues to the absent knight by means of a polished mirror, and his image in wax.
In Adam Davie's GEST or romance of ALEXANDER, Nectabanus, a king and magician, discovers the machinations of his enemies by embattelling them in figures of wax. This is the most extensive necromantic operation of the kind that I remember, and must have formed a puppet-shew equal to the most splendid pantomime.
Barounes weore whilom wys and gode,
That this ars
Art. Necromancy.
wel undurstode:
Ac on ther was Neptanamous
Wis
Wise.
in this ars and malicious:
Whan kyng other eorl
Or earl.
cam on him to weorre
War.
Quyk he loked in the steorre
Stars.
;
Of wax made him popetts
Puppets.
,
And made heom fyȝhte with battes:
And so he learned,
je vous dy,
Ay to aquelle
Conquer.
hys enemye,
With charms and with conjurisons:
Thus he asaied the regiouns,
That him cam for to asaile,
In puyr
Very. Re
l.
manyr of bataile
See Mr. Tyrwhitt's Chaucer's CANT. T. ver. 1281.
;
By cler candel in the nyȝt,
He mad uchon
Each one.
with othir to fyȝt,
Of alle manere nacyouns,
That comen by schip or dromouns.
At the laste, of mony londe
Kynges therof haden gret onde
Had great jealousy or anger.
,
Well thritty y gadred beoth
Near thirty were gathered, or confederated.
,
And by spekith al his deth
All resolved to destroy him.
.
Kyng Philipp
Philip of Macedon.
of grete thede
Maister was of that fede
Felde,
Field. Army.
:
He was a mon of myȝty hond,
With hem brouȝte, of divers lond,
Nyne and twenty ryche kynges,
To make on hym bataylynges:
Neptanamous hyt understod;
Ychaunged was al his mod;
He was aferde sore of harme:
Anon he deede
He did.
caste his charme
His ymage he madde anon,
And of his barounes everychon,
And afterward of his fone
Enemies.
;
He dude hem to gedere to gon
He made them
ight.
In a basyn al by charme:
He saȝh on him
He saw the harm fall on, or against, Himself.
fel theo harme;
He seyȝ flye
Saw fly.
of his barounes
Of al his lond distinctiouns,
He lokid, and kneow in the sterre,
Of al this kynges theo grete werre
The great war of all these kings.
, &c.
MSS. (Bod. Bibl.) LAUD. I. 74. f. 54.
Afterwards he frames an image of the queen Olympias, or Olympia, while sleeping, whom he violates in the shape of a dragon.
Theo lady lyȝt on
Laid.
hire bedde,
Yheoled
Covered.
wel with silken webbe,
In a chaysel
In the romanc
of ATI
et PORPHILION. Cod. Reg. Par. 7191.
Un chemi
de chaisil
De
il, et d'oevre moult soutil.
smok scheo lay,
And yn a mantell of doway:
Of theo bryȝtnes of hire face
Al about schone the place
Perhap
in SYR LAUNFAL, the same
tuation is more eleg
ntly touched. MSS. Cotton. CALI
. A. 2. fol. 35. a.
In the pavyloun he found a bed of prys,
Y heled with purpure bys
That semyly was of syȝte;
With inne lay that lady gent
,
That aft
r syr Launfal hadde sente,
That lefsom beamed bryȝt:
For hete her clothes doun she de
.
Almost to her gerdylstede;
Than lay she uncovert:
Sche was as whyt as lyly
in May
,
Or snowe that snoweth yn wynterys day
He seygh nevir non so pert,
The rede rose whan sche is new
Aȝen
her rode n
s nauȝt of hew
,
Y dar say yn sert
Her hare schon as gold wyre, &c.
.—
Herbes he tok in an herber,
And stamped them in a morter,
And wrong
Wrung.
hit in a box:
After he tok virgyn wox
And made a popet after the quene,
His ars-tabl
This is described above, f. 55
Of gold he made a table
Al ful of steorron [stars].—
An astrolable is intended.
he can unwrene;
The quenes name in the wax he wrot
Whil hit was sumdel hot:
In a bed he hit dyȝt
Al aboute with candel lyȝt,
And spreynd
Sprinkled.
theron of the herbus
Thus charmed Neptanabus.
The lady in hir bed lay
Abouȝt mydnyȝt, ar the day
Before day.
,
Whiles he made conjuryng,
Scheo
She.
sawe fle
Fly.
, in her metyng
Dream.
,
Hire thought, a dragoun lyȝt,
To hire chaumbre he made his flyȝt,
In he cam to her bour
And crept undur hir covertour,
Mony sithes
Times.
he hire kust
Kissed her.
And fast in his armes prust,
And went away, so dragon wyld,
And grete he left hire with child
Fol. 57. The text is here given from MSS. BODL. ut supr. Compared with MSS. HOSPIT. LINCOLN. 150. See Gower's CON
ESS. AMANT. Lib. vi. fo
cxxxviii. a. col. 1. seq.
And through the crafte of artemage,
Of waxe he forged an ymage, &c.
Gower's dragon, in approaching the queen
is
courteis
and
debonaire.
With al the cher
that he maie,
Towarde the bedde ther as she laie,
Till he came to hir the beddes side
And she lai
still, and nothyng cride;
For he did all hys thynges faire,
And was curteis and debonaire.
Ibid. col. 2. I could not resist the temptation of transcribing this gallantry of a dragon. Gower's whole description of this interview, as will appear on comparison, seems to be taken from Beauvais,
"Nectabanus se transformat in illum draconis seductiorem tractum, tricliniumque penetrat reptabundus, specie spectabilis, tum majestate totius corporis, tum etiam sibilorum acumine adeo terribilis, ut pariete
etiam ac fundamenta domus quati viderentur, &c."
HIST. S
ECUL. fol. 41. b. ut supr. S
Aul. Gell. NOCT. ATT.
ii. 1.
.
Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, have left instances of incan
ations conducted by figures in wax. In the beginning of the last century, many witches were executed for attempting the lives of persons, by fabricating representations of them in wax and clay. King James the first, in his DAEMONOLOGIE, speaks of this practice
s very common; the efficacy of which he peremptorily ascribes to the power of the devil
Edit. 1603. 4to. B. ii. ch. iv. p. 44
seq.
. His majesty's arguments, intended to prove how the magician's image operated on the person represented, are drawn from the depths of moral, theological, physical, and metaphysical knowledge. The Arabian magic abounded with these infatuations, which were partly founded on the doctrine of sympathy.
But to return to the GESTA ROMANORUM. In this story one of the magicians is styled
Magister peritus,
and sometimes simply
Magister.
That is, a
cunning-man.
The title
Magister
in our universities has its origin from the use of this word in the middle ages. With what propriety it is now continued I will not say.
Mystery,
antiently used for a particular art
For instance,
"the Art and
Mystery
of Printing."
, or skill in general, is a specious and easy corruption of
Maistery
or
Mastery,
the English of the Latin MAGISTERIUM, or
Artificium;
in French
Maistrise, Mestier, Mestrie,
and in Italian
Magisterio,
with the same sense
In a statute of Henry the eighth, instead of the words in the last note, we
ave
"The
Science
and
Craft
of Printing."
Ann. reg. 25. A. D. 1533. For many reasons,
My
ry
answering to the Latin
Myst
rium,
never could have been originally applied in these cases.
. In the French romance of CLEOMEDES, a physician is called simply
Mait
e
MSS. Cod. Reg. Paris. 7539.
.
Lie sont de chou qu'il n'y a
Peril et que bien garira:
Car il li MAISTRE ainsi dit leur ont.
And the medical art is styled
Mestrie.
"Quant il (the surgeon) aperçut que c'estoit maladie non mie curable par nature et par MESTRIE, et par medicine, &c
MIRAC. S. Ludov. edit. reg. p. 438.
."
Maistrise
is used for art or workmanship, in the CHRONICON of Saint Denis,
"Entr
es autres presens, li envoia une horologe de laton, ouvrez par
marveilleuse
MAISTRISE
Tom. v. Collect. Histor. Franc. pag.
54. Thus expressed in the Latin ANNALES FRANCIAE, ibid. p. 56.
"Horologium
x aurichalco
art
mechanica
mirifice compositum."
."
That the Latin MAGISTERIUM has precisely the same sense appears from an account of the contract for building the conventual church of Casino in Italy, in the year 1349. The architects agree to build the church in the form of the Lateran at Rome.
"Et in casu si aliquis [defectus] in eorum MAGISTERIO appareret, promiserunt resarcire
HI
T. CASI
. tom. ii. pag. 545. col. ii. Chart.
nn. 1349.
."
Chaucer, in the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, uses MAISTRIS
or artifice and workmanship.
Was made a toure of grete
maistrise,
A fairer saugh no man with sight,
Large, and wide, and of grete might, &c
R. R. v. 4172.
.
And, in the same poem, in describing the shoes of MIRTH.
And shode he was, with gr
te
maistrie,
With shone decopid and with lace
Ibid. v. 842.
.
MAYSTRYE occurs in the description of a lady's saddle, in SYR LAUNFAL'S romance.
Her sadell was semely sett,
The sambus
I know not what ornament or implement of the antient horse-furnitur
is here intended, unless it is a saddle-cloth; nor can I find this word in any glossary. But
Sambu
occurs, evidently under the very same signification, in the beautiful manuscript French romance of GARIN, written in the twelfth century.
Li palefrois sur coi la dame
i
t
Estoit plus blanc qu
nule
lor d
li
Le loreins vaut mils
ols pari
s,
Et la SAU
U
nul pl
rich
n
vist.
"The palfrey on which the lady sate, was whiter than any flower de lis: the bridle was worth a thousand Parisian sols, and a richer
Saubue
never was seen."
The French word however, is properly written
Sambu
,
and is not uncommon in old French wardro
e rolls, where it appears to be a
female
sadd
e-cloth, or housing. So in Le ROMAN DE LA ROSE.
Comme royne fust vestue,
Et chevauchast à grand SAMBUE.
The Latin word, and in the same restrained sense, is sometimes SAMBUA, but most commonly SAMBUCA. Ordericus Vitalis, Lib. viii. p. 694. edit. Par. 1619.
"Mannos et mulas cum SAMBUCI
muliebribus prospexit."
Vincent of Beauvais says, that the Tartarian women, when they ride, have CAMBUCAS of painted leather, embroidered with gold, hanging down on either side of the horse. SPECUL. HIST. x. 85. But Vincent's CAMBUCAS was originally written
çambucas,
or
Sambucas.
To such an enormity this article of the trappings of female horsemanship had arisen in the middle ages, that Frederick king of Sicily restrained it by a sumptuary law; which enjoined, that no woman, even of the highest rank, should presume to use a
Sambu
a,
or saddle-c
oth, in which were gold, silver, or pearls, &c. CONSTITUT. cap. 92. Queen Olympias, in Davie's G
ST of Alexander, ha
a Samb
e of silk
fol. 54. [Supr. vol. i. 221.]
A mule also whyte so mylke,
With sadel of golde,
sambue
of sylke, &c.
were grene felvett,
I paynted with ymagerye;
The bordure was of belles
Of this fashion I have already given many instances. The latest I remember is in the year 1503, at the marriage of the princess Margaret.
"In specyall the Erle of No
thumberlannd ware on a goodly gowne of tynsill,
ourred with hermynes
He was mounted upon a fayre courser, hys harnays of goldsmyth worke, and thorough thát sam was sawen small belles, that maid a mellodyous noyse."
Leland. COLL
ad calc. tom. iii. p. 276.
In the NONNES PREESTES PROLOGUE, Chaucer from the circumstance of the Monke's bridle being decorated with bells, takes occasion to pu
an admirable stroke of humour and satire into the mouth of the HOSTE, which at once ridicules that inconsistent piece of affectation, and censures the monk for the dullness of his tale. Ver. 14796.
Swiche talking is not worth a boter
ie,
For therin is ther no disport ne game:
Therefore
ire monke, dan Piers by your name,
I pray you hert
ly tell us somwhat
lles,
Forsikerly, n'ere
clinking of your belles
That on your bridel ha
ge on every side,
By heven king that for us alle dide,
I shoulde or this have fallen down for slepe,
Although the slough had been never so depe.
Of ryche golde and nothynge elles
That any man myȝt aspie:
In the arsounis
Saddle-bow. See supr. vol. i p. 165.
before and behynde
Were
wey stones of Ynde
Gay for the
maystrye.
The paytrell
Breast
plate.
of her palfraye
Was worth an earldom, &c.
"In the saddle-bow were two jewels of In
ia, very beautiful to be seen, in consequence of the great
art
with which they were wrought
MS. fol. 40. a.
."
Chaucer calls his Monke,
—fayre for the
Maistrie,
An outrider, that lovid venery
PROL. v. 165.
.
Fayre for the
Maistrie
means, skilled in the
Maistrie of the game, La Maistrise du Venerie,
or the science of hunting, then so much a favorite, as simply and familiarly to be called the
maistrie.
From many other instances which I could produce, I will only add, that the search of the Philosopher's Stone is called in the Latin Geber, INVESTIGATIO MAGISTERII.
CHAP. ciii. The merchant who sells three wise maxims to the wife of Domitian.
CHAP.
iv. A knight in hunting meets a lion, from whose foot he extracts a thorn. Afterwards he becomes an outlaw; and being seized by the king, is condemned to be thrown into a deep pit to be devoured by a hungry lion. The lion fawns on the knight, whom he perceives to be the same that drew the thorn from his paw. Then said the king,
"I will learn forbearance from the beasts. As the lion has spared your life, when it was in his power to take it, I therefore grant you a free pardon. Depart, and be admonished hence to live virtuously."
The learned reader must immediately recollect a similar story of one Androclus, who being exposed to fight with wild beasts in the Roman amphitheatre, is recognised and unattacked by a most savage lion, whom he had formerly healed exactly in the same manner. But I believe the whole is nothing more than an oriental apologue on gratitude, written much earlier; and that it here exists in its original state. Androclus's story is related by Aulus Gellius, on the authority of a Greek writer, one Appion, called Plistonices, who flourished under Tiberius. The character of Appion, with which Gellius prefaces this tale, in some measure invalidates his credit; notwithstanding he pretends to have been an eye witness of this extraordinary fact.
"Ejus libri, says Gellius, non incelebres feruntur; quibus,
omnium
ferme quae
mirifica
in Aegypto visuntur audiunturque, historia comprehenditur. Sed in his quae audivisse et legisse
ese dicit, fortasse a vitio studioque
ostentationis
it
loquacior,
&c
NOCT. ATT
C. Lib. v. cap. xiv. See another fabulous story, of which Appio
was an eye witness, ibid. L. vii. cap. viii. It is of a boy beloved by a dolphin.
."
Had our compiler of the GESTA taken this story from Gellius, it is probable he would have told it with some of the same circumstances: especially as Gellius is a writer whom he frequently follows, and even quotes; and to whom, on this occasion, he might have been obliged for a few more strokes of the marvellous. But the two writers agree only in the general subject. Our compiler's narrative has much more simplicity than that of Gellius; and contains marks of eastern manners and life. Let me add, that the oriental fabulists are fond of illustrating and enforcing the duty of gratitude, by feigning instances of the gratitude of beasts towards men. And of this the present compilation, which is strongly tinctured with orientalism, affords several other proofs.
CHAP. cv. Theodosius the bl
d emperor ordained, that the cause of every injured person should be heard, on ringing a bell placed in a public part of his palace. A serpent had a nest near the spot where the bell-rope fell. In the absence of the serpent, a toad took possession of her nest. The serpent twisting herself round the rope, rang the bell for justice; and by the emperor's special command the toad was killed. A few days afterwards, as the king was reposing on his couch, the serpent entered the chamber, bearing a precious stone in her mouth. The serpent creeping up to the emperor's face, laid the precious stone on his eyes, and glided out of the apartment. Immediately the emperor was restored to his sight.
This circumstance of the Bell of Justice occurs in the real history of some eastern monarch, whose name I have forgot.
In the Arabian philosophy, serpents, either from the brightness of their eyes, or because they inhabit the cavities of the earth, were considered as having a natural, or occult, connection with precious stones. In Alphonsus's CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA, a snake is mentioned, whose eyes were real jacinths. In Alexander's romantic history, he is said to have found serpents in the vale of Jordian, with collars of huge emeralds growing on their necks
Vincent Beauvais, SPECUL. HIST. Lib. iv. c. 58. fol. 42. a.
. The toad, under a vulgar indiscriminating idea, is ranked with the reptile race: and Shakespeare has a beautiful comparison on the traditionary notion, that the toad has a rich gem inclosed within its head. Milton gives his serpent eyes of carbuncle
PARAD. L. ix. 500.
.
CHAP. cvi. The three fellow-travellers, who have only one loaf of bread.
This apologue is in Alphonsus.
CHAP. cvii. There was an image in the city of Rome, which stretched forth its right hand, on the middle finger of which was written STRIKE HERE. For a long time none could understand the meaning of this mysterious inscription. At length a certain subtle Clerk, who came to see this famous image, observed, as the sun shone against it, the shadow of the inscribed finger on the ground at some distance. He immediately took a spade, and began to dig exactly on that spot. He came at length to a flight of steps which descended far under ground, and led him to a stately palace. Here he entered a hall, where he saw a king and queen sitting at table, with their nobles and a multitude of people, all clothed in rich garments. But no person spake a word. He looked towards one corner, where he saw a polished carbuncle, which illuminated the whole room
See supr. vol. ii. p. 229. So in the romance, or LAY, of SYR LAUNFAL. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2.
ol. 35. a.
And whan he come to the forest on hyȝ,
A pavyloun y teld he syȝ:
The pavyloun was wrouth forsothe ywys
All of werk of Sarsynys
Saracen-work.
,
The pomells
Balls. Pinnacl
s.
of crystall.—
On the top was a beast,
Of bournedde golde, ryche and good,
I
lorysched with ryche amall
Enamel.
;
His eyen wer carbonkeles bryȝt,
As the mon
Moon.
they schon anyȝt,
That spreteth out ovir all:
Alysaundre the conquerour,
Ne kyng Artour yn hys most hend
Ne hadde non scwych quell.
He found yn the pavyloun,
The kynges douȝter of Olyroun,
Dame Triamour that hyȝte,
Her fadyr was kyng of Fayre.
And in the alliterative romance, called the SEGE OF JERUSALEM. MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 122. b.
Tytus tarriedde noȝte
Nought.
for that, but to the tempul rode.
That was rayled in the roofe with rubyes ryche,
With perles and with perytotes
On the
inger of Becket, when he wa
killed, wa
a jewel called
Peretot
MONA
T
ANGL. i. 6
all the place sette,
That glystered as coles in the fyre, on the golde ryche;
Th
dores with dyamondes dryven were thykke,
And made also marveylously with margery
Margarit
s.
perles,
That ever lemede the lyȝt, and as a lampe shewed:
The clerkes had none other lyȝte.—
. In the opposite corner he perceived the figure of a man standing, having a bended bow with an arrow in his hand, as prepared to shoot. On his forehead was written,
"I am, who am. Nothing can escape my stroke, not even yonder carbuncle which shines so bright."
The Clerk beheld all with amazement; and entering a chamber, saw the most beautiful ladies working at the loom in purple
The original is,
"
mulieres pulcherrimas
in purpura et pallo operantes
invenit.
"
fol. L. a. col. 1. This may mean either the sense in the text, or that the ladies were
cloathed in purpura et pallo,
a phrase which I never saw before in barbarous latinity: but which tallies with the old English expression
purple
and
pall.
This is sometimes written
purple pall.
As in SYR LAUNFAL, ut supr. fol. 40. a.
The lady was clad yn
purpure palle.
Antiently
Pallium,
as did
Purpura,
signified in general any rich cloth. Thus there were saddles, de
pallio
et ebore; a bed, de
pallio;
a cope, de
pallio,
&c &c. See Dufresne, LAT. GLOSS. V. PALLIUM. And PELLUM, its corruption. In old French, to cover a hall with tapestry was called
paller.
So in SYR LAUNFAL, u
supr. fol. 40. a.
Thyn halle agyrde, and hele [cover] the walles
With
lodes [clothes], and wyth ryche
palles,
A ȝens [against] my Lady Tryamour.
Which also illustrates the former meaning. In A. Davie's GEST of Alexander we have,
Her bed was made forsothe
With
pallis
and with riche clothe,
The chambre was hangid with clothe of gold. fol. 57.
. But all was silence. He then entered a stable full of the most excellent horses and asses: he touched some of them, and they were instantly turned into stone. He next surveyed all the apartments of the palace, which abounded with all that his wishes could desire. He again visited the hal
, and now began to reflect how he should return;
"but, says he, my report of all these wonders will not be believed, unless I carry something back with me."
He therefore took from the principal table a golden cup and a golden knife, and placed them in his bosom. When, the man who stood in the corner with the bow, immediately shot at the carbuncle, which he shattered into a thousand pieces. At that moment the hall became dark as night. In this darkness not being able to find hi
way, he remained in the subterraneous palace, and soon died a miserable death.
In the MORALISATION of this story, the steps by which the Clerk descends into the earth are supposed to be the Passions. The palace, so richly stored, is the world with all its vanities and temptations. The figure with the bow bent is Death, and the carbuncle is Human Life. He suffers for his avarice in coveting and seizing what was not his own; and no sooner has he taken the golden knife and cup, that is, enriched himself with the goods of this world, than he is delivered up to the gloom and horrors of the grave.
Spenser in the FAERIE QUEENE, seems to have distantly remembered this fable, where a fiend expecting sir Guyon will be tempted to snatch some of the treasures of the subterraneous HOUSE OF RICHESSE, which are displayed in his view, i
prepared to fasten upon him.
Thereat the fiend his gnas
ing teeth did grate,
And griev'd so long to lack his greedie pray;
For well he weened that so glorious bayte
Would tempt his guest to take thereof assay:
Had he so doen, he had him snatcht away
More light than culver in the faucon's fist
B. ii. C. vii. st
34.
.
This story was originally invented of pope Gerbert, or Sylvester the second, who died in the year 1003. He was eminently learned in the mathematical sciences, and on that account was styled a magician. William of Malmesbury is, I believe, the first writer now extant by whom it is recorded: and he produces it partly to shew, that Gerbert was not always successful in those attempts which he so frequently practised to discover treasures hid in the earth, by the application of the necromantic arts. I will translate Malmesbury's narration of this fable, as it varies in some of the circumstances, and has some heightenings of the fiction.
"At Rome there was a brazen statue, extending the forefinger of the right hand; and on its forehead was written
Strike here.
Being suspected to conceal a treasure, it had received many bruises from the credulous and ignorant, in their endeavours to open it. At length Gerbert unriddled the mystery. At noon-day observing the reflection of the forefinger on the ground, he marked the spot. At night he came to the place, with a page carrying a lamp. There by a magical operation he opened a wide passage in the earth; through which they both descended, and came to a vast palace. The walls, the beams, and the whole structure, were of gold: they saw golden images of knights playing at chess, with a king and queen of gold at a banquet, with numerous attendants in gold, and cups of immense size and value. In a recess was a carbuncle, whose lustre illuminated the whole palace: opposite to which stood a figure with a bended bow. As they attempted to touch some of the rich furniture, all the golden images seemed to rush upon them. Gerbert was too wise to attempt this a second time: but the page was bold enough to snatch from the table a golden knife of exquisite workmanship. At that moment, all the golden images rose up with a dreadful noise; the figure with the bow shot at the carbuncle; and a total darkness ensued. The page then replaced the knife, otherwise, they both would have suffered a cruel death."
Malmesbury afterwards mentions a brazen bridge, framed by the enchantments of Gerbert, beyond which were golden horses of a gigantic size, with riders of gold richly illuminated by the most serene meridian sun. A large company attempt to pass the bridge, with a design of stealing some pieces of the gold. Immediately the bridge rose from its foundations, and stood perpendicular on one end: a brazen man appeared from beneath it, who struck the water with a mace of brass, and the sky was overspread with the most horrible gloom. Gerbert, like some other learned necromancers of the Gothic ages, was supposed to have fabricated a brazen head under the influence of certain planets, which answered questions. But I forbear to suggest any more hints for a future collection of Arabian tales. I shall only add Malmesbury's account of the education of Gerbert, which is a curious illustration of what has been often inculcated in these volumes, concerning the introduction of romantic fiction into Europe
See DISS. i. And vol. i. 400. seq.
.
"Gerbert, a native of France, went into Spain for the purpose of learning astrology, and other sciences of that cast, of the Saracens; who, to this day, occupy the upper regions of Spain. They are seated in the metropolis of Seville; where, according to the customary practice of their country, they study the arts of divination and enchantment.—Here Gerbert soon exceeded Ptolemy in the astrolabe, Alchind in astronomy, and Julius Firmicus in fatality. Here he learned the meaning of the flight and language of birds, and was taught how to raise spectres from hell. Here he acquired whatever human curiosity has discovered for the destruction or convenience of mankind. I say nothing of his knowledge in arithmetic, music, and geometry; which he so fully understood as to think them beneath his genius, and which he yet with great industry introduced into France, where they had been long forgotten. He certainly was the first who brought the algorithm from the Saracens, and who illustrated it with such rules as the most studious in that science cannot explain. He lodged with a philosopher of that sect
De GEST. REG. ANGL. lib. ii. cap. 10. p. 36. a. b. 37 a. b. edit. Savil. Lond. 1596. fol. Afterwards Malmesbury mentions his horologe, which was not of the nature of the modern clock: but which yet is recorded as a wonderful invention by his cotemporary Ditmar, CHRON. Lib. vi. fol. 83. edit. 1580. Vincent of Beauvais has transcribed all that William of Malmesbury has here said about Gerbert, SPECUL. HISTOR. Lib. xxiv. c. 98. seq
f. 344. a. Compare Platina, VIT. PONTIF. fol. 122. edit. 1485. See also
L'Histoire Literaire de France
by the Benedictines, tom. vi. ad calc.
, &c."
I conclude this chapter with a quotation from the old metrical romance of SYR LIBEAUX DIASCONIOS, where the knight, in his attempt to disenchant the Lady of Sinadone, after entering the hall of the castle of the necromancers, is almost in similar circumstances with our subterraneous adventurers. The passage is rich in Gothic imageries; and the most striking part of the poem, which is mentioned by Chaucer as a popular romance.
Syr Lybeaus, knyȝt corteys
Courteous.
,
Rode ynto the palys,
And atte the halle alyȝte
Alighted.
:
Trompes, shalmuses
Instruments of music.
,
He seyȝ, be fore the heyȝ deys
He saw at th
high table.
,
Stonde in hys syȝte.
A mydde the halle flore,
A fere, sterke and store
A Fire, large and strong.
Stor
is
flour.
,
Was lyȝt, and brende bryȝt
Lighted, and burned bright.
.
Ner the dor he ȝede
Yede.
Went into the door of the hall, with his horse.
,
And ladde
Led.
yn hys stede
That wont was help hym in fyȝt.
Lybeaus inner
Farther in.
gan pace
To se eche a place
To see, to view, every place or thing.
,
The hales
Perhaps,
Holes,
i. e. corners.
in the halle,
Of mayne mor ne lasse
Ne sawe he body ne face
He saw no man.
,
But menestrelles yclothen yn palle, &c.
Clothed in rich attire.
So much melodye
Was never with ynne walle.
Before ech menstrell stode
A torche fer
A torch fair and good.
and gode,
Brennynge fayre and bryȝt.
Inner more he ȝede,
To wyte, with egre mode
Who scholde
To know, in angry mood what knight would, &c.
with hym fyȝt:
He ȝede ynto the corneres,
And loked on the pileres,
That selcouth wer of syȝt,
Of jasper and of fyn crystall, &c.
The dores wer of bras;
The windowes wer of glas
Ffloryssed with imagerye
Painted glass.
The halle ypaynted was
The walls were painted with histories.
No rycher never ther was
That he hadde seye with eye
Had seen.
.
He sette hym on the hye deys
He sate down in the principal seat.
,
The mynstrelles were yn pes
Were suddenly silent.
,
That were so gode and trye
Tried. Excellent. Chaucer, RIM. SIR THOP. p. 146. Urr. v. 3361.
With singer that is
tri
.
.
The torches that brende bryȝt
Burned so bright.
.
Quenched anon ryȝt
Were instantly quenched, or extinguished.
;
The menstrelles were awaye
Vanished away
:
Dores, and wyndowes alle,
Beten yn the halle
As hyt wer voys of thunder, &c.—
As he sate tho dismayde,
And helde hymselfe betrayde,
Steedes herde he naye, &c
MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 52. b. seq.
.
This castle is called,
"A paleys queynt of gynne,"
and,
"by negremancye ymaketh of fayrye
Ibid. f. 52. b.
."
CHAP. cviii. The mutual fidelity of two thieves.
CHAP. cix. The chest and the three pasties.
A like story is in Boccace's DECAMERON
x. 1.
, in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE
Nov. lxv.
, and in Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS
Lib. v. fol. 96. a.
.
The story, however, as it stands in Gower, seems to be copied from one which is told by the hermit Barlaam to king Avenamore, in the spiritual romance, written originally in Greek about the year 800, by Joannes Damascenus a Greek monk
See Joan. Damasceni OPERA nonnul. HISTOR. ad calc. pag. 12. Basil. 1548. fol. The chests are here called
Arcellae.
, and translated into Latin before the thirteenth century, entitled, BARLAAM and JOSAPHAT
See supr. vol. ii. p. 17. And ibid. EM. and ADDIT. to pag. 342.
. But Gower's immediate author, if not Boccace, was perhaps Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about the year 1290, and who has incorporated Damascenus's history of Barlaam and Josaphat
It is extant in Surius, and other collections.
, who were canonised, into his SPECULUM HISTORIALE
DE REGE AUEMUR, &c. Lib. xiv. f. 196. Ven. 1591. It contains sixty-four chapters.
. As Barlaam's fable is probably the remote but original source of Shakespeare's CASKETTS in the MERCHANT OF VENICE, I will give the reader a translation of the passage in which it occurs, from the Greek original, never yet printed.
"The king commanded four chests to be made: two of which were covered with gold, and secured by golden locks, but filled with the rotten bones of human carcasses. The other two were overlaid with pitch, and bound with rough cords; but replenished with pretious stones and the most exquisite gems, and with ointments of the richest odour. He called his nobles together; and placing these chests before them, asked which they thought the most valuable. They pronounced those with the golden coverings to be the most pretious, supposing they were made to contain the crowns and girdles of the king
In doctor Johnson's abridgement of a tale like this from Boccace, which he supposes to have been Shakespeare's original, the king says, that in one of the Caskets was
"contained his crown, sceptre and jewels, &c."
See Steeven
's SHAKESPEARE, vol. iii. p. 255. edit. 1779.
. The two chests covered with pitch they viewed with contempt. Then said the king, I presumed what would be your determination: for ye look with the eyes of sense. But to discern baseness or value, which are hid within, we must look with the eyes of the mind. He then ordered the golden chests to be opened, which exhaled an intolerable stench, and filled the beholders with horror
MSS. LAUD. C. 72. Bibl. Bodl. Compare Caxton's GOLDEN LEGEND
fol. ccclxxxxiii. b. And Surius, VIT. SANCTOR.
Novembr.
27. Ann. 383. pag. 560. Colon. Agrippin. 1618.
."
In the METRICAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS, written about the year 1300, these chests are called
four fates,
that is, four
vats
or vessels
MSS. BODL. 779. f. 292. b.
.
I make no apology for giving the reader a translation from the same Greek original, which is now before me, of the story of the Boy told in the DECAMERON.
"A king had an only son. As soon as he was born, the physicians declared, that if he was allowed to see the sun, or any fire, before he arrived at the age of twelve years, he would be blind. The king commanded an apartment to be hewed within a rock, into which no light could enter; and here he shut up the boy, totally in the dark, yet with proper attendants, for twelve years. At the end of which time, he brought him abroad from his gloomy chamber, and placed in his view, men, women, gold, pretious stones, rich garments, chariots of exquisite workmanship drawn by horses with golden bridles, heaps of purple tapestry, armed knights on horseback, oxen and sheep. These were all distinctly pointed out to the youth: but being most pleased with the women, he desired to know by what name they were called. An esquire of the king jocosely told him, that they were devils who catch men. Being brought to the king, he was asked which he liked best of all the fine things he had seen. He replied,
the devils who catch men,
&c."
I need not enlarge on Boccace's improvements
Thi
fabl
occur
in an old Collection of Apologue
above-cited, MSS. HA
L. 463. fol. 2. a.
.
This romantic legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, which is a history of considerable length, is undoubtedly the composition of one who had an intercourse with the east: and from the strong traces which it contains of the oriental mode of moralising, appears plainly to have been written, if not by the monk whose name it bears, at least by some devout and learned ascetic of the Greek church, and probably before the tenth century.
Leland mentions DAMASCENUS DE GESTIS BARLAAM ET JOSAPHAT, as one of the manuscripts which he saw in Nettleyabbey near Southampton
COLL
CTAN. tom. iii. p. 149. edit. 1770.
.
CHAP. cx. The life of the knight Placidus, or Placidas
Sir
Placidas
i
the name of a knight in the FA
RIE QUE
NE.
, afterwards called Eustacius.
It occurs in Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE
Fol. cccxxiii. b. S
vol. ii. p. 190. And METRIC. LIVES S. MSS. Bodl. 779. f. 164. a.
. Among the Cotton manuscripts there is a metrical legend or romance on this story
CALIG.
A. 2. fol. 135. b. Thi
is a translation from the French. MSS. Reg. Paris. Cod. 3031.
.
CHAP. cxi. The classical story of Argus and Mercury, with some romantic additions. Mercury comes to Argus in the character of a minstrel, and lulls him to sleep by telling him tales and singing,
incepit more histrionico fabulas dicere, et plerumque cantare.
CHAP. cxii. The son of king Gorgonius is beloved by hi
step-mother. He is therefore sent to seek his fortune in a foreign country, where he studies physic; and returning, heals his father of a dangerous disease, who recovers at the sight of him. The step-mother, hearing of his return, falls sick, and dies at seeing him.
CHAP. cxiii. The tournaments of the rich king Adonias
A party of knights arrive the first day, who lay their shields aside, in one place. The same number arrives the second day, each of whom chuses his antagonist by touching with his spear the shield of one of the first day's party, not knowing the owner.
The most curious anecdote of chivalry, now on record, occurs in the ecclesiastical history of Spain. Alphonsus the ninth, about the year 1214, having expelled the Moors from Toledo, endeavoured to establish the Roman missal in the place of saint Isidore's. This alarming innovation was obstinately opposed by the people of Toledo; and the king found that his project would be attended with almost insuperable difficulties. The contest at length between the two missals grew so serious, that it was mutually resolved to decide the controversy, not by a theological disputation, but by single combat; in which the champion of the Toletan missal proved victorious
See the MOZARA
ES, or Missal of saint Isidore, p
inted at Toledo, by the command of Cardinal Ximenes, A. D
1500. fol.
.
Many entertaining passages relating to trials by single combat may be seen in the old Imperial and Lombard laws. In Caxton's BOKE OF THE FAYTTES OF ARMES AND OF CHIVALRYE, printed at Westminster in the year 1489, and translated from the French of Christine of Pisa, many of the chapters towards the end are compiled from that singular monument of Gothic legislation.
CHAP. cxv. An intractable elephant is lulled asleep in a forest by the songs and blandishments of two naked virgins. One of them cuts off his head, the other carries a bowl of his blood to the king.
Rex vero gavisus est valde, et statim fecit fieri
PURPURAM,
et multa alia, de eodem sanguine.
In this wild tale, there are circumstances enough of general analogy, if not of peculiar parallelism, to recall to my memory the following beautiful description, in the manuscript romance of SYR LAUNFAL, of two damsels, whom the knight unexpectedly meets in a desolate forest.
As he sate in sorowe and sore,
He sawe come out of holtes hore
Gentyll maydenes two;
Thar kertelles were of Inde sandel
Indian silk.
Cendal.
Fr. See Dufresne, LAT. GL. V. CENDALUM.
I lassed
Laced.
smalle, jolyf and wel;
Thar myȝt
There might.
noon gayer go.
Thar manteles were of grene felwette
Velvet.
Ybordured with golde ryȝte welle ysette,
I pelured
Furred.
Pelura.
Pellis.
with gris and gro
Gris
is fur.
Gris
and
gray
is common in the metrical romances.
;
Har heddys
Their heads.
wer dyȝt well withall,
Everych hadde on a jolyf coronall,
With sixty gemmys and mo
More.
.
Har faces was whyte as snowe on downe,
Har rode
Ruddiness.
was red, har eyn were broune,
I sawe never none swyche
Such.
.
The oon bar of gold a basyn,
That other a towayle whyt and fyn,
Of sylk that was goode and ryche.
Har kercheves wer well schyre
Cut.
Arayd with ryche gold wyre, &c.
MSS. Cotton. CALI
. A. 2. fol. 35. a.
CHAP. cxvi. The queen of Pepin king of France died in childbed, leaving a son. He married a second wife, who bore a son within a year. These children were sent abroad to be nursed. The surviving queen, anxious to see her child, desired that both the boys might be brought home. They were so exceedingly alike, that the one could not be distinguished from the other, except by the king. The mother begged the king to point out her own son. This he refused to do, till they were both grown up; left she should spoil him by too fond a partiality. Thus they were both properly treated with uniform affection, and without excess of indulgence.
A favorite old romance is founded on the indistinctible likeness of two of Charlemagne's knights, Amys and Amelion; originally celebrated by Turpin, and placed by Vincent of Beauvais under the reign of Pepin
SPECUL. HIST. xxiii. c. 162. f.
29. b.
.
CHAP. cxvii. The law of the emperor Frederick, that whoever rescued a virgin from a rape might claim her for his wife.
CHAP. cxviii. A knight being in Egypt, recovers a thousand talents which he had entrusted to a faithless friend, by the artifice of an old woman.
This tale is in Alphonsus. And in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE
Nov. lxx
v.
.
CHAP. cxix. A king had an oppressive Seneshall, who passing through a forest, fell into a deep pit, in which were a lion, an ape, and a serpent. A poor man who gathered sticks in the forest hearing his cries, drew him up: together with the lion, the ape, and the serpent. The Seneshall returned home, promising to reward the poor man with great riches. Soon afterwards the poor man went to the palace to claim the promised reward; but was ordered to be cruelly beaten by the seneshall. In the mean time, the lion drove ten asses laden with gold to the poor man's cottage: the serpent brought him a pretious stone of three colours: and the ape, when he came to the forest on his daily business, laid him heaps of wood. The poor man, in consequence of the virtues of the serpent's pretious stone, which he sold, arrived to the dignity of knighthood, and acquired ample possessions. But afterwards he found the pretious stone in his chest, which he presented to the king. The king having heard the whole story, ordered the seneshall to be put to death for his ingratitude, and preferred the poor man to his office.
This story occurs in Symeon Seth's translation of the celebrated Arabian fable-book called CALILAH U DUMNAH
P. 444. This work was translated into Engli
under the title of
"Donies MORALL PHILOSOPHIE, translated from the Indian tongue, 1570."
Black Letter with woodden cuts. 4to. But Doni was the Italian translator.
. It is recited by Matthew Paris, under the year 1195, as a parable which king Richard the first, after his return from the east, was often accustomed to repeat, by way of reproving those ungrateful princes who refused to engage in the crusade
HIST. MA
. p. 179. Edit. Wats.
. It is versified by Gower, who omits the lion, as Matthew Paris does the ape, in the fifth book of the CONFESSIO AMANTIS
fol. 110. b.
. He thus describes the services of the ape and serpent to the poor man
who gained his livelihood by gathering sticks in a forest.
He gan his ape anone behold,
Which had gadred al aboute,
Of stickes here and there a route,
And leyde hem redy to his honde,
Whereof he made his trusse and
ond
From daie to daie.—
Upon a time and as he drough
Towarde the woodde, he sigh beside
The great gastly serpent glide,
Till that she came in his presence,
And in hir kynde a reverence
She hath hym do, and forthwith all
A stone more bright than a christall
Out of hir mouth to fore his waye
She lett down fall.—
In Gower also, as often as the poor man sells the pretious stone, on returning home, he finds it again among the money in his purse.
The acquisition of riches, and the multiplication of treasure, by invisible agency, is a frequent and favorite fiction of the Arabian romance. Thus, among the presents given to Sir Launfal by the Lady Triamore, daughter of the king of Faerie.
I will the ȝeve
Give thee.
an Alver
Perhaps
Almer,
or
Almere,
a cabinet or chest.
,
I mad of sylver and gold cler,
With fayre ymages thre:
As ofte thou puttest thy honde ther ynne,
A marke of golde thou shalt wynne
Get. Find.
,
In wat place shalt thou be
SYR LAUN
AL. MSS. Cott. CALI
. A. 2. fol 35. b.
.
CHAP. XX. King Darius's legacy to his three sons. To the eldest he bequeathes all his paternal inheritance: to the second, all that he had acquired by conquest: and to the third, a ring and necklace, both of gold, and a rich cloth. All the three last gifts were endued with magical virtues. Whoever wore the ring on his finger, gained the love or favour of all whom he desired to please. Whoever hung the necklace over his breast, obtained all his heart could desire. Whoever sate down on the cloth, could be instantly transported to any part of the world which he chose.
From this beautiful tale, of which the opening only is here given, Occleve, commonly called Chaucer's disciple, framed a poem in the octave stanza, which was printed in the year 1614, by William Browne, in his set of Eclogues called the SHEPHEARDS PIPE. Occleve has literally followed the book before us, and has even translated into English prose the MORALISATION annexed
Viz. MSS. S
LD. Sup. 53. Where is a prologue of many stanzas not printed by Browne. See also MSS. Dio
. 185. MSS. LAUD. K. 78. [See supr. vol. ii. 38.]
. He has given no sort of embellishment to his original, and by no means deserves the praises which Browne in the following elegant pastoral lyrics has bestowed on his performance, and which more justly belong to the genuine Gothic, or rather Arabian, inventor.
Well I wot, the man that first
Sung this lay, did quenche his thirst
Deeply as did ever one
In the Muses Helicon.
Many times he hath been seene
With the faeries on the greene,
And to them his pipe did sound
As they danced in a round;
Mickle solace would they make him,
And at midnight often wake him,
And convey him from his roome
To a fielde of yellow broome,
Or into the medowes where
Mints perfume the gentle aire,
And where Flora spreads her treasure
There they would beginn their measure.
If it chancd night's sable shrowds
Muffled Cynthia up in clowds,
Safely home they then would see him,
And from brakes and quagmires free him.
There are few such swaines as he
Now a dayes for harmonie
EGL. i.
.
The history of Darius, who gave this legacy to his three sons, is incorporated with that of Alexander, which has been decorated with innumerable fictions by the Arabian writers. There is also a separate romance on Darius. And on Philip of Macedon
Bibl. REG. Paris. MSS. Cod. 3031.
.
CHAP. cxxiv. Of the knights who intercede for their friend with a king, by coming to his court, each half on horse back and half on foot.
This is the last novel in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE.
CHAP. cxxvi. Macrobius is cited for the address and humour of an ingenuous boy named Papirius.
This is one of the most lively stories in Macrobius
SATURNAL. Lib. i. c. 6. pag. 147. Londin. 1694.
.
CHAP. cxxviii. The forged testament of the wicked knight, under the reign of Maximian.
CHAP. cxxix. A young prince is sent on his travels. His three friends.
CHAP. cxxxii. The four physicians.
CHAP. cxxxiii. The king and his two greyhounds.
CHAP. cxxxiv. A story from Seneca.
CHAP. cxxxv. The story of Lucretia, from saint Austin's CITY OF GOD.
A more classical authority for this story, had it been at hand, would have been slighted for saint Austin's CITY OF GOD, which was the favorite spiritual romance; and which, as the transition from religion to gallantry was antiently very easy, gave rise to the famous old French romance called the CITY OF LADIES.
CHAP. cxxxvii. The Roman emperor who is banished for his impartial distribution of justice. From the CRONICA of Eusebius.
CHAP. cxxxviii. King Medro.
CHAP. cxxxix. King Alexander, by means of a mirrour, kills a cockatrice, whose look had destroyed the greatest part of his army.
Aelian, in his VARIOUS HISTORY, mentions a serpent which appearing from the mouth of a cavern, stopped the march of Alexander's army through a spacious desert. The wild beasts, serpents, and birds, which Alexander encountered in marching through India, were most extravagantly imagined by the oriental fabulists, and form the chief wonders of that monarch's romance
In Vincent of Beauvais, there is a long fabulous History of Alexander, transcribed partly from Simeon Seth. SPEC. HIST. Lib. iv. c. i. f. 41. a. seq. edit. Ven. 1591. fol.
.
CHAP. cxl. The emperor Eraclius reconciles two knights.
This story is told by Seneca of Cneius Piso
De IR A. Lib. i. c. 8.
. It occurs in Chaucer's SOMPNOUR'S TALE, as taken from
Senec,
or Seneca
Ver. 7600. Tyrwh.
.
CHAP. cxli. A knight who had dissipated all his substance in frequenting tournaments, under the reign of Fulgentius, is reduced to extreme poverty. A serpent haunted a chamber of his house; who being constantly fed with milk by the knight, in return made his benefactor rich. The knight's ingratitude and imprudence in killing the serpent, who was supposed to guard a treasure concealed in his chamber.
Medea's dragon guarding the golden fleece is founded on the oriental idea of treasure being guarded by serpents. We are told in Vincent of Beauvais, that there are mountains of solid gold in India guarded by dragons and griffins
SPECUL. HIST. Lib. i. c. 64. fol. 9. b.
.
CHAP. cxliii. A certain king ordained a law, that if any man was suddenly to be put to death, at sun-rising a trumpet should be sounded before his gate. The king made a great feast for all his nobles, at which the most skilful musicians were present
In the days of chivalry, a concert of a variety of instruments of music constantly made a part of the solemnity of a splendid feast. Of this many instances have been given. I will here add another
from the unprinted metrical romance of EMAR
. MSS. Cott. CALI
. A. 2. fol. 71.
.
Syre Ladore latte make a feste,
That was sayre and honeste,
With his lord the kynge;
Ther was myche minstralse,
Trompus, tabors, and sawtre,
Both harpe, and fydyllynge:
The lady was gentyll and small,
In kurtell alone served in hall
By fore that nobull kynge;
The cloth upon her schone so bryȝth,
When she was th
r yn dyȝth,
She semed non erdly thynge, &c.
And in Chaucer, JAN. AND MAY, v. 1234.
Att everie cours came the loud minstralsie.
. But amidst the general festivity, the king was sad and silent. All the guests were surprised and perplexed at the king's melancholy; but at length his brother ventured to ask him the cause. The king replied,
"Go home, and you shall hear my answer to morrow."
The king ordered his trumpeters to sound early the next morning before his brother's gate, and to bring him with them to judgement. The brother, on hearing this unexpected dreadful summons, was seized with horror, and came before the king in a black robe. The king commanded a deep pit to be made, and a chair composed of the most frail materials, and supported by four slight legs, to be placed inclining over the edge of the pit. In this the brother, being stripped naked, was seated. Over his head a sharp sword was hung by a small thread of silk. Around him four men were stationed with swords exceedingly sharp, who were to wait for the king's word, and then to kill him. In the mean time, a table covered with the most costly dishes was spread before him, accompanied with all sorts of music. Then said the king,
"My brother, why are you so sad? Can you be dejected, in the midst of this delicious music, and with all these choice dainties?"
He answered,
"How can I be glad, when I have this morning heard the trumpet of death at my doors, and while I am seated in this tottering chair? If I make the smallest motion, it will break, and I shall fall into the pit, from which I shall never arise again. If I lift my head, the suspended sword will penetrate my brain; while these four tormentors only wait your command to put me to death."
The king replied,
"Now I will answer your question, why I was sad yesterday. I am exactly in your situation. I am seated, like you, in a frail and perishable chair, ready to tumble to pieces every moment, and to throw me into the infernal pit. Divine judgement, like this sharp sword, hangs over my head: and I am surrounded, like you, with four executioners. That before me is Death, whose coming I cannot tell; that behind me, my Sins, which are prepared to accuse me before the tribunal of God; that on the right, the Devil, who is ever watching for his prey; and that on the left, the Worm, who is now
after my flesh. Go in peace, my dearest brother: and never ask me again why I am sad at a feast."
Gower, in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, may perhaps have copied the circumstance of the morning trumpet from this apologue. His king is a king of Hungary.
It so befell, that on a dawe
There was ordeined by the lawe
A Trompe with a sterne breathe,
Which was cleped the Trompe of deathe:
And in the court where the kyng was,
A certaine man, this trompe of brasse
Hath in kepyng, and therof serveth,
That when a lorde his deathe deserveth,
He shall this dredfull trompe blowe
To fore his gate, to make it knowe,
Howe that the jugement is yeve
Of deathe, whiche shall not be foryeve.
The kyng whan it was night anone,
This man assent, and bad him gone,
To trompen at his brothers gate;
And he, whiche mote done algate,
Goth foorth, and doth the kyng's heste.
This lorde whiche herde of this tempest
That he tofore his gate blewe,
Tho wist he by the lawe, and knewe
That he was schurly deade, &c
Lib. i. fol. xix. b. col. i.
.
But Gower has connected with this circumstance a different story, and of an inferior cast, both in point of moral and imagination. The truth is, Gower seems to have altogether followed this story as it appeared in the SPECULUM HISTORIALE of Vincent of Beauvais
Ubi supr. p. xlix.
, who took it from Damascenus's romance of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT
OPP. ut supr. pag. 12.
. Part of it is thus told in Caxton's translation of that legend
See Caxton's GOLDEN LE
NDE, fol. ccclxxxxiii. b. See also METRICAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS, MSS. BODL. 779. f. 292. a.
.
"And the kynge hadde suche a custome, that whan one sholde be delyvered to deth, the kynge sholde sende hys cryar wyth hys trompe that was ordeyned therto. And on the euen he sente the cryar wyth the trompe tofore hys brother's gate, and made to soune the trompe. And whan the kynges brother herde this, he was in despayr of sauynge of his lyf, and coude not slepe of alle the nyght, and made his testament. And on the morne erly, he cladde hym in blacke: and came with wepyng with hys wyf and chyldren to the kynges paleys. And the kynge made hym to com tofore hym, and sayd to hym, a fooll that thou art, that thou hast herde the messager of thy brother, to whom thou knowest well thou hast not trespaced and doubtest so mooche, howe oughte not I then ne doubte the messageres of our lorde, agaynste whom I haue soo ofte synned, which signef
ed unto me more clerely the deth then the trompe?"
CHAP. cxlv. The philosopher Socrates shews the cause of the insalubrity of a passage between two mountains in Armenia, by means of a polished mirrour of steel. Albertus is cited; an abbot of Stade, and the author of a Chronicle from Adam to 1256.
CHAP. cxlvi. Saint Austin's CITY OF GOD is quoted for an answer of Diomedes the pirate to king Alexander.
CHAP. cxlviii. Aulius Gellius is cited.
Aulus Gellius is here quoted, for the story of Arion
It is printed Amon.
, throwing himself into the sea, and carried on the back of a dolphin to king Periander at Corinth
NOCT. ATTIC. Lib. xvi. cap. xix.
. Gellius relates this story from Herodotus, in whom it is now extant
Lib. viii.
.
CHAP. cliii. The history of Apollonius of Tyre.
This story, the longest in the book before us, and the groundwork of a favorite old romance, is known to have existed before the year 1190.
In the Prologue to the English romance on this subject, called KYNGE APOLYNE OF THYRE, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510, we are told.
"My worshypfull mayster Wynkyn de Worde, havynge a lytell boke of an auncyent hystory of a kynge somtyme reygnyne in the countree of Thyre called Appolyn, concernynge his malfortunes and peryllous adventures right espouventables, bryefly compyled and pyteous for to here; the which boke, I Robert Coplande
The printer of that name. He also translated from the French, at the desire of Edward duke of Buckingham, the romance of the KNYGHT OF THE SWANNE. See his PROLOGUE.
have me applyed for to translate out of the Frensshe language into our maternal Englysshe tongue, at the exhortacyon of my forsayd mayster, accordynge dyrectly to myn auctor: gladly followynge the trace of my mayster Caxton, begynnynge with small storyes and pamf
etes and so to other."
The English romance, or the French, which is the same thing, exactly corresponds in many passages with the text of the GESTA. I will instance in the following one only, in which the complication of the fable commences. King Appolyn dines in disguise in the hall of king Antiochus.—
"Came in the kynges daughter, accompanyed with many ladyes and damoyselles, whose splendente beaute were too long to endyte, for her rosacyate coloure was medled with grete favour. She dranke unto hir fader, and to all the lordes, and to all them that had ben at the play of the Shelde
The tournament. To tourney is often called simply to
play.
As thus in SYR LAUNFAL, MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 37.
Hym thoȝte he brente bryȝte
But he my
te with Launfal
pleye
In the felde be tweene ham twey
To justy or to fyȝte.
And in many other places.
. And as she behelde here and there, she espyed kynge Appolyn, and then she sayd unto her fader, Syr, what is he that sytteth so hye as by you, it semeth by hym that he is angry or sorrowfull? The kynge sayd, I never sawe so nimble and pleasaunt a player at the shelde, and therfore have I made hym to come and soupe with my knyghtes. And yf ye wyll knowe what he is, demaunde hym; for peradventure he wyll tell you sooner than me. Methynke that he is departed from some good place, and I thinke in my mynde that somethynge is befallen hym for which he is sorry. This sayd, the noble dameysell wente unto Appolyn and said, "Fayre Syr, graunt me a boone. And he graunted her with goode herte. And she sayd unto hym, albeyt that your vysage be tryst and hevy, your behavour sheweth noblesse and facundyte, and therefore I pray you to tell me of your affayre and estate. Appolyn answered, Yf ye demaunde of my rychesses, I have lost them in the sea. The damoysell sayd, I pray you that you tell me of your adventures
CAP. xi.
."
But in the GESTA, the princess at entering the royal hall kisses all the knights and lords present, except the stranger
Fol. lxxii. b. col. 2.
. Vossius says, that about the year 1520, one Alamanus Rinucinus a Florentine, translated into Latin this fabulous history; and that the translation was corrected by Beroaldus. Vossius certainly cannot mean, that he translated it from the Greek original
HIST. LAT. Lib. iii. c. 8. pag. 552. edit. 1627. 4to.
.
CHAP. cliv. A story from Gervase of Tilbury, an Englishman, who wrote about the year 1200, concerning a miraculous statue of Christ in the city of Edessa.
CHAP. clv. The adventures of an English knight named Albert in a subterraneous passage, within the bishoprick of Ely.
This story is said to have been told in the winter after supper, in a castle,
cum familia divitis ad focum, ut Potentibus moris est,
RECENSENDIS ANTIQUIS GESTIS
operam daret,
when the family of a rich man, as is the custom with the Great, was sitting round the fire, and telling ANTIENT GESTS. Here is a traite of the private life of our ancestors, who wanted the diversions and engagements of modern times to relieve a tedious evening. Hence we learn, that when a company was assembled, if a jugler or a minstrel were not present, it was their custom to entertain themselves by relating or hearing a series of adventures. Thus the general plan of the CANTERBURY TALES, which at first sight seems to be merely an ingenious invention of the poet to serve a particular occasion, is in great measure founded on a fashion of antient life: and Chaucer, in supposing each of the pilgrims to tell a tale as they are travelling to Becket's shrine, only makes them adopt a mode of amusement which was common to the conversations of his age. I do not deny, that Chaucer has shewn his address in the use and application of this practice.
So habitual was this amusement in the dark ages, that the graver sort thought it unsafe for ecclesiastics, if the subjects admitted any degree of levity. The following curious injunction was deemed necessary, in a code of statutes assigned to a college at Oxford in the year 1292. I give it in English.
"CH. xx.—The fellows shall all live honestly, as becomes Clerks.—They shall not rehearse, sing, nor willingly hear, BALLADS or TALES of LOVERS, which tend to lasciviousness and idleness
CANTILENA
VEL FABULAS DE AMASIIS, &c. MS. Registr. Univ. Oxon. D. b. f. 76. See supr. vol. i. 92.
."
Yet the libraries of our monasteries, as I have before observed, were filled with romances. In that of Croyland-abbey we find even archbishop Turpin's romance, placed on the same shelf with Robert Tumbeley on the Canticles, Roger Dymock against Wickliffe, and Thomas Waleys on the Psalter. But their apology must be, that they thought this a true history: at least that an archbishop could write nothing but truth. Not to mention that the general subject of those books were the triumphs of christianity over paganism
Leland. COLL. iii. p. 30.
.
CHAP. clvi. Ovid, in his TROJAN WAR, is cited for the story of Achilles disguised in female apparel.
Gower has this history more at large in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS: but he refers to a
Cronike,
which seems to be the BOKE OF TROIE, mentioned at the end of the chapter
Lib. v. fol. 99. b. col. 2. See fol. 101. a. col. 1. 2.
.
CHAP. clvii. The porter of a gate at Rome, who taxes all deformed persons entering the city. This tale is in Alphonsus. And in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE
Nov. 50.
.
CHAP. clviii. The discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas, son of Evander, at Rome, which exceeded in height the wa
s of the city, was uncorrupted, and accompanied with a burning lamp, two thousand two hundred and forty years after the destruction of Troy. His wound was fresh, which was four feet and a half in length.
It is curious to observe, the romantic exaggerations of the classical story.
CHAP. clix. Josephus, in his book
de Causis rerum naturalium,
is quoted, for Noah's discovery of wine.
I know not any book of Josephus on this subject. The first editor of the Latin Josephus was Ludovicus Cendrata of Verona, who was ignorant that he was publishing a modern translation. In the Dedication he complains, that the manuscript was brought to him from Bononia so ill-written, that it was often impossible even to guess at
Josep
us's words.
And in another place he says, Josephus first wrote the ANTIQUITATES in Hebrew, and that he afterwards translated them from Hebrew into Greek, and from Greek into Latin
At Verona. 1480. By Peter Mauffer a Frenchman. It is a most beautiful and costly book, printed on vellum in folio.
.
The substance of this chapter is founded on a Rabbinical tradition, related by Fabricius
COD. PSEUD
IGR. VET. TESTAM. vol. i. p. 275.
. When Noah planted the vine, Satan attended, and sacrificed a sheep, a lion, an ape, and a sow. These animals were to symbolise the gradations of ebriety. When a man begins to drink, he is meek and ignorant as the lamb, then becomes bold as the lion, his courage is soon transformed into the foolishness of the ape, and at last he wallows in the mire like the sow. Chaucer hence says in the MANCIPLES PROLOGUE, as the passage is justly corrected by Mr. Tyrwhitt,
I trowe that ye have dronken
wine of ape,
And that is when men plaien at a strawe
Ver. 16993. Tyrwh.
.
In the old KALENDRIER DES BERGERS, as Mr. Tyrwhitt has remarked,
Vin de singe, vin de mouton, vin de lyon,
and
vin de porceau,
are mentioned, in their respective operations on the four temperaments of the human body.
CHAP. clxi. Of a hill in a forest of England, where if a hunter sate after the chace, he was refreshed by a miraculous person of a mild aspect, bearing a capacious horn, adorned with gems and gold
The text says,
"Such a one as is used at this day."
, and filled with the most delicious liquor. This person instantly disappeared after administering the draught; which was of so wonderful a nature, as to dispel the most oppressive lassitude, and to make the body more vigorous than before. At length, a hunter having drank of this horn, ungratefully refused to return it to the friendly apparition; and his master, the lord of the forest, lest he should appear to countenance so atrocious a theft, gave it to king Henry the elder
That is, Henry the First, king of England.
.
This story, which seems imperfect, I suppose, is from Gervase of Tilbury.
CHAP. clxii. The same author is cited for an account of a hill in Castile, on which was a palace of demons.
Whenever our compiler quotes Gervase of Tilbury, the reference is to his OTIA IMPERIALIA: which is addressed to the emperor Otho the fourth, and contains his
Commentarius de regnis Imperatorum Romanorum,
his
Mundi Descriptio,
and his
Tractatus de Mirabilibus Mundi.
All these four have been improperly supposed to be separate works.
CHAP. clxiii. King Alexander's son Celestinus.
CHAP. clxvii. The archer and the nightingale.
This fable is told in the Greek legend of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT, written by Johannes Damascenus
OPP. ut supr. p. 22. See also Suriu
, ut supr. Novembr. 27. pag. 565.
. And in Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE
Fol. ccclxxxxii. b.
. It is also found in the CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA of Alphonsus.
CHAP. clxviii. Barlaam is cited for the story of a man, who, flying from a unicorn, and falling into a deep and noisom pit, hung on the boughs of a lofty tree which grew from the bottom. On looking downward, he saw a huge dragon twisted round the trunk, and gaping to devour him. He also observed two mice gnawing at the roots of the tree, which began to totter. Four white vipers impregnated the air of the pit with their poisonous breath. Looking about him, he discovered a stream of hony distilling from one of the branches of the tree, which he began eagerly to devour, without regarding his dangerous situation. The tree soon fell: he found himself struggling in a loathsome quagmire, and was instantly swallowed by the dragon.
This is another of Barlaam's apologues in Damascenus's romance of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT: and which has been adopted into the Lives of the Saints by Surius and others
See Caxton's GOLDEN L
GEND
ol. cccclxxxxiiii. a.
. A MORALISATION is subjoined, exactly agreeing with that in the GESTA
See Damascenus, ut supr. pag. 31. And METRICAL LIVES OF SAINTS, MSS. BODL. 779. f. 293. b.
.
CHAP. clxix. Trogus Pompeius is cited, for the wise legislation of Ligurius, a noble knight.
Our compiler here means Justin's abridgement of Trogus; which, to the irreparable injury of literature, soon destroyed its original. An early epitome of Livy would have been attended with the same unhappy consequences.
CHAP. clxx. The dice player and saint Bernard.
This is from saint Bernard's legend
See Caxton's GOLD. LEG. f. cxxix. b
.
CHAP. clxxi. The two knights of Egypt and Baldach.
This is the story of Boccace's popular novel of TITO AND GISIPPO, and of Lydgate's
T
le of two Marchants of Egypt and of Baldad,
a manuscript poem in the British Museum, and lately in the library of doctor Askew
R. Edwards has a play on this story, 1582.
. Peter Alphonsus is quoted for this story; and it makes the second Fable of his CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA.
I take the liberty of introducing a small digression here, which refers to two pieces of the poet last-mentioned, never enumerated among his works. In the year 1483, Caxton printed at Westminster,
"
The PYLGREMAGE
OF THE SOWLE
translated oute of Frensshe into Englisshe. Full of devout maters touching the sowle, and many questyons assoyled to cause a man to lyve the better, &c. Emprinted at Westminster by William Caxton the first yere of kynge Edward
V. 1483.
"
The French book, which is a vision, and has some degree of imagination, is probably the PELERIN DE L'AME, of Guillaume prior of Chaulis
See supr. vol. ii. p. 120.
. This translation was made from the French, with additions, in the year 1413. For in the colophon are these words.
"Here endeth the dreme of the PYLGREMAGE OF THE SOWLE translated out of Frensche into Englisshe, with somwhat of Addicions, the yere of our lorde M. CCCC. and thyrteen, and endethe in the vigyle of seint Bartholomew."
The translator of this book, at least the author of the
Addicions,
which altogether consist of poetry in seven-lined stanzas, I believe to be Lydgate. Not to insist on the correspondence of time and style, I observe, that the thirty-fourth chapter of Lydgate's metrical LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY is literally repeated in the thirtyfourth chapter of this Translation. This chapter is a digression of five or six stanzas in praise of Chaucer; in which the writer feelingly laments the recent death of his
maister Chaucer, poete of Britaine,
who used to
amende and correcte the wronge traces of my rude penne.
No writer besides, in Lydgate's own life-time, can be supposed, with any sort of grace or propriety, to have mentioned those personal assistances of Chaucer, in Lydgate's own words. And if we suppose that the Translation, or its
Addicions,
were written by Lydgate before he wrote his LIFE OF THE VIRGIN, the proof will be the same
Stowe mentions Lydgate's
"PILGRIMAGE OF THE WORLD by the commaundement of the earle of Salisburie, 1426."
But this must be a different work. Ad calc. Opp. Chauc. fol. 376, col. 1.
.
Another piece probably written by Lydgate, yet never supposed or acknowledged to be of his composition, is a poem in the octave stanza, containing thirty-seven leaves in folio, and entitled LABEROUS AND MARVEYLOUS WORKE OF SAPIENCE. After a long debate between MERCY and TRUTH, and JUSTICE and PEACE, all the products of nature and of human knowledge are described, as they stand arranged in the palace and dominions of WISDOM. It is generally allowed to have been printed by Caxton: it has not the name of the printer, nor any date. Had it been written by Caxton, as I once hastily suspected, or by any of his cotemporaries, the name of Lydgate would have appeared in conjunction with those of Gower and Chaucer, who are highly celebrated in the Prologue as
erthely gods expert in poesie:
for these three writers were constantly joined in panegyric, at least for a century, by their successors, as the distinguished triumvirate of English poetry. In the same Prologue, the author says he was commanded to write this poem by the king. No poet cotemporary with Caxton was of consequence enough to receive such a command: and we know that Lydgate compiled many of his works by the direction, or under the patronage, of king Henry the fifth. Lydgate was born in Suffolk: and our author from the circumstance of having lived in a part of England not of a very polished dialect, apologises for the rudeness of his language, so that he cannot
delycately endyte.
It is much in the style and manner of Lydgate: and I believe it to have been one of his early performances
See supr. vol. ii. p. 194. I know not if this is the poem recited by Stowe and called,
"The Courte of Sapience in heaven for redemption of mankind."
Ubi supr. col. i.
.
CHAP. clxxii. A king of England has two knights, named Guido and Tirius. Guido having achieved many splendid exploits for the love of a beautiful lady, at length married her. Three days after his marriage he saw a vision, which summoned him to engage in the holy war. At parting she gave him a ring; saying,
"as often as you look on this ring, remember me."
Soon after his departure she had a son. After various adventures, in which his friend Tirius has a share, at the end of seven years he returned to England in the habit of a pilgrim. Coming to his castle, he saw at the gate his lady sitting, and distributing alms to a croud of poor people; ordering them all to pray for the return of her lord Guido from the holy land. She was on that day accompanied by her son a little boy, very beautiful, and richly apparelled; and who hearing his mother, as she was distributing her alms, perpetually recommending Guido to their prayers, asked, if that was his father? Among others, she gave alms to her husband Guido, not knowing him in the pilgrim's disguise. Guido, seeing the little boy, took him in his arms, and kissed him: saying,
"O my sweet son, may God give you grace to please him!"
For this boldness he was reproved by the attendants. But the lady, finding him destitute and a stranger, assigned him a cottage in a neighbouring forest. Soon afterwards falling sick, he said to his servant,
"Carry this ring to your lady, and tell her, if she desires ever to see me again, to come hither without delay."
The servant conveyed the ring; but before she arrived, he was dead. She threw herself on his body, and exclaimed with tears,
"Where are now my alms which I daily gave for my lord? I saw you receive those alms, but I knew you not.—You beheld, embraced, and kissed your own son, but did not discover yourself to him nor to me. What have I done, that I shall see you no more?"
She then interred him magnificently.
The reader perceives this is the story of Guido, or Guy, earl of Warwick; and probably this is the early outline of the life and death of that renowned champion.
Many romances were at first little more than legends of devotion, containing the pilgrimage of an old warrior. At length, as chivalry came more into vogue, and the stores of invention were increased, the youthful and active part of the pilgrim's life was also written, and a long series of imaginary martial adventures was added, in which his religious was eclipsed by his heroic character, and the penitent was lost in the knight-errant. That which was the principal subject of the short and simple legend, became only the remote catastrophe of the voluminous romance. And hence by degrees it was almost an established rule of every romance, for the knight to end his days in a hermitage. Cervantes has ridiculed this circumstance with great pleasantry, where Don Quixote holds a grave debate with Sancho, whether he shall turn saint or archbishop.
So reciprocal, or rather so convertible, was the pious and the military character, that even some of the apostles had their romance. In the ninth century, the chivalrous and fabling spirit of the Spaniards transformed saint James into a knight. They pretended that he appeared and fought with irresistible fury, completely armed, and mounted on a stately white horse, in most of their engagements with the Moors; and
cause, by his superior prowess in these bloody conflicts, he was supposed to have freed the Spaniards from paying the annual tribute of a hundred christian virgins to their infidel enemies, they represented him as a professed and powerful champion of distressed damsels. This apotheosis of chivalry in the person of their own apostle, must have ever afterwards contributed to exaggerate the characteristical romantic heroism of the Spaniards, by which it was occasioned; and to propagate through succeeding ages, a stronger veneration for that species of military enthusiasm, to which they were naturally devoted. It is certain, that in consequence of these illustrious achievements in the Moorish wars, saint James was constituted patron of Spain; and became the founder of one of the most magnificent shrines, and of the most opulent order of knighthood, now existing in christendom. The Legend of this invincible apostle is inserted in the Mosarabic liturgy.
CHAP. clxxiii. A king goes to a fair, carrying in his train, a master with one of his scholars, who expose six bundles, containing a system of ethics, to sale
Compare Matth. Paris. edit. Watts. p. 927. 40.—And p. 751. 10.
.
Among the revenues accruing to the crown of England from the Fair of saint Botolph at Boston in Lincolnshire, within the HONOUR of RICHMOND, mention is made of the royal pavilion, or booth, which stood in the fair, about the year 1280. This fair was regularly frequented by merchants from the most capital trading towns of Normandy, Germany, Flanders, and other countries.
"Ibidem [in feria] sunt quaedam domus quae dicuntur BOTHAE REGIAE, quae valent per annum xxviii, l. xiii, s. iiii, d. Ibidem sunt quaedam domus quas MERCATORES DE YPRE tenent, quae valent per annum, xx, l. Et quaedam domus quas MERCATORES DE CADOMO
Caen in Normandy.
ET OSTOGANIO
Perhaps, Ostend.
tenent, xi, l. Et quaedam domus quas MERCATORES DE ANACO
Perhaps
Le Pais d'Aunis,
between the Provinces of Poictou and Santone, where is Rochelle, a famous port and mart.
tenent, xiii, l. vi, s. viii, d. Et quaedam domus quas MERCATORES DE COLONIA tenent, xxv, l. x, s
Registr. HONORIS DE RICHMOND. Lond. 1722. fol. Num, viii. APPEND. p. 39.
."
The high rent of these lodges, is a proof that they were considerable edifices in point of size and accommodation.
CHAP. clxxiv. The fable of a serpent cherished in a man's bosom
This fable is in Alphonsus's CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA.
.
About the year 1470, a collection of Latin fables, in six books, distinguished by the name of Esop, was published in Germany. The three first books consist of the sixty anonymous elegiac fables, printed in Nevelet's collection, under the title of
Anonymi Fabulae Aesopicae,
and translated in 1503, by Wynkyn de Worde, with a few variations: under each is a fable in prose on the same subject from ROMULUS, or the old prose LATIN ESOP, which was probably fabricated in the twelfth century. The fourth book has the remaining fables of Romulus in prose only. The fifth, containing one or two fables only which were never called Esop's, is taken from Alphonsus, the GESTA ROMANORUM, the CALILA U DAMNAH, and other obscure sources. The sixth and last book has seventeen fables ex
translatione Rinucii,
that is Rinucius, who translated Planudes's life of Esop, and sixty-nine of his fables, from Greek into Latin, in the fifteenth century. This collection soon afterwards was circulated in a French version, which Caxton translated into English.
In an antient general Chronicle, printed at Lubec in 1475, and entitled RUDIMENTUM NOVITIORUM
In this work th
following question is discussed, originally, I believe, started by saint Austin, and perhaps determined by Thomas Aquinas,
An Angeli possi
t coir
cum Muli
rib
,
t generar
Gigantes?
, a short life of Esop is introduced, together with twenty-nine of his fables. The writer says,
"Esopus adelphus claruit tempore Cyri regis Persarum.—Vir ingeniosus et prudens, qui confinxit fabulas el
gantes. Quas Romulus postmodum de greco transtulit in latinum, et filio suo Tibertino direxit, &c
Fol. 237. a.
."
The whole of this passage about Esop is transcribed from Vincent of Beauvais
SP
CUL. HIST. L. iii. c. ii.
.
CHAP. clxxvii. The feast of king Ahasuerus and Esther.
I have mentioned a metrical romance on this subject
Vol. ii. p. 178.
. And I have before observed, that Thomas of Elmham, a chronicler, calls the coronation-feast of king Henry the sixth, a second feast of Ahasuerus
Vol. ii. p. 35.
. Hence also Chaucer's allusion at the marriage of January and May, while they are at the solemnity of the wedding-dinner, which is very splendid.
Quene Esther loked ner with soch an eye
On Assuere, so meke a loke hath she
MARCH TALE, v. 1260. Urr.
.
Froissart, an historian, who shares the merit with Philip de Comines of describing every thing, gives this idea of the solemnity of a dinner of Christmas-day, at which he was present, in the hall of the castle of Gaston earl of Foiz at Ortez in Bevern, under the year 1388. At the upper or first table, he says,
ate four bishops, then the earl, three viscounts, and an English knight belonging to the duke of Lancaster. At another table, five abbots, and two knights of Arragon. At another, many barons and knights of Gascony and Bigorre. At another, a great number of knights of Bevern. Four knights were the chief stewards of the hall, and the two bastard brothers of the earl served at the high table.
"The erles two sonnes, sir Yvan of Leschell was sewer, and sir Gracyen bare his cuppe
In the old romance, or LAY, of EMARE, a beautiful use is made of the Lady Emare's son serving as cup-bearer to the king of Galicia: by which means, the king discovers the boy to be his son, and in consequence finds out his queen Emare, whom he had long lost. The passage also points out the duties of this office. MSS. Cott. CALIG. A.
. f. 69. Emare says to the young prince, her son.
To morrowe thou shall serve yn halle
In a kurtyll of ryche palle
A tunic of rich cl
th.
,
Byfore thys nobull kynge;
Loke, sone
Son.
, so curtois thou be,
That no man fynde chalange to the
In no manere thynge
May accus
thee of want of court
sy.
.
When the kynge is served of spycerye,
Knele thou downe hastylye,
And take hys hond yn thyne;
And when thou hast so done,
Take the kuppe of golde, sone,
And serve hym of the wyne.
And what that he speketh to the
Cum anon and tell me,
On goddys blessyng and myne.
The chylde
The
oy.
wente ynto the hall
Among the lordes grete and small
That lufsume wer unther lyne
chly
pparelled.
Then the lordes, that wer grete,
Wysh
W
shed.
, and wente to her mete;
Menstrelles browȝt yn the kours
Cours
.
,
The chylde hem served so curteysly,
All hym loved that hym sy
Saw.
,
And spake hym grete honowres.
Then sayde all that loked hym upon,
So curt
ys a chyld sawe they never non,
In halle, ne yn bowres:
The kynge sayde to hym yn game,
Swete sone, what ys thy name?
Lorde, he sayd, y hyȝth
I am c
ll
d.
Segramowres.
Then that nobull kyng
Toke up a grete sykynge
Sighing.
,
For hys sone
Hi
son.
hyght so:
Certys, without lesynge,
The teres out of hys yen
Eyen. Eye
.
gan wryng.
In hert
he was full woo:
Neverthelese, he lette be
And loked on the chylde so fre
The boy so beautiful.
,
And mykell
Greatly.
he loved hem thoo
Then.
.—
Then the lordes that wer grete
Whesshen aȝeyn
Washed again.
, aftyr mete,
And then com spycerye
Spic
ry. Spi
d Wine.
.
The chyld, that was of chere swete,
On hys kne downe he s
te
Bow
d his knee.
,
And served hem curteyslye.
The kynge called the burgeys hym tyll,
And sayde, Syr, yf hyt be thy wyll,
Ȝyf me this lytyll body
Give me this boy.
;
I shall hym make lorde of town and towre,
Of hye halles, and of bowre,
I love hym specyally, &c.
. And there were many mynstrelles, as well of his owne as of straungers, and eche of them dyde their devoyre in their faculties. The same day the erle of Foiz gave to harauldes and mynstrelles, the somme of fyve hundred frankes: and gave to the duke of Touraynes mynstrelles, gownes of clothe of golde furred with ermyns, valued at two hundred frankes. This dinner endured four houres
CRON. vol. ii. fol. xxxvi. a. Transl. Bern. 1523.
."
Froissart, who was entertained in this castle for twelve weeks, thus describes the earl's ordinary mode of supping.
"In this estate the erle of Foiz lyved. And at mydnyght whan he came out of his chambre into the halle to supper, he had ever before hym twelve torches brennyng, borne by twelve varlettes [valets] standyng before his table all supper
It appears that candles were borne by domestics, and not placed on the table, at a very early period in France. Gregory of Tours mentions a piece of savage merriment practised by a feudal lord at supper, on one of his
valets de chandelle,
in consequence of this custom. Greg. Turon. HIST. Lib. v. c. iii. fol. 34. b. edit. 1522. It is probable that our proverbial scoff,
You are not
it to hold a candl
to him,
took its rise from this fashion. See Ray's PROV. C. p. 4. edit. 1670. And Shakesp. ROMEO AND JULIET, i. 4.
I'll be a
Candle-holder,
and look on.
: they gave a grete light, and the hall ever full of knightes and squyers; and many other tables dressed to suppe who wolde. Ther was none shulde speke to hym at his table, but if he were called. His meate was lightlye wylde foule.—He had great plesure in armony of instrumentes, he could do it right well hymselfe: he wolde have songes songe before hym. He wolde gladlye se conseytes [conceits] and fantasies at his table. And when he had sene it, then he wolde send it to the other tables.—There was sene in his hall, chambre, and court, knyghtes and squyers of honour goyng up and downe, and talkyng of armes and of amours, &c
Ibid.
ol. xxx. a. col. 2.
."
After supper, Froissart was admitted to an audience with this magnificent earl; and used to read to him a book of sonnets, rondeaus, and virelays, written by a
gentyll
duke of Luxemburgh
Ibid. col.
.
.
In this age of curiosity, distinguished for its love of historical anecdotes and the investigation of antient manners, it is extraordinary that a new translation should not be made of Froissart from a collated and corrected original of the French. Froissart is commonly ranked with romances: but it ought to be remembered, that he is the historian of a romantic age, when those manners which form the fantastic books of chivalry were actually practised. As he received his multifarious intelligence from such a variety of vouchers, and of different nations, and almost always collected his knowledge of events from report, rather than from written or recorded evidence, his notices of persons and places are frequently confused and unexact. Many of these petty incorrectnesses are not, however, to be imputed to Froissart: and it may seem surprising, that there are not more inaccuracies of this kind in a voluminous chronicle, treating of the affairs of England, and abounding in English appellations, composed by a Frenchman, and printed in France. Whoever will take the pains to compare this author with the coeval records in Rymer, will find numerous instances of his truth and integrity, in relating the more public and important transactions of his own times. Why he should not have been honoured with a modern edition at the Louvre, it is easy to conceive: the French have a national prejudice against a writer, who has been so much more complaisant to England, than to their own country. Upon the whole, if Froissart should be neglected by the historical reader for his want of precision and authenticity, he will at least be valued by the philosopher for his striking pictures of life, drawn without reserve or affectation from real nature with a faithful and free pencil, and by one who had the best opportunities of observation, who was welcome alike to the feudal castle or the royal palace, and who mingled in the bustle and business of the world, at
hat very curious period of society, when manners are very far refined, and yet retain a considerable tincture of barbarism. But I cannot better express my sentiments on this subject, than in the words of Montaigne.
"J'ayme les Historien
ou fort simples ou excellens. Les simples qui n'ont point de quoy y mesler quelque chose du leur, et qui n'y apportent que le soin et la diligence de ramasser tout ce qui vient a leur notice, et d'enregistrer a la bonne foy toutes choses sans chois et sans triage, nous laissent le jugement entier pour la conoissance de la verité. Tel est entre autres pour example le bon Froissard, qui a marchè en son enterprise d'une si franche naïfueté, qu'ayant fait une faute il ne craint aucunement de la reconnoistre et corriger en l'endroit, ou il en a esté adverty: et qui nous represente la diversité mesme des bruits qui couroient, et les differens rapports qu'on luy faisot. C'est la matiere de l'Histoire nuï et informe; chacun en peut faire son proffit autant qu'il a d'entendement
ESSAIS. Libr. i
. ch. x. p. 409. edit. 1598. 8vo.
."
CHAP. clxxviii. A king is desirous to know how to rule himself and his kingdom. One of his wise men presents an allegorical picture on the wall; from which, after much study, he acquires the desired instruction.
In the original eastern apologue, perhaps this was a piece of tapestry. From the cultivation of the textorial arts among the orientals, came Darius's wonderful cloth abovementioned
CHA
. xx.
; and the idea of the robe richly embroidered and embossed with stories of romance and other imageries, in the unprinted romance of EMARE, which forms of one the finest descriptions of the kind that I have seen in Gothic poetry, and which I shall therefore not scruple to give at large.
Soon after, yn a whyle,
The ryche kynge of Cesyle
Sicily.
To the Emperour gan wende
Went to.
;
A ryche present wyth hym he browght,
A clothe that was wordylye
Worthily.
wroght,
He welcomed hym as the hende
Courteously. But, I beli
ve there i
a slight corruption.
.
Syr Tergaunte, that nobyll knyȝt,
He presented the emperour ryȝt,
And sette hym on hys kne
He presented it kneeling.
,
Wyth that cloth rychyly dyght;
Full of stones thar hyt was pyght,
As thykke as hyt myght be:
Off topaze and of rubyes,
And other stones of myche prys,
That semely wer to se;
Of crapoutes and nakette,
As thykhe as they sette,
For sothe as y say the
I tell thee.
.
The cloth was dysplayed sone:
The emperour loked thar upone
And myght hyt
Could not it.
not se;
For glysterynge of the ryche stone,
Redy syght had he non,
And sayde, how may this be?
The emperour sayde on hygh,
Sertes
Certainly.
, thys is a fayry
An illusion, a piece of enchantment.
,
Or ellys a vanyte.
The kyng of Cysyle answered than,
So ryche a jewell
JEWEL was antiently any pretious thing.
ys ther non
In all crystyante.
The amerayles dowȝter of hethenes
The daughter of the Amerayle of the Saracens. AMI
AL in the eastern languages was the governor, or prince, of a province, from the Arabic EMIR, Lord. In this sense, AMRAYL is used by Robert of Gloucester. Hence, by corruption the word ADMIRAL, and in a restricted sense, for the commander of a fleet: which Milton, who knew the original, in that sense write
AMMIRAL. PARAD. L. i. 294. Dufresne thinks, that our
naval
Amiral, i. e. Admiral
came from the crusades, where the Christians heard it used by the Saracens (in consequence of its general signification) for the title of the leader of their fleets: and that from the Mediterran
an states it was propagated over Europe.
Made thys cloth, withouten lees
Lying.
,
And wroȝte hyt all wyth pryde;
And portreyed hyt wyth grete honour,
With ryche golde and asour
Azure.
,
And stones on ylka
Every.
syde.
And as the story telles yn honde,
The stones that on this cloth stonde
Sowȝt
Sought.
they wer full wyde:
Seven wynter hyt was yn makynge,
Or hyt was browght to endynge,
In hert ys not to hyde.
In that on korner made was
YDOYNE and AMADAS
On one corner, or side, was embroidered the history of Idonia and Amadas. For their Romance, see supr. vol. ii. p. 24.
.
Wyth love that was so trewe;
For they loveden hem
Loved each other.
wyth honour,
Portreyed they wer wyth trewe love flour
Of stones bryght of hewe.
Wyth carbunkull, and safere
Sapphire.
,
Kalsydonys, and onyx so clere,
Sette in golde newe;
Deamondes and rubyes,
And othyr stones of mychyll pryse,
And menstrellys wyth her gle
Figures of minstrels, with their music, or musical instruments.
.
In that othyr korner was dyght
TRYSTRAM and ISOWDE so bryȝt
Sir Tristram and Bel I
olde, famous in king ARTHUR'S Romance.
,
That semely wer to se;
And for they loved hem ryght,
As full of stones ar they dyght,
As thykke as they may be.—
In the thrydde
Third.
korner wyth grete honour
Was FLORYS and BLAUNCHEFLOUR
See what I have said of their romance above, vol. i. p. 351. A manuscript copy of it in French metre was destroyed in the fire which happened in the Cotton Library. Boccace has the adventures of FLORIO and BIANCOFLORE, in his PHILOCOPO. FLORIS and BLANCAFLOR are mentioned as illustrious lovers by
Matfres Eymegau de B
zers,
a bard of Languedoc, in his BREVIARI D'AMOR, dated in the year 1288. MSS. Re
. 19 C. i. fol. 199. See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, vol. iv. p. 169.
As love was hem betwene,
For they loved wyth honour,
Portrayed they wer with trewe loveflour,
With stones bryȝht and shene.—
In the fourth korner was oon
Of Babylone the sowdans sonn,
The amerayles dowȝter hym by:
For hys sake the cloth was wrowght,
She loved hym in hert and thowght,
As testymoyneth thys storye.
The fayr mayden her byforn,
Was portrayed an unikorn,
Wyth hys horn so hye;
Flowres and bryddes on ylka syde,
Wyth stones that wer sowght wyde,
Stuffed wyth ymagerye.
When the cloth to ende was wrowght,
To the Sowdan sone
Soldan's son.
hyt was browȝt,
That semely was of syȝte;
My fadyr was a nobyll man,
Of the Sowdan he hyt wan
Wyth maystrye and wyth myȝte
MSS. Cott. (ut supr.) CALI
. A. 2. fol. 69. ver. 80. seq.
.
Chaucer says in the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, that RICHESSE wore a robe of purple, which,
—Ful wele
With orfraies laid was everie dele,
And purtraied in the ribaninges
Of DUKIS STORIES and of KINGES
Ver. 1076.
.
And, in the original,
Portraictes y furent d'orfroys
Hystoryes d'empereurs et roys
Ver. 1068.
.
CHAP. clxxix. Cesarius, saint Basil, the Gospel, Boethius, and Ovid, are quoted to shew the detestable guilt of gluttony and ebriety.
Cesarius, I suppose, is a Cistercian monk of the thirteenth century; who, beside voluminous Lives, Chronicles, and Homilies, wrote twelve Books on the Miracles, Visions, and Examples, of his own age. But there is another and an older monkish writer of the same name. In the British Museum, there is a narrative taken from Cesarius, in old northern English, of a lady deceived by the fiends, or the devil, through the pride of rich clothing
MSS. HARL. 1022. 4.
.
CHAP. clxxx. Paul, the historian of the Longobards, is cited, for the fidelity of the knight Onulphus.
CHAP. clxxxi. The sagacity of a lion.
This is the last chapter in the edition of 1488.
Manuscript copies of the GESTA ROMANORUM are very numerous
See supr. vol. ii. p. 19.
. A proof of the popularity of the work. There are two in the British Museum; which, I think, contain, each one hundred and two chapters
MSS. HARL. 2270. And 5259.
. But although the printed copies have one hundred and eighty-one stories or chapters, there are many in the manuscripts which do not appear in the editions. The story of the CASKETTS, one of the principal incidents in Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE, is in one of the manuscripts of the Museum
Viz. CHAP. x
ix.
ol. 78. b
MSS. HARL. 2270. In the CLERI
ALIS DISCIPLINA of Alphonsus, there is a narrative of a king who kept a
A
ULATOR, or story-teller, to lull him to sleep every night. The king on some occasion being seized with an unusual disquietude of mind, ordered his FABULATOR to tell him longer stories, for that otherwise he could not fall asleep. The FABULATOR begins a longer story, but in the midst falls asleep himself, &c. I think I have seen this tale in some manuscript of the GESTA ROMANORUM.
. This story, however, is in an old English translation printed by Wynkyn de Worde, without date; from which, or more probably from another edition printed in 1577, and entitled A RECORD OF ANCIENT HYSTORYES
in Latin
GESTA ROMANORUM,
corrected and bettered,
Shakespeare borrowed it. The story of the BOND in the same play, which Shakespeare perhaps took from a translation of the PECORONE of Ser Florentino Giovanni
GIORN. iv. Nov. 5. In Vincent of Beauvais, there is a story of a bond between a Christian and a Jew; in which the former uses a deception which occasions the conversion of the latter. HIST. SPECUL. fol. 181. a. edit. ut supr. Jews, yet under heavy restrictions, were originally tol
rated in the Christian kingdoms of the dark ages, for the purpose of borrowing money, with which they supplied the exigencies of the state, and of merchants, or others, on the most lucrative us
riou
contracts.
, makes the fortyeighth chapter of the last-mentioned manuscript
Fol. 43. a. In this story MAGISTER VIRG
LIUS, or Virgil the
cunning man,
is consulted.
. Giovanni flourished about the year 1378
See Johnson's and Steevens's SHAK
SPEARE, iii. p. 247. edit. ult. And Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, iv. p. 332. 334.
. The tale of Gower's FLORENT
CON
ESS. AMANT. Lib. i. f. xv. b. See supr. vol. ii. p. 31.
, which resembles Chaucer's WIFE OF BATH, occurs in some of the manuscripts of this work. The same may be said of a tale by Occleve, never printed; concerning the chaste consort of the emperor Gerelaus, who is abused by his steward, in his absence. This is the first stanza. A larger specimen shall appear in its place.
In Roman Actis writen is thus,
Somtime an emperour in the citee
Of Rome regned, clept Gerelaus,
Wich his noble astate and his dignite
Governed wisely, and weddid had he
The douȝtir of the kyng of Vngrye,
A faire lady to every mannes ye.
At the end is the MORALISATION in prose
MSS. SELD. Sup. 53. Bibl. Bodl.
De quadam bona et n
bili Imperatrice.
It is introduced with
"A Tale the which I in the
Roman dedis,
&c."
Viz. MSS. L
U
. ibid. K. 78. See also MSS. DIGB. 185. Where, in the first line of the poem, we have,
"In the
Roman je
ys
writen is this."
It is in other manuscripts of Occleve. This story is in the GESTA ROMANORUM, MSS. HARL. 2270. chap. 101. fol. 80. a. Where
Ger
laus
is Menelaus.
.
I could point out other stories, beside those I have mentioned, for which Gower, Lydgate, Occleve, and the author of the DECAMERON, and of the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE, have been indebted to this admired repository
Bonifacio Vannozzi, in
D
lle
LETTERE MISCELLAN
E
alle Academia V
neta
says, that Boccace borrowed [Nov. i. D. iii.] the Novel of
Maseto da Lamporecchio,
with many other parts of the DECAMERON, from an older Collection of Novels.
"In uno libro de Novelle, et di Parlare Gentile, ANTERIORE al Boccacio, &c."
In Venetia, 1606. 4to. pag. 580. seq. I believe, however, that many of the tales are of Boccace's own invention. He tells us himself, in the GENEALOGIA DEORUM, that when he was a little boy, he was fond of making FICTIUNCULAE. Lib. xv. cap. x. p. 579. edit. Basil. 1532. fol.
. Chaucer, as I have before remarked, has taken one of his Canterbury tales from his collection; and it has been supposed that he alludes to it in the following couplet,
And ROMAIN GESTIS makin remembrance
Of many a veray trewe wife also
MARCHANT'S TALE, ver. 10158. edit. Tyrw. This may still be doubted, as from what has been said above, the ROMAN GESTS were the Roman history in general.
.
The plot also of the knight against Constance, who having killed Hermegild, puts the bloody knife into the hand of Constance while asleep, and her adventure with the steward, in the MAN OF LAWES TALE, are also taken from that manuscript chapter of this work, which I have just mentioned to have been versified by Occleve. The former of these incidents is thus treated by Occleve.
She with this ȝonge childe in the chambre lay
Every niȝt where lay the earle and the countesse
Here we see the antient practice, even in great families, of one and the same bed-chamber serving for many persons. Much of the humour in Chaucer's TROMPINGTON MILLER arises from this circumstance. See the Romance of SYR TRYAMORE. And Gower, CONF. AM. ii. f. 39. a.
,
Bitween whose beddis brente a lampe alway.
And he espied, by the lampes liȝt,
The bedde where that lay this emprice
With erlis douȝtur
Earl's daughter.
, and as blyve riȝt,
This feendly man his purpose and malice
Thouȝte
Thought.
for to fulfille and accomplice;
And so he dide, a longe knife out he drouȝe
Drew.
,
And ther with alle the maiden childe he slouȝe
Sl
w.
.
Hir throte with the knyfe on two he kutte
And as this emprice lay sleeping;
Into her honde this bloody knyfe he putte,
Ffor men shoulde have noon othir deemyng
Opinion.
But she had gilty ben of this murdring:
And whanne that he had wrouȝte this cursidnesse,
Anoone oute of the chambre he gan hem dresse
He hastened, &c.
.
The countess after hir slepe awakid
And to the emperesse bedde gan caste hir look
And sy
Saw.
the bloody knyfe in hir hande nakid,
And, for the feare she tremblid and quook.—
She awakens the earl, who awakens the empress.
And hir awook, and thus to hir he cried,
"Woman, what is that, that in thin hand I see?
"What hast thou doon, woman, for him that diede
"What wickid spirit hath travaylid the?"
And as sone as that adawed was she,
The knyfe fel oute of hir hand in the bedde,
And she bihilde the cloothis al forbledde,
And the childe dead, "Allas, she cried, allas,
"How may this be, god woot alle I note howe,
"I am not privy to hir hevy caas,
"The gilte is not myne, I the childe not slowe
Slew.
."
To which spake the countesse, "What saist thou?
"Excuse the not, thou maist not saie nay,
"The knyfe all bloody in thin hand I say
Saw.
."
Ut supr. viz. MS. SELD. SUP. 45. Qu. iiii.
This story, but with some variation of circumstances, is told in the HISTORICAL MIRROUR of Vincent of Beauvais
SPECUL. HISTOR. Lib. vii. c. 90. fol. 86. a.
.
But I hasten to point out the writer of the GESTA ROMANORUM, who has hitherto remained unknown to the most diligent enquirers in Gothic literature. He is Petrus Berchorius, or Pierre Bercheur, a native of Poitou, and who died Prior of the Benedictine convent of saint Eloi at Paris, in the year 1362.
For the knowledge of this very curious circumstance, I am obliged to Salomon Glassius, a celebrated theologist of SaxeGotha, in his PHILOLOGIA SACRA
PHILOLO
IAE SACRAE, qua totius sacrosanctae veteris et novi testamenti scripturae tum stylus et literatura, tum sensus et genuinae interpretationis ratio expenditur, Libri quinque, &c. edit. tert. Francof. et Hamb. 1653.
, written about the year 1623
From the date of the Dedication. For his other works, which are very numerous, see the DIARIUM BIOGRAPHICUM of H. Witte, sub Ann. 1665. Gedani, 1688. 4to.
. In his chapter DE ALLEGORIIS FABULARUM, he censures those writers who affect to interpret allegorically, not only texts of scripture, but also poetical fables and profane histories, which they arbitrarily apply to the explication or confirmation of the mysteries of christianity. He adds,
"Hoc in studio excelluit quidam
Petrus Berchorius,
Pictaviensis, ordinis divi Benedicti: qui,
peculiari
libro, GESTA ROMANORUM, necnon Legendas Patrum, aliasque aniles fabulas, allegorice ac mystice exposuit
LIB. ii. Part. i. TRACTAT. ii. Sect. iii. Artic. viii. pag 312.
."
That is,
"In this art excelled one Peter Berchorius, a Benedictine; who, in a certain
peculiar
book, has expounded, mystically and allegorically, the Roman GESTS, legends of saints, and other idle tales
Salmeron, a profound school-divine, who flourished about 1560, censures the unwarrantable liberty of the GESTA ROMANORUM, in accommodating histories and fables to Christ and the church. COMM. in EVANGEL. HIST. i. pag. 356. PROL. xix. CAN. xxi.—Colon. Agrippin. 1602. fol.
."
He then quotes for an example, the whole one hundred and seventieth chapter of the GESTA ROMANORUM, containing the story of saint Bernard and the Dice-player, together with its moralisation.
Berchorius was one of the most learned divines of his country, and a voluminous writer. His three grand printed works are, I. REDUCTORIUM MORALE
super totam Bibliam,
in twentyfour books. II. REPERTORIUM [or Reductorium] MORALE, in fourteen books
I use a folio edition of all these three works, in three volumes, printed at Venice in 1583. These pieces were all printed very early.
. III. DICTIONARIUM MORALE. Whoever shall have the patience or the curiosity to turn over a few pages of this immense treasure of multifarious erudition, will soon see this assertion of Glassius abundantly verified; and will be convinced beyond a doubt, from a general coincidence of plan, manner, method, and execution, that the author of these volumes, and of the GESTA ROMANORUM, must be one and the same. The REDUCTORIUM SUPER BIBLIAM
This was first printed, Argentorat. 1473. fol. There was a very curious book in lord Oxford's library, I am not sure whether the same, entitled MORALIZATIONES BIBLIAE, Ulmae 1474. fol. With this colophon in the last page.
Infinita dei clementia. Finitus est liber
Moralizationum Bibliarum
in ejusdem laudem et gloriam compilatus. Ac per indu
rium
Joannem Zeiner de Reutlingen Artis impressoriae magistrum
non penna sed scagneis characteribus in oppido
Ulmensi
arti
icialiter
ffigiatus. Anno Incarnationis Domini millesimo quadriugentessimo septuag
ssimo quarto Aprilis nono.
This book is not mentioned by Maittaire.
contains all the stories and incidents in the Bible, reduced into allegories
To this work Alanus de Lynne, a Carmelite of Lynne in Norfolk, wrote an
Index
or
Tabula,
about the year 1240. It is in MSS. RE
. 3 D. 3. 1.
. The REPERTORIUM MORALE is a dictionary of things, persons, and places; all which are supposed to be mystical, and which are therefore explained in their moral or practical sense. The DICTIONARIUM MORALE is in two parts, and seems principally designed to be a moral repertory for students in theology.
The moralisation, or moral explanation, which is added to every ar
cle, is commonly prefaced, as in the GESTA, with the introductory address of CARISSIMI. In the colophon, the GESTA is called
Ex gestis Romanorum
RECOLLECTORIUM: a word much of a piece with his other titles of REPERTORIUM and REDUCTORIUM. Four of the stories occurring in the GESTA,
The Discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas
CAP. xlix. f. 643. He quotes CHRONICA, and says, that this happened in the reign of the emperor Henry the second. [See GEST. ROM. c. clviii.]
,
The subterraneous golden palace
CAP. lxxii. f. 689. col. 1. 2. He quotes for this story [GEST. ROM. c. cvii.] William of Malmesbury, but tells it in the words of Beauvais, ut supr.
,
The adventures of the English knight in the bishoprick of Ely
Fol. 610. col. 2. [GEST. ROM. c. clv.] Here also his author is Gervase of Tilbury: from whom, I think in the same chapter, he quotes part of king Arthur's Romance. See OTIA IMPERIAL. Dec. ii. c. 12.
, and
The miraculous horn
Fol. 610. ut supr. [GEST. ROM. c. lxi.]
, are related in the fourteenth book of the REPERTORIUM MORALE. For the two last of these he quotes Gervase of Tilbury, as in his GESTA
A MORALISATION is joined to these stories, with the introduction of CARISSIMI.
. As a further proof of his allegorising genius I must add, that he moralised all the stories in Ovid's Metamorphosis, in a work entitled,
Commentarius
MORALIS,
five
ALLEGORIAE
in Libros quindecim Ovidii Metamorphoseon
See what he says of the
Fabulae Poetarum,
REPERTOR. MORAL. lib. xiv. cap. i. f. 601. col. 2. ad calc.
, and now remaining in manuscript in the library of the monastery of saint Germains
Oudin. COMMENT. SCRIPTOR. ECCLES. iii. p. 1064. Lips. 1723. fol. I doubt whether this work was not translated into French by Guillaume Nangis, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. See MEM. LIT. xx. 751. 4to.
. He seems to have been strongly impressed with whatever related to the Roman affairs, and to have thought their history more interesting than that of any other people. This appears from the following passage, which I translate from the article ROMA, in his DICTIONARIUM MORALE, and which will also contribute to throw some other lights on this subject.
"How many remarkable facts might be here collected concerning the virtues and vices of the Romans, did my design permit me to drop Moralities, and to enter upon an historical detail! For that most excellent historian Livy, unequalled for the dignity, brevity, and
difficulty
of his style, (whose eloquence is so highly extolled by saint Jerome, and whom I, however unworthy, have translated from Latin into French with great labour
I have mentioned this work before, vol. ii. p. 114. It is remarkable, that a copy of this manuscript in the British Museum is entitled,
"TITUS LIVIUS Des FAIS DES ROMAINS translate par Pierre Bertheure."
MSS. REG. 15 D. vi.
, at the request of John the most famous king of France,) records so many wonderful things of the prudence, fortitude, fidelity, and friendship, of the Roman people; as also of their quarrels, envy, pride, avarice, and other vices, which are indeed allied to virtues, and are such, to say the truth, as I never remember to have heard of in any nation besides. But because I do not mean to treat of historical affairs in the present work, the matter of which is entirely moral, I refer the historical reader to Livy himself, to Trogus Pompeius, Justin, Florus, and Orosius, who have all written histories of Rome; as also to Innocent, who in his book on the
Miseries of human nature
Pope Innocent the third, about the year 1200, wrote three Books
De Contemptu Mundi,
ive De Miseria humanae Conditionis,
printed, Colon. 1496.
, speaks largely of the vices of the Romans
DICTION. MORAL. P. iii. vol. ii. f. 274. col. 2. edit. 1583.—S
e supr. vol. ii. p. 114.
."
In the mean time we must remember, that at this particular period, the Roman history had become the grand object of the public taste in France. The king himself, as we have just seen, recommended a translation of Livy. French translations also of Sallust, Cesar, and Lucan, were now circulated. A Latin historical compilation called ROMULEON was now just published by a gentleman of France, which was soon afterwards translated into French. A collection of the GESTA ROMANORUM was therefore a popular subject, at least it produced a popular title, and was dictated by the fashion of the times.
I have here mentioned all Berchorius's works, except his Comment on a Prosody called
Doctrinale metricum,
which was used as a school-book in France, till Despauterius's manual on that subject appeared
Oudin, ubi supr.
. Some biographers mention his TROPOLOGIA, his COSMOGRAPHIA, and his BREVIARIUM. But the TROPOLOGIA
I have seen a very old black-letter edition with the title,
"Tropologiarum mysticarumque enarrationum, &c."
Without date.
is nothing more than his REDUCTORIUM on the Bible; and probably the BREVLARIUM is the same
But see Bibl. Sangerm. Cod. MS. 687. And G. Serpilii VIT. SCRIPTOR. BIBLIC. tom. vii. part. 2. pag. 44. Also Possevin. APPARAT. SACR. ii. p. 241. Colon. 1608.
. The COSMOGRAPHIA seems to be the fourteenth book of his REPERTORIUM MORALE; which treats of the wonders of various countries, and is chiefly taken from Solinus and Gervase of Tilbury
This is in some measure hinted by Oudin, ubi supr.
"Egressus autem a PROFANIS et grammaticis Berchorius, animum SOLIDIORIBUS applicuit, &c."
. He is said by the biographers to have written other smaller pieces, which they have not named or described. Among these perhaps is comprehended the GESTA: which we may conceive to have been thus undistinguished, either as having been neglected or proscribed by graver writers, or rather as having been probably disclaimed by its author, who saw it at length in the light of a juvenile performance, abounding in fantastic and unedifying narrations, which he judged unsuitable to his character, studies, and station
Gesner adds, reciting his works, that he wrote
"alia multa."
EPITOM. BIBL. f. 147. b. Tig. 1555. fol. And Trith
mius,
"parvos sed multos tractatus."
De ILLUSTR. BENED. Lib. ii. c. 131.
. Basilius Johannes Heroldus, however, mentions Berchorius as the author of a CHRONICON, a word which may imply, though not with exact propriety, his GESTA ROMANORUM. It is in the Epistle dedicatory of his edition of the Chronicles of Marianus Scotus, and Martinus Polonus, addressed to our queen Elisabeth; in which he promises to publish many Latin CHRONICA, that is, those of Godfrey of Viterbo, Hugo Floriacensis, Conrade Engelhus, Hermannus Edituus, Lanfranc, Ivo, Robert of Saint Victor, PETER BERCHORIUS, and of many others,
qui de
TEMPORIBUS
scripserunt,
who have written of times
Dat. 1559. Edit. Basil. Oporin. No Date. fol.
. Paulus Langius, who wrote about the year 1400, in his enumeration of Berchorius's writings, says nothing of this compilation
CHRON. CITIZ. f. 841. Apud Pistorii ILLUSTR. VIT. SCRI
TOR. &c. Francof. 1583. fol. Compare the CHRON. of Philippus Bergom. ad ann. 1355.
.
Had other authentic evidences been wanting, we are sure of the age in which Berchorius flourished, from the circumstance of his being employed to translate Livy by John king of France, who acceded to the throne in the year 1350, and died in the year 1364. That Berchorius died, and probably an old man, in the year 1362, we learn from his epitaph in the monastery of saint Eloy at Paris, which is recited by Sweertius, and on other accounts deserves a place here.
HIC JACET VENERABILIS MAGNAE PROFUNDAEQUE SCIENTIAE, ADMIRABILIS ET SUBTILIS ELOQUENTIAE, F. PETRUS BERCOTH
Read BERCHEUR.
, PRIOR HUJUS PRIORATUS. QUI FUIT ORIUNDUS DE VILLA S. PETRI DE ITINERE
That is, of the village of
saint Pierre du C
min.
Three leagues from Poictiers.
IN EPISCOPATU MAILLIZANCENSI
Of Maille
ais.
IN PICTAVIA. QUI TEMPORE SUO FECIT OPERA SUA SOLEMNIA, SCILICET DICTIONARIUM, REDUCTORIUM, BREVIATORIUM, DESCRIPTIONEM MUNDI
The COSMOGRAPHIA abovementioned.
, TRANSLATIONEM CUJUSDAM LIBRI VETUTISSIMI
Of Livy.
DE LATINO IN GALLICUM, AD PRAECEPTUM EXCELLENTISS. JOANNIS REGIS FRANCORUM. QUI OBIIT ANNO M. CCC. LXII
Sweertii EPITAPHIA Joco-seri
. edit. Colon. 1645. p. 158. It must not be dissembled, that in the MORALISATION of the hundred and forty-fifth chapter, a proverb is explained,
vulgariter,
in the German language. Fol. 69. a. col. 2. And in the hundred and forty-third chapter, a hunter has eight dogs who have German names. Fol. 67. a. col. 1. seq. I suspect, nor is it improbable, that those German words were introduced by a German editor or printer. Mr. Tyrwhitt supposes, that we may reasonably conjecture one of our countrymen to have been the compiler, because three couplets of English verses and some English n
mes, appear in many of the manuscripts. But these are not to be found in any of the Editions; and there is no answering for the licentious innovations of transcribers. CANT. T. vol. iv. 331.
.
Berchorius was constituted grammatical preceptor to the novices of the Benedictine Congregation, or monastery, at Clugni, in the year 1340
Oudin. ubi supr. p. 1063.
. At which time he drew up his Notes on the Prosody, and his Commentary on Ovid, for the use of his scholars. About the same time, and with a view of rendering their exercises in Latinity more agreeable and easy by an entertaining Latin story-book, yet resoluble into lessons of religion, he probably compiled the GESTA: perpetually addressing the application of every tale to his young audience, by the paternal and affectionate appellation of CARISSIMI
This, by habit, and otherwise with no impropriety, he seems to have retained in his later and larger works.
. There was therefore time enough for the GESTA to become a fashionable book of tales, before Boccace published his DECAMERON. The action of the DECAMERON being supposed in 1348, the year of the great pestilence, we may safely conjecture, that Boccace did not begin his work till after that period. An exact and ingenious critic has proved, that it was not finished till the year 1358
See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, iv. 115. seq.
.
I have just observed, that Berchorius probably compiled this work for the use of his grammatical pupils. Were there not many good reasons for that supposition, I should be induced to think, that it might have been intended as a book of stories for the purpose of preachers. I have already given instances, that it was antiently fashionable for preachers to enforce the several moral duties by applying fables, or exemplary narratives: and, in the present case, the perpetual recurrence of the address of CARISSIMI might be brought in favour of this hypothesis. But I will here suggest an additional reason. Soon after the age of Berchorius, a similar collection of stories, of the same cast, was compiled, though not exactly in the same form, professedly designed for sermon writers, and by one who was himself an eminent preacher: for, rather before the year 1480, a Latin volume was printed in Germany, written by John Herolt a Dominican friar of Basil, better known by the adopted and humble appellation of DISCIPULUS, and who flourished about the year 1418. It consists of three parts. The first is entitled
"Incipiunt Sermones pernotabiles DISCIPULI de Sanctis per anni circulum."
That is, a set of Sermons on the Saints of the whole year. The second part, and with which I am now chiefly concerned, is a PROMPTUARY, or ample repository, of examples for composing sermons: and in the Prologue to this part the author says, that saint Dominic always
abundabat exemplis
in his discourses, and that he constantly practiced this popular mode of edification. This part contains a variety of little histories. Among others, are the following. Chaucer's Friar's tale. Aristotle falling in love with a queen, who compels him to permit her to ride upon his back
EXEMPL. lxvii. Sub litera, M.
"De regina quae equitavit Aristotelem."
He cites Jacobus de Vitriaco. [See supr. p. xix.]
. The boy who was kept in a dark cave till he was twelve years of age; and who being carried abroad, and presented with many striking objects, preferred a woman to all he had seen
EXEMPL. xxiv. Sub Litera, L.
. A boy educated in a desert is brought into a city, where he sees a woman whom he is taught to call a fine bird, under the name of a goose: and on his return into the desert, desires his spiritual father to kill him a goose for his dinner
Ibid. EXEMPL. xxiii. [See supr. p. l.]
. These two last stories Boccace has worked into one. The old woman and her little dog
EXEMPL. xii. Sub. lit. V.
. This, as we have seen, is in the GESTA ROMANORUM
CH. xxviii.
. The son who will not shoot at his father's dead body
This is also in the GESTA, CH. xlv.—EXEMPL. viii. Lit. B.
. I give these as specimens of the collection. The third part contains stories for sermon writers, consisting only of select miracles of the Virgin Mary. The first of these is the tale of the chast
Roman empress, occurring in the Harleian manuscripts of the GESTA, and versified by Occleve; yet with some variation
See supr. p. lxxxiii.
. This third part is closed with these words, which also end the volume.
"Explicit tabula Exemplorum in tractatulo de Exemplis gloriose Virginis Marie contentorum."
I quote from the first edition, which is a clumsy folio in a rude Gothic letter, in two volumes; and without pagings, signatures, or initials. The place and year are also wanting; but it was certainly printed before 1480
For the second edition is at Nuremburgh, 1482. fol. Others followed, before 1500.
, and probably at Nuremburgh. The same author also wrote a set of sermons called
Sermones de tempore
The only edition I have seen, with the addition of the S
MONES DE SANCTIS, and the PROMPTUARIUM EXEMPLORUM abovementioned, was printed by M. Fl
cius, Argentin. 1499. fol. But there is an earlier edition. At the close of the last Sermon, he tells us why he chose to be styled DISCI
ULUS. Because,
"non subtilia per modum MAGI
TRI, sed simplicia per modum DISCIPULI, conscripsi et collegi."
I have seen also early impressions of his SERMONES QUADRAGESIMALES, and of other pieces of the same sort. All his works were published together in three volumes, Mogunt. 1612. 4to. The EXAMPLES appeared separately, Daventr. 1481. Colon. 1485. Argentorat. 1489. 1490. Hagen. 1512. 1519. fol.
. In these I find
SERM. cxxi. col. ii. Signat. C 5.
Alphonsus's story, which in the GESTA ROMANORUM is the tale of the two knights of Egypt and Baldach
CH. clxxi.
; and, in Boccace's DECAMERON, the history of TITO and GESIPPO: Parnell's HERMIT
SERM. liii.
: and the apologue of the king's brother who had heard the trumpet of Death
SERM. cix.
: both which last are also in the GESTA
CH. lxxx. cxliii.
. Such are the revolutions of taste, and so capricious the modes of composition, that a Latin homily-book of a German monk in the fifteenth century, should exhibit outlines of the tales of Boccace, Chaucer, and Parnell
It may not be thought impertinent to close this discourse with a remark on the MORALISATIONS, subjoined to the stories of the GESTA ROMANORUM. This was an age of vision and mystery: and every work was believed to contain a double, or secondary, meaning. Nothing escaped this eccentric spirit of refinement and abstraction: and, together with the bible, as we have seen, not only the general history of antient times was explained allegorically, but even the poetical fictions of the classics were made to signify the great truths of religion, with a degree of boldness, and a want of a discrimination, which in another age would have acquired the character of the most profane levity, if not of absolute impiety, and can only be defended from the simplicity of the state of knowledge which then prevailed.
Thus, God creating man of clay, animated with the vital principle of respiration, was the story of Prometheus, wh
formed a man of similar materials, to which he communicated life by fire stolen from heaven. Christ twice born, of his father God and of his mother Mary, was prefigured by Bacchus, who was first born of Semele, and afterwards of Jupiter. And as Minerva sprung from the brain of Jupiter, so Christ proceeded from God without a mother. Christ born of the Virgin Mary was expressed in the fable of Danae shut within a tower, through the covering of which Jupiter descended in a shower of gold, and begot Perseus. Acteon, killed by his own hounds, was a type of the persecution and death of our Saviour. The poet Lycophron relates, that Hercules in returning from the adventure of the Golden Fleece was shipwrecked; and that being devoured by a monstrous fish, he was disgorged alive on the shore after three days. Here was an obvious symbol of Christ's resurrection. John Waleys, an English Fr
nciscan of the thirteenth century, in his moral exposition of Ovid's Metamorphoses
I have before mentioned Berchorius's OVID MORALISED.
, affords many other instances equally ridiculous; and who forgot that he was describing a more heterrogeneous chaos, than that which makes so conspicuous a figure in his author's exordium, and which combines, amid the monstrous and indigested aggregate of its unnatural associations,
—Sine pondere habentia pondus
M
TAM. L. i. 20.
.
At length, compositions professedly allegorical, with which that age abounded, were resolved into allegories for which they were never intended. In the famous ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, written about the year 1310, the poet couches the difficulties of an ardent lover in attaining the object of his passion, under the allegory of a Rose, which is gathered in a delicious but almost inaccessible garden. The theologists proved this rose to be the white rose of Jericho, the new Jerusalem, a state of grace, divine wisdom, the holy Virgin, or eternal beatitude, at none of which obstinate heretics can ever arrive. The chemists pretended, that it was the philosopher's stone; the civilians, that it was the most consummate point of equitable decision; and the physicians, that it was an infallible panacea. In a word, other professions, in the most elaborate commentaries, explained away the lover's rose into the mysteries of their own respective science. In conformity to this practice, Tasso allegorised his own poem: and a flimsy structure of morality was raised on the chimerical conceptions of Ariosto's ORLANDO. In the year 1577, a translation of a part of Amadis de Gaule appeared in France; with a learned preface, developing the valuable stores of profound instruction, concealed under the naked letter of the old romances, which were discernible only to the intelligent, and totally unperceived by common readers; who, instead of plucking the fruit, were obliged to rest contented with
le simple
FLEUR
de la Lecture litterale.
Even Spenser, at a later period, could not indulge his native impulse to descriptions of chivalry, without framing such a story, as conveyed, under the
dark conceit
of ideal champions, a set of historic transactions, and an exemplification of the nature of the twelve moral virtues. He presents his fantastic queen with a rich romantic mirrour, which shewed the wonderous achievements of her magnificent ancestry.
And thou, O fairest princess under sky,
In this fayre mirrour maist behold thy face,
And thine own realmes in Lond of Faery,
And in this antique image thy great ancestry
B. ii. INTROD. St. vi.
.
It was not, however, solely from an unmeaning and a wanton spirit of refinement, that the fashion of resolving every thing into allegory so universally prevailed. The same apology may be offered for the cabalistical interpreters, both of the classics and of the old romances. The former not willing that those books should be quite exploded which contained the antient mythology, laboured to reconcile the apparent absurdities of the pagan system to the christian mysteries, by demonstrating a figurative resemblance. The latter, as true learning began to dawn, with a view of supporting for a while the expiring credit of giants and magicians, were compelled to palliate those monstrous incredibilities, by a bold attempt to unravel the mystic web which had been wove by fairy hands, and by shewing that truth was hid under the gorgeous veil of Gothic invention.
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY.
SECT. XIX.
OUR communications and intercourse with Italy, which began to prevail about the beginning of the sixteenth century, not only introduced the studies of classical literature into England, but gave a new turn to our vernacular poetry. At this period, Petrarch still continued the most favorite poet of the Italians; and had established a manner, which was universally adopted and imitated by his ingenious countrymen. In the mean time, the courts both of France and England were distinguished for their elegance. Francis the first had changed the state of letters in France, by mixing gallantry with learning, and by admitting the ladies to his court in company with the ecclesiastics
See supr. vol. ii. p. 414.
. His carousals were celebrated with a brilliancy and a festivity unknown to the ceremonious shews of former princes. Henry the eighth vied with Francis in these gaieties. His ambition, which could not bear a rival even in diversions, was seconded by liberality of disposition and a love of ostentation. For Henry, with many boisterous qualities was magnificent and affable. Had he never murthered his wives, his politeness to the fair sex would remain unimpeached. His martial sports were unincumbered by the barbaric pomp of the antient chivalry, and softened by the growing habits of more rational manners. He was attached to those spectacles and public amusements, in which beauty assumed a principal share; and his frequent masques and tournaments encouraged a high spirit of romantic courtesy. Poetry was the natural accompaniment of these refinements. Henry himself was a leader and a chief character in these pageantries, and at the same time a reader and a writer of verses. The language and the manners of Italy were esteemed and studied. The sonnets of Petrarch were the great models of composition. They entered into the genius of the fashionable manners: and in a court of such a complexion, Petrach of course became the popular poet. Henry Howard earl Surrey, with a mistress perhaps as beautiful as Laura, and at least with Petrarch's passion if not his taste, led the way to great improvements in English poetry, by a happy imitation of Petrarch, and other Italian poets, who had been most successful in painting the anxieties of love with pathos and propriety.
Lord Surrey's life throws so much light on the character and subjects of his poetry, that it is almost impossible to consider the one, without exhibiting a few anecdotes of the other. He was the son and grandson of two lords treasurers dukes of Norfolk; and in his early childhood discovered the most promising marks of lively parts and an active mind.
While a boy, he was habituated to the modes of a court at Windsor-castle; where he resided, yet under the care of proper instructors, in the quality of a companion to Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, a natural son of king Henry the eighth, and of the highest expectations.
This young nobleman, who also bore other titles and honours, was the child of Henry's affection: not so much on account of hi
hopeful abilities, as for a reason insinuated by lord Herbert, and at which those who know Henry's history and character will not be surprised, because he equally and strongly resembled both his father and mother.
A friendship of the closest kind commencing between these two illustrious youths, about the year 1530, they were both removed to cardinal Wolsey's college at Oxford, then universally frequented, as well for the excellence as the novelty of its institution; for it was one of the first seminaries of an English university, that professed to explode the pedantries of the old barbarous philosophy, and to cultivate the graces of polite literature. Two years afterwards, for the purpose of acquiring every accomplishment of an elegant education, the earl accompanied his noble friend and fellow-pupil into France, where they received king Henry, on his arrival at Calais to visit Francis the first, with a most magnificent retinue. The frienship of these two young noblemen was soon strengthened by a new tie; for Richmond married the lady Mary Howard, Surrey's sister. Richmond, however, appears to have died in the year 1536, about the age of seventeen, having never cohabited with his wife
Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 68.
. It was long, before Surrey forgot the untimely loss of this amiable youth, the friend and associate of his childhood, and who nearly resembled himself in genius, refinement of manners, and liberal acquisitions.
The FAIR GERALDINE, the general object of lord Surrey's passionate sonnets, is commonly said to have lived at Florence, and to have been of the family of the Gera
i of that city. This is a mistake, yet not entirely without grounds, propagated by an easy misapprehension of an expression in one of our poet's odes, and a passage in Drayton's heroic epistles. She was undoubtedly one of the daughters of Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare. But it will be necessary to transcribe what our author himself has said of this celebrated lady. The history of one who caused so memorable and so poetical a passion naturally excites curiosity, and will justify an investigation, which, on many a similar occasion, would properly be censured as frivolous and impertinent.
From Tuskane came my ladies worthy race;
Faire Florence was sumtyme her
i. e. their.
auncient seat:
The westerne yle, whose plesant shore doth face
Wild Camber's cliffs, did gyve her lively heate:
Fostred she was with milke of Irishe brest;
Her sire an earle: her dame of princes blood:
From tender yeres in Britain she doth rest
With kinges child, where she tasteth costly food.
Hunsdon did first present her to mine yien:
Bright is her hewe, and Geraldine she hight.
Hampton me taught to wish her first mine,
And Windsor alas! doth chase me from her sight
Fol. 5. edit. 1557.
.
These notices, it must be confessed, are obscure and indirect. But a late elegant biographer has, with the most happy sagacity, solved the difficulties of this little enigmatical ode, which had been before either neglected and unattempted as inexplicable, or rendered
more unintelligible by false conjectures. I readily adopt Mr. Walpole's key to the genealogy of the matchless Geraldine
CATAL. Roy. and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 105. edit. 1759.
.
Her poetical appellation is almost her real name. Gerald Fitzgerald, abovementioned, earl of Kildare in the reign of Henry the eighth, married a second wife, Margaret daughter of Thomas Gray, marquis of Dorset: by whom he had three daughters, Margaret, Elisabeth, and Cicely. Margaret was born deaf and dumb; and a lady who could neither hear nor answer her lover, and who wanted the means of contributing to the most endearing reciprocations, can hardly be supposed to have been the cause of any vehement effusions of amorous panegyric. We may therefore safely pronounce Elisabeth or Cicely to have been Surrey's favorite. It was probably Elisabeth, as she seems always to have lived in England.
Every circumstance of the sonnet evidently coincides with this state of the case. But, to begin with the first line, it will naturally be asked, what was lady Elisabeth Gerald's connection with Tuscany? The beginnings of noble families, like those of nations, often owe somewhat to fictitious embellishment: and our genealogists uniformly assert, that the family of Fitzgerald derives its origin from Otho, a descendant of the dukes of Tuscany: that they migrated into England under the reign of king Alfred, whose annals are luckily too scanty to contradict such an account, and were from England speedily transplanted into Ireland. Her father was an Irish earl, resident at his earldom of Kildare; and she was consequently born and nursed in Ireland. Her mother, adds the sonnet, was of princely parentage. Here is a no less exact correspondence with the line of the lady's pedigree: for Thomas, marquis of Dorset, was son of queen Elisabeth Gray, daughter of the duchess of Bedford, descended from the royal house of Luxemburgh. The poet acquaints us, that he first saw her at Hunsdon. This notice, which seems of an indifferent nature and quite extraneous to the question, abundantly corroborates our conjecture. Hundsdon-house in Hertfordshire was a new palace built by Henry the eighth, and chiefly for the purpose of educating his children. The lady Elisabeth Fitzgerald was second cousin to Henry's daughters the princesses Mary and Elisabeth, who were both educated at Hunsdon
Strype, ECCL. MEM. vol. i. APPEND. Numb. 71.
. At this royal nursery she therefore
tasted of costly foode with kinges childe,
that is, lived while a girl with the young princesses her relations, as a companion in their education. At the same time, and on the same plan, our earl of Surrey resided at Windsor-castle, as I have already remarked, with the young duke of Richmond. It is natural to suppose, that he sometimes visited the princesses at Hunsdon, in company with the young duke their brother, where he must have also seen the fair Geraldine: yet by the nature of his situation at Windsor, which implied a degree of confinement, he was hindered from visiting her at Hunsdon so often as he wished. He therefore pathetically laments,
Windsor, alas, doth chase me from her sight!
But although the earl first beheld this lady at the palace of Hunsdon, yet, as we further learn from the sonnet, he was first struck with her incomparable beauty, and his passion commenced, at Hampton-court.
Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine!
That is, and perhaps on occasion of some splendid masque or carousal, when the lady Elisabeth Fitzgerald, with the princesses Mary and Elisabeth, and their brother Richmond, with the young lord Surrey, were invited by the king to Hampton-court.
In the mean time we must remember, that the lord Leonard Gray, uncle to lord Gerald Fitzgerald, was deputy of Ireland for the young duke of Richmond: a connection, exclusive of all that has been said, which would alone account for Surrey's acquaintance at least with this lady. It is also a reason, to say no more, why the earl should have regarded her from the first with a particular attention, which afterwards grew into the most passionate attachment. She is supposed to have been Maid of honour to queen Catharine. But there are three of Henry's queens of that name. For obvious reasons, however, we may venture to say, that queen Catharine Howard was Geraldine's queen.
It is not precisely known at what period the earl of Surrey began his travels. They have the air of a romance. He made the tour of Europe in the true spirit of chivalry, and with the ideas of an Amadis; proclaiming the unparalleled charms of his mistress, and prepared to defend the cause of her beauty with the weapons of knight-errantry. Nor was this adventurous journey performed without the intervention of an enchanter. The first city in Italy which he proposed to visit was Florence, the capital of Tuscany, and the original seat of the ancestors of his Geraldine. In his way thither, he passed a few days at the emperor's court; where he became acquainted with Cornelius Agrippa, a celebrated adept in natural magic. This visionary philosopher shewed our hero, in a mirror of glass, a living image of Geraldine, reclining on a couch, sick, and reading one of his most tender sonnets by a waxen taper
Drayton, HER. EPIST.—HOWARD to GERALDINE, v. 57.
. His imagination, which wanted not the flattering representations and artificial incentives of illusion, was heated anew by this interesting and affecting spectacle. Inflamed with every enthusiasm of the most romantic passion, he hastened to Florence: and, on his arrival, immediately published a defiance against any person who could handle a lance and was in love, whether Christian, Jew, Turk, Saracen, or Canibal, who should presume to dispute the superiority of Geraldine's beauty. As the lady was pretended to be of Tuscan extraction, the pride of the Florentines was flattered on this occasion: and the grand duke of Tuscany permitted a general and unmolested ingress into his dominions of the combatants of all countries, till this important trial should be decided. The challenge was accepted, and the earl victorious
Wood, ubi supr.
. The shield which he presented to the duke before the tournament began, is exhibited in Vertue's valuable plate of the Arundel family, and was actually in the possession of the late duke of Norfolk
Walpole, AN
CD. PAINT. i. 76.
.
These heroic vanities did not, however, so totally engross the time which Surrey spent in Italy, as to alienate his mind from letters: he studied with the greatest success a critical knowledge of the Italian tongue, and, that he might give new lustre to the name of Geraldine, attained a just taste for the peculiar graces of the Italian poetry.
He was recalled to England for some idle reason by the king, much sooner than he expected: and he returned home, the most elegant traveller, the most polite lover, the most learned nobleman, and the most accomplished gentleman, of his age. Dexterity in tilting, and gracefulness in managing a horse under arms, were excellencies now viewed with a critical eye, and practised with a high degree of emulation. In 1540, at a tournament held in the presence of the court at Westminster, and in which the principal of the nobility were engaged, Surrey was distinguished above the rest for his address in the use and exercise of arms. But his martial skill was not solely displayed in the parade and ostentation of these domestic combats. In 1542, he marched into Scotland, as a chief commander in his father's army; and was conspicuous for his conduct and bravery at the memorable battle of Flodden-field, where James the fourth of Scotland was killed. The next year, we find the career of his victories impeded by an obstacle which no valour could resist. The censures of the church have humiliated the greatest heroes: and he was imprisoned in Windsor-castle for eating flesh in Lent. The prohibition had been renewed or strengthened by a recent proclamation of the king. I mention this circumstance
not only as it marks his character, impatient of any controul, and careless of very serious consequences which often arise from a contempt of petty formalities, but as it gave occasion to one of his most sentimental and pathetic sonnets
Fol. 6. 7.
. In 1544, he was field-marshal of the English army in the expedition to Bologne, which he took. In that age, love and arms constantly went together: and it was amid the fatigues of this protracted campaign, that he composed his last sonnet called the FANSIE of a
wearied Lover
Fol. 18. See Dudg
BARONAG
ii. p. 275.
.
But as Surrey's popularity encreased, his interest declined with the king; whose caprices and jealousies grew more violent with his years and infirmities. The brilliancy of Surrey's character, his celebrity in the military science, his general abilities, his wit, learning, and affability, were viewed by Henry with disgust and suspicion. It was in vain that he possessed every advantageous qualification, which could adorn the scholar, the courtier, and the soldier. In proportion as he was amiable in the eyes of the people, he became formidable to the king. His rising reputation was misconstrued into a dangerous ambition, and gave birth to accusations equally groundless and frivolous
He was suspected of a design to marry the princess Mary; and, by that alliance, of approaching to a possibility of wearing the crown. It was insinuated, that he conversed with foreigners, and held a correspondence with cardinal Pole.
The addition of the escocheon of Edward the Confessor to his own, although used by the family of Norfolk for many years, and justified by the authority of the heralds, was a sufficient foundation for an impeachment of high treason. These motives were privately aggravated by those prejudices, with which Henry remembered the misbehaviour of Catharine Howard, and which were extended to all that lady's relations. At length, the earl of Surrey fell a sacrifice to the peevish injustice of a merciless and ungrateful master. Notwithstanding his eloquent and masculine defence, which even in the cause of guilt itself would have proved a powerful persuasive, he was condemned by the prepared suffrage of a servile and obsequious jury, and beheaded on Tower-hill in the year 1547
See Stowe, CHRON
p. 592. Challoner, de REPUBL. ANGL. INSTAURAND
lib. ii
p. 45.
. In the mean time we should remember, that Surrey's public conduct was not on all occasions quite unexceptionable. In the affair of Bologne he had made a false step. This had offended the king. But Henry, when once offended, could never forgive. And when Hertford was sent into France to take the command, he could not refrain from dropping some reproachful expressions against a measure which seemed to impeach his personal courage. Conscious of his high birth and capacity, he was above the little attentions of caution and reserve; and he too frequently neglected to consult his own situation, and the king's temper. It was his misfortune to serve a monarch, whose resentments, which were easily provoked, could only be satisfied by the most severe revenge. Henry brought those men to the block, which other monarchs would have only disgraced.
Among these anecdotes of Surrey's life, I had almost forgot to mention what became of his amour with the fair Geraldine. We lament to find, that Surrey's devotion to this lady did not end in a wedding, and that all his gallantries and verses availed so little! No memoirs of that incurious age have informed us, whether her beauty was equalled by her cruelty; or whether her ambition prevailed so far over her gratitude, as to tempt her to prefer the solid glories of a more splendid title and ample fortune, to the challenges and the compliments, of so magnanimous, so faithful, and so eloquent a lover. She appears, however, to have been afterwards the third wife of Edward Clinton, earl of Lincoln. Such also is the power of time and accident over amorous vows, that even Surrey himself outlived the violence of his passion. He married Frances, daughter of John earl of Oxford, by whom he left several children. One of his daughters, Jane countess of Westmoreland, was among the learned ladies of that age, and became famous for her knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages
Dugd. BARON. i. 533. ii. 275.
.
Surrey's poems were in high reputation with his cotemporaries, and for many years afterwards. He is thus characterised by the author of the old ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, whose opinion remained long as a rule of criticism.
"In the latter end of the same kinges [Henry] raigne, spronge up a new company of courtly makers, of whom sir Thomas Wyat the elder and Henry earle of Surrey were the two CHIEFTAINES, who having travailed into Italie, and there tasted the sweete and stately measured and stile of the Italian poesie, as novices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante, Ariosto, and Petrarch, they greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie from that it had bene before, and for that cause may justly be sayd the first reformers of our English meeter and stile
Lib. i. ch. xxxi. p. 48. edit. 1589.
."
And again, towards the close of the same chapter.
"Henry earle of Surrey, and sir Thomas Wyat, between whom I finde very little difference, I repute them (as before) for the two chief lanternes of light to all others that have since employed their pennes upon English poesie: their conceits were loftie, their stiles stately, their conveyance cleanly, their termes proper, their meetre sweete and well-proportioned, in all imitating very naturally and studiously their maister Francis Petrarcha
Ibid. p. 50.
."
I forbear to recite the testimonies of Leland, Sydney, Tuberville, Churchyard, and Drayton. Nor have these pieces, although scarcely known at present, been without the panegyric of more recent times. Surrey is praised by Waller, and Fenton; and he seems to have been a favorite with Pope. Pope, in WINDSOR-FOREST, having compared his patron lord Granville with Surrey, he was immediately reprinted, but without attracting many readers
By Sewell 1717. Reprinted by Curl, ib.
. It was vainly imagined, that all the world would eagerly wish to purchase the works of a neglected antient English poet, whom Pope had called
the
GRANVILLE
of a former age.
So rapid are the revolutions of our language, and such the uncer
ainty of literary fame, that Philips, Milton's nephew, who wrote about the year 1674, has remarked, that in his time Surrey's poetry was antiquated and totally forgotten
TH
ATR. PO
TAR. p. 67. edit. 1674. 12mo.
.
Our authors SONGES AND SONNETTES, as they have been stiled, were first collected and printed at London by Tottell, in 1557
In quarto. It is extraordinary, that A. Wood should not have known this edition. Another edition appeared in 1565. Others, in 1574.—1585.—1587.—Others appeared afterwards.
. As it happens in collections of this kind, they are of various merit. Surrey is said, by the ingenious author of the MUSES LIBRARY, to have been the first who broke through the fashion of stanzas, and wrote in the heroic couplet. But all Surrey's poems are in the alternate rhyme; nor, had this been true, is the other position to be granted. Chaucer's Prologues and most of the Canterbury Tales are written in long verse: nor was the use of the couplet resumed, till late in the reign of Elisabeth.
In the sonnets of Surrey, we are surprised to find nothing of that metaphysical cast which marks the Italian poets, his supposed masters, especially Petrarch. Surrey's sentiments are for the most part natural and unaffected; arising from his own feelings, and dictated by the present circumstances. His poetry is alike unembarrassed by learned allusions, or elaborate conceits. If our author copies Petrarch, it is Petrarch's better manner: when he descends from his Platonic abstractions, his refinements of passion, his exaggerated compliments, and his play upon opposite sentiments, into a track of tenderness, simplicity, and nature. Petrarch would have been a better poet had he been a worse scholar. Our author's mind was not too much overlaid by learning.
The following is the poem abovementioned, in which he laments his imprisonment in Windsor-castle. But it is rather an elegy than a sonnet.
So cruel prison, how coulde betyde, alas,
As proude Windsor
How could the stately cas
le of Windsor become so miserable a prison.
! where I, in lust and joye
In unrestrained gaiety and pleasure.
,
With a kynges sonne
With the young duke of Richmond.
my childishe yeres did passe,
In greater feast than Priam's sonnes of Troye.
Where eche swete place returnes a taste full sower:
The large grene courtes where we were wont to hove
To hover, to loiter in expectation. So Chaucer, TROIL. CRESS. B. 5. ver. 33.
But at the yate there she should outride
With certain folk he
lovid
her t' abide.
,
With eyes cast up into the mayden's tower
Swift's joke about the Maids of honour being lodged at Windsor in the round tower, in queen Anne's time, is too well known and too indelicate to be repeated here. But in the present instance, Surrey speaks loosely and poetically in making the MAIDEN-TOWER, the true reading, the residence of the women. The maidentower was common in other castles, and means the principal tower, of the greatest strength and defence. MAIDEN is a corruption of the old French
Mag
e,
or
Mayne,
great. Thus Maidenhead (properly Maydenhithe) in Berkshire, signifies the
great
port or wharf on the river Thames. So also,
Mayden-Bradley
in Wiltshire is the
great Bradley.
The old Roman camp near Dorchester in Dorsetshire, a noble work, is called
Maiden castle,
the capital fortress in those parts. We have Maiden-down in Somertsetshire with the same signification. A thousand other instances might be given. Hearne, not attending to this etymology, absurdly supposes, in one of his Prefaces, that a strong bastion in the old walls of the city of Oxford, called the MAIDENTOWER, was a prison for con
ining the prostitu
es of the town.
,
And easie sighes, such as men drawe in love:
The stately seates, the ladies bright of hewe,
The daunces shorte, long tales of great delight,
With wordes and lookes that tigers could but rewe
Pity.
;
Where ech of us did pleade the others right.
The palme-play
At ball.
, where, dispoyled for the game
Rendered unfit, or unable, to play.
,
With dazed yies
Dazzled eyes.
, oft we by gleames of love,
Have mist the ball, and got sight of our dame,
To bayte
To tempt, to catch.
her eyes which kept the leads above
The ladies were ranged on the lead
, or battlements, of the castle to see the play.
,
The gravell grounde
The ground, or are
, was strown with gravel
where they were trained in chivalry.
, with sleves tied on the helme
At tournaments they
ixed the
leeves of their mistresses on some part of their armour.
,
On fomyng horse, with swordes and frendly hartes;
With cheare
Looks.
as though one should another whelme
Destroy.
,
Where we have fought and chased oft with dartes.—
The secret groves, which ofte we made resounde
Of pleasaunt playnt, and of our ladies praise,
Recording ofte what grace
Favour with his mistress.
ech one had founde,
What hope of speede
Or, Success.
, what drede of long delayes.
The wilde forest, the clothed holtes with grene,
With raynes avayled
The holtes, or thick woods, clothed in green. So in another place he says, fol. 3.
My specled cheeks with Cupid's hue.
That is,
"Cheeks speckled with, &c."
, and swift ybreathed horse,
With crie of houndes, and merry blastes betwene
Where we did chase the fearful harte of force.
The wide vales
With loosened reins. So, in his fourth Aeneid, the fleet is
"ready to
avale.
"
That is, to
loosen
from shore. So again, in Spenser's FEBRUARIE.
They wont in the wind wagge their wriggle tayles
Pearke as a peacocke, but now it AVAYLES.
"
Avayle
their tayles,"
to drop or lower. So also in his DECEMBER.
By that the welked Phebus gan AVAYLE
His wearie waine.—
And in the Faerie Queene, with the true spelling, i. 1. 21. Of Nilus.
But when his latter ebbe gins to AVALE.
TO VALE, or
avale, the bonnet,
was a phrase for lowering the bonnet, or pulling off the hat. The word occurs in Chaucer, TR. CRESS. iii. 627.
That such a
aine from heaven gan AVAILE.
And in the fourth book of his BOETHIUS,
"The light fire ariseth into height, and the hevie yerthes AVAILEN by their weightes."
pag. 394. col. 2. edit. Urr. From the French verb AVALER, which is from their adverb AVAL,
downward.
See also Hearne's GLOSS. ROB. BR. p. 524. Drayton uses this word, where perhaps it is not properly understood. ECL. iv. p. 1404. edit. 1753.
With that, she gan to VALE her head,
Her cheeks were like the roses red,
But not a word she said, &c.
That is, she did not
veil,
or cover, but
valed,
held down her head for shame.
Probably the true reading is
wales
or
walls.
That is, lodgings, apartments, &c. These poems were very corruptly printed by Tottel.
eke, that harbourd us ech night,
Wherewith, alas, reviveth in my brest
The sweete accorde! Such slepes as yet delight:
The pleasant dreames, the quiet bed of rest.
The secret thoughtes imparted with such trust;
The wanton talke, the divers chan
e of play;
The frendship sworne, eche promise kept so just,
Wherewith we past the winter night away.
And with this thought the bloud forsakes the face;
The teares berayne my chekes of deadly hewe,
The whych as sone as sobbing sighes, alas,
Upsupped have, thus I my plaint renewe!
"O place of blisse, renewer of my woes!
"Give me accompt, where is my noble fere
Companion.
,
"Whom in thy walles thou dost
We should read,
didst.
ech night enclose,
"To other leefe
Dear to others, to all.
, but unto me most dere!"
Eccho, alas, that doth my sorrow rew
Pity.
,
Returnes therto a hollow sounde of playnte.
Thus I alone, where all my fredom grewe,
In prison pine, with bondage and restrainte.
And with remembrance of the greater greefe
To banish th' lesse, I find my chief releefe
Fol. 6. 7.
.
In the poet's situation, nothing can be more natural and striking than the reflection with which he opens his complaint. There is also much beauty in the abruptness of his exordial exclamation. The superb palace, where he had passed the most pleasing days of his youth with the son of a king, was now converted into a tedious and solitary prison! This unexpected vicissitude of fortune awakens a new and interesting train of thought. The comparison of his past and present circumstances recals their juvenile sports and amusements; which were more to be regretted, as young Richmond was now dead. Having described some of these with great elegance, he recurs to his first idea by a beautiful apostrophe. He appeals to the place of his confinement, once the source of his highest pleasures:
"O place of bliss, renewer of my woe
! And where is now my noble friend, my companion is these delights, who was once your inhabitant! Echo alone either pities or answers my question, and returns a plaintive hollow sound!"
He closes his complaint with an affecting and pathetic sentiment, much in the style of Petrarch.
"To banish the miseries of my present distress, I am forced on the wretched expedient of remembering a greater!"
This is the consolation of a warm fancy. It is the philosophy of poetry.
Some of the following stanzas, on a lover who presumed to compare his lady with the divine Geraldine, have almost the ease and gallantry of Waller. The leading compliment, which has been used by later writers, is in the spirit of an Italian fiction. It is very ingenious, and handled with a high degree of elegance.
Give place, ye Lovers, here before
That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine:
My Ladie's bewty passeth more
The best of yours, I dare wel saine,
Than doth the sunne the candle light,
Or brightest day the darkest night.
And therto hath a troth as just
As had Penelope the faire;
For what she sayth, ye may it trust,
As it by writing sealed were:
And vertues hath she many moe
Than I with pen have skill to showe.
I could reherse, if that I would,
The whole effect of NATURE'S plaint,
When she had lost the perfite mould,
The like to whom she could not paint.
With wringyng handes how she did cry!
And what she said, I know it, I.
I knowe, she swore with ragyng minde,
Her kingdom only set apart,
There was no losse, by lawe of kinde,
That could have gone so neare her hart:
And this was chefely all her paine
She could not make the like againe
Fol. 10.
.—
The versification of these stanzas is correct, the language polished, and the modulation musical. The following stanza, of another ode, will hardly be believed to have been produced in the reign of Henry the eighth.
Spite drave me into Boreas' raigne
Her anger drove me into a colder climate.
,
Where hory frostes the frutes do bite;
When hilles were spred and every plaine
With stormy winter's mantle white
Fol. 13.
.
In an Elegy on the elder sir Thomas Wyat's death, his character is delineated in the following nervous and manly quatraines.
A visage, sterne and mylde; where both did growe
Vice to contemne, in vertue to rejoyce;
Amid great stormes, whom grace assured so,
To live upright, and smile at fortune's choyce.—
A toung that serv'd in forein realmes his king,
Whose courteous talke to vertue did enflame
Eche noble hart; a worthy guide to bring
Our English youth by travail unto fame.
An eye, whose judgement none affect
Passion.
could blind
Friends to allure, and foes to reconcile:
Whose persing
Piercing.
looke did represent a minde
With virtue fraught, reposed, voyd of gile.
A hart, where dreade was never so imprest
To hide the thought that might the truth advance;
In neither fortune lost, nor yet represt,
To swell in welth, or yeld unto mischance
Fol. 17.
.—
The following lines on the same subject are remarkable.
Divers thy deth do diversly bemone:
Some that in presence of thy livelyhede
Lurked, whose brestes envy with hate had swolne,
Yeld Cesar's teares upon Pompeius' head
Fol. 16.
.
There is great dignity and propriety in the following Sonnet on Wyat's PSALMS.
The Macedon, that out of Persia chased
Darius, of whose power all Asia rong,
In the riche arke
Chest.
Dan Homer's rimes he placed,
Who fained gestes of heathen princes song.
What holy grave, what worthy sepulture
Repository.
,
To Wyat's Psalmes should Christians then purchàse?
Where he doth paint the lively faith and pure;
The stedfast hope, the swete returne to grace
Of just David by perfite penitence.
Where rulers may see in a mirrour clere
The bitter fruite of false concupiscence:
How Jewry bought Uria's deth ful dere.
In princes hartes God's scourge imprinted depe
Ought them awake out of their sinful slepe
Fol. 16.
.
Probably the last lines may contain an oblique allusion to some of the king's amours.
Some passages in his
Description of the restlesse state of a Lover,
are pictures of the heart, and touched with delicacy.
I wish for night, more covertly to plaine,
And me withdrawe from every haunted place;
Lest by my chere
Behaviour. Looks.
my chance appeare too plaine.
And in my mynde I mesure, pace by pace,
To seke the place where I myself had lost,
That day, when I was tangled in the lace,
In seming slack that knitteth ever most.—
Lo, if I seke, how I do finde my sore!
And if I flee, I carry with me still
The venom'd shaft, which doth its force restore
By haste of flight. And I may plaine my fill
Unto myself, unlesse this carefull song
Print in your hart some parcel of my tene
Sorrow.
.
For I, alas, in sil
nce all too long,
Of mine old hurt yet fele the wound but grene
Fol. 2.
.
Surrey's talents, which are commonly supposed to have been confined to sentiment and amorous lamentation, were adapted to descriptive poetry and the representations of rural imagery. A writer only that viewed the beauties of nature with poetic eyes, could have selected the vernal objects which compose the following exquisite ode
Fol. 2.
.
The soote season, that bud and blome forth brings,
With grene hath clad the hill, and eke the val
;
The nightingale with fethers new she sings;
The turtle to her mate hath told her tale:
Somer is come, for every spray now springs.
The hart hath hong his old hed on the pale:
The buck in brake his winter coate he flings:
The fishes flete with new repayred scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings:
The swift swalow pursueth the flies smale:
The busy bee her hony now she mings.
Winter is worne that was the flowers bale
Destruction.
.
I do not recollect a more faithful and finished version of Martial's HAPPY LIFE than the following.
MARTIAL, the thinges that doe attain
The happy life, be these I finde.
The richesse left, not got with pain,
The fruitfull grounde, the quiet minde.
The equall frend, no grudge, no strife,
No charge of rule, nor governaunce;
Without disease, the healthful life:
The houshold of continuance.
The diet meane
Moder
te.
, no delicate fare,
Trewe wisdom joynde with simplenesse:
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppresse.
The faithful wife without debate,
Such slepes as may begile the night:
Contented with thine owne estate,
Ne wish for death, ne feare his might
Fol. 16.
.
But Surrey was not merely the poet of idleness and gallantry. He was fitted both from nature and study, for the more solid and laborious parts of literature. He translated the second and fourth books of Virgil into blank verse
They were first printed in 1557. 12mo.
: and it seems probable, that his active situations of life prevented him from completing a design of translating the whole Eneid.
This is the first composition in blank verse, extant in the English language. Nor has it merely the relative and accidental merit of being a curiosity. It is executed with great fidelity, yet not with a prosaic servility. The diction is often poetical, and the versification varied with proper pauses. This is the description of Dido and Eneas going to the field, in the fourth book.
—At the threshold of her chaumber-dore,
The Carthage lords did on the Quene attend:
The trampling steed, with gold and purple trapt,
Chawing the foming bit ther fercely stood.
Then issued she, awayted with great train,
Clad in a cloke of Tyre embrawderd riche.
Her quyver hung behinde her backe, her tresse
Knotted in gold, her purple vesture eke
Buttned with gold. The Trojans of her train
Before her go, with gladsom Iulus.
Aeneas eke, the goodliest of the route,
Makes one of them, and joyneth close the throng.
Lyke when Apollo leaveth Lycia,
His wintring place, and Xanthus' flood likewise,
To visit Delos, his mother's mansion,
Repairing eft and furnishing her quire:
The Candians, and the folke of Driopes,
With painted Agathyrsies, shoute and crye,
Environing the altars round about;
When that he walkes upon mount Cynthus' top,
His sparkled tresse represt with garlandes softe
Of tender leaves, and trussed up in golde:
His quivering
Perhaps the true reading is, instead of
quivering,
"quiver
and
darts."
dartes clattering behind his back.
So fresh and lustie did Aeneas seme.—
But to the hils and wilde holtes when they came,
From the rockes top the driven savage rose.
Loe from the hills above, on thother side,
Through the wide lawns they gan to take their course.
The harts likewise, in troupes taking their flight,
Raysing the dust, the mountain-fast forsake.
The childe Iu
us, blithe of his swift steede
So Milton in COMUS, v. 59.
—Frolick of his
ull-grown age.
Amids the plaine, now pricks by them, now these;
And to encounter, wisheth oft in minde,
The foming bore, in steede of fearfull beasts,
Or lion brown, might from the hill descend.
The first stages of Dido's passion, with its effects on the rising city, are thus rendered.
—And when they al were gone,
And the dimme moone doth eft withold her light;
And sliding
Falling.
starres provoked unto slepe:
Alone she mournes within her palace voide,
And sits her downe on her forsaken bed:
And absent him she heares, when he is gone,
And seeth eke. Oft in her lappe she holdes
Ascanius, trapped by his father's forme.
So to begile the love cannot be told
Which cannot, &c.
!
The turrettes now arise not, erst begonne:
Neither the youth welde armes, nor they avance
The portes, nor other mete defence for warr.
Broken there hang the workes, and mighty frames
Of walles high raised, thretening the skie.
The introduction of the wooden horse into Troy, in the same book, is thus described.
We cleft the walles, and closures of the towne,
Whereto all helpe: and underset the feet
With sliding rolles, and bound his neck with ropes.
The fatal gin thus overclambe our walles,
Stuft with armd men: about the which there ran
Children and maides
That is, Boys and girls,
pueri innupta
que puellae.
Antiently
Child
(or
Children)
was restrained to the young of the male sex. Thus, above, we have,
"the
Child
Iulus,"
in the original
Puer
Ascanius. So the
Children
of the chapel, signifies the
Boys
of the king's chapel. And in the royal kitchen, the
Children,
i. e. the
Boys
of the Scullery. In the western counties, to this day,
Maid
simply and distinctly means
Girl:
as,
"I have got a Boy and a
Maid.
"
—
"My wife is brought to bed of a
Maid,
&c. &c."
, that holy carolles sang.
And well were they whoes hands might touch the cordes!
With thretning chere, thus slided through our town
The subtill tree, to Pallas temple-ward.
O native la
d, Ilion, and of the goddes
The mansion placce! O warlik walles of Troy!
Four times it stopt in thentrie of our gate,
Four times the harnesse
Arms. Armour.
clatterd in the wombe.
The shade of Hector, in the same book, thus appears.
Ah me! What one? That Hector how unlike,
Which erst, returnd clad with Achilles spoiles!
Or when he threw into the Grekish shippes
The Trojan flame! So was his beard defiled,
His crisped lockes al clustred with his blood:
With al such woundes as many he received,
About the walles of that his native towne!
Whom franckly thus, methought, I spake unto,
With bitter teres, and dolefull deadly voice.
"O Trojan light! O only hope of thine!
"What lettes so long thee staid? Or from what costes,
"Our most desired Hector, dost thou come?
"Whom, after slaughter of our many frends,
"And travail of thy people, and thy towne,
"Alweried, (lord!) how gladly we behold!
"What sory chaunce hath stained thy lively face?
"Or why see I these woundes, alas so wide!"
He answeard nought, nor in my vain demaundes
Abode: but from the bottom of his brest
Sighing he sayd: "Flee, flee, O goddesse son!
"And save thee from the furie of this flame!"
This was a noble attempt to break the bondage of rhyme. But blank verse was now growing fashionable in the Italian poetry, the school of Surrey. Felice Figlinei, a Sanese, and Surrey's cotemporary, in his admirable Italian commentary on the ETHICS of Aristotle, entitled FILOSOSIA MORALE SOPRA IL LIBRI D' ETHICA D'ARISTOTILE, declaims against the barbarity of rhyme, and strongly recommends a total rejection of this Gothic ornament to his countrymen. He enforces his precept by his own example; and translates all Aristotle's quotations from Homer and Euripides into verse without rhyme. Gonsalvo Perez, the learned secretary to Philip of Spain, had also recently translated Homer's Odyssey into Spanish blank-verse. How much the excellent Roger Ascham approved of Surrey's disuse of rhyme in this translation from Virgil, appears from the following passage in his SCHOLEMASTER, written about the year 1566
I know of no English critic besides, who has mentioned Surrey's Virgil, except Bolton, a great reader of old English books. HYPERCRIT. p. 237. Oxon. 1772.
.
"The noble lord Thomas earle of Surrey, FIRST OF ALL ENGLISHMEN, in translating the fourth [and second] booke of Virgill: and Gonsalvo Perez, that excellent learned man, and secretarie to king Philip of Spayne
Among Ascham's
Epistles,
there is one to Perez, inscribed
Clarissimo viro D. Gonsalvo Perisio Regis Catbolici Secretario primario et Consiliario intimo, Amico m
o carissimo.
In which Ascham recommends the embassador sir William Cecil to his acquaintance and friendship. EPISTOL. LIB. UN. p. 228. b. edit. Lond. 1581.
, in translating the ULYSSES of Homer out of the Greeke into Spanish, have both by good judgement avoyded the FAULT OF RYMING.—The spying of this fault now is not the curiositie of English eyes, but even the good judgement also of the best that write in these dayes in Italie.—And you, that be able to understand no more than ye find in the Italian tong: and never went further than the schoole of PETRARCH and ARIOSTO abroade, or else of CHAUCER at home, though you have pleasure to wander blindlie still in your foule wronge way, envie not others, that seeke, as wise men have done before them, the FAYREST and RYGHTEST way.—And therefore, even as Virgill and Horace deserve most worthie prayse, that they, spying the unperfitness in Ennius and Plautus, by trewe imitation of Homer and Euripides, brought poetrie to the same perfectnes in Latin as it was in Greeke, even so those, that by the same way would BENEFIT THEIR TONG and country, deserve rather thankes than disprayse
B. ii. p. 54. b. 55. a. edit. 1589. 4to.
."
The revival of the Greek and Roman poets in Italy, excited all the learned men of that country to copy the Roman versification, and consequently banished the old Leonine Latin verse. The same classical idea operated in some degree on the vernacular poetry of Italy. In the year 1528, Trissino published his ITALIA LIBERATA DI GOTI, or, ITALY DELIVERED FROM THE GOTHS, an heroic poem, professedly written in imitation of the Iliad, without either rhyme, or the usual machineries of the Gothic romance. Trissino's design was to destroy the TERZA RIMA of Dante. We do not, however, find, whether it be from the facility with which the Italian tongue falls into rhyme, or that the best and established Italian poets wrote in the stanza, that these efforts to restore blank-verse, produced any lasting effects in the progress of the Italian poetry. It is very probable, that this specimen of the Eneid in blank-verse by Surrey, led the way to Abraham Fleming's blank-verse translation of Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics, although done in Alexandrines, published in the year 1589
London, 4to.
.
Lord Surrey wrote many other English poems which were never published, and are now perhaps entirely lost. He translated the ECCLESIASTES of Solomon into English verse. This piece is cited in the Preface to the Translation of the Psalms, printed at London in 1567. He also translated a few of the Psalms into metre. These versions of Scripture shew that he was a friend to the reformation. Among his works are also recited, a Poem on his friend the young duke of Richmond, an Exhortation to the citizens of London, a Translation of Boccace's Epistle to Pinus, and a sett of Latin epistles. Aubrey has preserved a poetical Epitaph, written by Surrey on sir Thomas Clere, his faithful retainer and constant attendant, which was once in Lambeth-church
See Aubrey's SURREY, V. 247.
; and which, for its affection and elegance, deserves to be printed among the earl's poems. I will quote a few lines.
Shelton for love, Surrey for lord thee chase
Chose.
:
(Aye me, while life did last that league was tender!)
Tracing whose steps, thou sawest Kelsall blase,
Laundersey burnt, and batterd Bulleyn's render
Surrender.
:
At Mortrell gates
Towns taken by lord Surrey in the Bologne expedition.
, hopeless of all recure,
Thine earle halfe dead gave in thy hand his Will;
Which cause did thee this pining death procure,
Ere summers foure tymes seven thou couldst fulfill.
Ah, Clere! if love had booted care or cost,
Heaven had not wonne, nor earth so timely lost
He died in 1545. See Stowe's CHRON. p. 586. 588. edit. 1615.
!
John Clerc, who travelled into Italy with Pace, an eminent linguist of those times, and secretary to Thomas duke of Norfolk father of lord Surrey, in a dedication to the latter, prefixed to his TRETISE OF NOBILITIE printed at London in 1543
Lond. 12mo. A translation from the French.
, has mentioned, with the highest commendations, many translations done by Surrey, from the Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages. But these it is probable were
othing more than juvenile exercises.
Surrey, for his justness of thought, correctness of style, and purity of expression, may justly be pronounced the first English classical poet. He unquestionably is the first polite writer of loveverses in our language. It must, however, be allowed, that there is a striking native beauty in some of our love-verses written much earlier than Surrey's. But in the most savage ages and countries, rude nature has taught elegance to the lover.
SECT. XX.
WITH Surrey's Poems, Tottel has joined, in his editions of 1557 and 1565, the SONGES and SONNETTES of sir Thomas Wyat the elder
Wyat's begin at fol. 19.
, and of Uncertain Auctours.
Wyat was of Allington-castle in Kent, which he magnificently repaired, and educated in both our universities. But his chief and most splendid accomplishments were derived from his travels into various parts of Europe, which he frequently visited in the quality of an envoy. He was endeared to king Henry the eighth, who did not always act from caprice, for his fidelity and success in the execution of public business, his skill in arms, literature, familiarity with languages, and lively conversation. Wood, who degrades every thing by poverty of style and improper representations, says, that
"the king was in a high manner delighted with his
witty jests
ATH. OXON. i. 51.
."
It is not perhaps improbable, that Henry was as much pleased with his repartees as his politics. He is reported to have occasioned the reformation by a joke, and to have planned the fall of cardinal Wolsey by a seasonable story
S
e MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES. Numb. ii. pag. 16. Printed at Strawberryhill, 1772. 4to.
. But he had almost lost his popularity, either from an intimacy with queen Anne Boleyn, which was called a connection, or the gloomy cabals of bishop Bonner, who could not bear his political superiority. Yet his prudence and integrity, no less than the powers of his oratory, justified his innocence. He laments his severe and unjust imprisonment on that trying occasion, in a sonnet addressed to sir Francis Bryan: insinuating his sollicitude, that although the wound would be healed, the scar would remain, and that to be acquitted of the accusation would avail but little, while the thoughts of having been accused were still fresh in remembrance
Fol. 44.
. It is a common mistake, that he died abroad of the plague in an embassy to Charles the fifth. Being sent to conduct that emperor's embassador from Falmouth to London, from too eager and a needless desire of executing his commission with dispatch and punctuality, he caught a fever by riding in a hot day, and in his return died on the road at Shirburn, where he was buried in the great conventual church, in the year 1541. The next year, Leland published a book of Latin verses on his death, with a wooden print of his head prefixed, probably done by Holbein
NAEN
AE
in mortem T. Viati,
Lond. 1542. 4to. See also Leland's ENCOM
p. 358.
. It will be superfluous to transcribe the panegyrics of his cotemporaries, after the encomium of lord Surrey, in which his amiable character owes more to truth, than to the graces of poetry, or to the flattery of friendship.
We must agree with a critic above quoted, that Wyat cooperated with Surry, in having corrected the roughness of our poetic style. But Wyat, although sufficiently distinguished from the common versifiers of his age, is confessedly inferior to Surrey in harmony of numbers, perspicuity of expression, and facility of phraseology. Nor is he equal to Surrey in elegance of sentitiment, in nature and sensibility. His feelings are disguised by affectation, and obscured by conceit. His declarations of passion are embarrassed by wit and fancy; and his style is not intelligible, in proportion as it is careless and unadorned. His compliments, like the modes of behaviour in that age, are ceremonious and strained. He has too much art as a lover, and too little as a poet. His gallantries are laboured, and his versification negligent. The truth is, his genius was of the moral and didactic species: and his poems abound more in good sense, satire, and observations on life, than in pathos or imagination. Yet there is a degree of lyric sweetness in the following lines to his lute, in which,
The lover complaineth of the unkindness of his love.
My Lute awake, performe the last
Labour, that thou and I shall wast;
And end that I have now begonne:
And when this song is sung and past,
My lute be still, for I have done.
As to be heard where care is none,
As leade to grave in marble stone;
My song, now pearse her hart as sone.
Should we then sigh, or sing, or mone?
No, no, my lute, for I have done.
The rockes do not so cruelly
Repulse the waves continually,
As she my sute and affection:
So that I am past remedy.
Whereby
Wherefore.
my lute and I have done.
Proude of the spoile which thou has gotte
Of simple hartes, through Loves shotte,
By whom unkinde thou hast them wonne;
Thinke not he hath his bowe forgotte,
Although my lute and I have done.
Vengeance shall fall on thy disdaine,
That makest but game on earnest paine:
Thinke not alone under the sunne
Unquit
Unacquitted. Free.
to cause thy lovers plaine:
Although my lute and I have done.
May chaunce thee
It may chance you may, &c.
lie withered and olde
In winter nightes that are so colde,
Plaining in vaine unto the mone
Moon.
:
Thy wishes then dare not be tolde:
Care then who list, for I have done.
And then may chaunce thee to repent
The time that thou hast lost and spent,
To cause thy lovers sighe and swowne;
Then shalt thou know beautie but lent,
And wish and want as I have done.
Now cease my lute, this is the last
Labour, that thou and I shall wast;
And ended is that that we begonne.
Now is this song both song and past,
My lute be still, for I have done
Fol. 33.
.
Our author has more imitations, and even translations, from the Italian poets than Surrey: and he seems to have been more fond of their conceits. Petrarch has described the perplexities of a lover's mind, and his struggles betwixt hope and despair, a subject most fertile of sentimental complaint, by a combination of contrarieties, a species of wit highly relished by the Italians. I am, says he, neither at peace nor war. I burn, and I freeze. I soar to heaven, and yet grovel on the earth. I can hold nothing, and yet grasp every thing. My prison is neither shut, nor is it opened. I see without eyes, and I complain without a voice. I laugh, and I weep. I live, and am dead. Laura
to what a condition am I reduced, by your cruelty!
Pace non trovo, e non ho da far guerra;
E temo, e spero, ed ardo, e son en un ghiaccio:
E volo sopra'l cielo, e giaccio in terra:
E nulla stringo, e tutto l'mondo abraiccio.
Tal m'ha in prigion, che non m'apre nè serra
Thi
passage is taken from Messen Jordi, a Provencial poet of Valen
i
.
;
Nè per suo mi rittien, ne scioglie il laccio;
E non m'uccide Amor, e non mi sferra;
Ni mi vuol vivo, ni mi trae d'impaccio.
Veggio senz' occhi, e non ho lingua, e grido;
E bramo di perir, e cheggio aita;
Ed ho in odio me stesso, ed amo altrui:
Pascomi di dolor, piangendo rido.
Egualmente mi spiace morte, e vita:
In questo stato son, Donna, per vui
Sonn. ciii. There is a Sonnet in imitation of this, among those of the UNCERTAIN AUCTOURS at the end of Surrey'
Poems
fol. 107. And in Davison's POEMS, B. ii. CANZON. viii. p. 108. 4th edit. Lond. 1621. 12mo.
.
Wyat has thus copied this sonnet of epigrams.
I finde no peace, and all my warre is done:
I fear and hope, I burne and frese likewyse:
I flye aloft, and yet cannot aryse;
And nought I have, and at the world I season;
That lockes
That which locks, i. e. a key.
nor loseth, [nor] holdeth me in prison.
And holdes me not, yet can I scape no wise;
Nor lettes me live, nor dye, at my devi
e,
And yet of death it giveth me occasion.
Without eye I se, without tong I playne:
I wish to perish, yet I aske for helth;
I love another, and I hate myselfe;
I fede me in sorow, and laugh in all my paine.
Lo thus displeaseth me both death and life
And my delight is causer of this strife
Fol. 21, 22.
.
It was from the capricious and over-strained invention of the Italian poets, that Wyat was taught to
orture the passion of love by prolix and intricate comparisons, and unnatural allusions. At one time his love is a galley steered by cruelty through stormy seas and dangerous rocks; the sails torn by the blast of tempestuous sighs, and the cordage consumed by incessant showers of tears: a cloud of grief envelopes the stars
reason is drowned, and the haven is at a distance
Fol. 22.
. At another
Fol. 25.
, it is a spring trickling from the summit of the Alps, which gathering force in its fall, at length overflows all the plain beneath
Fol. 25.
. Sometimes, it is a gun, which being overcharged, expands the flame within itself, and bursts in pieces
Fol. 29.
. Sometimes it is like a prodigious mountain, which is perpetually weeping in copious fountains, and sending forth sighs from its forests: which bears more leaves than fruits: which breeds wild-beasts, the proper emblems of rage, and harbours birds that are always singing
Fol. 36.
. In another of his sonnets, he says, that all nature sympathises with his passion. The woods resound his elegies, the rivers stop their course to hear him complain, and the grass weeps in dew. These thoughts are common and fantastic. But he adds an image which is new, and has much nature and sentiment, although not well expressed.
The hugy okes have rored in the winde,
Eche thing, methought, complaining in theyr kinde.
This is a touch of the pensive. And the apostrophe which follows is natural and simple.
Ah stony hart, who hath thus framed thee
So cruel, that art clothed with beautie
Fol. 24.
!
And there is much strength in these lines of the lover to his bed.
The place of slepe, wherein I do but wake,
Besprent with tears, my bed, I thee forsake
Fol. 25.
!
But such passages as these are not the general characteristics of Wyat's poetry. They strike us but seldom, amidst an impracticable mass of forced reflections, hyperbolical metaphors, and complaints that move no compassion.
But Wyat appears a much more pleasing writer, when he moralises on the felicities of retirement, and attacks the vanities and vices of a court, with the honest indignation of an independent philosopher, and the freedom and pleasantry of Horace. Three of his poetical epistles are professedly written in this strain, two to John Poines
He seems to have been a person about the court. See LIFE of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 46.
, and the other to sir Francis Bryan: and we must regret, that he has not left more pieces in a style of composition for which he seems to have been eminently qualified. In one of the epistles to Poines on the life of a courtier, are these spirited and manly reflections.
Myne owne John Poines, since ye delite to know
The causes why that homewarde I me drawe,
And flee the prease
Press. Croud.
of courtes, where so they go
The court was perpetually moving from one palace to another.
;
Rather than to live thrall under the awe
Of lordly looks, wrapped within my cloke;
To will and lust learning to set a law:
It is not that, because I scorne or mocke
The power of them, whom Fortune here hath lent
Charge over us, of Right
Justice.
to strike the stroke:
But true it is, that I have alwayes ment
Lesse to esteeme them, (than the common sort)
Of outwarde thinges that judge, in their entent,
Without regarde what inward doth resort.
I graunt sometime of glory that the fire
Doth touch my heart. Me list not to report
To speak favourably of what is bad.
Blame by honour, nor honour to desire.
But how can I this honour now attaine,
That cannot die the colour black a liar?
My Poines, I cannot frame my tune
Perhaps the re
ding is
tongue.
to faine,
To cloke the truth, &c.
In pursuit of this argument, he declares his indisposition and inability to disguise the truth, and to flatter, by a variety of instances. Among others, he protests he cannot prefer Chaucer's TALE of SIR THOPAS to his PALAMON AND AR
ITE.
Prayse SIR THOPAS for a noble tale,
And scorne the STORY that the KNIGHT tolde;
Praise him for counsell that is dronke of ale:
Grinne when he laughes, that beareth all the sway;
Frowne when he frownes, and grone when he is pale:
On others lust to hang both night and day, &c.
I mention this circumstance about Chaucer, to shew the esteem in which the KNIGHT'S TALE, that noble epic poem of the dark ages, was held in the reign of Henry eighth, by men of taste.
The poet's execration of flatterers and courtiers is contrasted with the following entertaining picture of his own private life and rural enjoyments at Allingham-castle in Kent.
This is the cause that I could never yet
Hang on their sleeve
, that weigh, as thou maist se,
A chippe of chaunce more than a pounde of wit:
This maketh me at home to hunt and hawke,
And in fowle wether at my booke to sit;
In frost and snowe then with my bow to stalke;
No man doth marke whereso I ride or go:
In lusty leas
In large fields. Over fruitful grounds.
at liberty I walke:
And of these newes I fele no weale nor wo:
Save that a clogge doth hange yet at my hele
Probably he alludes to some office which he still held at court; and which sometimes recalled him, but not too frequently, from the country.
;
No force for that, for it is ordred so,
That I may leape both hedge and dike ful wele.
I am not now in Fraunce, to judge the wine, &c.
But I am here in Kent and Christendome,
Among the Muses, where I reade and rime;
Where if thou list, mine owne John Poines to come,
Thou shalt be judge how do I spende my time
Fol. 47.
.
In another epistle to John Poines, on the security and happiness of a moderate fortune, he versifies the fable of the City and Country Mouse with much humour.
My mother's maides, when they do sowe and spinne,
They sing a song made of the feldishe mouse, &c.
This fable appositely suggests a train of sensible and pointed observations on the weakness of human conduct, and the delusive plans of life.
Alas, my Poines, how men do seke the best,
And finde the worse by errour as they stray:
And no marvell, when sight is so opprest,
And blindes the guide: anone out of the way
Goeth guide and all, in seking quiet lyfe.
O wretched myndes! There is no golde that may
Graunt that you seke: no warre, no peace, no strife:
No, no, although thy head were hoopt with golde:
Serjaunt at mace, with hawbert
Halbert. A parade of guards, &c. The classical allusion is obvious.
, sworde, nor knife,
Cannot repulse the care that folow shoulde.
Eche kinde of life hath with him his disease:
Live in delites, even as thy lust would,
And thou shalt finde, when lust doth most thee please,
It irketh strait, and by itself doth fade.
A small thing is it, that may thy minde appease?
None of you al there is that is so madde,
To seke for grapes on brambles or on breeres
So read, instead of
bry
rs,
;
Nor nonne, I trowe, that hath a wit so badde,
To sett his hay for conneyes oer rivères.
Nor yet set not a drag net for a hare:
And yet the thing that most is your desire
You do misseke, with more travell and care.
Make plaine thine hart, that it be not knotted
With hope or dreade: and se thy will be bare
Free.
From all affects
Passions.
, whom vice hath never spotted.
Thyself content with that is thee assinde
Assigned.
;
And use it wel that is to the allotted.
Then seke no more out of thyself to fynde,
The thing that thou hast sought so long before,
For thou shalt feele it sticking in thy mynde.—
These Platonic doctrines are closed with a beautiful application of virtue personified, and introduced in her irresistible charms of visible beauty. For those who deviate into vain and vicious pursuits,
None other paine pray I for them to be,
But when the rage doth leade them from the right,
That, loking backwarde, VIRTUE they may se
Even as she is, so goodly faire and bright
Fol. 45, 46.
!
With these disinterested strains we may join the following single stanza, called THE COURTIERS LIFE.
In court to serve, decked with freshe aray,
Of sugred
Delicious.
meates feeling the swete repaste;
The life in bankets, and sundry kindes of play,
Amid the prease of worldly lookes to waste:
Hath with it joinde oft times such bitter taste,
That whoso joyes such kind of life to hold,
In prison joyes, fettred with chaines of gold
Fol. 44.
.
Wyat may justly be deemed the first polished English satirist. I am of opinion, that he mistook his talents when, in compliance with the mode, he became a sonnetteer; and, if we may judge from a few instances, that he was likely to have treated any other subject with more success than that of love. His abilities were seduced and misapplied in fabricating fine speeches to an obdurate mistress. In the following little ode, or rather epigram, on a very different occasion, there is great simplicity and propriety, together with a strain of poetic allusion. It is on his return from Spain into England.
Tagus farewel, that westward with thy stremes
Turnes up the graines of gold al redy tride
Pure gold.
!
For I with spurre and
ayle go seke the Temes
The Thames.
,
Gainward the sunne that shewes her welthy pride:
And to the town that Brutus sought by dremes
A tradition in Geoffrey of Monmouth.
,
Like bended moone
The old city from the river appeared in the shape of a crescent.
that leanes her lusty
Strong, flourishing, populous, &c.
side;
My king, my countrey I seke, for whom I live:
O mighty Jove, the windes for this me give
Fol. 44.
!
Among Wyat's poems is an unfinished translation, in Alexandrine verse, of the Song of Iopas in the first book of Virgil's Eneid
Fol. 49.
. Wyat's and Surrey's versions from Virgil are the first regular translations in English of an antient classic poet: and they are symptoms of the restoration of the study of the Roman writers, and of the revival of elegant literature. A version of David's Psalms by Wyat is highly extolled by lord Surrey and Leland. But Wyat's version of the PENITENTIAL PSALMS seems to be a separate work from his translation of the whole Psaltery, and probably that which is praised by Surrey, in an ode above quoted, and entitled,
Praise of certain Psalmes of David, translated by Sir T. Wyat the elder
Fol. 16. [See supr. p. 18.]
. They were printed with this title, in 1549.
"Certaine Psalmes chosen out of the Psalmes of David commonly called vij penytentiall Psalmes, drawen into Englishe meter by sir Thomas Wyat knyght, whereunto is added a prolog of the aucthore before every Psalme very pleasant and profettable to the godly reader. Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde at the sygne of the starre by Thomas Raynald and John Harryngton, cum previlegio ad imprimendum solum, MDXLIX."
Leland seems to speak of the larger version.
Transtulit in nostram Davidis carmina linguam,
Et numeros magna reddidit arte pares.
Non morietur OPUS tersum, SPECTABILE, sacrum
N
N. ut supr.
.
But this version, with that of Surrey mentioned above, is now lost
See Hollinsh. CHR
N. iii. p. 978. col. 2.
: and the pious Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins are the only immortal translators of David's Psalms.
A similarity, or rather sameness of studies, as it is a proof, so perhaps it was the chief cement, of that inviolable friendship which is said to have subsisted between Wyat and Surrey. The principal subject of their poetry was the same: and they both treated the passion of love in the spirit of the Italian poets, and as professed disciples of Petrarch. They were alike devoted to the melioration of their native tongue, and an attainment of the elegancies of composition. They were both engaged in translating Virgil, and in rendering select portions of Scripture into English metre.
SECT. XXI.
TO the poems of Surrey and Wyat are annexed, as I have before hinted, in Tottell's editions, those of uncertain authors
They begin at fol. 50.
. This latter collection forms the first printed poetical miscellany in the English language: although very early manuscript miscellanies of that kind are not uncommon. Many of these pieces are much in the manner of Surrey and Wyat, which was the fashion of the times. They are all anonymous; but probably, sir Francis Bryan, George Boleyn earl of Rochford, and lord Vaulx, all professed rhymers and sonnet-writers, were large contributors.
Drayton, in his elegy
To his dearly loved friend
HENRY REYNOLDS OF POETS AND POESIE, seems to have blended all the several collections of which Tottell's volume consists. After Chaucer he says,
They with the Muses who conversed, were
That princely Surrey, early in the time
Of the eighth Henry, who was then the prime
Of England's noble youth. With him there came
Wyat, with reverence whom we still do name
Amongst our poets: Bryan had a share
With the two former, which accounted are
That time's best Makers, and the authors were
Of those small poems which the title bear
Of Songes and Sonnetts, wherein oft they hit
On many dainty passages of wit
WORKS, vol. iv
p. 1255. edit. Lond. 1759. 8vo.
.
Sir Francis Bryan was the friend of Wyat, as we have seen; and served as a commander under Thomas earl of Surrey in an expedition into Brittany, by whom he was knighted for his bravery
Dugd. BAR. ii. 273. a.
. Hence he probably became connected with lord Surrey the poet. But Bryan was one of the brilliant ornaments of the court of king Henry the eighth, which at least affected to be polite: and from his popular accomplishments as a wit and a poet, he was made a gentleman of the privy-chamber to that monarch, who loved to be entertained by his domestics
Rymer, FO
D. xiv. 380.
. Yet he enjoyed much more important appointments in that reign, and in the first year of Edward the sixth; and died chief justiciary of Ireland, at Waterford, in the year 1548
Hollinsh. CHRON. i. 61. And Ibid. Hooker's CONTIN. tom. ii. P. ii. pag. 110. See also FOX, MARTYR. p. 991.
. On the principle of an unbiassed attachment to the king, he wrote epistles on Henry's divorce, never published; and translated into English from the French, Antonio de Guevara's Spanish Dissertation on the life of a courtier, printed at London in the year last mentioned
Cod. Impress. A. Wood, Mus. Ashmol. Oxon.
. He was nephew to John Bourchier, lord Berners, the translator of Froissart; who, at his desire, translated at Calais from French into English, the GOLDEN BOKE, or Life of Marcus Aurelius, about 1533
See the COLOPHON. It was printed by Thomas Berthelett, in 1536, quarto. Often afterwards. Lord Berners was, deputy-general of Calais, and its Marches.
. Which are Bryan's pieces I cannot ascertain.
George Boleyn, viscount Rochford, was son of sir Thomas Boleyn, afterwards earl of Wiltshire and Ormond; and at Oxford discovered an early propensity to polite letters and poetry. He was appointed to several dignities and offices by king Henry the eighth, and subscribed the famous declaration sent to Pope Clement the seventh. He was brother to queen Anne Boleyn, with whom he was suspected of a criminal familiarity. The chief accusation against him seems to have been, that he was seen to whisper with the queen one morning while she was in bed. As he had been raised by the exaltation, he was involved in the misfortunes of that injured princess, who had no other fault but an un
uarded and indiscrete frankness of nature; and whose character has been blackened by the bigotted historians of the catholic cause, merely because she was the mother of queen Elisabeth. To gratify the ostensible jealousy of the king, who had conceived a violent passion for a new object, this amiable nobleman was beheaded on the first of May, in 1536
See Dugd. BARON. iii. p. 306. a.
. His elegance of person, and spritely conversation, captivated all the ladies of Henry's court. Wood says, that at the
"royal court he was much
adored,
especially by the
female sex,
for his
admirable
discourse, and
symmetry
of body
Ath. Oxon. i. 44.
."
From these irresistible allurements his enemies endeavoured to give a plausibility to their infamous charge of an incestuous connection. After his commitment to the Tower, his sister the queen, on being sent to the same place, asked the lieutenant, with a degree of eagerness,
"Oh! where is my sweet brother
Strype, MEM. i. p. 280.
?"
Here was a specious confirmation of his imagined guilt: this stroke of natural tenderness was too readily interpreted into a licentious attachment. Bale mentions his RHYTHMI ELEGANTISSIMI
ii. 103.
, which Wood calls,
"Songs and Sonnets, with other things of the like nature
Ubi supr.
."
These are now lost, unless some, as I have insinuated, are contained in the present collection; a garland, in which it appears to have been the fashion for every FLOWERY COURTIER to leave some of his blossoms. But Boleyn's poems cannot now be distinguished.
The lord Vaulx, whom I have supposed, and on surer proof, to be another contributor to this miscellany, could not be the Nicholas lord Vaux, whose gown of purple velvet, plated with gold, eclipsed all the company present at the marriage of prince Arthur; who shines as a statesman and a soldier with uncommon lustre in the history of Henry the seventh, and continued to adorn the earlier annals of his successor, and who died in the year 1523. Lord Vaux the poet, was probably Thomas lord Vaux, the son of Nicholas, and who was summoned to parliament in 1531, and seems to have lived till the latter end of the reign of queen Mary
See what I have said of his son lord William, in the LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, p. 221. In 1558, sir Tho. Pope leaves him a legacy of one hundred pounds, by the name of lord Vaulx.
. All our old writers mention the poetical lord Vaux, as rather posterior to Wyat and Surrey; neither of whom was known as a writer till many years after the death of lord Nicholas. George Gascoyne, who wrote in 1575, in his panegyric on the ENGLISH POETS, places Vaux after Surrey.
Piers Plowman was full playne,
And Chaucer's spreet was greate;
Earle Surrey had a goodly vayne,
LORD VAUX the marke did beate.
Puttenham, author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, having spoken of Surrey and Wyat, immediately adds,
"In the SAME TIME, or NOT LONG AFTER, was the lord Nicholas
The christian name is a mistake, into which it was
asy to fall.
Vaux, a man of much facilitie in vulgar making
Fol. 48.
."
Webbe, in his DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETRIE, published in 1586, has a similar arrangement. Great numbers of Vaux's poems are extant in the PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVISES; and, instead of the rudeness of Skelton, they have a smoothness and facility of manner, which does not belong to poetry written before the year 1523, in which lord Nicholas Vaux died an old man
See Percy's BALL. ii. 49. edit. 1775.
. The PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVISES was published in 1578, and he is there simply styled
Lord Vaulx the elder:
this was to distinguish him from his son lord William, then living. If lord Nicholas was a writer of poetry, I will venture to assert, that none of his performances now remain; notwithstanding the testimony of Wood, who says, that Nicholas,
"in his juvenile years was sent to Oxon, where by reading humane and romantic, rather than philosophical authors, he advanced his genius very much in poetry and history
ATH. OXON. i. 19.
."
This may be true of his son Thomas, whom I suppose to be the poet. But such was the celebrity of lord Nicholas's public and political character, that he has been made to monopolise every merit which was the property of his successors. All these difficulties, however, are at once adjusted by a manuscript in the British Museum: in which we have a copy of Vaux's poem, beginning
I lothe that I did love,
with this title:
"A dyttye or sonet made by the lord Vaus, in the time of the noble quene Marye, representing the image of Death
MSS. HARL. 1703. 25.
."
This sonnet, or rather ode, entitled,
The aged lover renounceth love,
which was more remembered for its morality than its poetry, and which is idly conjectured to have been written on his death-bed
G. Gascoyne says,
"The L. Vaux his dittie, beginning thus
I loath,
was thought by some to be made upon his d
ath-bed, &c."
EPISTL
TO THE YOUNG GENTLEMEN, prefixed to his Poems.
, makes a part of the collection which I am now examining
Fol. 72.
. From this ditty are taken three of the stanzas, yet greatly disguised and corrupted, of the Grave-digger's Song in Shakespeare's HAMLET
Act V.
. Another of lord Vaux's poems in the volume before us, is the ASSAULT OF CUPIDE UPON THE FORT IN WHICH THE LOVER'S HEART LAY WOUNDED
Fol. 71.
. These two are the only pieces in our collection, of which there is undoubted evidence, although no name is prefixed to either, that they were written by lord Vaux. From palpable coincidencies of style, subject, and other circumstances, a slender share of critical sagacity is sufficient to point out many others.
These three writers were cotemporaries with Surrey and Wyat: but the subjects of some of the pieces will go far in ascertaining the date of the collection in general. There is one on the death of sir Thomas Wyat the elder, who died, as I have remarked, in 1541
Fol. 89.
. Another on the death of lord chancellor Audley, who died in 1544
Fol. 69.
. Another on the death of
master
Devereux, a son of lord Ferrers, who is said to have been a
Cato for his counsel
Fol. 51.
; and who is probably Richard Devereux, buried in Berkyng church
Stowe, SURV. LOND. p. 131. fol. ed.
, the son of Walter lord Ferrers, a distinguished statesman and general under Henry the eighth
Who died in 1558. See Dugd. BAR. ii. 177.
. Another on the death of a lady Wentworth
Fol. 73. Margaret. See Dugd. BAR. ii. 310.
. Another on the death of
r Antony Denny, the only person of the court who dared to inform king Henry the eighth of his approaching dissolution, and who died in 1551
Fol. 78. There is sir John Cheek's EPITAPHIUM
in Anton. Denneium.
Lond. 1551. 4to.
. Another on the death of Phillips, an eminent musician, and without his rival on the lute
Fol. 71. One Philips is mentioned among the famous English musicians, in Meres's
Wits Tresurie,
1598. fol. 288. I cannot ascertain who this Phillips, a musician, was. But one Robert Phillips, or Phelipp, occurs among the gentlemen of the royal chapel under Edward the sixth and queen Mary. He was also one of the singingmen of saint George's chapel at Windsor:
nd Fox says,
"he was so
notable
a singing-man, wherein he
gloried,
that wheresoever he came, the longest song with most
counterverses
in it should be set up against him."
Fox adds, that while he was singing on one side of the choir of Windsor chapel,
O Redemptrix et Salvatrix,
he was answered by one Testwood a singer on the other side,
Non Redemptrix nec Salvatrix.
For this irreverence, and a few other slight heresies, Testwood was burnt at Windsor. ACTS and MONUM. vol. ii. p. 543, 544. I must add, that sir Thomas Phelyppis, or Philips, is mentioned as a musician before the reformation. Hawki
s, HIST. MUS. ii. 533.
. Another on the death of a countess of Pembroke, who is celebrated for her learning,
and her perfect virtues linked in a chaine
Fol. 85.
: probably Anne, who was buried magnificently at saint Pauls, in 1551, the first lady of sir William Herbert the first earl of Pembroke, and sister to Catharine Parr, the sixth queen of Henry the eighth
Strype, MEM. ii. p. 317.
. Another on
master
Henry Williams, son of sir John Williams, afterwards lord Thame, and a great favorite of Henry the eighth
Fol. 99. See LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, p. 232.
. On the death of sir James Wilford, an officer in Henry's wars, we have here an elegy
Fol. 36.
, with some verses on his picture
Fol. 62.
. Here is also a poem on a treasonable conspiracy, which is compared to the stratagem of Sinon, and which threatened immediate extermination to the British constitution, but was speedily discovered
Fol. 94. 95.
. I have not the courage to explore the formidable columns of the circumstantial Hollingshed for this occult piece of history, which I leave to the curiosity and conjectures of some more laborious investigator. It is certain that none of these pieces are later than the year 1557, as they were published in that year by Richard Tottell the printer. We may venture to say, that almost all of them were written between the years 1530 and 1550
There is an epitaph by W. G. made on himself, with an answer,
ol. 98, 99. I cannot explain those initials. At fol. 111. a lady, called Arundel, is highly celebrated for her incomparable beauty and accomplishments: perhaps of lord Arundel's family.
Thus A
UND
L sits throned still with Fam
, &c.
. Most of them perhaps within the first part of that period.
The following nameless stanzas have that elegance which results from simplicity. The compliments are such as would not disgrace the gallantry or the poetry of a polished age. The thoughts support themselves, without the aid of expression, and the affectations of language. This is a negligence, but it is a negligence produced by art. Here is an effect obtained, which it would be vain to seek from the studied ornaments of style.
Give place, ye ladies, and be gone,
Boast not yourselves at all:
For here at hand approcheth one
Whose face will staine you all.
The vertue of her lively lokes
Excels the precious stone:
I wish to have none other bokes
To reade or loke upon.
In eche of her two cris
all eyes
Smileth a naked boye:
It would you all in hart suffice
To se that lampe of joye.
I thinke Nature hath lost the moulde
See this thought in Surrey, supr.
itat. p. 16.
Where she her shape did take;
Or els I doubt if Nature coulde
So faire a creature make.—
In life she is Diana chaste,
In truth Penelopey;
In worde and eke in dede stedfast.
What would you more we sey?
If all the worlde were sought so farre,
Who could finde such a wight?
Her beuty twinkleth like a starre
Within the frosty night.
Her rosial colour comes and goes
With such a comly grace,
(More ruddy too than is the rose)
Within her lively face.
At Bacchus feaste none shall her mete,
Ne at no wanton play,
Nor gasing in an open strete,
Nor gadding as astray.
The modest mirth that she doth use
Is mixt with shamefa
tnesse;
Al vice she doth wholy refuse,
And hateth ydlenesse.
O lord, it is a world to see
How vertue can repaire
And decke in her such honestie,
Whom nature made so faire!—
Howe might I do to get a graffe
Of this unspotted tree?
For all the rest are plaine but chaffe
Which seme good corn to be
Fol. 67.
.—
Of the same sort is the following stanza on Beauty.
Then BEAUTY stept before the barre,
Whose breast and neck was bare;
With haire trust up, and on her head
A caule of golde she ware
Fol. 84.
.
We are to recollect, that these compliments were penned at a time, when the graces of conversation between the sexes were unknown, and the dialogue of courtship was indelicate; when the monarch of England, in a style, which the meanest gentleman would now be ashamed to use, pleaded the warmth of his affection, by drawing a coarse allusion from a present of venison, which he calls flesh, in a love-letter to his future queen, Anne Boleyn, a lady of distinguished breeding, beauty, and modesty
See Hearne's AVESBURY, APPEND. p. 354.
.
In lord Vaux's ASSAULT OF CUPIDE, abovementioned, these are the most remarkable stanzas.
When Cupide scaled first the fort,
Wherin my hart lay wounded sore;
The batry was of such a sort,
That I must yelde, or die therfore.
There sawe I Love upon the wall
How he his baner did display;
Alarme, Alarme, he gan to call,
And bade his souldiours kepe away.
The armes the which that Cupid bare,
Were pearced hartes, with teares besprent.—
And even with the trumpettes sowne
The scaling ladders were up set;
And BEAUTY walked up and downe,
With bow in hand, and arrowes whet.
Then first DESIRE began to scale,
And shrouded him under his targe, &c
Fol. 71, 72.
.
Puttenham speaks more highly of the contrivance of the allegory of this piece, than I can allow.
"In this figure [counterfait action] the lord Nicholas
For Thomas.
Vaux, a noble gentleman, and much delighted in vulgar making
English poetry.
, and a man otherwi
e of no great learning, but having herein a marvelous facilitie, made a dittie representing the Battayle and Assault of Cupid so excellently well, as for the gallant and propre aplication of his fiction in every part, I cannot choose but set downe the greatest part of his ditty, for in truth it cannot be amended:
When Cupid scaled,
&c
Pag. 200.
."
And in another part of the
ame book.
"The lord Vaux his commendation lyeth chiefly in the facilitie of his meetre, and the aptnesse of his descriptions, suche as he taketh upon him to make, namely in sundry of his songes, wherein he sheweth the COUNTERFAIT ACTION very lively and pleasantly
Pag. 51.
."
By
counterfait action
the critic means fictitious action, the action of imaginary beings expressive of fact and reality. There is more poetry in some of the old pageants described by Hollingshed, than in this allegory of Cupid. Vaux seems to have had his eye on Sir David Lyndsey's GOLDEN TERGE
See supr. Vol. ii. p. 270.
.
In the following little ode, much pretty description and imagination is built on the circumstance of a lady being named Bayes. So much good poetry could hardly be expected from a pun.
In Bayes I boast, whose braunch I beare:
Such joye therein I finde,
That to the death I shall it weare,
To ease my carefull minde.
In heat, in cold, both night and day,
Her vertue may be sene;
When other frutes and flowers decay,
The Bay yet growes full greene.
Her berries feede the birdes ful oft,
Her leaves swete water make;
Her bowes be set in every loft,
For their swete savour's sake.
The birdes do shrowd them from the cold
In her we dayly see:
And men make arbers as they wold,
Under the pleasant tree
Fol. 109.
.—
From the same collection, the following is perhaps the first example in our language now remaining, of the pure and unmixed pastoral: and in the erotic species, for ease of numbers, elegance of rural allusion, and simplicity of imagery, excels every thing of the kind in Spenser, who is erroneously ranked as our earliest English bucolic. I therefore hope to be pardoned for the length of the quotation.
Phyllida was a faire mayde,
As fresh as any flour;
Whom Harpalus the herdman prayde
To be her paramour.
Harpalus and eke Corin
Were herdmen both yfere
Together.
:
And Phyllida could twist and spin,
And thereto sing full clere.
But Phyllida was all to coy
For Harpalus to winne;
For Corin was her only joy
Who forst her not a pinne
Loved her not in the least.
.
How often would she flowers twine?
How often garlandes make
Of couslips and of columbine?
And al for Corin's sake.
But Corin he had hawkes to lure,
And forced more the fielde
More engaged in field-sports.
;
Of lovers lawe he toke no cure,
For once he was begilde
Deceived. Had once been in love.
.
Harpalus prevailed nought,
His labour all was lost;
For he was fardest from her thought,
And yet he loved her most.
Therefore waxt he both pale and leane,
And drye as clot
Clod.
of clay;
His fleshe it was consumed cleane,
His colour gone away.
His beard it had not long be shave,
His heare hong all unkempt
Uncombed.
;
A man fit even for the grave,
Whom spitefull love had spent.
His eyes were red, and all forewatched
Over-watched. That is, her eyes w
r
always awake, never closed by sleep.
,
His face besprent with teares;
It semde Vnhap had him long hatched
In mids of his dispaires.
His clothes were blacke and also bare,
As one forlorne was he:
Upon his head alwayes he ware
A wreath of wyllow tree.
His beastes he kept upon the hyll
And he sate in the dale;
And thus with sighes and sorowes shryll
He gan to tell his tale.
"O Harpalus, thus would he say,
"Unhappiest under sunne!
"The cause of thine unhappy day
"By love was first begunne!
"For thou wentst first by sute to seke
"A tigre to make tame,
"That settes not by thy love a leeke,
"But makes thy grief her game.
"As easy it were to convert
"The frost into the flame,
"As for to turne a froward hert
"Whom thou so faine wouldst frame.
"Corin he liveth carèlesse,
"He leapes among the leaves;
"He eates the frutes of thy redresse
Labour. Pains.
,
"Thou reapes, he takes the sheaves.
"My beastes, awhile your foode refraine,
"And hark your herdsmans sounde;
"Whom spitefull love, alas, hath slaine
"Through-girt
Pierce through. So fol. 113. infr.
His entrails with a lance
through-gird
d
quite.
with many a wounde!
"O happy be ye, beastes wilde,
"That here your pasture takes!
"I se that ye be not begilde
"Of these your faithfull makes
Mates.
.
"The hart he fedeth by the hinde,
"The buck hard by the do:
"The turtle dove is not unkinde
"To him that loves her so.—
"But, welaway, that nature wrought,
"Thee, Phyllida, so faire;
"For I may say, that I have bought
"Thy beauty all too deare! &c
ol. 55.
."
The illustrations in the two following stanzas, of the restlessness of a lover's mind, deserve to be cited for their simple beauty, and native force of expression.
The owle with feble sight
Lyes lurking in the leaves;
The sparrow in the frosty night,
May shroud her in the eaves.
But wo to me, alace!
In sunne, nor yet in shade,
I cannot finde a resting place
My burden to unlade
Fol. 71.
.
Nor can I omit to notice the sentimental and expressive metaphor contained in a single line.
Walking the path of pensive thought
Fol. 87.
.
Perhaps there is more pathos and feeling in the Ode, in which
The Lover in despaire lamenteth his Case,
than in any other piece of the whole collection.
Adieu desert, how art thou spent!
Ah dropping tears, how do ye waste!
Ah scalding sighes, how ye be spent,
To pricke Them forth that will not haste!
Ah! pained hart, thou gapst for grace
Favour.
,
Even there, where pitie hath no place.
As easy tis the stony rocke
From place to place for to remove,
As by thy plaint for to provoke
A frosen hart from hate to love.
What should I say? Such is thy lot
To fawne on them that force
Love.
thee not!
Thus mayst thou safely say and sweare,
That rigour raignes where ruth
Pity.
doth faile,
In thanklesse thoughts thy thoughts do weare:
Thy truth, thy faith, may nought availe
For thy good will: why shouldst thou so
Still graft, where grace it will not grow?
Alas! poore hart, thus hast thou spent
Thy flowring time, thy pleasant yeres?
With sighing voice wepe and lament,
For of thy hope no frute apperes!
Thy true meaning is paide with scorne,
That ever soweth and repeth no corne.
And where thou sekes a quiet port,
Thou dost but weigh against the winde:
For where thou gladdest woldst resort,
There is no place for thee assinde
Assigned.
.
Thy destiny hath set it so,
That thy true hart should cause thy wo
Fol. 109.
.
These reflections, resulting from a retrospect of the vigorous and active part of life, destined for nobler pursuits, and unworthily wasted in the tedious and fruitless anxieties of unsuccessful love, are highly natural, and are painted from the heart: but their force is weakened by the poet's allusions.
T
is miscellany affords the first pointed English epigram that I remember; and which deserves to be admitted into the modern collections of that popular species of poetry. Sir Thomas More was one of the best jokers of that age: and there is some probability, that this might have fallen from his pen. It is on a scholar, who was pursuing his studies successfully, but in the midst of his literary career, married unfortunately.
A student, at his boke so plast
So pursuing his studies.
Plast,
so spelled for the rhyme, is
placed.
,
That welth he might have wonne,
From boke to wife did flete in hast,
From welth to wo to run.
Now, who hath plaid a feater cast,
Since jugling first begonne?
In
knitting
of himself so
fast,
Himself he hath
undonne
Fol. 64.
.
But the humour does not arise from the circumstances of the character. It is a general joke on an unhappy match.
These two lines are said to have been written by Mary queen of Scots with a diamond on a window in Fotheringay castle, during her imprisonment there, and to have been of her composition.
From the toppe of all my trust
Mishap hath throwen me in the dust
See Ballard's LEARN. LAD. p. 161.
.
But they belong to an elegant little ode of ten stanzas in the collection before us, in which a lover complains that he is caught by the snare which he once defied
Fol. 53.
. The unfortunate queen only quoted a distich applicable to her situation, which she remembered in a fashionable sett of poems, perhaps the amusement of her youth.
The ode, which is the comparison of the author's
faithful and painful
passion with that of Troilus
Fol. 81.
, is founded on Chaucer's poem, or Boccace's, on the same subject. This was the most favorite love-story of our old poetry, and from its popularity was wrought into a drama by Shakespeare. Troilus's sufferings for Cressida were a common topic for a lover's fidelity and assiduity. Shakespeare, in his MERCHANT OF VENICE, compares a night favorable to the stratagems or the meditation of a lover, to such a night as Troilus might have chosen, for stealing a view of the Grecian camp from the ramparts of Troy.
And sigh'd his soul towards the Grecian tents
Where Cressid lay that night
Act V. Sc. i.
.—
Among these poems is a short fragment of a translation into Alexandrines of Ovid's epistle from Penelope to Ulysses
Fol. 89.
. This is the first attempt at a metrical translation of any part of Ovid into English, for Caxton's Ovid is a loose paraphrase in prose. Nor were the heroic epistles of Ovid translated into verse till the year 1582, by George Tuberville. It is a proof that the classics were studied, when they began to be translated.
It would be tedious and intricate to trace the particular imitations of the Italian poets, with which these anonymous poems abound. Two of the sonnets
Fol. 74.
are panegyrics on Petrarch and Laura, names at that time familiar to every polite reader, and the patterns of poetry and beauty. The sonnet on
The diverse and contrarie passions of the lover
Fol. 107.
, is formed on one of Petrarch's sonnets, and which, as I have remarked before, was translated by sir Thomas Wyat
Supr. p. 31.
. So many of the nobility, and principal persons about the court, writing sonnets in the Italian style, is a circumstance which must have greatly contributed to circulate this mode of composition, and to encourage the study of the Italian poets. Beside lord Surrey, sir Thomas Wyat, lord Boleyn, lord Vaux, and sir Francis Bryan, already mentioned, Ed
und lord Sheffield, created a baron by king Edward the sixth, and killed by a butcher in the Norfolk insurrection, is said by Bale to have written sonnets in the Italian manner
See Tanner BIBL. p. 668. Dugd. BAR. iii. 386.
.
I have been informed, that Henry lord Berners translated some of Petrarch's sonnets
MSS. Oldys.
. But this nobleman otherwise deserved notice here, for his prose works, which co-operated with the romantic genius and the gallantry of the age. He translated, and by the king's command, Froissart's chronicle, which was printed by Pinson in 1523. Some of his other translations are professed romances. He translated from the Spanish, by desire of the lady of sir Nicholas Carew, THE CASTLE OF LOVE. From the French he translated, at the request of the earl of Huntingdon, SIR HUGH OF BOURDEAUX, which became exceedingly popular. And from the same language, THE HISTORY OF ARTHUR an Armorican knight. Bale says
Cent. ix. p. 706.
, that he wrote a comedy called
Ite in vineam,
or the PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD, which was frequently acted at Calais, where lord Berners resided, after vespers
ATH. OXON. i. 33. It is not known, whether it was in Latin or English. Stowe says, that in 1528, at Greenwich, after a grand tournament and banquet, there was the
"most goodliest Disguising or Interlude in Latine, &c."
CHRON. p. 539. edit. fol. 1615. But possibly this may be Stowe's way of naming and describing a comedy of Plautus. See supr. vol. ii. 363.
. He died in 1532.
I have also been told, that the late lord Eglintoun had a genuine book of manuscript sonnets, written by king Henry the eighth. There is an old madrigal, set to music by William Bird, supposed to be written by Henry, when he first fell in love with Anne Boleyn
I must not forget, that a song is ascribed to Anne Boleyn, but with little probability, called her COMPLAINT. See Hawkins, HIST. MUS. iii. 32. v. 480.
. It begins,
The eagles force subdues eche byrde that flyes,
What metal can resyste the flamyng fyre?
Doth not the sunne dazle the cleareste eyes,
And melt the yce, and makethe froste retyre?
It appears in Bird's PSALMES, SONGS, AND SONNETS, printed with musical notes, in 1611
See also NUGAE ANTIQUAE, ii. 248.
. Poetry and music are congenial; and it is certain, that Henry was skilled in musical composition. Erasmus attests, that he composed some church services
See Hawkins, HIST. MUS. ii. 533.
: and one of his anthems still continues to be performed in the choir of Christ-church at Oxford, of his foundation. It is in an admirable style, and is for four voices. Henry, although a scholar, had little taste for the classical elegancies which now began to be known in England. His education seems to have been altogether theological: and, whether it best suited his taste or his interest, polemical divinity seems to have been his favorite science. He was a patron of learned men, when they humoured his vanities; and were wise enough, not to interrupt his pleasures, his convenience, or his ambition.
SECT. XXII.
TO these SONGES and SONNETTES of UNCERTAIN AUCTOURS, in Tottell's edition are annexed SONGES WRITTEN BY N. G.
They begin with fol. 113.
By the initials N. G. we are to understand Nicholas Grimoald, a name which never appeared yet in the poetical biography of England. But I have before mentioned him incidentally
See vol. ii. 342.
. He was a native of Huntingdonshire, and received the first part of his academical institution at Christ's college in Cambridge. Removing to Oxford in the year 1542, he was elected fellow of Merton College: but, about 1547, having opened a rhetorical lecture in the refectory of Christ-church, then newly founded, he was transplanted to that society, which gave the greatest encouragement to such students as were distinguished for their proficiency in criticism and philology. The same year, he wrote a Latin tragedy, which probably was acted in the college, entitled, ARCHIPROPHETA,
ive
JOHANNES BAPTISTA, TRAGAEDIA, That is,
The Arch-prophet,
or
Saint John Baptist,
a tragedy, and dedicated to the dean Richard Cox
Printed, Colon. 1548. 8vo. [See supr. vol. ii. 379.]
. In the year 1548
ii Edw. vi.
, he explained all the four books of Virgil's Georgics in a regular prose Latin paraphrase, in the public hall of his college
Printed at London in 1591. 8vo.
. He wrote also explanatory commentaries or lectures on the Andria of Terence, the Epistles of Horace, and many pieces of Cicero, perhaps for the same auditory. He translated Tully's Offices into English. This translation, which is dedicated to the learned Thirlby bishop of Ely, was printed at London, 1553
In octavo. Again, 1574.—1596.
. He also familiarised some of the purest Greek classics by English versions, which I believe were never printed. Among others was the CYROPAEDIA. Bale the biographer and bishop of Ossory, says, that he turned Chaucer's TROILUS into a play: but whether this piece was in Latin or English, we are still to seek: and the word
Comedia,
which Bale uses on this occasion, is without precision or distinction. The same may be said of what Bale calls his FAME,
a comedy.
Bale also recites his System of Rhetoric for the use of Englishmen
Rhetorica in usum Britannorum.
, which seems to be the course of the rhetorical lectures I have mentioned. It is to be wished, that Bale, who appears to have been his friend
Bale cites his comment, or paraphrase on th
first Eclogue of Virgil, addressed
ad Amicum Joannem Bal
um,
viii. 99.
, and therefore possessed the opportunities of information, had given us a more exact and full detail, at least of such of Grimoald's works as are now lost, or, if remaining, are unprinted
Titles of many others of his pieces may be seen in Bale, ubi supr.
. Undoubtedly this is the same person, called by Strype
one Grimbold,
who was chaplain to bishop Ridley, and who was employed by that prelate, while in prison, to translate into English, Laurentio Valla's book against the fiction of Constantine's DONATION, with some other popular Latin pieces against the papists
See Strype's CRANMER, B. iii. c. 11. p. 343. And GRINDAL, 8. Fox, edit. i. 1047. And Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 178.
. In the ecclesiastical history of Mary's reign, he appears to have been imprisoned for heresy, and to have saved his life, if not his credit, by a recantation. But theology does not seem to have been his talent, nor the glories of martyrdom to have made any part of his ambition. One of his plans, but which never took effect, was to print a new edition of Josephus Iscanus's poem on the TROJAN WAR, with emendations from the most correct manuscripts
Bale, ubi supr.
.
I have taken more pains to introduce this Nicholas Grimoald to the reader's acquaintance, because he is the second English poet after lord Surrey, who wrote in blank-verse. Nor is it his only praise, that he was the first who followed in this new path of versification. To the style of blank-verse exhibited by Surrey, he added new strength, elegance, and modulation. In the disposition and conduct of his cadencies, he often approaches to the legitimate structure of the improved blank-verse: but we cannot suppose, that he is entirely free from those dissonancies and asp
rities, which still adhered to the general character and state of our diction.
In his poem on the DEATH OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO are these lines. The assassins of Cicero are said to relent,
—When
They his bare neck behelde, and his hore heares,
Scant could they hold the teares that forth gan burst,
And almost fell from bloody handes the swoordes.
Onely the sterne Herennius, with grym looke,
Dastardes, why stande ye still? he saith: and straight
Swapt off the head with his presumptuous yrone.
Ne with the slaughter yet is he not filled:
Fowle shame on shame to hepe, is his delite.
Wherefore the handes also he doth off-smyte,
Which durst Antonius' life so lively paint.
Him, yelding strained ghoste
His constrained spirit.
, from welkin hie
With lothly chere lord Phebus gan beholde;
And in black clowde, they say, long hid his hed.
The Latine Muses, and the Grayes
Grai
.
Greek.
, they wept,
And for his fall eternally shall wepe.
And lo! hart-persing PITHO
P
itho, th
goddess of persuasion.
, strange to tell,
Who had suffisde to him both sence and wordes,
When so he spake, and drest with nectar soote
That flowyng toung, when his windpipe disclosde,
Fled with her fleeing friend
Fol. 117.
; and, out, alas!
Hath left the earth, ne will no more returne.
Nor is this passage unsupported by a warmth of imagination, and the spirit of pathetic poetry. The general cast of the whole poem shews, that our author was not ill qualified for dramatic composition.
Another of Grimoald's blank-verse poems, is on the death of Zoroas an Egyptian astronomer, who was killed in Alexander's first battle with the Persians. It is opened with this nervous and animated exordium.
Now clattering armes, now ragyng broyls of warre,
Gan passe the noyes of dredfull trompets clang
The reader must recollect Shakespeare'
,
Loud larums, neighing steeds, and TRUMPETS CLANG.
;
Shrowded with shafts the heaven, with clowd of darts
Covered the ayre. Against full-fatted bulls
As forceth kindled yre the lyons keene,
Whose greedy gutts the gnawing honger pricks,
So Macedonians 'gainst the Persians fare
Fol. 115.
.
In the midst of the tumult and hurry of the battle, appears the sage philosopher Zoroas: a classical and elegant description of whose skill in natural science, forms a pleasing contrast amidst images of death and destruction; and is inserted with great propriety, as it is necessary to introduce the history of his catastrophe.
Shakyng her bloody hands Bellone, among
The Perses, sowth all kynde of cruel deth.—
Him smites the club; him wounds far-strikyng bow;
And him the slyng, and him the shining swoord.—
Right over stood, in snow-white armour brave
Brav
,
is richly decked.
,
The Memphite Zoroas, a cunning clarke,
To whom the heaven lay open as his boke:
And in celestiall bodies he could tell
The moving, meting, light, aspect, eclips,
And influence, and constellacions all.
What earthly chances would betide: what yere
Of plenty
With plenty.
stord: what signe forwarned derth:
How winter gendreth snow: what temperature
In the prime tide
Spring.
Printemps.
doth season well the soyl.
Why sommer burnes: why autumne hath ripe grapes:
Whether the circle quadrate may become:
Whether our tunes heavens harmony can yeld
Whether any music made by man
n resemble that of the Spheres.
:—
What star doth let
Hinder.
the hurtfull sire
Saturn.
to rage,
Or him more milde what opposition makes:
What fire doth qualify Mavorses
Of Mavors, or the planet M
rs.
fire, &c
Fol. 115.
.
Our astronomer, finding by the stars that he is destined to die speedily, chuses to be killed by the hand of Alexander, whom he endeavours to irritate to an attack, first by throwing darts, and then by reproachful speeches.
—Shameful stain
Of mothers bed! Why lo
est thou thy strokes
Cowards among? Turne thee to me, in case
Manhode there be so much left in thy hart:
Come, fight with me, that on my helmet weare
Apolloes laurel, both for learnings laude,
And eke for martial praise: that in my shielde
The sevenfold sophie of Minerve contain.
A match more mete, sir king, than any here.
Alexander is for a while unwilling to revenge this insult on a man eminent for wisdom.
The noble prince amoved takes ruthe upon
The wilful wight; and with soft wordes, ayen:
O monstrous man, quoth he, What so thou art!
I pray thee live, ne do not with thy death
This lodge of lore
His head.
, the Muses mansion mar,
That treasure-house this hand shall never spoyl.
My sword shall never bruse that skilfull braine,
Long-gathered heapes of Science sone to spill.
O how faire frutes may you to mortal man
From WISDOM'S garden give! How many may,
By you, the wiser and the better prove!
What error, what mad moode, what frensy, thee
Perswades, to be downe sent to depe Averne,
Where no arts florish, nor no knowledge 'vails
For all these sawes
Lessons of wisdom.
? When thus the soveraign sayd,
Alighted Zoroas, &c
Fol. 115. 116.
.—
I have a suspicion, that these two pieces in blank-verse, if not fragments of larger works, were finished in their present state, as prolusions, or illustrative practical specimens, for our author's course of lectures in rhetoric. In that case, they were written so early as the year 1547. There is positive proof, that they appeared not later than 1557, when they were first printed by Tottell.
I have already mentioned lord Surrey's Virgil: and for the sake of juxtaposition, will here produce a third specimen of early blank-verse, little known. In the year 1590, William Vallans published a blank-verse poem, entitled, A TALE OF TWO SWANNES, which, under a poetic fiction, describes the situation and antiquities of several towns in Hertfordshire. The author, a native or inhabitant of Hertfordshire, seems to have been connected with Camden and other ingenious antiquaries of his age. I cite the exordium.
When Nature, nurse of every living thing,
Had clad her charge in brave and new array;
The hils rejoist to see themselves so fine:
The fields and woods grew proud thereof also:
The meadowes with their partie-colour'd coates,
Like to the rainebow in the azurd skie,
Gave just occasion to the cheerfull birdes
With sweetest note to singe their nurse's praise.
Among the which, the merrie nightingale
With swete and swete, her breast against a thorne,
Ringes out all night, &c
London, Printed by Roger Ward for Robert Sheldrake, MDXC. 4to. 3. Sheets. He mentions most of the Seats in Hertfordshire then existing, belonging to the queen and the nobility. See Hearne's LEL. ITIN. V. Pr. p iv. seq. ed. 2.
.
Vallans is probably the author of a piece much better known, a history, by many held to be a romance, but which proves the writer a diligent searcher into antient records, entitled,
"The HONOURABLE PRENTICE, Shewed in the Life and Death of Sir JOHN HAWKEWOOD sometime Prentice of London, interlaced with the famous History of the noble FITZWALTER Lord of Woodham in Essex
The founder of Dunmowe Priory, afterwards mentioned, in the reign of Henry the third.
, and ofthe poisoning of his faire daughter. Also of the merry Customes of DUNMOWE, &c. Whereunto is annexed the most lamentable murther of Robert Hall at the High Altar in Westminster Abbey
There are two old
ditions, at London, in 1615, and 1616, both for Henry Gosson, in 5 sh. 4to. They have only the author's initials W. V. See Hearne, ut modo supr. iii. p. v. ii. p. xvi.
."
The reader will observe, that what has been here said about early specimens of blank-verse, is to be restrained to poems not written for the stage. Long before Vallans's TWO SWANNES, many theatrical pieces in blank-verse had appeared; the first of which is, The TRAGEDY OF GORDOBUCKE, written in 1561. The second is George Gascoigne's JOCASTA, a tragedy, acted at Grays-inn, in 1566. George Peele had also published his tragedy in blank-verse of DAVID and BETHSABE, about the year 1579
Shakespeare did not begin writing for the stage till 1591. Jonson, about 1598.
. HIERONYMO, a tragedy also without rhyme, was acted before 1590. But this point, which is here only transiently mentioned, will be more fully considered hereafter, in its proper place. We will now return to our author Grimoald.
Grimoald, as a writer of verses in rhyme, yields to none of his cotemporaries, for a masterly choice of chaste expression, and the concise elegancies of didactic versification. Some of the couplets, in his poem IN PRAISE OF MODERATION, have all the smartness which marks the modern style of sententious poetry, and would have done honour to Pope's ethic epistles.
The auncient Time commended not for nought
The Mean. What better thing can there be sought?
In meane is virtue placed: on either side,
Both right and left, amisse a man may slide.
Icar, with sire
Icarus, with thy father.
hadst thou the midway flown,
Icarian beak
Strait. Sea.
by name no man known.
If middle path kept had proud Phaeton,
No burning brande this earth had falne upon.
Ne cruel power, ne none too soft can raign:
That kepes
That which.
a meane, the same shal stil remain.
Thee, Julie
Julius Cesar.
, once did too much mercy spill:
Thee, Nero sterne, rigor extreme did kill.
How could August
Augustus Cesar.
so many yeres wel passe?
Nor overmeke, nor overfierce, he was.
Worship not Jove with curious fancies vain,
Nor him despise: hold right atween these twain.
No wastefull wight, no greedy groom is praizd:
Stands Largesse just in equal ballance paizd
Poised.
.
So Catoes meat surmountes Antonius chere,
And better fame his sober fare hath here.
Too slender building bad, as bad too grosse
Thick. Massy.
;
One an eye sore, the other falls to losse.
As medcines help in measure, so, god wot,
By overmuch the sick their bane have got.
Unmete, mesemes, to utter this mo waies;
Measure forbids unmeasurable praise
Fol. 113.
.
The maxim is enforced with great quickness and variety of illustration: nor is the collision of opposite thoughts, which the subject so naturally affords, extravagantly pursued, or indulged beyond the bounds of good sense and propriety. The following stanzas on the NINE MUSES are more poetical, and not less correct
Fol. 113.
.
Imps
Daughters.
of king JOVE and queen REMEMBRANCE, lo,
The sisters nyne, the poets pleasant feres
Companions.
,
Calliope doth stately stile below,
And worthy praises paintes of princely peres.
Clion in solem songes reneweth all day,
With present yeres conjoining age bypast.
Delighteful talke loues comicall Thaley;
In fresh grene youth who doth like lawrell last.
With voyces tragicall soundes Melpomen,
And, as with cheins, thallured eare she bindes.
Her stringes when Terpsechor doth touche, euen then
She toucheth hartes, and raigneth in mens mindes.
Fine Erato, whose looke a liuely chere
Presents, in dauncing keepes a comely grace.
With semely gesture doth Polymnie stere,
Whose wordes whole routes of rankes do rule in place.
Uranie, her globes to view all bent,
The ninefold heauen obserues with fixed face.
The blastes Euterpe tunes of instrument,
With solace sweete, hence heauie dumps to chase.
Lord Phebus in the mids, (whose heauenly sprite
These ladies doth inspire) embraceth all.
The Graces in the Muses weed, delite
To lead them forth, that men in maze they fall.
It would be unpardonable to dismiss this valuable miscellany, without acknowledging our obligations to its original editor Richard Tottell: who deserves highly of English literature, for having collected at a critical period, and preserved in a printed volume, so many admirable specimens of antient genius, which would have mouldered in manuscript, or perhaps from their detached and fugitive state of existence, their want of length, the capriciousness of taste, the general depredations of time, inattention, and other accidents, would never have reached the present age. It seems to have given birth to two favorite and celebrated collections of the same kind, THE PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVISES, and ENGLAND'S HELICON, which appeared in the reign of queen Elisabeth • .
u The reader will observe, that I have followed the paging and arrangement of Tottell's second edition in 1565. 12mo. In his edition of 1557, there is much confusion. A poem is there given to Grimoald, on the death of lady Margaret Lee, in 1555. Also among Grimoald's is a poem on Sir James Wilford, mentioned above, who appears to have
ought under Henry the eighth in the the wars ef France and Scotland. This edition, of 1557, is not in quarto, as I have called it by an oversight, but in small duodecimo, and only with signatures. It is not mentioned by Ames, and I have seen it only among Tanner's printed books at Oxford. It has this colophon.
"Imprinted at London in Flete strete within Temple barre, at the sygne of the hand and starre by Richard Tottel, the sifte day of June. An. 1557.
Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum.
"
.
SECT. XXIII.
IT will not be supposed, that all the poets of the reign of Henry the eighth were educated in the school of Petrarch. The graces of the Italian muse, which had been taught by Surrey and Wyat, were confined to a few. Nor were the beauties of the classics yet become general objects of imitation. There are many writers of this period who still rhymed on, in the old prosaic track of their immediate predecessors, and never ventured to deviate into the modern improvements. The strain of romantic fiction was lost; in the place of which, they did not substitute the elegancies newly introduced.
I shall consider together, yet without an exact observation of chronological order, the poets of the reign of Henry the eighth who form this subordinate class, and who do not bear any mark of the character of the poetry which distinguishes this period. Yet some of these have their degree of merit; and, if they had not necessarily claimed a place in our series, deserve examination.
Andrew Borde, who writes himself ANDREAS PERFORATUS, with about as much propriety and as little pedantry as Buchanan calls one Wisehart SOPHOCARDIUS, was educated at Winchester and Oxford
See his INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE, ut infr. cap. xxxv.
; and is said, I believe on very slender proof, to have been physician to king Henry the eighth. His BREVIARY OF HEALTH, first printed in 1547
"Compyled by Andrewe Boorde of Physicke Doctoure an Englysshe man."
It was reprinted by William Powell in 1552, and again in 1557. There was an impression by T. East, 1587,
4to. Others also in 1548, and 1575, which I have never seen. The latest is by East in 1598, 4to.
, is dedicated to the college of physicians, into which he had been incorporated. The first book of this treatise is said to have been examined and approved by the University of Oxford in 1546
At the end of which is this Note.
"Here
ndeth the first bok
Examined in Oxforde in the yere of our Lord
MCCCCCXLVI, &c."
. He chiefly practiced in Hampshire; and being popishly affected, was censured by Poynet, a Calvinistic bishop of Winchester, for keeping three prostitutes in his house, which he proved to be his patients
See
Against Mart
n,
&c. p. 48.
. He appears to have been a man of great superstition, and of a weak and whimsical head: and having been once a Carthusian, continued ever afterwards to profess celibacy, to drink water, and to wear a shirt of hair. His thirst of knowledge, dislike of the reformation, or rather his unsettled disposition, led him abroad into various parts of Europe, which he visited in the medical character. Wood says, that he was
"esteemed a noted poet, a witty and ingenious person, and an excellent physician."
Hearne, who has plainly discovered the origin of Tom Thumb, is of opinion, that this facetious practitioner in physic gave rise to the name of MERRY ANDREW, the Fool on the mountebank's stage. The reader will not perhaps be displeased to see that antiquary's reasons for this conjecture: which are at the same time a vindication of Borde's character, afford some new anecdotes of his life, and shew that a Merry Andrew may be a scholar and an ingenious man.
"It is observable, that the author [Borde] was as fond of the word DOLENTYD, as of many other hard and uncooth words, as
any Quack can be.
He begins his BREVIARY OF HEALTH,
Egregious doctours and Maysters of the eximious and archane science of Physicke, of your urbanite exasperate not your selve,
&c. But notwithstanding this, will any one from hence infer or assert, that the author was either a
pedant
or a
superficial
scholar? I think,
upon due consideration,
he will judge the contrary. Dr. Borde was an
ingenious
man, and knew how to humour and please his patients, readers, and auditors. In his travells and visits, he often appeared and spoke in public: and would often frequent markets and fairs where a conflux of people used to get together, to whom he prescribed; and to induce them to flock thither the more readily, he would make
humorous
speeches, couched in such language as
caused mirth,
and
wonderfully
propagated his fame: and 'twas for the same end that he made use of such expressions in his Books, as would otherwise (the
circumstances
not considered) be very justly pronounced
bombast.
As he was
versed in antiquity,
he had words at command from old writers with which to amuse his hearers, which could not fail of
pleasing,
provided he added at the same time some
remarkable explication.
For instance, if he told them that
was an old brass medal among the Greeks, the
oddness
of the word, would,
without doubt,
gain
attention;
tho nothing
near so much,
as if
withall
he
signified,
that 'twas a brass medal a
little bigger
than an Obolus, that used to be put in the mouths of persons that were dead.—And withall, 'twould
affect them the more,
if when he spoke of such a brass medal, he signified to them, that brass was in old time looked upon as
more honourable than other metals,
which he might
safely enough do,
from
Homer
and his
scholiast.
Homer's words are &c. A passage, which
without doubt
HIERONYMUS MAGIUS would have taken notice of in the fourteenth chapter of his Book DE TINTINNABULIS, had it occurred to his memory when in prison he was writing, without the help of books before him, that
curious Discourse.
'Twas from the Doctor's method of using such speeches at markets and fairs, that in
aftertimes,
those that imitated the like
humorous, jocose
language, were styled MERRY ANDREWS, a term
much in vogue
on our stages
Hearne's BENEDICT. ABB. Tom. i. P
AE
AT. p. 50. edit. Oxon. 1735.
."
He is supposed to have compiled or composed the MERRY TALES
of the mad men of Gotham,
which, as were told by Wood,
"in the reign of Henry the eighth, and after, was accounted a book full of wit and mirth by scholars and gentlemen
ATH. OXON. i. 74. There is an edition in duodecimo by Henry Wikes, without date, but about 1568, entitled, MERIE TALES
of the madmen of Gotam, gathered together by
A. B.
of physicke doctour.
The oldest I have seen, is London, 1630, 12mo.
."
This piece, which probably was not without its temporary ridicule, and which yet mantains a popularity in the nursery, was, I think, first printed by Wynkyn de Worde. Hearne was of opinion, that these idle pranks of the men of Gotham, a town in Lincolnshire, bore a reference to some customary law-tenures belonging to that place or its neighbourhood, now grown obsolete; and that Blount might have enriched his book on ANTIENT TENURES with these ludicrous stories. He is speaking of the political design of REYNARD THE FOX, printed by Caxto
.
"It was an
admirable Thing.
And the design, being political, and to represent a wise government, was equally good. So little reason is there to look upon this as a
poor despicable
book. Nor is there more reason to esteem THE MERRY TALES OF THE MAD MEN OF GOTHAM (which was much
valued
and
cried up
in Henry the eighth's time tho now sold at ballad-singers stalls) as
altogether a romance:
a certain
skillfull
person having told me more than once, that he was
assured by one of Gotham,
that they formerly held lands there, by such Sports and Customs as are touched upon in this book. For which reason, I think particular notice should have been taken of it in Blount's TENURES, as I do not doubt but there would, had that
otherwise curious
author been apprised of the
matter.
But 'tis
strange
to see the changes that have been made in the book of REYNARD THE FOX, from the original editions
Hearne's NOT. ET SPICILEG. ad Gul. Neubrig. vol. iii. p. 744. See also BENEDICT. ABB. ut supr. p. 54.
!"
Borde's chief poetical work is entitled,
"The first Boke of the INTRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE, the which doth teach a man to speake parte of al maner of languages, and to knowe the usage and fashion of al maner of countryes: and for to knowe the most parte of al maner of coynes of money, the whych is currant in every region. Made by Andrew Borde of phisyk doctor."
It was printed by the Coplands, and is dedicated to the king's daughter the princess Mary. The dedication is dated from Montpelier, in the year 1542. The book, containing thirty-nine chapters, is partly in verse and partly in prose; with wooden cuts prefixed to each chapter. The first is a satire, as it appears, on the fickle nature of an Englishman: the symbolical print prefixed to this chapter, exhibiting a naked man, with a pair of sheers in one hand and a roll of cloth in the other, not determined what sort of a coat he shall order to be made, has more humour, than any of the verses which follow
Harrison, in his DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, having mentioned this work by Borde, add
,
"Suche is our mutabili
ie, that to daie there is none [equal] to the
Spanish
guise, to morrow the
Fr
nch
toies are most fine and d
lectable, yer [ere] long no such apparel as that which is after the
Almaine
fashion: by and
y the Turkish maner otherwise the
Morisc
gowns, the
Barbarian
sleves, the mandilion worne to Collie Weston ward, and the shorte
French
breeches, &c."
B. ii. ch. 9. p. 172.
. Nor is the poetry destitute of humour only; but of every embellishment, both of metrical arrangement and of expression. Borde has all the baldness of allusion, and barbarity of versification, belonging to Skelton, without his strokes of satire and severity. The following lines, part of the Englishman's speech, will not prejudice the reader in his favour.
What do I care, if all the world me faile?
I will have a garment reach to my taile.
Then am I a minion, for I weare the new guise,
The next yeare after I hope to be wise,
Not only in wearing my gorgeous aray,
For I will go to learning a whole summers day.
In the seventh chapter, be gives a fantastic account of his travels
Prefixed to which, is a wooden cut of the author Borde, standing in a sort of pew or stall, under a canopy, habited in an academical gown, a laurel-crown on his head, with a book before him on a desk.
, and owns, that his metre deserves no higher appellation than
ryme d
grell.
But this delineation of the fickle Englishman is perhaps to be restricted to the circumstances of the author's age, without a respect to the national character: and, as Borde was a rigid catholic, there is a probability, notwithstanding in other places he treats o
natural dispositions, that a satire is designed on the laxity of principle, and revolutions of opinion, which prevailed at the reformation, and the easy compliance of many of his changeable countrymen with a new religion for lucrative purposes.
I transcribe the character of the Welshman, chiefly because he speaks of his harp.
I am a Welshman, and do dwel in Wales,
I have loved to serche budgets, and looke in males:
I love not to labour, to delve, nor to dyg,
My fyngers be lymed lyke a lyme-twyg.
And wherby ryches I do not greatly set,
Syth all hys [is] fysshe that cometh
o the net.
I am a gentylman, and come of Brutes blood,
My name is ap Ryce, ap Davy, ap Flood:
I love our Lady, for I am of hyr kynne,
He that doth not love her, I beshrewe his chynne.
My kyndred is ap Hoby, ap Jenkin, ap Goffe.
Bycause I go barelegged, I do catch the coffe.
Bycause I do go barelegged it is not for pryde.
I have a gray cote, my body for to hyde.
I do love
cawse boby
That is,
toas
d ch
s
,
next mentioned.
, good rosted cheese,
And swysshe metheglyn I loke for my fees.
And yf I have my HARPE, I care for no more,
It is my treasure, I kepe it in store.
For my harpe is made of a good mare's skyn,
The strynges be of horse heare, it maketh a good dyn.
My songe, and my voyce, and my harpe doth agree,
Much lyke the bussing of an homble bee:
Yet in my country I do make pastyme
In tellyng of prophyces which be not in ryme
Ch. ii. In the prose description of Wales he says, there are many beautiful and strong castles standing yet.
"The
astels and the countre of Wales, and the people of Wales, be much lyke to the castels and the country of the people of Castyle and Biscayn."
In describing Gascony, he says, that at Bordeaux,
"in the cathedrall church of Saint Andrews, is the fairest and the greatest payre of orgyns [organs] in al Chrystendome, in the which orgins be many instrumentes and vy
es [devices] as gians [giants] heads and starres, the which doth move and wagge with their jawes and
is [eyes] as fast as the player playeth."
ch. xxiii.
.
I have before mentioned
"A ryght pleasant and merry History of the MYLNER OF ABINGTON
A village near Cambridge.
, with his wife and his faire, daughter and of two poor scholars of Cambridge,"
a meagre epitome of Chaucer's MILLER'S TALE. In a blank leaf of the Bodleian copy, this tale is said by Thomas Newton of Cheshire, an elegant Latin epigrammatist of the reign of queen Elisabeth, to have been written by Borde
See supr. vol. i. p. 432.
. He is also supposed to have published a collection of silly stories called SCOGIN'S JESTS, sixty in number. Perhaps Shakespeare took his idea from this jest-book, that Scogan was a mere buffoon, where he says that Falstaffe, as a juvenile exploit,
"broke Scogan's head at the court-gate
See. P. Hen. iv. Act. iii. Sc. ii.
."
Nor have we any better authority, than this publication by Borde, that Scogan was a graduate in the university, and a jester to a king
It is hard to say whence Jonson got his account of Scogan, MASQUE OF THE FORTUNATE ISLES, vol. iv. p. 192.
Skogan? What was he?
O, a fine gentleman, and a Master of Arts
Of Henry the Fourth's time, that made disguises
For the king's sones, and writ in balad. royal
Daintily well.
But wrote he like a gentleman?
In rhyme, fine tinkling rhyme, and flowand verse.
With now and then some sense; and he was paid for't,
Regarded and rewarded, which few poets
Are now adays.—
See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, vol. v. AN ACCOUNT, &c. p. xx. And compare what I have said of Scogan, supr. vol. ii. p. 135. Drayton, in the Preface to his ECLOGUES, says,
"the COLIN CLOUT OF SKOGGAN under Henry the seventh is pretty."
He must mean Skelton.
. Hearne, at the end of Benedictus Abbas, has printed Borde's ITINERARY, as it may be called; which is little more than a string of names, but is quoted by Norden in his SPECULUM BRITANNIAE
Pag. 13. MIDDLESEX. i. P.
. Borde's circulatory peregrinations, in the quality of a quack-doctor, might have furnished more ample materials for an English topography. Beside the BREVIARY OF HEALTH, mentioned above, and which was approved by the university of Oxford, Borde has left the DIETARIE OF HEALTH, reprinted in 1576, the PROMPTUARIE OF MEDICINE, the DOCTRINE OF URINES, and the PRINCIPLES OF ASTRONOMICAL PROGNOSTICATIONS
The Princyples of Astronamye th
whiche diligently perscrutyd is in a maner a prognosticacyon to the worldes ende.
In thirteen chapters. For R. Copland, without date, 12mo. It is among bishop More's collection at Cambridge, with some other of Borde's books.
: which are proofs of attention to his profession, and shew that he could sometimes be serious
See Ames, HIST. PRINT. p. 152. Pits. p. 735.
. But Borde's name would not have been now remembered, had he wrote only profound systems in medicine and astronomy. He is known to posterity as a buffoon, not as a philosopher. Yet, I think, some of his astronomical tracts have been epitomised and bound up with Erra Pater's Almanacs.
Of Borde's numerous books, the only one that can afford any degree of entertainment to the modern reader, is the DIETARIE OF HELTHE: where, giving directions as a physician, concerning the choice of houses, diet, and apparel, and not suspecting how little he should instruct, and how much he might amuse, a curious posterity, he has preserved many anecdotes of the private life, customs, and arts, of our ancestors
In his rules for building or planning a House, he supposes a quadrangle. The Gate-house, or Tower, to be exactly opposite to the Portico of the Hall. The Privy Chamber to be annexed to the Chamber of State. A Parlour joining to the Buttery and Pantry at the lower end of the Hall. The Pastry-house and Larder annexed to the Kitchen. Many of the chambers to have a view into the Chapel. In the outer quadrangle to be a stable, but only for
horses of pleasure.
The stables, dairy, and slaughter-house, to be a quarter of a mile from the house. The Moat to have a spring falling into it, and to be often scowered. An Orchard of
sundry fruits
is convenient: but he rather recommends a Garden filled with aromatic herbs. In the Garden a Pool or two, for fish. A Park filled with deer and conies.
"A Dove-house also is a necessary thyng about a mansyon-place. And, among other thynges, a
Payre
of
Buttes
is a decent thynge about a mansyon. And otherwise, for a great man necessary it is for to passe his tyme with bowles in an aly, when al this is finished, and the mansyon replenished with implements."
Ch. iv. Sign. C. ii. Dedication dated 1542.
. This work is dedicated to Thomas duke of Norfolk, lord treasurer under Henry the eighth. In the dedication, he speaks of his being called in as a physician to sir John Drury, the year when cardinal Wolsey was promoted to York; but that he did not chuse to prescribe without consulting doctor Buttes, the king's physician. He apologises to the duke, for not writing in the
ornate
phraseology now generally affected. He also hopes to be excused, for using in his writings so many
wordes of mirth:
but this, he says, was only to make
your grace merrie,
and because mirth has ever been esteemed the best medicine. Borde must have had no small share of vanity, who could think thus highly of his own pleasantry. And to what a degree of taste and refinement must our antient dukes and lords treasurers have arrived, who could be exhilarated by the witticisms and the lively language of this facetious philosopher?
John Bale, a tolerable Latin classic, and an eminent biographer, before his conversion from popery, and his advancement to the bishoprick of Ossory by king Edward the sixth, composed many scriptural interludes, chiefly from incidents of the New Testament. They are, the Life of Saint John the Bap
ist, written in 1538. Christ in his twelfth year. Baptism and Temptation. The Resurrection of Lazarus. The Council of the High-priests. Simon the Leper. Our Lord's Supper, and the Washing of the feet of his Disciples. Christ's Burial and Resurrection. The Passion of Christ. The
Comedie
of the three Laws of Nature, Moses, and Christ, corrupted by the Sodomites, Pharisees, and Papists, printed by Nicholas Bamburgh in 1538: and so popular, that it was reprinted by Colwell in 1562
Both in quarto. At the end is
A Song of Benedictus,
compiled by Johan Bale.
. God's Promises to Man
This was written in 1538. And first printed under the name of a TRAGEDIE or ENTE
LUDE, by Ch
lewood. 1577. 4to.
. Our author, in his
Vocacyon to the Bishoprick of Ossory,
informs us, that his COMEDY of John the Baptist, and his TRAGEDY of God's Promises, were acted by the youths upon a Sunday, at the market cross of Kilkenny
Fol. 24.
. What shall we think of the state, I will not say of the stage, but of common sense, when these deplorable dramas could be endured? Of an age, when the Bible was profaned and ridiculed from a principle of piety? But the fashion of acting mysteries appears to have expired with this writer. He is said, by himself, to have written a book of Hymns, and another of jests and tales: and to have translated the tragedy of PAMMACHIUS
CENT. viii. 100. p. 702. And Verheiden, p. 149.
; the same perhaps which was acted at Christ's college in Cambridge in 1544, and afterwards laid before the privy council as a libel on the reformation
See vol. ii. p. 377. Bale says,
"Pammachii tragoedias transtuli."
. A low vein of abusive burlesque, which had more virulence than humour, seems to have been one of Bale's talents: two of his pamphlets against the papists, all whom he considered as monks, are entitled the MASS OF THE GLUTTONS, and the ALCORAN OF THE PRELATES
Ibid.
. Next to exposing the impostures of popery, literary history was his favorite pursuit: and his most celebrated performance is his account of the British writers. But this work, perhaps originally undertaken by Bale as a vehicle of his sentiments in religion, is not only full of misrepresentations and partialities, arising from his religious prejudices, but of general inaccuracies, proceeding from negligence or misinformation. Even those more antient Lives which he transcribes from Leland's commentary on the same subject, are often interpolated with false facts, and impertinently marked with a misapplied zeal for reformation. He is angry with many authors, who flourished before the thirteenth century, for being catholics. He tells us, that lord Cromwell frequently screened him from the fury of the more bigotted bishops, on account of the comedies he had published
"Ob editas COMAEDIAS."
Ubi supr.
. But whether plays in particular, or other compositions, are here to be understood by comedies, is uncertain.
Brian Anslay, or Annesley, yeoman of the wine cellar to Henry the eighth about the year 1520, translated a popular French poem into English rhymes, at the exhortation of the
gentle earl
of Kent, called the CITIE OF DAMES, in three books. It was printed in 1521, by Henry Pepwell, whose prologue prefixed begins with these unpromising lines,
So now of late came into my custode
This forseyde book, by Brian Anslay,
Yeoman of the seller with the eight king Henry.
Another translator of French into English, much about the same time, is Andrew Chertsey. In the year 1520, Wynkyn de Worde printed a book with this title, partly in prose and partly in verse,
Here foloweth the passyon of our lord Jesu Crist translated out of French into Englysch by Andrew Chertsey gentleman the yere of our lord
MDXX
In quarto.
. I will give two stanzas of Robert Copland's prologue, as it records the diligence, and some other performances, of this very obscure writer.
The godly use of prudent-wytted men
Cannot absteyn theyr auncyent exercise.
Recorde of late how besiley with his pen
The translator of the sayd treatyse
Hath him indevered, in most godly wyse,
Bokes to translate, in volumes large and fayre,
From French in prose, of goostly exemplaire.
As is, the
floure of Gods commaundements,
A treatyse also called
Lucydarye,
With two other of the
sevyn sacraments,
One of
cristen men the ordinary,
The seconde
the craft to lyve well and to dye.
With dyvers other to mannes lyfe profytable,
A vertuose use and ryght commendable.
The
Floure of God's Commaundements
was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in folio, in 1521. A print of the author's arms, with the name CHERTSEY, is added. The
Lucydayre
is translated from a favorite old French poem called
Li Lusidaire.
This is a translation of the ELUCIDARIUM, a large work in dialogue, containing the sum of christian theology, by some attributed to Anselm archbishop of Canterbury in the twelfth century
Wynkyn de Worde printed,
Here begynneth a lytell treatyse called the Lycydarye.
With wooden cuts. No date. In quarto.
. Chertsey's other versions, mentioned in Copland's prologue, are from old French manuals of devotion, now equally forgotten, Such has been the fate of volumes
fayre and large!
Some of these versions have been given to George Ashby, clerk of the signet to Margaret queen of Henry the sixth, who wrote a moral poem for the use of their son prince Edward, on the
Active policy of a prince,
finished in the author's eightieth year. The prologue begins with a compliment to
"Maisters Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate,"
a proof of the estimation which that celebrated triumvirate still continued to maintain. I believe it was never printed. But a copy, with a small mutilation at the end, remains among bishop More's manuscripts at Cambridge
MSS. MOR
, 492. It begins,
"Right and myghty prince and my ryght good lorde."
.
.
In the dispersed library of the late Mr. William Collins, I saw a thin folio of two sheets in black letter, containing a poem in the octave stanza, entitled, FABYL'S GHOSTE, printed by John Rastell in the year 1533. The piece is of no merit; and I should not perhaps have mentioned it, but as the subject serves to throw light on our early drama. Peter Fabell, whose apparition speaks in this poem, was called The
Merrie Devil of Edmonton,
near London. He lived in the reign of Henry the seventh, and was buried in the church of Edmonton. Weever, in his ANTIENT FUNERAL MONUMENTS, published in 1631, says under Edmonton, that in the church
"lieth interred under a seemlie tombe without inscription, the body of Peter Fabell, as the report goes, upon whom this fable was fathered, that he by his wittie devises beguiled the devill. Belike he was some ingenious-conceited gentleman, who did use some sleighte trickes for his own disportes. He lived and died in the raigne of Henry the seventh, saith the booke of his merry Pranks
Pag. 534.
."
The book of Fabell's
Merry Pranks
I have never seen. But there is an old anonymous comedy, written in the reign of James the first, which took its rise from this merry magician. It was printed in 1617, and is called the MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON,
as it hath been sundry times acted by his majesties servants at the Globe on the Banke-side
In quarto, Lond.
. In the Prologue, Fabell is introduced, reciting his own history.
Tis Peter Fabell a renowned scholler,
Whose fame hath still beene hitherto forgot
By all the writers of this latter age.
In Middle-sex his birth, and his aboade,
Not full seauen mile from this great famous citty:
That, for his fame in slights and magicke won,
Was cald the Merry Fiend of Edmonton.
If any heere make doubt of such a name,
In Edmonton yet fresh vnto this day,
Fixt in the wall of that old ancient church
His monument remaineth to be seene:
His memory yet in the mouths of men,
That whilst he liu'd he could deceiue the deuill.
Imagine now, that whilst he is retirde,
From Cambridge backe vnto his natiue home,
Suppose the silent sable visage night,
Casts her blacke curtaine ouer all the world,
And whilst he sleepes within his silent bed,
Toyl'd with the studies of the passed day:
The very time and howre wherein that spirite
That many yeares attended his command;
And oftentimes 'twixt Cambridge and that towne,
Had in a minute borne him through the ayre,
By composition 'twixt the fiend and him,
Comes now to claime the scholler for his due.
Behold him here laid on his restlesse couch,
His fatall chime prepared at his head,
His chamber guarded with these sable slights,
And by him stands that necromanticke chaire,
In which he makes his direfull inuocations,
And binds the fiends that shall obey his will.
Sit with a pleased eye vntill you know
The commicke end of our sad tragique show.
The play is without absurdities, and the author was evidently an attentive reader of Shakespeare. It has nothing, except the machine of the chime, in common with FABYLL'S GHOSTE. Fabell is mentioned in our chronicle-histories, and from his dealings with the devil, was commonly supposed to be a friar
See also Norden's SPECULUM BRITANNIAE, written in 1596. MIDDLESEX, p. 18. And Fuller'
WORTHI
S, MIDDLESEX, p. 186. edit. fol. 1662.
.
In the year 1537, Wilfrid Holme, a gentleman of Huntington in Yorkshire, wrote a poem called
The Fall and evil Success of Rebellion.
It is a dialogue between England and the author, on the commotions raised in the northern counties on account of the reformation in 1537, under Cromwell's administration. It was printed at London in 1573. Alliteration is here carried to the most ridiculous excess: and from the constraint of adhering inviolably to an identity of initials, from an affectation of coining prolix words from the Latin, and from a total ignoranc
of prosodical harmony, the author has produced one of the most obscure, rough, and unpleasing pieces of versification in our language. He seems to have been a disciple of Skelton. The poem, probably from its political reference, is mentioned by Hollinshed
Chron. iii. p. 978.
. Bale, who overlooks the author's poetry in his piety, thinks that he has learnedly and perspicuously discussed the absurdities of popery
ix. 22.
.
One Charles Bansley, about the year 1540, wrote a rhyming satire on the pride and vices of women
now a days.
I know not if the first line will tempt the reader to see more.
"Bo peep, what have we spied!"
It was printed in quarto by Thomas Rainolde; but I do not find it among Ames's books of that printer, whose last piece is dated 1555. Of equal reputation is Christopher Goodwin, who wrote the MAYDEN'S DREME, a vision without imagination, printed in 1542
In 4to. Pr.
"Behold you young ladies of high parentage."
, and THE CHANCE OF THE DOLORUS LOVER, a lamentable story without pathos, printed in 1520
In 4to. Pr.
"Upon a certain tyme as i
befell."
. With these two may be ranked, Richard Feylde, or Field, author of a poem printed in quarto by Wynkyn de Worde, called THE TREATISE OF THE LOVER AND JAYE. The prologue begins.
Though laureate poetes in old antiquite.
I must not forget to observe here, that Edward Haliwell, admitted a fellow of King's college Cambridge in 1532, wrote the Tragedy of Dido, which was acted at saint Paul's school in London, under the conduct of the very learned master John Rightwise, before cardinal Wolsey
See supr. Vol. ii. 434.
. But it may be doubted, whether this drama was in English. Wood says, that it was written by Rightwise
Compare Tanner, BIBL. pag. 632. 372. ATH. OXON. i. 17.
. One John Hooker, fellow of Magdalene college Oxford in 1535, wrote a comedy called by Wood PISCATOR, or
The Fisher caught
ATH. OXON. i. 60. [See supr. Vol. ii. p. 387.]
. But as latinity seems to have been his object, I suspect this comedy to have been in Latin, and to have been acted by the youth of his college.
The fanaticisms of chemistry seem to have remained at least till the dissolution of the monasteries. William Blomefield, otherwise Rattelsden, born at Bury in Suffolk, bachelor in physic, and a monk of Bury-abbey, was an adventurer in quest of the philosopher's stone. While a monk of Bury, as I presume, he wrote a metrical chemical tract, entitled, BLOMEFIELD'S BLOSSOMS, or the CAMPE OF PHILOSOPHY. It is a vision, and in the octava stanza. It was originally written in the year 1530, according to a manuscript that I have seen: but in the copy printed by Ashmole
See Stanz. 5.
, which has some few improvements and additional stanzas, our author says he began to dream in 1557
See Ashmole's THEATRUM CH
MICUM, p. 305. 478.
. He is admitted into the camp of philosophy by TIME, through a superb gate which has twelve locks. Just within the entrance were assembled all the true philosophers from Hermes and Aristotle, down to Roger Bacon, and the canon of Bridlington. Detached at some distance, appear those unskilful but specious pretenders to the transmutation of metals, lame, blind, and emaciated, by their own pernicious drugs and injudicious experiments, who defrauded king Henry the fourth of immense tr
asures by a counterfeit elixir. Among other wonders of this mysterious region, he sees the tree of philosophy, which has fifteen different buds, bearing fifteen different fruits. Afterwards Blomfield turning protestant, did not renounce his chemistry with his religion, for he appears to have dedicated to queen Elisabeth another system of occult science, entitled, THE RULE OF LIFE, OR THE FIFTH ESSENCE, with which her majesty must have been highly edified
MSS. MORE, autograph. 430. Pr.
"Althoughe, most redoubted, suffran lady."
See FOX, MARTYR. edit. i. p. 479.
.
Although lord Surrey and some others so far deviated from the dullness of the times, as to copy the Italian poets, the same taste does not seem to have uniformly influenced all the nobility of the court of king Henry the eighth who were fond of writing verses. Henry Parker, lord Morley, who died an old man in the latter end of that reign, was educated in the best literature which our universities afforded. Bale mentions his TRAGEDIES and COMEDIES, which I suspect to be nothing more than grave mysteries and moralities, and which probably would not now have been lost, had they deserved to live. He mentions also his RHYMES, which I will not suppose to have been imitations of Petrarch
SCRIPT. BRIT. par. p. st. 103.
. Wood says, that
"his younger years were adorned with all kinds of
superficial
learning, especially with dramatic poetry, and his elder with that which was divine
ATH. OXON. i. 52.
."
It is a stronger proof of his piety than his taste, that he sent, as a new year's gift to the princess Mary, HAMPOLE'S COMMENTARY UPON SEVEN OF THE FIRST PENITENTIAL PSALMS. The manuscript, with his epistle prefixed, is in the royal manuscripts of the British Museum
MSS. 18 B. xxi.
. Many of Morley's translations, being dedicated either to king Henry the eighth, or to the princess M
ry, are preserved in manuscript in the same royal repository
But see MSS. GR
SHAM. 8.
. They are chiefly from Solomon, Seneca, Erasmus, Athanasius, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and Paulus Jovius. The authors he translated shew his track of reading. But we should not forget his attention to the classics, and that he translated also Tully's DREAM OF SCIPIO, and three or four lives of Plutarch, although not immediately from the Greek
See MSS. (Bibl. Bodl.) LAUD. H. 17. MSS. Bibl. RE
. 17 D. 2.—17 D. xi.—18 A. lx. And Walpole, ROY. and NO
, AUTH. i. p. 92. seq.
. He seems to have been a rigid catholic, retired and studious. His declaration, or paraphrase, on the ninety-fourth Psalm, was printed by Berthelette in 1539. A theological commentary by a lord, was too curious and important a production to be neglected by our first printers.
SECT. XXIV.
JOHN HEYWOOD, commonly called the epigrammatist, was beloved and rewarded by Henry the eighth for his buffooneries. At leaving the university, he commenced author, and was countenanced by sir Thomas More for his facetious disposition. To his talents of jocularity in conversation, he joined a skill in music, both vocal and instrumental. His merriments were so irresistible, that they moved even the rigid muscles of queen Mary; and her sullen solemnity was not proof against his songs, his rhymes, and his jests. He is said to have been often invited to exercise his arts of entertainment and pleasantry in her presence, and to have had the honour to be constantly admitted into her privy-chamber for this purpose
Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 150.
.
Notwithstanding his professional dissipation, Heywood appears to have lived comfortably under the smiles of royal patronage. What the FAIRY QUEEN could not procure for Spenser from the penurious Elisabeth and her precise ministers, Heywood gained by puns and conceits.
His comedies, most of which appeared before the year 1534, are destitute of plot, humour, or character, and give us no very high opinion of the festivity of this agreeable companion. They consist of low incident, and the language of ribaldry. But perfection must not be expected before its time. He is called our first writer of comedies. But those who say this, speak without determinate ideas, and confound comedies with moralities and interludes. We will allow, that he is among the first of our dramatists who drove the Bible from the stage, and introduced representations of familiar life and popular manners. These are the titles of his plays.
The
PLAY
called the four P. s, being a new and merry
ENTERLUDE OF A PALMER, PARDONER, POTICARY, AND PEDLAR, printed at London in quarto, without date or name of the printer, but prob
bl
from the press of Berthelette or Rastell.
The
PLAY
of
LOVE,
or a new and very mery
ENTERLUDE
of all maner of
WEATHERS, printed in quarto by William Rastell, 1533, and again by Robert Wyer
In duodecimo. No date. Pr.
"Jupiter ryght far so far longe as now were to recyte."
.
A mery
PLAY
betweene the
PARDONER
and the
FRERE,
the
CURATE,
and neybour
PRATTE, in quarto, by William Rastell, dated the fifth day of April, 1533.
The
PLAY
of Gentlenes and Nobilitie,
i
two parts, at London, without date.
The
PINNER
of Wakefield, a
COMEDIE.
Philotas Scotch, a
COMEDIE.
A mery
PLAY
betweene
JOHAN JOHAN
the husband,
TYB
the wife, and syr
JOHAN
the preeste,
by William Rastell, in quarto, 1533.
His EPIGRAMS, six hundred in number
See three hundred Epigrammes on three hundred Proverbes. Pr.
"If every man mend one."
London, without date, but certainly before 1553. Again, 1577.—1587.—1598. The first hundred Epigrammes. Pr.
"Ryme without reason."
Lond. 1566.—1577.—1587. 4to. The fourth hundred of Epigrammes, Lond. without date. Again, 1577.—1587.—1597. 4to. Pr. PROL.
"Ryme without reason, and reason."
The fifth
nd sixth hundredth of Epigramme
. Pr.
"Were it as perillous to deal cards as play."
Lond. 1566.—1577.—1587.—1597. 4to. See JOHN HEYWOODES WOORKES, Anno domini 1576. Imprinted at London in Fleetestreate, etc. by Thomas Marshe. In qua
to. The colophon has 1577. This edi
ion is not mentioned by Ame
.
, are probably some of his jokes versified; and perhaps were often extemporaneou
sallies, made and repeated in company. Wit and humour are ever found in proportion to the progress of politeness. The miserable drolleries and the contemptible quibbles, with which these little pieces are pointed, indicate the great want of refinement, not only in the composition but in the conversation of our ancestors. This is a specimen, on a piece of humour of Wolsey's Fool,
A saying of
PATCHE
my lord Cardinale's
FOOLE.
Maister Sexton
The real name of PATCH, Wolsey's Fool.
, a person of knowen wit,
As he at my lord Cardinale's boord did sit,
Gredily raught
Reached.
at a goblet of wine:
Drinke none, sayd my lord, for that fore leg of thy
:
I warrant your Grace, saith Sexton, I provide
For my leg: I drinke on the tother side
FIRST HUNDRED. Epigr. 44.
.
The following is rather a humorous tale than an epigram, yet with an epigrammatic turn.
Although that a Fox have been seene there seelde
Seldom.
,
Yet there was lately in Finsbery Feelde
Finsbury field.
A Fox sate in sight of certaine people,
Noddinge, and blissinge
Bowing and Blessing.
, staring on Paules steeple.
A Maide toward market with hennes in a band
Came by, and with the Fox she fell in hand
Joined company.
.
"What thing is it, Rainard, in your braine ploddinge
"What bringeth this busy blissinge, and noddinge?
"I nother
Ne
ther.
nod for sleepe sweete hart, the Foxe saide,
"Nor blisse for spirytes
To drive away evil spirits.
, except the divell be a maide:
"My noddinge and blissinge breedth of wonder
Proceeds from wonder.
"Of the witte
Wisdom.
of Poules Weathercocke yonder.
"There is more witte in that cockes onely head
"Than hath bene in all mens heds that be dead.
"And thus—by all common report we fynde,
"All that be dead, died for
lacke of wynde:
"But the Weathercockes wit is not so weake
"To
lacke winde—
the
winde is ever in his beake.
"So that, while any winde blowth in the skie,
"For
lacke of winde
that Weathercocke will not die."
She cast downe hir hennes, and now did she blis
Cross herself.
,
"Jesu, quod she, in
nomine patris!
"Who hath ever heard, at any season,
"Of a Foxe forging so feat a reason?"
And while she praysed the Foxes wit so,
He gat her hennes on his necke, and to go
Began to steal off.
.
"Whither away with my hennes, Foxe, quoth she?
"To Poules pig
Pike, i. e. spire, or steeple.
as fast as I can, quoth he.
"Betwixt these Hennes and yond Weathercocke,
"I will assay to have chickens a flocke;
"Which if I may get, this tale is made goode,
"In all christendome not so
Wise a broode
The FIRST HUNDRED. Epigr. 10. There are six more lines, which are super-
HOUS.
!"—
The other is on the phrase,
wagging beards.
It is mery in hall, when beardes wagge all.
Husband, for this these woordes to mind I call;
This is ment by men in their merie eatinge,
Not to wag their beardes in brawling or threatinge:
Wyfe, the meaning hereof differeth not two pinnes,
Betweene wagginge of mens beardes and womens chinnes
EPIGRAMMES on PROVERBES. Epigram 2.
.
On the fashion of wearing
Verdingales,
or farthingales.
Alas! poore verdingales must lie ith' streete,
To house them no doore ith' citee made meete.
Syns at our narrow doores they in cannot win
Enter in. WIN is probably a contraction for
go in.
But see Tyrwhitt's GLOSS. Ch.
,
Send them to Oxforde, at brodegate to gett in
FI
T
HUNDRED. Epigr. 55.
.
Our author was educated at Broadgate-hall in Oxford, so called from an uncommonly wide gate or entrance, and since converted into Pembroke college. These EPIGRAMS are mentioned in Wilson's RHETORIKE, published in 1553.
Another of Heywood's works, is a poem in long verse, entitled,
A
DIALOGUE
contayning in effect the number of all the
PROVERBES
in the English tongue compact in a matter concerning two marriages.
The first edition I have seen, is dated 1547
In quarto. Others followed, 1566.—1576.—1587.—1598. 4to.
. All the proverbs of the English language are here interwoven into a very silly comic tale.
The lady of the story, an old widow now going to be married again, is thus described, with some degree of drollery, on the bridal day.
In this late old widow, and than old new wife,
Age and Appetite fell at a stronge strife.
Her lust was as yong, as her lims were olde.
The day of her wedding, like one to be solde,
She sett out herself in fyne apparell:
She was made like a beere-pott, or a barell.
A crooked hooked nose, beetle browde, blere eyde,
Many men wisht for beautifying that bryde.
Her wast to be gyrde in, and for a boone grace,
Some wel favoured visor on her yll favoured face;
But with visorlike visage, such as it was,
She smirkt and she smyld, but so lisped this las,
That folke might have thought it done onely alone
Of wantonnesse, had not her teeth been gone.
Upright as a candle standeth in a socket,
Stoode she that day,
so simpre de cocket
I do not understand this, which is marked for a proverb.
.
Of auncient fathers she tooke no cure ne care,
She was to them
as koy as Crokers mare.
She tooke the entertainment of yong men,
All in daliaunce,
as nice as a nunnes hen
An admirable proverbial simile. It is used in Wilson's ART
OF R
ETORIK
,
"I knewe a priest that was
as nice as a Nunnes Hen,
when he would say masse he would never saie DOMINU
VOBISCUM, but
Dominus Vobic
m
"
fol. 112. a. edit. 1567. 4to.
.
I suppose, That day her
eares
might wel
glow,
For all the town talkt of her high and low
One sayde a wel favoured old woman she is:
The divill she is, sayde another: and to this
In came the third
with his five egges,
and sayde,
Fifty yere ago I knew her a trim mayde.
Whatever she were then, sayde one, she is nowe,
To become a bryde,
as meete as a sowe,
To beare a saddle.
She is in this marriage,
As comely as a cowe in a cage.
Gup with a gald back, Gill,
come up to supper,
What my
old mare would have a new crupper,
And now mine olde hat must have a new band, &c
S
COND PART. ch. i.
.
The work has its value and curiosity as a repertory of proverbs made at so early a period. Nor was the plan totally void of ingenuity, to exhibit these maxims in the course of a narrative, enlivened by facts and circumstances. It certainly was susceptible of humour and invention.
Heywood's largest and most laboured performance is the SPIDER AND THE FLIE, with wooden cuts, printed at London by Thomas Powell, in 1556
In quarto.
. It is a very long poem in the octave stanza, containing ninety-eight chapters. Perhaps there never was so dull, so tedious, and trifling an apologue: without fancy, meaning, or moral. A long tale of fictitious manners will always be tiresome, unless the design be burlesque: and then the ridiculous, arising from the contrast between the solemn and the light, must be ingeniously supported. Our author seems to have intended a fable on the burlesque construction: but we know not when he would be serious and when witty, whether he means to make the reader laugh, or to give him advice. We must indeed acknowledge, that the age was not yet sufficiently refined, either to relish or to produ
e, burlesque poetry
But I must not forget Chaucer's SIR THOPAS: and that among the Cotton manuscripts, there is a
anonymous poem, perhaps coeval with Chaucer, in the style of allegorical burlesque, which describes the power of money, with great humour, and in no common vein of satire. The hero of the piece is SIR PENNY. MSS. Cott. CAL. 7. A. 2.
IN
IPIT NARRACIO DE DNO DENARIO.
In erth it es a littill thing,
And regnes
ls
A
.
a riche king,
Whare he es lent in land;
SIR PENI es his name calde,
He makes both yong and alde
Old.
Bow untill
Unto.
his hand:
Papes, kinges, and empoures,
Bisschoppes, abbottes, and priowres,
Person, prest, and knyght,
Dukes, erles, and ilk barowne,
To serue him er
Are.
thai ful boune
Ready.
,
Both biday and nyght.
SIR PENI chaunges man's mode,
And gers them off do doun thaire hode
Make
. Cause
. Compel
.
And to rise him agayn
Against. Befor
.
.
Men honors him with grete reuerence,
Makes ful mekell obedience
Vnto that litill swaine.
In kinges court es it no bote
Use.
,
Ogaines SIR PENI for to mote
Dispute.
,
So mekill es he of myght,
He es so witty and so strang,
That be it neuer so mekill wrang,
He will mak it right.
With PENY may men wemen till
Approach. Gain.
Be thai neuer so strange of will,
So oft may it be sene,
Lang with him will thai noght chide,
For he may ger tham trayl syde
Make them walk.
In gude skarlet and grene.
He may by
Buy.
both heuyn and hell,
And ilka thing that es to sell.
In erth has he swilk grace,
He may lese
Loose.
and he may bind.
The pouer er ay put bihind,
Whare he cumes in place.
When he bigines him to mell
Meddle.
,
He makes meke that are was fell.
And waik
Weak.
that bald has bene.
All ye nedes ful sone er sped
All you want i
soon done.
,
Bath withowten borgh a
d wed
Borrowing or pledging.
,
Whare PENI gase bitwene
Goes between.
.
The domes men
Jud
e
.
he mase
Monks.
so blind
That he may noght the right find
Ne the suth
Truth.
to se.
For to gif dome
Judgement.
tham e
ful lath
Loath.
,
Tharwith to mak SIR PENI wrath.
Ful dere with tham es he,
Thare
Where.
strif was PENI makes pese
Peace.
,
Of all angers he may relese,
In land whare he will lende,
Of fase
Fo
.
may he mak frendes sad,
Of counsail thar tham neuer be rad
Vold.
That may haue him to frende.
That SIRE es set on high dese
Sect.
,
And serued with mani riche mese
Mes
.
At the high burde
High-table
.
The more he es to men plente,
The more ȝernid
Coveted.
alway es he:
And halden dere in horde.
He makes mani be forsworne,
And sum life and saul forlorne
Despise. Quit.
,
Him to get and wyn.
Other god will thai none haue,
Bot that litil round knaue,
Thaire bales
Eyes.
for to blin
Blind.
.
On him halely
Wholly.
thaire hertes sett,
Him for to luf
Love.
will thai noght let
Never cease.
,
Nowther for gude ne ill.
All that he will in erth haue done,
Ilka man grantes it ful sone,
Right at his awin will.
He may both lene
Lend.
and gyf;
He may ger both sla and lif
Kill and save.
,
Both by frith and fell
Se
and land.
.
PENI es a gude felaw,
Men welcums him in dede and saw
Do
ng and speaking.
.
Cum he neuer so oft,
He es noght welkumd als a gest,
Bot euermore serued with the best,
And made at
To sit.
sit ful soft.
Who so es sted in any nede
Under any difficulty.
,
With SIR PENI may thai spede.
How so euer they betyde
Whatever happens.
.
He that SIR PENI es with all,
Sal haue his will in stede and stall.
When other er set byside
Despised.
,
SIR PENY gers, in riche wede,
Ful mani go and ride on stede
Causes many to ride, &c.
,
In this werldes wide.
In ilka
Every.
gamin and ilka play,
The maystri es gifen ay
To PENY, for his pride.
SIR PENY over all gettes the gre
Degree. Pre-eminence.
,
Both in burgh and in cete
Town and city.
,
In castell and in towre.
Withowten owther spere or schelde
Either.
,
Es he the best in frith or felde,
And stalworthest in stowre
Stoutest in battle.
.
In ilka place, the suth es sene
Truth i
seen.
,
SIR PENI es ouer albidene,
Maister most in mode.
And all es als he will cumand:
Ogains his stevyn
Voice. Sound.
dar no man stand,
Nowther by land ne flode.
SIR PENY mai ful mekill availe
Be of much power.
To tham that has nede of cownsail,
Als sene es in assize
As appears in the place of judicature, Or, in passing sentence.
:
He lenkethes
Lengthens.
life and saues fro ded
Death.
.
Bot luf it noght ouer wele I rede
Love money not too much, I advise.
,
For sin of couaityse
Covetousness.
.
If thou haue happ tresore to win,
Delite the noght to mekill tharin
Too much therein.
.
Ne nything
Nyding. Be not too careless of it.
thareof be,
But spend it als wele als thou can,
So that thou luf both god and man
In per
ite charite.
God grante vs grace with hert and will,
The gudes that he has gifen vs till
To
s.
,
Wele and wisely to spend.
And so oure liues here for to lede,
That we may haue his blis to mede
Our reward.
,
Euer withowten end. Amen.
An old Scotch poem called SIR PENNY has been formed from this, printed in ANTIENT SCOTTISH POEMS, p. 153. Edinb. 1770. [See supr. vol. i. 9.]
. Harrison, the author of the DESCRIPTION OF BRITAINE, prefixed to Hollinshed's Chronicle, has left a sensible criticism on this poem.
"One hath made a boke of the SPIDER AND FLIE, wherin he dealeth so profoundly, and beyond all measure of skill, that neither he himself that made it, neither any one that readeth it, can reach unto the meaning thereof
DESCRIPT. BRIT. p. 226. Hollinsh. CHRON. tom. i.
."
It is a proof of the unpopularity of this poem, that it never was reprinted. Our author's EPIGRAMS, and the poem of PROVERBS, were in high vogue, and had numerous editions within the year 1598. The most lively part of the SPIDER and FLIE is perhaps the mock-fight between the spiders and flies, an awkward imitation of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY. The preparations for this bloody and eventful engagement, on the part of the spiders, in their cobweb-castle, are thus described.
Behold! the battilments in every loope:
How th' ordinance lieth, flies far and nere to fac
:
Behold how everie peace, that lieth there in groope
In rows.
,
Hath a spider gonner, with redy-f
red match.
Behold on the wals, spiders making ware wach:
The wach-spider in the towre a larum to strike,
At aproch of any nomber shewing warlike.
Se th' enprenabill
Impregnable.
fort, in every border,
How everie spider with his wepon doth stand,
So thorowlie harnest
Clad in armour.
, in so good order:
The capital
Perhaps, Capitayne.
spider, with wepon in hand,
For that sort of sowdiers so manfully mand,
With copwebs like casting nets all flies to quell:
My hart shaketh at the sight: behold it is hell
Cap. 57. Signat. B b.
!
The beginning of all this confusion is owing to a fly entering the poet's window, not through a broken pane, as might be presumed, but through the lattice, where it is suddenly entangled in a cobweb
Cap. i.
. The cobweb, however, will be allowed to be sufficiently descriptive of the poet's apartment. But I mention this circumstance as a probable proof, that windows of lattice, and not of glass, were now the common fashion
See his EPIGRAMMES. Epig. 82. FIRST HUNDRED. And Puttenham's ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, Lib. i. c. 31. p. 49. One of Heywood's Epigrams is descriptive of his life and character. FIFTE HUNDRED. Epigr. 100.
OF HEYWOOD.
Art thou Heywood with the mad mery wit?
Yea forsooth, mayster, that same is even hit.
Art thou Heywood that applieth mirth more than thrift?
Ye sir, I take mery mirth a golden gift.
Art thou Heywood that hath made many mad Playes?
Yea many playes, few good woorkes in all my dayes.
Art thou Heywood that hath made men mery long?
Yea and will, if I be made mery longe.
Art thou Heywood that would be made mery nowe?
Yea, sir, help me to it now I beseech yow.
In the CONCLUSION to the SPIDER and FLIE, Heywood mentions queen Mary and king Philip. But as most of his pieces seem to have been written some time before, I have placed him under Henry the eighth.
.
John Heywood died at Mechlin in Brabant about the year 1565. He was inflexibly attached to the catholic cause, and on the death of queen Mary quitted the kingdom. Antony Wood remarks
ATH. OXON. i. 150.
, with his usual acrimony, that it was a matter of wonder with many, that, considering the great and usual want of principle in the profession, a poet should become a voluntary exile for the sake of religion.
SECT. XXV.
I KNOW not if sir Thomas More may properly be considered as an English poet. He has, however, left a few obsolete poems, which although without any striking merit, yet, as productions of the restorer of literature in England, seem to claim some notice here. One of these is, A MERY JEST
how a
SERGEANT
would learne to play the
FREERE.
Written by Maister Thomas More in hys youth
WORKERS, Lond. 1557. in folio. Sign. C. i.
. The story is too dull and too long to be told here. But I will cite two or three of the prefatory stanzas.
He that hath lafte
Left.
the Hosier's crafte,
And fallth to makyng shone
Shoes.
;
The smyth that shall to paynting fall,
His thrift is well nigh done.
A black draper with whyte paper,
To goe to writing scole,
An old butler becum a cutler,
I wene shal prove a fole.
And an old trot, that can, god wot,
Nothyng but kysse the cup,
With her phisicke will kepe one sicke,
Till she hath soused hym up.
A man of law that never sawe
The wayes to bye and sell,
Wenyng to ryse by marchandyse,
I praye god spede hym well!
A marchaunt eke, that wyll goo seke
By all the meanes he may,
To fall in s
te tyll he dispute
His money cleane away;
Pletyng the lawe for every strawe,
Shall prove a thrifty man,
With bate
Debate.
and strife, but by my life,
I cannot tell you whan.
Whan an h
tter will smatter
In philosophy;
Or a pedlar waxe a medlar
In theology.
In these lines, which are intended to illustrate by familiar examples, the absurdity of a serjeant at law assuming the business of a friar, perhaps the reader perceives but little of that festivity, which is supposed to have marked the character and the conversation of sir Thomas More. The last two stanzas deserve to be transcribed, as they prove, that this tale was designed to be sung to music by a minstrel, for the entertainment of company.
Now Maisters all, here now I shall
End then as I began;
In any wyse, I would avyse,
And counsayle every man,
His own cra
te use, all new refuse,
And lyghtly let them gone:
Play not the FREERE, Now make good cheere.
This piece is mentioned, among other popular story-books in 1575, by Laneham, in his ENTERTAINMENT AT KILLINGWORTH CASTLE in the reign of queen Elisabeth
Fol. 44. seq.
.
In CERTAIN METERS, written also in his youth, as a prologue for his BOKE OF FORTUNE, and forming a poem of considerable length, are these stanzas, which are an attempt at personification and imagery. FORTUNE is represented sitting on a lofty throne, smiling on all mankind who are gathered around her, eagerly expecting a distribution of her favours.
Then, as a bayte, she bryngeth forth her ware,
Silver and gold, rich perle and precious stone;
On whiche the mased people gase and stare,
And gape therefore, as dogges doe for the bone.
FORTUNE at them laugheth: and in her trone
Amyd her treasure and waveryng rychesse
Prowdly she hoveth as lady and empresse.
Fast by her syde doth wery Labour stand,
Pale Fere also, and Sorow all bewept;
Disdayn, and Hatred, on that other hand,
Eke restles Watch from slepe with travayles kept:
Before her standeth Daunger and Envy,
Flattery, Dysceyt, Mischiefe, and Tiranny
Ibid. Sign. C. iiii.
.
Another of sir Thomas More's juvenile poems is, A RUFULL LAMENTATION on the death of queen Elisabeth, wife of Henry the seventh, and mother of Henry the eighth, who died in childbed, in 1503. It is evidently formed on the tragical soliloquies, which compose Lydgate's paraphrase of Boccace's book DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, and which gave birth to the MIRROR OF MAGISTRATES, the origin of our historic dramas. These stanzas are part of the queen's complaint at the approach of death.
Where are our castels now, where are our towers?
Goodly Rychemonde
The palace of Richmond.
, sone art thou gone from me!
At Westmynster that costly worke of yours
Myne owne dere lorde, now shall I never se
King Henry the seventh's chapel, begun in the year 1502. The year before the queen died.
!
Almighty God vouchsafe to graunt that ye
For you and your children well may edify,
My palace byldyd is, and lo now here I ly.—
Farewell my doughter, lady Margaret
Married in 1503, to James the fourth, king of Scotland.
!
God wotte, full oft it greved hath my mynde
That ye should go where we should seldom mete,
Now I am gone and have left you behynde.
O mortall folke, that we be very blynde!
That we lest feere, full oft it is most nye:
From you depart I must, and lo now here I lye.
Farewell, madame, my lordes worthy mother
Margaret countess of Richmond.
!
Comforte your son, and be ye of good chere.
Take all a worth, for it will be no nother,
Farewell my doughter Katharine, late the fere
To prince Arthur myne owne chyld so dere
Catharine of Spain, wi
e of her son
rince Arthur, now dead.
.
It boteth not for me to wepe and cry,
Pray for my sowle, for lo now here I lye.
Adew lord Henry, my loving sonne adew
Afterwards king Henry the eighth.
,
Our lord encrease your honour and estate,
Adew my doughter Mary, bright of hew
Afterwards queen of France. Remarried to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk.
,
God make you vertuous, wyse, and fortunate.
Adew swete hart, my little doughter Kate
The queen died within a few days after she was delivered of this in
ant,
he princess Catharine, who
id not long survive her mother's death.
,
Thou shalt, swete babe, such is thy destiny,
Thy mother never know, fo
lo now here I ly
WORKES, ut supr.
.
In the fourth stanza, she reproaches the astrologers for their falsity in having predicted, that this should be the happiest and most fortunate year of her whole life. This, while it is a natural reflection in the speaker, is a proof of More's contempt of a futile and frivolous science, then so much in esteem. I have been prolix in my citation from this forgotten poem: but I am of opinion, that some of the stanzas have strokes of nature and pathos, and deserved to be rescued from total oblivion.
More, when a young man, contrived in an apartment of his father's house a
goodly hangyng of fyne painted clothe,
exhibiting nine pageants, or allegoric representations, of the stages of man's life, together with the figures of Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity. Under each picture he wrote a stanza. The first is under CHILDHOODE, expressed by a boy whipping a top.
I am called CHILDHOD, in play is all my mynde,
To cast a coyte
A quoit.
, a cokstele
A stick for throwing at a cock. STELE is handl
,
Sax.
, or a ball;
A toppe can I set, and dryve in its kynde:
But would to God, these hatefull bookes all
Were in a fyre ybrent to pouder small!
Then myght I lede my lyfe alwayes in play,
Which lyfe God sende me to myne endyng day.
Next was pictured MANHOD, a comely young man mounted on a fleet horse, with a hawk on his fist, and followed by two greyhounds, with this stanza affixed.
MANHOD I am, therefore I me delyght
To hunt and hawke, to nourishe up and fede
The grayhounde to the course, the hawke to th' flyght,
And to bestryde a good and lusty stede:
These thynges become a very man in dede.
Yet thinketh this boy his pevishe game sweter,
But what, no force, his reason is no better.
The personification of FAME, like RUMOUR in the Chorus to Shakespeare's HENRY THE FIFTH, is surrounded with tongues
Ibid. Sign. C. iii.
.
Tapestry, with metrical legends illustrating the subject, was common in this age: and the public pageants in the streets were often exhibited with explanatory verses. I am of opinion, that the COMOEDIOLAE, or little interludes, which More is said to have written and acted in his father's house, were only these nine pageants
See supr. Vol. ii. p. 387.
.
Another juvenile exercise of More in the English stanza, is annexed to his prose translation of the LYFE of John Picus Mirandula, and entitled, TWELVE RULES OF JOHN PICUS MIRANDULA,
partely exciting partely directing a man in
SPIRITUAL BATAILE
These pieces were written in the reign of Henry the seventh. But as Mor
flourished in the succeeding reign, I have placed them accordingly.
. The old collector of his ENGLISH WORKES has also preserved two
shorte ballettes
Ibid. b. iii.
, or stanzas, which he wrote for his
pastyme,
while a prisoner in the tower
Ut supr. fol. 1432.
.
It is not my design, by these specimens, to add to the
ame of sir Thomas More; who is reverenced by posterity, as the scholar who taught that erudition which civilised his country, and as the philosopher who met the horrours of the block with that fortitude which was equally free from ostentation and enthusiasm: as the man, whose genius overthrew the fabric of false learning, and whose amiable tranquillity of temper triumphed over the malice and injustice of tyranny.
To some part of the reign of Henry the eighth I assign the TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM, or
The wooeing, winning, and wedding of
TIBBE
the Reeves Daug
ter there.
I presume it will not be supposed to be later than that reign: and the substance of its phraseology, which I divest of its obvious innovations, is not altogether obsolete enough for a highe
period. I am aware, that in a manuscript of the British Museum it is referred to the time of Henry the sixth. But that manuscript affords no positive indication of that date
MSS. HARL. 5396.
. It was published from an antient manuscript in the year 1631, and reduced to a more modern style, by William Bedwell, rector of Tottenham, and one of the translators of the Bible. He says it was written by Gilbert Pilkington, supposed to have been rector of the same parish, and author of an unknown tract, called PASSIO DOMINI JESU. But Bedwell, without the least comprehension of the scope and spirit of the piece, imagines it to be a serious narrative of a real event; and, with as little sagacity, believes it to have been written before the year 1330. Allowing that it might originate from a real event, and that there might be some private and local abuse at the bottom, it is impossible that the poet could be serious. Undoubtedly the chief merit of this poem, although not destitute of humour, consists in the design rather than the execution. As Chaucer, in the RIME OF SIR THOPAS
I take this opportunity of observing, that the stanza of one of Laurence Minot's poems on the wars of Edward the third, is the same as Chaucer's SIR TOPAS. Minot was Chaucer's cotempary. MSS. Cott. GAL
. E. ix.
Edward oure cumly king
In Braband has his woning,
With mani a cumly knight,
And in that land, trewly to tell,
Ordains he still for to dwell,
To time he think to
ight.
Now God that es of mightes maste
Grant him grace of the Haly Gas
e,
His heritage to win;
And Mari moder of mercy fre,
Save oure king, and his menȝe,
Fro sorow, and schame, and syn.
Thus in Braband has he bene,
Whare he bifore was seldom sene,
For to prove thaire japes;
Now no langer wil he spare,
Bot unto Fraunce fast will he fare,
To con
ort him with grapes.
Furth he fe
d into France,
God save him fro mischance,
And all his cumpany;
The nobill duc of Braband
With him went into that land,
Redy to lif or dy.
Than the riche floure de lice
Wan thare ful litill prise,
Fast he fled for ferde;
The right aire
H
ir.
of that
untree
Es cumen with all his knightes fre
To schac
Shake.
him by the berd.
Sir Philip the Valayse,
Wit his men in tho dayes,
To batale had he thoght;
He bad his men tham purvay
Withowten longer delay
Bot he ne held it noght.
He broght folk ful grete wone,
Ay sevyn
gains one,
That ful wele wapind were
Weaponed. Armed.
;
Bot sone when he herd ascry,
That king Edward was nere thereby,
Tha
durst he noght cum nere.
In t
at morning fell a myst;
And when oure Ingliss men it wist,
It changed all thair
chere:
Oure king unto God made his bone,
And God sent him gude confort sone,
The weder wex ful clere.
Oure king and his men held the felde,
Stalworthy with spere and schelde,
And thoght to win his right;
With lordes and with knightes kene,
And other doghty men bydene,
That war ful frek to fight.
When sir Phili
of France herd tell,
That king Edward in feld walld dwell,
Than gayned him no gle;
He traisted of no better bote,
Bot bo
h on hors and on fote,
He hasted him to fle.
It semid he was ferd for str
kes,
Whe
he did fell his grete okes
Obout his pavilyoune.
Abated was than all his pride,
For langer thare durst he noght bide,
His bost was broght all doune.
The king of Beme had cares colde,
That was fur, hardy, and bolde,
A stede to amstride:
The king als of Naverne
War faire feld in t
e ferene,
Thaire heviddes for to hide.
And leves wele, it is no lye,
And felde hat Flemangrye
That king Edward was in;
With princes that war stif and bolde,
And dukes that war doghty tolde,
In batayle to begin.
The princes that war rich on raw,
Gert nakers strikes and
mpes blaw
In glitt
r
ng r
nks, made the drums, &c.
,
And made mirth at thaire might;
Both arlblast and many a bow
War redy railed upon a row,
And full frek for to fight.
Gladly thai gaf mete and drink,
So that thai suld the better swink,
The wight men that thar ware:
Sir Philip of Fraunce fled for dout,
And hied him hame with all his rout,
Coward God gi
f him care.
For thare than had the lely flowre
Lorn all halely his honowre,
T
at so gat
led for ferd;
Bot oure king Edwa
d com
ful still,
When that he
rowed
o harm till
And keped him in the b
rde.
, travestied the romances of chivalry, the TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM is a burlesque on the parade and
opperies of chivalry itself. In this light, it may be considered as a curiosity; and does honour to the good sense and discernment of the writer, who seeing through the
olly of these fashionable exercises, was sensible at the same time, that they were too popular to be attacked by the more solid weapons of reason and argument. Even on a supposition that here is an allusion to real facts and characters, and that it was intended to expose some popular story of the amours of the daughter of the Reve of Tottenham, we must acknowledge that the satire is conveyed in an ingenious mode. He has introduced a parcel of clowns and rustics, the inhabitants of Tottenham, Islington, Highgate, and Hackney, places then not quite so polished as at present, who imitate all the solemnities of the barriers. The whole is a mock-parody on the challenge, the various events of the encounter, the exhibition of the prize, the devices and escocheons, the display of arms, the triumphant procession of the conqueror, the oath before the combat, and the splendid feast which followed, with every other ceremony and circumstance which constituted the regular tournament. The reader will form an idea of the work from a short extract
V. 42.
.
He that bear'th him best in the tournament,
Shal be graunted the gree
Prize.
by the common assent,
For to winne my daughter with doughtinesse of dent
Strength of blows.
,
And Copple my broode hen that was brought out of Kent,
And my dunned cow:
For no spence
Expence.
will I spare,
For no cattell will I care.
He shall have my gray mare, and my spotted sow.
There was many a bold lad their bodyes to bede
Bid. Offer.
;
Then they toke their leave, and hamward they hede
Hied.
;
And all the weke after they gayed her wede
Made their cloaths gay.
,
Till it come to the day that they should do their dede
Fight for the lady.
:
They armed them in mattes;
They sett on their nowls
Heads.
Good blacke bowls
Instead of helmets.
,
To keep their powls
Poles.
from battering of battes
Cudgels.
.
They sewed hem in sheepskinnes for they should not brest
They sewed themselves up in
heep skins, by way of armour, to avoid being hurt.
,
And every ilk
Each.
of them had a blacke hatte instead of a crest;
A baskett or panyer before on their brest,
And a flayle in her hande, for to fight prest
Ready.
,
Forthe con thei fare
On they went.
.
There was kid
Kithed, i. e. shewn.
mickle force.
Who should best fend
Desend.
his corse,
He that had no good horse, borrowed him a mare, &c
I have before observed, that it was a disgrace to chivalry to ride a mare.
The poems of this manus
ript do not seem to be all precisely of the same hand, and might probably once have been separate papers, here stitched together. At the end of one of them, viz. fol. 46.
The lysom ledys the Blynde,
mention is inserted of an accompt settled ann. 34. H
n. vi. And this is in the hand and ink of that poem, and of some others. The TOURNAMENT OF TOTT
N
AM, which might once have been detached from the present collection, comes at some distance afterwards, and cannot perhaps for a certainty be pronounced to be of the same writing. I take this opportunity of correcting a wrong reference to SIR P
NI just cited, at p. 93. It belongs to GAL
. E. 9
MSS. Cott.
.
It appears to me, that the author, to give dignity to his narrative, and to heighten the ridicule by stiffening the familiarity of his incidents and characters, has affected an antiquity of style. This I could prove from the cast of its fundamental diction and idiom, with which many of the old words do not agree. Perhaps another of the author's affectations is the alliterative manner. For although other specimens of alliteration, in smaller pieces, are now to be found, yet it was a singularity. To those which I have mentioned, of this reign, I take this opportunity of adding an alliterative poem, which may be called the FALCON AND THE PIE, who support a DYALOGUE DESENSYVE FOR WOMEN AGAYNST MALICYOUS DETRACTOURS, printed in 1542
Coloph.
"Thus endeth the faucon and pie anno dni 1542. Imprynted by me Rob. Wyer for Richarde Bankes."
I have an antient manuscript alliterative poem, in which a despairing lover bids farewel to his mistress. At the end is written,
"Explicit Amō r p. Ducem Ebō rr nuper fact."
I will here cite a few of the stanzas of this unknown prince.
Farewell Ladè of grete pris,
Farewell wyse, both faire and free,
Farewell freefull
lourdelys,
Farewell beril, bright of ble!—
Farewell mirthe that I do miss
,
Farewell Prowesse in purpell pall!
Fa
ewell creature comely to kisse,
Farewell Faucon, fare you be
all!
Farewell amorouse and amyable,
Farewell worthy, witty, and wy
,
Farewell pris prisable,
Farewell ryal rose in the rys.—
Farewell dereworth of dignite,
Farewell grace of governaunce,
However y fare, farewell ye,
Farewell primerose my plesaunce!
For the use of those who collect specimens of alliteration, I will add an instance in the reign of Edward the third from the BANOCBURN of Laurence Minot, all whose pieces, in some degree, are tinctured with it. MSS. Cott. GALB. E. ix. ut supr.
Skottes out of Berwick and of Abirdene,
At the Bannockburn war ȝe to kene;
Thare slogh ȝe many sackles
Naked.
, als it was sene.
And now has king Edward wroken it I wene;
It es wroken I wene wele wurth the while,
War ȝit with the Skottes for thai er ful of gile.
Whare er ȝe Skottes of saint Johnes toune?
The boste of ȝowre baner es betin all doune;
When ȝe b
sting will
Allow it.
bede, sir Edward es boune,
For to kindel ȝow care and crak ȝowre crowne:
He has crakked ȝowre croune wele worth the while,
Schame bityde the Skottes for thai er ful of gile.
Skottes of Striflin war steren
Stern.
and stout,
Of God ne of gude men had thai no dout;
Now have thai the pelers priked obout,
Bot at the last sir Edward ri
ild thaire rout;
He has ri
ild thaire rout wele wurth the while,
Bot euer er thai under bot gaudes and gile.
Rughfute riueling now kindels thi care,
Bere bag with thi boste thi biging
Clothing.
is bare;
Fals wretche and forsworn, whider wiltou fare?
Busk the unto Brig and abide thare.
Thare wretche saltou won and wery the while,
Thi dwelling in Donde es done for thi gile.
The Skottes gase
Go.
in burghes and betes the stretes,
All thise Inglis men harmes he hetes;
Fast makes he his mone to men that he metes,
Bot sone frendes he finds that his bale betes;
Sune betes his bale wele wurth the while,
He uses all threting with gaudes and gile.
Bot many man thretes and spekes full ill,
That sumtyme war better to be stane still;
The Skot in his wordes has wind for to spill,
For at the last Edward sall haue al his will:
He had his will at Berwick wele wurth the while,
Skottes broght him the kayes, bot get for thaire gile.
A VISION on vellum, perhaps of the same age, is alliterative. MSS. Cott. NERO, A. x. These are specimens.
Ryȝt as the maynful mone con rys
As the moon began to rise.
,
Er theven the day glem dryve aldon
The even drove down the day-light.
,
So sodenly, on a wonder wyse,
I was war of a prosessyoun
Procession.
:
This noble cite of ryche enpresse
Was sodanly full, withouten somoun
Summons. Notice.
,
Of such vergynes in the same gyse
That was my blisful an under croun,
A corone wernalle
All wore
crown.
of the same fasoun,
Depaynt in perles and wedes qwhyt
White robes.
.
Again,
On golden gates that glent
Glanced. Shone.
as glas.
Again,
But mylde as mayden sen
at mas.
The poem begins,
Perle plesant to princes raye,
So clanly clos in golde so cler
Cleanly.
A pearl beautifully
inclosed
or
tt in gold.
.
In the same manuscript is an alliterative poem without rhyme, exactly in the versification of PIERCE PLOWMAN, of equal or higher antiquity, viz.
Olde Abraham in erde
Earth.
over he syttes,
Even byfor his house doore under an oke grene,
Bryȝt blikk
d the bem
Bright shone the beam.
of the brod heven
In the hyȝe hete
High heat.
therof Abraham bides.
The hand-writing of these two last
mentioned pieces cannot be later than Edward the third. [See supr. Vol. i. p. 312.]
. The author's name Robert Vaghane, or Vaughan, is prefixed to some sonnets which form a sort of epilogue to the performance.
For the purpose of ascertaining or illustrating the age of pieces which have been lately or will be soon produced, I here stop to recall the reader's attention to the poetry and language of the last century, by exhibiting some extracts from the manuscript romance of YWAIN and GAWAIN, which has some great outlines of Gothic painting, and appears to have been written in the reign of king Henry the sixth
MSS. Cotton. GALB. E. ix.
. I premise, that but few circumstances happened, which contributed to the improvement of our language, within that and the present period.
The following is the adventure of the enchanted forest attempted by sir Colgrevance, which he relates to the knights of the round table at Cardiff in Wales
—King Arthur,
He made a fes
e, the
othe to say,
Opon the Witsonenday,
At Kerdyf, that es in Wales,
And efter mete thar in the hales
H
ll
.
,
Ful gret and gay was the assemble
Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre.
And als of knightes, war and wyse,
And dameseles of mykel pryse,
Ilkan with other made grete gamen,
And grete solas, als thai war samen,
Fast thai carped, and curtaysli,
Of dedes of arms and of veneri,
And of gude knyghtes, &c.
It is a piece of considerable length, and contains a variety of GESTS. Sir YWAIN is sir EWAINE, or OW
N, in MORTE ARTHUR. None of these advent
res belong to that romance. But see B. iv. c. 17. 27. etc. The story of the lion and the dragon in this romance, is told of a Christian champion in the Holy War, by Berchorius, RE
UCTOR. p. 661. See supr. DISS. p. lxxxvii. And GEST. ROMANOR. ch. civ. The lion being delivered from the dragon by sir YWAIN, ever afterwards accompanies and defends him in the greatest dangers. Hence Spenser's Una attended by a lion. F. QU. i. iii. 7. See sir Percival's lion in MORTE ARTHUR, B. xiv. c. 6. The dark ages had many stories and traditions of the lion's gratitude and generosity to man. Hence in Shakespeare, Troilus says, TR. CR
S
. Act V. Sc. iii.
Brother you have a vice of mercy in you
Which better fits a lion than a man.
.
A fayre forest sone I fand
Found.
,
Me thought mi hap
Chance. Fortune.
thare
el ful hard
For thar was mani a wide bayard
Wil
bayard, i. e. horse.
,
Lions, beres, both bul and bare,
That rewfully gan rope
R
mp.
and rare
Roar.
.
Away I drogh
Drew.
me, and with that,
I sawe sone whar a man sat
On a lawnd, the
owlest wight,
That ever ȝit
Yet.
man saw in syght:
He was a lathly
Loathly.
creatur,
For fowl he was out of mesur;
A wonder mace
lub.
in hand he hade,
And sone mi way to him I made;
His hevyd
Head.
, me thoght, was als grete
Als of a rowncy or a nete
Horse, or ox.
.
Unto his belt hang
Hung.
his hare
Hair.
;
And eft that byheld I mare
More.
,
To his forhede byheld I than
Was bradder
Broader.
than twa large span;
He had eres
Ears.
als
As.
an olyfant,
And was wel more
Bigger.
than a geant,
His face was ful brade and flat,
His nase
Nose.
was cutted as a cat,
His browes war like litel buskes
Bushes.
,
And his
ethe like bare tuskes;
A ful grete bulge
Bunch.
open his bak,
Thar was noght made with outen lac
Lack.
;
His chin was fast until
To.
his brest,
On his mace he gan him rest.
Also it was a wonder wede
Wonderous dress.
That the cherle
Churl.
yn ȝede
Went in.
,
Nowther
Neither.
of wol
Wool.
ne of line
Linen.
,
Was the wede that he went yn.
When he me sagh, he stode up right,
I frayned
A
ked.
him if he wolde fight,
For tharto was I in gude will,
Bot als
As.
a beste than stode he still:
I hopid
Supposed. Apprehended.
that he no wittes kowth
Had no understanding.
,
Ne reson for to speke with mowth.
To him I spak ful hardily,
And said, What ertow
Art thou.
, belamy
My Friend.
?
He said ogain, I am a man.
I said, Swilk
Such.
saw I never nane
None.
.
What ertow
Art thou.
alsone
Also.
, said he?
I said, Swilk als
As.
you her may se.
I said, What dose
Do.
you here allane
Alone.
?
He said, I kepe this
These.
bestes ilkane
Every one.
.
I said, That es mervaile, think me,
For I herd never of man bot the,
In wildernes, ne in forestes,
That kepeing had of wilde bestes,
Bot
Except.
thai war bunden fast in halde
Hold.
.
He sayd, Of thirses
These.
none so balde,
Nowther by day ne by night,
Anes
Once.
to pas out of mi sight.
I sayd, How so, tel me thi still.
Per fay, he said, gladly I will.
He said, In al this fair forest
Es thar non so wilde best,
That renne
Runs.
dar
There.
, bot stil stand
Stands still.
Whan I am to him cumand
Coming.
;
And ay when that I will him fang
Take.
With my fingers that er
Are strong.
strang,
I ger
Cause.
him cri on swilk manere,
That al the bestes when thai him here,
Obout me than cum thai all,
And to mi fete fast thai fall
On thair maner, merci to cry.
Bot onderstond now redyli
Olyve
Alive.
es
Is.
thar lifand
Living.
no ma
Man.
,
Bot I, that durst amang them ga
Go.
,
That he ne sold sone be altorent
All rent to pieces.
;
Bot thai ar at my comandment,
To me thai cum whan I tham call,
And I am maister of tham all.
Than he asked onone right,
What man I was? I said, a knyght,
That soght avents in that lande,
My body to asai
Exercise.
and fand
Fend, defend.
;
And I the pray of thi kounsayle
You teche me to sum mervayle
Tell me of some wonder. So Alexander, in the deserts of India, meets two
old cheorlis,
or churls, from whom he defires to learn,
Any merveilles by this wayes,
That y my
tc do in story,
That men han in memorie.
They tell him, that a little farther he will see the Trees of the Sun and Moon, &c. GEST
O
ALEXANDER, MS. p. 231.
.
He said, I can no wonders tell,
Bot her besyde es a Well;
Wend yeder
Go thither.
, and do als I say,
You passes noght al quite oway,
Folow forth this ilk strete
Way. Road.
,
And sone sum mervayles sal you mete:
The well es under the fairest Tre
That ever was in this cuntre;
By that Well hinges
Hangs.
a Bacyne
A helmet, or bason.
That es of golde gude and fyne,
With a cheyne, trewly to tell,
That will reche in to the Well.
Thare as a Chapel nere thar by,
That nobil es and ful lufely
Lovely.
:
By the well standes a Stane
Stone.
,
Take the bacyn sone onane
Perhaps, In hand.
,
And cast on water with thi hand,
And sone you sal se new tithand
Tidings. Wonders.
:
A storme sal rise and a tempest,
Al obout, by est and west,
You sal here
Hear.
mani thonor
Thunder.
blast
Al obout the
Thee.
the blawand
Blowing.
fast,
And thar sal cum sike
Such.
slete and rayne
That unnese
Scarcely.
sal you stand ogayne:
Of lightnes
Lightening.
sal you se a lowe,
Unnethes you sal thi selvan
Self.
knowe;
And if you pas with owten grevance,
Than has thou the fairest chance
That ever ȝit had any knyght,
That theder come to kyth
Know. Prove.
his myght.
Than toke I leve, and went my way,
And rade unto the midday;
By than I com whare I sold be,
I saw the Chapel and the Tre:
Thare I fand the fayrest thorne
That ever groued sen God
Christ.
was born:
So thik it was with leves grene
Might no rayn cum tharby twene
There between.
;
And that grenes
Verdure.
lastes ay,
For no winter dere
Hurt.
yt may.
I fand the Bacyn, als he talde,
And the Well with water kalde
Cold.
.
An emerawd
Emerald.
was the Stane
Stone.
,
Richer saw I never nane,
On fowr rubyes on heght standand
Standing high.
,
Thair light lasted over al the land.
And whan I saw that semely syght,
It made me bath joyful and lyght.
I toke the Bacyn sone onane
And helt water opon the Stane:
The weder
Weather.
wex than wonder blak,
And the thoner
Thunder.
fast gan crak;
Thar cum slike
Such.
stormes of hayl and rayn,
Unnethes
Hardly.
I might stand thare ogayn:
The store
Strong.
windes blew ful lowd,
So kene cam never are
Air.
of clowd.
I was drevyn with snawe and slete,
Unnethes I might stand on my fete.
In my face the levening
Lightening.
smate
Smote.
,
I wend have brent
I thought I should be burnt.
, so was it hate
It was so hot.
:
That weder made me so will of rede,
I hopid
Feared. See Johns. Steev. SHAKE
PEARE, Vol. v. p. 273. edit. 1779.
sone to have my dede
Death.
;
And sertes
Surely.
, if it lang had last,
I hope I had never thethin
Thence.
past.
Bot thorgh his might that tholed
Suffered.
wownd
The storme sesed within a stownde
Ceased on a sudden.
:
Then wex the weder fayr ogayne,
And tharof was I wonder fayne;
For best comforth of al thing
Es solace after mislykeing.
Then saw I sone a mery syght,
Of al the fowles that er in flyght,
Lighted so thik opon that tre,
That bogh ne lefe none might I se;
So merily than gon thai sing,
That al the wode bigan to ring;
Ful mery was the melody
Of thaire sang and of thaire cry;
Thar herd never man none swilk,
Bot
Unless.
if ani had herd that ilk.
And when that mery din was done,
Another
din than herd I sone,
Als it war of hors men,
Mo than owther
Either.
nyen
Nine.
or ten.
Sone than saw I cum a knyght,
In riche armure was he dight;
And sone whan I gan on him loke,
Mi shelde and sper to me I toke.
That knight to me hied ful fast,
And kene wordes out gan he cast:
He bad that I sold tell him lite
Soon.
Why I did him swilk despite,
With weders
The storm.
wakend him of rest,
And done him wrang in his Forest;
Thar fore, he sayd, You sal aby
Abide. Stay.
:
And with that come he egerly,
And said, I had ogayn resowne
Against reason or law.
Done him grete destrucciowne,
And might it nevermore amend;
Tharfor he bad, I sold me fend:
And sone I smate him on the shelde,
Mi schaft brac out in the felde;
And then he bar me son bi strenkith
Out of my sadel my speres lenkith:
I wat that he was largely
By the shuldres mare
Greater.
than I;
And by the ded
Death.
that I sal thole
Suffer.
,
Mi stede by his was bot a fole.
For mate
Sleep.
I lay down on the grownde,
So was I stonayd
Astonished. Stunned.
in that stownde:
A worde to me wald he noght say,
Bot toke my stede, and went his way.
Ffull sarily
Sorrily.
than thare I sat,
For wa
Wo
.
I wist noght what was what:
With mi stede he went in hy,
The same way that he come by;
And I durst folow him no ferr
For dout me solde bite werr,
And also ȝit by Goddes dome
God's sentence, the crucifixion.
,
I ne wist whar he bycome.
Than I thoght how I had hight
Hette. Promised.
,
Unto myne ost the hende knyght,
And also till his lady bryght,
To come ogayn if that I myght.
Mine armurs left I thare ylkane,
For els myght I noght have gane
Gone.
;
Unto myne in
Lodging.
I come by day:
The hende knyght and the fayre may,
Of mi come war thai ful glade,
And nobil semblant thai me made;
In al thinges thai have tham born
Als thai did the night biforn.
Sone thai wist whar I had bene,
And said, that thai had never sene
Knyght that ever theder come
Take the way ogayn home.—
I add Sir Ywain's achievement of the same Adventure, with its consequences.
Whan Ywayn was withowten town,
Of his palfray lighted he down,
And dight him right wele in his wede,
And lepe up on his gude stede.
Furth he rade on right,
Until it neghed nere
Drew near.
the nyght:
He passed many a high mountayne
In wildernes, and many a playne,
Til he come to that leyir
Wicked, bad.
sty
That is, the forest. But I do not precisely know the meaning of fty. It is thus used in the LAY OF EMARE. MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 59.
Messengeres forth he sent
Aftyr the mayde fayre and gent
That was bryȝt as someres day:
Messengeres dyȝte hem in hye,
With myche myrthe and melodye
Forthe gon they fare
Both by
stretes
and by STYE
Aftyr that fayr lady.
And again in the same romance.
That him byhoved pass by:
Than was he seker for to se
The Wel, and the fayre Tre;
The Chapel saw he at the last,
And theder
That way.
hyed he ful fast.
More curtaysli and more honowr
Fand
Found.
he with tham in that towr
i. e. The castle.
,
And mare comforth by mony falde
Manifold.
,
Than Colgrevance had him of talde.
That night was he herbered
Lodged.
thar,
So wel was he never are
Ever.
.
At morn he went forth by the strete,
And with the cherel
Churl, i. e. the Wild-man.
sone gan he mete
That sold tel to him the way;
He sayned
Viewed.
him, the sothe to say,
Twenty sith
Times.
, or ever he blan
Ceased.
,
Swilke mervayle had he of that man,
For had wonder
He wondered.
, that nature
Myght mak so foul a creature.
Than to the Wel he rade gude pase,
And down he lighted in that plase;
And sone the bacyn has he tane,
And kest
Cast.
water opon the Stane;
And sone thar wax, withowten fayle,
Wind and thonor, rayn and hayle:
Whan it was sesed, than saw he
The fowles light opon the tre,
Thai sang ful fayr opon that thorn
Right als thai had done byforn.
And sone he saw cumand
Coming.
a knight,
As fast so the fowl in flyght,
With rude sembland
Countenance.
, and sterne chere,
And hastily he neghed nere;
To speke of luf
Friendly.
na time was thare,
For aither hated uther ful sare
Sore.
.
Togeder smertly gan thai drive,
Thair sheldes son bigan to ryve,
Thair shaftes cheverd
Shivered.
to thair hand
Bot thai war buth ful wele syttand
Seated.
.
Out thai drogh
Drew.
thair swerdes kene,
And delt strakes tham bytwene;
Al to pieces thai hewed thair sheldes,
The culpons
Pieces.
flegh
Flew.
out in the feldes.
On helmes strake thay so with yre,
At ilka strake out brast the fyr;
Ayther of tham gude buffettes bede
Abided.
,
And nowther wald styr of the stede.
Ful kenely thai kyd
Shewed.
thair myght,
And feyned tham noght for to fyght:
Thair hauberkes that men myght ken
The blode out of thair bodyes ren.
Ayther on other laid so fast,
The batayl might noght lang last:
Hauberks er
Are.
broken, and helmes reven,
Styf strakes war thar gyfen;
Thai foght on hors stifly always,
The batel was wele more to prays;
Bot at the last syr Ywayne
On his felow kyd his mayne,
So egerly he smate him than,
He clefe the helme and the herne pan
So in Minot's Poems. MSS. Cott. GALB. E. ix. ut supr.
And sum lay knoked out their hernes.
:
The knyght wist he was nere ded,
To fly than was his best rede
Counsel.
;
And fast he fled with al hys mayne,
And fast folowe syr Ywayne,
Bot he ne might him overtake,
Tharfore grete murning gan he make:
He folowd him ful stowtlyk
Stoutly.
,
And wold have tane him ded or quik;
He folowed him to the cetè
City.
,
Naman lyfand
No man living.
met he.
Whan thai come to the kastel ȝate,
In he folowed fast tharate:
At aither entre was, I wys,
Straytly wroght a port culis,
Shod wele with yren and stele,
And also grunden
Ground. Sharpened.
wonder wele:
Under that then was a swyke
Switch. Twig.
That made syr Y wayn to myslike,
His hors fote toched thare on;
Than fel the port culis onone
Traps of this kind are not uncommon in romance. Thus sir Lancelot, walking round the chambers of a strange castle, treads on a board which throws him into a cave twelve fathoms deep. MORT. ARTH. B. xix. ch. vii.
,
Bytwyx him and his arsown,
Thorgh sadel and stede it smate al down,
His spores
Spurs.
of his heles it schare
Cut.
:
Than had Ywayne murnyng
Mourning.
mare
More.
,
Bot so he wend have passed quite
But even so he thought to have passed forward, through.
,
That fel the tother
The other portcullis
biforn alstyte.
A faire grace that fel him swa
So.
,
Al if it did his hors in twa
Twain.
,
And his spors of aither hele,
That himself passed so wele.
While sir Ywaine remains in this perilous confinement, a lady looks out of a wicket which opened in the wall of the gateway, and releases him. She gives him her ring,
I sal leve the har mi Ring
This ring is used in another adventure.
,
Bot ȝelde it me at myne askyng:
Whan thou ert broght of al thi payn
Ȝelde
Yeld.
it than to me ogayne:
Als the bark hilles
Covers.
the tre,
Right so sal my Ring do the;
When you in hand has the stane
Stone.
,
Der
Harm.
sal thai do the nane,
For the stane es of swilk might,
Of the sal men have na syght
No man will see you.
.
Wit ȝe
Know ye.
wel that sir Ywayne
Of thir wordes was ful fayne
Glad.
;
In at the dore sho hem led,
And did him sit opon hir bed,
A quylte ful nobil lay tharon,
Richer saw he never none, &c.
Here he is secreted. In the mean time, the Lord of the castle dies of his wounds, and is magnificently buried. But before the interment, the people of the castle search for sir Ywayne.
Half his stede thar fand thai
They found.
That within the ȝates
Gates.
lay;
Bot the knight thar fand thai noght:
Than was thar mekil sorow unsoght,
Dore ne window was thar nane,
Whar he myght oway gane.
Thai said he sold thare be laft
He still was there.
,
Or els he cowth of weche craft
Understood witchcraft.
,
Or he cowth of nygromancy,
Or he had wenges to fly.
Hastily than went thai all
And soght him in the maydens hall,
In chambers high es noght at hide,
And in solers
High chambers.
on ilka side.
Sir Ywayne saw ful wele al that,
And still opon the bed he sat:
Thar was nane that anes mynt
Unto the bed at smyte
i. e. On account of the ring.
a dynt
Never once
minded,
or thought, t
strike at the bed, not seeing him there.
:
Al about thai smate so fast,
That mani of thair wapins brast;
Mekyl sorow thai made ilkane,
For thai ne myght wreke thair lord bane.
Thai went oway with dreri chere,
And sone thar efter come the Bere
Bier.
;
A lady folowd white so mylk,
In al that lond was none swilk:
Sho wrang her fingers, outbraste the blode,
For mekyl wa
Great grief.
sho was nere wode
Mad.
;
Hir fayr har scho alto drogh
Drew. So in the LAY OF THE ERLE OF THOLOUSE, MSS. Mus. Ashmol. 45.
The erle hymselfe an ax
DROGH,
A hundred men that day he slough.
,
And ful oft fel sho down in swogh
Swoon.
;
Sho wepe with a ful dreri voice.
The hali water, and the croyce,
Was born bifore the procession;
Thar folowd mani a moder son.
Bifor the cors rade a knyght
On his stede that was ful wight
Swi
t.
;
In his armurs wele arayd,
With spere and target gudely grayd.
Than sir Ywayne herd the cry
Of the dole of tha
fayr lady, &c.
Sir Ywayne desires the damsel's permission to look at the lady of the deceased knight through a window. He falls in love with her. She passes her time in praying for his soul.
Unto his saul was sho ful hulde
Bound. Obligated.
:
Opon a sawter al of gulde
Psaltery, a harp, of gold.
,
To say the sal-mas
Soul mass. The mass of requi
m.
fast sho bigan.
The damsel
There is a damsel of this name in MORTE ARTHUR, B. vii. ch. xvi.
, whose name is Lunet, promises sir Ywaine an interview with the Lady. She uses many arguments to the Lady, and with much art, to shew the necessity of her marrying again, for the defence of her castle.
The mayden redies hir ful rath
Early. Soon.
,
Bilive she gert syr Ywayne bath
Made him bathe immediately.
,
And clad hym seym in gude scarlet,
Fororde
Furrured
Furred.
wel, and with gold fret
In another part of this romance, a knight is dressed by a lady.
A damisel come unto me,
Lufsumer lifed
Lovelier lived.
never in land;
Hendly scho
Courteously she
toke me by the hand,
And sone that gentyl c
eature
Al unlaced myne armure;
Into a chamber scho me led,
And with a mantel scho me cled,
It was of purpur fayr and fine,
And the pane
Border.
of riche ermine:
Al the folk war went us fra
From.
,
And thare was none than bot we twa
Two.
;
Scho served me hendely to hend,
Her maners might no man amend,
Of tong scho was trew and renable
Reasonable.
,
And of her semblant
Look.
soft and stabile;
Ful fain I wald
Would.
, if that I might,
Have woned
Lodged.
with that swete wight.
In MORTE ARTHUR, sir Launcelot going into a nunnery is unarmed in the abbess's chamber. B. xiii. ch. i. In MORTE ARTHUR, si
Galahad is dis
rmed, and cloathed
"in a cote of red sendall and a mantell
furred
with fyne ERMYNES, &c."
B. xiii. ch. i. In the British LAY or romance, of LAUNVAL (MSS. Cott
VESPAS. B. 14. 1.) we have,
Un cher mantel de BLANCHE ERMINE,
Couvert de purpre Alexandrine.
There is a statute, made in 1337, prohibiting any under 100l. per annum, to wear fur. I suppose the richest fur was Ermine; which, before the manufactures of gold and silver, was the greatest article of finery in dress. But it continued in use long afterwards, as appears by antient portraits. In the Statutes of Cardinal Wolsey's College at Oxford, given in the year 1525, the students are enjoned,
"Ne magis pretiosis aut sumptuosis utantur PELLIBUS."
De VESTITU, &c. fol. 49. MSS. Cott. TIT. F. iii. This injunction is a proof that rich furs were at that time a luxury of the secular life. In an old poem written in the reign of Henry the sixth, about 1436, entitled the ENGLISH POLICIE,
exhorting all England to keepe the sea,
a curious and valuable record of the state of our traffick and mercantile navigation at that period, it appears that our trade with Ireland, for furs only, was then very considerable. Speaking of Ireland, the writer says,
—Martens goode been her marchandie,
Hertes hides, and other of venerie,
Skinnes of otter
squirrell, and Irish hare;
Of sheepe, lambe, and foxe, is her chaffare.
See Hacklvyt's VOIAGES, Vol. i. p. 199. edit. 1598.
At the sacking of a town in Normandy, Froissart says,
"There was founde so moche rychesse, that the boyes and vyllaynes of the hooste sette nothynge by goode FURRED gownes."
Berners's Transl. tom. i. fol. lx. a.
;
A girdel ful riche for the nones,
Of perry and of precious stones.
Sho talde him al how he sold do
Whan that he come the lady to.
He is conducted to her chamber.
Bot ȝit sir Ywayne had grete drede,
Whan he unto chamber ȝede;
The chamber, flore, and als the bed,
With klothes of gold was al over spread
In the manners of romance, it was not any indelicacy for a lady to pay amorous courtship to a knight. Thus in Davie's GESTE OF ALEXANDER, written in 1312, queen Candace openly endeavours to win Alexander to her love. MS. penes me, p. 271. [Cod. Hospit. Linc. 150.] She shews Alexander, not only her palace, but her bed-chamber.
—Quoth the quene,
Go we now myn esteris to seone
To see my apartmen
s.
:
Oure mete schol, thar bytweone
Our dinner shall, meanwhile
,
Ygraithed
Prepared.
and redy beone
Be.
.
Scheo
She.
ladde him to an halle of nobleys,
Then he dude of his harneys
Put off his armour.
:
Of Troye was ther men
For
ther m
n,
read
therein,
MS. LAUD. 1. 74. Bibl. Bodl.
the storye
The story of Tro
was in the tapestry, or painted on the walls of the hall.
How Gregoys
Creek
.
had the victorye:
Theo bemes ther weore
The rafters were.
of bras.
Theo wyndowes weoren of riche glas
Painted glas
.
:
Theo pinnes
Of the window
.
weore of ivorye.
The king went with the ladye,
Himself alone, from bour to bour,
And syȝe
Saw.
much riche tresour,
Gold and seolver, and preciouse stones,
Baudekyns
Rich clothe
.
made for the nones
That i
for the occasion. So the paint
ng or tapestry, before mentioned, representing the Greek
v
c
or
u
, was in complime
t to Alexander.
,
Mantellis, robes, and pavelounes
Pavilions.
,
Of golde and seolver riche foysounes
Stores.
;
And heo
She.
him asked, par amour,
Ȝef he syȝe ever suche a tresour.
And he said, in his contray
Tresour he wiste
Knew.
of grete noblay.
Heo
She.
thoȝte more that heo saide.
To anothir stude sheo he gan him lede
ted
. Lodging
,
That hir owne chambre was,
In al this world richer none nas.
Theo atyr
The furniture.
was therein so riche
In al thys world nys him non lyche
None like it.
.
Heo ladde him to a stage,
And him schewed one ymage,
And saide, Alexander leif thou me
Believe.
,
This ymage is made after the
Them.
;
Y dude hit in ymagoure
Imagery.
,
And caste hit after thy vigoure
Figure.
;
This othir ȝeir, tho thou nolde
Would
st not.
To me come for love ne for golde,
Het is the ylyche
Lik
.
, leove brother
Dear Brother, or Friend.
,
So any faucon
A
one f
ulcon. In MSS. LAUD. I. 174. ut supr. it is p
ny, for faulcon.
is anothir.
O Alisaunder, of grete renoun,
Thou taken art in my prisoun!
Al thy streynthe helpethe the nowȝt,
For womman the haveth bycowȝt
Catched.
,
For womman the heveth in hire las
Her lace.
.
O, quoth Alisaunder, alas,
That I were yarmed
Here
y i
the Saxon i. See Hearne'
GL
RO
. GLOUC. p. 738.
wel,
And hed my sweord of browne stel,
Many an heid wolde y cleove,
Ar y wolde yn prison bileve
Be le
t. Stay. Even.
.
Alysaunder, heo saide, thou
aist soth,
Beo noither adrad no wroth
Neither a
righted nor angry.
;
For here, undir thi
covertour,
Y wil have the to myn amour, &c.
.
After this interview, she is reconciled to him, as he only in self-defence has slain her husband, and she promises him marriage.
Than hastily sho went to Hall,
Thar abode her barons all,
For to hald thair parlement
Assembly. Consultation.
,
And mari
Marry.
her by thair asent.
They agree to the marriage.
Than the lady went ogayne
Unto chamber to Ywayne;
Sir, sho said, so God me save,
Other lord will I nane have:
If I the left
Was I not to marry you.
I did noght right,
A king son, and a noble knyght.
Now has the maiden done hir thoght
Intention.
,
Syr Ywayne out of anger broght.
The Lady led him unto Hall,
Ogains
Against. Before.
him rose the barons all,
And at thai said ful sekerly,
This Knight sal wed the Lady:
And ilkane said thamself
Among themselves.
bitwene,
So fayr a man had thai noght sene,
For his bewte in hal and bowr:
Him semes to be an emperowr.
We walde that thai war trowth plight,
And weded sone this ilk nyght.
The lady set hir on the dese
Deis. The high-table. In the GESTE OF ALEXANDER we have the phrase of
lding the deis,
MS. ut supr. p. 45.
There was gynnyng a new feste,
And of gleomen many a geste,
King Philip was in mal ese,
Alisaundre HELD THE DES
.
,
And cumand al to hald thair pese
Peace.
;
And bad hir steward sumwhat say,
Or
Ere.
men went fra cowrt away.
The steward said, Sirs, understandes,
Wor
War.
is waxen
Growing.
in this landes;
The king Arthur is redy dight
To be here by this fowre tenyght:
He and his menȝe
Knights.
ha thoght
To win this land if thai moght:
Thai wate
Know.
ful wele, that he is ded
That was lorde here in this stede
Mansion. Castle.
:
None es so wight wapins
Active to wield weapons.
to welde,
Ne that so boldly mai us belde,
And wemen may maintene no stowr
Fight.
,
Thai most nedes have a governowr:
Tharfor mi lady most nede
Be weded hastily for drede
Fear.
,
And to na lord wil sho take tent
Attention.
,
Bot if it be by ȝowr assent.
Than the lordes al on raw
On a row.
Held them wele payd of this saw
Opinion. Word. It is of extensive signification, EMARE, MS. ut supr.
I have herd minstrelles syng in SAW.
.
Al assented hyr untill
Unto. So Rob. Brunne, of Stonehenge, edit. Hearne, p. cxci.
In Afrik were thai compast and wrought,
Geantz TILLE Ireland from thithen tham brought.
That is,
"Giants brought them from Africa
into
Ireland."
To tak a lord at hyr own wyll.
Than said the lady onone right,
How hald ȝe ȝow payd of this knight?
He profers hym on al wyse
To myne honor and my servyse,
And sertes, sirs, the soth to say,
I saw him never, er this day;
Bot talde unto me has it bene
He es the kyng son Uriene:
He es cumen of high parage
Kindred. So in the GESTE OF ALEXAND
R, MS. p. 258.
They wer men of gret parage,
And haden fowrty wynter in age.
,
And wonder doghty of vassalage
Courage.
,
War and wise, and ful curtayse,
He ȝernes
Eagerly wishes.
me to wife alwayse;
And nere the lese, I wate, he might
Have wele better, and so war right.
With a voice halely
Wholly.
thai sayd,
Madame, ful wele we hald us payd:
Bot hastes fast al that ȝe may,
That ȝe war wedded this ilk day:
And grete prayer gan thai make
On alwise, that sho suld hym take.
Sone unto the kirk thai went,
And war wedded in thair present;
Thar wedded Ywain in plevyne
Fr. Plevine. See Du Fresne. PLEVINA.
The riche lady ALUNDYNE,
The dukes doghter of Landuit,
Els had hyr lande bene destruyt.
Thus thai made the maryage
Amang al the riche barnage
Baronage.
:
Thai made ful mekyl mirth that day,
Ful grete festes on gude aray;
Grete mirthes made thai in that stede,
And al forgetyn es now the dede
Death.
Of him that was thair lord fre;
Thai say that this es worth swilk thre.
And that thai lufed him mekil more
Than him that lord was thare byfore.
The bridal
Bridal is Saxon for the nuptial feast. So in Davie's GESTE OF ALEXANDER. MS. fol. 41. penes me.
He wist nouȝt of this BRIDALE,
Ne no man tolde him the tale.
In GAMELYN, or the COKE'S. Tale, v. 1267.
At every BRIDALE he would sing and hop.
Spenser, FAERIE QU. B. v. C. ii. st. 3.
—Where and when the BRIDALE cheare
Should be solemnised.—
And, vi. x. 13.
—Theseus her unto his BRIDALE bore.
See also Spenser's PROTHALAMION. The word has been applied adjectively, for CONNUBIAL. Perhaps Milton remembered or retained its original use in the following passage of SAMSON AGONISTES, ver. 1196.
And in your ci
y held my nuptial feast:
But your ill-meaning politician lords,
Under pretence of BRIDAL friends and guests,
Appointed to await me thirty spies.
"Under pretence of friends and guests invited to the BRIDAL."
But in PARA
I
E LOST, he speaks of the evening star hastening to light the BRIDAL LAMP, which in another part of the same poem he calls the NUPTIAL TORCH. viii. 520. xi. 590. I presume this Saxon BRIDALE is Bride-Ale, the FEAST in honour of the
bride
or marriage. ALE, simply put, is the feast or the merry-making, as in PIERCE PLOWMAN, fol. xxxii. b. edit. 1550. 4to.
And then satten some and songe at the ALE [nale.]
Again, fol. xxvi. b.
I am occupied everie daye, holye daye and other,
With idle tales at the ALE, and otherwhile in churches.
So Chaucer of his FREERE, Urr. p. 87. v. 85.
And they were only glad to fill his purse,
And maden him grete festis at the NALE.
Nale
is ALE.
"They feasted him, or entertained him, with particular respect, at the parish
feast, &c."
Again, PLOWMAN'S TALE, p. 125. v. 2110.
At the
Wrestling,
and at the
Wake,
And the chief chaunters at the NALE.
See more instances supr. vol. i. 60. That ALE is
festival,
appears from its sense in composition; as, among others, in the word
Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitson-ale, Clerkale, and Church-ale. LEET-ALE, in some parts of England, signifies the Dinner at a court-leet of a manor for the jury and customary tenants. LAMB-ALE is still used at the village of Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, for an annual feast or celebrity at lambshearing. WHITSON-ALE, is the common name in the midland counties, for the rural sports and feasting at Whit
ontide. CLERK-ALE occurs in Aubrey's manuscript History of WILTSHIRE.
"In the Easter holidays was the CLARKES-ALE, for his private benefit and the solace of the neighbourhood."
MSS. Mus. ASHM. Oxon. CHURCH-ALE, was a feast established for the repair of the church, or in honour of the church-saint, &c. In Dodsworth's Manuscripts, there is an old indenture, made before the Reformation, which not only shews the design of the Church-ale, but explains this particular use and application of the word Ale. The parishioners of Elveston and Okebrook, in Derbyshire, agree jointly,
"to brew four ALES,
nd every ALE of one quarter of malt, betwixt this and the feast of saint John Baptist next coming. And that every inhabitant of the said town of Okebrook shall be at the several ALES. And every husband and hi
wife shall pay two pence, every cottager one penny, and all the inhabitants of Elveston shall have and receive all the profits and advantages coming of the said ALES, to the use and behoof of the said church of Elveston. And the inhabitants of Elveston shall brew eight ALES betwixt this and the feast of saint John Baptist, at the which ALES the inhabitants of Okebrook shall come and pay as before rehersed. And if he be away at one ALE, to pay at the toder ALE for both, &c."
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. vol. 148. f. 97. See also our CHURCH-CANONS, given in 1603. CAN. 88. The application of what is here collected to the word BRIDALE, is obvious. But Mr. Astle has a curious record, about 1575, which proves the BRIDE-ALE synonimous with the WEDDYN-ALE. During the course of queen Elisabeth's entertainments at Kenilworthcastle, in 1575, a BRYDE-ALE was celebrated with a great variety of shews and sports. Laneham's LETTER, dated the same year. fol. xxvi. seq. What was the nature of the merriment of the CHURCHALE, we learn from the WITCHES-SONG in Jonson's MASQUE OF QUEENS at Whitehall in 1609, where one of the Witches boa
ts to have killed and stole the fat of an infant, begotten by a piper at a CHURCH-ALE. S. 6.
Among bishop Tanner's manuscript additions to Cowell's Law-Glossary in the Bodleian library, is the following Note, from his own Collections. [Lit. V.]
"A. D. 1468. Prior Cant. et Commissarii visitationem fecerunt (diocesi Cant. vacante per mortem archiepiscopi) et ibi publicatum erat, quod Potationes factae in ecclesiis, vulgariter dictae YEVEALYS
Give-ales, or gift-ales.
, vel BREDEALYS
Bride-ales.
, non essent ulterius in usu sub paena excommunicationis majoris."
Had th
learned author of the Dissertation on BARLEY WINE been as well acquainted with the British as the Grecian literature, this long note would perhaps have been unnecessary.
sat, for soth to tell,
Till king Arthur come to the well
With al his knyghtes ever ilkane,
Byhind leved thar noght ane
One.
.—
The king kest water on the stane,
The storme rase ful sone onane
With wikked
Wicked is here,
accursed.
In which seuse it is used by Shakespeare's Caliban, TEMP. Act i. Sc. ii.
As WICKED dew as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather, &c.
weders, kene and calde,
Als it was byfore hand talde.
The king and his men ilkane
Wend tharwith to have bene slane,
So blew it store
Strong.
with slete and rayne:
And hastily gan syr Ywayne
To defend the fountain, the office of the lord of this castle.
,
Dight him graythly
Readily.
in his gere,
With nobil shelde, and strong spere:
When he was dight in seker wede,
Than he umstrade
Bestrode.
a nobil stede:
Him thoght that he was als lyght
Als a fowl es to the flyght.
Unto the Well fast wendes he,
And sone when thai myght him se,
Syr Kay, for he wald noght fayle,
Smertly askes the batayle.
And alsone than said the kyng,
Sir Kay, I grante thine askyng.
Sir Ywaine is victorious, who discovers himself to king Arthur after the battle.
And sone sir Ywayne gan him tell
Of al his fare how it byfell,
With the knight how that he sped,
And how he had the Lady wed;
And how the Mayden him helped well:
Thus talde he to hym ilka dele.
Syr kyng, he sayd, I ȝow byseke,
And al ȝowr menȝe milde and meke,
That ȝe wald grante to me that grace,
At
To.
wend with me to my purchase,
And se my Kastle and my Towre,
Than myght ȝe do me grete honowre.
The kyng granted him ful right
To dwel with him a fouretenyght.
Sir Ywayne thanked him oft sith
Oft-times.
,
The knyghtes war al glad and blyth,
With sir Ywayne for to wend:
And sone a squier has he send
Unto the kastel, the way he nome,
And warned the Lady of thair come,
And that his Lord come with the kyng.
And when the Lady herd this thing,
It es no lifand man with mowth
That half hir cumforth tel kowth.
Hastily that Lady hende
Cumand al her men to wende,
And dight tham in thair best aray,
To kepe the king that ilk day:
Thai keped
Waited on. See Tyrwh. GL. Ch.
him in riche wede
Rydeand on many a nobil stede;
Thai hailsed
Saluted.
him ful curtaysly,
And also al his cumpany:
Thai said he was worthy to dowt
To
ear.
,
That so fele folk led obowt
So large a train of knights.
:
Thar was grete joy, I ȝow bihete
Promise you.
,
With clothes spered
Tapestry spread on the walls.
in ilka strete,
And damysels danceand ful wele,
With trumpes, pipes, and with fristele:
The Castel and the Cetee rang
With mynstralsi and nobil sang.
Thai ordand tham ilkane in fere
To kepe the king on faire manere.
The Lady went withowten towne,
And with her many balde barowne,
Cled in purpure and ermyne,
With girdels al of golde ful fyne.
The Lady made ful m
ri chere,
Sho was al dight with drewries
Gallantries. Jewels. Davie says, that in one of Alexander'
battles, many a lady lost her drewery. GESTE AL
XANDER, MS. p. 86. Athens is called the
Drywery
of the world. ibid.
dere;
Abowt hir was ful mekyl thrang,
The puple cried and sayd omang,
Welcum ertou, kyng Arthoure,
Of al this werld thou beres the floure!
Lord kyng of all kynges,
And blissed be he that the brynges!
When the Lady the Kyng saw,
Unto him fast gan sho draw,
To hald his sterap whils he lyght;
Bot sone when he of hir had syght,
With mekyl mirth thai samen
Together.
met,
With hende wordes sho him gret;
A thousand sithes welkum sho says,
And so es syr Gawayne the curtayse.
The king said, Lady white so flowr,
God gif ye joy and mekyl honowr,
For thou ert fayr with body gent:
With that he hir in armes hent,
And ful fayre he gan her falde
Fold.
,
Thar was many to bihalde:
Et es no man with tong may tell
The mirth that was tham omell;
Of maidens was thar so gude wane
Assembly.
,
That ilka knight myght take ane.
The king stays here eight days, entertained with various sports.
And ilk day thai had solace sere
Of huntyng, and als of revere
Hawking. River.
:
For thar was a ful fayre cuntre,
With wodes and parkes grete plente;
And castels wroght with lyme and stane,
That Ywayne with his wife had tane
There are three old poems on the exploits of Gawain, one of the heroes of this romance. There is a fourth in the Scotch dialect, by Clerke of Tranent, an old Scotch poet. See LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF THE MAKKARIS, st. xvii.
Clerke of Tranent eke has [death] tane
That made the
Aventers
of GAWANE.
ANC. SCOTT. P. 1576.
The two heroes of this romance, YWAIN and GAWAIN, are mentioned jointly in a very old French version of the British or Armorican LAY OF LAUNVAL, of which there is a beautiful vellum manuscript. MSS. Cott. VESPAS. B. xiv. 1. [supr. modo citat.]
Ensemble od eus GAWAYNS,
E sis cosins li beus YWAYNS.
This LAY, or SONG, like the romance in the text, is opened with a feast celebrated at Whitsontide by king Arthur at Kardoyl, a French corruption from Carliol, by which is meant Cairleon in Wales, sometimes in romances confounded with Cardiff. [See Geoffr. Monm. ix 12.]
"Jci commence le Lay de LAUNVAL."
Laventure de un Lay,
Cum de avint uns cunteray,
Fait fu dun gentil vassal,
En Bretaigne lapelent LAUNVAL:
A Kardoyl suiornoit li reys
Arthur, li prouz, e li curteys,
Pur les Escot, e pur les Pis,
Ki destrueient le
pays;
En la terre de Logres
Logres, or Loegria, from Locrine, was the middle part of Britain.
le trououent,
Mult souent le damagouent:
A la Pentecuste en estè,
I aveit li reys sojournè,
A les i dona riches du
s,
E al cuntes
Counts. So in ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER, we have CONTAS
for
coun
ess,
On which word his editor Hearne observes, that king James the firs
used to call a
Countess
a
cuntys.
And he quotes one of James'
letters,
"Come and b
ing the three Cuntys [for
co
ntesses]
with you."
GLOS
, p. 635.
, e al baruns,
A uns de la Table R
nde, &c.
That is,
"HERE BEGINS THE LAY OF LAUNVAL.—The Adventure of a certain LAY, which has been related of old, made of a
gentle
vassal, whom in Bretaigne they called LAUNVAL. The brave and courteous king Arthur sojourned at Kardoyl, for making war against the Scots and Picts, who destroyed the country. He found them in the land of Logres, where they committed frequent outrages. The king was there at the feast of Pentecost, where he gave rich gifts to the counts and barons, and the knights of the round table, &c."
The writing of this manuscript of LAUNVAL seems about 1300. The composition is undoubtedly much earlier. There is another, MSS. HARL. 978. §. 112. This I have cited in the FIRST DISSERTATION. From this French LAUNVAL is translated, but with great additions, the English LAUNFALL, of which I have given several extracts in the DISSERTATION prefixed to this Volume, p. lxxv. &c. [See also supr. Vol. ii. EMEND. ADD. ad Pag. 103.]
I presume this romance of YWAYN and GAWAYNE is translated from a French one of the same title, and in the reign of Henry the sixth; but not by Thomas Chestre, who translated, or rather paraphrased, LAUNVAL, or Sir LAUNFALL, and who seems to have been master of a more copious and poetic style. It is not however unlikely, that Chestre translated from a more modern Fre
ch copy of LAUNVAL, heightened and improved from the old simple Armorican tale, of which I have here produced a short extract. [See supr. Vol. ii. p. 102.] The same perhaps may be said of the English metrical romance EMARE, who marries the king of Galys, or Wales, originally an Armorican tale, before quoted. MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 69. [See supr. DISS. p. lxxviii.] The last stanza confirms what has been advanced in the FIRST DISSERTATION, concerning the connection between Cornwall and Bretagne, or Armorica. fol. ult.
A grette feste thar was holde
Of erles and barons bolde
As testymonieth thys story:
Thys is on of BRYTAYNE LAYES,
That was used in olde dayes,
Men callys playn the GARYE.
I believe the last line means,
"Made for an entertainment,"
—
"Which men call playing the GARYE."
The reader may perhaps recollect, that the old Cornish Miracle interlude was called the
Guary Mirakil,
that is, the
Miracle Play.
[See supr. Vol. i. p. 237.] In Cornish,
Plán an guare
is the level place, the plain of sport and pastime, the theatre of games, &c.
Guare
is a Cornish verb, to sport, to play. In affinity with which, is probably
Garish,
gay, splendid. Milton, IL PENS. v. 141. Day's
garish
eye. Shakespeare, ROM. JUL. iii. 4. The
garish
sun. KING RICHARD THE THIRD. A
garish
flag. Compare Lye, Sax. Dict. V. Zeapp
an. To dress fine.
Who was the translator of EMARE, it is not known. I presume it was translated in the reign of Henry the sixth, and very probably by Thomas Chestre, the translator of LAUNVAL.
.
SECT. XXVI.
I FEAR I shall be pronounced a heretic to modern criticism, in retracting what I have said in a preceding page, and in placing the NOTBROWNE MAYDE under some part of this reign. Prior, who, about the year 1718, paraphrased this poem, without improving its native beauties, supposes it to have been three hundred years old. It appears from two letters preserved in the British Museum, written by Prior to Wanley, lord Oxford's librarian, that Prior consulted Wanley about this antient ballad
MSS. HARL. 3777.
. It is, however, certain, that Wanley, an antiquarian of unquestionable skill and judgement in these niceties, whatever directions and information he might have imparted to Prior on this subject, could never have communicated such a decision. He certainly in these letters gives no such opinion
These letters are printed in the ADDITIONS TO POPE'S WORKS, in two volumes, published about two years ago.
. This is therefore the hasty conjecture of Prior; who thought that the curiosity which he was presenting to the world, would derive proportionable value from its antiquity, who was better employed than in the petty labour of ascertaining dates, and who knew much more of modern than antient poetry.
The NOT-BROWNE MAYDE first appeared in Arnolde's CHRONICLE, or CUSTOMS OF LONDON, which was first printed about the year 1521. This is perhaps the most heterogeneous and multifarious miscellany that ever existed. The collector sets out with a catalogue of the mayors and sheriffs, the customs and charters, of the city of London. Soon afterwards we have receipts to pickle sturgeon, to make vinegar, ink, and gunpowder; how to raise parsley in an hour; the arts of brewery and soap-making; an estimate of the livings in London; an account of the last visitation of saint Magnus's church; the weight of Essex cheese, and a letter to cardinal Wolsey. The NOT-BROWNE MAYDE is introduced, between an estimate of some subsidies paid into the exchequer, and directions for buying goods in Flanders. In a word, it seems to have been this compiler's plan, by way of making up a volume, to print together all the notices and papers, whether antient or modern, which he could amass, of every sort and subject. It is supposed, that he intended an antiquarian repertory: but as many recent materials were admitted, that idea was not at least uniformly observed; nor can any argument be drawn from that supposition, that this poem existed long before, and was inserted as a piece of antiquity.
The editor of the PROLUSIONS infers
PROLUSIONS, or
select pieces of antient Poetry,
Lond. 1760. 4to. Pref. p. vii.
, from an identity of rhythmus and orthography, and an affinity of words and phrases, that this poem appeared after sir Thomas More's JEST OF THE SERJEANT AND FREER, which, as I have observed, was written about the year 1500. This reasoning, were not other arguments obvious, would be inconclusive, and might be turned to the opposite side of the question. But it is evident from the language of the NOTBROWNE MAYDE, that it was not written earlier than the beginning, at least, of the sixteenth century. There is hardly an obsolete word, or that requires a glossary, in the whole piece: and many parts of Surry and Wyat are much more difficult to be understood. Reduce any two stanzas to modern orthography, and they shall hardly wear the appearance of antient poetry. The reader shall try the experiment on the two following, which occur accidentally
V. 168.
.
Yet take good hede, for ever I drede
That ye could nat sustayne,
The thornie wayes, the depe valèis,
The snowe, the frost, the rayne,
The colde, the hete: for, dry or wete,
We must lodge on the playne;
And us abofe
i. e. Above.
none other rofe
But a brake bush, or twayne.
Which sone sholde greve you, I believe;
And ye wolde gladly than,
That I had to the grene wode go
Alone a banyshed man.—
Among the wylde dere, such an archère,
As men say that ye be,
May ye not fayle of good vitayle
Where is so grete plentè:
And water clere of the ryvère
Shall be full swete to me;
With which in hele, I shall ryght wele
Endure, as ye shall see:
And, or we go, a bedde or two
I can provyde anone.
For, in my mynde, of all mankynde
I love but you alone.
The simplicity of which passage Prior has thus decorated and dilated.
Those limbs, in lawn and softest silk array'd,
From sun-beams guarded, and of winds afraid;
Can they bear angry Jove? can they resist
The parching dog-star, and the bleak north-east?
When, chill'd by adverse snows and beating rain,
We tread with weary steps the longsome plain;
When with hard toil we seek our evening food,
Berries and acorns from the neighbouring wood;
And find among the cliffs no other house,
But the thin covert of some gather'd boughs;
Wilt thou not then reluctant send thine eye
Around the dreary waste; and weeping try
(Though then, alas! that trial be too late)
To find thy father's hospitable gate,
And seats, where ease and plenty brooding sate?
Those seats, whence long excluded thou must mourn;
That gate, for ever barr'd to thy return:
Wilt thou not then bewail ill-fated love,
And hate a banish'd man, condemn'd in woods to rove?
Thy rise of fortune did I only wed,
From it's decline determin'd to recede;
Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of a summer's sea:
While gentle Zephyrs play in prosperous gales,
And Fortune's favour fills the swelling sails;
But would forsake the ship, and make the shore,
When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar?
No, Henry, no: one sacred oath has tied
Our loves; one destiny our life shall guide;
Nor wild nor deep our common way divide.
When from the cave thou risest with the day,
To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey,
The cave with moss and branches I'll adorn,
And cheerful sit, to wait my lord's return:
And, when thou frequent bring'st the smitten deer
(For seldom, archers say, thy arrows err,)
I'll fetch quick fuel from the neighbouriug wood,
And strike the sparklng flint, and dress the food;
With humble duty and officious haste,
I'll cull the farthest mead for thy repast;
The choicest herbs I to thy board will bring,
And draw thy water from the freshest spring:
And, when at night with weary toil opprest,
Soft slumbers thou enjoy'st, and wholesome rest;
Watchful I'll guard thee, and with midnight prayer
Weary the Gods to keep thee in their care;
And joyous ask, at morn's returning ray,
If thou hast health, and I may bless the day.
My thoughts shall fix, my latest wish depend,
On thee, guide, guardian, kinsman, father, friend:
By all these sacred names be Henry known
To Emma's heart; and grateful let him own,
That she, of all mankind, could love but him alone!
What degree of credit this poem maintained among our earlier ancestors, I cannot determine. I suspect the sentiment was too refined for the general taste. Yet it is enumerated among the popular tales and ballads by Laneham, in his narrative of queen Elisabeth's entertainment at Kenilworth-castle in 1575
ol. 34
. I have never seen it in manuscript. I believe it was never reprinted from Arnolde's Chronicle, where it first appeared in 1521, till so late as the year 1707. It was that year revived in a collection called the MONTHLY MISCELLANY, or MEMO
RS FOR THE CURIOUS, and prefaced with a little essay on our antient poets and poetry, in which it is said to have been three hundred old. Fortunately for modern poetry, this republication suggested it to the notice of Prior, who perhaps from the same source might have adopted or confirmed his hypothesis, that it was coeval with the commencement of the fifteenth century.
Whoever was the original inventor of this little dramatic dialogue, he has shewn no common skill in contriving a plan, which powerfully detains our attention, and interests the passions, by a constant succession of suspence and pleasure, of anxiety and satisfaction. Betwixt hopes perpetually disappointed, and solicitude perpetually relieved, we know not how to determine the event of a debate, in which new difficulties still continue to be raised, and are almost as soon removed. In the midst of this vicissitude of feelings, a striking contrast of character is artfully formed, and uniformly supported, between the seeming unkindness and ingratitude of the man, and the unconquerable attachment and fidelity of the woman, whose amiable compliance unexpectedly defeats every objection, and continually furnishes new matter for our love and compassion. At length, our fears subside in the triumph of suffering innocence and patient sincerity. The Man, whose hard speeches had given us so much pain, suddenly surprises us with a change of sentiment, and becomes equally an object of our admiration and esteem. In the disentanglement of this distressful tale, we are happy to find, that all his cruelty was tenderness, and his inconstancy the most invariable truth; his levity an ingenious artifice, and his perversity the friendly disguise of the firmest affection. He is no longer an unfortunate exile, the profligate companion of the thieves and ruffians of the forest, but an opulent earl of Westmoreland; and promises, that the lady, who is a baron's daughter, and whose constancy he had proved by such a series of embarrassing proposals, shall instantly be made the partner of his riches and honours. Nor should we forget to commend the invention of the poet, in imagining the modes of trying the lady's patience, and in feigning so many new situations: which, at the same time, open a way to description, and to a variety of new scenes and images.
I cannot help observing here, by the way, that Prior has misconceived and essentially marred his poet's design, by softening the sternness of the Man, which could not be intended to admit of any degree of relaxation. Henry's hypocrisy is not characteristically nor consistently sustained. He frequently talks in too respectful and complaisant a style. Sometimes he calls Emma my
tender maid,
and my
beauteous Emma;
he fondly dwells on the ambrosial plenty of her flowing ringlets gracefully wreathed with variegated ribbands, and expatiates with rapture on the charms of her snowy bosom, her slender waist, and harmony of shape. In the antient poem, the concealed lover never abates his affectation of rigour and reserve, nor ever drops an expression which may tend to betray any traces of tenderness. He retains his severity to the last, in order to give force to the conclusion of the piece, and to heighten the effect of the final declaration of his love. Thus, by diminishing the opposition of interests, and by giving too great a degree of uniformity to both characters, the distress is in some measure destroyed by Prior. For this reason, Henry, during the course of the dialogue, is less an object of our aversion, and Emma of our pity. But these are the unavoidable consequences of Prior's plan, who presupposes a long connection between the lovers, which is attended with the warmest professions of a reciprocal passion. Yet this very plan suggested another reason, why Prior should have more closely copied the cast of his original. After so many mutual promises and protestations, to have made Henry more obdurate, would have enhanced the sufferings and the sincerity of the amiable Emma.
It is highly probable, that the metrical romances of RICHARD CUER DE LYON, GUY EARL OF WARWICK, and SYR BEVYS OF SOUTHAMPTON, were modernised in this reign from more antient and simple narrations. The first was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1528
In quarto. See supr. Vol. i
p, 150. seq.
. The second without date, but about the same time, by William Copland. I mean that which begins thus,
Ithen the tyme that God was borne,
And cryst
ndome was set and sworne.
With this colophon.
"Here endeth the booke of the most victoryous prynce Guy earle of Warwyk. Imprinted at London in Lothbury, over against saynt Margaret's church by Wyllyam Copland
In octavo.
."
Richard Pinson prin
ed SIR BEVYS without date. Many quarto prose romances were printed between the years 1510 and 1540
See supr. p. 58.
. Of these, KYNGE APPOLYN OF THYRE is not one of the worst.
In the year 1542, as it seems, Robert Wyer printed,
"Here begynneth a lytell boke named the SCOLE HOWSE. wherein every man may rede a goodly Prayer of the condycyons of women."
Within the leaf is a border of naked women. This is a satire against the female sex. The writer was wise enough to suppress his name, as we may judge from the following passage.
Trewly some men there be,
That lyve alwaye in greate horroure;
And say, it goth by destenye
To hange or wed, both hath one houre:
And whether it be, I am well sure,
Hangynge is better of the twayne,
Sooner done, and shorter payne.
In the year 1521, Wynkyn de Worde printed a sett of Christmas Carols
For many small miscellaneous pieces under the reign of Henry viii, the more inquisitive reader is referred to MSS. Cott. VESP. A. 25.
. I have seen a fragment of this scarce book, and it preserves this colophon.
"Thus endeth the Christmasse carolles newly imprinted at London in the Flete-strete at the sygne of the sonne by Wynkyn de Worde. The yere of our Lorde, M. D. XXI
In quarto.
."
These were festal chansons for enlivening the merriments of the Christmas celebrity: and not such religious songs as are current at this day with the common people under the same title, and which were substituted by those enemies of innocent and useful mirth the puritans. The boar's head soused, was antiently the first dish on Christmas day, and was carried up to the principal table in the Hall with great state and solemnity. Hollinshead says, that in the year 1170, upon the day of the young prince's coronation, king Henry the first
"served his sonne at the table as sewer, bringing up the BORES HEAD with trumpets before it according to the manner
CHRON. iii. 76. See also Polyd. Virg. HIST. p
212. 10. ed. 1534.
."
For this indispensable ceremony, as also for others of that season, there was a Carol, which Wynkyn de Worde has given us in the miscellany just mentioned, as it was sung in his time, with the title,
"A CAROL bryngyng in the bores head."
Caput Apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.
The bores head in hande bringe I,
With garlandes gay and rosemary.
I pray you all synge merely,
Qui estis in convivio.
The bores head, I understande,
Is the chefe servyce
That is, the chief dish served at a feast.
in this lande:
Loke wherever it be fande
Found.
Servite cum cantico.
Be gladde lordes, both more and lasse
Great and small.
,
For this hath ordayned our stewarde
To chere you all this christmasse,
The bores head with mustarde.
This carol, yet with many innovations, is retained at Queen's college in Oxford. Other antient Christmas carols occur with Latin Burthens or Latin intermixtures. As thus,
Puer nobis natus est de Virgine Maria.
Be glad lordynges, be the more or lesse,
I brynge you tydynges of gladnesse
MSS. HARL. 5396. fol. 4. fol. 18.
.
The Latin scraps were banished from these jocund hymns, when the Reformation had established an English liturgy. At length appeared,
"Certaine of David's Psalmes intended for Christmas Carolls fitted to the most sollempne tunes every where familiarlie used, by William Slatyer, printed by Robert Yong 1630
In octavo.
."
It was impossible that the Reformation of religion could escape without its rhyming libels. Accordingly, among others, we have,
"An Answer to a papystical exhortation, pretending to avoyd false doctrine, under that colour to mayntayne the same,"
printed in 1548, and beginning,
Every pilde
P
lled, i. e. bald.
pedlar
Will be a medlar.
In the year 1533, a proclamation was promulged, prohibiting evil-disposed persons to preach, either in public or private,
"After their
own braine,
and by playing of enterludes, and printing of false fond bookes, ballades, rhymes, and other lewd treatyses in the English tongue, concerning doctrines in matters now in question and controversie, &c
FOX, MARTYROLOG. f. 1339. edit. 1576.
."
But this popular mode of attack, which all understood, and in which the idle and unlearned could join, appears to have been more powerful than royal interdictions and parliamentary censures.
In the year 1540, Thomas lord Cromwell, during the short interval which Henry's hasty passion for Catharine Howard permitted between his commitment and execution, was insulted in a ballad written by a defender of the declining cause of popery, who certainly shewed more zeal than courage, in reproaching a disgraced minister and a dying man. This satire, however unseemly, gave rise to a religious controversy in verse, which is preserved in the archives of the antiquarian society.
I find a poem of thirty octave stanzas, printed in 1546, called the DOWFAL OF ANTICHRISTES MAS, or Mass, in which the nameless satirist is unjustly severe on the distresses of that ingenious class of mechanics who got their living by writing and ornamenting service-books for the old papistic worship, now growing into decay and disuse; insinuating at the same time, in a strain of triumph, the great blow their
craft
had received, by the diminution of the number of churches in the dissolution of the monasteries
In a roll of John Morys, warden of Winchester college, an. xx Ric. ii. A. D. 1397, are large articles of disbursement for grails, legends, and other service-books for the choir of the chapel, then just founded. It appears that they bought the parchment; and hired persons to do the business of writing, illuminating, noting, and binding, within the walls of the college. As thus.
"
Item
in xi doseyn iiij pellibus emptis pro i legenda integra, que incipit folio secundo
Quia dixerunt,
continente xxxiiij quaterniones, (pret. doseyn iiij s. vi d. pret. pellis iiij d. ob.) li s.
Item
in scriptura ejusdem Legende, lxxij s. Et in illuminacione et ligacione ejusdem, xxx
.
Item
in vj doseyn de velym emptis pro factura vj Processionalium, quorum quilibet continet xv quaterniones, (pret. doseyn iiij
. vi d) xxvij
. Et in scrip
ura, notacione, illuminacione, et ligacion
corundem, xxxiij s."
The highest cost of one of these books is, 7l. 13 s. Vellum, for this purpose, made an article of
staurum
or store. As,
"
Item
in vj doseyn de velym emptis in staurum pro aliis libris inde faciendis, xxxiiij s. xj d."
The books were covered with deer-skin. As,
"
Item
in vj p
llibus cervinis emptis pro libris predictis cooperiendis, xiij s. iiij d."
In another roll (xix Ric. ii. A. D. 1396.) of warden John Morys abovementioned, disbursements of diet for SCRIPTORES enter into the quarterly account of that article.
"EXPENSE extraneorum superveniencium, iij SCRIPTORUM, viij serviencium, et x choristarum, ix l. iiij s. x d."
The whole diet expences this year, for strangers, writers, servants, and choristers, amount to 20l. 19s. 10d. In another roll of 1399, (Rot. Co
p. B
rss. 22 Ric. ii.) writers are in commons weekly with the regular members of the society.
. It is, however, certain, that this busy and lucrative occupation was otherwise much injured by the invention and propagation of typography, as several catholic rituals were printed in England: yet still they continued to employ writers and illuminators for this purpose. The finest and the latest specimen of this sort I have seen, is Cardinal Wolsey's LECTIONARY, now preserved at Christ-church in Oxford, a prodigious folio on vellum, written and embellished with great splendor and beauty by the most elegant artists, either for the use of his own private chapel, or for the magnificent chapel which he had projected for his college, and peculiarly characteristic of that prelate's predominant ideas of ecclesiastic pomp.
Wynkyn de Worde printed a TRETISE OF MERLYN, or his prophesies in verse, in 1529. Another appeared by John Hawkyns, in 1533. Metrical and prosaic prophesies attributed to the magician Merlin, all originating from Geoffrey of Monmouth's historical romance, and of oriental growth, are numerous and various. Merlin's predictions were successively accommodated by the minstrel-poets to the politics of their own times. There are many among the Cotton manuscripts, both in French and English, and in other libraries
See Geoffr. Monm. vii. 3. And Rob. Glouc. p. 132. 133. seq. 254. 256. Of the authority of Merlin's Prophesies in England in 1216, See Wykes's CHRON. sub ann. Merlin's Prophesies w
re printed in French at Paris, in 1498. And MERLINI VITAE ET PROPHETIAE, at Venice, 1554.
. Laurence Minot above-cited, who wrote about 1360, and in the northern dialect, has applied some of them to the numerous victories of Edward the third
MS. GAL
. E. ix. ut supr.
. As thus.
Men may rede in Romance
In another place Minot calls the book on which his narrative is founded, the ROMANCE.
How Edward, als the Rom
nce sai
s,
Held his sege before Calais.
ryght,
Of a grete clerke that MERLIN hight:
Ful many bokes er of him wreten,
Als thir clerkes wele may witten
As scholars well know.
;
And ȝit
And yet.
in many prive nokes
Privy nooks.
May men find of Merlin bokes.
Merlin said thus with his his mouth,
Out of the North into the Sowth,
Suld cum a Bare
Should come a Boar. This Boar is king Arthur in Merlin's Prophesies.
over the se,
That suld mak many men to fle;
And in the se, he said, ful right,
Suld he schew
Should he shew.
ful mekill myght:
And in France he suld bigin
Begin.
To make tham wrath that are thare in:
Untill the se his taile reche sale
His tail shall reach to the sea.
,
All folk of France to mekill bale
To the great destruction of the French.
.
Thus have I mater for to make
For a nobill Prince
That is, king Edward the third.
sake.
Help me, God, my wit is thin
Weak. Tenuis.
,
Now LAURENCE MINOT will bigin.
A Bore is broght on bankes bare l ,
With ful batail bifor his brest,
For John
King John.
of France will he noght spare
In Normandy to take his rest.—
At Cressy whan tha
brak the brig
Bridge.
,
That saw Edward with both his ine
Eyne. Eye
.
;
Than liked him no langer to lig
Lie idle.
,
Ilk Inglis man on others rig
The English ran over one another. Pressed forward.
;
Over that watir er thai went
Fro
ssart calls this the passage or ford of Blanch taque. B. i. ch. cxxvii. Berners's Transl. fol. lxiii. a.
,
To batail er thai baldly big,
With brade ax
Broad
ax. Battle-ax.
, and with bowes bent,
With bent bowes thai war ful bolde,
For to fell of
Fall upon.
the Frankish men.
Thai gert
Cau
ed.
them lig with cares cold.
Full sari
Sorry.
was sir Philip
Philip of Valois, son of John king of France.
then:
He saw the town of Ferrum
Perhaps Vernon.
bren
Burn.
,
And folk for ferd war fast fleand
Flying for fear.
:
The teres he let ful rathly
Quickly. Fast, run.
ren
Out of his eghen
Eyes.
, I understand.
Than cum Philip, ful redy dight,
Toward the toun with all his rowt;
With him come mani a kumly knight,
And all umset
Beset.
the Boar obout:
The Boar made them ful law to lout,
And delt tham knokkes to thair mede
Reward.
,
He gert tham stumbell that war stowt.
Thar helpid noather staf ne stede
Lance
and horses were now of no service.
.
Stedes strong bileved still
Stood still. Bleve. Sax. Chauc. TR. CR. iv. 1357.
Biside Cressy opon the grene
A plain. So in Minot's Siege of Tournay, MSS. ibid.
A Bore with brenis bright
Es broght opon ȝowre grene,
That as a semely s
ȝht,
With schilterouns faire and sch
n
.
.
Sir Philip wanted all his will
That was wele on his sembland
Countenance.
sene,
With spere and schelde, and helmis schene
Bright helmets.
,
Thai Bare than durst thai noght habide
They could no longer withstand the Boar.
.
The king of Beme
John king of Bohemia. Ey Froissart he is called inaccurately the king of Behaigne, or Charles of Luxemburgh. See Froissart, ut supr. fol. lxiv. b. The lord Charles of Bohemia,
is son, was also in the battle and killed, being lately elected emperor. Hollinsh. iii. 372.
was cant and kene
Gay. Alert.
,
Bot thaire he left both play and pride.
Pride in prese ne prais I noght
I cannot praise the mer
pomp of royalty.
.
Omong thair princes proud in pall,
Princes should be well bithoght
Advised. Prepared.
When kinges suld them tell
To.
Counsaill call.
The same boar, that is, Edward the third, is introduced by Minot as resisting the Scottish invasion in 1347, at Nevil's cross near Durham
The reader will recollect, that this versification is in the structure of that of the LIVES OF THE SAINTS, where two lines are thrown into one. [See supr. Vol. ii. EM. ADD. at p. 14.] viz. VNDECIM MILLIA VIRGINUM. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. 57.
Ellevene thousand virgines, that fair companye was,
Imartird wer for godis sone, ich wille telle that cas.
A kyng ther was in Bretaygne, Maur was his name,
A douȝter he hadde that het Vrse, a mayde of guod fame.
So fair woman me nyste non, ne so guod in none poynte,
Cristene was al hire ken, swithe noble and queynte:
Of hire fairhede and guodnesse me told in eche sonde side,
That the word com into Engelonde, and elles wher wide.
A kyng ther wa
in Engelonde, man of gret powèr,
Of this maide he herde telle gret nobleiȝe far and ner.
The minstrel, who used the perpetual return of a kind of plain chant, made his pause or close at every hemistic. In the same manner, the verses of the following poem were divided by the minstrel. MSS. Cott. JUL. V. fol. 175. Pergamen. [The transcript is not later than the year 1300.]
Als ẏ yod on a Monday, by twene Wittingdon and Walle,
Me ane after brade way, a litel man ẏ mette withalle,
The le
t man that ever ẏ sathe, to say owther in boure other in halle,
His robe was nother grene ne gray, bot alle yt was of riche palle.
On me he cald and bade me bide, well still ẏ stoode ay little space;
Fro Lanchester the Parke syde, then he come wel faire his pace:
I biheld that litell man, bi the strete al
we gon gae
Went on.
,
His berde was syde ay large span, and glided als the fether of pae
Hi
beard w
a sp
n broad, and shone like a peacock'
plumage.
.
His heved
Head.
was whyte as any snawe, his higehen
Eyes.
were gret and grai, &c.
His robe was al golde biganne, well cristlik made i undurstande,
Botones asurd everwick ane, from his elbouthe to his hande
Buttons, every one of them azure, fr
m hi
lbow
o his hand.
.
They enter a castle.
The bankers on the binkes lay
Cushions, or t
pestry, on the benche
laid.
, and faire lordes sette ẏ fonde,
In ilk ay hirn ẏ herd ay lay, and levedys southe me loud songe
In every corner I h
rd
L
y, and l
die
, &c.
.
.
Sir David the Bruse
David Bruce, king of Scotland. See P. LANGTOET, p. 116.
Was at distance,
When Edward the baliolfe
Warlike.
,
Rade
Rode.
with his lance:
The north end of Ingland,
Teached him to dance,
When he was met on the more,
With mekill mischance.
Sir Philip the Valayce,
May him not avance
Could do him no service.
,
The flowres that faire wer,
Er
Are.
fallen in France!
The flowres er now fallen,
That fers
Fierce.
wer and fell,
A Bare
Boar.
with his bataille,
Has done tham to dwell.
Sir David the Bruse,
Said he sulde fonde
Should attempt.
To ride thurgh all Ingland,
Wold he noght wonde
Wander in going.
:
At the Westminster Hall,
Sulde his stedes stonde,
Whils oure king Edward
War out of the londe
MSS. ut supr. GALB. E. ix.
.
Also in Edward's victory over the Spaniards in a sea-fight, in 1350, a part of Minot's general subject.
I wold noght spare for to speke,
Wist I to spede,
Of wight men with wapin
Active with weapons.
,
And worthly in wede.
That now are driven to dale
Sorrow.
,
And ded all thaire dede,
Thai saile in the sea-gronde
Sea-bottom.
,
Fisches for to fede!
Fele
Many.
Fisches thai fede,
For all thaire grete fare
Feasting.
,
It was in the waniand
Q. Waning of the Moon?
That thai come thare.
Thai sailed furth in the Swin
In a somers tyde,
With trompès and taburnes
Tambourins. Tabours or drums. In Chaucer we have TABOURE, Fr. to drum.
,
And mikell other pryde
MSS. ut supr.
.
I have seen one of Merlin's PROPHESIES, probably translated from the French, which begins thus.
Listeneth now to Merlin's saw,
And I woll tell to aw
All.
,
What he wrat for men to come,
Nother by greffe ne by plume
I know not when this piece was written. But the word
greffe
is old French for
Graphium,
or
Stylus.
It is generally supposed, and it has been positively asserted by an able French antiquary, that the antient Roman practice of writing with a style on wa
en tablets, lasted not longer than the fifth century. Hearne also supposes that the pen had succeeded to the style long before the age of Alfred. Lel. ITIN. Vol. vii. PREF. p. xxi. I will produce an instance of this practice in England so late as the year 1395. In an accompt-roll of Winchester college, of that year, is the following disbursement.
"Et in i tabula ceranda cum viridi c
ra pro intitulatione capellanorum et clericorum Capelle ad missas et alia psallenda, viij
d
Viz.
"COMPUTUS magistri Johis Morys Custodis a die Sabbati proxime post sestum Annunciationis beate Mari
anno regni Regis Ricardi secundi post conquestum xv
j
, usque diem Veneris proxime ante
estum sancti Micha
lls extunc proxime sequens anno regis predicti xviijvo , vidlt per xxvj septimanas."
It is indorsed,
"Computus primus post ingres
um in Colle
ium, Anno octavo post inceptionem Operis."
."
This very curious and remarkable article signifies, that a tablet covered with green wax was kept in the chapel, for noting down with a style, the respective courses of daily or weekly portions of duty, alternately assigned to the officers of the choir. So far, indeed, from having ceased in the fifth century, it appears that this mode of writing continued throughout all the dark ages. Among many express proofs that might be produced of the centuries after that period, Du Cange cites these verses from a French metrical romance, written about the year 1376. Lat. GLOSS. V. GRAPHIUM
See ibid. STYLI
ONU
.
.
Les uns se prennent a ecrire,
Des greffes
Styl
. Lat.
Grapbium.
en tables de cire;
Les autres suivent la coustume
De fournir lettres a la plume.
Many ample and authentic records of the royal houshold of France, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, written on waxen tablets, are still preserved. Waxen tablets were constantly kept in the French religious houses, for the same purpose as at Winchester college. Thus in the Ordinary of the Priour of saint Lo at Rouen, printed at Rouen, written about the year 1250.
"Qui, ad missam, lectiones aut tractus dicturi sunt, in tabula cerea primitus recitentur."
pag. 261. Even to this day, several of the collegiate bodies in France, more especially the chapter of the cathedral of Rouen, retain this usage of marking the successive rotation of the ministers of the choir. See the Sieur le Brun's VOYAGE LITURGIQUE, 1718. p. 275. The same mode of writing was used for registering the capitular acts of the monasteries in France. Du Cange, in reciting from an antient manuscript the
Signs
injoined to the monks of the order of saint Victor at Paris, where the rule of silence was rigorously observed, gives us, among others, the tacit signals by which they called for the style and tablet.
"
Pro
SIGNO
Grafii.
—Signo metalli praemisso, extenso pollice cum indice simila [simula] scribentem.
Pro
SIGNO
Tabularum.
—Manus ambas complica, et ita disjunge quasi aperiens Tabulas."
GLOSS. ut supr. V. SIGNA. tom iii. p. 866. col. 2. edit. vet. Among the implements of writing allowed to the Carthusians,
Tabulae
and
Graphium
are enumerated. Statut. Antiq. CARTHUSIAN. 2 part. cap. xvi. §. 8. This, however, at Winchester college, is the only express specification which I have found of the practice, in the religious houses of England
But see Wanley's account of the text of S. Chad CATAL. Codd. Anglo-S
x. p. 289. seq.
. Yet in many of our old col
egiate establishments it seems to be pointed out by
mplication: and the article here extracted from the roll at Winchester college, explains the manner of keeping the following injunction in the Statutes of saint Elisabeth's college at Winchester, now destroyed, which is a direction of the same kind, and cannot be well understood without supposing a waxen tablet. These statutes were given in 1301.
"Habeat itaque idem praecentor unam Tabulam semper in capella appensam, in qua scribat quolib
t die sabbati post prandium, et ordinet, qualem Missam quis corum capellanorum in sequenti septimana debeat celebrare; quis qualem lectionem in crastino legere debeat; Et sic de caeteris divinis officiis in praedicta capella faciendis. Et sic cotidie post prandium ordinet idem praecentor de servicio diei sequentis: hoc diligentius observando, quod capellani Missam, ad quam die sabbati, ut praemittitur, intitulantur, per integram celebrent septimanam."
Dugd. MONAST. tom. iii. ECCLES. COLL. i. 10. Nothing could have been a more convenient method of temporary notation, especially at a time when parchment and paper were neither cheap nor common commodities, and of carrying on an account, which was perpetually to be obliterated and renewed: for the written surface of the wax being easily smoothed by the round or blunt end of the style, was soon again prepared for the admission of new characters. And among the Romans, the chief use of the style was for fugitive and occasional entries. In the same light, we must view the following parallel passage of the Ordination of bishop Wykeham's sepulchral chantry, founded in Winchester cathedral, in the year 1404.
"Die sabbati cujuslibet septimanae futurae, monachi prioratus nostri in ordine sacerdotali constituti, valentes et dispositi ad celebrandum, ordinentur et intitulentur in Tabula seriatim ad celebrandum Missas praedictas cotidie per septimanam tunc sequentem, &c."
B. Lowth's WYKEHAM. Append. p. xxxi. edit. 1777. Without multiplying superfluous citations
See Statut. Eccles. Cath. Lich
. Dugd. MON. iii. p. 244. col. 2. 10. p. 247. col. 2. 20. Statut. Eccle
. Colleglat
de Tonge, ibid. ECCLE
. COLL. p. 1
. col. 2. 40.
, I think we may fairly conclude, that whenever a
Tabula
pro
Clericis intitulandis
occurs in the more antient rituals of our ecclesiastical fraternities, a PUGILLARE or waxen tablet, and not a schedule of parchment or paper, is intended. The inquisitive reader, who wishes to see more foreign evidences of this mode of writing during the course of the middle ages, is referred to a Memoir drawn up with great diligence and research by M. L'Abbé Lebeuf. MEM. LITT. tom. xx. p. 267
edit. 4to.
The reasonings and conjectures of Wise and others, who have treated of the Saxon AESTEL, more particularly of those who contend that king Alfred's STYLE is still in being at Oxford, may perhaps receive elucidation or correction from what is here casually collected on a subject, which needs and deserves a full investigation.
To a Note already labouring with its length I have only to add, that without supposing an allusion to this way of writing, it will be hard to explain the following lines in Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, Act i. Sc. i.
—My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
"In a wide sea of wax."—
Why Shakespeare should here allude to this peculiar and obsolete fashion of writing, to express a poet's design of describing general life, will appear, if we consider the freedom and facility with which it is executed. It is not yet, I think, discovered, on what original Shakespeare formed this drama.
.
The public pageantries of this reign are proofs of the growing familiarity and national diffusion of classical learning. I will select an instance, among others, from the shews exhibited with great magnificence at the coronation of queen Anne Boleyn, in the year 1533. The procession to Westminster abbey, began from the Tower; and the queen, in passing through Gracechurch street, was entertained with a representation of mount Parnassus. The fountain of Helicon, by a bold fiction unknown to the bards of antiquity, ran in four streams of Rhenish wine from a bason of white marble. On the summit of the mountain sate Apollo, and at his feet Calliope. On either side of the declivity were arranged four of the Muses, playing on their respective musical instruments. Under them were written epigrams and poesies in golden letters, in which every Muse praised the queen, according to her character and office. At the Conduit in Cornhill appeared the three Graces; before whom, with no great propriety, was the spring of
Grace
perpetually running wine. But when a conduit came in the way, a religious allusion was too tempting and obvious to be omitted. Before the spring, however,
ate a poet, describing in metre the properties or functions of every Grace: and then each of these four Graces allotted in a short speech to the queen, the virtue or accomplishment over which she severally presided. At the Conduit in Cheapside, as my chronicler says, she was saluted with
"a rich pageaunt full of melodie and song."
In this pageant were Pallas, Juno, and Venus: before them stood Mercury, who presented to her majesty, in the name of the three goddesses, a golden ball or globe divided into three parts, signifying wisdom, riches, and felicity. At entering saint Paul's
gate,
an antient portal leading into the church-yard on the east, and long since destroyed, three ladies richly attired showered on her head wafers, in which were contained Latin distichs. At the eastern side of saint Paul's Church-yard, two hundred scholars of saint Paul's School, addressed her in chosen and apposite passages from the Roman poets, translated into English rhymes. On the leads of saint Martin's church stood a choir of boys and men, who sung, not spiritual hymns, but
new balads
in praise of her majesty. On the conduit without Ludgate, where the arms and angels had been
refreshed,
was erected a tower with four turrets, within each of which was placed a Cardinal Virtue, symbolically habited. Each of these personages in turn uttered an oration, promising to protect and accompany the queen on all occasions
Hall's CHRONICLE, fol. ccxii. Among the Orations spoken to the Queen, is one too curious to be omitted. At Leadenhall sate saint Anne with her numerous progeny, and Mary Cleophas with her four children. One of the children made
"a goodlie oration to the queene, of the
fruitfulnes
of saint Anne, and of her generation; trusting the
like fruit should come of hir.
"
. Here we see the pagan history and mythology predominating in those spectacles, which were once furnished from the Golden Legend. Instead of saints, prophets, apostles, and confessors, we have Apollo, Mercury, and the Muses. Instead of religious canticles, and texts of scripture, which were usually introduced in the course of these ceremonies, we are entertained with profane poetry, translations from the classics, and occasional verses; with exhortations, not delivered by personified doctors of the church, but by the heathen divinities.
It may not be foreign to our purpose, to give the reader some distinct idea of the polite amusements of this reign, among which, the Masque, already mentioned in general terms, seems to have held the first place. It chiefly consisted of music, dancing, gaming, a banquet, and a display of grotesque personages and fantastic dresses. The performers, as I have hinted, were often the king, and the chief of the nobility of both sexes, who under proper disguises executed some preconcerted strategem, which ended in mirth and good humour. With one of these shews, in 1530, the king formed a scheme to surprise cardinal Wolsey, while he was celebrating a splendid banquet at his palace of Whitehall
It th
n belonged to Wolsey.
. At night his majesty in a masque, with twelve more masquers all richly but strangely dressed, privately landed from Westminster at Whitehall stairs. At landing, several small pieces of canon were fired, which the king had before ordered to be placed on the shore near the house. The cardinal, who was separately seated at the banquet in the presence-chamber under the cloth of state, a great number of ladies and lords being seated at the side-tables, was alarmed at this sudden and unusual noise: and immediately ordered lord Sandys, the king's chamberlain, who was one of the guests, and in the secret, to enquire the reason. Lord Sandys brought answer, that thirteen foreign noblemen of distinction were just arrived, and were then waiting in the great hall below; having been drawn thither by the report of the cardinal's magnificent banquet, and of the beautiful ladies which were present at it. The cardinal ordered them immediately into the banquetting-room, to which they were conducted from the hall with twenty new torches and a concert of drums and fifes. After a proper refreshment, they requested in the French language to dance with the ladies, whom they kissed, and to play with them at mum-chance
A game of hazard with dic
.
; producing at the same time a great golden cup filled with many hundred crowns. Having played for sometime with the ladies, they de
ignedly lost all that remained in the cup to the cardinal; whose sagacity was not easily to be deceived, and who now began, from some circumstances, to suspect one of them to be the king. On finding their plot in danger, they answered,
"If your grace can point him out, he will readily discover himself."
The cardinal pointed to a masque with a black beard, but he was mistaken, for it was sir Edward Nevil. At this, the king could not forbear laughing aloud: and pulling off his own and sir Edward Nevil's masque, convinced the cardinal, with much arch complaisance, that he had for once guessed wrong. The king and the masquers then retired into another apartment to change their apparel: and in the meantime the banquet was removed, and the table covered afresh with perfumed clothes. Soon afterwards the king, with his company, returned, and took his seat under the cardinal's canopy of state. Immediately two hundred dishes of the most costly cookery and confectionary were served up; the contrivance and success of the royal joke afforded much pleasant conversation, and the night was spent in dancing, dice-playing,
banketting and other triumphs
Hollinsh. CHRON. iii. 921. seq.
. The old chronicler Edward Hall, a cotemporary and a curious observer, acquaints us, that at Greenwich, in 1512,
"on the daie of the Epiphanie at night, the king with eleven others was disguised after the maner of Italie, called a Maske, a thing not seene before in England: they were apparalled in garments long and broad, wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold. And after the banket doone, these maskers came in, with six gentlemen disguised in silke, bearing staffe-torches and desired the ladies to danse; some were content, and some refused; and after they had dansed and communed togither, as the fashion of the maske is, they tooke their leave and departed, and so did the queene and all the ladies
CHRON. fol. xv. [See supr. Vol. i. p. 239.]
."
I do not find that it was a part of their diversion in these entertainments to display humour and character. Their chief aim seems to have been, to surprise, by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the visors, and by the singularity and splendor of the dresses. Every thing was out of nature and propriety. Frequently the Masque was attended with an exhibition of some gorgeous machinery, resembling the wonders of a modern pantomime. For instance, in the great hall of the palace, the usual place of performance, a vast mountain covered with tall trees arose suddenly, from whose opening caverns issued hermits, pilgrims, shepherds, knights, damsels, and gypsies, who being regaled with spices and wine danced a morisco, or morris-dance. They were then again received into the mountain, which with a symphony of rebecs and recorders closed its caverns; and tumbling to pieces, was replaced by a ship in full sail, or a castle besieged. To be more particular. The following device was shewn in the hall of the palace at Greenwich. A castle was reared, with numerous towers, gates, and battlements; and furnished with every military preparation for sustaining a long siege. On the front was inscribed
Le fortresse dangereux.
From the windows looked out six ladies, cloathed in the richest russet sattin,
"laid all over with leaves of gold, and every one knit with laces of blew silk and gold, on their heads coi
s and caps all of golde."
This castle was moved about the hall; and when the queen had viewed it for a time, the king entered the hall with five knights, in embroidered vestments, spangled and plated with gold, of the most curious and costly workmanship. They assaulted the castle; and the six ladies, finding them to be champions of redoubted prowess, after a parley, yielded their perilous fortress, descended, and danced with their assailants. The ladies then led the knights into the castle, which immediately vanished, and the company retired
Hollinsh. iii. 812
. Here we see the representation of an action. But all these magnificent mummeries, which were their evening-amusements on festivals, notwithstanding a parley, which my historian calls a
communication,
is here mentioned, were yet in dumb shew
But at a most sumptuous Disguising in 1519, in the hall at Greenwich, the figure of FAME is introduced, who,
"in French, declared the meaning of the trees, the rocke, and turneie."
But as this shew was a political compliment, and many foreigners present, an explanation was necessary. See Hall, CHRON. fol. lxvi. This was in 1512. But in the year 1509, a more rational evening-amusement took place in the Hall of the old Westminster-palace, several foreign embassadors being present.
"After supper, his grace [the king] with the queene, lords, and ladies, came into the White Hall, which was hanged richlie; the hall was scaffolded and railed on all parts. There was an ENTERLUDE of the gentlemen of his chapell before his grace, and diverse freshe songes."
Hall, CHRON. fol. xi. xii. [See supr. ii. 204.]
, and without dialogue.
But towards the latter part of Henry's reign, much of the old cumbersome state began to be laid aside. This I collect from a set of new regulations given to the royal houshold about the year 1526, by cardinal Wolsey. In the Chapter
For keeping the Hall and ordering of the Chapel,
it is recited, that by the frequent intermission and disuse of the solemnities of dining and supping in the great hall of the palace, the proper officers had almost forgot their duty, and the manner of conducting that very long and intricate ceremonial. It is therefore ordered, that when his majesty is not at Westminster, and with regard to his palaces in the country, the formalities of the Hall, which ought not entirely to fall into desuetude, shall be at least observed, when he is at Windsor, Beaulieu, or Newhall
A new house built by Henry the eighth. Hollinsh
CHRON. iii. 852.
, in Essex, Richmond, Hampton-court, Greenwich, Eltham, and Woodstock. And that at these places only, the whole choir of the chapel shall attend. This attempt to revive that which had began to cease from the nature of things, and from the growth of new manners, perhaps had but little or no lasting effect. And with respect to the Chapel, my record adds, that when the king is on journies or progresses, only six singing boys and six gentlemen of the choir shall make a part of the royal retinue; who
"daylie in absence of
the
esidue
of the chapel shall have a Masse of our Ladie bi
ore noon, and on Sondaies and holidaies, masse of the day besides our Lady-masse, and an anthempne in the afternoone: for which purpose, no
great carriage
of either vestiments or bookes shall require
"ORDENAUNCES made for the kinges household and chambres."
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. LAUD. K. 48. fol. It is the original on vellum. In it, Sir Thomas More is mentioned as Chancellour of the Duchie of Lancaster.
."
Henry never seems to have been so truly happy, as when he was engaged in one of these progresses: in other words, moving from one seat to another, and enjoying his ease and amusements in a state of royal relaxation. This we may collect from a curious passage in Hollinshead; who had pleased and perhaps informed us less, had he never deserted the dignity of the historian.
"From thence the whole court remooved to Windsor, then beginning his progresse, and exercising himselfe dailie in shooting, singing, dansing, wrestling, casting of the barre, plaieing at the recorders, flute, virginals, in setting of songes, and making of ballades.—And when he came to Oking
Woking in Surrey, near Guildford, a royal seat.
there were kept both justes turneies
Chron. iii. 806.
."
I make no apology for these seeming digressions. The manners and the poetry of a country are so nearly connected, that they mutually throw light on each other.
The same connection subsists between the state of poetry and of the arts; to which we may now recall the reader's attention with as little violation of our general subject.
We are taught in the mythology of the antients, that the three Graces were produced at a birth. The meaning of the fable is, that the three most beautiful imitative arts were born and grew up together. Our poetry now beginning to be divested of its monastic barbarism, and to advance towards elegance, was accompanied by proportionable improvements in Painting and Music. Henry employed many capital painters, and endeavoured to invite Raphael and Titian into England. Instead of allegorical tapestry, many of the royal apartments were adorned with historical pictures. Our familiarity with the manners of Italy, and affectation of Italian accomplishments, influenced the tones and enriched the modulation of our musical composition. Those who could read the sonnets of Petrarch must have relished the airs of Palestrina. At the same time, Architecture, like Milton's lion
pawing to get free,
made frequent efforts to disentangle itself from the massy incumbrances of the Gothic manner; and began to catch the correct graces, and to copy the true magnificence, of the Grecian and Roman models. Henry was himself a great builder; and his numerous edifices, although constructed altogether on the antient system, are sometimes interspersed with chaste ornaments and graceful mouldings, and often marked with a legitimacy of proportion, and a purity of design, before unattempted. It was among the literary plans of Leland, one of the most classical scholars of this age, to write an account of Henry's palaces, in imitation of Procopius, who is said to have described the palaces of the emperor Justinian. Frequent symptoms appeared, that perfection in every work of taste was at no great distance. Those clouds of ignorance which yet remained, began now to be illuminated by the approach of the dawn of truth.
SECT. XXVII.
THE reformation of our church produced an alteration for a time in the general system of study, and changed the character and subjects of our poetry. Every mind, both learned and unlearned, was busied in religious speculation; and every pen was employed in recommending, illustrating, and familiarising the Bible, which was now laid open to the people.
The poetical annals of king Edward the sixth, who removed those chains of bigottry which his brother Henry had only loosened, are marked with metrical translations of various parts of the sacred scripture. Of these the chief is the versification of the Psalter by Sternhold and Hopkins: a performance, which has acquired an importance, and consequently claims a place in our series, not so much from any merit of its own, as from the circumstances with which it is connected.
It is extraordinary, that the protestant churches should be indebted to a country in which the reformation had never begun to make any progress, and even to the indulgence of a society which remains to this day the grand bulwark of the catholic theology, for a very distinguishing and essential part of their ritual.
About the year 1540, Clement Marot, a valet of the bedchamber to king Francis the first, was the favorite poet of France. This writer, having attained an unusual elegance and facility of style, added many new embellishments to the rude state of the French poetry. It is not the least of his praises, that La Fontaine used to call him his master. He was the inventor of the rondeau, and the restorer of the madrigal: but he became chiefly eminent for his pastorals, ballads, fables, elegies, epigrams, and translations from Ovid and Petrarch. At length, being tired of the vanities of profane poetry, or rather privately tinctured with the principles of Lutheranism, he attempted, with the assistance of his friend Theodore Beza, and by the encouragement of the professor of Hebrew in the university of Paris, a version of David's Psalms into French rhymes. This translation, which did not aim at any innovation in the public worship, and which received the sanction of the Sorbonne as containing nothing contrary to sound doctrine, he dedicated to his master Francis the first, and to the Ladies of France. In the dedication to the Ladies or
les Dames de France,
whom he had often before addressed in the tenderest strains of passion or compliment, he seems anxious to deprecate the raillery which the new tone of his versification was likely to incur, and is embarrassed how to find an apology for turning saint. Conscious of his apostacy from the levities of life, in a spirit of religious gallantry, he declares that his design is to add to the happiness of his fair readers, by substituting divine hymns in the place of
chansons d' amour,
to inspire their susceptible hearts with a passion in which there is no torment, to banish that fickle and fantastic deity CUPID from the world, and to fill their apartments with the praises, not of the
little god,
but of the true Jehovah.
E voz doigts sur les espinettes
Pour dire SAINCTES CHANSONETTES.
He adds, that the golden age would now be restored, when we should see, the peasant at his plough, the carman in the streets, and the mechanic in his shop, solacing their toils with psalms and canticles: and the shepherd and sheperdess, reposing in the shade, and teaching the rocks to echo the name of the Creator.
Le Laboureur a sa charruë,
Le Charretier parmy le ruë,
Et l'Artisan a en sa boutique,
Avecques un PSEAUME ou CANTIQUE,
En son labour se soulager.
Heureux qui orra le Berger
Et la Begere au bois estans,
Fair que rochers et estangs,
Apres eux chantant la hauteur
Du sainct nom de createur
Les OEVVRE
de Clement Marot de Cahors, valet de chambre du roy, &c. A Lyon, 1551. 12mo. See ad calc. TRADUCTIONS, &c. p. 192.
.
Marot's Psalms soon eclipsed the brilliancy of his madrigals and sonnets. Not suspecting how prejudicial the predominant rage of psalm-singing might prove to the antient religion of Europe, the catholics themselves adopted these sacred songs as serious ballads, and as a more rational species of domestic merriment. Thy were the common accompaniments of the fiddle. They were sold so rapidly, that the printers could not supply the public with copies. In the festive and splendid court of Francis the first, of a sudden nothing was heard but the psalms of Clement Marot. By each of the royal family and the principal nobility of the court a psalm was chosen, and fitted to the ballad-tune which each liked best. The dauphin prince Henry, who delighted in hunting, was fond of
Ainsi qu'on oit le cerf bruire,
or,
Like as the Hart desireth the water-brooks,
which he constantly sung in going out to the chase. Madame de Valentinois, between whom and the young prince there was an attachment, took
Du fond de ma pensée,
or,
From the depth of my heart, O Lord.
The queen's favorite was,
Ne uveilles pas, O Sire,
that is,
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine indignation,
which she sung to a fashionable jig. Antony king of Navarre sung,
Revenge moy, pren le querelle,
or,
Stand up, O Lord, to revenge my quarrel,
to the air of a dance of Poitou
See Bayle'
DICT. V. MAROT.
. It was on very different principles that psalmody flourished in the gloomy court of Cromwell. This fashion does not seem in the least to have diminished the gaiety and good humour of the court of Francis.
At this period John Calvin, in opposition to the discipline and doctrines of Rome, was framing his novel church at Geneva: in which the whole substance and form of divine worship was reduced to praying, preaching, and singing. In the last of these three, he chose to depart widely from the catholic usage: and, either because he thought that novelty was sure to succeed, that the practice of antiphonal chanting was superstitious, or that the people were excluded from bearing a part in the more solemn and elaborate performance of ecclesiastical music, or that the old papistic hymns were unedifying, or that verse was better remembered than prose, he projected, with the advice of Luther, a species of religious song, consisting of portions of the psalms intelligibly translated into the vernacular language, and adapted to plain and easy melodies, which all might learn, and in which all might join. This scheme, either by design or accident, was luckily seconded by the publication of Marot's metrical psalms at Paris, which Calvin immediately introduced into his congregation at Geneva. Being set to simple and almost monotonous notes by Guillaume de Franc, they were soon established as the principal branch in that reformer's new devotion, and became a characteristical mark or badge of the Calvinistic worship and profession. Nor were they sung only in his churches. They exhilarated the convivial assemblies of the Calvinists, were commonly heard in the streets, and accompanied the labours of the artificer. The weavers and woollen manufacturers of Flanders, many of whom left the loom and entered into the ministry, are said to have been the capital performers into this science. At length Marot's psalms formed an appendix to the catechism of Geneva, and were interdicted to the catholics under the most severe penalties. In the language of the orthodox, psalm-singing and heresy were synonimous terms.
It was Calvin's system of reformation, not only to strip religion of its superstitious and ostensible pageantries, of crucifixes, images, tapers, superb vestments, and splendid processions, but of all that was estimable in the sight of the people, and even of every simple ornament, every significant symbol, and decent ceremony; in a word, to banish every thing from his church which attracted or employed the senses, or which might tend to mar the purity of an abstracted adoration, and of a mental intercourse with the deity. It is hard to determine, how Calvin could reconcile the use of singing, even when purged from the corruptions and abuses of popery, to so philosophical a plan of worship. On a parallel principle, and if any artificial aids to devotion were to be allowed, he might at least have retained the use of pictures in the church. But a new sect always draws its converts from the multitude and the meanest of the people, who can have no relish for the more elegant externals. Calvin well knew that the manufacturers of Germany were no judges of pictures. At the same time it was necessary that his congregation should be kept in good humour by some kind of pleasurable gratification and allurement, which might qualify and enliven the attendance on the more rigid duties of praying and preaching. Calvin therefore, intent as he was to form a new church on a severe model, had yet too much sagacity to exclude every auxiliary to devotion. Under this idea, he permitted an exercise, which might engage the affections, without violating the simplicity of his worship: and sensible that his chief resources were in the rabble of a republic, and availing himself of that natural propensity which prompts even vulgar minds to express their more animated feelings in rhyme and music, he conceived a mode of universal psalmody, not too refined for common capacities, and fitted to please the populace. The rapid propagation of Calvin's religion, and his numerous proselytes, are a strong proof of his address in planning such a sort of service. France and Germany were instantly infatuated with a love of psalmsinging: which being admirably calculated to kindle and diffuse the flame of fanaticism, was peculiarly serviceable to the purposes of faction, and frequently served as the trumpet to rebellion. These energetic hymns of Geneva, under the conduct of the Calvinistic preachers, excited and supported a variety of popular insurrections; they filled the most flourishing cities of the Low-countries with sedition and tumult, and fomented the fury which defaced many of the most beautiful and venerable churches of Flanders.
This infectious frenzy of sacred song soon reached England, at the very critical point of time, when it had just embraced the reformation: and the new psalmody was obtruded on the new English liturgy by some few officious zealots, who favoured the discipline of Geneva, and who wished to abolish, not only the choral mode of worship in general, but more particularly to suppress the TE DEUM, BENEDICTUS, MAGNIFICAT, JUBILATE, NUNC DIMITTIS, and the rest of the liturgic hymns, which were supposed to be contaminated by their long and antient connection with the Roman missal, or at least in their prosaic form, to be unsuitable to the new system of worship.
Although Wyat and Surrey had before made translations of the Psalms into metre, Thomas Sternhold was the first whose metrical version of the Psalms was used in the church of England. Sternhold was a native of Hampshire, and probably educated at Winchester college. Having passed some time at Oxford, he became groom of the robes to king Henry the eighth. In this department, either his diligent services or his knack at rhyming so pleased the king, that his majesty bequeathed him a legacy of one hundred marks. He continued in the same office under Edward the sixth, and is said to have acquired some degree of reputation about the court for his poetry. Being of a serious disposition, and an enthusiast to reformation, he was much offended at the lascivious ballads which prevailed among the courtiers: and, with a laudable design to check these indecencies, undertook a metrical version of the Psalter,
"thinking thereby, says Antony Wood, that the courtiers would sing them instead of their sonnets,
but did not,
only some few excepted
ATH. Oxon. i. 76.
."
Here was the zeal, if not the success, of his fellow labourer Clement Marot. A singular coincidence of circumstances is, notwithstanding, to be remarked on this occasion. Vernacular versions for general use of the Psalter were first published both in France and England, by laymen, by court-poets, and by servants of the court. Nor were the respective translations entirely completed by themselves: and yet they translated nearly an equal number of psalms, Marot having versified fifty, and Sternhold fifty-one. Sternhold died in the year 1549. His fifty-one psalms were printed the same year by Edward Whitchurch, under the following title.
"All such Psalms of David as Thomas Sternholde late grome of the kinges Maiestyes robes did in his ly
e tyme drawe into Englysshe metre."
They are without the musical notes, as is the second edition in 1552. He probably lived to prepare the first edition for the press, as it is dedicated by himself to king Edward the sixth.
Cotemporary with Sternhold, and his coadjutor, was John Hopkins: of whose life nothing more is known, than that he was a clergyman and a schoolmaster of Suffolk, and perhaps a graduate at Oxford about the year 1544. Of his abilities as a teacher of the classics, he has left a specimen in some Latin stanzas prefixed to FOX'S MARTYROLOGY. He is rather a better English poet than Sternhold; and translated fifty eight of the psalms, distinguished by the initials of his name.
Of the rest of the contributors to this undertaking, the chief, at least in point of rank and learning, was William Whyttingham, promoted by Robert earl of Leicester to the deanery of Durham, yet not without a strong reluctance to comply with the use of the canonical habiliments. Among our religious exiles in the reign of Mary, he was Calvin's principal favorite, from whom he received ordination. So pure was his faith, that he was thought worthy to succeed to the congregation of Geneva, superintended by Knox, the Scotch reformer; who, from a detestation of idols, proceeded to demolish the churches in which they were contained. It was one of the natural consequences of Whyttingham's translation from Knox's pastorship at Geneva to an English deanery, that he destroyed or removed many beautiful and harmless monuments of antient art in his cathedral. To a man, who had so highly spiritualised his religious conceptions, as to be convinced that a field, a street, or a barn, were fully sufficient for all the operations of christian worship, the venerable structures raised by the magnificent piety of our ancestors could convey no ideas of solemnity, and had no other charms than their ample endowments. Beside the psalms he translated
Among them is the hundreth, and the hundred and nineteenth.
, all which bear his initials, by way of innovating still further on our established formularly, he versified the Decalogue, the Nicene, Apostolic, and Athanasian Creeds, the Lord's Prayer, the TE DEUM, the Song of the three Children, with other hymns which follow the book of psalmody. How the Ten Commandments and the Athanasian Creed, to say nothing of some of the rest, should become more edifying and better suited to common use, or how they could receive improvement in any respect or degree, by being reduced into rhym
, it is not easy to perceive. But the real design was, to render that more tolerable which could not be entirely removed, to accommodate every part of the service to the psalmodic tone, and to clothe our whole liturgy in the garb of Geneva. All these, for he was a lover of music, were sung in Whyttingham's church of Durham under his own directions. Heylin says, that from vicinity of situation, he was enabled to lend considerable assistance to his friend Knox in the introduction of the presbyterian hierarchy into Scotland. I must indulge the reader with a stanza or two of this dignified fanatic's divine poetry from his Creeds and the Decalogue. From the Athanasian Creed.
The Father God is, God the Son,
God Holy Ghost
also,
Yet are there not three Gods
in all
But one God and
no m
.
From the Apostolic Creed.
From thence shall he come for to judge,
All men both dead and quick;
I in the holy ghost believe,
And church that's catholick.
The Ten Commandments are thus closed.
Nor his man-servant, nor his maid,
Nor oxe, nor asse
of his;
Nor any other thing that
to
Thy neighbour
proper is.
These were also versified by Clement Marot.
Twenty-seven of the psalms were turned into metre by Thomas Norton
Marked N.
, who perhaps was better employed, at least as a poet, in writing the tragedy of GORDOBUCKE in conjunction with lord Buckhurst. It is certain that in Norton's psalms we see none of those sublime strokes which sir Philip Sydney discovered in that venerable drama. He was of Sharpenhoe in Bedfordshire, a barrister, and in the opinion and phraseology of the Oxford biographer, a bold and busy Calvinist about the beginning of the reign of queen Elisabeth. He was patronised by the Protector Somerset; at whose desire he translated an epistle addressed by Peter Martyr to Somerset, into English, in 1550. Under the same patronage he probably tran
lated also Calvin's Institutes.
Robert Wisdome, a protestant fugitive in the calamitous reign of queen Mary, afterwards archdeacon of Ely, and who had been nominated to an Irish bishoprick by king Edward the sixth, rendered the twenty-fifth psalm of this version
See Strype's CRANMER, p. 274. 276.
77. PSALMS 70, 104, 112, 122, 125, and 134, are marked with W. K. PSALM 136, with T. C. It is not known to whom thes
initials belong.
. But he is chiefly memorable for his metrical prayer, intended to be sung in the church, against the Pope and the Turk, of whom he seems to have conceived the most alarming apprehensions. It is probable, that he thought popery and mahometanism were equally dangerous to christianity, at least the most powerful and the sole enemies of our religion. This is the first stanza.
Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word,
From POPE and TURK defend us, Lord!
Which both would thrust out of thy throne
Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear son!
Happily we have hitherto survived these two formidable evils! Among other orthodox wits, the facetious bishop Corbet has ridiculed these lines. He supposes himself seized with a sudden impulse to hear or to pen a puritanical hymn, and invokes the ghost of Robert Wisdome, as the most skilful poet in this mode of composition, to come and assist. But he advises Wisdome to steal back again to his tomb, which was in Carfax church at Oxford, silent and unperceived, for fear of being detected and intercepted by the Pope or the Turk. But I will produce Corbet's epigram, more especially as it contains a criticism written in the reign of Charles the first, on the style of this sort of poetry.
TO THE GHOST OF ROBERT WISDOME.
Thou once a body, now but ayre,
Arch-botcher of a psalm or prayer,
From Carfax come!
And patch us up a zealous lay,
With an old
ever and for ay,
Or
all and some.
Or such a spirit lend me,
As may a hymne down sende me
To purge my braine:
But, Robert, looke behind thee,
Lest TURK or POPE do find thee,
And go to bed againe
POEMS, Lond. 1647. duod. p. 49.
.
The entire version of the psalter was at length published by John Day, in 1562, attached for the first time to the common prayer, and entitled,
"The whole Booke of Psalmes collected into English metre by T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others, conferred with the Ebrue, with apt Notes to
ing them withall."
Calvin's music was intended to correspond with the general parsimonious spirit of his worship: not to captivate the passions, and seduce the mind, by a levity, a variety, or a richness of modulation, but to infuse the more sober and unravishing ecstasies. The music he permitted, although sometimes it had wonderful effects, was to be without grace, elegance, or elevation. These apt notes were about forty tunes, of one part only, and in one unisonous key; remarkable for a certain uniform strain of sombrous gravity, and applicable to all the psalms in their turns, as the stanza and sense might allow. They also appear in the subsequent impressions, particularly of 1564, and 1577. They are believed to contain some of the original melodies, composed by French and German musicians. Many of them, particularly the celebrated one of the hundredth psalm, are the tunes of Goudimel and Le Jeune, who are among the first composers of Marot's French psalms
See this matte
traced with great skill and accuracy by Hawkins, HIST. MUS. iii. 518.
. Not a few were probably imported by the protestant manufacturers of cloth, of Flanders, and the Low Countries, who fled into England from the persecution of the Duke de Alva, and settled in those counties where their art now chiefly flourishes. It is not however unlikely, that some of our own musicians, who lived about the year 1562, and who could always tune their harps to the religion of the times, such as Marbeck, Tallis, Tye, Parsons, and Munday, were employed on this occasion; yet under the restriction of conforming to the jejune and unadorned movements of the foreign composers. I
resume much of the primitive harmony of all these antient tunes is now lost, by additions, variations, and transpositions.
This version is said to be
conferred with the Ebrue.
But I am inclined to think, that the translation was altogether made from the vulgate text, either in Latin or English.
It is evident that the prose psalms of our liturgy were chiefly consulted and copied, by the perpetual assumption of their words and combinations: many of the stanza
are literally nothing more than the prose-verses put into rhyme. As thus,
Thus were they stained with the workes
Of their owne filthie way;
And with their owne inve
tions did
A whoring go astray
PSALM cvi. 38.
.
Whyttingham however, who had travelled to acquire the literature then taught in the foreign universities, and who joined in the translation of Coverdale's Bible, was undoubtedly a scholar, and an adept in the Hebrew language.
It is certain that every attempt to clothe the sacred Scripture in verse, will have the effect of misrepresenting and debasing the dignity of the original. But this general inconvenience, arising from the nature of things, was not the only difficulty which our versifiers of the psalter had to encounter, in common with all other writers employed in a similar task. Allowing for the state of our language in the middle of the sixteenth century, they appear to have been but little qualified either by genius or accomplishments for poetical composition. It is for this reason that they have produced a translation entirely destitute of elegance, spirit, and propriety. The truth is, that they undertook this work, not so much from an ambition of literary fame, or a consciousness of abilities, as from motives of piety, and in compliance with the cast of the times. I presume I am communicating no very new criticism when I observe, that in every part of this translation we are disgusted with a languor of versification, and a want of common prosody. The most exalted effusions of thanksgiving, and the most sublime imageries of the divine majesty, are lowered by a coldness of conception, weakened by frigid interpolations, and disfigured by a poverty of phraseology. Thomas Hopkins expostulates with the deity in these ludicrous, at least trivial, expressions.
Why doost withdrawe thy hand aback,
And hide it in thy lappe?
O plucke it out, and be not slack
To give thy foes a rappe
Ps. lxxiv. 12. Perhaps this verse is not much improved in the translation of king James the first, who seems to have rested entirely on the image of
why withdrawe
t thou not thine hand,
which he has expressed in Hopkins's manner.
Why dost thou thus withdraw thy hand,
Even thy right hand restraine?
Out of thy bosom, for our good,
Drawe backe the same againe!
In another stanza he has preserved Hopkins's rhymes and expletives, and, if possible, lowered his language and cadences. Ps. lxxiv. 1.
Oh why, our God, for ev
rmore
Hast thou neglected us?
Why
smoaks
thy wrath against the sheep
Of thine owne pasture
thus?
Here he has chiefly displayed the
smoking
of God's wrath, which
kindles
in Hopkins. The particle
thus
was never so distinguished and dignified. And it is hard to say, why his majesty should chuse to make the divine indignation
smoke,
rather than
burn,
which is suggested by the original.
!
What writer who wished to diminish the might of the supreme Being, and to expose the style and sentiments of Scripture, could have done it more skilfully, than by making David call upon God, not to
consume his enemies
by an irresistible blow, but to give them a rap? Although some shadow of an apology may be suggested for the word
rap,
that it had not then acquired its present burlesque acceptation, or the idea of a petty stroke, the vulgarity of the following phrase, in which the practice or profession of religion, or more particularly God's covenant with the Jews, is degraded to
a trade,
cannot easily be vindicated on any consideration of the fluctuating sense of words.
For why, their hearts were nothing bent
To him, nor to his
trade
Ps
lxviii. 37.
.
Nor is there greater delicacy or consistency in the following stanza.
Confound them that apply
And seeke to worke my shame;
And at my harme do laugh, and cry,
So, So,
there goeth the game
Ps
lxx. 3.
.
The psalmist says, that God has placed the sun in the heavens,
"which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber."
Here is a comparison of the sun rising, to a bridegroom; who, according to the Jewish custom, was ushered from his chamber at midnight, with great state, preceded by torches and music. Sternhold has thus metrified the passage
Ps. xix. 4.
.
In them the Lord made for the sun,
A place of great renown,
Who like a bridegroom ready trimm'd
Doth from his chamber come.
The translator had better have spared his epithet to the bridegroom; which, even in the sense of
ready-dressed,
is derogatory to the idea of the comparison. But
ready-trimm'd,
in the language of that time, was nothing more than
fresh-shaved.
Sternhold as often impairs a splendid description by an impotent redundancy, as by an omission or contraction of the most important circumstances.
The miraculous march of Jehovah before the Israelites through the wilderness in their departure from Egypt, with other marks of his omnipotence, is thus imaged by the inspired psalmist.
"O God, when thou wentest forth before the people, when thou wentest through the wilderness: the earth shook, and the heavens dropped at the presence of God; even as Sinai also was moved at the presence of God, who is the God of Israel. Thou, O God, sentedst a gracious rain upon thine inheritance, and refreshedst it when it was weary.—The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; and the Lord is among them, as in the holy place of Sinai."
Sternhold has thus represented these great ideas.
When thou didst march before thy folk
The Egyptians from among,
And brought them from the wildernes,
Which was both wide and long:
The earth did quake, the
raine pourde downe,
Heard were great claps of thunder;
The mount Sinai shooke in such sorte,
As it would cleave in sunder.
Thy heritage with drops of rain
Abundantly was
washt,
And
if so be
it barren was,
By thee it was
refresht.
God's
army is two millions,
Of warriours
good and strong,
The Lord also in Sinai
Is present them among
Ps. lxviii. 7. seq.
.
If there be here any merit, it arises solely from preserving the expressions of the prose version. And the translator would have done better had he preserved more, and had given us no feeble or foreign enlargements of his own. He has shewn no independent skill or energy. When once he attempts to add or dilate, his weakness appears. It is this circumstance alone, which supports the two following well-known stanzas
Ps. xviii. 9. 10.
.
The Lord descended from above,
And bowde the heavens high;
And underneath his feet he cast
The darknesse of the skie.
On Cherubs and on Cherubims
Full roiallie he rode;
And on the winges of all the windes
Came flying all abrode.
Almost the entire contexture of the prose is here literally transferred, unbroken and without transposition, allowing for the small deviations necessarily occasioned by the metre and rhyme. It may be said, that the translator has testified his judgment in retaining so much of the original, and proved he was sensible the passage needed not any adventitious ornament. But what may seem here to be judgment or even taste, I fear, was want of expression in himself. He only adopted what was almost ready done to his hand.
To the disgrace of sacred music, sacred poetry, and our established worship, these psalms still continue to be sung in the church of England. It is certain, had they been more poetically translated, they would not have been acceptable to the common people. Yet however they may be allowed to serve the purposes of private edification, in administering spiritual consolation to the manufacturer and mechanic, as they are extrinsic to the frame of our liturgy, and incompatible with the genius of our service, there is perhaps no impropriety in wishing, that they were remitted and restrained to that church in which they sprung, and with whose character and constitution they seem so aptly to correspond. Whatever estimation in point of composition they might have attracted at their first appearance in a ruder age, and however instrumental they might have been at the infancy of the reformation in weaning the minds of men from the papistic ritual, all these considerations can now no longer support even a specious argument for their being retained. From the circumstances of the times, and the growing refinements of literature, of course they become obsolete and contemptible. A work grave, serious, and even respectable for its poetry, in the reign of Edward the sixth, at length in a cultivated age, has contracted the air of an absolute travestie. Voltaire observes, that in proportion as good taste improved, the psalms of Clement Marot inspired only disgust: and that although they charmed the court of Francis the first, they seemed only to be calculated for the populace in the reign of Lewis the fourteenth
HIST. MOD. ch. ccvii.
.
To obviate these objections, attempts have been made from time to time to modernise this antient metrical version, and to render it more tolerable and intelligible by the substitution of more familiar modes of diction. But, to say nothing of the unskilfulness with which these arbitrary corrections have been conducted, by changing obsolete for known words, the texture and integrity of the original style, such as it was, has been destroyed: and many stanzas, before too naked and weak, like a plain old Gothic edifice stripped of its few signatures of antiquity, have lost that little and almost only strength and support which they derived from antient phrases. Such alterations, even if executed with prudence and judgment, only corrupt what they endeavour to explain; and exhibit a motley performance, belonging to no character of writing, and which contains more improprieties than those which it professes to remove. Hearne is highly offended at these unwarrantable and incongruous emendations, which he pronounces to be
abominable
in any book,
"much more in a sacred work;"
and is confident, that were Sternhold and Hopkins
"now living, they would be so far from owning what is ascribed to them, that they would proceed against the innovators as CHEATS
GLOSS. ROB. GL. p. 699.
."
It is certain, that this translation in its genuine and unsophisticated state, by ascertaining the signification of many radical words now perhaps undeservedly disused, and by displaying original modes of the English language, may justly be deemed no inconsiderable monument of our antient literature, if not of our antient poetry. In condemning the practice of adulterating this primitive version, I would not be understood to recommend another in its place, entirely new. I reprobate any version at all, more especially if intended for the use of the church.
In the mean time, not to insist any longer on the incompatibility of these metrical psalms with the spirit of our liturgy, and the barbarism of their style, it should b
remembered, that they were never admitted into our church by lawful authority. They were first introduced by the puritans, and afterwards continued by connivance. But they never received any royal approbation or parlia
entary sanction, notwithstanding it is said in their title page, that they are
"set forth and ALLOWED to be sung in all churches of all the people together before and after evening prayer, and also before and after sermons: and moreover in private houses for their godly solace and comfort, laying apart all ungodly songs and ballads, which tend only to the nourishing of vice and the corrupting of youth."
At the beginning of the reign of queen Elisabeth, when our ecclesiastical reformation began to be placed on a solid and durable establishment, those English divines who had fled from the superstitions of queen Mary to Franckfort and Geneva, where they had learned to embrace the opposite extreme, and where, from an abhorrence of catholic ceremonies, they had contracted a dislike to the decent appendages of divine worship, endeavoured, in conjunction with some of the principal courtiers, to effect an abrogation of our solemn church service, which they pronounced to be antichristian and unevangelical. They contended that the metrical psalms of David, set to plain and popular music, were more suitable to the simplicity of the gospel, and abundantly adequate to all the purposes of edification: and this proposal they rested on the authority and practice of Calvin, between whom and the church of England the breach was not then so wide as at present. But the queen and those bishops to whom she had delegated the business of supervising the liturgy, among which was the learned and liberal archbishop Parker, objected, that too much attention had already been paid to the German theology. She declared, that the foreign reformers had before interpo
ed, on
imilar deliberations, with unbecoming forwardness: and that the Common Prayer of her brother Edward had been once altered, to quiet the scruples, and to gratify the cavils, of Calvin, Bucer, and Fagius. She was therefore invariably determined to make no more concessions to the importunate partisans of Geneva, and peremptorily decreed that the choral formalities should still be continued in the celebration of the sacred offices
See CANONS and INJUNCTIONS, A. D. 1559. NUM. xlix.
.
SECT. XXVIII.
THE spirit of versifying the psalms, and other parts of the Bible, at the beginning of the reformation, was almost as epidemic as psalm-singing. William Hunnis, a gentleman of the chapel under Edward the sixth, and afterwards chapel-master to queen Elisabeth, rendered into rhyme many select psalms, which had not the good fortune to be rescued from oblivion by being incorporated into Hopkins's collection, nor to be sung in the royal chapel. They were printed in 1550, with this title,
"Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David, and drawen furth into Englysh meter by William Hunnis servant to the ryght honourable syr William Harberd knight. Newly collected and imprinted
I have also seen Hunnis's
"Abridgement or brief meditation on certaine of the Psalmes in English metre,"
printed by R. Wier, 4to.
."
I know not if among these are his SEVEN SOBS
of a sorrowful soul for s
, comprehending the
SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS
in metre.
They are dedicated to Frances countess of Sussex, whose attachment to the gospel he much extols, and who was afterwards the foundress of Sydney college in Cambridge. Hunnis also, under the happy title of a HANDFUL OF HONEYSUCKLES, published
Blessings out of Deuteronomie, Prayers to Christ, Athanasius's Creed,
and
Meditations,
in metre with musical notes. But his spiritual nosegays are numerous. To say nothing of his RECREATIONS on
Adam's banishment, Christ his Cribb,
and the
Lost Sheep,
he translated into English rhyme the whole book of GENESIS, which he calls a HIVE FULL OF HONEY
Printed by T. Marshe, 1578. 4to.
. But his honey-suckles and his honey are now no longer delicious. He was a large contributor to the PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVISES, of which more will be said in its place. In the year 1550, were also published by John Hall, or Hawle, a surgeon or physician of Maidstone in Kent, and author of many tracts in his profession,
"Certayne chapters taken out of the proverbes of Solomon, with other chapters of the holy Scripture, and certayne Psalmes of David translated into English metre by John Hall
There is an edition i
quarto dedicated to king Edward the sixth with this title,
"The Psalmes of David translated into English metre by T. Sternhold, sir T. Wyat, and William Hunnis, with certaine chapters of the Proverbes and select Psalms by John Hall."
I think I have seen a book by Hall called the COURT OF VIRTUE, containing some or all of these sacred songs, with notes, 1565. 8vo. He has a copy of verses prefixed to Gale's ENCHI
IDION OF SU
GERY, Lond. 1563. See John Reade's Preface to his translation of F. Arcaeus's ANATOMY.
."
By the remainder of the title it appears, that the proverbs had been in a former impression unfairly attributed to Thomas Sternhold. The other chapters of Scripture are from Ecclesiasticus and saint Paul's Epistles. We must not confound this John Hall with his cotemporary Eliseus Hall, who pretended to be a missionary from heaven to the queen, prophesied in the streets, and wrote a set of metrical visions
Strype, ANN. i. p. 291. ch. xxv. ed. 1725.
. Metre was now become the vehicle of enthusiasm, and the puritans seem to have appropriated it to themselves, in opposition to our service, which was in prose.
William Baldwyn, of whom more will be said when we come to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, published a
Phraselike declaration in English meeter on the
CANTICLES or SONGS OF SOLOMON, in 1549. It is dedicated to Edward the sixth
In quarto. I have seen also
"The Ballads or Canticles of Solomon in Prose and Verse."
Without date, or name of printer or author.
. Nineteen of the psalms in rhyme are extant by Francis Seagar, printed by William Seres in 1553, with musical notes, and dedicated to lord Russel
At the end is a poem entitled,
"A Description of the Lyfe of Man, the World and Vanities
hereof."
Princ.
"Who on earth can justly rejoyce."
.
Archbishop Parker also versified the psalter; not from any opposition to our liturgy, but, either for the private amusement and exercise of his religious exile, or that the people, whose predilection for psalmody could not be suppressed, might at least be furnished with a rational and proper translation. It was finished in 1557. And a few years afterwards printed by Day, the archbishop's printer, in quarto, with this title,
"The whole Psalter translated into English metre, which contayneth an hundredth and fifty psalmes. The first Quinquagene
The second quinquagene follows, fol. 146. The third and last, fol. 280.
.
Quoniam omnis terrae deus, psallite sapienter.
Ps. 14. 47. Imprinted at London by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate beneath Saint Martyn's. Cum privilegio per decennium
In black letter. Among the prefaces are four lines from lord Surrey's ECCLESIASTES. Attached to every psalm is a prose collect. At the end of the psalms are versions o
Te Deum, Benedictus, Quicunqu
vult,
&c. &c.
."
Without date of the printer
Day had a licence, Jun. 3, 1561, to print the psalms in metre. Ames, p. 238.
, or name of the translator. In the metrical preface prefixed, he tries to remove the objections of those who censured versifications of Scripture, he pleads the comforts of such an employment to the persecuted theologist who suffers voluntary banishment, and thus displays the power of sacred music.
The psalmist stayde with tuned songe
The rage of myndes agast,
As David did with harpe among
To Saule in fury cast.
With golden stringes such harmonie
His harpe so sweete did wrest,
That he relieved his phrenesie
Whom wicked sprites possest
He thus remonstrates against the secular ballads,
Ye songes so nice, ye sonnets all,
Of lothly lovers layes,
Ye worke mens myndes but bitter gall
By phansies peevish playes.
.
Whatever might at first have been his design, it is certain that his version, although printed, was never published: and notwithstanding the formality of his metrical preface abovementioned, which was professedly written to shew the spiritual efficacy or virtue of the psalms in metre, and in which he directs a distinct and audible mode of congregational singing, he probably suppressed it, because he saw that the practice had been abused to the purposes of fanaticism, and
dopted by the puritans in contradiction to the national worship; or at least that such a publication, whatever his private sentiments might have been, would not have suited the nature and dignity of his high office in the church. Some of our musical antiquaries, however, have justly conjectured, that the archbishop, who was skilled in music, and had formerly founded a music-school in his college of Stoke Clare, intended these psalms, which are adapted to complicated tunes of four parts probably constructed by himself and here given in score, for the use of cathedrals; at a time, when compositions in counterpoint were uncommon in the church, and when that part of our choir-service called the motet or anthem, which admits a more artificial display of harmony, and which is recommended and allowed in queen Elisabeth's earliest ecclesiastical injunctions, was yet almost unknown, or but in a very imperfect state. Accordingly, although the direction is not quite comprehensible, he orders many of them to be sung by the
rector chori,
or chantor, and the
quier,
or choir, alternately. That at least he had a taste for music, we may conclude from the following not inelegant scale of modulation, prefixed to his eight tunes abovementioned.
"THE NATURE OF THE EYGHT TUNES.
The first is meke, devout to see,
The second sad, in maiesty:
The third doth rage, and roughly brayth,
The fourth doth fawne, and flattry playth:
The fifth deligth, and laugheth the more,
The sixt bewayleth, it wepeth full sore.
The seventh tredeth stoute in froward race,
The eyghte goeth milde in modest pace."
What follows is another proof, that he had proposed to introduce these psalms into the choir-service.
"The tenor of these partes be for the people when they will syng alone, the other partes put for the greater quiers, or to suche as will syng or play them privately
As the singing-psalms were never a part of our liturgy, no rubrical direction
are any where given for the manner of performing them. In one of the PREFACES, written about 1550, it is ordered,
"Whereas heretofore there hath been great diversitie of saying and singing in churches within this realm, some following Salisbury use, some Hereford use, some the use of Bangor, some of York, some of Lincoln; now from henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use."
But this is said in reference to the chants, responds, suffrages, versicles, introites, kyrie-eleeyso
s, doxologies, and other melodies of the Book of Common Prayer, then newly published under lawful authority, with musical notes by Marbeck, and which are still used; that no arbitrary variations should be made in the manner of singing these melodies, as had been lately the case with the Roman missal, in performing which some cathedrals affected a manner of their own. The Salisbury mi
al was most famous and chie
ly followed.
."
How far this memorable prelate, perhaps the most accomplished scholar that had yet filled the archbishoprick of Canterbury, has succeeded in producing a translation of the psalter preferable to the common one, the reader may judge from these stanzas of a psalm highly poetical, in which I have exactly preserved the translator's peculiar use of the hemistic punctuation.
To feede my neede: he will me leade
To pastures greene and fat:
He forth brought me: in libertie,
To waters delicate.
My soule and hart: he did convart,
To me he shewth the path:
Of right wisness: in holiness,
His name such vertue hath.
Yea though I go: through Death his wo
His vale and shadow wyde:
I feare no dart: with me thou art
With rod and staffe to guide.
Thou shalt provyde: a table wyde,
For me against theyr spite:
With oyle my head: thou hast bespred,
My cup is fully dight
Fol. 13.
.
I add, in the more sublime character, a part of the eighteenth psalm, in which Sternhold is supposed to have exerted his powers most successfully, and without the interruptions of the pointing which perhaps was designed for some regulations of the music, now unknown.
The earth did shake, for feare did quake,
The hils theyr bases shooke;
Removed they were, in place most fayre,
At God's ryght fearfull looke.
Darke smoke rose to hys face therefro,
Hys mouthe as fire consumde,
That coales at it were kyndled bright
When he in anger fumde.
The heavens full lowe he made to bowe,
And downe dyd he ensue
Follow.
;
And darkness great was undersete
His feete in clowdy hue.
He rode on hye, and dyd so flye,
Upon the Cherubins;
He came in sight, and made his flight
Upon the wyng of wyndes.
The Lorde from heaven sent downe his leaven
And thundred thence in ire;
He thunder cast in wondrous blast
With hayle and coales of fyre
Fol. 35.
.
Here is some degree of spirit, and a choice of phraseology. But on the whole, and especially for this species of stanza
Parker will be found to want facility, and in general to have been unpractised in writing English verses. His abilities were destined to other studies, and adapted to employments of a more ar
hiepiscopal nature.
The industrious Strype, Parker's biographer, after a diligent search never could gain a sight o
this translation: nor is it even mentioned by Ames, the inquisitive collector of our typographical antiquities. In the late Mr. West's library there was a superb copy, once belonging to bishop Kennet, who has remarked in a blank page, that the archbishop permitted his wife dame Margaret to present the book to some of the nobility. It is certainly at this time extremely scarce, and would be deservedly deemed a fortunate acquisition to those capricious students who labour only to collect a library of rarities. Yet it is not generally known, that there are two copies in the Bodleian library of this anonymous version, which have hitherto been given to an obscure po
t by the name of John Keeper. One of them, in 1643, appears to have been the property of bishop Barlow: and on the opposite side of the title, in somewhat of an antient hand, is this manuscript insertion.
"The auctor of this booke is one John Keeper, who was brought upp in the close of Wells."
Perhaps Antony Wood had no better authority than this slender unauthenticated note, for saying, that John Keeper, a native of Somersetshire, and a graduate at Oxford in the year 1564, and who afterwards studied music and poetry at Wells,
"translated
The whole Psalter into English metre which containeth
150
psalms, etc. printed at London by John Day living over Aldersgate,
about 1570, in quarto: and added thereunto The Gloria Patri, Te Deum, The Song of the three Children, Quicunque vult, Benedictus, &c. all in m
tre. At the end of which, are musical notes set in four parts to several psalms. What other things, he adds, of poetry, music, or other faculties, he has published, I know not, nor any thing more; yet I suppose he had some dignity in the church of Wells
ATH. OXON. i. 181.
."
If this version should really be the work of Keeper, I fear we are still to seek for archbishop Parker's psalms, with Strype and Ames
There is a metrical English version of the Ps
lm
among the Cotton manuscripts about the year 1320, which has merit. S
also supr. Vol. i. 23.
.
A considerable contributor to the metrical theology was Robert Crowley, educated in Magdalene college at Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship in 1542. In the reign of Edward the sixth, he commenced printer and preacher in London. He lived in Ely-rents in Holborn:
"where, says Wood, he sold books, and at leisure times exercised the gift of preaching in the great city and elsewhere
ATH. OXON. i. 235.
."
In 1550 he printed the first edition of PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISION, but with the ideas of a controversialist, and with the view of helping forward the reformation by the revival of a book which exposed the absurdities of popery in strong satire, and which at present is only valuable or useful, as it serves to gratify the harmless researches of those peaceable philosophers who study the progression of antient literature. His pulpit and his press, those two prolific sources of faction, happily cooperated in propagating his principles of predestination: and his shop and his sermons were alike frequented. Possessed of those talents which qualified him for captivating the attention and moving the passions of the multitude, under queen Elisabeth he held many dignities in a church, whose doctrines and polity his undiscerning zeal had a tendency to destroy. He translated into popular rhyme, not only the psalter, but the litany, with hymns, all which he printed together in 1549. In the same year, and in the same measure, he published
The Voice of the last Trumpet blown by the seventh angel.
This piece contains twelve several lessons, for the instruction or amendment of those who seemed at that time chiefly to need advice; and among whom he enumerates
lewd
priests, scholars, physicians, beggars, yeomen, gentlemen, magistrates, and women. He also attacked the abuses of his age in thirty-one EPIGRAMS, first printed in 1551. The subjects are placed alphabetically. In his first alphabet are
Abbayes, Alehouses, Alleys,
and
Almeshouses.
The second,
Bailiffs, Bawds, Beggars, Bear-bayting,
and
Brawlers.
They display, but without spirit or humour, the reprehensible practices and licentious manners which then prevailed. He published in 1551, a kind of metrical sermon on Pleasure and Pain, Heaven and Hell. Many of these, to say nothing of his almost innumerable controversial tracts in prose, had repeated editions, and from his own press. But one of his treatises, to prove that Lent is a human invention and a superstitious institution, deserves notice for its plan: it is a Dialogue between Lent and Liberty. The personification of Lent is a bold and a perfectly new prosopopeia. In an old poem of this age against the papists, written by one doctor William Turner a physician, but afterwards dean of Wells, the Mass, or mistress MISSA, is personified, who, arrayed in all her meretricious trappings, must at least have been a more theatrical figure
See Strype, ECC
. MEM. ii. p. 138. S
the speakers in Ochin'
Di
logu
against the Pope, englished by Poyne
, printed in 1549. Strype, ibid. 198.
. Crowley likewise wrote, and printed in 1588, a rhyming manual,
The School of Vertue and Book of good Nurture.
This is a translation into metre, of many of the less exceptionable Latin hymns antiently used by the catholics, and still continuing to retain among the protestants a degree of popularity. One of these begins,
Jam Lucis orto sydere.
At the end are prayers and graces in rhyme. This book, which in Wood's time had been degraded to the stall of the ballad-singer, and is now only to be found on the shelf of the antiquary, was intended to supersede or abolish the original Latin hymns, which were only offensive because they were in Latin, and which were the recreation of scholars in our universities after dinner on festival days. At an archiepiscopal visitation of Merton college in Oxford, in the year 1562, it was a matter of enquiry, whether the
superstitious
hymns appointed to be sung in the Hall on holidays, were changed for the psalms in metre: and one of the fellows is accused of having attempted to prevent the singing of the metrical Te Deum in the refectory on All-saints day
Strype's Parker, B. 11. Ch. ii. pag. 116, 117. Compare LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, 2d edit. p. 354.
.
It will not be foreign to our purpose to remark here, that when doctor Cosins, prebendary of Durham, afterwards bishop, was cited before the parliament in 1640, for reviving or supporting papistic usages in his cathedral, it was alledged against him, that he had worn an
mbroidered cope, had repaired some ruinous cherubims, had used a consecrated knife for dividing the sacramental bread, had renovated the blue cap and golden beard of a little image of Christ on bishop Hatfield's tomb, had placed two lighted tapers on the altar which was decorated with emblematic sculpture, and had forbidden the psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins to be sung in the choir
Neale's HIST. PURIT. vol. ii. ch. vii. pag. 387. edit. 1733. Nalson's COLLECTIONS, vol. i. pag. 789.
.
SECT. XXIX.
BUT among the theological versifiers of these times, the most notable is Christopher Tye, a doctor of music at Cambridge in 1545, and musical preceptor to prince Edward, and probably to his sisters the princesses Mary and Elisabeth. In the reign of Elisabeth he was organist of the royal chapel, in which he had been educated. To his profession of music, he joined some knowledge of English literature: and having been taught to believe that rhyme and edification were closely connected, and being persuaded that every part of the Scripture would be more instructive and better received if reduced into verse, he projected a translation of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES into familiar metre. It appears that the BOOK OF KINGS had before been versified, which for many reasons was more capable of shining under the hands of a translator. But the most splendid historical book, I mean the most susceptible of poetic ornament, in the Old or New Testament, would have become ridiculous when clothed in the fashionable ecclesiastical stanza. Perhaps the plan of setting a narrative of this kind to music, was still more preposterous and exceptionable. However, he completed only the first fourteen chapters: and they were printed in 1553, by William Serres, with the following title, which by the reader, who is not acquainted with the peculiar complexion of this period, will hardly be suspected to be serious.
"The ACTES OF THE APOSTLES translated into Englyshe metre, and dedicated to the kinges most excellent maiestye by Cristofer Tye, doctor in musyke, and one of the Gentylmen of hys graces most honourable Chappell, with notes to eche chapter to synge and also to play upon the Lute, very necessarye for studentes after theyr studye to fyle their wittes, and alsoe for all christians that cannot synge, to reade the good and godlye storyes of the lives of Christ his apostles."
It is dedicated in Sternhold's stanza,
"To the vertuous and godlye learned prynce Edward the sixth."
As this singular dedication contains, not only anecdotes of the author and his work, but of his majesty's eminent attention to the study of the scripture, and of his skill in playing on the lute, I need not apologise for transcribing a few dull stanzas; especially as they will also serve as a specimen of the poet's native style and manner, unconfined by the fetters of translation.
Your Grace may note, from tyme to tyme,
That some doth undertake
Upon the Psalms to write in ryme,
The verse plesaunt to make:
And some doth take in hand to wryte
Out of the Booke of Kynges;
Because they se your Grace delyte
In suche like godlye thynges
Strype says, that
"Sternhold composed several psalms at first for his own solace. For he set and sung them to his organ. Which music king Edward vi. sometime hearing, for he was a Gentleman of the privy-chamber, was much delighted with them. Which occasioned his publication and dedication of them to the said king."
ECCLES. MEMOR. B. i. ch. 2. p. 86.
.
And last of all, I youre poore man,
Whose doinges are full base,
Yet glad to do the best I can
To give unto your Grace,
Have thought it good now to recyte
The stories of the Actes
Even of the Twelve, as Luke doth wryte,
Of all their worthy factes.—
Unto the text I do not ad,
Nor nothyng take awaye;
And though my style be gros and bad,
The truth perceyve ye may.—
My callynge is another waye,
Your Grace shall herein fynde
My notes set forth to synge or playe,
To recreate the mynde.
And though they be not curious
That is, they are plain and unisonous: the established character of thi
sort of music.
,
But for the letter mete;
Ye shall them fynde harmonious,
And eke pleasaunt and swete.
A young monarch singing the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES in verse to his lute, is a royal character of which we have seldom heard. But he proceeds,
That such good thynges your Grace might move
Your Lute when ye assaye,
In stede of songes of wanton love,
These stories then to play.
So shall your Grace plese God the lorde
In walkyng in his waye,
His lawes and statutes to recorde
In your heart night and day.
And eke your realme shall florish styll,
No good thynge shall decaye,
Your subjectes shall with right good will,
These wordes recorde and saye:
"Thy lyf, O kyng, to us doth shyne,
"As God's boke doth thee teache;
"Thou dost us feede with such doctrine
"As God's elect dyd preache."
From this sample of his original vein, my reader will not perhaps hastily predetermine, that our author has communicated any considerable decorations to his ACTS OF THE APOSTLES in English verse. There is as much elegance and animation in the two following initial stanzas of the fourteenth chapter, as in any of the whole performance, which I shall therefore exhibit.
It chaunced in Iconium,
As they
Apostles.
oft tymes did use,
Together they into did come
The Sinagoge of Jues.
Where they did preache and only seke
God's grace them to atcheve;
That so they speke to Jue and Greke
That many did bileve.
Doctor Tye's ACTS OF THE APOSTLES were sung for a time in the royal chapel of Edward the sixth. But they never became popular. The impropriety of the design, and the impotency of the execution, seem to have been perceived even by his own prejudiced and undiscerning age. This circumstance, however, had probably the fortunate and seasonable effect, of turning Tye's musical studies to another and a more rational system: to the composition of words judiciously selected from the prose psalms in four or five parts. Before the middle of the reign of Elisabeth, at a time when the more ornamental and intricate music was wanted in our service, he concurred with the celebrated Tallis and a few others in setting several anthems, which are not only justly supposed to retain much of the original strain of our antient choral melody before the reformation, but in respect of harmony, expression, contrivance, and general effect, are allowed to be perfect models of the genuine ecclesiastic style. Fuller informs us, that Tye was the chief restorer of the loss which the music of the church had sustained by the destruction of the monasteries
WORTHI
S, ii. 244. Tallis here mentioned, at the begin
ing of the reign of Elisabeth, and by proper authority, enriched the music of Marbeck's liturgy. He set to music the T
DEUM, BENEDICTUS, MAGNIFICAT, NUNC DIMITTIS, and other offices, to which Marbeck had given only the
canto fi
mo,
or plain chant. He composed a new Litany still in use; and improved the simpler modulation of Marbeck's Suffrages, Kyries after the Commandments, and other versicle
, as they are sung at pres
nt. There are two chants of Tallis, one to the VENITE EXULTEMUS, and another to the Athanasian Cre
d.
. Tye also appears to have been a translator of Italian.
The History of Nastagio and Traversari translated out of Italian into English by C. T.
perhaps Christopher Tye, was printed at London in 1569
In duod
cimo.—I had almost forgot to observe, that John Mardiley,
clerk of the king's Mint, called Suffolk-house
in Southwark, translated twenty-four of David's Psalms into English verse, about 1550. He wrote also
Religious Hymns.
Bale, par. post. p. 106. There is extant his
Complaint against the sti
necked papist in verse.
Lond. by T. Raynold, 1548. 8vo. And, a
Short Resytal of certyu
holie doctors,
against the real presence,
collected in myter
[metre] by John Mardiley. Lond. 12mo. Se
another of his pieces on the same subject, and in rhyme, presented and dedicated to queen Elisabeth, MSS. R
. 17 B. xxxvii. The Protector Somerset was his patron.
.
It is not my intention to pursue any farther the mob of religious rhymers, who, from principles of the most unfeigned piety, devoutly laboured to darken the lustre, and enervate the force, of the divine pages. And perhaps I have been already too prolix in examining a species of poetry, if it may be so called, which even impoverishes prose; or rather, by mixing the stile of prose with verse, and of verse with prose, destroys the character and effect of both. But in surveying the general course of a species of literature, absurdities as well as excellencies, the weakness and the vigour of the human mind, must have their historian. Nor is it unpleasing to trace and to contemplate those strange incongruities, and false ideas of perfection, which at various times, either affectation, or caprice, or fashion, or opinion, or prejudi
e, or ignorance, or enthusiasm, present to the conceptions of men, in the shape of truth.
I must not, however, forget, that king Edward the sixth is to be ranked among the religious poets of his own reign. Fox has published his metrical instructions concerning the eucharist, addressed to sir Antony Saint Leger. Bale also mentions his comedy called the WHORE OF BABYLON, which Holland the heroologist, who perhaps had never seen it, and knew not whether it was a play or a ballad, in verse or prose, pronounces to be a most elegant perfo
mance
HEROOLOG. p. 27.
. Its elegance, with some, will not perhaps apologise or atone for its subject: and it may seem strange, that controversial ribaldry should have been suffered to enter into the education of a great monarch. But the genius, habits, and situation; of his age should be considered. The reformation was the great political topic of Edward's court. Intricate discussions in divinity were no longer confined to the schools or the clergy. The new religion, from its novelty, as well as importance, interested every mind, and was almost the sole object of the general attention. Men emancipated from the severities of a spiritual tyranny, reflected with horror on the slavery they had so long suffered, and with exultation on the triumph they had obtained. These feelings were often expressed in a strain of enthusiasm. The spirit of innovation, which had seized the times, often transgressed the bounds of truth. Every change of religion is attended with those ebullitions, which growing more moderate by degrees, afterwards appear eccentric and ridiculous.
We who live at a distance from this great and national struggle between popery and protestantism, when our church has been long and peaceably established, and in an age of good sense, of politeness and philosophy, are apt to view these effusions of royal piety as weak and unworthy the character of a king. But an ostentation of zeal and example in the young Edward, as it was natural so it was necessary, while the reformation was yet immature. It was the duty of his preceptors, to impress on his tender years, an abhorrence of the principles of Rome, and a predilection to that happy system which now seemed likely to prevail. His early diligence, his inclination to letters, and his seriousness of disposition, seconded their active endeavours to cultivate and to bias his mind in favour of the new theology, which was now become the fashionable knowledge. These and other amiable virtues his cotemporaries have given young Edward in an eminent degree. But it may be presumed, that the partiality which youth always commands, the specious prospects excited by expectation, and the flattering promises of religious liberty secured to a distant posterity, have had some small share in dictating his panegyric.
The new settlement of religion, by counteracting inveterate prejudices of the most interesting nature, by throwing the clergy into a state of contention, and by disseminating theological opinions among the people, excited so general a ferment, that even the popular ballads and the stage, were made the vehicles of the controversy between the papal and protestant communions
See instances already given, before the Reformation had actually taken place, supr. p. 144.
.
The Ballad of LUTHER, the POPE, a CARDINAL, and a HUSBANDMAN, written in 1550, in defence of the reformation, has some spirit, and supports a degree of character in the speakers. There is another written about the same time, which is a lively satire on the English Bible, the vernacular liturgy, and the book of homilies
See Percy BALL. ii. 102.
. The measure of the last is that of PIERCE PLOWMAN, with the addition of rhyme: a sort of versification which now was not uncommon.
Strype has printed a poem called the PORE HELP, of the year 1550, which is a lampoon against the new preachers or gospellers, not very elegant in its allusions, and in Skelton's style. The anonymous satirist mentions with applause
Mayster Huggarde,
or Miles Hoggard, a shoemaker of London, and who wrote several virulent pamphlets against the reformation, which were made important by extorting laboured answers from several eminent divines
One of these pieces is,
"A Confutation to the answer of a wicked ballad,"
printed in 1550. Crowley abovementioned wrote,
"A Confutation of Miles Hoggar
's wicked ballad made in defence of the transubstantiation of the Sacrament."
Lond. 1548. octavo.
. He also mentions a
nobler clarke,
whose learned
Balad
in defence of the
holy Kyrke
had triumphed over all the raillery of its numerous opponents
Strype, ECCL. MEM. ii. APP
ND, i. p. 34.
. The same industrious annalist has also preserved
A Song on bishop Latimer,
in the octave rhyme, by a poet of the same persuasion
Ibid. vol. i. APPEND. xliv. p. 121.
. And in the catalogue of modern English prohibited books delivered in 1542 to the parish priests, to the intent that their authors might be discovered and punished, there is the
Burying of the Mass in Eaglish rithme
Burnet, HIST. REF. vol. i. R
C. Num. xxvi. p. 257.
. But it is not my intention to make a full and formal collection of these fugitive religious pasquinades, which died with their respective controversies.
In the year 1547, a proclamation was published to prohibit preaching. This was a t
mporary expedient to suppress the turbulent harangues of the catholic ministers, who still composed no small part of the parochial clergy: for the court of augmentations took care perpetually to supply the vacant benefices with the disincorporated monks, in order to exonerate the exchequer from the payment of their annuities. These men, both from inclination and interest, and hoping to restore the church to its antient orthodoxy and opulence, exerted all their powers of declamation in combating the doctrines of protestantism and in alienating the minds of the people from the new doctrines and reformed rites of worship. Being silenced by authority, they had recourse to the stage: and from the pulpit removed their polemics to the play-house. Their farces became more successful than their sermons. The people flocked eagerly to the play-house, when deprived not only of their antient pageantries, but of their pastoral discourses, in the church. Archbishop Cranmer and the protector Somerset were the chief objects of these dramatic invectives
Fuller, CH. HIST. B. vii. Cent. xvi. p. 390.
. At length, the same authority which had checked the preachers, found it expedient to controul the players: and a new proclamation, which I think has not yet appeared in the history of the British drama, was promulgated in the following terms
Dat. 3. Edw. vi. Aug. 8.
. The inquisitive reader will observe, that from this instrument plays appear to have been long before a general and familiar species of entertainment, that they were acted not only in London but in the great towns, that the profession of a player, even in our present sense, was common and established; and that these satirical interludes are forbidden only in the English tongue.
"Forasmuch as a great number of those that be COMMON PLAYERS of ENTERLUDES and PLAYES, as well within the city of London as elsewhere within the realm, doe for the most part play such ENTERLUDES, as contain matter tending to sedition, and contemning of sundry good orders and laws; whereupon are grown and daily are likely to growe and ensue much disquiet, division, tumults and uprores in this realm
It should, however, be remarked, that the reformers had themselves shewn the way to this sort of abuse long before. Bale's comedy OF THE THREE LAWS, printed in 1538, is commonly supposed to be a Mys
ery, and merely doctrinal: but it is a satirical play again
t
opery, and perhaps the
rst of the kind in our language. I have mentioned it in general terms before, under Bale as a poet; but I reserved a more particular notice of it for this place. [See supr. p. 78.] It is exceedingly scarce, and has this colophon.
"Thus endeth thys Comedy concernynge the thre lawes, of Nature, Moses, and Christ, co
rupted by the Sodomytes, Pharisees, and Papys
es, most wycked. Compyled by Johan Bal
. Anno M. D. XXXVIII. And lately imprented per Nicolaum Bamburgensem."
duod. It has these directions about the dresses, the first I remember to have seen, which shew the scope and spirit of the piece. SIGNAT. G.
"The apparellynge of the six Vyces or frutes of Infydely
e.—Let Idolatry be decked lyke an olde wytche, Sodomy lyke a monke of all sectes, Ambycyon lyke a byshop, Covetousnesse
yke a Pharisee or spyrituall lawer, False Doctrine lyke a popysh doctour, and Hypocresy lyke a graye fryre. The rest of the partes are easye ynough to conjecture."
A scene in the second Act is thus opened by INFIDELITAS.—
"
Post cantionem, Infidelitas alta voce dicat.
OREMUS. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram formasti laicos, da, quaesumus, ut sicut eorum sudoribus vivimus, ita
orum uxoribus, filiabus, et domicelli
perpetuo frui mereamur, per dominum nostrum Papam."
Bale, a clergyman, and at length a bishop in Ireland, ought to have known, that this profane and impious parody was more o
ensive and injurious to true religion than any part of the missal which he means to ridicule. INFIDELITY then begins in English verse a conversation with LEX MOYSIS, containing the most low and licentious obscenity, which I am ashamed to transcribe, concerning the words of a Latin
a
teme,
between an old
fryre,
or friar,
with spectacles on hys nose,
and dame Isabel an old nun, who
crows like a capon.
This is the most tolerable part of INFIDELITY'S dialogue. SIGNAT. C. iiij.
It was a good world, when we had sech wholsome storyes
Preached in our churche, on sondayes and other f
ryes
Holidays.
.
With us was it mer
e
When we went to Berye
Bury Saint Edmunds.
,
And to our Lady of Grace:
To the Bloud of Hayles
Where no good chere fayles,
And other holye place.
When the prests myght walke,
And with yonge wyves talke,
Then had we chyldren plentye;
Then cuckoldes myght leape
A score on a heape,
Now is there not one to twentye.
When the monkes were fatte, &c.
In another place, the old philosophy is ridiculed. SIGNAT. E. v. Where HYPOCRISY says,
And I wyll rays up in the unyversitees
The seven sleepers there, to advance the pope's decrees:
As Dorbel, and Duns, Durande, and Thomas of Aquyne,
The Mastre of Sentens, with Bachon the great devyne:
Henricus de Gandavo
and these shall read
ad Clerum
Aristotle, and Albert
de secretis mulier
m:
With the commentaryes of Avic
n and Averoyes, &c
: the Kinges Majesty, by the advice and consent of his dearest uncle Edward duke of Somerset, and the rest of his highnesse Privie Councell, straightly chargeth and commandeth all and everie his Majesties subjects, of whatsoever state, order, or degree they be, that from the ninth day of this present month of August untill the feast of All-saints next comming, they nor any of them, openly or secretly PLAY IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE, any kind of ENTERLUDE, PLAY, DIALOGUE, or other matter set forth in form of PLAY, in any place publick or private within this realm, upon pain, that whosoever shall PLAY in ENGLISH any such PLAY, ENTERLUDE, DIALOGUE, or other MATTER, shall suffer imprisonment, or other punishment at the pleasure of his Majestie
Fuller, ibid. p. 391. See also STAT. 2, 3. Edw. vi. A. D. 1
48. Gibs. COD. i. p 261. edit. 1761.
."
But when the short date of this proclamation expired, the reformers, availing themselves of the stratagems of an enemy, attacked the papists with their own weapons. One the comedies on the side of reformation still remains
See supr. vol. i. 241. ii. 378. 397. And Gibs. COD. i. p. 191. edit. 1761.
. But the writer, while his own religion from its simple and impalpable form was much less exposed to the ridicule of scenic exhibition, has not taken advantage of that opportunity which the papistic ceremonies so obviously afforded to burlesque and drollery, from their visible pomp, their number, and their absurdities: nor did he perceive an effect which he might have turned to his own use, suggested by the practice of his catholic antagonists in the drama, who, by way of recommending their own superstitious solemnities, often made them contemptible by theatrical representation.
This piece is entitled,
An Enterlude called
LUSTY JUVENTUS:
lively describing the Frailtie of youth: of Nature prone to Vyce: by Grace and Good Councell traynable to vertue
See Hawkins's OLD PLAY
, i. p. 135.
. The author, of whom nothing more is known, was one R. Wever, as appears from the colophon.
"Finis, quod R. Wever. Imprinted at London in Paules churche yarde by Abraham Vele at the signe of the Lambe."
Hypocrisy is its best character: who laments the loss of her superstitions to the devil, and recites a long catalogue of the trumpery of the popish worship in the metre and manner of Skelton
From Bale's THREE LAWES abovementioned, SIGN. B. v.
Here have I pratye gynnes,
Both brouches, beades, and pynnes,
With soch as the people wynnes
Unto idolatrye, &c.
. The chapter and verse of Scripture are often announced: and in one scene, a personage, called GOD'S MERCYFULL PROMISES, cites Ezekiel as from the pulpit.
The Lord by his prophet Ezekiel sayeth in this wise playnlye,
As in the xxiii chapter it doth appere:
Be converted, O ye children, &c
Ibid. p. 159.
.
From this interlude we learn, that the young men, which was natural, were eager to embrace the new religion, and that the old were unwilling to give up those doctrines and modes of worship, to which they had been habitually attached, and had paid the most implicit and reverential obedience, from their childhood. To this circumstance the devil, who is made to represent the Scripture as a novelty, attributes the destruction of his spiritual kingdom.
The old people would beleve stil in my lawes,
But the yonger sort lead them a contrary way;
They wyll not beleve, they playnly say,
In old traditions as made by men,
But they wyll 'leve as the Scripture teacheth them
Ibid. p. 133.
.
The devil then, in order to recover his interest, applies to his son Hypocrisy, who attempts to convert a young man to the antient faith, and says that the Scripture can teach no more, than that
God is a good man
Ibid. 141.
, a phrase which Shakespeare with great humour has put into the mouth of Dogberry
MUCH ADO. iii. 8.
. But he adds an argument in jest, which the papists sometimes seriously used against the protestants, and which, if we consider the poet's ultimate intention, had better been suppressed.
The world was never so mery,
Since children were so bolde:
Now every boy will be a teacher,
The father a foole, the chylde a pr
acher
Ibid. p. 143.
.
It was among the reproaches of protestantism, that the inexperienced and the unlearned thought themselves at liberty to explain the Scriptures, and to debate the most abstruse and metaphysical topics of theological speculation. The two songs in the character of YOUTH, at the opening and close of this interlude, are flowery and not inelegant
Ibid. p. 121. 153.
.
The protestants continued their plays in Mary's reign: for Strype has exhibited a remonstrance from the Privy-council to the lord President of the North, representing, that
"certain lewd [ignorant] persons, to the number of six or seven in a company, naming themselves to be servants of sir Frauncis Lake, and wearing his livery or badge on their sleeves, have wandred about those north parts, and representing certain Plays and Enterludes,"
reflecting on her majesty and king Philip, and the formalities of the mass
ECCL. MEM. iii. APPEND. iii. p. 185. Dat. 1556. Sir Francis Lake is ordered to correct his servants so offending.
One Henry Nicholas a native of Amsterdam, who imported his own translations of many enthusiastic German books into England, about the year 1550, translated and published,
"COMOEDIA, a worke in rhyme, conteyning an interlude of Myndes witnessing man's fall from God and Cryst, set forth by H. N. and by him newly perused and amended. Translated out of base Almayne into Englysh."
Without date, in duodecimo. It seems to have been printed abroad. Our author was the founder of one of the numerous offsets of calvinistic fanaticis
, called the FAMILY OF LOVE.
. These were familyminstrels or players, who were constantly distinguished by their master's livery or badge.
When the English liturgy was restored at the accession of Elisabeth, after its suppression under Mary, the papists renewed their hostilities from the stage; and again tried the intelligible mode of attack by ballads, farces, and interludes. A new injunction was then necessary, and it was again enacted in 1559, that no person, but under heavy forfeitures, should abuse the Common Prayer in
"any Enterludes, Plays, songs or rimes
Ann. i. Eliz.
."
But under Henry the eighth, so early as the year 1542, before the reformation was fixed or even intended on its present liberal establishment, yet when men had begun to discern and to reprobat
many of the impostures of popery, it became an object of the legislature to curb the bold and seditious spirit of popular poetry. No sooner were the Scriptures translated and permitted in English, than they were brought upon the stage: they were not only misinterpreted and misunderstood by the multitude, but profaned or burlesqued in comedies and mummeries. Effectually to restrain these abuses, Henry, who loved to create a subject for persecution, who commonly proceeded to disannul what he had just confirmed, and who found that a freedom of enquiry tended to shake his ecclesiastical supremacy, framed a law, that not only Tyndale's English Bible, and all the printed English commentaries, expositions, annotations, defences, replies, and sermons, whether orthodox or heretical, which it had occasioned, should be utterly abolished; but that the kingdom should also be
purged
and
cleansed
of all religious plays, interludes, rhymes, ballads, and songs, which are equally
pestiferou
and noysome
to the peace of the church
STAT. Ann. 34, 35. Henr. viii. Cap. i. Tyndale's Bible was printed at Paris 1536.
.
Henry appears to have been piqued as an author and a theologist in adding the clause concerning his own INSTITUTION OF A CHRISTIAN MAN, which had been treated with the same sort of ridicule. Yet under the general injunction of suppressing all English books on religious subjects, he formally excepts, among others, some not properly belonging to that class, such as the CANTERBURY TALES, the works of Chaucer and Gower, CRONICLES, and STORIES OF MENS LIVES
Ibid. Artic. vii.
. There is also an exception added about plays, and those only are allowed which were called MORALITIES, or perhaps interludes of r
al character and action,
"for the rebuking and reproaching of vices and the setting forth of virtue."
MYSTERIES are totally rejected
Ibid. Artic. ix.
. The reservations which follow, concerning the use of a corrected English Bible, which was permitted, are curious for their quaint partiality, and they shew the embarrassment of administration, in the difficult business of confining that benefit to a few, from which all might reap advantage, but which threatened to become a general evil, without some degrees of restriction. It is absolutely forbidden to be read or expounded in the church. The lord chancellor, the speaker of the house of commons,
captaines of the wars,
justices of the peace, and recorders of cities, may quote passages to enforce their public harangues,
as has been accustomed.
A nobleman or gentleman may read it, in his house,
orchards,
or
garden,
yet quietly, and without disturbance
"of good order."
A merchant also may read it
to himself privately.
But the common people, who had already abused this liberty to the purpose of division and dissensions, and under the denomination of
women,
artificers, apprentices, journeymen, and servingmen, are to be punished with one month's imprisonment, as often as they are detected in reading the Bible either privately or openly.
It should be observed, that few of these had now learned to read. But such was the privilege of peerage, that ladies of quality might read
"to themselves and alone, and not to others,"
any chapter either in the Old or New Testament
Ibid. Artic. x. seq.
. This has the air of a sumptuary law, which indulges the nobility with many superb articles of finery, that are interdicted to those of inferior degree
And of an old DIETARIE FOR THE CLER
Y, I think by archbishop Cranmer, in which an archbishop is allowed to have two swans or two capons in a dish, a bishop two. An archbishop six blackbirds at once,
bishop five, a dean four, an archdeacon two. If a dean has four dishes in his first course, he is not afterward
to have custard
or
ritter
. An archbishop may have
ix snip
, an archdeacon only two. Rabbit
, lark
, ph
sant
, and partridges, are allowed in these proportions. A canon residentiary is to have a swan only on a Sunday. A rector of sixteen marks, only three blackbirds in a week. See a similar instrument, Strype's PARKER, APPEND. p. 65.
In the British Museum, there is a beautiful manuscript on vellum of a French translation of the Bible, which was found in the
ent of king John, king of France, after the battle of Poictiers. Perhaps hi
m
jesty poss
ssed this book on the plan of an exclusive royal right.
. Undoubtedly the duchesses and countesses of this age, if not from principles of piety, at least from motives of curiosity, became eager to read a book which was made inaccessible to three parts of the nation. But the partial distribution of a treasure to which all had a right could not long remain. This was a MANNA to be
gathered by every man.
The claim of the people was too powerful to be overruled by the bigottry, the prejudice, or the caprice of Henry.
I must add here, in reference to my general subject, that the translation of the Bible, which in the reign of Edward the sixth was admitted into the churches, is supposed to have fixed our language. It certainly has transmitted and perpetuated many antient words which would otherwise have been obsolete or unintelligible. I have never seen it remarked, that at the same time this translation contributed to enrich our native English at an early period, by importing and familiarising many Latin words
More particularly in the Latin derivative substantives, such as,
divination, perdition, adoption, manifestatio
, consolation, contribution, administration, consummation, reconciliation, operation, communication, retribution, preparation, immortality, principality,
&c. &c. And in other words,
frustrate, inexcusable, tran
figure, concupiscence,
&c. &c.
.
These were suggested by the Latin vulgate, which was used as a medium by the translators. Some of these, however, now interwoven into our common speech, could not have been understood by many readers even above the rank of the vulgar, when the Bible first appeared in English. Bishop Gardiner had therefore much less reason than we now imagine, for complaining of the too great clearness of the translation, when with an insidious view of keeping the people in their antient ignorance, he proposed, that instead of always using English phrases, many Latin words should still be preserved, because they contained an inherent significance and a genuine dignity, to which the common tongue afforded no correspondent expressions of sufficient energy
Such as,
Idololatria, contritus, holocausta, sacramentum, elementa, humilitas, satisfactio, ceremonia, absolutio, mysterium, penitentia,
&c. See Gardiner's proposals in Burnet, HIST. REF. vol. i. B. iii. p. 315. And Fuller, CH. HI
T. B. v. Cent. xvi. p. 238.
.
To the reign of Edward the sixth belongs Arthur Kelton, a native of Shropshire or Wales. He wrote the CRONICLE OF THE BRUTES in English verse. It is dedicated to the young king, who seems to have been the general patron; and was printed in 1547
Lond. Octavo. Pr.
"In the golden time when all things."
. Wood allows that he was an able antiquary; but laments, that he
"being withall poetically given, must forsooth write and publish his lucubrations in verse; whereby, for rhime's sake, many material matters, and the due timing of them, are omitted, and so consequently rejected by historians and antiquarians
ATH. OXON. i. 73.
."
Yet he has not supplied his want of genealogical and historical precision with those strokes of poetry which his subject suggested; nor has his imagination been any impediment to his accuracy. At the end of his CRONICLE is the GENEALOGY OF THE BRUTES, in which the pedigree of king Edward the sixth is lineally drawn through thirty-two generations, from Osiris the first king of Egypt. Here too Wood reproaches our author for his ignorance in genealogy. But in an heraldic enquiry, so difficult and so new, many mistakes are pardonable. It is extraordinary that a Welshman should have carried his genealogical researches into Egypt, or rather should have wished to prove that Edward was descended from Osiris: but this was with a design to shew, that the Egyptian monarch was the original progen
tor of Brutus, the undoubted founder of Edward's family. Bale says that he wrote, and dedicated to sir William Herbert, afterwards earl of Pembroke, a most elegant poetical panegyric on the Cambro-Britons
Bale, xi. 97.
. But Bale's praises and censures are always regulated according to the religion of his authors.
The first CHANSON à BOIRE, or DRINKING-BALLAD, of any merit, in our language, appeared in the year 1551. It has a vein of ease and humour, which we should not expect to have been inspired by the simple beverage of those times. I believe I shall not tire my reader by giving it at length; and am only afraid that in this specimen the transition will be thought too violent, from the poetry of the puritans to a convivial and
ungodlie
ballad.
I cannot eat, but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But sure I think, that I can drink
With him that weares a hood
A monk.
.
Though I go bare, take ye no care,
I nothing am a colde;
I stuffe my skin so full within,
Of joly goode ale and olde.
Backe and side go bare, go bare,
Booth foot and hand go colde;
But, belly, God send thee good ale inoughe,
Whether it be new or olde!
I love no rost, but a nut-browne toste,
And a crab laid in the fire;
A little bread shall do me stead,
Moche bread I noght desire.
No frost no snow, no winde, I trowe,
Can hurt me if I wolde,
I am so wrapt, and throwly lapt
Of joly good ale and olde.
Backe and side, &c.
And TIB my wife, that as her life
Loveth well good ale to seeke,
Full oft drinkes shee, till ye may see
The teares run downe her cheeke.
Then doth she trowle to me the bowle
Even as a mault-worm sholde;
And
Having drank sh
says.
, "saith, sweet heart, I tooke my part
"Of this joly good ale and olde."
Backe and side, &c.
Now let them drinke, till they nod and winke
Even as good fellows should do:
They shall not misse to have the blisse
Good ale doth bringe men to.
And al goode sowles that have scoured bowles,
Or have them lustely trolde,
God save the lives
of them and their wives,
Whether they be yong or olde!
Backe and side, &c.
This song opens the second act of GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE, a comedy, written and printed in 1551
On the authority of MSS. Oldys. A valuable black-letter copy, in the possession of Mr. Steevens, i
the oldest I have seen.
, and soon afterwards acted at Christ's College in Cambridge. In the title of the old edition it is said to have been written
"by Mr. S. master of artes,"
who probably was a member of that society. This is held to be the first comedy in our language: that is, the first play which was neither Mystery nor Morality, and which handled a comic story with some disposition of plot, and some dis
rimination of character
See supr. vol. ii. p. 378.
. The writer has a degree of jocularity which sometimes rises above buffoonery, but is often disgraced by lowness of incident. Yet in a more polished age he would have chosen, nor would he perhaps have disgraced, a better subject. It has been thought surprising that a learned audience could have endured some of these indelicate scenes. But the established festivities of scholars were gross and agreeable to their general habits: nor was learning in that age always accompanied by gentleness of manners. When the sermons of Hugh Latimer were in vogue at court, the university might be justified in applauding GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.
SECT. XXX.
TRUE genius, unseduced by the cabals and unalarmed by the dangers of faction, defies or neglects those events which destroy the peace of mankind, and often exerts its operations amidst the most violent commotions of a state. Without patronage and without readers, I may add without models, the earlier Italian writers, while their country was shook by the intestine tumults of the Guelfes and Guibelines, continued to produce original compositions both in prose and verse, which yet stand unrivalled. The age of Pericles and of the Peloponnesian war was the same. Careless of those who governed or disturbed the world, and superior to the calamities of a quarrel in which two mighty leaders contended for the prize of universal dominion, Lucretius wrote his sublime didactic poem on the system of nature, Virgil his bucolics, and Cicero his books of philosophy. The proscriptions of Augustus did not prevent the progress of the Roman literature.
In the turbulent and unpropitious reign of queen Mary, when controversy was no longer confined to speculation, and a spiritual warfare polluted every part of England with murthers more atrocious than the slaughters of the most bloody civil contest, a poem was planned, although not fully completed, which illuminates with no common lustre that interval of darkness, which occupies the annals of English poetry from Surrey to Spenser, entitled, A MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES.
More writers than one were concerned in the execution of this piece: but its primary inventor, and most distinguished contributor, was Thomas Sackville the first lord Buckhurst, and first earl of Dorset. Much about the same period, the same author wrote the first genuine English tragedy, which I shall consider in its proper place.
Sackville was born at Buckhurst, a pricipal seat of his antient and illustrious family in the parish of Withiam in Sussex. His birth is placed, but with evident inaccuracy, under the year 1536
Archbishop Abbot, in Sackville's Funeral-sermon, says he was aged 72 when he died, in the year 1608. If so, he was not twenty years of age when h
wrote GORDOBUCK.
. At least it should be placed six years before. Discovering a vigorous understanding in his childhood, from a domestic tuition he was removed, as it may reasonably be conjectured, to Hart-hall, now Hertford college, in Oxford. But he appears to have been a master of Arts at Cambridge
Wood, ATH. OXON. i.
. 767.
. At both universities he became celebrated as a Latin and English poet; and he carried his love of poetry, which he seems to have almost solely cultivated, to the Inner Temple. It was now fashionable for every young man of fortune, before he began his travels, or was admitted into parliament, to be initiated in the study of the law. But instead of pursuing a science, which could not be his profession, and which was unaccommodated to the bias of his genius, he betrayed his predilection to a more pleasing species of literature, by composing the tragedy just mentioned, for the entertainment and honour of his fellow-students. His high birth, however, and ample patrimony, soon advanced him to more important situations and employments. His eminent accomplishments and abilities having acquired the confidence and esteem of queen Elisabeth, the poet was soon lost in the statesman, and negotiations and embassies extinguished the milder ambitions of the ingenuous Muse. Yet it should be remembered, that he was uncorrupted amidst the intrigues of an artful court, that in the character of a first minister he preserved the integrity of a private man, and that his family refused the offer of an apology to his memory, when it was insulted by the malicious insinuations of a rival party. Nor is it foreign to our purpose to remark, that his original elegance and brilliancy of mind sometimes broke forth, in the exercise of his more formal political functions. He was frequently disgusted at the pedantry and official barbarity of style, with which the public letters and instruments were usually framed: and Naunton relates, that his
"secretaries had difficulty to please him, he was so
facete
and choice in his style
FRAGM. REGAL. p. 70.
."
Even in the decisions and pleadings of that rigid tribunal the star-chamber, which was never esteemed the school of rhetoric, he practiced and encouraged an unaccustomed strain of eloquent and graceful oratory: on which account, says Lloyd,
"so flowing was his invention, that he was called the star-chamber bell
Lloyd'
WO
THI
S, p. 678.
."
After he was made a peer by the title of lord Buckhurst, and had succeeded to a most extensive inheritance, and was now discharging the business of an envoy to Paris, he found time to prefix a Latin epistle to Clerke's Latin translation of Castilio's COURTIER, printed at London in 1571, which is not an unworthy recommendation of a treatise remarkable for its polite Latinity. It was either because his mistress Elisabeth paid a sincere compliment to his singular learning and fidelity, or because she was willing to indulge an affected fit of indignation against the object of her capricious passion, that when Sackville, in 1591, was a candidate for the chancellorship of the university of Oxford, she condescended earnestly to sollicit the university in his favour, and in opposition to his competitor the earl of Essex. At least she appears to have approved the choice, for her majesty soon afterwards visited Oxford, where she was entertained by the new chancellor with splendid banquets and much solid erudition. It is neither my design nor my province, to develope the profound policy with which he conducted a peace with Spain, the address with which he penetrated or baffled the machinations of Essex, and the circumspection and success with which he managed the treasury of two opulent sovereigns. I return to Sackville as a poet, and to the history of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES
Many of his L
tter
are in the CA
ALA. And in the university register at Oxford, (Mar. 21. 1591.) see his Letter about the Habits
See also Howard'
COLL. p. 297.
.
About the year 1557, he formed the plan of a poem, in which all the illustrious but unfortunate characters of the English history, from the conquest to the end of the fourteenth century, were to pass in review before the poet, who descends like Dante into the infernal region, and is conducted by SORROW. Although a descent into hell had been suggested by other poets, the application of such a fiction to the present design, is a conspicuous proof of genius and even of invention. Every personage was to recite his own misfortunes in a separate soliloquy. But Sackville had leisure only to finish a poetical preface called an INDUCTION, and one legend, which is the life of Henry Stafford duke of Buckingham. Relinquishing therefore the design abruptly, and hastily adapting the close of his INDUCTION to the appearance of Buckingham, the only story he had yet written, and which was to have been the last in his series, he recommended the completion of the whole to Richard Baldwyne and George Ferrers.
Baldwyne seems to have been graduated at Oxford about the year 1532. He was an ecclesiastic, and engaged in the education of youth. I have already mentioned his metrical version of SOLOMON'S SONG, dedicated to king Edward the sixth
See supr. 181.
. His patron was Henry lord Stafford
Ut in
r. He wrote also
Three book
s of M
ral Philosop
y.
And
The Liv
and Sayings of Philosoph
rs, Emperors, Kings,
tc.
dedicated to lord Stafford, often printed at London in quarto. Altered by Thomas
Pal
r
ym
n, Lond. 1608. 12mo. Also,
Similies
and
Prover
s.
And
The Us
of Adagies.
Bale says, that he wrote,
"Comoedias etiam aliquot."
pag. 108.
.
George Ferrers, a man of superior rank, was born at saint Albans, educated at Oxford, and a student of Lincolns-inn. Leland, who has given him a place in his ENCOMIA, informs us, that he was patronised by lord Cromwell
Fol. 66.
. He was in parliament under Henry the eighth; and, in 1542, imprisoned by that whimsical tyrant, perhaps very unjustly, and for some cabal now not exactly known. About the same time, in his juridical capacity, he translated the MAGNA CHARTA from French into Latin and English, with some other statutes of England
For Robert Redman. No date. After 1540. At the end he is called George Ferrerz. In duodecimo. Redman printed MA
NA CHARTA in French, 1529. Duodecim. oblong.
. In a scarce book, William Patten's
Expedition into Scotlande of the most woorthely fortunate prince Edward duke of Somerset,
printed at London in 1548
Dedicated to sir William Paget. Duodecimo. Compare Leland, ut supr. fol. 66.
, and partly incorporated into Hollinshead's history, it appears from the following passage that he was of the suite of the protector Somerset.
"George Ferrers a gentleman of my lord Protectors, and one of the commissioners of the carriage of this army."
He is said to have compiled the history of queen Mary's reign, which makes a part of Grafton's CHRONICLE
Stowe, CHRON. p. 632.
. He was a composer almost by profession of occasional interludes for the diversion of the court: and in 1553, being then a member of Lincolns-inn, he bore the office of LORD OF MISRULE at the royal palace of Greenwich during the twelve days of Christmas. Stowe says,
"George Ferrers gentleman of Lincolns-inn, being lord of the disportes all the 12 days of Christmas anno MDLIII
Hollinshead says 1552. fol. 1067.
, at Greenwich: who so pleasantly and wisely behaved himself, that the king had great delight in his pastymes
CHRON. p. 608. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 382.]
."
No common talents were required for these festivities. Bale says that he wrote some rhymes,
rhythmos aliquot
p. 108. SCRIPT. NOSTR. TEMP.
. He died at Flamstead in Hertfordshire in 1579. Wood's account of George Ferrers, our author, who misled by Puttenham the author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, has confounded him with Edward Ferrers a writer of plays, is full of mistakes and inconsistencies
ATH. OXON. i. 193. The same mistake is in Mere
's WITS TREASURY, printed in 1598. In reciting the dramatic poets of those times he says,
"Maister Edward Ferris the authour of the MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES."
fol. 282. None of his plays, which, Puttenham says,
"were written with much skill and magnificence in his meter, and wherein the king had so much good recreation that he had thereby many good rewards,"
are now remaining, and as I suppose were never printed. He died and was buried in the church of Bade
ley-Clinton in Warwickshire 1564. He was of Warwickshire, and educated at Oxford. See Philip
's TH
ATR. PO
T. p. 221. SUPPL. Lond. 1674. 12mo. Another Ferris [Richard] wrote
The dangerous adventure of
Richard Ferris
and others who undertooke to rowe from Tower whar
e to Bristowe i
a small wherry-boate,
Lond. 1590. 4to. I believe the names of all three should be written FERRERS.
. Our author wrote the epitaph of his friend Thomas Phayer, the old translator of the Eneid into English verse, who died in 1560, and is buried in the church of Kilgarran in Pembrokeshire.
Baldwyne and Ferrers, perhaps deterred by the greatness of the attempt, did not attend to the series prescribed by Sackville; but inviting some others to their assistance, among which are Churchyard and Phayer, chose such lives from the newly published chronicles of Fabyan and Hall, as seemed to display the most affecting catastrophes, and which very probably were pointed out by Sackville. The civil wars of York and Lancaster, which Hall had compiled with a laborious investigation of the subject, appear to have been their chief resource.
These legends with their authors, including Sackville's part, are as follows. Robert Tresilian chief Justice of England, in 1388, by Ferrers. The two Mortimers, surnamed Roger, in 1329, and 1387, by Baldwyne. Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, uncle to Richard the second, murdered in 1397, by Ferrers. Lord Mowbray, preferred and banished by the same king in 1398, by Churchyard. King Richard the second, deposed in 1399, by Baldwyne. Owen Glendour, the pretended prince of Wales, starved to death in 1401, by Phayer. Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, executed at York in 1407, by Baldwyne. Richard Plantagenet earl of Cambridge, executed at Southampton in 1415, by Baldwyne. Thomas Montague earl of Salisbury, in 1428, by Baldwyne. James the first of Scotland, by Baldwyne. William de la Poole duke of Suffolk,
p Hall's
Union of the two noble and illustrious families of Yorke and Lancaster
was printed at London, for Berthelette, 1542. fol. Continued by Grafton the printer, from Hall's manuscripts, Lond. 1548. fol.
banished for destroying Humphry duke of Gloucester in 1450, by Baldwyne. Jack Cade the rebel in 1450, by Baldwyne. Richard Plantagenet duke of Yorke, and his son the earl of Rutland, killed in 1460, by Baldwyne. Lord Clifford, in 1461, by Baldwyne. Tiptoft earl of Worcester, in 1470, by Baldwyne. Richard Nevil earl of Warwick, and his brother John lord Montacute, killed in the battle of Barnet, 1471, by Baldwyne. King Henry the sixth murthered in the Tower London, in 1471, by Baldwyne. George Plantagenet, third son of the duke of York, murthered by his brother Richard in 1478, by Baldwyne. Edward the fourth, who died suddenly in 1483, by Skelton
Printed in his WORKS. But there is an old edition of this piece alone, without date, in duodecimo.
. Sir Anthony Woodville, lord Rivers and Scales, governor of prince Edward, murthered with his nephew lord Gray in 1483, by Baldwyne
The SECONDE PARTE begins with this Life.
. Lord Hastings betrayed by Catesby, and murthered in the Tower by Richard duke of Gloucester, in 1483
Subscribed in Niccols's edition,
"
Master
D."
that is, John Dolman. It was intended to introduce here The two Princes murthered in the tower,
"by the lord Vaulx, who undertooke to penne it, says Baldwyne, but what he hath done therein I am not certaine."
fol. cxiiii. b. Dolman abovementioned was of the Middle-temple. He translated into English Tully's TUSCULANE QUESTIONS, dedicated to Jewel bishop of Salisbury, and printed in 1561, duodecimo.
. Sackville's INDUCTION. Sackville's Duke of Buckingham. Collingbourne,
cruelly executed for making a foolish rhyme,
by Baldwyne. Richard duke of Gloucester, slain in Bosworth field by Henry the seventh, in 1485, by Francis Seagers
A translator of the PSALMS, see supr. p. 181.
. Jane Shore, by Churchyard
In the Prologue which follows, Baldwyne says, he was
"exhorted to procure Maister Churchyarde to undertake and to penne as many more of the remaynder, as myght be attayned, &c."
fol. clvi. a.
. Edmund duke of Somerset killed in the first battle of Saint Albans in 1454, by Ferrers. Michael Joseph the blacksmith and lord Audely, in 1496, by Cavyl.
It was injudicious to choose so many stories which were then recent. Most of these events were at that time too well known to become the proper subject of poetry, and must have lost much of their solemnity by their notoriety. But Shakespeare has been guilty of the same fault. The objection, however, is now worn away, and age has given a dignity to familiar circumstances.
This collection, or set of poems, was printed in quarto, in 1559, with the following title.
"A MYRROVRE FOR MAGISTRATES, Wherein may be seen by example of others, with howe greuous plages vices are punished, and howe frayl and vnstable worldly prosperitie is founde, euen of those whom Fortvne seemeth most highly to favour.
Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.
Anno 1559. Londini, in aedibus Thomae Marshe."
A
Mirrour
was a favorite title of a book, especially among the old French writers. Some anecdotes of the publication may be collected from Baldwyne's DEDICATION TO THE NOBILITIE, prefixed.
"The wurke was begun and parte of it prynted in Queene Maries tyme, but hyndred by the Lord Chancellour that then was
This chancellor must have been bishop Gardiner.
: nevertheles, through the meanes of my lorde Stafford
Henry lord Stafford, son and heir of Edward last duke of Buckingham, a scholar and a writer. See Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 108. One of his books is dedicated to the Protector Somerset. Aubrey gives us a rhyming epitaph in Howard's chapel in Lambeth church, written by this nobleman to his sister the duchess of Norfolk. SURREY, vol. v. p. 236. It is subscribed
"by thy most bounden brother Henry lord Stafford."
Bale says that he was
"vir multarum rerum ac disciplinarum notitia ornatus,"
and that he died in 1558. par. post. 112.
, the fyrst parte was licenced, and imprynted the fyrst yeare of the raygne of this our most noble and vertuous queene
Elisabeth.
, and dedicated then to your honours with this preface. Since whych time, although I have been called to another trade of lyfe, yet my good lord Stafford hath not ceassed to call upon me to publyshe so much as I had gotten at other mens hands, so that through his lordshyppes earnest meanes I have now also set furth another parte, conteyning as little of myne owne as the fyrst parte doth of other mens
SIGNAT. C ii.
."
The plan was confessedly borrowed from Boccace's DE CASIBUS PRINCIPUM, a book translated, as we have seen, by Lydgate, but which never was popular, because it had no English examples. But Baldwyne's scope and conduct, with respect to this and other circumstances, will best appear from his Preface, which cannot easily be found, and which I shall therefore insert at large.
"When the printer had purposed with him
elfe to printe Lydgate's booke of the FALL OF PRINCES, and had made pryvye therto many both honourable and worshipfull, he was counsayled by dyvers of them, to procure to have the story contynewed from where as Bochas left, unto this present time; chiefly of such as Fortune had dalyed with in this ylande.—Which advyse lyked him so well, that he requyred me to take paines therin. But because it was a matter passyng my wit and skyll, and more thankles than gaineful to meddle in, I refused utterly to undertake it, except I might have the help of suche, as in wit were apte, in learnyng allowed, and in judgement and estymacyon able to wield and furnysh so weighty an enterpryse, thinkyng even so to shift my handes. But he, earnest and diligent in his affayres, procured Atlas to set under his shoulder. For shortly after, divers learned men, whose manye giftes nede fewe prayses, consented to take upon them parte of the travayle. And when certaine of them, to the numbre of seven, were through a general assent at an appoynted tyme and place gathered together to devyse thereupon, I resorted unto them, bearing the booke of Bochas translated by Dan Lidgate, for the better observation of his order. Which although we liked wel, yet would it not cumly serve, seeing that both Bochas and Lidgate were dead; neither were there any alive that meddled with like argument, to whom the UNFORTUNATE might make make their mone. To make therefore a state mete for the matter, they all agreed that I should usurpe Bochas rowme, and the WRETCHED PRINCES complayne unto me: and take upon themselves every man for his parte to be sundry personages, and in their behalfes to bewaile unto ME their greevous chances, heavye destinies, and wofull misfortunes. This done, we opened such bookes of Cronicles as we had there present. And maister Ferrers, after he had found where Bochas left, which was about the ende of kinge Edwarde the thirdes raigne, to begin the matter sayde thus."
"I marvayle what Bochas meaneth, to forget among his MISERABLE PRINCES such as wer of our nacion, whose numbre is as great, as their adventures wunderfull. For to let passe all, both Britons, Danes, and Saxons, and to come to the last Conquest, what a sorte are they
How many they are
l
ude. Crew.
, and some even in his [Boccace's] owne time! As for example, king Richard the fyrst, slayne with a quarle
Q
ar
ll. The bol
of a cros
-bow.
in his chyefe prosperitie. Also king John his brother, as sum saye, poysoned. Are not their histories rufull, and of rare example? But as it should appeare, he being an Italian, minded most the Roman and Italike story, or els perhaps he wanted our countrey Cronicles. It were therefore a goodly and a notable matter, to search and discourse our whole story from the first beginning of the inhabiting of the yle. But seeing the printer's minde is, to have us folowe where Lidgate left, we will leave that great labour to other that may intend it, and (as blinde Bayard is alway boldest) I will begyn at the time of Rychard the second, a time as unfortunate as the ruler therein. And forasmuch, frend Baldwyne, as it shal be your charge to note and pen orderlye the whole proces, I will, so far as my memorie and judgemente serveth, sumwhat further you in the truth of the storye. And therefore omittinge the ruffle of Jacke Strawe and his meyney
Mu
, and the murther of manye notable men which therby happened, for Jacke, as ye knowe, was but a
poore prynce;
I will begin with a notable example which within a while after ensued. And although he be no Great Prynce, yet sithens he had a princely office, I will take upon me the miserable person of syr ROBERT TRESILIAN chyefe justyce of England, and of other which suffered with him. Therby to warne all of his authoritye and profession, to take hede of wrong judgements, misconstruynge of lawes, or wresting the same to serve the princes turnes, which ryghtfully brought theym to a miserable ende, which they may justly lament in manner ensuing
SI
NAT. A
ii.
."
Then follows sir ROBERT TRESILIAN'S legend or history, supposed to be spoken by himself, and addressed to Baldwyne.
Here we see that a company was feigned to be assembled, each of which, one excepted, by turns personates a character of one of the great Unfortunate: and that the stories were all connected, by being related to the silent person of the assembly, who is like the chorus in the Greek tragedies, or the Host in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The whole was to form a sort of dramatic interlude, including a series of independent soliloquies. A continuity to this imagined representation is preserved by the introduction, after every soliloquy, of a prose epilogue, which also serves as a prologue to the succeeding piece, and has the air of a stage-direction. Boccace had done this before. We have this interposition, which I give as a specimen, and which explains the method of the recital, between the tragedies of king RICHARD THE SECOND and OWEN GLENDOUR.
"Whan he had ended this so wofull a tragedye, and to all PRINCES a right worthy instruction, we paused: having passed through a miserable tyme, full of pyteous tragedyes. And seyng the reygne of Henry the fourth ensued, a man more ware and prosperous in hys doynges, although not untroubled with warres both of outforthe and inward enemyes, we began to serch what Pyers [peers] were fallen therein, wherof the number was not small: and yet because theyr examples were not muche to be noted for our purpose, we passed over all the Maskers, of whom kynge Rycharde's brother was chiefe: whych were all slayne and put to death for theyr trayterous attempt. And fyndynge Owen Glendoure next one of Fortune's owne whelpes, and the Percyes his confederates, I thought them unmete to be overpassed, and therefore sayd thus to the sylent cumpany, What, my maysters, is every one at once in a browne study, and hath no man affection to any of these storyes? You mynd so much some other belyke, that those do not move you. And to say the trouth, there is no special cause why they should. Howbeyt Owen Glendoure, becaus he was one of Fortune's darlynges, rather than he should be forgotten, I will tel his tale for him, under the privelidge of Martine hundred. Which OWEN, cuming out of the wilde mountains lyke the Image of Death in al pointes, (his darte onlie excepted,) so sore hath famyne and hunger consumed hym, may lament his folly after this maner."
This process was a departure from Sackville's idea: who supposes, as I have hinted, the scene laid in hell, and that the unfortunate princes appeared to him in succession, and uttered their respective complaints, at the gates of Elysium, under the guidance of SORROW.
Many stanzas in the legends written by Baldwyne
That is, Baldwyne had previously prepared and written his l
gend or monologue, and one of the company was to act his part, and assume this appearance
fol. xviii
b.
and Ferrers, and their friends, have considerable merit, and often shew a command of language and versification
These lines in COLLINGBOURNE'S legend are remarkable, fol. cxliiii. a.
Like Pegasus a poet must have wynges,
To slye to heaven, or where him liketh best;
He must have knowledge of eternal thynges,
Almighti
Jove must harbor in his brest.
. But their performances have not the pathos which the subject so naturally suggests. They give us, yet often with no common degree of elegance and perspicuity, the chronicles of Hall and Fabyan in verse. I shall therefore, in examining this part of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, confine my criticism to Sackville's INDUCTION and Legend of Buckingham.
SECT. XXXI.
SACKVILLE'S INDUCTION, which was to have been placed at the head of our English tragical story, and which loses much of its dignity and propriety by being prefixed to a single life, and that of no great historical importance, is opened with the following poetical landscape of winter
See fol. cxvi.
.
The wrathfull winter, prochinge on apace,
With blustring blasts had all ybard the treene;
And old Saturnus with his frosty face
With chilling colde had pearst the tender greene:
The mantels rent, wherein enwrapped been
The gladsom groves, that nowe laye overthrowen,
The tapets torne, and every bloom downe blowne.
The soile that earst so seemly was to seen,
Was all despoyled of her beauty's hewe;
And soote freshe flowres, wherewith the sommers queen
Had clad the earth, now Boreas blastes downe blewe;
And small fowles flocking in theyr song did rewe
The winters wrath, wherewith eche thinge defaste
In wofull wise bewayld the sommer paste.
Hawthorne had lost his motley lyverye,
The naked twigges were shivering all for colde;
And droppinge downe the teares abundantly,
Eche thing, methought, with weping
ye me tolde
The cruell season, bidding me witholde
Myselfe within: for I was gotten out
Into the feldes where as I walkt about.
When loe the night, with mistie mantels spred,
Gan darke the daye, and dim the azure skies, &c.
The altered scene of things, the flowers and verdure of summer deformed by the frosts and storms of winter, and the day suddenly overspread with darkness, remind the poet of the uncertainties of human life, the transient state of honour, and the instability of prosperity.
And sorrowing I to see the sommer flowers,
The lively greene, the lusty leas forlorne,
The sturdy trees so shattred with the showers,
The fieldes so fade, that floorisht so beforne;
It taught we wel, all earthly thinges be borne
To dye the death, for nought long time may last:
If sommors beauty yeelds to winters blast.
Then looking upwards to the heavens beams,
With nightès starres thick-powdred every where,
Which erst so glistened with the golden streames
That chearfull Phebus spred downe from his sphere,
Beholding darke, oppressing day, so neare;
The sodayne sight reduced to my mynde
The sundry chaunges that in earth we fynde.
Immediately the figure of SORROW suddenly appears, which shews the poet in a new and bolder mode of composition.
And strayt forth stalking with redoubled pace,
For that I sawe the night drew on so fast,
In black all clad there fell before my face
A piteous wight, whom woe had all forwast;
Furth from her iyen the crystall teares outbrast,
And syghing sore her haunds she wronge and folde,
Tare al her haire that ruth was to beholde.
Her body small, forwithered and forespent,
As is the stalke that sommers drought opprest;
Her wealked face with wofull teares besprent,
Her colour pale, and, as it seemed her best,
In woe and playnt reposed was her rest:
And as the stone that droppes of water weares,
So dented were her cheekes with fall of teares.—
I stoode agast, beholding all her plight,
Tween dread and dolour so distreynd in hart,
That while my heares upstarted with the sight,
The teares outstreamde for sorowe of her smatt.
But when I sawe no ende, that could aparte
The deadly dole which she so sore dyd make,
With dolefull voyce then thus to her I spake.
Unwrap thy woes, whatever wight thou be!
And stint betime to spill thyselfe with playnt.
Tell what thou art, and whence, for well I see
Thou canst not dure with sorowe thus attaynt.
And with that worde, of sorrowe all forfaynt,
She looked up, and prostrate as she laye,
With piteous sounde, lo! thus she gan to saye.
Alas, I wretche, whom thu
thou
eest distrayned,
With wasting woes, that never shall aslake,
SORROWE I am, in endeles tormentes payned,
Among the Furies in the infernall lake;
Where Pluto god of hell so grieslie blake
Doth holde his throne, and Lethes deadly taste
Doth reive remembrance of
che thyng forepast.
Whence come I am, the drery destinie,
And luckles lot, for to bemone of those,
Whom Fortune in this maze of miserie,
Of wretched chaunce, most wofull myrrours chose:
That when thou
ee
t how lightly they did lose
Theyr pompe, theyr power, and that they thought most sure,
Thou mayest soon deeme no earthlye joye may dure.
SORROW then conducts the poet to the classical hell, to the place of torments and the place of happiness.
I shall thee guyde first to the griesly lake,
And thence unto the blissfull place of rest:
Where thou shalt see and heare the playnt they make,
That whilom here bare swinge
Sway.
among the best.
This shalt thou see. But great is the unrest
That thou must byde, before thou canst attayne
Unto the dreadfull place where those remayne.
And with these wordes as I upraysed stood
And gan to folowe her that straight forth paste,
Ere I was ware, into a desert wood
We nowe were come: where hand in hand embraced,
She led the way, and through the thicke so traced
As, but I had beene guyded by her might,
It was no waye for any mortal wight.
But loe! while thus amid the desert darke
We passed on, with steppes and pace unmeete,
A rumbling roar confusde, with howle and barke
Of dogs, shooke all the grounde under our feete,
And strooke the din within our eares so deepe,
As half distraught unto the ground I fell,
Besought returne, and not to visit hell.—
An hydeous hole al vast, withouten shape,
Of endles depth, orewhelmde with ragged stone,
With oughly mouth and griesly jawes doth gape,
And to our sight confounds itself in one.
Here entred we, and yeding
Going.
forth, anone
An horrible lothly lake we might discerne,
As black as pitche, that cleped
Called.
is Averne.
A deadly gulfe where nought but rubbish growes,
With fowle blake swelth in thickened lumpes that lyes,
Which upp in th' ayre such stinking vapour throwes,
That over there may flye no fowle, but dyes
Choakt with the noysom vapours that aryse.
Hither we come, whence forth we still did pace,
In dreadfull feare amid the dreadfull place.
Our author appears to have felt and to have conceived with true taste, that very romantic part of Virgil's Eneid which he has here happily copied and heightened. The imaginary beings which sate within the porch of hell, are all his own. I must not omit a single figure of this dreadful groupe, nor one compartment of the portraitures which are feigned to be sculptured or painted on the SHIELD of WAR, indented
with gashes deepe and wide.
And, first, within the porch and jaws of hell
Sat deep REMORSE OF CONSCIENCE, all besprent
With tears; and to herself oft would she tell
Her wretchedness, and, cursing, never stent
To sob and sigh, but ever thus lament
With thoughtful care; as she that, all in vain,
Would wear and waste continually in pain:
Her eyes unstedfast, rolling here and there,
Whirl'd on each place, as place that vengeance brought,
So was her mind continually in fear,
Tost and tormented with the tedious thought
Of those detested crimes which she had wrought;
With dreadful cheer, and looks thrown to the sky,
Wishing for death, and yet she could not die.
Next, saw we DREAD, all trembling how he shook,
With foot uncertain, profer'd here and there,;
Benumb'd with speech; and, with a gastly look,
Search'd every place, all pale and dead for fear,
His cap born up with with staring of his hair;
'Stoin'd and amazed at his own shade for dread,
And fearing greater dangers than was need.
And, next, within the entry of this lake,
Sat fell REVENGE, gnashing her teeth for ire;
Devising means how she may vengeance take;
Never in rest, 'till she have her desire;
But frets within so far forth with the fire
Of wreaking flames, that now determines she
To die by death, or 'veng'd by death to be.
When fell REVENGE, with bloody foul pretence,
Had show'd herself, as next in order set,
With trembling limbs we softly parted thence,
'Till in our eyes another sight we met;
When fro my heart a sigh forthwith I fet,
Ruing, alas, upon the woeful plight
Of MISERY, that next appear'd in sight:
His face was lean, and some-deal pin'd away
And eke his hands consumed to the bone;
But, what his body was, I cannot say,
For on his carkass rayment had he none,
Save clouts and patches pieced one by one;
With staff in hand, and scrip on shoulders cast,
His chief defence against the winter's blast:
His food, for most, was wild fruits of the tree,
Unless sometime some crums fell to his share,
Which in his wallet long, God wot, kept he,
As on the which full daint'ly would he fare;
His drink, the running stream, his cup, the bare
Of his palm closed; his bed, the hard cold ground:
To this poor life was MISERY ybound.
Whose wretched state when we had well beheld,
With tender ruth on him, and on his feers,
In thoughtful cares forth then our pace we held;
And, by and by, another shape appears
Of greedy CARE, still brushing up the breers;
His knuckles knob'd, his flesh deep dinted in,
With tawed hands, and hard ytanned skin:
The morrow grey no sooner hath begun
To spread his light, e'en peeping in our eyes,
But he is up, and to his work yrun;
But let the night's black misty mantles rise,
And with foul dark never so much disguise
The fair bright day, yet ceaseth he no while,
But hath his candles to prolong his toil.
By him lay heavy SLEEP, the cousin of Death,
Flat on the ground, and still as any stone,
A very corpse, save yielding forth a breath;
Small keep took he, whom fortune frowned on,
Or whom she lifted up into the throne
Of high renown, but, as a living death,
So, dead alive, of life he drew the breath:
The body's rest, the quiet of the heart,
The travel's ease, the still night's feer was he,
And of our life in earth the better part;
Rever of sight, and yet in whom we see
Things oft that chance and oft that never be;
Without respect, esteemed equally
King CROESUS' pomp and IRUS' poverty.
And next, in order sad, OLD-AGE we found:
His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind;
With drooping cheer still poring on the ground,
As on the place where nature him assign'd
To rest, when that the sisters had untwin'd
His vital th
ad, and ended with their knife
The fleeting course of fast-declining life:
There heard we him with broken and hollow plaint
Rue with himself his end approaching fast,
And all for nought his wretched mind torment
With sweet remembrance of his pleasures past,
And fresh delights of lusty youth forewaste;
Recounting which, how would he sob and shriek,
And to be young again of JOVE beseek!
But, an' the cruel fates so fixed be
That time forepast cannot return again,
This one request of JOVE yet prayed he,—
That, in such wither'd plight, and wretched pain,
As eld, accompany'd with her lothsome train,
Had brought on him, all were it woe and grief,
He might a while yet linger forth his lief,
And not so soon descend into the pit;
Where Death, when he the mortal corpse hath slain,
With rechless hand in grave doth cover it;
Thereafter never to enjoy again
The gladsome light, but, in the ground ylain,
In depth of darkness waste and wear to nought,
As he had ne'er into the world been brought:
But who had seen him sobbing how he stood
Unto himself, and how he would bemoan
His youth forepast,—as though it wrought him good
To talk of youth, all were his youth foregone,—
He would have mus'd, and marvel'd much, whereon
This wretched Age should life desire so fain,
And knows full well life doth but length his pain:
Crook-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed;
Went on three feet, and, sometimes, crept on four;
With old lame bones, that rattled by his side;
His scalp all pil'd, and he with eld forelore,
His wither'd fist still knocking at death's door;
Fumbling, and driveling, as he draws his bread;
For brief, the shape and messenger of Death.
And fast by him pale MALADY was placed:
Sore sick in bed, her colour all foregone;
Bereft of stomach, savour, and of taste,
Ne could she brook no meat but broths alone;
Her breath corrupt; her keepers every one
Abhorring her; her sickness past recure,
Detesting physick, and all physick's cure.
But, O, the doleful sight that then we see!
We turn'd our look, and on the other side
A grisly shape of FAMINE mought we see:
With greedy looks, and gaping mouth, that cry'd
And roar'd for meat, as she should there have dy'd;
Her body thin and bare as any bone,
Whereto was left nought but the case alone,
And that, alas, was gnaw'n on every where,
All full of holes; that I ne mought refrain
From tears, to see how she her arms could tear,
And with her teeth gnash on the bones in vain,
When, all for nought, she fain would so sustain
Her starven corpse, that rather seem'd a shade
Than any substance of a creature made:
Great was her force, whom stone-wall could not stay:
Her tearing nails snatching at all she saw;
With gaping jaws, that by no means ymay
Be satisfy'd from hunger of her maw,
But eats herself as she that hath no law;
Gnawing, alas, her carkass all in vain,
Where you may count each sinew, bone, and vein.
On her while we thus firmly fix'd our eyes,
That bled for ruth of such a dreary sight,
Lo, suddenly she shright in so huge wise
As made hell gates to shiver with the might;
Wherewith, a dart we saw, how it did light
Right on her breast, and, therewithal, pale DEATH
Enthrilling it, to reve her of her b
eath:
And, by and by, a dumb dead corpse we saw,
Heavy, and cold, the shape of Death aright,
That daunts all earthly creatures to his law,
Against whose force in vain it is to fight;
Ne peers, ne princes, nor no mortal wight,
No towns, ne realms, cities, ne strongest tower,
But all, per
orce, must yield unto his power:
His dart, anon, out of the corpse he tooke,
And in his hand (a dreadful sight to see)
With great triumph
tsoons the same he shook,
That most of all my fears affrayed me;
His body dight with nought but bones, pardy;
The naked shape of man there saw I plain,
All save th
flesh, the sinew, and the vein.
Lastly, stood WAR, in glittering arms yclad,
With visage grim, stern look'd, and blackly hued:
In his right hand a naked sword he had,
That to the hilts was all with blood imbrued;
And in his left (that kings and kingdoms rued)
Famine and fire he held, and therewithal
He razed towns, and threw down towers and all:
Cities he sack'd, and realms (that whilom flower'd
In honour, glory', and rule, above the rest)
He overwhelm'd, and all their fame devour'd,
Consum'd, destroy'd, wasted, and never c
as'd
'Till he their wealth, their name, and all oppress'd:
His face forehew'd with wounds; and by his side
There hung his TARGE, with gashes deep and wide:
In mids of which depainted there we found
Deadly DEBATE, all full of snaky hair
That with a bloody fillet was ybound,
Outbreathing nought but discord every where:
And round about were pourtray'd, here and there,
The hugy hosts; DARIUS and his power,
His kings, his princes, peers, and all his flower.—
XERXES, the Persian king, yet saw I there,
With his huge host, that drank the rivers dry,
Dismounted hills, and made the vales uprear;
His host and all y
t saw I slain, pardy:
Thebes too I saw, all razed how it did lie
In heaps of stones; and Tyrus put to spoil,
With walls and towers flat-
ven'd with th
soil.
But Troy, (alas!) methought, above them all,
It made mine eyes in very tears consume;
When I beheld the woeful word befall,
That by the wrathful will of gods was come,
And JOVE'S unmoved sentence and foredoom
On PRIAM king and on his town so bent,
I could not lin but I must there lament;
And that the more, sith destiny was so stern
As, force perforce, there might no force avail
But she must fall: and, by her fall, we learn
That cities, towers, wealth, world, and all shall quail;
No manhood, might, nor nothing mought prevail;
All were there prest, full many a prince and peer,
And many a knight that sold his death full dear:
Not worthy HECTOR, worthiest of them all,
Her hope, her joy, his force is now for nought:
O Troy, Troy, Troy, there is no boot but bale!
The hugy horse within thy walls is brought;
Thy turrets fall; thy knights, that whilom fought
In arms amid the field, are slain in bed;
Thy gods defil'd, and all thy honour dead:
The flames upspring, and cruelly they creep
From wall to roof, 'till all to cinders waste:
Some fire the houses where the wretches sleep;
Some rush in here, some run in there as fast;
In every where or sword, or fire, they taste:
The walls are torn, the towers whirl'd to the ground;
There is no mischief but may there be found.
CASSANDRA yet there saw I how they hal'd
From PALLAS' house, with spercled tress undone,
Her wrists fast bound, and with Greek rout impal'd;
And PRIAM eke, in vain how he did run
To arms, whom PYRRHUS with despite hath done
To cruel death, and bath'd him in the baign
Of his son's blood before the altar slain.
But how can I descrive the doleful sight
That in the shield so lively fair did shine?
Sith in this world, I think, was never wight
Could have set forth the half not half so fine:
I can no more, but tell how there is seen
Fair ILIUM fall in burning red gledes down,
And, from the soil, great Troy, NEPTUNUS' town.
These shadowy inhabitants of hell-gate are conceived with the vigour of a creative imagination, and described with great force of expression. They are delineated with that fulness of proportion, that invention of picturesqu
tributes, distinctness, animation, and amplit
de, of which Spenser is commonly supposed to have given the first specimens in our language, and which are characteristical of his poetry. We may venture to pronounce that Spenser, at least, caught his manner of designing allegorical personages from this model, which so greatly enlarged the former narrow bounds of our ideal imagery, as that it may justly be deemed an original in that style of painting. For we must not forget, that it is to this INDUCTION that Spenser alludes, in a sonnet prefixed to his Pastorals, in 1579, addressed
To the right honourable
THE LORD OF BUCKHURST,
one of her maiesties priuie councell.
In vaine I thinke, right honourable lord,
By this rude rime to memorize thy name,
Whose learned Muse hath writ her owne record
In golden verse, worthy immortal fame.
Thou much more fit, were leisure for the same,
Thy gracious soveraignes prayses to compile,
And her imperiall m
jestie to frame
In loftie numbers and heroick stile.
The readers of the FAERIE QUEENE will easily point out many particular passages which Sackville's INDUCTION suggested to Spenser.
From this scene SORROW, who is well known to Charon, and to Cerberus the
hideous hound of hell,
leads the poet over the loathsome lake of
rude
Acheron, to the dominions of Pluto, which are described in numbers too beautiful to have been relished by his cotemporaries, or equalled by his successors.
Thence come we to the horrour and the hell,
The large great kyngdomes, and the dreadful raygne
Of Pluto in his trone where he dyd dwell,
The wide waste places, and the hugie playne;
The waylinges, shrykes, and sundry sorts of payne,
The syghes, the sobbes, the depe and deadly groane,
Earth, ayer, and all resounding playnt and moane
The two next stanzas ar
not in the first edition, of 1559. But instead of the
, the following stanza.
Here pul'd the babes, and here the maids unwed
With folded hands their sorry chance bewayl'd;
Here wept the guiltles
Slain, and lovers dead
That slew themselves when nothing else avayl'd.
A thousand sorts of sorrows here that wayl'd
With sighs, and teares, sobs, shricks, and all yfere,
That, O alas! it was a hell to here, &c.
.
Thence did we passe the threefold emperie
To the utmost boundes where Rhadamanthus raignes,
Where proud folke waile their wofull miserie;
Where dreadfull din of thousand dragging chaines,
And baleful shri
kes of ghosts in deadly paines
Torturd eternally are heard most brim
Breme, i.
. curel.
Through silent shades of night so darke and dim.
From hence upon our way we forward passe,
And through the groves and uncoth pathes we goe,
Which leade unto the Cyclops walles of brasse:
And where that mayne broad flood for aye doth floe,
Which parts the gladsome fields from place of woe:
Whence none shall ever passe t' Elizium plaine,
Or from Elizium ever turne againe.
Here they are surrounded by a troop of men,
the most in armes bedight,
who met an untimely death, and of whose destiny, whether they were sentenced to
eternal night
or to
blissfull peace,
it was uncertain.
Loe here, quoth SORROWE, Princes of renowne
That whilom sate on top of Fortune's wheele,
Now laid full low, like wretches whurled downe
Even with one frowne, that staid but with a smile, &c.
They pass in order before SORROW and the poet. The first is Henry duke of Buckingham, a principal instrument of king Richard the third.
Then first came Henry duke of Buckingham,
His cloake of blacke, all pild, and quite forlorne,
Wringing his handes, and Fortune oft doth blame,
Which of a duke hath made him now her skorne;
With gastly lokes, as one in maner lorne,
Oft spred his armes, str
tcht handes he joynes as fast,
With rufull cheere and vapored eyes up
ast.
His cloake he rent, his manly breast he beat;
His hair al torne, about the place it layne:
My heart so molt
Melted:
to see his grief so great,
As feelingly, methought, it dropt away:
His eyes they whurled about withouten staye:
With stormy syghes the place did so complayne,
As if his hart at eche had burst in twayne.
Thryse he began to tell his doleful tale,
And thryse the syghes did swalowe up his voyse;
At eche of whiche he shryked so withale,
As though the heavens ryved with the noyse:
Til at the last recovering his voyse;
Supping the teares that all his breast beraynde
On cruell Fortune weping thus he playnde.
Nothing more fully illustrates and ascertains the respective merits and genius of different poets, than a juxtaposition of their performances on similar subjects. Having examined at large Sackville's Descent into Hell, for the sake of throwing a still stronger light on his manner of treating a fiction which gives so large a scope to fancy, I shall employ the remainder of this Section in setting before my reader a general view of Dante's Italian poem, entitled COMMEDIA, containing a description of Hell, Paradise, and Purgatory, and written about the year 1310. In the mean time, I presume that most of my readers will recollect and apply the sixth Book of Virgil: to which, however, it may be necessary to refer occasionally.
Although I have before insinuated that Dante has in this poem used the ghost of Virgil for a mystagogue, in imitation of Tully, who in the SOMNIUM Scipionis supposes Scipio to have shewn the other world to his ancestor Africanus, yet at the same time in the invention of his introduction, he seems to have had an eye on the exordium of an old forgotten Florentine poem called TESORETTO, written in
Frottola,
or a short irregular measure, exhibiting a cyclopede of theoretic and practic philosophy, and composed by his preceptor Brunetto Latini about the year 1270
See supr. vol. ii. 219.
. Brunetto supposes himself lost in a wood, at the foot of a mountain covered with animals, flowers, plants, and fruits of every species, and subject to the supreme command of a wonderful Lady, whom he thus describes.
"Her head touched the heavens, which served at once for a veil and an ornament. The sky grew dark or serene at her voice, and her arms extended to the extremities of the earth
See supr. vol. ii. 263.
."
This bold personification, one of the earliest of the rude ages of poetry, is NATURE. She converses with the poet, and describes the creation of the world. She enters upon a most unphilosophical and indeed unpoetical detail of the physical system: developes the head of man, and points out the seat of intelligence and of memory. From physics she proceeds to morals: but her principles are here confined to theology and the laws of the church, which she couches in technical rhymes
Brunetto's TESORETTO was abstracted by himself from his larger prose work on the same subject, written in old French and never printed, entitled TESORO. See supr. vol. ii. 116. 222. And HIST. ACAD. INSCRIPT. tom. vii. 296. seq. The TESORO was afterwards translated into Italian by one Bono Giamboni, and printed at Trevisa, viz.
"IL T
SORO di Messer Brunetto Latino, Fiorentino, Precettore del divino poeta Dante: nel qual si tratta di tutte le cose che a mortali se appartengeno.
In Trivisa,
1474. fol. After a table of chapters is another title,
"Qui inchomincia el Tesoro di S. Brunetto Latino di firenze: e parla del nascimento e della natura di tutte le cose."
It was printed again at Venice, by Marchio Sessa, 1533. octavo. Mabillon seems to have confounded this Italian translation with the French original. IT. ITALIC. p. 169. See also Salviat
, AVERTIS. DECAM. ii. xii. Dante int
oduces Brunetto in the fifteenth Can
o of the INFERNO: and after the colophon of the first edition of the Italian TESORO abovementioned, is this insertion.
"Risposta di Dante a Brunetto Latino ritrovado da lui nel quintodecimo canto nel suo inferno."
The TESORETTO or Little Treasure, mentioned above in the text, has been printed, but is exceedingly scarce.
.
Dante, like his master Brunetto, is bewildered in an unfrequented forest. He attempts to climb a mountain, whose summit is illuminated by the rising sun. A furious leopard, pressed by hunger, and a lion, at whose aspect the
air is affrighted,
accompanied by a she-wolf, oppose his progress; and force him to fly precipitately into the profundities of a pathless valley, where, says the poet,
the sun was silent.
Mi ripingeva dove'l sol tace
INF. CANT. i. The same bold metaphor occurs below, CANT. v.
Evenni in luogo d'ogni LUCE MUTO.
.
In the middle of a vast solitude he perceives a spectre, of whom he implores pity and help. The spectre hastens to his cries: it was the shade of Virgil, whom Beatrix, Dante's mistress, had sent, to give him courage, and to guide him into the regions of hell
See supr. vol. ii. p. 219.
. Virgil begins a long discourse with Dante; and expostulates with him for chusing to wander through the rough obscurities of a barren and dreary vale, when the top of the neighbouring mountain afforded every delight. The conversation of Virgil, and the name of Beatrix, by degrees dissipate the fears of the poet, who explains his situation. He returns to himself, and compares this revival of his strength and spirits to a flower smitten by the frost of a night, which again lifts its shrinking head, and expands its vivid colours, at the first gleamings of the morning-sun.
Qual' il fioretti dal notturno gelo
Chinati et chiusi, &c
CANT. ii. In another part of the INFERNO, Virgil is angry with Dante, but is soon reconciled. H
re the poet compares himself to a cottager in the early part of a promising spring, who looks out in the morning from his humble shed, and see
the fields covered with a severe and unexpected frost. But the sun soon melts the ground, and he drives his goats a
ield. CANT. xxiv. This poem abound
in comparisons, Not one of the worst is a comic one, in which a person looking sharply and eagerly, is compared to an old taylor threading a needle. INP. CANT. xv.
.—
Dante, under the conduct of Virgil, penetrates hell. But he does not on this occasion always avail himself of Virgil's descriptions and mythologies. At least the formation of Dante's imageries are of another school. He feigns his hell to be a prodigious and almost bottomless abyss, which from its aperture to its lowest depth preserves a rotund shape: or rather, an immense perpendicular cavern, which opening as it descends into different circles, forms so many distinct subterraneous regions. We are struck with horror at the commencement of this dreadful adventure.
The first object which the poet perceives is a gate of brass, over which were inscribed in characters of a dark hue,
di colore oscuro,
these verses.
Per me si và nella città dolente:
Per me si và nel eterno dolore:
Per me si và trà la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse'l mio alto fattore:
Fece me li divina potestate,
La somma Sapienzia, e l'primo Amore
He means the Platonic
. The Italian expositors will have it to be the Holy Ghost.
.
Dinanzi a me non fur cose create:
Se non eterne, el io duro eterno.
Lassate ogni speranza voi ch'entraste
CANT. iii.
.
That is,
"By me is the way to the woeful city. By me is the way to the eternal pains. By me is the way to the damned race. My mighty maker was divine Justice and Power, the Supreme Wisdom, and the First Love. Before me nothing was created. If not eternal, I shall eternally remain. Put away all hope, ye that enter."
There is a severe solemnity in these abrupt and comprehensive sentences, and they are a striking preparation to the scenes that ensue. But the idea of such an inscription on the brazen portal of hell, was suggested to Dante by books of chivalry; in which the gate of an impregnable enchanted castle, is often inscribed with words importing the dangers or wonders to be found within. Over the door of every chamber in Spenser's necromantic palace of Busyrane, was written a threat to the champions who presumed to attempt to enter
FAIR. QU. iii. xi. 54.
. This total exclusion of hope from hell, here so finely introduced and so forcibly expressed, was probably remembered by Milton, a disciple of Dante, where he describes,
Regions of sorrow, dolefull shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, HOPE NEVER COMES
THAT COMES TO ALL
PAR. L. i. 65.
.—
I have not time to follow Dante regularly through his dialogues and adventures with the crouds of ghosts, antient and modern, which he meets in the course of this infernal journey. In these interviews, there is often much of the party and politics of his own times, and of allusion to recent facts. Nor have I leisure particularly to display our author's punishments and phantoms. I observe in general, that the ground-work of his hell is classical, yet with many Gothic and extravagant innovations. The burning lakes, the fosses, and fiery towers which surround the city of DIS, and the three Furies which wait at its entrance, are touched with new strokes
See CANT. ix. vii.
. The Gorgons, the Hydra, the Chimera, Cerberus, the serpent of Lerna, and the rest of Virgil's, or rather Homer's, infernal apparitions, are dilated with new touches of the terrible, and sometimes made ridiculous by the addition of comic or incongruous circumstances, yet without any intention of burlesque. Because Virgil had mentioned the Harpies in a single word only
Gorgones, HARPYIAEQUE. vi. 289.
, in one of the lothsome groves which Dante passes, consisting of trees whose leaves are black, and whose knotted boughs are hard as iron, the Harpies build their nests
CANT. xiii.
.
Non frondi verdi, ma di color fosco,
Non rami schietti, ma nodosi e'nvolti,
Non pomi v'eran, ma stecchi con tosco.
Cacus, whom Virgil had called
Semifer
in his seventh book, appears in the shape of a Centaur covered with curling snakes, and on whose neck is perched a dragon hovering with expanded wings
CANT. xxv.
. It is supposed that Dante took the idea of his INFERNO from a magnificent nightly representation of hell, exhibited by the pope in honour of the bishop of Ostia on the river Arno at Florence, in the year 1304. This is mentioned by the Italian critics in extenuation of Dante's choice of so strange a subject. But why should we attempt to excuse any absurdity in the writings or manners of the middle ages? Dante chose this subject as a reader of Virgil and Homer. The religious MYSTERY represented on the river Arno, however magnificent, was perhaps a spectacle purely orthodox, and perfectly conformable to the ideas of the church. And if we allow that it might hint the subject, with all its inconsistencies, it never could have furnished any considerable part of this wonderful compound of classical and romantic fancy, of pagan and christian theology, of real and fictitious history, of tragical and comic incidents, of familiar and heroic manners, and of satirical and sublime poetry. But the grossest improprieties of this poem discover an originality of invention, and its absurdities often border on sublimity. We are surprised that a poet should write one hundred cantos on hell, paradise, and purgatory. But this prolixity is partly owing to the want of art and method: and is common to all early compositions, in which every thing is related circumstantially and without rejection, and not in those general terms which are used by modern writers.
Dante has beautifully enlarged Virgil's short comparison of the souls lingering on the banks of Lethe, to the numerous leaves falling from the trees in Autumn.
Come d'Autumno si levan le foglie
L'un appresso del'altra, infin che'l ramo
Vede a la terre tutte le sue spoglie;
Similmente, il mal seme d'Adamo
Getta si di quel lito ad una ad una
Per cenni, com'augel per suo richiamo
CANT. iii.
.
In the Fields inhabited by unhappy lovers he sees Semiramis, Achilles, Paris, and Tristan, or sir Tristram. One of the old Italian commentators on this poem says, that the last was an English knight born in
Cornovaglio,
or Cornwall, a city of England
In the sixteenth Canto of the PARADISO, king Arthur's queen GENEURA, who belongs to
ir Tristram's romance, is mentioned.
.
Among many others of his friends, he sees Francisca the daughter of Guido di Polenta, in whose palace Dante died at Ravenna, and Paulo one of the sons of Malatesta lord of Rimini. This lady fell in love with Paulo; the passion was mutual, and she was betrothed to him in marriage: but her family chose rather that she should be married to Lanciotto, Paulo's eldest brother. This match had the most fatal consequences. The injured lovers could not dissemble or stifle their affection: they were surprised, and both assassinated by Lanciotto. Dante finds the shades of these distinguished victims of an unfortunate attachment at a distance from the rest, in a region of his INFERNO desolated by the most violent tempests. He accosts them both, and Francisca relates their history: yet the conversation is carried on with some difficulty, on account of the impetuosity of the storm which was perpetually raging. Dante, who from many circumstances of his own amours, appears to have possessed the most refined sensibilities about the delicacies of love, enquires in what manner, when in the other world, they first communicated their passion to each other. Francisca answers, that they were one day sitting together, and reading the romance of LANCELOT; where two lovers were represented in the same critical situation with themselves. Their changes of colour and countenance, while they were reading, often tacitly betrayed their yet undiscovered feelings. When they came to that passage in the romance, where the lovers, after many tender approaches, are gradually drawn by one uniform reciprocation of involuntary attraction to kiss each other, the book dropped from their hands. By a sudden impulse and an irresistible sympathy, they are tempted to do the same. Here was the commencement of their tragical history.
Noi leggiavam' un giorno per diletto
Di LANCILOTTO, comme amor le strinse;
Soli eravamo, et senza alcun sospetto.
Per più fia
e gli occhi ci sospinse
Quella lettura et scolorocc' il viso:
Ma sol un punto fù qual che ci vinse.
Quando legemmo il disiato riso
Esser baciato dà cotanto amante
Questi che mai da me no fia diviso
La bocca mi basciò tutto tremante:
GALEOTTO
He is one of the knights of the Round Table, and is commonly called Sir GALHAAD, in ARTHUR'S romance.
fù il libro, et chi lo scrisse
Quel giorno più non vi legemmo avante
CANT. v.
.
But this picture, in which nature, sentiment, and the graces are concerned, I have to contrast with scenes of a very different nature. Salvator Rosa has here borrowed the pencil Correggio. Dante's beauties are not of the soft and gentle kind.
—Through many a dark and dreary vale
They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen many a fiery Alp
Milton, PAR. L. ii. 618.
.
A hurricane suddenly rising on the banks of the river Styx is thus described.
Et gia venia sù per le torbid onde
Un fracasso d'un suon pien di spavento,
Per cui tremavan amendue le sponde;
Non altrimenti fatto che d'un vento
Impetuoso per gli avversi ardori
Che fier la salva senz' alcun rattento
Gli rami schianta i abatte, et porta i fiori,
Dinanzi polveroso và superbo,
Et fa fuggir le fiere et glipastori
CANT. ix.
.
Dante and his mystagogue meet the monster Geryon. He has the face of a man with a mild and benign aspect, but his human form ends in a serpent with a voluminous tail of immense length, terminated by a sting, which he brandishes like a scorpion. His hands are rough with bristles and scales. His breast, back, and sides have all the rich colours displayed in the textures of Tartary and Turkey, or in the labours of Arachne. To speak in Spenser's language, he is,
—A dragon, horrible and bright
FAIR. QU. i. ix. 52.
.
No monster of romance is more savage or superb.
Lo dosso, e'l petto, ad amenduo le coste,
Dipinte avea di nodi, e di rotelle,
Con più color sommesse e soppraposte
Non fur ma
in drappo Tartari ne Turchi,
Ne fur tar tale per Aragne imposte
CANT. xvii. Dante says, that he
ay on the banks of a river like a Beaver, the CASTOR. But this foolish comparison is affectedly introduced by our author for a display of his natural knowledge from Pliny, or rather from the TESORO of his m
ster Brunetto.
.
The conformation of this heterogeneous beast, as a fabulous hell is the subject, perhaps immediately gave rise to one of the
formidable shapes
which sate on either side of the gates of hell in Milton. Although the fiction is founded in the cla
ics.
The one seem'd woman to the waste and fair,
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd
With mortal sting
PAR. L. ii. 649.
.—
Virgil, seeming to acknowledge him as an old acquaintance, mounts the back of Geryon. At the same time Dante mounts, whom Virgil places before,
"that you may not, says he, be exposed to the monster's venomous sting."
Virgil then commands Geryon not to move too rapidly,
"for, consider, what a new burthen you carry!"
—"Gerion muoviti omai,
"Le ruote large, e lo scender sia poco:
"Pensa la nuova soma che tu hai
CANT. xvii.
."
In this manner they travel in the air through Tartarus: and from the back of the monster Geryon, Dante looks down on the burning lake of Phlegethon. This imagery is at once great and ridiculous. But much later Italian poets have fallen into the same strange mixture. In this horrid situation says Dante,
I sentia già dalla man destra il gorgo
Far sotto noi un orribile stroscio:
Perche con gli occhi in giù la testa sporsi
Allor fu io più timido allo scoscio
Perioch i vidi fuochi, e sente pianti,
Oud' io tremando tutto mi rancosco
Ibid.
.
This airy journey is copied from the flight of Icarus and Phaeton, and at length produced the Ippogrifo of Ariosto. Nor is it quite improbable, that Milton, although he has greatly improved and dignified the idea, might have caught from hence his fiction of Satan soaring over the infernal abyss. At length Geryon, having circuited the air like a faulcon towering without prey, deposits his burthen and vanishes
In the thirty-fourth CANTO, Dante and Virgil return to light on the back of Lucifer, who (like Milton's Satan, ii. 927.) is described as having wings like sails,
Vele di mar non vid' io mai est celi.
And again,
—Quando l'ale
uro aperte assai.
This Canto begins with a Latin line,
Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni.
.
While they are wandering along the banks of Phlegethon, as the twilight of evening approaches, Dante suddenly hears the sound of a horn more loud than thunder, or the horn of Orlando
Or Roland, the subject of archbishop Turpin's romance. See supr. vol. i. 132.
.
Ma io senti sonare alto corno:—
Non sono si terribilimente Orlando
CANT. xxxi.
.
Dante descries through the gloom, what he thinks to be many high and vast towers,
molte alti torri.
These are the giants who warred against heaven, standing in a row, half concealed within and half extant without an immense abyss or pit.
Gli orribili giganti, cui minaccia
Giove del cielo ancora quando tuona
Ibid.
.
But Virgil informs Dante that he is deceived by appearances, and that these are not towers but the giants.
Sappi, che non son torri ma giganti
E son nel pezzo intorno della ripa
D'all umbilico in guiso, tutti quanti
Ibid.
.
One of them cries out to Dante with horrible voice. Another, Ephialtes, is cloathed in iron and bound with huge chains. Dante wishes to see Briareus: he is answered, that he lies in an interior cavern biting his chain. Immediately Ephialtes arose from another cavern, and shook himself like an earthquake.
Non fu tremuoto già tanto rubesto,
Che schotesse una torri cosi forte,
Come Fialte a scuotersi fu presto
Ibid.
.
Dante views the horn which had sounded so vehemently hanging by a leathern thong from the neck of one of the giants. Antaeus, whose body stands ten ells high from the pit, is commanded by Virgil to advance. They both mount on his shoulders, and are thus carried about Cocytus. The giant, says the poet, moved off with us like the mast of a ship
Dante says, if I understand the passage right, that the face of one of the giants resembled the Cupola, shaped like a pine-apple, of saint Peter's church at Rome, ibid. CANT. xxxi.
Come la pina di san Pietro a Roma.
. One cannot help observing, what has been indeed already hinted, how judiciously Milton, in a similar argument, has retained the just beauties, and avoided the childish or l
dicrous excesses of these bold inventions. At the same time we may remark, how Dante has sometimes heightened, and sometimes diminished by improper additions or misrepresentations, the legitimate descriptions of Virgil.
One of the torments of the Damned in Dante's INFERNO, is the punishment of being eternally confined in lakes of ice.
Eran l'ombre dolenti nell ghiaccia
Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna
CANT. xxxii.
.
The ice is described to be like that of the Danube or Tanais. This species of infernal torment, which is neither directly warranted by scripture, nor suggested in the systems of the Platonic fabulists, and which has been adopted both by Shakespeare and Milton, has its origin in the legendary hell of the monks. The hint seems to have been taken from an obscure text in the Book of JOB, dilated by saint Jerom and the early commentators
JOB, xxiv. 19.
. The torments of hell, in which the punishment by cold is painted at large, had formed a visionary romance, under the name of saint Patrick's Purgatory or Cave, long before Dante wrote
See supr. vol. ii. 199. And ADD. EMEND. ibid.
. The venerable Bede, who lived in the seventh century, has framed a future mansion of existence for departed souls with this mode of torture. In the hands of Dante it has assumed many fantastic and grotesque circumstances, which make us laugh and shudder at the same time.
In another department, Dante represents some of his criminals rolling themselves in human ordure. If his subject led him to such a description, he might at least have used decent expressions. But his diction is not here less sordid than his imagery. I am almost afraid to transcribe this gross passage, even in the disguise of the old Tuscan phraseology.
—Quindi giù nel fos
o
Vidi gente attuffata in uno sterco,
Che dagli uman privati para mosso;
Et mentre che laggiu con l'occhio cerco:
Vidi un, co'l capo si da merda lordo,
Che non
parea s'era laico, o cherco
CANT. xviii.
.
The humour of the last line does not make amends for the nastiness of the image.
It is not to be supposed, that a man of strong sense and genius, whose understanding had been cultivated by a most exact education, and who had passed his life in the courts of sovereign princes, would have indulged himself in these disgusting fooleries, had he been at all apprehensive that his readers would have been disgusted. But rude and early poets desc
ib
every thing. They follow the public manners: and if they are either obscene or indelicate, it should be remembered that they wrote before obscenity or indelicacy became offensive.
Some of the Guilty are made objects of contempt by a transformation into beastly or ridiculous shapes. This was from the fable of Circe. In others, the human figure is rendered ridiculous by distortion. There is one set of criminals whose faces are turned round towards their backs.
—E'l piante de gli occhi
Le natiche bagnava per lo fesso
CANT. xx.
.
But Dante has displayed more true poetry in describing a real event than in the best of his fictions. This is in the story of Ugolino count of Pisa, the subject of a very capital picture by Reynolds. The poet, wandering through the depths of hell, sees two of the Damned gnawing the sculls of each other, which was their daily food. He enquires the meaning of this dreadful repast.
La bocca sollevò dal fiero pasto
Quel peccator, forbendola a capelli
Del capo ch'egli havea di retro guasto
CANT. xxxiii. They are both in the lake of ice.
.
Ugolino quitting his companion's half-devoured scull, begins his tale to this effect.
"We are Ugolin count of Pisa, and archbishop Ruggieri. Trusting in the perfidious counsels of Ruggieri, I was brought to a miserable death. I was committed with four of my children to the dungeon of hunger. The time came when we expected food to be brought. Instead of which, I heard the gates of the horrible tower more closely barred. I looked at my children, and could not speak.
—"L'hora s'appressava
"Che'l cibo ne soleva essere adotto;
"E per suo sogno ciascun dubitava:
"Ed io senti chiavar l'uscio di sotto
"A l'ORRIBILE TORRE, ond'io guardai
"Nel viso à miei figliuoli, senza far metta.
"I could not complain. I was petrified. My children cried: and my little Anselm,
Anselmuccio mio,
said,
Father, you look on us, what is the matter?
—"Tu guardi si, padre, che hai?"
I could neither weep, nor answer, all that day and the following night. When the scanty rays of the sun began to glimmer through the dolorous prison,
"Com'un poco di raggio si fù messo
"Nel doloroso carcere,—
and I could again see those four countenances on which my own image was stamped, I gnawed both my hands for grief. My children supposing I did this through a desire to eat, lifting themselves suddenly up, exclaimed,
O father, our grief would be less, if you would eat us!
"Ambo le mani per dolor mi morsi:
"E quei pensando ch'io'l fessi per voglia
"Di manicar, di subito levorsi
"Et disser,
Padre, assai ci fia men doglia
"Se tu mangi di noi!—
"I restrained myself that I might not make them more miserable. We were all silent, that day and the following. Ah cruel earth, why didst thou not swallow us up at once!
"Quel di, et l'altro, stemmo tutta muti.
"Ahi! dura terra, perche non l'apristi?
The fourth day being come, Gaddo falling all along at my feet, cried out,
My father, why do not you help me,
and died. The other three expired, one after the other, between the fifth and sixth days, famished as you see me now. And I being seized with blindness began to crawl over them,
sovra ciascuno,
on hands and feet; and for three days after they were dead, continued calling them by their names. At length, famine finished my torments."
Having said this, the poet adds, with distorted eyes he again fixed his teeth on the mangled scull
Ibid. See supr. vol. i. 390. And ESSAY ON POPE, p. 254.
. It is not improbable, that the shades of unfortunate men, who described under peculiar situations and with their proper attributes, are introduced relating at large their histories in hell to Dante, might have given the hint to Boccace's book DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, On the Misfortunes of Illustrious Personages, the original model of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES.
Dante's PURGATORY is not on the whole less fantastic than his HELL. As his hell was a vast perpendicular cavity in the earth, he supposes Purgatory to be a cylindric mass elevated to a prodigious height. At intervals are recesses projecting from the outside of the cylinder. In these recesses, some higher and some lower, the wicked expiate their crimes, according to the proportion of their guilt. From one department they pass to another by steps of stone exceedingly steep. On the top of the whole, or the summit of Purgatory, is a plat-form adorned with trees and vegetables of every kind. This is the Terrestrial Paradise, which has been transported hither we know not how, and which forms an avenue to the Paradise Celestial. It is extraordinary that some of the Gothic painters should not have given us this subject.
Dante describes not disagreeably the first region which he traverses on leaving Hell. The heavens are tinged with sapphire, and the star of love, or the sun, makes all the orient laugh. He sees a venerable sage approach. This is Cato of Utica, who, astonished to see a living man in the mansion of ghosts, questions Dante and Virgil about the business which brought them hither.
y PURGAT. CANT. i.
Virgil answers: and Cato advises Virgil to wash Dante's face, which was soiled with the smoak of hell, and to cover his head with one of the reeds which grew on the borders of the neighbouring river. Virgil takes his advice; and having gathered one reed, sees another spring up in its place. This is the golden bough of the Eneid,
uno avulso non deficit alter.
The shades also, as in Virgil, croud to be ferried over Styx: but an angel performs the office of Charon, admitting some into the boat, and rejecting others. This confusion of fable and religion destroys the graces of the one and the majesty of the other.
Through adventures and scenes more strange and wild than any in the Pilgrim's Progress, we at length arrive at the twentyfirst Canto. A concussion of the earth announces the deliverance of a soul from Purgatory. This is the soul of Statius, the favorite poet of the dark ages. Although a very improper companion for Virgil, he immediately joins our adventurers, and accompanies them in their progress. It is difficult to discover what pagan or christian idea regulates Dante's dispensation of rewards and punishments. Statius passes from Purgatory to Paradise, Cato remains in the place of expiation, and Virgil is condemned to eternal torments.
Dante meets his old acquaintance Forese, a debauchee of Florence. On finishing the conversation, Forese asks Dante when he shall have the pleasure of seeing him again. This question in Purgatory is diverting enough. Dante answers with much serious gravity,
"I know not the time of death: but it cannot be too near. Look back on the troubles in which my country is involved
CANT. xxiv.
!"
The dispute between the pontificate and the empire, appears to have been the predominant topic of Dante's mind. This circumstance has filled Dante's poem with strokes of satire. Every reader of Voltaire must remember that lively writer's paraphrase from the INFERNO, of the story of count Guido, in which are these inimitable lines. A Franciscan friar abandoned to Beelzebub thus exclaims.
—"Monsieur de Lucifer!
"Je suis un Saint; voyes ma robe grise:
"Je fus absous par le Chef de l'Eglise.
"J'aurai, toujours, repondit le Demon,
"Un grand respect pour l'Absolution;
"On est lavè de ses vielles sotises,
"Pourvu qu'après autres ne soient commises.
"J'ai fait souvent cette distinction
"A tes pareils: et, grâce a l'Italie,
"Le Diable sait la Theologie.
"Il dit et rit. Je ne repliquai rien
"A Belzebut, il raisonnoit trop bien.
"Lors il m'empoigne, et d'un bras roide et ferme
"Il appliqua sur ma triste épiderme
"Vingt coups de fouet, dont bien fort il me cuit:
"Que Dieu le rend à Boniface huit."
Dante thus translated would have had many more readers than at present. I take this opportunity of remarking, that our author's perpetual reference to recent facts and characters is in imitation of Virgil, yet with this very material difference. The persons recognised in Virgil's sixth book, for instance the chiefs of the Trojan war, are the cotemporaries of the hero not of the poet. The truth is, Dante's poem is a satirical history of his own times.
Dante sees some of the ghosts of Purgatory advancing forward, more meagre and emaciated than the rest. He asks how this could happen in a place where all live alike without nourishment. Virgil quotes the example of Meleager, who wasted with a firebrand, on the gradual extinction of which his life depended. He also produces the comparison of a mirror reflecting a figure. These obscure explications do not satisfy the doubts of Dante. Statius, for his better instruction, explains how a child grows in the womb of the mother, how it is enlarged, and by degrees receives life and intellect. The drift of our author is apparent in these profound illustrations. He means to shew his skill in a sort of metaphysical anatomy. We see something of this in the TESORETTO of Brunetto. Unintelligible solutions of a similar sort, drawn from a frivolous and mysterious philosophy, mark the writers of Dante's age.
The PARADISE of Dante, the third part of this poem, resembles his PURGATORY. Its fictions, and its allegories which suffer by being explained, are all conceived in the same chimerical spirit. The poet successively views the glory of the saints, of angels, of the holy Virgin, and at last of God himself.
Heaven as well as hell, among the monks, had its legendary description; which it was heresy to disbelieve, and which was formed on perversions or misinterpretations of scripture. Our author's vision ends with the deity, and we know not by what miraculous assistance he returns to earth.
It must be allowed, that the scenes of Virgil's sixth book have many fine strokes of the terrible. But Dante's colouring is of a more gloomy temperature. There is a sombrous cast in his imagination: and he has given new shades of horror to the classical hell. We may say of Dante, that
—Hell
Grows DARKER at his FROWN
PAR. L. ii. 720.
.—
The sensations of fear impressed by the Roman poet are less harrassing to the repose of the mind: they have a more equable and placid effect. The terror of Virgil's tremendous objects is diminished by correctness of composition and elegance of style. We are reconciled to his Gorgons and Hydras, by the grace of expression, and the charms of versification.
In the mean time, it may seem a matter of surprise, that the Italian poets of the thirteenth century who restored, admired, and studied the classics, did not imitate their beauties. But while they possessed the genuine models of antiquity, their unnatural and eccentric habits of mind and manners, their attachments to system, their scholastic theology, superstition, ideal love, and above all their chivalry, had corrupted every true principle of life and literature, and consequently prevented the progress of taste and propriety. They could not conform to the practices and notions of their own age, and to the ideas of the antients, at the same time. They were dazzled with the imageries of Virgil and Homer, which they could not always understand or apply: or which they saw through the mist of prejudice and misconception. Their genius having once taken a false direction, when recalled to copy a just pattern, produced only constraint and affectation, a distorted and unpleasing resemblance. The early Italian poets disfigured, instead of adorning thei
works, by attempting to imitate the classics. The charms which we so much admire in Dante, do not belong to the Greeks and Romans. They are derived from another origin, and must be traced back to a different stock. Nor is it at the same time less surprising, that the later Italian poets, in more enlightened times, should have paid so respectful a compliment to Dante as to acknowledge no other model, and with his excellencies, to transcribe and perpetuate all his extravagancies.
SECT. XXXII.
I NOW return to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, and to Sackville's Legend of Buckingham, which follows his INDUCTION.
The Complaynt of
HENRYE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, is written with a force and even elegance of expression, a copiousness of phraseology, and an exactness of versification, not to be found in any other parts of the collection. On the whole, it may be thought tedious and languid. But that objection unavoidably results from the general plan of these pieces. It is impossible that soliloquies of such prolixity, and designed to include much historical and even biographical matter, should every where sustain a proper degree of spirit, pathos, and interest. In the exordium are these nervous and correct couplets.
Whom flattering Fortune falsely so beguilde,
That loe, she slew, where earst ful smooth she smilde.
Again,
And paynt it forth, that all estates may knowe:
Have they the warning, and be mine the woe.
Buckingham is made to enter thus rapidly, yet with much address, into his fatal share of the civil broils between York and Lancaster.
But what may boot to stay the sisters three,
When Atropos perforce will cut the thred?
The dolefull day was come, when you might see
Northampton field with armed men orespred.
In these lines there is great energy.
O would to God the cruell dismall day
That gave me light fyrst to behold thy face,
With foule eclipse had reft my sight away,
The unhappie hower, the time, and eke the day, &c.
And the following are an example of the simple and sublime united.
And thou, Alecto, feede me with thy foode!
Let fall thy serpents from thy snaky heare!
For such reliefe well fits me in my moode,
To feed my plaint with horroure and with feare!
With rage afresh thy renomd worme areare.
Many comparisons are introduced by the distressed speaker. But it is common for the best poets to forget that they are describing what is only related or spoken. The captive Proteus has his simile of the nightingale; and Eneas decorates his narrative of the disastrous conflagration of Troy with a variety of the most laboured comparisons.
Buckingham in his reproaches against the traiterous behaviour of his antient friend Banastre, utters this forcible exclamation, which breathes the genuine spirit of revenge, and is unloaded with poetical superfluities.
Hat
d be thou, disdainde of everie wight,
And pointed at whereever thou shalt goe:
A traiterous wr
tch, unworthy of the light
Be thou esteemde: and, to encrease thy woe,
The sound be hatefull of thy name alsoe.
And in this sort, with shame and sharpe reproch,
Leade thou thy life, till greater grief approch.
The ingenious writers of these times are perpetually deserting propriety for the sake of learned allusions. Buckingham exhorts the peers and princes to remember the fate of some of the most renowned heroes of antiquity, whose lives and misfortunes he relates at large, and often in the most glowing colours of poetry. Alexander's murther of Clitus is thus described in stanzas, pronounced by the poet and not by Buckingham.
And deeply grave within your stonie hart
The dreerie dole, that mightie Macedo
With teares unfolded, wrapt in deadlie smarts,
When he the death of Clitus sorrowed so,
Whom erst he murdred with the deadlie blow;
Raught in his rage upon his friend so deare,
For which, behold loe how his panges appeare!
The launced speare he writhes out of the wound,
From which the purple blood spins in his face:
His heinous guilt when he returned found,
He throwes himself uppon the corps, alas!
And in his armes howe oft doth he imbrace
His murdred friend! And kissing him in vaine,
Forth flowe the floudes of salt repentant raine.
His friendes amazde at such a murther done,
In fearfull flockes begin to shrinke away;
And he thereat, with heapes of grief fordone,
Hateth
imselfe, wishing his latter day.—
He calls for death, and loathing longer life,
Bent to his bane ref
seth kindlie foode,
And plungde in depth of death and dolours strife
Had queld
Killed. Manqueller is murderer.
himselfe, had not his friendes withstoode.
Loe he that thus has shed the guiltlesse bloode,
Though he were king and keper over all,
Yet chose he death, to guerdon death withall.
This prince, whos
peere
as never under sunne,
Whose glistening
ame the earth did overglide,
Which with his power the worlde welnigh had wonne,
His bloudy handes himsel
e could no
abide,
But folly bent with famine to have dide;
The worthie prince deemed in his regard
That death for death could be but just reward.
Our MIRROUR, having had three new editions in 1563
This edition, printed by Thomas Marshe, has clx leaves, with a table of contents at the end.
, 1571
and 1574
This edition, printed also for T. Marshe, is improperly enough entitled
"The Last Parte of the MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES, &c."
But it contains all that is in the foregoing editions, and ends with JANE SHORE, or SHORE'S WIFE. It has 163 leaves. In the title page the work is said to be
"Newly corrected and amended."
They are all in quarto, and in black letter.
, was reprinted in quarto in the year 1587
But in the Preface Higgins says h
began to prepare it twelve years before. In imitation of the title, a story-book was published called the MIRR
UR OF MIRTH, by R. D. 1583. bl. lett. 4to. Also The MIRROUR OF THE MATHEMATIKES, A MIRROUR OF MONST
RS, &c.
, with the addition of many new lives, under the conduct of John Higgins.
Higgins lived at Winsham in Somersetshire
DEDICATION, ut in
r.
. He was educated at Oxford, was a clergyman, and engaged in the instruction of youth. As a preceptor of boys, on the plan of a former collection by Nicholas Udal, a celebrated master of Eton school, he compiled the FLOSCULI OF TERENCE, a manual famous in its time, and applauded in a Latin epigram by the elegant Latin encomiast Thomas Newton of Cheshire
In
TERENT
FLOSCULOS
N. Udalli et J. Higgini opera decerptos.
ENCOM. fol. 128. It also pre
ixed to the book, with others.
. In the pedagogic character he also published
"HOLCOT'S DICTIONARIE, newlie corrected, amended, set in order, and enlarged, with many names of men, townes, beastes, fowles, etc. By which you may finde the Latine or Frenche of anie Englishe worde you will. By John Higgins, late student in Oxeforde
Perhaps at Trinity college, where one of both his names occurs in 1566.
."
In an engraved title-page are a few English verses. It is in folio, and printed for Thomas Marshe at London, 1572. The dedication to sir George Peckham knight, is written by Higgins, and is a good specimen of his classical accomplishments. He calls Peckham his
principal friend, and the most eminent patron of letters. A recommendatory copy of verses by Churchyard the poet is prefixed, with four Latin epigrams by others. Another of his works in the same profession is the NOMENCLATOR of Adrian Junius, translated into English, in conjunction with Abraham Flemming, and printed at London, for Newberie and Durham, in 1585
Octavo.
. It is dedicated in Latin to his most bountiful patron Doctor Valentine, master of Requests, and dean of Wells, from Winsham
The D
dication of his MIRROUR TO MAGISTRATES is from the same place.
, 1584. From this dedication, Higgins seems to have been connected with the school of Ilminster, a neighbouring town in Somersetshire
He says, that he translated it in London.
"Quo facto, novus interpres Waldenus, Ilm
st
iae gymnasiarcha, moriens, priusquam manum
peri summam admovisset, me ami
um veter
m suum omnib
s libri
suis et hoc imprimis Nom
nclatore [his translation] donavit."
But Higgins
ound his own v
rsion better, which he therefore published, yet with a part of his friend's.
. He appears to have been living so late as the year 1602. For in that year he published an Answer to William Perkins, a forgotten controversialist, concerning Christ's descent into hell, dedicated from Winsham.
To the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES Higgins wrote a new INDUCTION in the octave stanza; and without assistance of friends, began a new series from Albanact the youngest son of Brutus, and the first king of Albanie or Scotland, continued to the emperor Caracalla
At
ol. 108.
. The two l
st lives in the latt
r
or what may be call
d B
ldwin's part of this edition, are JANE SHORE and CARDINAL WOLSEY by Churchyard. Colophon,
"Imprinted at London by Henry Marshe, being th
assigne of Thomas Marshe near
to saint Dunstanes churche in Fleetestreete, 1587."
It has 272 leaves. The last signature is M m 4.
. In this edition by Higgins, among the pieces after the conquest, first appeared the Life of CARDINAL WOLSEY, by Churchyard
Fol. 265. b.
; of SIR NICHOLAS BURDET, by Baldwine
Fol. 244. a.
; and of ELEANOR COBHAM
Fol. 140. b.
, and of HUMFREY DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
Fol. 146. a.
, by Ferrers. Also the Legend of KING JAMES THE FOURTH OF SCOTLAND
Fol. 253. b.
, said to have been penned
fiftie yeares ago
Fol. 255. b.
, and of FLODDEN FIELD, said to be of equal antiquity, and subscribed FRANCIS DINGLEY
Fol. 258. b.
, the name of a poet who has not otherwise occurred. Prefixed is a recommendatory poem in stanzas by the abovementioned Thomas Newton of Cheshire
Subscribed THOMAS NEWTONUS
C
ystr
shyrius,
1587.
, who understood much more of Latin than of English poetry.
The most poetical passage of Higgins's performance in this collection is in his Legend of QUEENE CORDILA, or Cordelia, king Lear's youngest daughter
Fol. 36.
.
. Being imprisoned in a dungeon, and
coucht on strawe,
she sees amid the darkness of the night a
griesly ghost
approach,
Eke nearer still with stealing steps shee drewe:
Shee was of colour pale and deadly hewe.
Her garment was figured with various sorts of imprisonment, and pictures of violent and premature death.
Her clothes resembled thousand kindes of thrall,
And pictures plaine of
hastened deathes
withall.
Cordelia, in extreme terror, asks,
—What wight art thou, a foe or
fawning
rend?
If Death thou art, I pray thee
ake an end—
But th' art not Death!—Art thou some Fury sent
My woefull corps with paynes more to torment?
With that she spake, "I am thy frend DESPAYRE.—
* * * * * * * * * *
"Now if thou art to dye no whit afrayde
"Here shalt thou choose of Instruments, beholde,
"Shall rid thy restlesse life."—
DESPAIR then, throwing her robe aside, shews Cordelia a thousand instruments of death, knives, sharpe swordes, and ponyards,
all bedyde with bloode and poysons.
She presents the sword wit
which queen Dido slew herself.
"Lo! here the blade that D
do' of Carthage hight, &c.
Cordelia takes this sword,
but doubtfull yet to dye.
DESPAIR then represents to her the state and power which she enjoyed in France, her troops of attendants, and the pleasures of the court she had left. She then points out her present melancholy condition and dreary situation.
She shewde me all the dongeon where I sate,
The dankish walles, the darkes, and bade me smell
And byde the
avour if I like it well.
Cordelia gropes f
r the sword, or
fatall knife,
in the dark, which DESPAIR places in her hand.
DESPAYRE to ayde my senceless limmes was glad,
And gave the blade: to end my woes she bad.
At length Cordelia's s
ght fails her so that she can see only DESPAIR who exhorts her to strike.
And by her elbowe DEATH for me did watch.
DESPAIR at last gives the blow. The temptation of the R
dcrosse knight by DESPAIR in Spenser'
FAERIE QUEENE, seems to have been copied, yet with high improvements, from this scene. These stanzas of Spenser bear a strong res
mblance to what I have cited from CORDELIA'S Legend.
Then gan the villaine
That i
, D
SPAIR.
him to oueraw,
And brought unto him swords, rope
, poysons, fire,
And all that might him to perdition draw;
And bade him chuse what death he would desire:
For death was due
o him that had prouokt God's ire.
But when as none of them he sawe him take,
He to him raught a dagger sharpe and keene,
And gaue it him in hand: his hand did quake
And tremble like a lease of aspin greene,
And troubled bloud through his pale face was seene
To come and goe, with tydinges from the hart,
As it a running messenger had beene.
At last, resolv'd to worke his finall smart
He lifted up his hand that backe againe did start
FAER. QU
i. x. 50.
.
The three first books of the FAERIE QUEENE were published in 1590. Higgins's Legend of Cordelia in 1587.
At length the whole was digested anew with additions, in 1610, by Richard Niccols, an ingenious poet, of whom more will be said hereafter, under the following title.
"
A MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES
Of the early use in the middle ages of the word SP
CULUM as the title of a book, see Joh. Finnaeus's DISS
RTATIOHISTORICA-LITT
RARIA, prefixed to the KONGS-SKUGG-SIO, or ROYAL MIRROUR, an antient prose work in Norvegian, written about 1170, printed in 1768, 4to. fol. xviii.
, being a true Chronicle-h
story of the untimely falles of such unfortunate princes and men of note as have happened since the first entrance of Brute into this Iland untill this our age.
NEWLY ENLARGED with a
last part
called a WINTER NIGHT'S VISION being
an addition of such Tragedies especially famous as are exempted in the former Historie, with a poem annexed called
ENGLANDS ELIZA. At London, imprinted by Felix Kyngston, 1610
A thick quarto.
."
Niccols arranged his edition thus. Higgins's INDUCTION is at the head of the Lives from Brutus to the Conquest. Those from the conquest to LORD CROMWELL'S lege
d written by Drayton and now first added
Drayton wrote three other legends on this plan, Robert duke of Normandy, Matilda, and Pierce Gaveston, of which I shall
pe
more particularly under that writer.
, are introduced by Sackville's INDUCTION, After this are placed such lives as had been before omitted, ten in number, written by Niccols himself, with an INDUCTION
Fol. 555.
. As it illustrates the history of this work, especially of Sackville's share in it, I will here insert a part of Niccols's preface prefixed to those TRAGEDIES which happened after the conquest, beginning with that of Robert Tresili
n.
"Hauing hitherto continued the storie from the first entrance of BRVTE into this iland, with the FALLES of svch PRINCES as were neuer before this time in one volume comprised, I now proceed with the rest, which take their beginning from the Co
quest: whose penmen being many and diuerse, all diuerslie affected in the method of this their MIRROUR, I purpose onlie to follow the intended scope of that most honorable personage, who by how mvch he did surpasse the rest in the eminence of
s noble condition, by so mvch he hath exceeded them all in the excellencie of his heroicall stile, which with golden pen he hath limmed out to posteritie in that worthie object of his minde the TRAGEDIE OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, and in his Preface then intit
led MASTER SACK
ILS INDUCTION. This worthy president of learning intended to perfect all this storie of himselfe from the Conquest. Being called to a more serious expence of his time in the great state affaires of his most royall ladie and soueraigne, he left the dispose therof to M. Baldwine, M. Ferrers, and others, the compose
s of these Tragedies: who continving their methode, which was by way of dialogue or interlocvtion betwixt euerie Tragedie, gaue it onlie place before the dvke of Bvckingham's COMPLAINT. Which order I since hauing altered, haue placed the INDUCTION in the beginninge, with euerie Tragedie following according to svccession and ivst compvtation of time, which before was not obserued
Fol. 253. Compare Baldwyne's Prologue at fol. cxiv. b.
dit. 1559. ut supr.
."
In the Legend of king Richard the Thir
, Niccols appears to have copied some passages from Shakespeare's Tragedy on that history. In the opening of the play Richard says,
Now are our brows bound with victorious w
eaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments:
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings;
Our dreadfull marches to delightfull measures.
Grim-visag'd War hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearfull adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute
Act i. Sc. i.
.
These lines evidently gave rise to part of Richard's soliloquy in Niccols's Legend.
—The battels fought in field before
Were turn'd to meetings of sweet amitie:
The war-god's thundring cannons dreadfull rore,
And rattling drum-sounds warlike harmonie,
To sweet-tun'd noise of pleasing min
trals
e.—
God Mars laid by his Launce and tooke his Lute,
And turn'd his rugged frownes to smiling lookes;
In stead of crimson fields, warres fatall fruit,
He bathed his limbes in Cypre's warbling brookes,
And set his thoughts upon her wanton lookes
Pag. 753.
.
Part of the tent-scene in Shakespeare is also imitated by Niccols. Richard, starting from his horrid dream, says,
Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd
Came to my tent, and every one did threat
To morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard
Act v. Sc. ult. Drayton has also described these visionary terrors of Richard. POLYOL
. S. xxii.
When to the guilty king, the black
orerunning night,
Appear the dreadful ghosts of Henry and his Son,
Of his owne brother George and his two nephewes, done
Most cruelly to death, and of his Wife, and friend
Lord Hastinges, with pale hands prepared as they would rend
Him peacemeal: at which o
t he roar
t
in his sleep.
The POLYOL
ION was published in 1612. fol.
.
So Niccols,
I thought that all those murthered ghosts, whom I
By death had sent to their vntimely graue,
With balefull noise about my tent did crie,
And of the heauens with sad complaint did craue,
That they on guiltie wretch might vengeance haue:
To whom I thought the i
dge of heauen gaue eare,
And gainst me gaue a iudgement full of feare
Pag. 764.
.
But some of the stanzas immediately following, which are formed on Shakespeare's ideas, yet with some original imagination, will give the reader the most favourable idea of Niccols as a contributor to this work.
For loe, eftsoones, a thousand hellish hags,
Leauing th' abode of their infernall cell,
Seasing on me, my hatefull body drags
From forth my bed into a place like hell,
Where fiends did naught but bellow, howle and yell,
Who in sterne strife stood gainst each other bent,
Who should my hatefull bodie most torment.
Tormented in such trance long did I lie,
Till extreme feare did rouze me where I lay,
And caus'd me from my naked bed to flie:
Alone within my tente I durst not stay,
This dreadfull dreame my soule did so affray:
When wakt I was from sleepe, I for a space
Thought I had beene in some infernall place.
About mine eares a buzzing feare still flew,
My fainting knees languish for want of might;
Vpon my bodie stands an icie dew;
My heart is dead within, and with affright
The haire vpon my head doth stand vpright:
Each limbe abovt me quaking, doth resemble
A riuers rush, that with the wind doth tremble.
Thus with my guiltie soules sad torture torne
The darke nights dismall houres I past away:
But at cockes crowe, the message of the morne,
My feare I did conceale, &c
Pag. 764.
.
If internal evidence was not a proof, we are sure from other evidences that Shakespeare's tragedy preceded Niccols's legend. The tragedy was written about 1597. Niccols, at eighteen years of age, was admitted into Magdalene college in Oxford, in the year 1602
Registr. Univ. Oxon. He retired to Magdalene Hall, where he was graduated in Arts, 1606. Ibid.
. It is easy to point out other marks of imitation. Shakespeare has taken nothing from Seagars's Richard the third, printed in Baldwine's collection, or first edition, in the year 1559. Shakespeare, however, probably catched the idea of the royal shades, in the same scene of th
tragedy before us, appearing in succession and speaking to Richard and Richmond, from the general plan of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES: more especially, as many of Shakespeare's ghosts there introduced, for instance, King Henry the sixth, Clarence, Rivers, Hastings, and Buckingham, are the personages of five of the legends belonging to this poem.
SECT. XXXIII.
BY way of recapitulating what has been said, and in order to give a connected and uniform view of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES in its most complete and extended state, its original contents and additions, I will here detail the subjects of this poem as they stand in this last or Niccols's edition of 1610, with reference to two preceding editions, and some other incidental particularities.
Niccols's edition, after the Epistle Dedicatorie prefixed to Higgins's edition of 1587, an Advertisement To the Reader by Niccols, a Table of Contents, and Thomas Newton's recommendatory verses abovementioned, begins with an Induction called the AUTHOR'S INDUCTION, written by Higgins, and properly belonging to his edition. Then follow these Lives.
Albanact youngest son of Brutus
Pag. 1.
. Humber king of the Huns. King Locrine eldest son of Brutus. Queen Elstride concubine of Locrine. Sabrina daughter of Locrine. King Madan. King Malin. King Mempric. King Bladud. Queen Cordelia. Morgan king of Albany. King Jago. Ferrex. Porrex. King Pinnar slain by Molucius Donwallo. King Stater. King Rudacke of Wales. King Kimarus. King Morindus. King Emerianus. King Cherinnus. King Varianus. Irelanglas cousin to Ca
ibelane. Julius Cesar. Claudius Tiberius Nero. Caligula. King Guiderius. Lelius Hamo. Tiberius Drusus. Domitius Nero. Galba. Vitellius. Londric the Pict. Severus. Fulgentius a Pict. Geta. Caracalla
Ending with pag. 185.
. All these from Albanact, and in th
same order, form the first part of Higgins's edition of the year 1587
Where they end at fol. 108. a.
. But none of them are in Baldwyne's, or the first, collection, of the year 1559. And, as I presume, these lives are all written by Higgins. Then follow in Niccols's edition, Carausius, Queen Helena, Vortigern, Uther Pendragon, Cadwallader, Sigebert, Ebba, Egelred, Edric, and Harold, all written by Thomas Blener Hasset, and never before printed. We have next a new title
After p. 250.
,
"The variable Fortvne and vnhappie Falles of svch princes as hath happened since the Conquest. Wherein may be seene, &c. At London, by Felix Kyngston. 1609."
Then, after an Epistle to the Reader, subscribed R. N. that is Richard Niccols, follow, Sackville's INDUCTION. Cavyll's Roger Mortimer. Ferrers's Tresilian. Ferrers's Thomas of Woodstock. Churchyard's Mowbray. Ferrers's King Richard the second. Phaer's Owen Glendour. Henry Percy. Baldwyne's Richard earl of Cambridge. Baldwyne's Montague earl of Salisbury. Ferrers's Eleanor Cobham. Ferrers's Humfrey duke of Gloucester. Baldwyne's William De La Poole earl of Suffolk. Baldwyne's Jack Cade. Ferrers's Edmund duke of Somerset. Richard Plantagenet duke of York. Lord Clifford. Tiptoft earl of Worcester. Richard lord Warwick. King Henry the sixth. George Plantagenet duke of Clarence. Skelton's King Edward the fourth. Woodvile lord Rivers. Dolman's Lord Hastings. Sackville's Duke of Buckingham. Collingburne. Cavyll's Blacksmith. Higgins's Sir Nicholas Burdet. Churchyard's Jane Shore. Churchyard's Wolsey. Drayton's Lord Cromwell. All these
That is, from p. 250.
, Humfrey, Cobham, Burdet, Cromwell, and Wolsey, excepted, form the whole, but in a less chronological disposition, of Baldwyne's collection, or edition, of the year 1559, as we have seen above: from whence they were reprinted, with the addition of Humfrey, Cobham, Burdet, and Wolsey, by Higgins, in his edition aforesaid of 1587, and where Wolsey closes the work. Another title then appears in Niccols's edition
After p. 547.
,
"A WINTER NIGHTS VISION. Being an Addition of svch Princes especially famovs, who were exempted in the former HISTORIE. By Richard Niccols, Oxon. Magd. Hall. At London, by Felix Kyngston, 1610."
An Epistle to the Reader, and an elegant Sonnet to Lord Charles Howard lord High Admiral, both by Niccols, are prefixed
From the Sonnet it appears, that our author Niccols was on board Howard's
hip the ARKE, when Cadiz was taken. This was in 1596. See also pag. 861. stanz. iv.
. Then follows Niccols's INDUCTION to these new lives
From pag. 555.
. They are, King Arthur. Edmund Ironside. Prince Alfred. Godwin earl of Kent. Robert Curthose. King Richard the first. King John. King Edward the second. The two Young Princes murthered in the Tower, and King Richard the third
Ending with pag. 769.
. Our author, but with little propriety, has annexed
"ENGLAND'S ELIZA, or the victoriovs and trivmphant reigne of that virgin empresse of sacred memorie Elizabeth Queene of England, &c. At London, by Felix Kyngston, 1610."
This is a title page. Then follows a Sonnet to
the virtuous Ladie
the Lady Elisabeth Clere, wife to sir Francis Clere, and an Epistle to the Reader. A very poetical INDUCTION is prefixed to the ELIZA, which contains the history of queen Elisabeth, then just dead, in the octave stanza. Niccols, however, has not entirely preserved the whole of the old collection, although he made large additions. He has omitted King James the first of Scotland, which appears in Baldwyne's edition of 1559
At fol. xlii. b.
, and in Higgins's of 1587
Fol. 137. b.
. He has also omitted, and probably for the same obvious reason, king James the fourth of Scotland, which we find in Higgins
Fol. 253. a. In Ulpian Fullwell's FLOWER OF FAME, an old quarto book both in prose and verse, in praise of the reign of Henry the eighth, and printed by W.
oskyns in 1575, is a tragic monologue, in the octave stanza, of James the fourth of Scotland, and of his son. fol. 22. b. The whole title is,
"THE FLOWER OF FAME, containing the bright renowne and mos
fortunate reigne of Henry viii. Wherein is mention of matters by the rest of our chronographers overpassed. Compyled by Vlpian Fullwell."
Annexed is a panegyric of three of the same Henry's
noble and vertuous queenes.
And
"The service done at Haddington in Scotland the seconde year of the reigne of king Edward the sixt."
Bl. lett. F
llwell will occur hereafter in his proper place.
. Nor has Niccols retained the Battle of Flodden-field, which is in Higgins's edition
Fol. 256. a.
. Nicc
ls has also omitted Seagars's King Richard the Third, which first occurs in Baldwyne's edition of 1559
Fol. cxlvii. b.
, and afterwards in Higgins's of 1587
Fol. 230. b.
. But Niccols has written a new Legend on this subject, cited above, and one of the best of his additional lives
Pag. 750.
. This edition by Niccols, printed by Felix Kyngston in 1610, I believe was never reprinted. It contains eight hundred and seventy-five pages.
The MIRROUR of MAGISTRATES is obliquely ridiculed in bishop Hall's SATIRES, published in 1597.
Another, whose more heavie-hearted saint
Delights in nought but notes of ruefull plaint,
Urgeth his melting muse with solemn teares,
Rhyme of some drearie fates of LUCKLESS PEERS.
Then brings he up some BRANDED WHINING GHOST
To tell how old Misfortunes have him tost
B. i. Sat. v. duodecim. But in CER
AINE SATYRES by John Marston, subjoined to his PY
MALIONS IMAGE, an academical critic is abused for affecting to censure this poem. Lond. 1598. SAT. iv. This is undoubtedly our author Hall just quoted. [See Marston's SCOVRGE OF VILLANIE, printed 1599. Lib. iii. SAT. x.]
Fond censurer! why should those
Mirrors
seeme
So vile to thee? which better
udgements deeme
Exquisite then, and in our polish'd tim
s
May run for sencefull tollerable lines.
What not
ediocra firma
from thy spight?
But must thy enuious hungry fangs needs light
On MAGISTRATES MIRROUR? Must thou needs detract
And str
ue to worke his antient honors wrack?
What shall not Rosamond, or Gaueston,
Ope their sweet lips without detraction?
But must our moderne Critticks enuious eye, &c.
The two last pieces indeed do not properly belong to this collection, and are only on the same plan.
Rosamond
is Daniel's COMPLAINT OF ROSAMOND, and
Gaueston
is Drayton's monologue on that subject.
.
That it should have been the object even of an ingenious satirist, is so far from proving that it wanted either merit or popularity, that the contrary conclusion may be justly inferred. It was, however, at length superseded by the growing reputation of a new poetical chronicle, entitled ALBION'S ENGLAND, published before the beginning of the reign of James the first. That it was in high esteem throughout the reign of queen Elisabeth, appears, not only from its numerous editions, but from the testimony of sir Philip Sidney, and other cotemporary writers
Sydney says,
"I esteem the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES to be furnished of beautifull partes."
He then mentions Surrey's Lyric pieces. DEFENCE OF POESIE, fol. 561. ad calc. ARCAD. Lond. 1629. fol. Sidney died in 1586. So that this wa
written before Higgins's, and consequently Niccols's, additions.
. It is ranked among the most fashionable pieces of the times, in the metrical preface prefixed to Jasper Heywood's THYESTES of Seneca, translated into English verse, and published in 1560
Coloph.
"Imprinted at London in Fletestrete in the house late Thomas Berthelettes.
Cum priv.
&c. Anno M. D
LX."
duodecim. bl. lett. It is dedicated in verse to sir John Mason.
. It must be remembered that only Baldwyne's part had yet appeared, and that the translator is supposed to be speaking to Seneca.
In Lyncolnes Inne, and Temples twayne,
Grayes Inne, and many mo,
Thou shalt them fynde whose paynefull pen
Thy verse shall florishe so;
That Melpomen, thou wouldst well weene,
Had taught them for to wright,
And all their woorks with stately style
And goodly grace to endight.
There shalt thou se the selfe same Northe,
Whose woork his witte displayes;
And DYALL doth of PRINCES paynte,
And preache abroade his prayse
Sir Thomas North, second son of Edward lord North of Kirtling, translated from French into English Antonio Guevara's HOROLOGIUM PRINCIPUM. This translation was printed in 1557, and dedicated to Queen Mary, fol. Again, 1548, 1582, 4to. This is the book mentioned in the text. North studied in Lincoln's Inn in the reign of queen Mary. I am not sure that the translator of Plutarch's LIVES in 1579 is the same. There is Doni's MORALL PHILOSOPHI
from the Italian by sir Thomas North, in 1601.
.
There Sackvyldes SONNETS
Sackville lord Buckhurst, the contributor to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. I have never seen his SONNETS, which would be a valuable accession to our old poetry. But probably the term
sonnets
here means only verses in general, and may signify nothing more than his part in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, and his GORDOBUCKE.
sweetly sauste,
And featlye syned bee:
There Norton's
Norton is Sackville's coadjutor in GORDOBUCKE.
Ditties do delight,
There Yelverton's
The Epilogue to Gascoigne's JOCASTA, acted at Grays-inn in 1566, was written by Christopher Yelverton, a student of that inn, afterwards a knight and a Judge. I have never seen his DITTIES here mentioned.
do flee
Well pewrde with pen: such yong men three
As weene thou mightst agayne,
To be begotte as Pallas was
Of myghtie Jove his brayne.
There heare thou shalt a great reporte
Of BALDWYNE'S worthie name,
Whose MIRROUR doth of MAGISTRATES
Proclayme eternall fame.
And there the gentle Blunduille
Thomas Blundeville of Newton-Flotman in Norsolk, from whence his dedication to lord Leicester of an English version of Furio's Spanish tract on COUNSELS AND COUNSELORS is dated, Apr. 1. 1570. He printed many other prose pieces, chiefly translations. His P
UTARCH mentioned in the text, is perhaps a manuscript in the British Museum, PLUTARC
S COMMENTARY
that learning is requisite to a prince, translated into English meeter by Thomas Blundevile,
MSS. RE
. 18. A. 43.
is
By name and eke by kynde,
Of whom we learne by Plutarches lore
What frute by foes to fynde.
There Bauande bydes
William Bavande, a student in the Middle-Temple, translated into English Ferrarius Montanus DE RECTA REIPUBLICAE ADMINISTRATIONE. Dated from the Middle-Temple, in a Dedication to queen Elisabeth, Decemb. 20. 1559
4to. Bl. L
tt. Printed by John Kingston.
"A woorke of Joannes Ferrarius Montanus touchinge the good orderinge of a common weale, &c. Englished by William Bauande."
He was of Oxford.
, that turnde his toyle
A common wealth to frame,
And greater grace in English gyves
To woorthy authors name.
There Googe a gratefull name has gotte,
Reporte that runneth ryfe;
Who crooked compasse doth describe
And Zodiake of lyfe
Barnaby Googe's Palingenius will be spoken of herea
ter.
.—
A pryncely place in Parnasse hill
For these there is preparde,
Whence crowne of glitteryng glorie hangs
For them a right rewarde.
Whereas the lappes of Ladies nyne,
Shall dewly them defende,
That have preparde the lawrell leafe
About theyr heddes to bende.
And where their pennes shall hang full high, &c.
These, he adds, are alone qualified to translate Seneca's tragedies.
In a small black-lettered tract entitled the TOUCH-STONE OF WITTES, chiefly compiled, with some slender additions, from William Webbe's DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETRIE, written by Edward Hake, and printed at London by Edmund Botifaunt in 1588, this poem is mentioned with applause.
"Then have we the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES lately augmented by my friend mayster John Higgins, and penned by th
choysest learned wittes, which for the stately-proportioned uaine of the heroick style, and good meetly proportion of uerse, may challenge the best of Lydgate, and all our late rhymers
Fol. vii. a. duodecim. I know but little more of this forgotten writer, than that he wrote also,
"A TOUCHESTONE for this time present, expressly declaring such ruines, enormities, and abuses, as trouble the church of God and our christian commonwealth at this daye, &c. Newly sett foorth by E. H. Imprinted at London by Thomas Hacket, and are to be solde at his shop at the Greene Dragon in the Royall Exchange
1574."
duodec. At the end of the
"Epistle dedicatorie to his knowne friende Mayster Edward Godfrey, merchant,"
his name EDWARD HAKE is subscribed at length. Annexed is,
"A Compendious sourme of education, to be diligently obserued of all parentes and scholemasters in the trayning vp of their children and schollers in learning. Gathered into Englishe meeter by Edward Hake."
It is an epitome of a Latin tract
D
pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis.
In the dedication, to
maister John Harlowe his approoued friende,
he calls himself an attourney in the Common Pleas, observing at the same time, that the
"name of an Attourney in the common place [pleas] is now a dayes growen into contempt."
He adds another circumstance of his life, that he was educated under John Hopkins, whom I suppose to be the translator of the psalms. [See supr. p. 167.]
"You being trained vp together with me your poore school
ellow, with the instructions of that learned and exquisite teacher, Maister JOHN HOPKINS, that worthy schoolemaister, nay rather that most worthy parent vnto all children committed to his charge of education. Of whose memory, if I should in such an oportunity as this is, be
orgetful, &c."
I will give a specimen of this little piece, which shews at least that he learned versification under his master Hopkins. He is speaking of the Latin tongue. (Signat. G. 4.)
Wheret
, as hath been sayde before,
The Fables do inuite,
With morall sawes in couert tales:
Whereto agreeth rite
Fine Comedies with pleasure sawst,
Which, as it were by play,
Do teache unto philosophie
A perfit ready way.—
So as nathles we carefull be
To auoyde all bawdi
rimes,
And wanton iestes of poets vayne,
That teache them filthie crimes.
Good stories from the Bible chargde,
And from some civill style
As Quintus Curtius and such like,
To reade them other while, &c.
Compare Ames, p. 322. 389.
."
That sensible old English critic Edmund Bolton, in a general criticism on the style of our most noted poets before the year 1600, places the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES in a high rank. It is under that head of his HYPERCRITICA, entitled
"Prime Gardens for gathering English according to the true gage or standard of the tongue about fifteen or sixteen years ago."
The extract is a curious piece of criticism, as written by a judicious cotemporary. Having mentioned our prose writers, the chief of which are More, Sidney, queen Elisabeth, Hooker, Saville, cardinal Alan, Bacon, and Raleigh, he proceeds thus.
"In verse there are Edmund Spenser's HYMNES
The pieces mentioned in this extract will be considered in their proper places.
. I cannot advise the allowance of other his poems as for practick English, no more than I can Jeffrey Chaucer, Lydgate, Pierce Plowman, or LAUREATE Skelton. It was laid as a fault to the charge of Salust, that he used some old outworn words stoln out of Cato in his books de Originibus. And for an historian in our tongue to affect the like out of those our poets, would be accounted a foul oversight.—My judgement is nothing at all in poems or poesie, and therefore I dare not go far; but will simply deliver my mind concerning those authors among us, whose English hath in my conceit most propriety, and is nearest to the phrase of court, and to the speech used among the noble, and among the better sort in London: the two sovereign seats, and as it were parliament tribunals, to try the question in. Brave language are Chapman's Iliads.—The works of Samuel Daniel containe somewhat aflat, but yet withal a very pure and copious English
and words as warrantable as any mans, and fitter perhaps for prose than measure. Michael Drayton's Heroical Epistles are well worth the reading also for the purpose of our subject, which is to furnish an English historian with choice and copy of tongue. Queen Elizabeth's verses, those which I have seen and read, some exstant in the elegant, witty, and artificial book of the ART OF ENGLISH POETRIE, the work, as the fame is, of one of her gentlemen-pensioners, Puttenham, are princely as her prose. Never must be forgotten St. PETER'S COMPLAINT, and those other serious poems said to be father Southwell's: the English whereof, as it is most proper, so the sharpness and light of wit is very rare in them. Noble Henry Constable was a great master in English tongue, nor had any gentleman of our nation a more pure, quick, or higher delivery of conceit, witness among all other that Sonnet of his before his Majesty's LEPANTO. I have not seen much of sir Edward Dyer's poetry. Among the lesser late poets, George Gascoigne's Works may be endured. But the best of these times, if Albion's England be not preferred, for our business, is the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, and in that MIRROUR
Sackvil's INDUCTION, the work of Thomas afterward earl of Dorset and lord treasurer of England: whose also the famous Tragedy of GORDOBUC, was the best of that time, even in sir Philip Sidney's judgement; and all skillful Englishmen cannot but ascribe as much thereto, for his phrase and eloquence therein. But before in age, if not also in noble, courtly, and lustrous English, is that of the Songes and Sonnettes of Henry Howard earl of Surrey, (son of that victorious prince, the duke of Norfolk, and father of that learned Howard his most lively image Henry earl of Northampton,) written chiefly by him, and by sir Thomas Wiat, not the dangerous commotioner, but his worthy father. Nevertheless, they who commend those poems and exercises of honourable wit, if they have seen that incomparable earl of Surrey his English translation of Virgil's Eneids, which, for a book or two, he admirably rendreth, almost line for line, will bear me witness that those other were foils and sportives. The English poems of sir Walter Raleigh, of John Donne, of Hugh Holland, but especially of sir Foulk Grevile in his matchless MUSTAPHA, are not easily to be mended. I dare not presume to speak of his Majesty's exercises in this heroick kind. Because I see them all left out in that which Montague lord bishop of Winchester hath given us of his royal writings. But if I should declare mine own rudeness rudely, I should then confess, that I never tasted English more to my liking, nor more smart, and put to the height of use in poetry, than in that vital, judicious, and most practicable language of Benjamin Jonson's poems
Bolton's HYPERCRITICA,
"Or a Rule of Judgement for writing or reading our Historys."
ADDRESSE, iv. SECT. iii. pag. 235. seq. First printed by Anthony Hall, (at the end of Trivet. Annal. Cont. And Ad. Murimuth. Chron.) Oxford, 1722. octavo. The manuscript is among Cod. MSS. A. WOOD, Mus. ASHMOL. 8471. 9. quarto
with a few notes by Wood. This judicious little tract was occasioned by a passage in sir Henry Saville's Epistle prefixed to his edition of our old Latin historians, 1596. HYPERCRIT. p. 217. Hearne has printed that part of it which contains a Vindication of Jeffrey of Monmouth, without know
g the author's name. Gul. Neubrig. PRAEFAT. APPEND. Num. iii. p. lxxvii. vol. i. See HYPERCRIT. p. 204. Bolton's principal work now extant is
"NERO CAESAR, or Monarchie depraved, an Historical Worke."
Lond. 1624. fol. This scarce book, which is the life of that emperor, and is adorned with plates of many curious and valuable medals, is dedicated to George duke of Buckingham, to whom Bolton seems to have been a retainer. (See Hearne'
Lel. COLLECTAN. vol. vi. p. 60. edit. 1770.) In it he supports a specious theory, that Stonehenge was a monument erected by the Britons to Boadicea. ch. xxv. At the end is his HISTORICAL PARALLEL, shewing the difference between epitomes and just histories,
"heretofore privately written to my good and noble friend Endymion Porter, one of the gentlemen of the Prince's chamber."
He instances in the accounts given by Florus and Polybius of the battle between Hannibal and Scipio: observing, that generalities are not so interesting as facts and circumstances, and that Florus gives us
"in proper words the
lowers and tops of noble matter, but Polybius sets the things themselves, in all their necessary parts, before our eyes."
He therefore concludes,
"that all
spacious mindes,
attended with the felicities of means and leisure, will fly abridgements as bane."
He published, however, an English version of Florus. He wrote the Life of the Emperor Tiberius, never printed. NER. CAES. ut supr. p. 82. He designed a General History of England. HYPERCRIT. p. 240. In the British Museum, there is the manuscript draught of a book entitled
"AGON HEROICUS, or concerning arms and armories, by Edmund Boulton."
MSS. COTT. Faus
in. E. 1. 7. fol. 63. And in the same library, his PROSOPOPEIA BASILICA, a Latin Poem upon the translation of the body of Mary queen of Scots in 1612, from Peterborough to Westminster
abbey. MSS. COTT. Tit. A. 13. 23. He compiled the Life of king Henry the second for Speed's Chronicle: but Bolton being a catholic, an
speaking too favourably of Be
ket, another Life was written by Doctor John Barcham, dean of Bocking. See THE SURFEIT TO A. B. C. Lond. 12mo. 1656. p. 22. Written by Dr. Ph. King, author of poems in 16
7, son of King bishop of London. Compare HYPERCRIT. p. 220. Another work in the walk of philological antiquity, was his
"VINDICIAE BRITANNICAE, or London righted, &c."
Never printed, but prepared for the press by the author. Among other ingenious paradoxes, the principal aim of this treatise is to prove, that London was a great and
lourishing city in the time of Nero; and that consequent
Julius Cesar's general description of a
the British towns, in his COMMENTARIES, is false and unjust. Hugh Howard, esquire, (see GEN. DICT. iii. 446.) had a fair manuscript of this book, very accurately written in a thin
olio of forty
ive pages. It is not known when or where he died. One Edmund Bolton, most probably the same, occurs as a CONVICTOR, that is, an independent member, of Trinity college Ox
ord, under the year 1586. In Archiv. ibid. Wood (MS. Notes, ut supr.) supposed the HYP
RCRITICA to have been written about 1610. But our author himself, (HYPERCRIT. p. 237.) mentions king James's Works published by bishop Montague. That edition is dated 1616.
A few particularities relating to this writer's NERO CAESAR, and some other of his pieces, may be seen in Hearne's MSS. COLL. Vol 50. p. 125. Vol. 132. p. 94. Vol. 52. pp. 171. 192. 186. See also Original Letters from Anstis t
Hearne. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. RAWLINS. I add, that Edmund Bolton has a Latin copy of recommendatory verses, in company with George Chapman, Hugh Holland, Donne, Selden
Beaumont, Fletcher, and others, prefixed to the old folio edition of Benjamin Jonson'
Works in 1616.
."
Among several proofs of the popularity of this poem afforded by our old comedies, I will mention one in George Chapman's MAY-DAY printed in 1611. A ge
tleman of the most elegant taste for reading, and highly accomplished in the current books of the times, is called
"One that has read Marcus Aurelius
"Lord Berners's Golden boke of MARCUS AURELIUS emperour and eloquent oratour."
See supr. p. 42. The first edition I have seen was by Berthelette, 1536. quarto. It was often repri
ted. But see Mr. Steevens's
AK
SPEARE, vol. i. p. 91. edit. 1778. MAR
US AURELIUS is among the COPPIE
of James Roberts, a considerable printer from 1573, down to below 1600. MSS. Coxeter. S
e Ames, HIST. PRINT. p. 341.
, Gesta Romanorum, and the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES
ACT iii.
ol. 39. 4to. S
e DISS
RTAT. supr. p. iv. I take this opportunity of remarking, that Ames recites
printed for Richard
ones,
"The MIROUR OF MAJESTRATES by G. Whe
stone, 1584,"
quarto. HIST. PRINT. p. 347. I have never seen it, but believe it has nothing t
do with this work.
."
The books of poetry which abounded in the reign of queen Elisabeth, and were more numerous than any other kinds of writing in our language, gave birth to two collections of FLOWERS selected from the works of the most fashionable poets. The first of these is,
"ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS. Or, the choysest Flowers of our moderne Poets, with their poeticall Comparisons, Descriptions of Bewties, Personages, Castles, Pallaces, Mountaines, Groues, Seas, Springs, Riuers, &c.
Whereunto are annexed other various Discourses
Poetical extracts.
both pleasaunt and profitable.
Imprinted at London for N. L. C. B. and Th. Hayes
1600
In duodecimo. cont. 510 pages.
."
The collector is probably Robert Allot
A copy which I have seen has R. Allot, instead of R. A. There is a cotemporary bookseller of that name. But in a little book of EPIGRAMS by John Weever, printed in 1599, (12mo.) I fi
d the following compliment.
"Ad Robertum Allot et Christopherum Middleton.
Quicke are your wits, sharpe your con
eit
,
Short, and
more sweet,
your lays:
Quick but no wit, sharp no conceit,
Short and
l
sse sweet
my Praise."
, whose initials R. A. appear subscribed to two Sonnets prefixed, one to sir Thomas Mounson, and the other to the Reader. The other compilation of this sort is entitled,
"BELVIDERE, or the Garden of the Muses. London, imprinted for Hugh Astly, 1600
"Or sentences gathered out of all kinds of poets, referred to certaine methodical heads, profitable for the use of these times to rhyme upon any occasion at a little warning."
Octavo. But the compiler does not cite the names of the poets with the extracts. This work is ridiculed in an anonymous old play,
"The RETURN FROM PA
NASSUS, Or the Scourge of Simony, publickly acted by the students in Saint John's College Cambridge, 1606."
quarto. JUDICIO says,
"Considering the furies of the times, I could better see these young can-qua
ing hucksters shoot o
f their pelletts, so they could keep them from these EN
LISH FLOR
S POETARUM; but now the world is come to that pass, that there starts up every day an old goose that sits hatching up these eggs which have been filched from the nest of crowes and kestrells, &c."
ACT i. Sc. ii. Then follows a criticism on Spenser, Constable
Lodge, Daniel, Watson, Drayton, Davis, Marston, Marlowe, Churchyard, Nashe, Locke, and Hudson. Churchyard is commended for his Legend of SHORE'S WIF
in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES.
Hath not Shores Wife, although a lightskirts she,
Given him a long and lasting memory?
By the way, in the Register of the Stationers, jun. 19. 1594,
The lamentable end of
SHORE'S WIFE is mentioned as a part of Shakespeare's Richard the third. And in a pamphlet called PYMLICO OR RUN AWAY REDCAP, printed in 1596, the well-frequented play of SHORE is mentioned with PERICLES PRINCE of TYRE. From Beaumont and Fletcher's KKIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE, written 1613, JANE SHORE appears to have been a celebrated tragedy. And in the Stationer's Register (Oxenbridge and Busby, Aug. 28. 1599.) occurs
"The History of the Life and Death of Master Shore and JANE SHORE his wife, as it was lately acted by the earl Derbie his servants."
."
The compiler is one John Bodenham. In both of these, especially the former, the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES is cited at large, and has a conspicuous share
Allot'
i
much the most complete perf
rmance of the two. The method is by f
r more judicious, the extracts more copious, and made with a degree of taste. With the extracts he respectively cite
the names of the poets, which are as follows. Thomas ACHELLY. Thomas BASTARD. George CHAPMAN. Thomas CHURCHYARD. Henry CONSTABLE. Samuel DANIEL. John DAVIES. Michael DRAYTON. Thomas DEKKAR. Edmund FAIRFAX. Charles FITZ
JEFFREY. Abraham FRAUNCE. George GASCOIGNE. Edward GILPIN. Sir
ohn HARRINGTON. John HIGGINS. Thomas HUDSON. JAME
King of Scots. [i. e. James the First.] Benjamin JONSON. Thomas KYD. Thomas LODGE. [M. M. i. e. MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES.] Christopher MARLOWE. Jarvis MARKHAM. John MARSTON. Christopher MIDDLETON. Thomas NASHE. [Vaulx] Earl of Oxford. George PEELE. Matthew RAYDON.
Master
SACKVILE. William SHAKESPEARE. Sir Philip SI
NEY. Edmund SPENSER. Thomas STORER. [H. Howard] Earl of SURR
Y. John SYLVESTER. George TURBERVILLE. William WARNER. Thomas WATSON. John, and William, WEEVER. Sir Thomas WYAT. I suspect that Wood, by mistake, has attributed this collection by Allot, to Charles Fitz-jeffr
y abovementioned, a poet before and after 1600, and author of the AFFANIAE. But I will quote Wood's words.
"Fitz-jeffrey hath also made, as ti
said, A
Collection of choice Flowers and D
s
riptions,
a
well out of his, as the works of several others the most renowned poets of our nation, collected about the beginning of the reign of King James I. But this tho I have been years seeking after, yet I cannot get a sight of it."
ATH. OXON. p. 606. But the most comprehensive and exact COMMON-PLACE of the works of our most eminent poets thr
ughout the reign of queen Elisabeth, and afterwards, was published about forty years ago, by Mr. Thomas Hayward of Hungerford in Berkshire, viz.
"The BRITISH MUSE, A Collection of THOUGHTS, MORAL, NATURAL, and SUBLIME, of our ENGLISH POETS, who flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries. With several curious Topicks, and beautiful Passages, never before extracted, from Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, and above a Hundred more. The whole digested alphabetically, &c. In three volume
. London, Printed for F. Cogan, &c. 1738."
12mo. The PREFACE, of twenty pages, was written by Mr. William Oldys, with the supervisal and corrections of his friend doctor Cam
bell. This aneodote I learn from a manuscript i
sertion by Oldy
in my copy of Allot'
ENGLANDS PARNASSUS, abovementioned, which once belonged to Oldys.
. At the latter end of the reign of queen Elisabeth, as I am informed from some curious manuscript authorities, a thin quarto in the black letter was published, with this title,
"The MIRROUR OF MIRROVRS, or all the tragedys of the Mirrovr for Magistrates abbreuiated in breefe histories in prose. Very necessary for those that haue not the Cronicle. London, imprinted for James Roberts in Barbican, 1598
From manuscripts of Mr. Co
eter, of Trinity college Oxford, lately in the hands of Mr. Wise Radclivian Librarian at Oxford, containing extracts from the copyrights of our old printers, and registers of the Stationers, with several other curious notices of that kind. Ames had many of Coxeter's papers. He died in Lon
on about 1745.
."
This was an attempt to familiarise and illustrate this favorite series of historic soliloquies: or a plan to present its subjects, which were now become universally popular in rhyme, in the dress of prose.
It is reasonable to suppose, that the publication of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES enriched the stores, and extended the limits, of our drama. These lives are so many tragical speeches in character. We have seen, that they suggested scenes to Shakespeare. Some critics imagine, that HISTORICAL Plays owed their origin to this collection. At least it is certain, that the writers of this MIRROUR were the first who made a poetical use of the English chronicles recently compiled by Fabyan, Hall, and Hollinshed, which opened a new field of subjects and events; and, I may add, produced a great revolution in the state of popular knowledge. For before those elaborate and voluminous compilations appeared, the History of England, which had been shut up in the Latin narratives of the monkish annalists, was unfamiliar and almost unknown to the general reader.
SECT. XXXIV.
IN tracing the gradual accessions of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, an incidental departure from the general line of our chronologic series has been incurred. But such an anticipation was unavoidable, in order to exhibit a full and uninter
upted view of that poem, which originated in the reign of Mary, and was not finally completed till the beginning of the seventeenth century. I now therefore return to the reign of queen Mary.
To this reign I assign Richard Edwards, a native of Somersetshire about the year 1523. He is said by Wood to have been a scholar of Corpus Christi college in Oxford: but in his early years, he was employed in some department about the court. This circumstance appears from one of his poems in the PARADISE OF DAINTIE DEVISES, a miscellany which contains many of his pieces.
In youthfull yeares when first my young desires began
To pricke me forth to serve in court, a slender tall young man,
My fathers b
essing then, I asked upon my knee,
Who blessing me with trembling hand, these wordes gan say to me,
My sonne, God guide thy way, and shield thee from mischaunce,
And make thy just desartes in court, thy poore estate to advance, &c
Edit. 1585. 4to. CARM. 7.
.
In the year 1547, he was appointed a senior student of Christchurch in Oxford, then newly founded. In the British Museum there is a small set of manuscript sonnets signed with his initials, addressed to some of the beauties of the courts of queen Mary, and of queen Elisabeth
MSS. COTTON. Tit. A. xxiv.
"To some court Ladies."
—Pr.
"Howarde is not hawghte, &c."
. Hence we may conjecture, that he did not long remain at the university. About this time he was probably a member of Lincoln's-inn. In the year 1561, he was constituted a gentleman of the royal chapel by queen Elisabeth, and master of the singing boys there. He had received his musical education, while at Oxford, under George Etheridge
George Etheridge, born at Thame in Oxfordshire, was admitted Scholar of Corpus Christi college Oxford, under the tuition of the learned John Shepreve, in 1534. Fellow; in 1539. In 1553, he was made royal professor of Greek at Oxford. In 1556, he was recommended by lord Williams of Thame, to Sir Thomas Pope founder of Trinity college in Oxford, to be admitted a fellow of his college at its first foundation. But Etheridge chusing to pursue the medical line, that scheme did not take effect. He was persecuted for popery by queen Elisabeth at her accession: but afterwards practised physic at Oxford with much reputation, and established a private seminary there for the instruction of catholic youths in the classi
s, music, and logic. Notwithstanding his active perseverance in the papistic persuasion, he presented to the queen when she visited Oxford in 1566
an E
comium in Gre
k verse on her father Henry, now in the British Museum, MSS. B
L. REG. 16
C. x. He prefixed a not inelegant pre
ace in Latin verse to his tutor Sheprev
'
HY
POLYTUS, an Answer to Ovid's PHAEDRA, which he published in 1584. Pits his cotemporary says,
"He was an able mathematician, and one of the most excellent vocal and instrumental musicians in England, but he chiefly delighted in the lute and lyre. A most elegant poet, and a most exact composer of English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, verses, which he used to set to his harp with the greatest skill."
ANGL. SCRIPT. p. 784. Paris. 1619. Pits add
, that he translated several of David's Psalms into a short Hebrew metre for music. Wood mentions his musical compositions in manuscript. His familiar friend Leland addresses him in an encomiastic epigram, and asserts that his many excellent writings were highly pleasing to king Henry the eighth. ENCOM. Lond. 1589. p. 111. His chief patrons seem to have been Lord Williams, Sir Thomas Pope, Sir Walter Mildmay, and Robertson dean of Durham. He died in 1588, at Oxford. I have given
theridge so long a note, because he appears from Pits to have been an English poet. Compare Fox, MARTY
OLOG. iii. 500.
.
When queen Elisabeth visited Oxford in 1566, she was attended by Edwards, who was on this occasion employed to compose a play called PALAMON AND ARCITE, which was acted before her majesty in Christ-church hall
See supr. vol. ii. 382.
. I believe it was never printed. Another of his plays is DAMON AND PYTHIAS, which was acted at court. It is a mistake, that the first edition of this play is the same that is among Mr. Garrick's collection, printed by Richard Johnes, and dated 1571
Quarto. Bl. lett.
. The first edition was printed by William How in Fleet-street, in 1570, with this title,
"The tragical comedie of DAMON AND PITHIAS, newly imprinted as the same w
s playde before the queenes maiestie by the children of her graces chapple. Made by Mayster Edward then being master of the children
Quarto. Bl. lett. The third edition is among Mr. Garrick's Plays. 4to. Bl. L. dated 1582.
."
There is some degree of low humour in the dialogues between Grimme the collier and the two lacquies, which I presume was highly pleasing to the queen. He probably wrote many other dramatic pieces now lost. Puttenham having mentioned lord Buckhurst and Master Edward Ferrys, or Ferrers, as most eminent in tragedy, gives the prize to Edwards for Comedy and Interlude
ARTE OF ENGLISH POETRY. fol. 51.
. The word Interlude is here of wide extent. For Edwards, besides that he was a writer of regular dramas, appears to have been a contriver of masques, and a composer of poetry for pageants. In a word, he united all those arts and accomplishments which minister to popular pleasantry: he was the first fiddle, the most fashionable sonnetteer, the readiest rhymer, and the most facetious mimic, of the court. In consequence of his love and his knowledge of the histrionic art, he taught the choristers over which he presided to act plays; and they were formed into a company of players, like those of saint Paul's cathedral, by the queen's licence, under the superintendency of Edwards
See supr. vol. ii. 393.
.
The most poetical of Edward's ditties in the PARADISE OF DAINTIE DEVISES is a des
ription of May
CARM. 6. edit. 1585. It seems to have been a favorite, and is complimented in another piece,
A reply to M. Edwardes May,
subscribed
M. S.
ibid. CARM. 29. This miscellany, of which more will be said hereafter, is said in the title to
"be devised and written for the most parte by M. Edwardes sometime of her maiesti
s Chappell."
Edwards however had been dead twelve years when the first edition appeared, viz. in 1578.
. The rest are moral sentences in stanzas. His SOUL-KNELL, supposed to have been written on his death-bed, was once celebrated
It is mentioned by G. Gascoigne in his
Epistl
to the young Gentlemen,
before his works, 1587. qu.
. His popularity seems to have altogether arisen from those pleasing talents of which no specimens could be transmitted to posterity, and which prejudiced his partial cotemporaries in favour of his poetry. He died in the year 1566
Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 151. See also, ibid. FA
T. 71.
.
In the
Epitaphs, Songs, and Sonets
of George Turbervile, printed in 1570, there are two elegies on his death; which record the places of his education, ascertain his poetical and musical character, and bear ample testimony to the high distinction in which his performances, more particularly of the dramatic kind, were held. The fist is by Turbervile himself, entitled,
"An Epitaph on Maister Edwards, sometime Maister of the Children of the Chappell and gentleman of Lyncolnes inne of court."
Ye learned Muses nine
And sacred sisters all;
Now lay your cheerful cithrons downe,
And to lamenting fall.—
For he that led the daunce,
The chiefest of your traine,
I meane the man that Edwards height,
By cruell death is slaine.
Ye courtiers chaunge your cheere,
Lament in wastefull wise;
For now your Orpheus has resignde,
In clay his carcas lies.
O ruth! he is bereft,
That, whilst he lived here,
For poets penne and passinge wit
Could have no English peere.
His vaine in verse was such,
So stately eke his stile,
His feate in forging sugred songes
With cleane and curious file
Shakespeare has inserted a part of Edwards's song
In Commendation of Musick
,
extant at length in the PARADISE OF DAINTIE DEUISES, (fol. 34. b.) in ROMEO AND JULIET.
"When griping grief, &c."
ACT iv. SC. 5. In some Miscellany of the reign of Elisabeth, I have seen a song called The WILLOW-GARLAND, attributed to Edwards: and the same, I think, that is licenced to T. Colwell in 1564, beginning,
"I am not the fyrst that hath taken in hande, The wearynge of the willow
garlande."
This song, often reprinted
seems to have been written in consequence of that sung by Desdemona in OTHELLO, with the burden,
Sing, O the greene willowe shall be my garland.
OTHELL. ACT iv. SC. 3. See REGISTER OF THE STATIONERS, A. fol. 119. b. Hence the antiquity of Desdemona's song may in some degree be asc
rtained. I take this opportunity of observing, that the ballad of SUSANNAH, part of which is sung by sir Toby in TWELFTH NIGHT, was licenced to T. Colwell, in 1562, with the title,
"The godlye and constante wyfe Susanna."
Ibid. fol. 89. b. There is a play on this subject, ibid. fol. 176. a. See TW. N. ACT ii. SC. 3. And COLLECT. PEPYSIAN. tom. i. p. 33. 496.
As all the learned Greekes,
And Romaines would repine,
If they did live againe, to vewe
His verse with scornefull eine
Eyes.
.
From Plautus he the palm
And learned Terence wan, &c
Fol. 142. b.
.
The other is written by Thomas Twyne, an assistant in Phaer's Translation of Virgil's Eneid into English verse, educated a few years after Edwards at Corpus Christi college, and an actor in Edwards's play of PALAMON AND ARCITE before queen Elisabeth at Oxford in 1566
Miles Winsore of the same college was another actor in that play, and I suppose his performance was much liked by the queen. For when her maj
sty left Oxford, after this visit, he was appointed by the university to speak an or
tion before her at lord Windsor's at Bradenham in Bucks: and when he had done speaking, the queen turning to Gama de Sylva, the Spanish ambassador, and looking
wistly
on Winsore, said to the ambassador,
I
not this a pretty young man?
Wood, A
. OXON. i. 151. 489. Winsore proved afterwards a diligent
ntiquary.
. It is entitled,
"An Epitaph vpon the death of the worshipfull Mayster Richarde Edwardes late Mayster of the Children in the queene
maiesties chapell."
O happie house, O place
Of Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi college at Oxford.
, thou
That plantedst first, and gaust the root
To that so braue a bow
Bough. Branch.
:
And Christ-church
At Oxford.
, which enioydste
The fruit more ripe at fill,
Plunge up a thousand sighes, for griefe
Your trickling teares distill.
Whilst Childe and Chapell dure
While the royal chapel and its singing-boys remain.
In a puritanical pamphlet without name, printed in 1569, and entitled,
"The Children of the Chapel stript and whipt,"
among bishop Tanner's books at Oxford, it is said,
"Plaies will neuer be supprest, while her maiesties unfledged minions flaunt it in silkes and sattens. They had as well be at their popish service, in the deuils garments, &c."
fol. xii. a. 12mo. This is perhaps the earliest notice now to be found in print, of this young company of comedians, at least the earliest proof of their celebrity, From the same pamphlet we learn, that it gave still greater offence to the puritans, that they were suffered to act plays on profane subjects in the royal chapel its
lf.
"Even in her maiesties chappel do these pretty vpstart youthes profane the Lordes Day by the lascivious writhing of their tender limbs, and gorgeous decking of their apparell, in feigning bawdie fables gathered from the idolatrous heathen poe
s, &c."
ibid. fol. xiii. b. But this practice soon ceased in the royal chapels. Yet in one of Stephen Gos
on's books against the stage, written in 1579, i
this passage.
"In playes, either those thinges are fained that neuer were, as CUPID AND PSYCHE plaid at PAULES, and a great many comedies more at the Black-friars, and in euerie playhouse in London, &c."
SIGNAT. D 4
Undoubtedly the actors of this play of CUPID AND PSYCHE were the choristers of saint Paul's cathedral: but it may be doubted, whether by
Paule
we are here to understand the Cathedral or its Singing school, the last of which was the usual theatre of those choristers. See Gosson's
"
PLAYES CONFUTED IN FIVE ACTIONS,
&c. Prouing that they are not to be suffred in a christian common weale, by the waye both the cauils of
Thomas Lodge,
and
the Play of Playes,
written in their defence, and other obj
ctions of Players frendes, are truely set downe
and directly aunsweard.
"
Lond. Impr. for T. Gosson, no date. Bl. Lett. 12mo. We are sure that RELIGIOU
plays were presented in our churches long after the re
ormation
Not to repeat or multiply instances, see SECOND AND THIRD BLAST OF RETRAIT FROM PLAIES, printed 1580, pag. 77. 12mo. And Gosson's SCHOOLE OF A
USE, p. 24. b. edit. 1579. As to the exhibition of plays on SUNDAYS after the reformation, we are told by John Field, in his DECLARATION OF GOD'S JUDGEMENT
at Paris Garden,
that in the year 1580,
"The Magistrates of the citty of London obteined from queene Elizabeth, that all heathenish playes and enterludes should be banished upon sabbath dayes."
fol. ix. Lond. 1583. 8vo. It appears from this pamphlet, that a prodigious concourse of people were assembled at Paris Garden, to see plays and a bear-baiting, on Sunday Jan. 13, 1583, when the whole theatre fell to the ground, by which accident many of the spectators were killed. [See also Henry Cave's
Narration of the Fall of Paris Garden,
Lond. 1588. And D. Beard's
Theater of Gods Judgements,
edit. 3. Lond. 1631. lib. i. c. 35. pag. 212. Also
Refutation of
Heywood's
Apologi
for Actors, p. 43. by J. G. Lond. 1615. 4to. And Stubbs's
Anatomie of Abuses,
p. 134, 135. edit. Lond. 1595.] And we learn from Richard Reulidges's
Monster lately found out and discovered,
or
the Scourging of Tiplers,
a circumstance not generally known in our dramatic history, and perhaps occasioned by these profanations of the sabbath, that
"Many godly citizens and wel-disposed gentlemen of London, considering that play-houses and dicing-house
were traps for yong gentlemen and others,—made humble suite to queene Elizabeth and her Privy
councell, and obtained leave from her Majesty, to thrust the Players out of the citty; and to pull downe all Play-houses and Dicing-houses within their Liberties
which accordingly was effected, and the Play-houses, in GRACIOUS [Grace-church] STREET, B
SHOPS GATE STREET, that nigh PAUL
S, that on LUDGATE-HILL, and the WHITE-FRIERS, were quite put downe and suppressed, by the care of these religious senators."
Lond. 1628. pp. 2, 3
4. Compare G. Whetstone's MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES OF CITTIES. Lond. 1586. fol. 24. But notwithstanding these precise measures of the city magistrates and the privy-council, the queen appears to have been a constant attendant at plays, especially those presented by the children of her chapel.
,
Whilst court a court shall be;
Good Edwards, eche astat
Estate. Rank of life.
shall much
Both want and wish for thee!
Thy tender tunes and rhymes
Wherein thou wontst to play,
Eche princely dame of court and towne
Shall beare in minde away.
Thy DAMON
Hamlet calls Horatio,
O Damon dear,
in allusion to the friendship of Damon and Pythias, celebrated in Edwards's play. HAML. ACT iii. Sc. 2.
and his Friend
Pythias. I have said above, that the first edition of Edwards's DAMON AND PYTHIAS was printed by William Howe in Fleet-street, in the year 1570,
"The tragicall comedie, &c."
See supr. p. 285. But perhaps it may be necessary to retract this assertion. For in the Register of the Stationers, under the year 156
, a receipt is entered for the licence of Alexander Lacy to print,
"A ballat entituled tow [two] lamentable Songes PITHIAS and DAMON."
REGISTR. A. fol. 136. b. And again
there is the receipt for licence of Richard James in 1566, to print
"A boke entituled the tragicall
omedye of Damonde and Pithyas."
Ibid. fol. 161. b. In the same Register I find, under the year 1569-70,
"An ENTERLUDE, a lamentable Tragedy full of pleasant myrth,"
licenced to John Alde. Ibid. fol. 184. b. This I take to be the first edition of Preston's CAMBYSES, so frequently ridiculed by his cotemporaries.
,
ARCITE and PALAMON,
With mo
More.
full fit for princes eares, &c
Ibid. fol. 78. b. And not to multiply in the text citations in proof of Edwards's popularity from forgotten or obs
ure poet
, I observe at the bottom of the page, that T. B in a recommendatory poem prefixed to John Studley's English version of Seneca's AGAMEMNON, printed in 1566, ranks our author Edwards with Phaer the translator of Virgil, Jasper Haywood the translator of Seneca's TROAS and HERCULES FURENS, Nevile the translator of Seneca's OEDIPUS, Googe, and Golding the translator of Ovid, more particularly with the latter.
With him also, as seemeth me,
Our EDWARDS may compare;
Who nothyng gyuing place to him
Doth he syt in agall chayre.
.
Francis Meres, in his
"PALLADIS TAMIA, Wits Treasurie, being the second part of WITS COMMONWEALTH,"
published in 1598, recites
Maister
EDWARDES
of her maiesties chapel as one of the best for comedy,
together with
"Edward earle of Oxforde, doctor Gager of Oxford
A famous writer of Latin plays at Oxford. See supr. vol. ii. 384.
, maister Rowly once a rare scholler of Pembrooke Hall in Cambridge, eloquent and wittie John Lillie, Lodge, Gascoygne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye
I have never seen any of Antony Munday's plays. It appears from Kemp's NINE DAIES WONDER, printed in 1600, that he was famous for writing ballads. In
The Request to the impudent generation of Ballad-makers,
Kemp calls Munday
"one whose employment of the pageant was utterly spent, he being knowne to be Elderton's immediate heire
&c."
SIGNAT. D 2. See the next note. He seems to have been much employed by the booksellers a
a publisher and compiler both in verse and prose. He was bred at Rome in the English college, and was thence usually called the
Pope's scholar.
See his pamphlet
The Englishman's Roman Life,
or
how Englishmen live at Rome.
Lond. 1582. 4to. But he afterwards tu ned protestant. He published
"The Discoverie of Edmund Campion the Jesuit,"
in 1582. 12mo. Lond. for E. White. He published also, and dedicated to the earl of Leicester,
Two godly and learned Sermons made by that famous and worthy
instrument in God's church M. Jo
n Calvin,
translated into English by Horne bishop of Winchester, during his exile.
"Published by A. M."
For Henry Ca
, Lond. 1584. 12mo. Munday frequently used his initials only. Also, a
Brief
CHRONICLE
from the Creation to this time,
Lond. 1611. 8vo. This seems to be cited by Hutten, ANTIQUIT. OX
. p. 281. edit. Hearne. See REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 143. b.
He was a city-poet, and a composer and contriver of the city
pageants. These are, CHRYSO-TRIUMPHOS, &c. devised and written by A. Munday, 1611.—TRIUMPHS OF OLD DRAPERY, &c. by A. M. 1616.—METROPOLIS CORONATA, &c. by A. M. 1615. with the Story of ROBIN-HOOD. Printed by G. Purstowe.—CHRYSANAL
IA, [The golden-fishery] or the honor of fishmongers, concerning Mr. John Lemans being twice Lord
mayor, by A. M. 1616. 4to.—THE TRIUMPHS OF REUNITED BRITANNIA, &c. by A. Munday, citizen and draper of London, 4to.
robably Meres, as in the text, calls him the
best plotter,
from his invention in these or the like shows. William Webbe in the Discourse of ENGLISH POETRIE, printed in 1586, says, that he has seen by Anthony Munday,
"
an earnest traveller
in this art, very excellent works, especially upon nymphs and shepherds, well worthy to be viewed, and to be esteemed as rare poetry."
In an old play attributed to Jonson, called
The Case is altered,
he is ridiculed under the name of ANTONIO BALLADINO, and as a pageant-poet. In the same scene, there is an oblique stroke on Meres, for calling him the BEST PLOTTER.
"You are in
pri
t already
for the BEST PLOTTER."
With his city-pageants, I suppose he was DUMB-SHOW maker to the stage.
Munday's DISCOVERY OF CAMPION gave great offence to the catholics, and produced an anonymous reply called
"A True Reporte of
he deth and martyrdom of M. Campion, &c. Whereunto is annexed certayne verses made by
undrie persons."
Without date of year or place. Bl. Lett. Never seen by Wood, [ATH. OXON. col. 166.] Pub
ished, I suppose, in 1583, 8vo. At the end is a CAUEAT, containing some curious anecdotes of Munday.
"Munday was first a stage player; after an aprentise, which time he well serued by with deceeuing of his master. Then wandring towards Italy, by his owne reporte, became a cosener in his journey. Coming to Rome, in his shorte abode there, was charitably relieued, but neuer admitted in the
eminary, as he pleseth to lye in the ti
le of his boke; and being wery of well doing, returned home to his first vomite, and was hist from his stage for folly. Being thereby disc
uraged, he set forth a balet against playes,—tho he afterwards began again to ruffle upon the stage. I omit among other places h
behaviour in Barbican with his good mistres, and mother. Two thinges however must not be passed over of this boyes infelicitie two seuerall way
s of late notorious. First, he writing upon the death of Everaud Haunse was immediately controled and disproued by one of his owe hatche. And shortly after setting forth the Aprehension of Mr. Campion, &c."
The last piece is,
"a breef Discourse of the Taking of Edmund Campion, and divers other papists in Barkshire, &c. Gathered by A. M."
For W. Wrighte, 1581.
He published in 1618, a new edition of Stowe's SURVEY OF LONDON, with the addition of materials which he pretends to have received from the author's own hands. See DEDICATION. He was a citizen of London, and is buried in Coleman-street church; where his epitaph gives him the character of a learned antiquary. SEYMOUR'S SURV. LOND. i. 322. He collected the Arms of the county of Middlesex, lately transferred from sir Simeon Stuart's library to the British Museum.
, our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle
Fol. 282. I do not recollect to have seen any of Chettle's comedies. He wrote a little romance, with some verses intermixed, entitled,
"PIERS PLAINNES seauen yeres Prentiship, by H. C.
Nuda Veritas.
Printed at London by J. Danter for Thomas Gosson, and are to be sold at his shop by London-bride gate, 1595."
4to. Bl. Lett. He wrote another pamphlet, containing anecdotes of the petty literary squabbles, in which he was concerned with Greene, Nashe, Tarleton, and the players, called
"KINDE-HARTS DREAME. Containing five Apparitions with their Inuectiues against abuses raigning.
Deliuered by seuerall Ghosts vnto him to be publisht af
er
Piers Penilesse Post
had refused the carriage.
Inuita Inuidia. By H. C. Imprinted at London for William Wright."
4to. without date. Bl. Lett. In the Epistle prefixed, To the
Gentlemen Readers,
and signed Henrie Chettle, he says,
"About three moneths since died M. Robert Gre
ne, [in 1592] leaving many papers in sundry Booke sellers handes, among others his GROATS WORTH OF WIT, in which a letter written to diuers PLAY-MAKERS is offensibly by one or two of them taken, &c."
In the same, he mentions an Epistle prefixed to the second part of GERILEON, falsely attributed to Nashe. The work consists of four or five Addresses. The first is an ironical Admonition to the Ballad-singers of London, from Antonie Now Now, or Antony Munday, just mentioned in the text, a great Ballad-writer. From this piece it appears, that the antient and respectable profession of ballad-making, as well as of balladsinging, was in high repute about the metropolis and in the country fairs. SIGNAT. C.
"When I was liked, says Anthonie, there was no thought of that idle vpstart generation of ballad-singers, neither was there a printer so lewd that would set his finger to a lasciuious line."
But now, he adds,
"ballads are
abusively
chanted in every street; and from London this evil has overspread Essex and the adjoining counties. There is many a tradesman, of a worship
ull trade, yet no stationer, who after a little bringing vppe apprentices to singing brokerie, takes into his shoppe some fresh men, and trustes his olde servauntes of a two months standing with a dossen groates worth of ballads. In which if they prove thriftie, he makes them prety chapmen, able to spred more pamphlets by the state forbidden, than all the booksellers in London, &c."
The names of many ballads are here also recorded, WATKINS ALE, The CARMANS WHISTL
, CHOPPING-KNIVES, and FRIER FOX-TAILE. Out-roaringe Dick, and Wat Wimbars, two celebrated trebles, are said to have got twenty shillings a day by singing at Braintree fair in Essex. Another of these Addresses is from Robert Greene to Peirce Pennilesse. SIGNAT. E. Another from Tarleton the Player
to all
aligners of honest mirth.
E 2.
"Is it not lamentable, says he, that a man should spende his two pence on plays in an afternoone!—If players were suppressed, it would be to the no smal profit of the Bowlinge Alleys in Bedlam and other places, that were [are] wont in the afternoones to be left empty by the recourse of good fellowes into that vnprofitable recreation of stageplaying. And it were not much amisse woulde they ioine with the Dicinghouses to make sute againe for their longer restrainte, though the
Sicknesse
cease.—While Playes are usde, halfe the daye is by most youthes that haue libertie spent vppon them, or at least the greatest company drawne to the places where they frequent, &c."
This is all in pure irony. The last address is from William Cuckowe, a famous master of legerdemain, on the tricks of juglers. I could not suffer this opportunity, accidentally offered, to pass, of giving a note to a forgotten old writer of comedy, whose name may not perhaps occur again. But I must add, that the initials H. C. to pieces of this period do not always mean Henry Chettle. In ENGLAND'S HELICON are many pieces signed H. C. Probably for Henry Constable, a noted sonnet-writer of these times. I have
"DIANA, or the excellent conceitfull Sonnets of H. C. Augmented with diuers quatorzains of honorable and learned pe
sonages, Diuided into vii
Decads.
Vincitur a facibus qui jacit ipse faces.
"
At Lond. 1596. 16mo. These are perhaps by Henry Constable. The last Sonnet is on a Lady born 1588. In my copy, those by H. C. are marked H. C. with a pen. Henry Constable will be examined in his proper place. Chettle is mentioned, as a player I think, in the last page of Dekker's KNIGHTS CONJURING, printed in 1607.
."
Puttenham, the author of the
Arte of English
Poe
ie,
mentions the
"earle of Oxford, and maister Edwardes of her majesties chappel, for comedy and enterlude
Lib. i. ch. xxxi. fol. 51. a.
."
Among the books of my friend the late Mr. William Collins of Chichester, now dispersed, was a Collection of short comic stories in prose, printed in the black letter under the year 1570,
"sett forth by maister Richard Edwardes mayster of her maiesties reuels."
Undoubtedly this is the same Edwards: who from this title expressly appears to have been the general conductor of the court festivities: and who most probably succeeded in this office George Ferrers, one of the original authors of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES
Who had certainly q
itted that office before the year 1575. For in George Gascoigne's Narrative of queen Elisabeth's splendid visit at Kenilworth-castle in Warwickshire, entitled the PRINCELIE PLEASURES OF KENILWORTH-CASTLE, the octav
stanzas spoken by the Lady of the Lake, are said to have been
"devised and penned by M. [Master] Ferrers, sometime Lord of Misrule in the Court."
Signat. A. iij. See also Signat. B. ij. This was GEORGE FERRERS mentioned in the text, a contributor to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. I take this opportunity of insinuating my suspicions, that I have too closely followed the testimony of Philips, Wood, and Tanner, in supposing that this GEORGE Ferrers, and EDWARD Ferrer
a writer of plays, were two distinct persons. See supr. p. 213. I am now convinced that they have been confounded, and that they are one and the same man. We have already seen, and from good authority, that GEORGE Ferrers was Lord of Misrule to the cou
t, that is, among other things of a like kind, a writer of court interludes or plays; and that king Edward the sixth
had great delight in his pastimes.
See supr. vol. ii. 381. The confusion appears to have originated from Puttenham, the author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH PO
SIE, who has inadvertently given to GEORGE the christian name of EDWARD. But his account, or character, of this EDWARD Ferrers has served
o lead us to the truth.
"But the principall man in this profession [poetry] at the same time [of Edward the six
h] was maister EDWARD Ferrys, a man of no lesse mirth and felici
ie that way, but of much more skil and magnificence in his meeter, and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage in Tragedie and sometimes in Comedie, or Enterlude, wherein he gave the king so much good recreation, as he had thereby many good rewardes."
Lib. i. ch. xxxi. pag. 49. edit. 1589. And again,
"For Tragedie the Lord Buckhurst, and maister Edward Ferrys, for such doinges as I have sene of theirs, deserve the highest price."
Ibid. p. 51. His Tragedies, with the
magnificent meeter,
are perhaps nothing more than the stately monologues in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES; and he might have written others either for the stage in general, or the more private entertaiment of the court, now lost, and probably never printed. His Comedie and Enterlude are perhaps to be understood, to have
een, not so much regular and professed dramas for a theatre, as little dramatic mumm
ries for the courtholidays, or other occasional festivities. The court-shows, like this at Kenilworth, were accompanied with personated dialogues in verse, and the whole pageantry was often styled an interlude. This reasoning also accounts for Puttenham's s
eming omission, in not having enumerated the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, by name, among the shining poems of his age. I have before observed, what is much to our purpose, that no plays of an EDWARD Ferrers, (or Ferrys, which i
the same,) in print or manuscript, are now known to exist, nor are mentioned by any writer of the times with which we are now concerned. GEORGE Ferrers at least, from what actually remains of him, has some title to the dramatic character. Our GEORGE Ferrers, from the part he bore in the exhibitions at Kenilworth, appears to have been employed as a writer of metrical speeches or dialogues to b
spoken in character, long after he had left the office of lord of misrule. A proof of hi
reputed
xcellence in composition
of this nature, and of the celebrity with which he filled that department.
I also take this opportunity, the earliest which has occurred, of retracting ano
her slight mistake. See supr. p. 272. There was a second edition of Niccols's MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, printed for W. Aspley, Lond. 1621. 4to.
. Among these tales was that of the INDUCTION OF THE TINKER in Shakespeare's TAMING OF THE SHREW: and perhaps Edwards's story-book was the immediate source from which Shakespeare, or rather the author of the old TAMING OF A SHREW, drew that diverting apologue
See SIX OLD PLAYS, Lond. 1779. 12mo.
. If I recollect right, the circumstances almost exactly tallied with an incident which Heuterus relates, from an Epistle of Ludovicus Vives, to have actually happened at the marriage of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, about the year 1440. I will give it in the words, either of Vives, or of that perspicuous annalist, who flourished about the year 1580.
"Nocte quadam a caena cum aliquot praecipuis amicorum per urbem deambulans, jacentem conspicatus est medio foro hominem de plebe ebrium, altum stertentem. In eo visum est experiri quale esset vitae nostrae ludicrum, de quo illi interdum essent collocuti. Jussit hominem deferri ad Palatium, et lecto Ducali collocari, nocturnum Ducis pileum capiti ejus imponi, exutaque sordida veste linea, aliam e tenuissimo ei lino indui. De mane ubi evigilavit, praesto fuere pueri nobiles et cubicularii Ducis, qui non aliter quam ex Duce ipso quaererent an luberet surgere, et quemadmodum vellet eo die vestiri. Prolata sunt Ducis vestimenta. Mirari homo ubi se eo lo
i vidit. Indutus est, prodiit e cubiculo, adfuere proceres qui illum ad sacellum deducerent. Interfuit sacro, datus est illi osculandus liber, et reliqua penitus ut Duci. A sacro ad prandium instructissimum. A prandio cubicularius attulit chartas lusorias, pecuniae acervum. Lusit cum magnatibus, sub serum deambulavit in hortulis, venatus est in leporario, et cepit aves aliquot aucupio. Caena peracta est pari celebritate qua prandium. Accensis luminibus inducta sunt musica instrumenta, puellae atque nobiles adolescentes saltarunt, exhibitae sunt fabulae, dehinc comessatio quae hilaritate atque invitationibus ad potandum producta est in multam noctem. Ille vero largiter se vino obruit praestantissimo; et postquam collapsus in somnum altissimum, jussit eum Dux vestimentis prioribus indui, atque in eum locum reportari, quo prius fuerat repertus: ibi transegit noctem totam dormiens. Postridie experrectus caepit secum de vita illa Ducali cogitare, incertum habens fuissetne res vera, an visum quod animo esset per quietem observatum. Tandem collatis conjectu
is omnibus atque argumentis, statuit somnium fuisse, et ut tale uxori liberis ac viris narravit. Quid interest inter diem illius et nostros aliquot annos? Nihil penitus, nisi quod hoc est paulo diuturnius somnium, ac si quis unam duntaxat horam, alter vero decem somniasset
Heuterus, RER. BURGUND. Lib. iv. p. 150. edit. Plantin. 1584. fol. Heuterus says, this story was told to Vives by an old officer of the duke's court.
."
To an irresistible digression, into which the magic of Shakespeare's name has insensibly seduced us, I hope to be pardo
d for adding another narrative of this frolic, from the ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY by Democritus junior, or
Burton, a very learned and ingenious writer of the reign of king James the first.
"When as by reason of unseasonable weather, he could neither hawke nor hunt, and was now tired with ca
ds and dice, and such other domesticall sports, or to see ladies dance with some of his courtiers, he would in the evening walke disguised all about the towne. It so fortuned, as he was walking late one night, he found a country fellow dead drunke, snorting on a bulke: hee caused his followers to bring him to his palace, and then stripping him of his old clothes, and attyring him in the court-fashion, when he wakened, he and they were all ready to attend upon his Excellency and persuaded him he was some great Duke. The poore fellow admiring how he came there, was served in state all day long: after supper he saw them dance, heard musicke, and all the rest of those court-like pleasures. But late at night, when he was well tipled, and againe faste asleepe, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the place where they first found him. Now the fellowe had not made there so good sport the day before, as he did now when he returned to himselfe; all the jest was, to see how he looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration, the poore man told his friends he had seene a vision, constantly believed it, would not otherwise be persuaded, and so the joke ended
Burton's ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY. Part ii. §. 2. pag. 232. fol. Oxon. 1624. There is an older edition in quarto.
."
If this is a true story, it is a curious specimen of the winter-diversions of a very polite court of France in the middle of the fifteenth century. The merit of the contrivance, however, and comic effect of this practical joke, will atone in some measure for many indelicate circumstances with which it must have necessarily been attended. I presume it first appeared in Vives's Epistle. I have seen the story of a tinker disguised like a lord in recent collections of humorous tales, probably transmitted from Edwards's story-book, which I wish I had examined more carefully.
I have assigned Edwards to queen Mary's reign, as his reputation in the character of general poetry seems to have been then at its height. I have mentioned his sonnets addressed to the court-beauties of that reign, and of the beginning of the reign of queen Elisabeth
Viz. Tit. A. xxiv. MSS. COTT. (See supr. p. 284.) I will here cite a few lines.
HAWARDE is not haugte, but of such smylynge cheare,
That wolde alure eche gentill harte, hir love to holde fulle deare:
DACARS is not dangerus, hir talke is nothinge coye,
Hir noble stature may compare with Hector's wyfe of Troye, &c.
At the end,
"Finis R. E."
I have a faint recollection, that some of Edwards's songs are in a poetical miscellany, printed by T. Colwell in 1567, or 1568.
"Newe Sonettes and pretty pamphlettes, &c."
Entered to Colwell in 1567-8. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 163. b. I cannot quit Edwards's songs, without citing the first stanza of his beautiful one in the
Paradise of Daintie Deuises,
on Terence's apothegm of
Amantium irae amoris integratio est.
NUM. 50. SIGNAT. G. ii. edit. 1585.
In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept,
I heard a wife sing to her child, that long before had wept:
She sighed sore, and sang full sweete, to bring the babe to rest,
That would not cease, but cried still, in sucking at her brest.
She was full wearie of her watch, and greeved with her childe;
She rocked it, and rated it, till that on her it smilde.
Then did she say, now haue I found this Prouerbe true to proue,
The falling out of faithfull frendes renuyng is of loue.
The close of the second stanza is prettily conducted.
Then kissed she her little babe, and sware by God aboue,
The falling out of faithfull frendes, renuyng is of loue.
.
If I should be thought to have been disproportionately prolix in speaking of Edwards, I would be understood to have partly intended a tribute of respect to the memory of a poet, who is one of the earliest of our dramatic writers after the reformation of the British stage.
SECT. XXXV.
ABOUT the same time flourished Thomas Tusser, one of our earliest didactic poets, in a science of the highest utility, and which produced one of the most beautiful poems of antiquity. The vicissitudes of this man's life have uncommon variety and novelty for the life of an author, and his history conveys some curious traces of the times as well as of himself. He seems to have been alike the sport of fortune, and a dupe to his own discontented disposition and his perpetual propensity to change of situation.
He was born of an antient family, about the year 1523, at Rivenhall in Essex; and was placed as a chorister, or singingboy, in the collegiate chapel of the castle of Wallingford in Berkshire
This chapel had a dean, six prebendaries, six clerks, and four choris
ers. It was dissolved in 1549.
. Having a fine voice, he was impressed from Wallingford college into the king's chapel. Soon afterwards he was admitted into the choir of saint Paul's cathedral in London; where he made great improvements under the instruction of John Redford the organist, a famous musician. He was next sent to Eton-school, where, at one chastisement, he received fifty-three stripes of the rod, from the severe but celebrated master Nicholas Udall
Udall's English interludes, mentioned above, were perhaps written for his scholars. Thirty-five lines of one of them are quoted in Wilson's ARTE OF LOGIKE, edit. 1567. fol. 67. a.
"Suete maistresse whereas, &c."
. His academical education was at Trinity-hall in Cambridge: but Hatcher affirms, that he was from Eton admitted a scholar of King's college in that university, under the year 1543
MSS. Catal. Praepos. Soc. Schol. Coll. Regal. Cant.
. From the university he was called up to court by his singular and generous patron William lord Paget, in whose family he appears to have been a retainer
Our author's HUSBANDRIE is dedicated to his son Lord Thomas Paget of Beaudesert, fol. 7. ch. ii. edit. ut in
r.
. In this department he lived ten years: but being disgusted with the vices, and wearied with the quarrels of the courtiers, he retired into the country, and embraced the profession of a farmer, which he successively practised at Ratwood in Sussex, Ipswich in Suffolk, Fairstead in Essex, Norwich, and other places
In Peacham's MINERVA, a book of emblems printed in 1612, there is the device of a whetstone and a scythe with these lines, fol. 61. edit. 4to.
They tell me, TUSSER, when thou wert alive,
And hadst for pro
it turned euery stone,
Where ere thou ca
est thou couldst neuer thriue,
Though heereto best couldst counsel every one,
As it may in thy HUSBANDRIE appeare
Wherein afresh thou liust among vs here.
So like thy selfe a number more are wont,
To sharpen others with advice of wit,
When thy themselues are like the whetstone blunt, &c.
. Here his patrons were sir Richard Southwell
See LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, 2d edit. p. 218.
, and Salisbury dean of Norwich. Under the latter he procured the place of a singing-man in Norwich cathedral. At length, having perhaps too much philosophy and too little experience to succeed in the business of agriculture, he returned to London: but the plague drove him away from town, and he took shelter at Trinity college in Cambridge. Without a tincture of careless imprudence, or vicious extragance, this desultory character seems to have thrived in no vocation. Fuller says, that his stone,
which gathered no moss,
was the stone of Sisyphus. His plough and his poetry were alike unprofitable. He was by turns a fiddler and a farmer, a grasier and a poet with equal success. He died very aged at London in 1580, and was buried in saint Mildred's church in the Poultry
See his Epitaph in Stowe's SURV. LOND. p. 474. edit. 1618. 4to. A
d F
ller's WORTHIES, p. 334.
.
Some of these circumstances, with many others of less consequence, are related by himself in one of his pieces, entitled the AUTHOR'S LIFE, as follows.
What robes
The livery, or
vestis liberata,
often called
robe,
allowed annually by the col
ege.
how bare, what colledge fare!
What bread how stale, what pennie ale!
Then WALLINGFORD, how wert thou abhord
Of sillie boies!
Thence for my voice, I must, no choice,
Away of forse, like posting horse;
For sundrie men had placardes then
Such child to take.
The better brest
To the passages lately collected by the commentators on Shakespeare, to prove that
Breast
signifies
voice,
the following may be added from Ascham's TOXOPHILUS. He is speaking of the expediency of educating youth in singing.
"Trulye two degrees of men, which haue the highest offices under the king in all this realme, shall greatly lacke the vse of singinge, preachers and lawyers, because they shall not, withoute this, be able to
rule theyr
BRESTES for euerye purpose, &c."
fol. 8. b. Lond. 1571. 4to. Bl. Lett.
, the lesser rest,
To serue the queer, now there now heer:
For time so spent, I may repent,
And sorowe make.
But marke the chance, myself to vance,
By friendships lot, to PAULES I got;
So found I grace a certaine space,
Still to remaine.
With REDFORD there, the like no where,
For cunning such, and vertue much,
By whom some part of musicke art,
So did I gaine.
From PAULES I went, to EATON sent,
To learne straighte waies the Latin phraies,
Where fiftie three stripes giuen to me
At once I had:
The fault but small, or none at all,
It came to pas, thus beat I was:
See, Udall, see, the mercie of thee
To me, poore lad!
To LONDON hence, to CAMBRIDGE thence,
With thankes to thee, O TRINITE,
That to thy HALL, so passinge all,
I got at last.
There ioy I felt, there trim I dwelt, &c.
At length he married a wife by the name of Moone, from whom, for an obvious reason, he expected great inconstancy, but was happily disappointed.
Through Uenus' toies, in hope of ioies,
I chanced soone to finde a
Moone,
Of cheerfull hew:
Which well and fine, methought, did shine,
And neuer change, a thing most strange,
Yet kept in sight, her course aright,
And compas trew, &c
Fol. 155. edit. 1586. See also THE AUTHORS EPISTL
to the lat
lord William Paget, wher
in h
doth discourse of his owne bringing up
&c. fol. 5. And the EPISTL
to Lady Paget,
fol. 7. And his rules for training a boy in music, fol. 141.
.
Before I proceed, I must say a few words concerning the very remarkable practice implied in these stanzas, of seizing boys by a warrant for the service of the king's chapel. Strype has printed an abstract of an instrument, by which it appears, that emissaries were dispatched into various parts of England with full powers to take boys from any choir for the use of the chapel of king Edward the sixth. Under the year 1550, says Strype, there was a grant of a commission
"to Philip Van Wilder gentleman of the Privy Chamber, in anie churches or chappells within England to take to the king's use, such and as many singing children and choristers, as he or his deputy shall think good
Dat. April. Strype's MEM. ECCL. ii. p. 538.
."
And again, in the following year, the master of the king's chapel, that is, the master of the king's singing-boys, has licence
"to take up from time to time as many children [boys] to serve in the king's chapel as he shall think fit
Ibi
. p. 539. Under the same year, a yearly allow
nce of 80l, i
speci
ed,
"to find six singing children for the king's privy chamber."
Ibid. I presume this appointment was transmitted from preceding reigns.
."
Under the year 1454, there is a commission of the same sort from king Henry the sixth,
De ministrallis propter solatium regis providendis,
for procuring minstrels, even by force, for the solace or entertainment of the king: and it is required, that the minstrels so procured, should be not only skilled
in arte minstrallatus,
in the art of minstrelsy, but
membris naturalibus elegantes,
handsome and elegantly shaped
Rym
FOED. xi. 375.
. As the word Minstrel is of an extensive signification, and is applied as a general term to every character of that species of men whose business it was to entertain, either with oral recitation, music, gesticulation, and singing, or with a mixture of all these arts united, it is certainly difficult to determine, whether singers only, more particularly singers for the royal chapel, were here intended. The last clause may perhaps more immediately seem to point out tumblers or posture-masters
Even so late as the present reign of qu
n Mary, we find tumblers introduced for the diversion of the court. In 1556, at a grand military review of the queen's pensioners in Greenwich park,
"came a Tumbler and played many pretty seats, the queen and cardinal [Pole] looking on; whereat she was observed to laugh heartily, &c."
Strype's ECCL. MEM. iii. p. 312. ch. xxxix. Mr. Astle has a roll of some private expences of king Edward the second: among which it appears, that fifty shillings were paid to a person who danced before the king on a
able,
"et lui
t
re
-grandement ri
e."
And that twenty shillings were allowed to another, who rode before his majesty, and o
ten fell from his horse, at which his majesty laughed heartily,
de queux roi rya grantement.
The laughter of kings was thought worthy to be recorded.
. But in the register of the capitulary acts of York cathedral, it is ordered as an indispensable qualification, that the chorister who is annually to be elected the boy-bishop, should be
competenter corpore formosus.
I will transcribe an article of the register, relating to that ridiculous ceremony.
"Dec. 2. 1367. Joannes de Quixly confirmatur Episcopus Puerorum, et Capitulum ordinavit, quod electio episcopi Puerorum in ecclesia Eboracensi de cetero fieret de Eo, qui diutius et magis in dicta ecclesia laboraverit, et magis idoneus repertus fuerit, dum tamen competenter sit corpore formosus, et quod aliter facta electio non valebit
Registr. Archiv. Eccles. Ebor. MSS. In the Salisbury-missal, in the office of EPISCOPUS PUERORUM, among the suffrages we read,
"Corpore enim formosus es O
ili, et diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis, &c."
In further proof of the solemnity with which this farce was conducted, I will cite another extract from the chapter-registers at York.
"xj febr. 1370. In Scriptoria capituli Ebor. dominus Johannes Gisson, magister choristarum ecclesiae Eboracensis, liberavit Roberto de Holme choristae, qui tunc ultimo fuerat episcopus puerorum, iij libras, xvs. id. ob. de perquisitis ipsius episcopi per ipsum Johannem receptis, et dictus Robertus ad sancta dei evangelia per ipsum corporaliter tacta juravit, quod nunquam molestaret dictum dominum Johannem de summa pecuniae praedicta."
REGISTR. E
OR.
."
It is certainly a matter of no consequence, whether we understand these Minstrels of Henry the sixth to have been singers, pipers, players, or posture-masters. From the known character of that king, I should rather suppose them performers for his chapel. In any sense, this is an instance of the same oppressive and arbitrary privilege that was practised on our poet.
Our author Tusser wrote, during his residence at Ratwood in Sussex, a work in rhym
entitled FIVE HUNDRED POINTES OF GOOD HU
BANDRIE, which was printed at London in 1557
Quarto. Bl. Lett. In 1557, John Daye has licence to print
"the hundreth poyntes of good
Husserie.
"
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 23. a. In 1559-60
ju
. 20, T. Marshe has licence to print
"the boke of Husbandry."
Ibid. fol. 48. b. This last title occurs in these registers much lower.
. But it was soon afterwards reprinted, with additions and improvements, under the following title,
"Five hundreth pointes of good Husbandrie as well for the Champion or open countrie, as also for the Woodland or Severall, mixed in euerie moneth with Huswiferie, ouer and besides the booke of HUSWIF
RIE. Corrected, better ordered, and newlie augmented a fourth part more, with diuers other lessons, as a diet for the farmer, of the properties of windes, planets, hops, herbs, bees, and approved remedies for the sheepe and cattell, with manie other matters both profitabell and not vnpleasant for the Reader. Also a table of HUSBANDRIE at the beginning of this booke, and another of HUSWIFERIE at the end, &c. Newlie set foor
h by THOMAS TUSSER gentleman
The oldest edition with this title which I have seen is in quarto, dated 1586, and printed at London,
"in the now dwelling house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate streete at the signe of the starre."
In black letter, containing 164 pages. The next edition is for H. Yardley, London 1593. Bl. Lett. 4to. Again at London, p
inted by Peter Short, 1597. Bl. Lett. 4to. The last I have seen is dated 1610. 4to.
In the Register of the Stationers, a receipt of T. Hackett is entered for licence for printing
"A dialoge of wyvynge and thryvynge of Tusshers with ij lessons for olde and yonge,"
in 1562 or 1563. REGISTR. STAT. COMP. LOND. notat. A. fol. 74. b. I find licenced to Alde in 1565,
"An hundreth poyntes of evell huswyfraye,"
I suppose a satire on Tusser. Ibid. fol. 131. b. In 1561, Richard Tottell was to print
"A booke inti
uled one hundreth good poyntes of husboundry lately maryed unto a hundreth good poyntes of Huswiffry newly corrected and amplyfyed."
Ibid. fol. 74. a.
."
It must be acknowledged, that this old English georgic has much more of the simplicity of Hesiod, than of the elegance of Virgil: and a modern reader would suspect, that many of its salutary maxims originally decorated the margins, and illustrated the calendars, of an antient almanac. It is without invocations, digressions, and descriptions: no pleasing pictures of rural imagery are drawn from meadows covered with flocks and fields waving with corn, nor are Pan and Ceres once named. Yet it is valuable, as a genuine picture of the agriculture, the rural arts, and the domestic economy and customs, of our industrious ancestors.
I must begin my examination of this work with the apology of Virgil on a similar subject,
Possum multa tibi veterum praecepta referre,
Ni refugis, tenuesque piget cognoscere curas
GEOK
IC. i. 176.
.
I first produce a specimen of his directions for cultivating a hop-garden, which may, perhaps not unprofitably, be compared with the modern practice.
Whom fansie perswadeth, among other crops,
To haue for his spending, sufficient of hops,
Must willingly follow, of choises to choose,
Such lessons approued, as skilful do vse.
Ground grauellie, sandie, and mixed with claie,
Is naughtie for hops, anie maner of waie;
Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone,
For drinesse and barrennesse let it alone.
Choose soile for the hop of the rottenest mould,
Well doonged and wrought, as a garden-plot should;
Not far from the water, but not ouerflowne,
This lesson well noted is meete to be knowne.
The sun in the southe, or else southlie and west,
Is ioie to the hop, as a welcomed guest;
But wind in the north, or else northerlie east,
To the hop, is as ill as a fraie in a feast.
Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as is told,
Make thereof account, as of iewell of gold:
Now dig it and leaue it, the sunne for to burne,
And afterward fence it, to serue for that turne.
The hop for his profit I thus doo exalt:
It strengtheneth drinke, and it fauoreth malt;
And being well brewed, long kept it will last,
And drawing abide—if ye drawe not too fast
CHAP. 42. fol. 93. In this stanza, is a copy of verses by one William Kethe, a divine of Geneva, pre
ixed to Dr. Christopher's Goodman's absurd and factious pamphlet against queen Mary,
How superior Powers,
&c. Printed at Geneva by John Crispin, 1558. 16mo.
Whom f
ry long fosterd by sufferance and awe,
Have right rule subverted, and made will their lawe,
Whose pride how to temper, this truth will thee t
ll,
So as thou resist mayst, and yet not rebel, &c.
.
To this work belongs the well known old song, which begins,
The Ape, the Lion, the Fox, and the Asse,
Thus sett
foorth man in a glasse, &c
Chap. 50. fol. 107.
.
For the farmer's general diet he assigns, in Lent, red herrings, and salt fish, which may remain in store
when Lent is past:
at Easter, veal and bacon: at Martinmas, salted beef, when
dainties
are not to be had in the country: at Midsummer, when mackrel are no longer in season,
grasse,
or sallads
fresh beef, and pease: at Michaelmas, fresh herrings, with fatted
crones,
or sheep: at All Saints, pork and pease, sprats and
spurlings:
at Christmas, good cheere and
plaie.
The farmer's weekly fish-days, are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; and he is charged to be careful in keeping
embrings
and fast-days
Chap. 12. fol. 25, 26.
.
Among the
Husbandlie Furniture
are recited most of the instruments now in use, yet with several obsolete and unintelligible names of farming utensils
Chap. 15. fol. 31, 32, 33.
. Horses, I know not from what superstition, are to be annually blooded on saint Stephen's day
Fol. 52.
. Among the
Christmas husbandlie fare,
our author recommends good
drinke,
a good fire in the Hall, brawne, pudding and souse, and mustard
withall,
beef, mutton, and pork,
shred,
or minced, pies
of the best,
pig, veal, goose, capon, and turkey, cheese, apples, and nuts, with
jolie carols.
A Christmas carol is then introduced to the tune of
King Salomon
Chap. 30. fol. 37. These are four of the line
.
Euen Christ, I meane, that virgins child, In Bethlem born:
That lambe of God, that prophet mild, Crowned with thorne!
Mar. 4. 1559, there is a receipt from Ralph Newbery for his licence for printing a balled called
"Kynge Saloman."
REGISTR. STATION. COMP. LOND. notat. A. fol. 48. a. Again, in 1561, a licence to print
"iij balletts, the one entituled
Newes out
of Kent;
the other, a
new
ballat af
er th
tune of kynge
SOLOMON; and the other,
Newes out of Heaven and Hell.
"
Ibid. fol. 75. a. See Lycence of John Tysdale for printing
"Certayne goodly Carowles to be songe to the glory of God,"
in 1562. Ibid. fol. 86. a. Again, ibid.
"Crestenmas Carowles auctori
shed by my lord of London."
A ballad of Solomon and the queen of Sheba is entered in 1567. Ibid. fol. 166. a. In 1569, is entered an
"Enterlude for bo
es to handle and to passe tyme at Christimas."
Ibid. fol. 183. b. Again, in the same year, fol. 185. b. More instances follow.
.
In a comparison between
Champion and Severall,
that is, open and inclosed land, the disputes about inclosures appear to have been as violent as at present
Chap. 52. fol. 111.
. Among his
Huswifelie Admonitions,
which are not particularly addressed to the farmer, he advises three dishes at dinner, which being well dressed, will be sufficient to please your friend, and will
become
your Hall
Fol. 133.
. The prudent houfewife is directed to make her own tallowcandles
Fol. 135.
. Servants of both sexes are ordered to go to bed at ten in the summer, and nine in the winter: to rise at five in the winter, and four in the summer
Fol. 137.
. The ploughman's feasting days, or holidays, are PLOUGH-MONDAY, or the first Monday after Twelfth-day, when ploughing begins, in Leicestershire. SHROF-TIDE, or SHROVE-TUESDAY, in Essex and Suffolk, when after shroving, or confession, he is permitted to
go thresh the fat hen,
and
"if blindfold [you] can kill her then giue it thy men,"
and to dine on fritters and pancakes
I have before mentioned Shrove
Tuesday as a day dedicated to festivities. See supr. vol. ii. p. 387. In some parts of G
rmany it was usual to celebrate Shrovetide with bon
ires. Lavaterus o
GHOSTES, &c. trans
ated into English by R. H. Lond. 1572 4to. fol. 51. Bl. Le
t. Polydore Virgil says, that so early as the year 1170, it was the custom of the English nation to celebrate their Christmas with plays, masque
, and the mos
magnificent spectacles; together with games at dice, and dancing
This practice he adds, was not conformable to the usage of most other nations, who permitted these diversions, not at Christmas, but a few days before Lent, about the time of Shrovetide. HIST. A
GL. Lib. xiii. f. 211. Basil. 1534. By the way, Polydore Virgil observes, that the Christma
prince or Lo
d of Mis
ule, is almost peculiar to the English. De RER. INVENTOR. lib. v. cap. ii. Shrove-Tuesday
eems to have been sometimes considered as the last day of Christmas, and on that account might be celebrated as a festival. In the year 1440, on Shrove-Tuesday, which that year was in March, at Norwich there was a
"Disport in the
streets, when one rode through the streets havyng his hors trappyd with tyn-soyle, and other nyse disgysyngs, coronned as Kyng of CRESTEMASSE, in tokyn that seson should end with the twelve moneths of the yere: aforn hym went yche [each] Moneth dysgusysyd after the seson requiryd, &c."
Blomf. NORF. ii. p. 111. This very poetical pagea
try reminds me of a similar and a beautiful procession at Rome, described by Lucretius, where the SEASONS, with their accompaniments, walk personi
ied. Lib. v. 736.
It VER
t VENUS, et Veneris praenuntius ante
Pinnatus ZEPHYRUS graditur vestigia propter
FLORA quibus mater praespergens ante viai
Cuncta coloribus egregii
et odoribus opplet.—
Inde AUTUMNUS adit, &c.
. SHEEP-SHEARING, which is celebrated in Northamptonshire with wafers and cakes. The WAKE-DAY, or the vigil of the church saint, when
everie wanton maie danse at her will,
as in Leicestershire, and the oven is to be filled with
flawnes.
HARVEST-HOME, when the harvest-home goose is to be killed. SEED-CAKE, a festival so called at the end of wheat-sowing in Essex and Suffolk, when the village is to be treated with seedcakes, pasties, and the
frumentie-pot.
But twice a week, according to antient right and custom, the farmer is to give roastmeat, that is, on Sundays and on Thursday-nights
Fol. 138.
. We have then a set of posies or proverbial rhymes, to be written in various rooms of the house, such as
"Husbandlie posies for the Hall, Posies for the Parlour, Posies for the Ghests chamber, and Posies for thine own bedchamber
Fol. 144, 145. See Inscriptions of this sort in
"The Welspring of wittie Conceights,"
translated from the Italian by W. Phist. Lond. for R. Jones, 1584. Bl. Lett. 4to. SIGNAT. N 2.
."
Botany appears to have been eminently cultivated, and illustrated with numerous treatises in English
throughout the latter part of the sixteenth century
See the Preface to Johnson's edition of Gerharde's HERBAL, printed in 1633.
ol.
. In this work are large enumerations of plants, as well for the medical as the culinary garden.
Our author's general precepts have often an expressive brevity, and are sometimes pointed with an epigrammatic turn and a smartness of allusion. As thus,
Saue wing for a thresher, when gander doth die;
Saue fethers of all things, the softer to lie:
Much spice is a theefe, so is candle and fire;
Sweet sause is as craftie as euer was frier
Fol. 134.
.
Again, under the lessons of the housewife.
Though cat, a good mouser, doth dwell in a house,
Yet euer in dairie haue trap for a mouse:
Take heed how thou laiest the bane
Poison.
for the rats,
For poisoning thy servant, thyself, and thy brats
Fol. 131.
.
And in the following rule of the smaller economics.
Saue droppings and skimmings, however ye doo,
For medcine, for cattell, for cart, and for shoo
Fol. 134.
.
In these stanzas on haymaking, he rises above his common manner.
Go muster thy seruants, be captain thyselfe,
Prouiding them weapons, and other like pelfe:
Get bottells and wallets, keepe fielde in the heat,
The feare is as much, as the danger is great.
With tossing, and raking, and setting on cox,
Grasse latelie in swathes, is haie for an oxe.
That done, go to cart it, and haue it awaie:
The battell is fought, ye haue gotten the daie
Fol. 95. CH. 44.
.
A great variety of verse is used in this poem, which is thrown into numerous detached chapters
In this book I first find the metre of Prior's s
ng,
"Despairing beside a clear stream."
For instance.
What looke ye, I praie you shew what?
Termes painted with rhetorike
ine?
Good husbandrie seeketh not that,
Nor ist anie meaning of mine.
What lookest thou, speeke at the last,
Good lessons for thee and thy wife?
Then keepe them in memorie fast
To helpe as a comfort to life.
See PREFACE TO THE BUIER OF THIS
OOKE, ch. 5. fol. 14. In the same measure is the COMPARISON B
TWEEN
CHAMPION COUNTRIE AND SEVERALL, ch. 52. fol. 108.
. The HUSBANDRIE is divided into the several months. Tusser, in respect of his antiquated diction, and his argument, may not improperly be styled the English Varro.
Such were the rude beginnings in the English language of didactic poetry, which, on a kindred subject, the present age has seen brought to perfection, by the happy combination of judicious precepts with the most elegant ornaments of language and imagery, in Mr. Mason's ENGLISH GARDEN.
SECT. XXXVI.
AMONG Antony Wood's manuscripts in the Bodleian library at Oxford, I find a poem of considerable length written by William Forrest, chaplain to queen Mary
In folio. MSS. Cod. A. Wood. Num. 2. They were purchased by the university after Wood's death.
. It is entitled,
"A true and most notable History of a right noble and famous Lady produced in Spayne entitled the second GRESIELD, practised not long out of this time in much part tragedous as delectable both to hearers and readers."
This is a panegyrical history in octave rhyme, of the life of queen Catharine, the first queen of king Henry the eighth. The poet compares Catharine to patient Grisild, celebrated by Petrarch and Chaucer, and Henry to earl Walter her husband
The affecting story of PATIENT GRISILD seems to have long kept up its celebrity. In the books of the Stationers, in 1565, Owen Rogers has a licence to print
"a ballat intituled the songe of pacyent Gressell vnto hyr make."
REGISTR. A. fol. 132. b. Two ballads are entered in 1565,
"to the tune of pacyente Gressell."
Ibid. fol. 135. a. In the same year, T. Colwell has licence to print,"
"The history of meke and pacyent Gresell."
Ibid. fol. 139. a. Colwell ha
a second edition of this history in 1568. Ibid. fol. 177. a. Instances occur much lower.
. Catharine had certainly the patience and conjugal compliance of Grisild: but Henry's cruelty was not, like Walter's, only artificial and assumed. It is dedicated to queen Mary: and Wood's manuscript, which was once very superbly bound and embossed, and is elegantly written on vellum, evidently appears to have been the book presented by the author to her majesty. Much of its antient finery is tarnished: but on the brass bosses at each corner is still discernible AVE, MARIA GRATIA PLENA. At the end is this colophon.
"Here endeth the Historye of Grysilde the second, dulie meanyng Queene Catharine mother to our most dread soveraigne Lady queene Mary, fynysched the xxv day of June, the yeare of owre Lorde 1558. By the symple and unlearned Syr Wylliam Forrest preeiste, propria manu."
The poem, which consists of twenty chapters, contains a zealous condemnation of Henry's divorce: and, I believe, preserves some anecdotes, yet apparently misrepresented by the writer's religious and political bigotry, not extant in any of our printed histories. Forrest was a student at Oxford, at the time when this notable and knotty point of casuistry prostituted the learning of all the universities of Europe, to the gratification of the capricious amours of a libidinous and implacable tyrant. He has recorded many particulars and local incidents of what passed in Oxford during that transaction
In the first chapter, he thus speaks of the towardliness of the princess Catharine's younger years.
With stoole and needyl she was not to seeke,
And other practiseingis for ladyes meete;
To pastyme at tables, ticktacke, or gleeke,
Cardys, dyce, &c.
He adds, that she was a pure virgin when married to the king: and that her first husband prince Hen
y, on account of his tender years, never slept with her.
. At the end of the poem is a metrical ORATION CONSOLATORY, in six leaves, to queen Mary.
In the British Museum is another of Forrest's poems, written in two splendid folio volumes on vellum, called
"The tragedious troubles of the most chast and innocent Joseph, son to the holy patriarch Jacob,"
and dedicated to Thomas Howard duke of Norfolk
MSS. REG. 18 C. xiii. It appears to have once belonged to the library of John Theyer of Coopershill near Gloucester. There is another copy in University-college Library, MSS. G. 7. with gilded leaves. This, I believe, once belonged to Robert earl of Aylesbury. Pr.
"In Canaan that country opulent."
. In the same repository is another of his pieces, never printed, dedicated to king Edward the sixth,
"A notable warke called The PLEASANT POESIE OF PRINCELIE PRACTISE, composed of late by the simple and unlearned sir William Forrest priest, much part collected out of a booke entitled the GOVERNANCE OF NOBLEMEN, which booke the wyse philosopher Aristotle wrote to his disciple Alexander the Great
MSS. REG. 17 D. iii. In the Preface twenty-seven chapters are enumerated
but the book contains only twenty-four.
."
The book here mentioned is Aegidius Romanus de REGIMINE PRINCIPIUM, which yet retained its reputation and popularity from the middle age
See supr. vol. ii. p. 39. Not long before, Robert Copland, the printer, author of the TESTAMENT OF JULIAN OF BRENTFORD, translated from the French and printed,
"The SECRETE of SECRETES of Aristotle, with the governayle of princes and
u
ri
manner of estate, with rules of health for bodie
nd soule."
Lond. 1528. 4to. To what I have before said of Robert Copland as a poet (supr. vol. ii. p. 300.) may be added, that he prefixed an English copy of verses to the
Mirrour of the Church of saynt Austin
of Abyngdon,
&c. Printed by himself, 1521. 4to. Another to Andrew Chertsey's PASSIO DOMINI, ibid. 1521. 4to. (See supr. p. 80.) He and his brother William printed s
veral romances before 1530.
. I ought to have observed before, that Forrest translated into English metre fifty of David's Psalms, in 1551, which are dedicated to the duke of Somerset, the Protector
MSS. REG. 17 A. xxi.
. Hence we are led to suspect, that our author could accommodate his faith to the reigning powers. Many more of his manuscript pieces both in prose and verse, all professional and of the religious kind, were in the hands of Robert earl of Ailesbury
Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 124. Fox says, that he paraphrased the PATER NOSTER in English verse, Pr.
"Our Father which in heaven doth sit."
Also the TE DEUM, as
thanksgiving hymn for queen Mary, Pr.
"O God thy name we magnifie."
Fox, MART. p. 1139. edit. vet.
. Forrest, who must have been living at Oxford, as appears from his poem on queen Catharine, so early as the year 1530, was in reception of an annual pension of six pounds from Christ-church in that university, in the year 1555
MSS. Le Neve. From a long chapter in his KATHARINE, about the building of Christ-church and the regimen of it, he appears to have been of that college.
. He was eminently skilled in music: and with much diligence and expence, he collected the works of the most excellent English composers, that were his cotemporaries. These, being the choicest compositions, of John Taverner of Boston, organist of Cardinal-college now Christ-church at Oxford, John Merbeck who first digested our present church-service from the notes of the Roman missal, Fairfax, Tye, Sheppard, Norman, and others, falling after Forrest's death into the possession of doctor William Hether, founder of the musical praxis and professorship at at Oxford in 1623, are now fortunately preserved at Oxford, in the archives of the music-school assigned to that institution.
In the year 1554, a poem of two sheets, in the spirit and stanza of Sternhold, was printed under the title,
"The VNGODLINESSE OF THE HETHNICKE GODDES, or
The Downfall of Diana of the Ephe
ians,
by J. D. an exile for the word, late a minister in London, MDLIV
Bl. Lett. 12mo.
."
I presume it was printed at Geneva, and imported into England with other books of the same tendency, and which were afterwards suppressed by a proclamation. The writer, whose arguments are as weak as his poetry, attempts to prove, that the customary mode of training youths in the Roman poets encouraged idolatry and pagan superstition. This was a topic much laboured by the puritans. Prynne, in that chapter of his HISTRIOMASTIX, where he exposes
"the obscenity, ribaldry, amorousnesse, HEATHENISHNESSE, and prophanesse, of most play-bookes, Arcadias, and fained histories that are now so much in admiration,"
acquaints us, that the infallible leaders of the puritan persuasion in the reign of queen Elisabeth, among which are two bishops, h
ve solemnly prohibited all christians,
"to pen, to print, to sell, to read, or school-masters and others to teach, any amorous wanton Play-bookes, Histories, or Heathen authors, especially Ovid's wanton Epistles and Bookes of love, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Martiall, the Comedies of Plautus, Terence, and other such amorous bookes, savoring either of Pagan Gods, of Ethnicke rites and ceremonies, of scurrility, amorousnesse, and prophanesse
Pag 913. 916.
."
But the classics were at length condemned by a much higher authority. In the year 1582, one Christopher Ocland, a schoolmaster of Cheltenham, published two poems in Latin hexameters, one entitled ANGLORUM PRAELIA, the other ELIZABETHA
Londini. Apud Rad. Neubery ex assignatione Henrici Bynneman typographi. Anno 1582
Cum priv. 12mo. The whole title is this,
"ANGLORUM PRAELIA ab A. D. 1327, anno nimirum primo inclytissimi principis Edwardi eius nominis tertii, usque ad A. D. 1558, carmine summatim perstricta. ITEM
De pacatissimo Angliae statu, imperante Elizabetha, compendiosa Narratio.
Author
CHRISTOPHORO OCLANDO, primo Scholae Southwa
kiensis prope Londinum, dein Cheltennamensis, quae sunt a serenissima sua majestate fundatae, moderatore.
Haec duo poemata, tam ob argumenti grauitatem, quam carminis facilitatem, nobilissimi regiae majestatis consiliarii in omnibus regni scholis praelegenda pueris prae scrip s
runt.
Hijs Alexandri Neuilli KETTUM, tum propter argumenti similitudinem, tum prop
er orationis elegantiam, adiunximus. Londini, &c."
Prefixed to the ANGLORUM PRAELIA is a Latin elegiac copy by Thomas Newton of Cheshire: to the ELIZABETHA, which is dedicated by the author to the learned lady Mildred Burleigh, two more; one by Richard Mulcaster the celebrated master of Merchanttaylor's school, the other by Thomas Watson an elegant writer of sonnets. Our author was a very old man, as appears by the last of these copies. Whence, say
bishop Hall, SAT. iii. B. iv.
Or cite olde Ocland's verse, how they did wi
ld
The wars, in Turwin or in Turney field.
. To these poems, which are written in a low style of Latin versification, is prefixed an edict from the lords of privy council, signed, among others, by Cowper bishop of Lincoln, Lord Warwick, Lord Leicester, sir Francis Knollys, sir Christopher Hatton, and sir Francis Walsingham, and directed to the queen's ecclesiastical commissioners, containing the following passage.
"Forasmuche as the subject or matter of this booke is such, as is worthie to be read of all men, and especially in common schooles, where diuers HEATHEN POETS are ordinarily read and taught, from which the youth of the realme doth rather receiue infection in manners, than aduancement in uertue: in place of some of which poets, we thinke this Booke fit to read and taught in the grammar schooles: we haue therefore thought, as wel for the encouraging the said Ocklande and others that are learned, to bestowe their trauell and studies to so good purposes, as also for the benefit of the youth and the removing of such lasciuious poets as are commonly read and taught in the saide grammar-schooles (the matter of this booke being heroicall and of good instruction) to praye and require you vpon the sight hereof, as by our special order, to write your letters vnto al the Bishops throughout this realme, requiring them to giue commaundement, that in al the gramer and free schooles within their seuerall diocesses, the said Booke de ANGLORUM PRAELIIS, and peaceable Gouernment of hir majestie, [the ELIZABETHA,] may be in place of some of the heathen poets receyued, and publiquely read and taught by the scholemasters
Signat. A. ij. Then follows an order from the ecclesiastical commissioners to all the bishops for this purpose.
."
With such abundant circumspection and solemnity, did these profound and pious politicians, not suspecting that they were acting in opposition to their own principles and intentions, exert their endeavours to bring back barbarism, and to obstruct the progress of truth and good sense
See supr. vol. ii. 461.
.
Hollingshead mentions Lucas Shepherd of Colchester, as an eminent poet of queen Mary's reign
CHRON. vol. iii. p. 1168.
. I do not pretend to any great talents for decyphering; but I presume, that this is the same person who is called by Bale, from a most injudicious affectation of Latinity, Lucas OPILIO. Bale affirms, that his cotemporary, Opilio, was a very facetious poet: and means to pay him a still higher compliment in pronouncing him not inferior even to Skelton for his rhimes
Par. post. p. 109.
. It is unlucky, that Bale, by disguising his name, should have contributed to conceal this writer so long from the notice of posterity, and even to counteract his own partiality. Lucas Shepherd, however, appears to have been nothing more than a petty pamphleteer in the cause of Calvinism, and to have acquired the character of a poet from a metrical translation of some of David's Psalms about the year 1554. Bale's narrow prejudices are well known. The puritans never suspected that they were greater bigots than the papists. I believe one or two of Shepherd's pieces in prose are among bishop Tanner's books at Oxford.
Bale also mentions metrical English versions of ECCLESIASTES, of the histories of ESTHER, SUSANNAH, JUDITH, and of the TESTAMENT OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS, printed and written about this period, by John Pullaine, one of the original students of Christ-church at Oxford, and at length archdeacon of Colchester. He was chaplain to the duchess of Suffolk; and, either by choice or compulsion, imbibed ideas of reformation at Geneva
Bale ix. 83. Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 148.
. I have seen the name of John Pullayne, affixed in manuscript to a copy of an anonymous version of Solomon's Song, or
"Salomon's balads in metre,"
abovementioned
"Imprinted at London by William Baldwine servaunt with Edwarde Whitchurch."
Nor date, nor place. Cum privileg. 4to. This WILLIAM BALDWINE is perhaps Baldwin the poet, the contributor to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. At least that the poet Baldwin was connected with Whitchurch the printer, appears from a book printed by Whitchurch, quoted above,
"A treatise of moral philosophie contaygning the Sayings of the Wise, gathered and Englyshed by Wylliam Baldwyn, 20 of January, MDXLVII."
Compositors at this time often were learned men: and Baldwin was perhaps occasionally employed by Whitchurch, both as a compositor and an author."
, in which is this stanza.
She is so young in Christes truth,
That yet she hath no teates;
She wanteth brestes, to feed her youth
With sound and perfect meates
SIGNAT. m. iij.
.
There were numerous versions of Solomon's SONG before the year 1600: and perhaps no portion of scripture was selected with more propriety to be cloathed in verse. Beside those I have mentioned, there is,
"The SONG OF SONGS, that is the most excellent Song which was Solomon's, translated out of the Hebrue into Englishe meater with as little libertie in departing from the wordes as anie plaine translation in prose can vse, and interpreted by a short commentarie."
For Richard Schilders, printer to the states of Zealand, I suppose at Middleburgh, 1587, in duodecimo. Nor have I yet mentioned Solomon's Song, translated from English prose into English verse by Robert Fletcher, a native of Warwickshire, and a member of Merton college, printed at London, with notes, in 1586
In duodecimo.
. The CANTICLES in English verse are among the lost poems of Spenser
A metrical commentary was written on the CANTICLES by one Dudley Fenner, a puritan, who retired to Middleburgh to enjoy the privilege and felicity of preaching endless sermons without molestation. Middleb. 15
7. 8vo.
. Bishop Hall, in his nervous and elegant satires printed in 1597, meaning to ridicule and expose the spiritual poetry with which his age was overwhelmed, has an allusion to a metrical English version of Solomon's Song
B. i. SAT. viii. But for this abuse of the divine sonnetters, Marston not inelegantly retorts against Hall. CERTAYNE SATYRES, Lond. for E. Matts, 1598. 12mo. SAT. iv.
Come daunce, ye stumbling Satyres, by his side,
If he list once the SYON MUSE deride.
Ye Granta's white Nymphs come, and with you bring
Some sillabub, whilst he does sweetly sing
Gainst Peters Teares, and Maries mouing Moane;
And like a sierce-enraged boar
doth
oame
At Sacred Sonnets, O daring hardiment!
At Bartas sweet Semaines
Du Bartas's Divine Weeks.
raile impudent.
At Hopkins, Sternhold, and the Scottish king,
At all Translators that do striue to bring
That stranger language
o our vulgar tongue, &c.
. Having mentioned SAINT PETER'S COMPLAINT, written by Robert Southwell, and printed in 1595, with some other religious effusions of that author, he adds,
Yea, and the prophet of the heavenly lyre,
Great Solomon, singes in the English quire;
And is become a new-found Sonnetist,
Singing his love, the holie spouse of Christ,
Like as she were some light-skirts of the rest
Origen and Jerom say, that the youth of the Jews were not permitted to read SOLOMON'S SONG till they were thirty years of age, for fear they should in
lame their passions by drawing the spiritual allegory into a carnal sense. Orig. Homil. in CANTIC. CANT. apud Hieronymi Opp. Tom. viii. p. 122. And Opp. Origen. ii. fol. 68. Hieron. Proem. in Ezech. iv. p. 330. D.
,
In mightiest inkhornismes he can thither wrest.
Ye Sion Muses shall by my dear will,
For this your zeal and far-admired skill,
Be straight transported from Jerusalem,
Unto the holy house of Bethlehem.
It is not to any of the versions of the CANTICLES which I have hitherto mentioned, that Hall here alludes. His censure is levelled at
"The Poem of Poems, or SION'S MUSE. Contaynyng the diuine Song of King Salomon deuided into eight Eclogues.
Bramo assai, poco spero, nulla chieggio.
At London, printed by James Roberts for Mathew Lownes, and are to be solde at his shop in saint Dunstones church-yarde, 1596
16mo.
."
The author signs his dedication, which is addressed to the
sacred virgin, diuine
mistress Elizabeth Sydney, sole daughter of the
euer admired
sir Philip Sydney, with the initials J. M. These initials, which are subscribed to many pieces in ENGLAND'S HELICON, signify Jarvis, or Iarvis, Markham
Some of the prefatory Sonnet
to Ja
vi
Markham's poem, entitled,
"The most honorable Tragedie of sir Richard Grinuile knight,"
(At London, printed by J. Roberts for Richard Smith, 1595. 16mo.) are
gned J. M. But the dedication, to Charles lord Montioy, has his name at length.
.
Although the translation of the scriptures into English rhyme was for the most part an exercise of the enlightened puritans, the recent publication of Sternhold's psalms taught that mode of writing to many of the papists, after the sudden revival of the mass under queen Mary. One Richard Beearde, parson of saint Mary-hill in London, celebrated the accession of that queen in a
godly psalm
printed in 1553
In duodecimo, viz.
A godly psalm of Mary queen, which brought us comfort all,
Thro God whom we of deuty praise that give her foes a fall.
With psalm
tune
in four parts. Se
Strype's ELIZ. p. 20
. New
. REP. i. 451. See what is said above of Miles Hoggard.
. Much about the same time, George Marshall wrote
A compendious treatise in metre, declaring the first original of sacrifice and of building churches and aultars, and of the first receiving the cristen faith here in England,
dedicated to George Wharton esquire, and printed at London in 1554
In quarto. Bl. Lett.
.
In 1556, Miles Hoggard, a famous butt of the protestants, published
"a shorte treatise in meter vpon the CXXIX psalme of David called
De profundis.
Compiled and set forth by Miles Huggard
servante to the quenes maiestie
In quarto. Bl. Lett. for R. Caley. Jan. 4. with Grafton's copartment.
."
Of the opposite or heretical persuasion was Peter Moone, who wrote a metrical tract on the abuses of the mass, printed by John Oswen at Ipswich, about the first year of queen Mary
A short treatise of certayne thinges abused,
In the popish church long used;
But now abolyshed to our consolation,
And God's word advanced, the light of our salvation.
In eight leaves, quarto, Bl. L
tt. Fox mentions one William Punt, author of a
ballade made against the Pope and Popery
under Edward the sixth, and of other tracts of the same tendency under queen Mary. MARTYR. p. 1605. edit. vet. Punt's printer was William Hyll at the sign of the hill near the west door of saint Pauls. See in Strype, an account of Underhill's Sufferings in 1553, for writing a ballad against the Queen, he
"being a witty and facetious gentleman."
ECCL. MEM. iii. 60, 61. ch. vi. Many rhimes and Ballads were written against the Spanish match, in 1554. Strype, ibid. p. 127. ch. xiv. Fox has preserved some hymns in Sternhold's metre sung by the protestant martyrs in Newgate, in 1555. MAR
. fol. 1539. edit. 1597. vol. ii.
. Nearly the same period, a translation of ECCLESIATES into rhyme by Oliver Starkey occurs in bishop Tanner's library, if I recollect right, together with his Translation of Sallust's two histories. By the way, there was another vernacular versification of ECCLESIASTES by Henry Lok, or Lock, of whom more will be said hereafter, printed in 1597. This book was also translated into Latin hexameters by Drant, who will occur again in 1572. The ECCLESIASTES was versified in English by Spenser.
I have before mentioned the SCHOOL-HOUSE OF WOMEN, a satire against the fair sex
Supr. p. 142
. This was answered by Edward More of Hambledon in Buckinghamshire, about the year 1557, before he was twenty years of age. It required no very powerful abilities either of genius or judgment to confute such a groundless and malignant invective. More's book is entitled, The DEFENCE OF WOMEN,
especially English women, against a book intituled the
SCHOOL-HOUSE OF WOMEN. It it dedicated to
Master
William Page, secretary to his neighbour and patron sir Edward Hoby of Bisham-abbey, and was printed at London in 1560
In quarto. PRINCIP.
"Venus unto thee for help, good Lady do I call."
Our author, if I remember right, has furnished some arguments to one William Heale of Exeter college; who wrote, in 1609, AN APOLOGY FOR WOMAN, in opposition to Dr. Gager abovementioned, who had maintained at the Public Act, that it was lawful for husbands to beat their wives. Wood says, that Heale
"was always esteemed an ingenious man, but weak, as being too much devoted to the female sex."
ATH. OXON. i. 314.
.
With the catholic liturgy, all the pageantries of popery were restored to their antient splendour by queen Mary. Among others, the procession of the boy-bishop was too popular a mummery to b
forgotten. In the preceding reign of king Edward the sixth, Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the royal chapel, published an English poem with the title, THE BOKE OF NURTUR
for men seruants and children, or of the gouernaunc
of youth,
with STANS PUER AD MENSAM
In quarto. Bl. Lett. P
. Prol.
"There is few things to be understood."
The poem begins,
"Alle ye that wolde learn and wolde be called wyse."
. In the following reign of Mary, the same poet printed a poem consisting of thirty-six octave stanzas, entitled,
"The SONG of the CHYLDBYSSHOP, as it was songe
In the church of York, no chorister was to be elected boy-bishop,
"nisi habu
rit claram vocem pu
ril
m."
Registr. Capitul. Eccles. Ebor. sub ann. 1390. MS. ut supr.
before the queenes maiestie in her priuie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the ffeeldes on saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche
In the old statut
of saint Pauls, are many orders about this mock-solemnity. One is, that the canon, called STAGIARIUS, shall find the boy-bishop his robe
, and
"equitatum honestum."
MS. fol. 86. Dic
to dean. In the statutes of Salisbury cathedral, it is orderd, that the boy-bishop shall not make a feast,
"sed in domo communi cum socii
conv
rs
tur, nisi eum ut Choristam, ad domum Canoni
i, causa solatii, ad mensam contigerit evocari."
Sub anno 1319. Tit. xlv. De STATU CHORISTARUM. MS.
with his company. LONDINI, in aedibus Johannis Cawood typographi reginae, 1555. Cum privilegio, &c
In quarto. Bl. Lett. Strype says, that in 1556,
"On S. Nicolas even, Saint Nicolas, that is a boy habited like a bishop
in pontificalibus
went abroad in most parts of London, singing after the old fashion, and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed people into their houses; and had as much good che
r as ever was wont to be had before."
ECCL. MEM. iii. 310. ch. xxxix. See also p. 387. ch.
. In 1554, Nov. 13. an edict was issued by the bishop of London, to all the cl
rgy of his diocese, t
have a boy-bishop in procession, &c. Strype, ibid. p. 202. ch
xxv. S
also p. 205, 206. ch. xxvi.
."
By admitting this spectacle into her presence, it appears that her majesty's bigotry condescended to give countenance to the most ridiculous and unmeaning ceremony of the Roman ritual. As to the song itself, it is a fulsome panegyric on the queen's devotion: in which she is compared to Judith, Esther, the queen of Sheba, and the virgin Mary
In a poem by Llodowyke Lloyd, in the
Paradise of daintie De
ises,
(edit, 1585.) on the death of sir Edward Saunders, queen Elisabeth is complimented much in the same manner. NUM. 32. SIGNAT. E. 2.
—O sacred seate, where Saba sage doth sit
Like Susan sound, like Sara sad, with Hester's mace in hand,
With Iudithes sword, Bellona-like, to rule this noble land.
. This show of the boy-bishop, not so much for its superstition as its levity and absurdity, had been formally abrogated by king Henry the eighth, fourteen years before, in the year 1542, as appears by a
"Proclamation devised by the Kings Majesty by the advys of his Highness Counsel the xxii day of Julie, 33 Hen. viij, commanding the ffeasts of saint Luke, saint Mark, saint Marie Magdalene, Inuention of the Crosse, and saint Laurence, which had been abrogated, should be nowe againe celebrated and kept holie days,"
of which the following is the concluding clause.
"And where as heretofore dyuers and many superstitious and chyldysh obseruances have be vsed, and yet to this day are obserued and kept, in many and sundry partes of this realm, as vpon saint Nicholas
In Barnabie Googe's POPISH KINGDOM, a translation from Naogeorgius's REGNUM ANTICHRISTI, fol. 55. Lond. 1570. 4to.
Saint Nicholas monie vsde to give to maydens secretlie,
Who that be still may vse his wonted liberalitie:
The mother all their children on the Eeve do cause to fast,
And wh
n they
uerie on
at night in senselesse sleepe are cast,
Both apples, nuts and payres they bring, and other thinges beside,
As cappes, and shoes, and petticoates, with kertles they hide,
And in the morning
ound, they say, "Saint Nicholas this brought, &c."
S
a curious passage in bishop Fisher's Sermon of the MONTHS MINDE of Margaret countess of Richmond. Where it is said, that she praied to S. Nicholas
the patron and helper of all true maydens,
when nine years old, about the choice of a husband: and that the saint appeared in a vision, and announced the
arl of Richmond. Edit
Baker, pag. 8. There is a pre
pt issued to the sheriff of Oxford from Edward the first, in 1305, to prohibit tournaments being intermixed with the sports of the schola
s on saint Nicholas's day. Rot. Claus. 33 Edw. i. memb. 2.
I have already given
races of this practice in the colleges of Winchester and Eton. [see supr. vol. ii. p. 389.] To which I here add another. Registr. Coll. Wint. sub ann. 1427.
"Crux deaurata de cupro [copper] cum Baculo, pro EPI
COPO PUERORUM."
But it appears that the practice subsisted in common g
ammarschools.
"Hoc anno, 1464, in festo sancti Nicolai non erat EPI
COPUS PU
ORUM in schola grammaticali in civitat
Cantuariae ex defectu Magistrorum, viz. J. Sidney et T. Hikson, &c."
Lib. Johannis Stone, Monachi Eccles. Cant. sc.
D
Obitibus et ali
s Memorabilibus sui ca
obii ab anno
1415
ad annum
1467. MS. C. C. C. C. Q. 8. The abuses of this custom in Wells cathedral are mentioned so early as Decemb. 1. 1298. Registr. Eccl. Wellens. [See supr. vol. i. 248. ii. 375. 389.]
, saint Catharine
The reader will recollect the old play of Saint Catharine, LUDUS CATHARINAE, exhibited at saint Albans abbey in 1160. Strype says, in 1556,
"On Saint Katharines day, at six of the clock at night, S. Katharine went about the battlements of S. Paul's church accompanied with fine singing and great lights. This was saint Katharine's Procession."
ECCL. MEM. iii. 309. ch. xxxix. Again, her procession, in 1553, is celebrated with five hundred g
eat lights, round saint Paul's steeple, &c. Ibid. p. 51. ch. v. And p. 57. ch. v.
, saint Clement
Among the church-processions revived by Queen Mary, that of S. Clement's church, in honour of this saint, was by far the most splendid of any in London. Their procession to S. Pauls in 1557,
"was made very pompous with fourscore ba
ners and streamers, and the waits of the city playing, and threescore priests and clarkes in copes. And divers of the Inns of Court were there, who went next the priests, &c."
Strype, ubi supr. iii. 377. ch. xlix.
, the holie Innocents, and and such like
In the SYNODUS CARNOTENSIS, under the year 1526, It is ordered,
"In festo sancti Nicholai, Catharinae, Innocentium, aut alio quovis die, praetextu recreationis, ne Scholastici, Clerici, Sacerdotesve, stultum aliquod aut ridiculum faciant in ecclesia. Denique ab ecclesia ejiciantur VESTES fatuorum personas SCENICAS agentium."
See Bochellus, Decret. ECCLES. GALL. lib. iv. TIT. vii. C. 43. 44. 46. p. 586. Yet these sports seem to nave remained in France so late as 1585. For in the Synod of Aix, 1585, it is enjoined,
"Cessent in die Sanctorum Innocentium ludibria omnia
t pueriles ac theatrales lusus."
Bochell. ibid. C. 45. p. 586. A Synod of Tholouse, an. 1590, removes plays, spectacles, and
histrionum circulationes,
from churches and their cemeteries. Bochell. ibid. lib. iv. TIT. 1. C. 98. p. 560.
, Children [boys] be strangelie decked and apparayled, to counterfeit Priestes, Bisshopes, and Women, and so be ledde with Songes and Dances from house to house, blessing the people, and gathering of money; and Boyes do singe masse, and preache in the pulpitt, with such other vnfittinge and inconuenient vsages, rather to the derysyon than anie true glorie of God, or honor of his sayntes: The Kynges maiestie therefore, myndinge nothinge so moche as to aduance the true glory of God without vain superstition, wylleth and commandeth, that from henceforth all svch svperstitious obseruations be left and clerely extinguished throwout all this his realme and dominions, for-as moche as the same doth resemble rather the vnlawfull superstition of gentilitie, than the pvre and sincere religion of Christe."
With respect to the disguisings of these young fraternities, and their processions from house to house with singing and dancing, specified in this edict, in a very mutilated fragment of a COMPUTUS, or annual Accompt-roll, of saint Swithin's cathedral Priory at Winchester, under the year 1441, a disbursement is made to the singing-boys of the monastery, who, together with the choristers of saint Elisabeth's collegiate chapel near that city, were dressed up like girls, and exhibited their sports before the abbess and nuns of saint Mary's abbey at Winchester, in the public refectory of that convent, on Innocent's day
In the Register of Wodeloke bishop of Winchester, the following is an article among the INJUNCTIONS given to the nuns of the convent of Rumsey in Hampshire, in consequence of an episcopal visitation, under the year 1310.
"Item prohibemus, ne cubent in dormitorio pueri masculi cum monialibus, vel foemellae, nec per moniales ducantur in Chorum, dum ibidem divinum officium celebratur."
fol. 134. In the same Register these Injunctions follow in a literal French translation, made for the convenience of the nun
.
.
"Pro Pueris Eleemosynariae una cum Pueris Capellae sanctae Elizabethae, ornatis more puellarum, et saltantibus, cantantibus, et ludentibus, coram domina Abbatissa et monialibus Abbathiae beatae Mariae virginis, in aula ibidem in die sanctorum Innocentium
MS. in Archiv. Wulves. apud Winton. It appears to have been a practice for itinerant players to gain admittance i
to the nunneries, and to play Latin MYSTERIES before the nuns. There is a curious Canon of the COUNCIL of COLOGNE, in 1549, which is to this effect.
"We have been informed, that certain Actors of Comedies,
ot contented with the stage and theaters, have even entered the nunneries, in order to recreate the nuns,
ubi virginibus commoveant voluptatem,
with their profane, amorous, and
secular
gesticulations. Which spectacles, or plays, although they consisted of sacr
d and pious subjects, can yet notwithstanding leave little good, but on the contrary much harm, in the minds of the nuns, who behold and admire the outward gestures of the performers, and understand not the word
. Therefore we decree, that henceforward no Plays,
Comedias,
shall be admitted into the convents of nuns, &c."
Sur. CONCIL. tom. iv. p. 852. Binius, tom. iv. p. 765.
."
And again, in a fragment of an Accompt of the Celerar of Hyde Abbey at Winchester, under the year 1490.
"In larvis et aliis indumentis Puerorum visentium Dominum apud Wulsey, et Constabularium Castri Winton, in apparatu suo, necnon subintrantium omnia monasteria civitatis Winton, in ffesto sancti Nicholai
MS. Ibid. See supr. p. 303.
."
That is,
"In furnishing masks and dresses for the boys of the convent, when they visited the bishop at Wulvesey-palace, the constable of Winchester-castle, and all the monasteries of the city of Winchester, on the festival of saint Nicholas."
As to the divine service being performed by children on these feasts, it was not only celebrated by boys, but there is an injunction given to the Benedictine nunnery of Godstowe in Oxfordshire, by archbishop Peckham, in the year 1278, that on Innocent's day, the public prayers should not any more be said in the church of that monastery PER PARVULAS, that is, by little girls
Harpsfield, HIST. ECCL. ANGL. p. 441. edit. 1622. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 362.]
.
The ground-work of this religious mockery of the boy-bishop, which is evidently founded on modes of barbarous life, ma
perhaps be traced backward at least as far as the year 867
Or, 870.
. At the Constantinopolitan synod under that year, at which were present three hundred and seventy-three bishops, it was found to be a solemn custom in the courts of princes, on certain stated days, to dress some layman in the episcopal apparel, who should exactly personate a bishop both in his tonsure and ornaments: as also to create a burlesque patriarch, who might make sport for the company
Sur
us, CONCIL. iii. 529. 539. Baron. ANNAL. Ann
869. §. 11. See CONCIL. Basil. num. xxxii. The French have a miracle
play
BEAU MIRACLE DE S. NICOLAS, to be acted by twenty four personage
, printed at Paris, for Pierre Sergeant, in quarto, without date, Bl. Lett.
. This scandal to the clergy was anathematised. But ecclesiastical synods and censures have often proved too weak to suppress popular spectacles, which take deep root in the public manners, and are only concealed for a while, to spring up afresh with new vigour.
After the form of a legitimate stage had appeared in England, MYSTERIES and MIRACLES were also revived by queen Mary, as an appendage of the papistic worship.
—En, iterum crudelia retro
Fata vocant
Virgil, Georg. iv. 495.
!—
In the year 1556, a
goodly stage-play
of the PASSION OF CHRIST was presented at the Grey friers in London, on CorpusChri
ti day, before the lord mayor, the privy-council, and many great
estates
of the realm
MSS. Cott. VITELL. E. 5. STRYPE. See LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, PREF. p. xii.
. Strype also mentions, under the year 1557, a stage-play at the Grey-friers, of the Passion of Christ, on the day that war was proclaimed in London against France, and in honour of that occasion
ECCL. MEM. vol. iii. ch. xlix.
. On saint Olave's day in the same year, the holiday of the church in Silver-street which is dedicated to that saint, was kept with much solemnity. At eight of the clock at night, began a stage-play of
goodly matter,
being the miraculous history of the life of that saint
Strype
ibid. p. 379. With the religious pageantries, other antient sports and spectacles also, which had fallen into disuse in the reign of Edward the sixth, beg
n to be now revived. As thus,
"On the 30th of May was a goodly Maygame in Fenchurch-street, with drums, and gun
, and pikes, with the NIN
WORTHIES who rid. And each made his speech. There was also the Moricedance, and an elephant and castle, and the Lord and Lady of the May appeared to make up thi
show."
Strype, ibid. 376. ch. xl
x.
, which continued four hours, and was concluded with many re
gious songs
Ludovicus Vives relates, that it was customary in Brabant to present annual plays in honour of the respective saints to which the churches were dedicated: and he betrays his great credulity in adding a wonderful story in consequence of this custom. NOT. in Augustin. De CIVIT. DEI. lib. xii. cap. 25. C.
.
Many curious circumstances of the nature of these miracleplays, appear in a roll of the church-wardens of Bassingborne in Cambridgeshire, which is an accompt of the expences and receptions for acting the play of SAINT GEORGE at Bassingborne, on the feast of saint Margaret in the year 1511. They collected upwards of four pounds in twenty-seven neighbouring parishes for furnishing the play. They disbursed about two pounds in the representation. These disbursements are to four minstrels, or waits, of Cambridge for three days, v, s. vj, d. To the players, in bread and ale, iij, s. ij, d. To the
garnementman
for
garnements,
and
propyrts
The property-room is yet known at our theatres.
, that is, for dresses, decorations, and implements, and for
play-books,
xx, s. To John Hobard
brotherhoode preeste,
that is, a priest of the guild in the church, for
the play-book,
ij, s. viij d. For the
crofte,
or field in which the play was exhibited, j, s. For
propyrte-making,
or furniture, j, s. iv, d.
"For fish and bread, and to setting up the stages, iv, d."
For painting three
fanchoms
and four
tormentors,
words which I do not understand, but perhaps phantoms and devils ... The rest was expended for a feast on the occasion, in which are recited,
"Four chicken for the gentilmen, iv, d."
It appears from the manuscript of the Coventry plays, that a temporary scaffold only, was erected for these performances. And Chaucer says, of Absolon a parish-clerk, and an actor of king Herod's character in these dramas, in the MILLER'S TALE,
And for to shew his lightnesse and maistry
He playith Herawdes on a SCAFFALD HIE
Mill. T. v. 275. Urr. Mr. Steevens and Mr. Malone have shewn, that the accommodations in our early regular theatre
were but little better. That the old scenery was very simple, may partly be collected from an entry in a Computus of Winchester-college, under the year 1579. viz. COMP. BURS. Coll. Winton. A. D. 1573. Eliz. xvo .—
"CUSTUS AULAE. Item, pro diversis expensis circa Scaffoldam erigendam et deponendam, et pro Domunculis de novo compositis cum carriagio et
ecarriagio
ly joystes,
et aliorum mut
atorum ad eandem Scaffoldam, cum vj
lin
kes
et jo [uno] duodeno candelarum, pro lumine expensis, tribus noctibus in Ludis comediarum et
ragediarum, xxv, s. viij, d."
Again in the next quarter,
"Pro vij
ly linckes
deli
er
ti
pueris per M. Informatorem [the school-master] pro Ludis, iij, s."
Again, in the last quarter,
"Pro
emovendis Organis e t
mplo in Aulam et praeparandis eisdem erga Ludos, v, s."
By DOMUNCULIS I understand little c
lls of board, raised on each side of the stage, for dressing-rooms, or retiring plac
s. Strype, under the yea
1559, says, that after a grand feast at Guildhall,
"the same day was a Scaffold set up in the hall for
play."
ANN
REF. i. 197. edit. 1725.
.
Scenical decorations and machinery which employed the genius and invention of Inigo Jones, in the reigns of the first James and Charles, seem to have migrated from the ma
ques at court to the public theatre. In the instrument here cited, the priest who wrote the play, and received only two shillings and eight pence for his labour, seems to have been worse paid in proportion than any of the other persons concerned. The learned Oporinus
in 1547, published in two volumes a collection of religious interludes, which abounded in Germany. They are in Latin, and not taken from legends but the Bible.
The puritans were highly offended at these religious plays now revived
A very late scripture-play is,
"A newe merry and witte
omedie or enterlude, newlie imprinted treating the history of JACOB AND ESAU, &c."
for H. Bynneman, 1568. 4to. Bl. Lett. But this play had appeared in queen Mary's reign,
"An enterlude vpon the history of Jacobe and Esawe, &c."
Licenced to Henry Sutton, in 1557. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 23. a. It is certain, however, that the fashion of religious interludes was not entirely discontinued in the reign of queen Elisabeth. For, I find licenced to T. Hackett in 1561,
"A newe enterlude of the ij synnes of kynge Da
yde."
Ibid. fol. 75. a. And to Pickeringe in 1560-1, the play of queen Esther. Ibid. fol. 62. b. Again, there is licenced to T. Colwell, in 1565,
"A playe of the story of kyng Darius from Esdras."
Ibid. fol. 133. b. Also
"A pleasaunte recytall worthy of the readinge contaynynge the effecte of iij worthye squyres of Daryus the kinge of Persia,"
licenced to Griffiths in 1565. Ibid. fol. 132
b. Often reprinted. And in 1566
John Charlewood is licenced to print
"An enterlude of the repentance of Mary Magdalen."
Ibid. fol. 152. a. Of this piece I have cited an antient manuscript. Also, not to m
ltiply instances, Colwell in 1568, is licenced to print
"The playe of Susanna."
Ibid. fol. 176. a. Ballads on scripture subjects are now innumerable. Peele's DAVID AND BATHSHEBA is a remain of the fashion of scriptureplays. I have mentioned the play of HOLOFERNES acted at Hatfield in 1556. LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, p. 87. In 1556, was printed
"A ballet intituled the historye of Judith and Holyfernes."
REGISTR. ut supr. fol. 154. b. And Registr. B. fol. 227. In Hearne's
anuscript COLL
CTANEA there is a licence dated 1571, from the queen, directed to the officers of Middlesex, permitting one John Swinton Powlter,
"to have and use some playes and games at or uppon nine severall sondaies,"
within the said county. And because
greate resorte of people is lyke to come thereunto,
he is required, for the preservation of the peace, and for the sake of good order, to take with him four or five discreet and sub
tantial men of those places
where the games shall be put in practice,
to superintend
duringe the contynuance of the games or playes.
Some of the exhibitions are then specified, such as,
Shotinge with the brod
arrow
, The lepping for men, The pytchynge of the barr
,
and the like. But then follows this very general clause,
"With all suche other games, as haue at anye time heretofore or
ow be lycensed, used, or played."
COLL. MSS. Hearne, tom. lxi. p. 78. One wishes to know, whether any interludes, and whether religious or profane, were included in this instrument.
. But they were hardly less averse to the theatrical representation of the christian than of the gentile story. Yet for different reasons. To hate a theatre was a part of their creed, and therefore plays were an improper vehicle of religion. The heathen fables they judged to be dangerous, as too nearly resembling the superstitions of popery.
SECT. XXXVII.
IT appears, however, that the cultivation of an English style began to be now regarded. At the general restoration of knowledge and taste, it was a great impediment to the progress of our language, that all the learned and ingenious, aiming at the character of erudition, wrote in Latin. English books were written only by the superficial and illiterate, at a time when judgment and genius should have been exerted in the nice and critical task of polishing a rude speech. Long after the invention of typography, our vernacular style, instead of being strengthened and refined by numerous compositions, was only corrupted with new barbarisms and affectations, for want of able and judicious writers in English. Unless we except sir Thomas More, whose DIALOGUE ON TRIBULATION, and HISTORY OF RICHARD THE THIRD, were esteemed standards of style so low as the reign of James the first, Roger Ascham was perhaps the first of our scholars who ventured to break the shackles of Latinity, by publishing his TOXOPHILUS in English; chiefly with a view of giving a pure and correct model of English composition, or rather of shewing how a subject might be treated with grace and propriety in En
lish as well as in Latin. His own vindication of his conduct in attempting this great innovation is too sensible to be omitted, and reflects light on the revolutions of our poetry.
"As for the Lattine or Greeke tongue, euerye thinge is so excellentlye done in Them, that none can do better. In the Englishe tongue contrary, euery thing in a maner so meanlye, both for the matter and handelinge, tha
no man can do worse. For therein the learned for the most part haue bene alwayes most redye to write. And they which had least hope in Lattine haue bene most bould in Englishe: when surelye euerye man that is most ready to talke, is not most able to write. He that will write well in any tongue, must folow this counsell of Aristotle; to speake as the common people do, to thinke as wise men do. And so shoulde euerye man vnderstand him, and the iudgement of wise men alowe him. Manye Englishe writers haue not done so; but vsinge straunge wordes, as Lattine, French, and Italian, do make all thinges darke and harde. Ones I communed with a man, which reasoned the Englishe tongue to be enriched and encreased thereby, sayinge, Who will no
prayse that feast where a man shall drincke at a dinner both wyne, ale, and beere? Truly, quoth I, they be al good, euery one taken by himselfe alone; but if you put Malmesye and sacke, redde wyne and white, ale and beere, and al in one pot, you shall make a drinke neither easye to be knowen, nor yet holsome for the bodye. Cicero in folowing Isocrates, Plato, and Demosthenes, encreased the Lattine tongue after another sort. This way, because diuers men that write do not know, they can neyther folow it because of their ignoraunce, nor yet will prayse it for uery arrogancy: two faultes seldome the one out of the others companye. Englishe writers by diuersitie of tyme haue taken diuers matters in hand. In our fathers tim
nothing was red, but bookes of fayned cheualrie, wherein a man by readinge should be led to none other ende but only to manslaughter and baudrye. If anye man suppose they were good enough to passe the time withall, he is deceiued. For surely vaine wordes do worke no smal thinge in vaine, ignorant, and yong mindes, specially if they be geuen any thing thervnto of their owne nature. These bookes, as I haue heard say, were made the most part in abbayes and monasteries, a very likely and fit fruite of such an ydle and blind kind of liuing
He says in his SCHOOLEMASTER, written soon after the year 1563
"There be more of these vngracious bookes set out in print within these few mone
hes, than have bene seene in England many score years before."
B
i. fol. 26. a. edit. 1589. 4to.
. In our time now, whan euery man is geuen to know much rather than liue wel, very many do write, but after such a fashion as very many do shoote. Some shooters take in hande stronger bowes than they be able to maintaine. This thinge maketh them sometime to ouershoote the marke, sometime to shoote far wyde and perchance hurt some that loke on. Other, that neuer learned to shoote, nor yet knoweth good shaft nor bowe, will be as busie as the best
To all the Gentlemen and Yomen of
ENGLAND. Prefixed to TOXOPHILUS,
The Schole or partition of shooting,
Lond. 1545. 4to.
.
Ascham's example was followed by other learned men. But the chief was Thomas Wilson, who published a system of LOGIC and RHETORIC both in English. Of his LOGIC I have already spoken. I have at present only to speak of the latter, which is not only written in English, but with a view of giving rules for composing in the English language. It appeared in 1553, the first year of queen Mary, and is entitled, THE ARTE OF RHETORIKE
for the vse of all suche as are studious of Eloquence, sette forthe in Englishe by
THOMAS WILSON
Lond. 1553. 4to. Dedicated to John Dudley, earl of Warwick. In the Dedication he says, that he wrote great part of this treatise during the last summer vacation in the country, at the house of sir Edward Dimmoke. And that it originated from a late conversation with his lordship,
"emonge other talke of learnyng."
It was reprinted by Jhon Kynston in 1570. Lond. 4to. With
"A Prologue to the Reader,"
dated Dec. 7. 1560. Again, 1567. 4to. And 1585. 4to. In the PROLOGU
, he mentions his escape at Rome, which I have above related: and adds,
"If others neuer gette more by bookes than I have doen, it wer better be a carter than a scholar, for worldlie pro
ite."
. Leonarde Cox, a schoolmaster, patronised by Farringdon the last abbot of Reading, had published in 1530, as I have observed, an English tract on rhetoric, which is nothing more than a technical and elementary man
al. Wilson's treatise is more liberal, and discursive; illustrating the arts of eloquence by example, and examining and ascertaining the beauties of composition with the speculative skill and sagacity of a critic. It may therefore be justly considered as the first book or system of criticism in our language. A few extracts from so curious a performance need no apology; which will also serve to throw light on the present period, and indeed on our general subject, by displaying the state of critical knowledge, and the ideas of writing, which now prevailed.
I must premise, that Wilson, one of the most accomplished scholars of his times, was originally a fellow of King's College
Admitted scholar in 1541. A native of Lincolnshire. MS. Hatcher.
, where he was tutor to the two celebrated youths Henry and Charles Brandon dukes of Suffolk. Being a doctor of laws, he was afterwards one of the ordinary masters of requests, master of saint Katharine's hospital near the Tower, a frequent embassador from queen Elisabeth to Mary queen of Scots, and into the Low countries, a secretary of state and a privy counsellor, and at length, in 1579, dean of Durham. He died in 1581. His remarkable diligence and dispatch in negotiation is said to have resulted from an uncommon strength of memory. It is another proof of his attention to the advancement of our English style, that he translated seven orations of Demosthenes, which, in 1570, he dedicated to sir William Cecill
Which had b
en also translated into Latin by Nicholas Carr. To whose version Hatcher prefixed this distich. [MSS. More. 102. Carr'
Autograph. MS.]
Haec
adem patrio Thomas sermone polivit
Wilsonus, patrii gloria prima soli.
Wilson published many other things. In Gabriel Harvey's SMITHUS, dedicated to sir Walter Mildmay, and printed by Binneman in 1578, he is ranked with his learned cotemporaries. See SIGNAT. D iij.—E ij.—I j.
.
Under that chapter of his third book of RHETORIC which treats of the four parts belonging to elocution, Plainnesse, Aptnesse, Composicio
, Exornacion, Wilson has these observations on simplicity of style, which are immediately directed to those who write in the English tongue.
"Among other lessons this should first be learned, that we neuer affect any straunge ynkehorne termes, but to speake as is commonly receiued: neither seking to be ouer fine, nor yet liuing ouer carelesse, vsing our speache as moste men do, and ordering our wittes as the fewest haue doen. Some seke so farre for outlandishe Englishe, that they forget altogether their mothers language. And I dare sweare this, if some of their mothers were aliue, thei were not able to tel what thei saie: and yet these fine Englishe clerkes wil saie thei speake in their mother tongue, if a man should charge them for counterfeityng the kinges Englishe. Some farre iournied gentlemen at their returne home, like as thei loue to go in forrein apparel, so thei will pouder their talke with ouersea language. He that cometh lately out of Fraunce will talke Frenche Englishe, and neuer blushe at the matter. Another choppes in with Englishe Italianated, and applieth the Italian phraise to our Englishe speakyng: the whiche is, as if an Oration that professeth to vtter his mynde in plaine Latine, would needes speake Poetrie, and farre fetched colours of straunge antiquitie. The lawier will store his stomacke with the prating of pedlers. The auditour, in makyng his accompt and reckenyng, cometh in with
sise sould,
and
cater denere,
for vj. s. and iiij. d. The fine courtier will talke nothyng but CHAUCER. The misticall wisemen, and poeticall clerkes, will speake nothyng but quainte prouerbes, and blinde allegories; delightyng muche in their owne darknesse, especially when none can tel what thei do saie. The vnlearned or folishe phantasticall, that smelles but of learnyng (svche fellowes as haue seene learned men in their daies) will so Latine their tongues, that the simple cannot but wonder at their talke, and thinke surely thei speake by some reuelacion. I know Them, that thinke RHETORIKE to stande wholie vpon darke wordes; and he that can catche an ynkehorne terme by the taile, hym thei compt to be a fine Englishman and a good rhetorician
Puttenham, in THE ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, where he treats of style and language, brings some illustrations from the practice of oratory in the reign of queen Mary, in whose court he lived: and although his book is dated 1589, it was manisestly written much earlier. He refers to sir Nicholas Bacon, who began to be high in the departments of the law in queen Mary's time, and died in 1579. Having told a story from his own knowledge in the year 1553, of a ridiculous oration made in parliament by a new speaker of the house, who came from Yorkshire, and had more knowledge in the affairs of his county, and of the law, than gracefulness or delicacy of language, he proceeds,
"And though graue and wise counsellours in their consultations do not vse much superstitious
loquence, and also in their iudiciall hearings do much mislike all scholasticall rhetoricks: yet in such a case as it may be (and as this parliament was) if the lord chancelour of England or archbishop of Canterbury himselfe were to speke, he ought to do it cunningly and eloquently, which cannot be without the vse of figures: and neuerthelesse, none impeachment or blemish to the grauitie of their persons or of the cause: wherein I report me to them that knew sir Nicholas Bacon lord Keeper of the great seale, or the now lord treasurer of England, and haue bene conuersant in their speeches made in the parliament house and starre chamber. From whose lippes I haue seene to proceede more graue and naturall eloquence, than from all the oratours of Oxford and Cambridge.—I have come to the lord Keeper sir Nicholas Bacon, and found him sitting in his gallery alone, with the workes of Quintilian before him. In deede he was a most eloquent man and of rare learning and wisdome as euer I knew England to breed, and one that ioyed as much in learned men and men of good witts."
Lib. iii. ch. ii. pag. 126. seq. What follows soon afterwards is equally apposite.
"This part in our maker or poet must be heedyly looked vnto, that it [his
language] be naturall, pure, and the most vsuall of all his countray: and for the same purpose, rather that which is spoken in the kinges court, or in the good townes and cities within the land, than in the marches or frontiers, or in port townes where straungers haunt for traffike sake, or yet in vniuersities where schollars vse much peevish affectation of words out of the primitiue languages; or finally, in any vplandish village or corner of the realme, &c. But he shall follow generally the better brovght vp sort, such as the Greekes call
chari
ntes,
men ciuill and graciously behauored and bred. Our maker thereso
e at these dayes shall not follow P
ERS PLOWMAN, nor Gower, nor Lydgate, nor yet Chaucer, for their language is now out of vse with vs: neither shall he take the termes of northerne men, suche as they vse in daily talke, whether they be noblemen or gentlemen, or of their best clarkes, all is a matter, &c. Ye shall therefore take the vsuall speach of the court, and that of London, and the shires lying abovt London within lx myles, and not mvch aboue. I say not this, bvt that in euery shyre of England there be gentlemen and others that speke, but specially write, as good Sovtherne as we of Middlesex and Surrey do, bvt not the common people of euery shire, to whom the gentlemen, and also their learned clarkes, do for the most part condescend: but herein we are ruled by the English Dictionaries, and other bookes written by learned men. Albeit peraduenture some small admonition be not impertinent; for we finde in our English writers many wordes and speeches amendable, and ye shall see in some many inkhorne termes so ill affected brought in by men of learning, as preachers and schoolemasters, and many straunge termes of other languages by secretaries and marchaunts and traueillours, and many darke wordes and not vsuall nor well sounding, though they be daily spoken at court."
Ibid. Ch. iii. fol. 120, 121.
. And the rather to set out this folie, I will adde here svche a letter as William Sommer
King Henry's Jester. In another place he gives us one of Somner's jests.
"William Sommer seying muche adoe for accomptes makyng, and that Henry the eight wanted money, such as was due to him, And please your grace, q
oth he, you haue so many Frauditours, so many Conueighers, and so many Deceiuers, to get vp your money, that thei get all to themselues."
That is, Auditors, Surveyors, and Receivers. fol. 102. b. I have seen an old narrative of a progress of king Henry the eighth and queen Katharine, to Newbery in Berkshire, where Somner, who had accompanied their majesties as court-buffoon, sell into disgrace with the people for his impertinence, was detained, and obliged to submit to many ridiculous indignities: but extricated himself from all his dissiculties by comic expedients and the readiness of his wit. On returning to court, he gave their majesties, who were inconsolable for his long absence, a minute account of these low adventures, with which they were infinitely entertained. What shall we think of the manners of such a court?
himself, could not make a better for that purpose,—deuised by a Lincolne
hire man for a voide benefice
Viz.
"Ponderyng, expendyng, and reuolutyng with myself, your ingent affabilitie, and ingenious capacitie, for mundane affaires, I cannot but celebrate and extoll your magnificall dexteritie above all other. For how could you have adapted suche illustrate prerogative, and dominiall superioritie, if the
ecunditie of your ingenie had not been so fertile and wonderfull pregnaunt, &c.'.
It is to the lord Chancellor. See what is said of A. Bordes's style, supr. p. 71.
."
This point he illustrates with other familiar and pleasant instances
B. iii. fol. 82. b. edit. 1567.
.
In enforcing the application and explaining the nature of fables, for the purpose of amplification, he gives a general idea of the Iliad and Odyssey.
"The saying of poetes, and al their fables, are not to be forgotten. For by them we maie talke at large, and win men by perswasion, if we declare before hand, that these tales wer not fained of suche wisemen without cause, neither yet continued vntill this time, and kept in memorie without good consideracion, and therevpon declare the true meanyng of all svche writynge. For vndoubtedly, there is no one Tale among all the poetes, but vnder the same is comprehended somethyng that perteyneth either to the amendement of maners, to the knowledge of truthe, to the settyng forth natures worke, or els to the vnderstanding of some notable thing doen. For what other is the painful trauaile of Vlisses, described so largely by Homere, but a liuely picture of mans miserie in this life? And as Plutarche saith, and likewise Basilius Magnus, in the ILIADES are described strength and valiauntnesse of bodie: in ODISSEA, is set forthe a liuely paterne of the mynde. The Poetes are Wisemen, and wisshed in harte the redresse of thinges, the which when for feare thei durst not openly rebuke, they did in colours paint them out, and tolde men by shadowes what thei shold do in good sothe: or els, because the wicked were vnworthy to heare the trueth, thei spake so that none might vnderstande but those vnto whom thei please to vtter their meanyng, and knewe them to be men of honest conuersacion
Lib. iii. fol. 99. b.
."
Wilson thus recommends the force of circumstantial description, or, what he calls,
An euident or plaine setting forthe of a thing as though it were presently doen.
"An example. If our enemies shal inuade and by treason win the victory, we shal all die euery mothers sonne of vs, and our citee shal be destroied, sticke and stone: I se our children made slaues, our daughters rauished, our wiues carried away, the father forced to kill his owne sonne, the mother her daughter, the sonne his father, the sucking childe slain in his mothers bosom, one standyng to the knees in anothers blood, churches spoiled, houses plucte down, and al set on fire round about vs, euery one cvrsing the daie of their birth, children criyng, women wailing, &c. Thus, where I might haue said,
We shal al be destroied,
and say [no] more, I haue by description set the euill forthe at large
Fol. 91. a.
."
It must be owned that this picture of a sacked city is literally translated from Quintilian. But it is a proof, that we were now beginning to make the beauties of the antients our own.
On the necessity of a due preservation of character he has the following precepts, which seem to be directed to the writers of Historical Plays.
"In describyng of persons, there ought alwaies a comelinesse to be vsed, so that nothing be spoken which may be thought is not in them. As if one shold describe Henry the sixt, He might call hym jentle, milde of nature, ledde by perswacion, and ready to forgiue, carelesse for wealth, suspecting none, mercifull to al, fearful in aduersitie, and without forecast to espie his misfortvne. Againe, for Richarde the thirde, I might brynge him in cruell of harte, ambicious by nature, enuious of minde, a deepe dissembler, a close man for weightie matters, hardie to reuenge and fearefull to lose hys high estate, trustie to none, liberall for a purpose, castyng still the worste, and hoping euer for the best
Richard the third seems to have been an UNIVERSAL character for exemplifying a cruel disposition. Our author, meaning to furnish a chamber with persons famous for the greatest crimes, says in another place.
"In the bedstede I will set Richarde the third kinge of Englande, or somelike notable murtherer."
fol. 109. b. Shakespeare was not the first that exhibited this tyrant upon the stage. In 1586, a ballad was printed called a
"tragick report of kinge Richarde the iii."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 210. b.
. By this figure
Lively Description.
also, we imagine a talke for some one to speake, and accordyng to his persone we frame the oration. As if one shoulde bryng in noble Henry the eight of famous memory, to enuegh against rebelles, thus he might order his oration.
What if Henry the eight were aliue, and sawe suche rebellion in the realme, would he not saie thus and thus?
Yea methinkes I heare hym speake euen nowe. And so sette forthe suche wordes as we would haue hym to s
y
Fol. 91. b.
."
Shakespeare himself has not delineated the characters of these English monarchs with more truth. And the first writers of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, who
imagine a talke for some one to speake, and according to his person frame the oration,
appear to have availed themselves of these directions, if not to have catched the notion of their whole plan from this remarkable passage.
He next shews the advantages of personification in enlivening a composition.
"Some times it is good to make God, the Countray, or some one Towne, to speake; and looke what we would saie in our owne persone, to frame the whole tale to them. Such varietie doeth much good to auoide tediousnesse. For he that speaketh all in one sorte, though he speake thinges neuer so wittilie, shall sone weary his hearers. Figures therefore were inuented, to auoide satietie, and cause delite: to refresh with pleasure and quicken with grace the dulnesse of mans braine. Who will looke on a white wall an houre together where no workemanshippe is at all? Or who will eate still one kynde of meate and neuer desire chaunge
Fol. 91. b. 92. a.
?"
Prolix Narratives, whether jocose or serious, had not yet ceased to be the entertainment of polite companies: and rules for telling a tale with grace, now found a place in a book of general rhetoric
Yet he has here also a reference to the utility of tales both at the Bar and in the Pulpit. For in another place, professedly both speaking of Pleadings and Sermons, he says,
"If tyme maie so serue, it were good when menne be wearied, to make them somewhat merie, and to begin with some pleasaunte tale, or take occasion to ieste wittelie, &c."
fol. 55. b. Again,
"Men commonlie tarie the ende of a merie Plaie, and cannot abide the half hearyng of a sower checkyng Sermon. Therefore euen these aunciente preachers muste nowe and then plaie the fooles in the pulpite to serue the tickle eares of their fletyng audience, &c."
fol. 2. a. I know not if he means Latimer here, whom he commends,
"There is no better preacher among them al except Hugh Latimer the father of al preachers."
fol. 63. a. And again,
"I would thinke it not amisse to speake muche accordyng to the nature and phansie of the ignorant, that the rather thei might be wonne through fables to learne more weightie and graue matters. For al men cannot brooke sage causes and auncient collations, but will like earnest matters the rather, if some be spoken there among agreeing to their natures. The multitude, as Horace doth saie, is a beast or rather a monster that hath many hedde
, and therefore, like vnto the diuersitie of natvres, varietie of inuention must alwaies be vsed. Talke altogether of moste graue matters, or deppely searc
e out the ground of thynges, or vse the quiddities of Duns [Scotus] to set forth Gods misteries, you shal se the ignorant, I warrant you, either fall aslepe, or els bid you farewell. The multitude must nedes be made merry; and the more foolish your talke is, the more wise will thei compt it to be. And yet it is no foolishnes but rather wisdome to win men, by telling of fables to heare Gods goodnes."
fol. 101. a. See also fol. 52. a. 69. a. Much to the same purpose he says,
"Euen in this our tyme, some offende muche in tediousnesse, whose parte it were to comfort all men with cherefulnesse. Yea, the preachers of God mind so muche edi
iyng of soules, that thei often forgette we have any bodies. And therefore, some doe not so muche good with tellyng the truthe, as thei doe harme with dullyng the hearers; beyng so farre gone in their matters, that oftentimes thei cannot tell when to make an ende."
fol. 70. a. Yet still he allows much praise to the preachers in general of his age.
"Yea, what tell I nowe of suche lessons, seeyng God hath raised suche worthy preachers in this our tyme, that their godlie and learned doynges maie be a most iuste example for all other to followe."
fol. 55. b. By the way, although a zealous gospeller, in another place he obliquely censures the rapacity with which the reformation was conducted under Edward the sixth. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 452.]
"I had rather, said one, make my child a cobler than a preacher, a tankard-bearer than a scholer. For what shall my sonne seke for learnyng, when he shall neuer get thereby any livyng? Set my sonne to that whereby he mai
get somewhat. Doe you not see, how euery one catcheth and pulleth from the churche what thei can? I feare me, one daie they will plu
ke downe churche and all. Call you this the GOSPELL, when men seke onlie for to prouide for their bellies, and care n
t a groate though their soules go to helle? A patrone of a benefice will haue a poore yngrame soule, to beare the name of a parsone for twentie marke, or tenne pounde: and the patrone hymself will take vp, for his snapshare, as good as an hundred marke: Thus, God is robbed, learnyng decaied, England dishonoured, and honestie not regarded."
fol. 9. a.
. In treating
of pleasaunt sporte made rehearsyng of a whole matter,
he says,
"Thei that can liuely tell pleasaunt tales and mery dedes doen, and set them out as wel with gesture as with voice, leauing nothing behinde that maie serue for beautifying of their matter, are most mete for this purpose, whereof assuredly ther are but fewe. And whatsoeuer he is, that can aptlie tell his tale, and with countenaunce, voice, and gesture, so temper his reporte, that the hearers may still take delite, hym coompte I a man worthie to be highlie estemed. For vndoubtedly no man can doe any such thing excepte that thei haue a greate mother witte, and by experience confirmed suche their comelinesse, whervnto by nature thei were most apte. Manie a man readeth histories, heareth fables, seeth worthie actes doen, euen in this our age; but few can set them out accordinglie, and tell them liuelie, as the matter selfe requireth to be tolde. The kyndes of delityng in this sort are diuers: whereof I will set forth many.—
Sporte moued by tellyng of olde tales.
—If there be any olde tale or straunge historie, well and wittelie applied to some man liuyng, all menne loue to heare it of life. As if one were called Arthure, some good felowe that were wel acquainted with KYNG ARTHURES BOOKE and the Knightes of his Rounde Table, would want no matter to make good sport, and for a nede would dubbe him knight of the Rounde Table, or els proue hym to be one of his kynne, or else (which were muche) proue him to be Arthur himself. And so likewise of other names, merie panions
Companions. A cant word.
would make madde pastyme. Oftentymes the deformitie of a mannes body giueth matter enough to be right merie, or elles a picture in shape like another manne will make some to laugh right hartelye
Fol. 74. a.
, &c."
This is no unpleasing image of the arts and accomplishments, which seasoned the mirth, and enlivened the conversations of our forefathers. Their wit seems to have chiefly consisted in mimicry
See
ol. 70. a.
.
He thus describes the literary and ornamental qualifications of a young nobleman which were then in fashion, and which he exemplifies in the characters of his lamented pupils, Henry duke of Suffolk and lord Charles Brandon his brother
He gives a curious reason why a young nobleman had better be born in London than any other place.
"The shire or towne helpeth somewhat towardes the encrease of honour. As, it is much better to be borne in Paris than in Picardie, in London than in Lincolne. For that bothe the aire is better, the people more ciuil, and the wealth much greater, and the menne for the most parte more wise."
fol. 7. a.
.
"I maie commende hym for his learnyng, for his skill in the French or in the Italian, for his knowledge in cosmographie, for his skill in the lawes, in the histories of al countrees, and for his gift of enditing. Againe, I maie commende him for playing at weapons, for running vpon a great horse, for chargyng his staffe at the tilt, for vauting, for plaiyng upon instrumentes, yea and for painting, or drawing of a plat, as in olde time noble princes muche delited therin
Fol. 7. a.
."
And again,
"Suche a man is an excellent fellowe, saithe one, he can speake the tongues well, he plaies of instrumentes, fewe men better, he feigneth to the lvte marveilous sweetlie
He mentions the Lute again,
"The tongue giueth a certaine grace to euery matter, and beauti
ieth the cause, in like maner a
a sweete soundyng lute muche setteth forth a meane deuised ballade."
fol. 111. a.
, he
ndites excellentlie: but for al this, the more is the pitee, he hath his faultes, he will be dronke once a daie, he loues women well, &c
Fol. 67. a.
."
The following passage acquaints us, among other things, that many now studied, and with the highest applause, to write elegantly in English as well as in Latin.
"When we haue learned vsuall and accvstomable wordes to set forthe our meanynge, we ought to ioyne them together in apte order, that the eare maie delite in hearyng the harmonie. I knowe some Englishemen, that in this poinct haue suche a gift in the Englishe as fewe in Latin haue the like; and therefore delite the Wise and Learned so muche with their pleasaunte composition, that many reioyce when thei maie heare suche, and thinke muche learnyng is gotte when thei maie talke with them
This work is enlivened with a variety of little illustrative stories, not ill told, of which the following is a specimen.
"An Italian havyng a sute here in Englande to the archbusshoppe of Yorke that then was, and commynge to Yorke when one of the Prebendaries there brake his bread, as they terme it, and therevpon made a solemne longe diner, the whiche perhaps began at eleuen and continued well nigh till fower in the afternoone, at the whiche dinner this bisshoppe was: It fortvned that as they were sette, the Italian knockt at the gate, vnto whom the porter, perceiuing his errand, answered, that my lorde bisshoppe was at diner. The Italian departed, and retourned betwixte twelve and one; the porter aunswered they were yet at dinner. He came againe at twoo of the clocke; the porter tolde hym thei had not half dined. He came at three a clocke, vnto whom the porter in a heate a
swered neuer a worde, but churlishlie did shutte the gates vpon him. Wherevpon, o
hers told the Italian, that ther was no speaking with my Lord, almoste all that daie, for the solemne diner sake. The gentilman Italian, wonderyng muche at suche a long sitting, and greatly greued because he could not then speake with the archbysshoppes grace, departed straight towardes London; and leauyng the dispatche of his matters with a der
frende of his, toke his iourney towardes Italie. Three yeres after, it hapened that an Englishman came to Rome, with whom this Italian by chaunce fallyng acquainted, asked him if he knewe the archbisshoppe of Yorke? The Englishman said, he knewe hym right well. I praie you tell me, quoth the Italian,
hath that archbishop yet dined?
"
The Italian explaining himself, they both laughed heartily. fol. 78. b. 79. a.
He commends Dr. Haddon's latinity, which is not always of the purest cast.
"There is no better Latine man within England, except Gualter Haddon the lawier."
fol. 63. a. Again, he commends a prosopopeia of the duchess of Suffolk, in Haddon's
Oratio de vita et obitu fratrum Suffolciensium Henrici et Caroli Brandon.
[edit. Hatcher, Lond. 1577. 4to. p. 89. viz. LUCU
RATIONES G. Haddon.] fol. 94. a.
He mentions John Heiwood's PROVERBS. [See supr. p. 91.]
"The Englishe Proverbes gathered by Jhon Heiwoode helpe well in this behaulfe [allegory], the which commonlie are nothyng els but Allegories, and dark deuised sentences."
fol. 90. a. Again, for furnishing similitudes,
"The Prouerbes of Heiwood helpe wonderfull well for thys purpose."
fol. 96. b.
He condemns, in an example, the growing practice of mothers who do not suckle their own children, which he endeavours to prove to be both against the law of nature and the will of God. fol. 56. a. Here is an early proof of a custom, which may seem to have originated in a more luxurious and delicate age.
To these miscellaneous extracts I shall only add, that our author who was always esteemed a sincere advocate for protestantism, and never suspected of leaning to pop
ry, speaking of an artificial memory, ha
this theory concerning the use of images in churches.
"When I see a lion, the image thereof abideth faster in my minde, than if I should heare some reporte made of a lion. Emong all the sences, the iye [eye] sight is most quicke, and conteineth the impression of thinges more assuredlie than any of the other sences doe. And the rather, when a manne both heareth and seeth a thing, (as by artificiall memorie he do
th almost s
thinges liuely,) he doeth remember it muche the better. The sight printeth thinges in a mans memorie as a seale doeth printe a mans name in waxe. And therefore, heretofore Ima
s were sett
vp for remembraunce of sainctes, to be LAI
ENNES BOOK
S, that the rather by seying [seein
] the pictures of suche men, thei might be stirred to followe their good living.—Marry, for this purpose whereof we now write, this would haue serued gailie well."
fol. 111. a.
."
But he adds the faults which were sometimes now to be found in English composition, among which he censures the excess of alliteration.—
"Some will bee so shorte, and in such wise curtall their sentences, that thei had neede to make a commentary immediatelie of their meanyng, or els the moste that heare them shal be forced to kepe counsaile. Some wil speake oracles, that a man can not tell, which waie to take them. Some will be so fine, and so poeticall withall, that to their seming there shall not stande one heare [hair] amisse, and yet euery bodie els shall think them meter [fitter] for a ladies chamber, than for an earnest matter in any open assembly.—Some vse overmuche repetition of one letter, as
pitifull povertie prayeth for a penie, but pu
ed presumpcion passeth not a poinct, pamperyng his panche with pestilent pleasure, procuryng his passeport to poste it to hell pitte, there to be punished with paines perpetuall.
"
Others, he blames for the affectation of ending a word with a vowel and beginning the next with another.
"Some, he says, ende their sentences al alike, makyng their talke [style] rather to appere rimed meter, than to seme plaine speache.—I heard a preacher
Preaching and controversial tracts occasioned much writing in English after the reformation.
delityng muche in this kinde of composicion, who vsed so often to ende his sentence with woordes like vnto that which went before, that in my iudgemente, there was not a dosen sentences in his whole sermon but thei ended all in rime for the moste parte. Some, not best disposed, wished the Preacher a Lute, that with his rimed sermon he might vse some pleasaunte melodie, and so the people might take pleasure diuers waies, and daunce if thei liste."
Some writers, he observes, disturbed the natural arrangement of their words: others were copious when they should be concise. The most frequent fault seems to have been, the rejection of common and proper phrases, for those that were more curious, refined, and unintelligible
Fol. 85. a. b. 86. a. One Thomas Wilson translated the DIANA of Montomayer, a pas
oral Spanish romance, about the year 1595, which has been assigned as the original of the TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. He could hardly be our author, unless that version was one of his early juvenile exercises. This translator Wilson I presume is the person mentioned by Meres as a poet,
"Who for learning and extemporall witte in this facultie is without compare or compeere, as to his great and eternall commendations he manifested in his challenge at the Swanne on the Bank side."
WITS TREAS. edit. 1598. 12mo. ut supr. fol. 285. p
2. Again, he mentions one Wilson as an eminent dramatic writer, perhaps the same. Ibid. fol. 282. There is, by one Thomas Wilson, an EXPOSITION ON TH
PSALMS, Lond. 1591. 4to. And an EXPOSITION ON THE PROVERBS, Lond. 1589. 4to. Among the twelve players sworn the queen's servants in 1583, were
"two rare men, viz. Thomas Wilson for a quicke, delicate, resined extemporall witte, and Richard Tarleton, &c."
Stowe's ANN. edit. 1615. fol. 697.
.
The English RHETORIC of Richard Sherry, school-master of Magdalene college at Oxford, published in 1555
But there seems to have been a former edition by Richard Day, 1550, in octavo.
, is a jejune and a very different performance from Wilson's, and seems intended only as a manual for school-boys. It is entitled,
"A treatise of the figures of grammar and rhetorike, profitable to all that be studious of eloquence, and in especiall for such as in grammar schole
doe reade moste eloquente poetes and oratours. Wherevnto is ioygned the Oration which Cicero made to Cesar, geuing thankes vnto him for pardonyng and restoring again of that noble man Marcus Marcellus. Sette fourth by Richarde Sherrye Londonar, 1555
For Richard Tottell. 12mo. In 74 leaves.
."
William Fullwood, in his
Enemie of idleness, teaching the manner and style howe to endyte and write all sorts of epistles and letters, set forth in English by William Fullwood merchant,
published in 1571
In four books, 12mo. It is dedicated to the master, wardens, and company of Merchant Taylors London.
"Think not Apelles painted piece."
PR.
"The ancient poet Lucanus."
The same person translated into English, THE CASTLE OF MEMORIE, from William Gratarol, dedicated to lord Robert Dudly, master of the horse to the queen, Lond. for W. Howe in Fleetstreet, 1573. 8vo. DED. begins,
"Syth noble Maximilian kyng."
, written partly in prose and partly in verse, has left this notice.
"Whoso will more circumspectly and narrowly entreat of such matters, let them read the retorike of maister doctour Wilson, or of maister Richard Rainolde
Fol. 7. a. In 1562,
"the Boke of Retoryke,"
of which I know no more, is entered to John Kyngeston
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 87. b.
."
I have never seen Richard Rainolde's RHETORIC, nor am I sure that it was ever printed. The The author, Rainolde, was of Trinity college in Cambridge, and created doctor of medicine in 1567
MSS. Cat. Graduat. Univ. Cant.
. He wrote also a Latin tract dedicated to the duke of Norfolk, on the condition of princes and noblemen
MSS. Stillingfl. 160.
"De statu nobilium virorum et principum."
: and there is an old CRONICLE in quarto by one Richard Reynolds
Of the Emperors, from Julius Cesar to Maximilian. Licenced to T. Marshe, in 1566. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 154. b.
. I trust it will be deemed a pardonable anticipation, if I add here, for the sake of connection, that Richard Mulcaster, who from King's college in Cambridge was removed to a Studentship of Christ-church in Oxford about the year 1555, and soon afterwards, on account of his distinguished accomplishments in philology, was appointed the first master of Merchant-Taylor's school in London
In 1561. It was then just founded as a proseminary for saint John's college Oxford, in a house called the Manour of the Rose in saint Lawrence Pounteney, by the company of Merchant-Taylors. Saint John's college had been then established about seven years, which Mulcaster soon filled with excellent scholars till the year 1586. In the Latin plays acted before queen Elisabeth and James the first at Oxford, the students of this college were distinguished. This was in consequence of their being educated under Mulcaster. He was afterwards, in 1596, master of saint Paul's school. He was a prebendary of Salisbury, and at length was rewarded by the queen with the opulent rectory of Standford-Rivers in Essex, where he died in 1611. He was elected scholar of King's college Cambridge in 1548. MSS. Hatcher. And Contin. Hatch. Celebrated in its time was his CATECHISMUS PAULINUS
in usum Scholae Paulinae conscriptus,
Lond. 1601. 8vo. &c. It is in long and short verse. Many of Mulcaster's panegyrics in Latin verse may be seen prefixed to the works of his cotemporaries. A copy of his Latin verses was spoken before queen Elisabeth at Kenilworth
castle in 1575. See G. Gascoyne's NARRATIVE, &c. Signat. A. iij.
, published a book which contains many judicious criticisms and observations on the English language, entitled,
"The first part of the ELEMENTARIE, which entreateth chefely of the right writing of the English tung, sett forth by Richard Mulcaster, Lond. 1582
Most elegantly printed, in the white letter, by Thomas Vautrollier in quarto. It contains 272 pages. The second part never appeared. His
"POSITIONS, wherein those primitive circumstances be examined which are necess
rie for the training vp of children either for skill in their booke or health in their bodies
"
[Lond. 1581. 1587. 4to.] have no connection with this work.
."
And, as many of the precepts are delivered in metre, I take this opportunity of observing, that William Bullokar published a
"Bref grammar for English, Imprinted at London by Edmund Bollifant, 1586
Coloph.
"Qd W. Bullokar."
12mo. It contains 68 pages.
."
This little piece is also called,
"W. Bullokar's abbreuiation of his Grammar for English extracted out of his Grammar at larg for the spedi parcing of English spech, and the eazier coming to the knowledge of grammar for other langages
Fol. 1.
."
It is in the black letter, but with many novelties in the type, and affectations of spelling. In the preface, which is in verse, and contains an account of his life, he promises a dictionary of the English language, which, he adds, will make his third work
Here he says also, that he has another volume lying by him
of more fame,
which is not to see the light till christened and called forth by the queen.
. His first work I apprehend to be
"A Treatise of Orthographie in Englishe by William Bullokar,"
licenced to Henry Denham in 1580
Jun. 10. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 169. a. But I must not forget, that in 1585, he published,
"Esop's fables in tru orthography, with grammer notz. Her-unto ar also coioned the shorte sentencez of the wyz Cato, imprinted with lyke form and order: both of which
uthorz ar translated out of Latin intoo English by William Bullokar."
12mo.
. Among Tanner's books is a copy of his
bref grammar
abovementioned, interpolated and corrected with the author's own hand, as it appears, for a new impression. In one of these manuscript insertions, he calls this
"the first grammar for Englishe that euer waz, except my
grammar at large
Fol. 68. In his metrical preface he says, that he served in the army under sir Richard Wingfield in queen Mary's time. There is
"A petee schole of spellinge
nd writinge Englishe,"
licenced to Butter, Jul. 20. 1580. REGISTR. B. fol. 171. a.
."
The French have vernacular critical and rhetorical systems at a much higher period. I believe one of their earliest is
"Le JARDIN de plaisance et FLEUR de rhetorique, contenant plusieurs beaux livres."
It is in quarto, in the gothic type with wooden cuts, printed at Lyons by Olivier Arnoullet for Martin Boullon, and without date. But it was probably printed early in 1500
There is another, I suppose a second, edition, without date, in black letter, with wooden cuts, in folio, containing two hundred and forty-eight leaves, exclusive of the tables. This has some improvements.
. In one of its poems, LA PIPEE
ou chasse de dieu d'amour,
is cited the year 1491
Stance, 22. fol. 134.
. Another edition, in the same letter, but in octavo, appeared at Paris in 1547,
Veuve de Jehan Tréperel et Jehan Jehannot.
Beside the System of Rhetoric, which is only introductory, and has the separate title of L'ART DE RHETORIQUE,
de ses couleurs, figures et especes
From fol. 2. a. to fol. 14. a.
, it comprehends a miscellaneous collection of
Balades, rondeaux, chansons, dictiés, comedies,
and other entertaining little pieces
But the compiler has introduced
"Le DONNET, traitè de grammaire baillé au
eu roi
harles viii."
fol. 20. a. One of the pieces is a MORISQU
, in which the actors are Amorevse grace, Enuieuse jalousie, Espoir de parvenir, Tout habandonne, Sot penser. fol. 32. b.
, chiefly on the subject of the sentimental and ceremonious love which then prevailed. The whole, I am speaking of the oldest edition, contains one hundred and ninety leaves. The RHETORIC is written in the short French rhyme: and the tenth chapter consists of rules for composing Moralities, Farces, Mysteries, and other ROMANS. That chapter is thus introduced, under the Latin rubric PROSECUTIO.
Expediez sont neuf chapitres,
Il faut un dixiéme exposer:
Et comme aussi des derniers titers,
Qu'on doit a se propos poser,
Et comme l'on doit composer
Moralités, Farces, Misteres;
Et d'autres Rommans disposer
Selon les diverses matieres.
The Latin rubrics to each species are exceedingly curious.
"Decimum Capitulum pro forma compilandi MORALITATES.—Pro COMEDIS
The farce, or comedy, must have,
"Chose qui
oit mélodieuse,
"Matiere qui
oit comédieuse, &c."
.—Pro MISTERIIS compilandis."
Receipts to make poems have generally been thought dull. But what shall we think of dull receipts for making dull poems? Gratian du Pont, a gentleman of Tholouse, printed in 1539 the
"Art et Science de Rhetorique metri
iée
Par N. Viellard. 4to.
."
It must be remembered, that there had been an early establishment of prizes in poetry at Tholouse, and that the seven troubadours or rhetoricians at Tholouse, were more famous in their time than the seven sages of Greece
See Verdier ii. 649. From an ingenious correspondent, who has not given me the honour of his name, and who appears to be well acquainted with the manners and literature of Spain, I have received the following notices relating to this institution, of which other particulars may be seen in the old French History of Languedoc.
"At the end of the second volume of Mayan's ORIGINES DE LA LINGUA ESPANOLA, printed in duodecimo at Madrid in 1737, is an extract from a manuscript entitled,
Libro de la Arte de Trovar, ò Gaya Sciencia, por Don Enrique de Villena,
said to exist in the library of the cathedral of Toledo, and perhaps to be found in other libraries of Spain. It has these particulars.—The TROVADORES had their origin at Tholouse, about the middle of the twelfth century. A CONSISTORIO
de la Gaya Sciencia
was there founded by Ramon Vidal de Besalin, containing more than one hundred and twenty celebrated poets, and among these, princes, kings, and emperors. Their art was extended throughout Europe, and gave rise to the Italian and Spanish poetry,
servio el Garona de Hippocrene.
To Ramon Vidal de Besalin succeeded Jofre de Foxa, Monge negro, who enlarged the plan, and wrote what he called
Continuacion de trovar.
After him Belenguer de Troya came from Majorca, and compiled a treatise
de Figuras y Colores Rhetoricos.
And next Gul. Vedal of Majorca wrote
La Suma Vitulina.
To support the GAYA SCIENCIA at the poetical college of Tholouse, the king of France appropriated privileges and rev
nues: appointing seven
Ma
tenedores, qu
liciessen L
yes.
These constituted the LAWS OF LOVE, which were afterwards abridged by Guill. Moluier under the title
Tratado de las Flores.
Next Fray Ramon framed a system called
Doctrinal,
which was censured by Castilnon. From thence nothing was written in Spanish on the subject, till the time of Don Enrique de Villena.—So great was the credit of the GAY SCIENCE, that Don Juan the first king of Arragon, who died 1393, sent an embassy to the king of France, requesting that some Troubadours might be transmitted to teach this art in his kingdom. Accordingly two
Mantenedores
were dispatched from Tholouse, who founded a college for poetry in Barcelona, consi
ting of four Mantenedores, a Cavalier, a Master in Theology, a Mas
er in Laws, and an honourable Citizen. Disputes about Don Juan's successor occasioned the removal of the college to Tortosa. But Don Ferdinand being elected King, Don Enrique de Villena was taken into his service: who restored the college, and was chosen principal. The subjects he proposed, were sometimes, the Praises of the Holy Virgin, of Arms, of Love,
y de buenas Costumbres.
An account of the ceremonies of their public Acts then follows, in which every composition was recited, being written
en papeles Damasquinos de diversas colores, con letras de oro y de plata, et illuminaduras formosas, lo major qua cada una podio.
The best performance had a crown of gold placed upon it: and the author, being presented with a
joya,
or prize, received a licence to
cantar y decir in public
.
He was afterwards conducted home in form, escorted among others by two
Mantenedores,
and preceded by minstrels and trumpets, where he gave an entertainment of confects and wine."
—[See supr. vol. i. 149. 467.]
There seems to have been a similar establishment at Amsterdam, called
R
ederiicke
camer,
or the CHAMBER OF RHETORICIANS, mentioned by Isaacus Pontanus. Who adds,
"Sunt autem hi rhetores viri amaeni et poetici spiritus, qui lingua vernacula, aut prosa aut vorsa oratione, comoedias, trago
dias, subindeque et mutas personas, et facta maiorum notantes, magna spectantium voluptate exhibent."
RER. ET URB. AMST. Lib. ii. c. xvi. pag. 118. edit. 1611. fol. In the preceding chapter, he says, that this fraternity of rhetoricians erected a temporary theatre, at the solemn entry of prince Maurice in
o Amsterdam in 1594, where they exhibited in DUM
SHOW the history of David and Golia
. Ibid. c. xv. p. 117.
Meteranus, in his Belgic history, speaks largely of the annual prizes, assemblies, and conte
ts, of the guilds or colleges of the rhetoricians, in Holland and the Low Countries. They answered in rhyme, questions proposed by the dukes of Burgundy and Brabant. At Ghent in 1539, twenty of these colleges met with great pomp, to discuss an ethical question, and each gave a solution in a moral com
dy, magnificently presented in the public theatre. In 1561, the rhetorical guild of Antw
rp, called the VIOLET, challenged all the neighbouring cities to a decision of the same sort. On this occasion, three hundred and forty rhetoricians of Brussels appeared on horseback, richly but fantastically habited, accompanied with an infinite variety of pageantries, sports, and shows. These had a garland, as a reward for the superior splendor of their entry. Many days were spent in determining the grand questions: during which, there were
eastings, bonfires, farces, tumbling, and every popular diversion. BEL
. HISTOR. VNIVERSAL. fol. 1597. Lib. i. pag. 31, 32.
. But the
"Grand et vrai Art de plein Rhetorique"
in two books, written by Pierre Fabri, properly Le Fevre, an ecclesiastic of Rouen, for teaching elegance in prose as well as rhyme, is dated still higher. Goujet mentions a Gothic edition of this tract in 1521
BI
L. FR. 361. He mentions another edition in 1539. Both at Paris, 12mo.
. It contains remarks on the versification of mysteries and farces, and throws many lights on the old French writers.
But the French had even an ART OF POETRY so early as the year 1548. In that year Thomas Sibilet published his
Art poetique
at Paris,
Veuve
François Regnault
In 16mo.
. This piece preserves many valuable anecdotes of the old French poetry: and, among other particulars which develope the state of the old French drama, has the following sensible strictures.
"The French farce contains little or nothing of the Latin comedy. It has neither acts nor scenes, which would only serve to introduce a tedious prolixity: for the true subject of the French farce, or SOTTIE, is every sort of foolery which has a tendency to provoke laughter.—The subject of the Greek and Latin comedy was totally different from every thing on the French stage. For it had more morality than drollery, and often as much truth as fiction. Our MORALITIES hold a place indifferently between tragedy and comedy: but our farces are really what the Romans called mimes, or
Priapées,
the intended end and effect of which was excessive laughter, and on that account they admitted all kinds of licentiousness, as our farces do at present. In the mean time, their pleasantry does not derive much advantage from rhymes, however flowing, of eight syllables
Liv. ii. ch. viii. At the end of Sibilet's work is a critical piece of Quintil against Ch. Fontaine, first printed separately at Paris, 1538. 16mo.
."
Sibilet's work is chiefly founded on Horace. His definitions are clear and just, and his precepts well explained. The most curious part of it is the enumeration of the poets who in his time were of most repute. Jacques Pelletier du Mans, a physician, a mathematician, a poet, and a voluminous writer on various subjects both in prose and verse, also published an ART POETIQUE at Lyons, in 1555
By Jean de Tournes. 8vo.
. This critic had sufficient penetration to perceive the false and corrupt taste of his cotemporaries.
"Instead of the regular ode and sonnet, our language is sophisticated by
ballads, roundeaux, lays,
and
triolets.
But with these we must rest contented, till the farces which have so long infatuated our nation are converted into comedy, our martyr-plays into tragedy, and our romances into heroic poems
Ch. de L'ODE.
."
And again,
"We have no pieces in our language written in the genuine comic form, except some affected and unnatural MORALITIES, and other plays of the same character, which do not deserve the name of comedy. The drama would appear to advantage, did it but resume its proper state and antient dignity. We have, however, some tragedies in French learnedly translated, among which is the HECUBA of Euripides by Lazare de Baïf, &c
Ch. DE LA COMEDIE ET DE LA TRAGEDIE. See also, to the same purpose, Collettet
Sur la poesie morale,
and Guillaume des Autels,
Repos d'
n plus grand
travail.
."
Of rhyme the same writer says,
"S'il n'etoit question que de parler ornement, il ne faudroit sinon écrire en prose, ou s'il n'etoit question que de rimer, il ne faudroit, sinon rimer en farceur: mais en poesie, il faut faire tous les deux, et BIEN DIRE, et BIEN RIMER
Liv. ii. ch. i. De la RIM
.
."
His chapters on IMITATION and TRANSLATION have much more philosophy and reflection than are to be expected for his age, and contain observations which might edify modern critics
See Liv. i. ch. v. and vi.
. Nor must I forget, that Pelletier also published a French translation of Horace's ART OF POETRY at Paris in 1545
Par Michel Vascosan. 8vo.
. I presume, that Joachim du Bellay's
Deffense et Illustration de la
LANGUE FRANÇOISE was published at no great distance from the year 1550. He has the same just notion of the drama.
"As to tragedies and comedies, if kings and states would restore them in their antient glory, which has been usurped by farces and MORALITIES, I am of opinion that you would lend your assistance; and if you wish to adorn our language, you know where to find models
Liv. ii. ch. iv.
."
The Italian vernacular criticism began chiefly in commentaries and discourses on the language and phraseology of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccace. I believe one of the first of that kind is,
"Le tre Fontane di Nicolò Liburnio sopra la grammatica, e l'eloquenza di Dante, del Petrarcha, e del Boccacio. In Venezia, per Gregorio Gregori, 1526
In quarto. Again, per Marchio Sessa, 1534. 8vo.
."
Numerous expositions, lectures, annotations, and discourses of the same sort, especially on Dante's Inferno, and the Florentine dialect, appeared soon afterwards. Immediately after the publication of their respective poems, Ariosto, whose ORLANDO FURIOSO was styled the
nuova poesia,
and Tasso, were illustrated or expounded by commentators more intricate than their text. One of the earliest of these is,
"Sposizione de Simon Fornari da Reggio sopra l'Orlando Furioso di Lodovico Ariosto. In Firenze per Lorenzo Torrentino 1549
In 8vo. The
Seconde Partie
appeared ibid. 1550. 8vo.
."
Perhaps the first criticism on what the Italians call the Volgar Lingua is by Pietro Bembo,
"Prose di Pietro Bembo della volgar Lingua divise in tre libri. In Firenze per Lorenzo Torrentino, 1549
In quarto.
."
But the first edition seems to have been in 1525. This subject was discussed in an endless succession of
Regole grammaticali, Osservazioni, Avvertimenti,
and
Ragionamenti.
Here might also be mentioned, the annotations, although they are altogether explanatory, which often accompanied the early translations of the Greek and Latin classics into Italian. But I resign this labyrinth of research to the superior opportunities and abilities of the French and Italian antiquaries in their native literature. To have said nothing on the subject might have been thought an omission, and to have said more, impertinent. I therefore return to our own poetical annals.
Our three great poets, Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, seem to have maintained their rank, and to have been in high reputation, during the period of which we are now treating. Splendid impressions of large works were at this time great undertakings. A sumptuous edition of Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS was published by Berthelette in 1554. On the same ample plan, in 1555, Robert Braham printed with great accuracy, and a diligent investigation of the antient copies, the first correct edition of Lydgate's TROYBOKE
Nothing can be more incorrect than the first edition in 1513.
. I have before incidentally remarked
See supr. vol. ii. p. 44.
, that Nicholas Briggam, a polite scholar, a student at Oxford and at the Inns of Court, and a writer of poetry, in the year 1555, deposited the bones of Chaucer under a new tomb, erected at his own cost, and inscribed with a new epitaph, in the chapel of bishop Blase in Westminster abbey, which still remains
Undoubtedly Chaucer was originally buried in this place. Leland
ites a Latin elegy, or NAENIA, of thirty-four lines, which he says was composed by Stephanus Surigonius of Milan, at the request of William Caxton the printer: and which, Leland adds, was written on a white tablet by Surigoniu
, on a pillar near Chaucer's grave in the south ile at Westminster. SCRIPT. BRIT. GALPRID. CHAUCERUS. See Caxton's EPILOGUE to Chaucer's BOOKE OF FAME, in Caxton's CHAUCER. Wood says, that Briggam
"exerci
d his muse much in poetry, and took great delight in the works of Jeffrey Chaucer: for whose memory he had so great a respect, that he removed his bones into the south cross-ile or transept of S. Peter's church, &c."
ATH. OXON. i. 130. I do not apprehend there was any removal, in this case, from one part of the abbey to another. Chaucer's
omb has appropriated this aile, or transept, to the sepulture or to the honorary monuments of our poets.
. Wilson, as we have just seen in a citation from his RHETORIC, records an anecdote, that the more accomplished and elegant courtiers were perpetually quoting Chaucer. Yet this must be restricted to the courtiers of Edward the sixth. And indeed there is a peculiar reason why Chaucer, exclusive of his real excellence, should have been the favorite of a court which laid the foundations of the reformation of religion. It was, that his poems abounded with satyrical strokes against the corruptions of the church, and the dissolute manners of the monks. And undoubtedly Chaucer long before, a lively and popular writer, greatly assisted the doctrines of his cotemporary Wickliffe, in opening the eyes of the people to the absurdities of popery, and exposing its impostures in a vein of humour and pleasantry. Fox the martyrologist, a weak and a credulous compiler, perhaps goes too far in affirming, that Chaucer has undeniably proved the pope to be the antichrist of the apocalypse
Tom. ii. p. 42. edit. 1684.
.
Of the reign of queen Mary, we are accustomed to conceive every thing that is calamitous and disgusting. But when we turn our eyes from its political evils to the objects which its literary history presents, a fair and flourishing scene appears. In this prospect, the mind feels a repose from contemplating the fates of those venerable prelates, who suffered the most excruciating death for the purity and inflexibility of their faith; and whose unburied bodies, dissipated in ashes, and undistinguished in the common mass, have acquired a more glorious monument, than if they had been interred in magnificent shrines, which might have been visited by pilgrims, loaded with superstitious gifts, and venerated with the pomp of mistaken devotion.
SECT. XXXVIII.
THE first poem which presents itself at the commencement of the reign of queen Elisabeth, is the play of GORDOBUC, written by Thomas Sackville lord Buckhurst, the original contriver of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES
It is scarcely worth observing, that one Thomas Brice, at the accession of Elisabeth, printed in English metre a
Register of the Martyrs and Confessors under queen Mary,
Lond. for R. Adams, 1559. 8vo. I know not how far Fox might profit by this work. I think he has not mentioned it. In the Stationers registers, in 1567, were entered to Henry Binneman, SON
S and SONNETTS by Thomas Brice. REGISTR. A. fol. 164. a. I have never seen the book. In 1570, an elegy, called
"An epitaph on Mr. Bryce preacher"
occurs, licenced to John Alde. Ibid. fol. 205. b. Again, we have the COURT OF VENUS, I suppose a ballad, MORALISED, in 1566, by Thomas Bryce, for Hugh Singleton. Ibid. fol. 156. a.
. Thomas Norton, already mentioned as an associate with Sternhold and Hopkins in the metrical version of David's Psalms, is said to have been his coadjutor
See supr. p. 169. See Preface to GORDO
UC, edit. 1571. Strype says, that Thomas Norton was a clergyman, a puritan, a man of parts and learning, well known to secretary Cecil and archbishop Parker, and that he was suspected, but without foundation, of writing an answer to Whitgift's book against the puritans, publishe
in 1572. LIFE OF PARKER, p. 364. LIFE OF WHITGIFT, p. 28. I forgot to mention before, that Norton has a copy of recommendatory ve
ses pre
ixed to Turner's PRESERVATIVE, a tract against the Pelagians, dedicated to Hugh Latimer, printed Lond. 1551. 12mo. In the Conferences in the Tower with Campion the Jesuit, in 1581, one Norton, but not our author, seems to have been employed as a notary. See
"A TRUE REPORTE OF THE DISPUTATION, &c."
Lond. 1583. Bl. Lett. 4to. SIGNAT. A a. iij.
.
It is no part of my plan, accurately to
ark the progress of our drama, much less to examine the merit of particular plays. But as this piece is perhaps the first specimen in our language of an heroic tale, written in blank verse, divided into acts and scenes, and cloathed in all the formalities of a regular tragedy, it seems justly to deserve a more minute and a distinct discussion in this general view of our poetry.
It was first exhibited in the great Hall of the Inner Temple, by the students of that Society, as part of the entertainment of a grand Christmas, and afterwards before queen Elisabeth at Whitehall, on the eighteenth day of January in 1561. It was never intended for the press. But being surreptitiously and very carelessly printed in 1565, an exact edition, with the consent and under the inspection of the authors, appeared in 1571, in black letter, thus entitled.
"The TRAGIDIE OF FERREX AND PORREX, set forth without addition or alteration, but altogether as the same was showed on stage before the queenes Majestie about nine yeare past, viz. The xviij day of Januarie, 1561. By the gentlemen of the Inner
Temple. Seen and allowed, &c. Imprinted at London by John Daye dwelling ouer Aldersgate."
It has no date, nor notation of pages, and contains only thirty-one leaves in small octavo
For the benefit of those who wish to gain a full and exact information about this edition, so as to distinguish it from all the rest, I will here exhibit the arrangement of the lines of the title page.
"The Tragidie of Ferrex | and Porrex, | set forth without addition or alteration | but altogether as the same was shewed | on stage before the queenes maiestie, | about nine yeares past,
vz.
the | xviij daie of Januarie. 1561. by the Gentlemen of the | Inner Temple. | Seen and allowed &c. | Imprinted at London by | John Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate."
With the Bodleian copy of this edition, are bound up four pamphlets against the papists by Thomas Norton.
. In the edition of 1565, it is called the TRAGEDIE OF GORDOBUC. The whole title of that edition runs thus.
"The Tragedie of Gordobuc, whereof three actes were wrytten by Thomas Nortone and the two laste by Thomas Sackvyle. Sett forthe as the same was shewed before the queenes most excellent maiestie in her highnes court of Whitehall, the 18 Jan. 1561. By the gentlemen of thynner Temple in London. Sept. 22. 1565."
Printed by William Griffith at the sign of the falcon in Fleet-street, in quarto
On the books of the Stationers,
"Th
Tragedie of GORDO
UC where iij actes were written by Thomas Norton and the laste by Thomas Sackvyle,"
is entered in 1565-6, with William Grif
iths. REGIST
. A. fol. 132. b.
. I have a most incorrect black lettered copy in duodecimo, without title, but with the printer's monogram in the last page, I suspect of 1569, which once belonged to Pope
In the year 1717, my father, then a fellow of Magdalene college at Oxford, gave this copy to Mr. Pope, as appears by a letter of Pope to R. Digby, dat. Jun. 2. 1717. See Pope's LETTERS
vol. ix. p. 39. edit. 12mo. 1754.
"Mr. Warton forced me to take Gordobuc, &c."
Pope gave it to the late bishop Warburton, who gave it to me about ten years ago, 1770.
, and from which the late Mr. Spence most faithfully printed a modern edition of the tragedy, in the year 1736. I believe it was printed before that of 1571, for it retains all the errors of Griffith's first or spurious edition of 1565. In the Preface prefixed to the edition of 1571, is the following passage.
"Where [whereas] this tragedy was for furniture of part of the grand Christmasse in the Inner-temple, first written about nine years ago by the right honourable Thomas now lord Buckhurst, and by T. Norton; and afterwards showed before her maiestie, and neuer intended by the authors thereof to be published: Yet one W. G. getting a copie thereof at some young mans hand, that lacked a little money and much discretion, in the last great plague
anno
1565, about fiue yeares past, while the said lord was out of England, and T. Norton far out of London, and neither of them both made priuy, put it forth exceedingly corrupted, &c."
W. G. is William Griffith, the printer in Fleet street, abovementioned. Mr. Garrick had another old quarto edition, printed by Alde, in 1590.
These are the circumstances of the fable of this tragedy. Gordobuc, a king of Britain about six hundred years before Christ, made in his life-time a division of his kingdom to his sons Ferrex and Porrex. The two young princes within five years quarrelled for universal sovereignty. A civil was ensued, and Porrex
lew his elder brother Ferrex. Their mother Viden, who loved Ferrex best, revenged his death by entering Porrex's chamber in the night, and murthering him in his sleep. The people, exa
perated at the cruelty and treachery of this murther, rose in rebellion, and killed both Viden and Gordobuc. The nobility then assembled, collected an army, and destroyed the rebels. An intestine war commenced between the chief lords: the succession of the crown became uncertain and arbitrary, for want of the lineal royal issue: and the country, destitute of a king, and wasted by domestic slaughter, was reduced to a state of the most miserable desolation.
In the dramatic conduct of this tale, the unities of time and place are eminently and visibly violated: a defect which Shakespeare so frequently commits, but which he covers by the magic of his poetry. The greater part of this long and eventful history is included in the representation. But in a story so fertile of bloodshed, no murther is committed on the stage. It is worthy of remark, that the death of Porrex in the bed-chamber is only related. Perhaps the players had not yet learned to die, nor was the ponyard so essential an article as at present among the implements of the property-room. Nor is it improbable, that to kill a man on the stage was not now avoided as a spectacle shocking to humanity, but because it was difficult and inconvenient to be represented. The writer has followed the series of facts related in the chronicles without any material variation, or fictitious embarrassments, and with the addition only of a few necessary and obvious characters.
There is a Chorus of Four Antient and Sage Men of Britain, who regularly close every Act, the last excepted, with an ode in long-lined stanzas, drawing back the attention of the audience to the substance of what has just passed, and illustrating it by recapitulatory moral reflections, and poetical or historical allusions. Of these the best is that which terminates the fourth Act, in which prince Porrex is murthered by his mother Viden. These are the two first stanzas.
When greedie lust in royall seat to reigne,
Hath reft all care of goddes, and eke of men,
And Cruell Heart, Wrath, Treason, and Disdaine,
Within th' ambicious breast are lodged, then
Behold howe MISCHIEFE wide herselfe displaies,
And with the brothers hand the brother slaies!
When blood thus shed doth staine the heauens face,
Crying to Joue for vengeaunce of the deede,
The mightie god euen moueth from his place,
With wrath to wreak. Then sendes he forth with spede
The dreadful Furies, daughters of the night,
With serpents girt, carrying the whip of ire,
With haire of stinging snakes, and shining bright
With flames and blood, and with a brande of fire.
These for reuenge of wretched murder done
Do make the mother kill her onelie son!
Blood asketh blood, and death must death requite:
Joue, by his iust and euerlasting doom,
Justly hath euer so required it, &c
Act iv. Sc. ult.
.
In the imagery of these verses, we discern no faint traces of the hand which drew the terrible guardians of hell-gate, in the INDUCTION to the MIRROUR of MAGISTRATES.
The moral beauties and the spirit of the following ode, which closes the third act, will perhaps be more pleasing to many readers.
The lust of kingdom
Kingdoms, edit. 1565.
knowes no sacred faithe,
No rule of reason, no regarde of right,
No kindlie loue, no feare of heauens wrathe:
But with contempt of goddes, and man's despight,
Through blodie slaughter doth prepare the waies
To fatall scepter, and accursed reigne:
The sonne so lothes the fathers lingerynge daies,
Ne dreads his hande in brothers blode to staine!
O wretched prince! ne dost thou yet recorde
The yet fressh murthers done within the lande,
Of thie forefathers, when the cruell sworde
Bereft Morgain his liefe with cosyn's hande?
Thus fatall plagues pursue the giltie race,
Whose murderous hand, imbrued with giltles bloode,
Askes vengeaunce still
Still, omitt. edit. 1565.
, before the heauens face,
With endles mischiefes on the cursed broode.
The wicked child thus
This, edit. 1565.
bringes to wofull
ier
The mournefull plaintes, to waste his wery
Very, a worse reading, in edit. 1571.
life:
Thus do the cruell flames of civyll
ier
Destroye the parted reigne with hatefull strife:
And hence doth spring the well, from which doth flo,
The dead black streames of mourning
Mournings, edit. 1565.
, plaint, and wo
Act iii. Sc. ult.
.
Every Act is introduced, as was the custom in our old plays, with a piece of machinery called the DUMB SHOW, shadowing by an allegorical exhibition the matter that was immediately to follow. In the construction of this spectacle and its personifications, much poetry and imagination was often displayed. It is some apology for these prefigurations, that they were commonly too mysterious and obscure, to forestal the future events with any degree of clearness and precision. Not that this mute mimicry was always typical of the ensuing incidents. It sometimes served for a compendious introduction of such circumstances, as could not commodiously be comprehended within the bounds of the representation. It sometimes supplied deficiencies, and covered the want of business. Our ancestors were easily satified with this artificial supplement of one of the most important unities, which abundantly filled up the interval that was necessary to pass, while a hero was expected from the Holy Land, or a princess was imported, married, and brought to bed. mean time, the greater part of the audience were probably more pleased with the emblematical pageantry than the poetical dialogue, although both were alike unintelligible.
I will give a specimen in the DOMME SHEWE preceding the fourth act.
"First, the musick of howeboies began to plaie. Duringe whiche, there came forth from vnder the stage, as thoughe out of hell, three Furies, ALECTO, MEGERA, and CTESIPHONE
Tisiphone.
, clad in blacke garments sprinkled with bloud and flames, their bodies girt with snakes, their heds spread with serpents instead of heare, the one bearing in her hande
snake the other a whip, and the thirde a burning firebrande: eche driuynge before them a kynge and a queene, which moued by Furies vnnaturally had slaine their owne children. The names of the kinges and queenes were these, TANTALUS, MEDEA, ATHAMAS, INO, CAMBISES, ALTHEA. After that the Furies, and these, had passed aboute the stage thrise, they departed, and then the musicke ceased. Hereby was signified the vnnaturall murders to followe, that is to saie, Porrex slaine by his owne mother. And of king Gordobuc and queene Viden killed by their owne subjectes."
Here, by the way, the visionary procession of kings and queens long since dead, evidently resembles our author Sackville's original model of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES; and, for the same reason, reminds us of a similar train of royal spectres in the tentscene of Shakespeare's KING RICHARD THE THIRD.
I take this opportunity of expressing my surprise, that this ostensible comment of the Dumb Shew should not regularly appear in the tragedies of Shakespeare. There are even proofs that he treated it with contempt and ridicule. Although some critics are of opinion, that because it is never described in form at the close or commencement of his acts, it was therefore never introduced. Shakespeare's aim was to collect an audience, and for this purpose all the common expedients were necessary. No dr
matic writer of his age has more battles or ghosts. His representations abound with the usual appendages of mechanical terror, and he adopts all the superstitions of the theatre. This problem can only be resolved into the activity or the superiority of a mind, which either would not be entangled by the formality, or which saw through the futility, of this unnatural and extrinsic ornament. It was not by declamation or by pantomime that Shakespeare was to fix his eternal dominion over the hearts of mankind.
To return to Sackville. That this tragedy was never a favorite among our ancestors, and had long fallen into general oblivion, is to be attributed to the nakedness and uninteresting nature of the plot, the tedious length of the speeches, the want of a discrimination of character, and almost a total absence of pathetic or critical situations. It is true that a mother kills her own son. But this act of barbarous and unnatural impiety, to say nothing of its almost unexampled atrocity in the tender sex, proceeds only from a brutal principle of sudden and impetuous revenge. It is not the consequence of any deep machination, nor is it founded in a proper preparation of previous circumstances. She is never before introduced to our notice as a wicked or designing character. She murthers her son Porrex, because in the commotions of a civil dissension, in self-defence, after repeated provocations, and the strongest proofs of the basest ingratitude and treachery, he had slain his rival brother, not without the deepest compunction and remorse for what he had done. A mother murthering a son is a fact which must be received with horror; but it required to be complicated with other motives, and prompted by a cooperation of other causes, to rouse our attention, and work upon our passions. I do not mean that any other motive could have been found, to palliate a murther of such a nature. Yet it was possible to heighten and to divide the di
tress, by rendering this bloody mother, under the notions of human frailty, an object of our compassion as well as of our abhorrence. But perhaps these artifices were not yet known or wanted. The general story of the play is great in its political consequences; and the leading incidents are important, but not sufficiently intricate to awaken our curiosity, and hold us in suspence. Nothing is perplexed and nothing unravelled. The opposition of interests is such as does not affect our nicer feelings. In the plot of a play, our pleasure arises in proportion as our expectation is excited.
Yet it must be granted, that the language of GORDOBUC has great purity and perspicuity; and that it is entirely free from that tumid phraseology, which does not seem to have taken place till play-writing had become a trade, and our poets found it their int
rest to captivate the multitude by the false sublime, and by those exaggerated imageries and pedantic metaphors, which are the chief blemishes of the scenes of Shakespeare, and which are at this day mistaken for his capital beauties by too many readers. Here also we perceive another and a strong reason why this play was never popular.
Sir Philip Sydney, in his admirable DEFENCE OF POESIE, remarks, that this tragedy is full of
notable moralitie.
But tragedies are not to instruct us by the intermixture of moral sentences, but by the force of example, and the effect of the story. In the first act, the three counsellors are introduced debating about the division of the kingdom in long and elaborate speeches, which are replete with political advice and maxims of civil prudence. But this stately sort of declamation, whatever eloquence it may display, and whatever policy it may teach, is undramatic, unanimated, and unaffecting. Sentiment and argument will never supply the place of a
tion upon the stage. Not to mention, that these grave harangues have some tincture of the formal modes of address, and the ceremonious oratory, which were then in fashion. But we must allow, that in the strain of dialogue in which they are professedly written, they have uncommon merit, even without drawing an apology in their favour from their antiquity: and that they contain much dignity, strength of reflection, and good sense, couched in clear expression and polished numbers. I shall first produce a specimen from the speech of Arostus who is styled a Coun
ellor to the King, and who is made to defend
specious yet perhaps the least rational side of the question.
And in your lyfe, while you shall so beholde
Their rule, their vertues, and their noble deede
,
Such as their kinde behighteth to vs all;
Great be the profites that shall growe thereof:
Your age in quiet shall the longer last,
Your lastinge age shall be their longer staie:
For cares of kynges, that rule, as you haue rulde,
For publique wealth, and not for private ioye,
Do waste mannes lyfe, and hasten crooked age,
With furrowed face, and with enfeebled lymmes,
To drawe on creepynge Death a swifter pace.
They two, yet yonge, shall beare the parted
Partie, edit. 1565.
regne
With greater ease, than one, now olde, alone,
Can welde the whole: for whom, muche harder is
With lessened strength the double weight to beare
Your age, your counsell, and the graue regarde
Of father
Father
, edit. 1565.
, yea of suche a fathers name,
Nowe at beginning of their sondred reigne,
When is
It is, edit. 1565.
the hazarde of their whole successe,
Shall bridle so the force of youthfull heates,
And so restraine the rage of insolence
Whiche most assailes the yong and noble minds,
And so shall guide and traine in tempred staie
Their yet greene bending wittes with reuerent awe,
As
And, edit. 1565.
now inured with vertues at the first.
Custom, O king, shall bringe delightfulnes:
By vse of vertue, vice shall growe in hate.
But if you so dispose it, that the daye
Which endes your life, shal first begin their reigne,
Great is the perill. What will be the ende,
When suche beginning of suche liberties
Voide of suche stayes
States, edit. 1565.
as in your life do lye,
Shall leaue them free to random
To free randon, edit
1565.
of their will,
An open prey to traiterous flattery,
The greatest pestilence of noble youthe:
Which perill shal be past, if in your life,
Their tempred youth, with aged fathers awe,
Be brought in vre of skilfull staiedness, &c
Act i. Sc. ii.
.
From an obsequious complaisance to the king, who is present, the topic is not agitated with that opposition of opinion and variety of arguments which it naturally suggests, and which would have enlivened the disputation and displayed diversity of character. But Eubulus, the king's secretary, declares his sentiments with some freedom, and seems to be the most animated of all our three political orators.
To parte your realme vnto my lords your sonnes,
I think not good, for you, ne yet for them,
But worst of all for this our native land:
Within
For with, edit. 1565.
one lande one single rule is best.
Diuided reignes do make diuided hartes,
But peace preserues the countrey and the prince.
Suche is in man the gredie minde to reigne,
So great is his desire to climbe alo
t
In wordly stage the stateliest partes to beare,
That faith, and iustice, and all kindly
Natural.
loue,
Do yelde vnto desire of soueraigntie.
Where egall state doth raise an egall hope,
To winne the thing that either wold attaine.
Your grace remembreth, howe in passed yeres
The mightie Brute, first prince of all this lande,
Possessed the same, and ruled it well in one:
He, thinking that the compasse did suffice,
For his three sonnes three kingdoms eke to make,
Cut it in three, as you would nowe in twaine:
But how much Brittish
Brutish, edit. 15
5.
blod hath since
Sithence, edit. 1565.
been spilt,
What princes slaine before their timely hour
Honour, edit. 1565.
,
To ioyne againe the sondred vnitie?
What wast of townes and people in the lande?
What treasons heaped on murders and on spoiles?
Whose iust reuenge euen yet is scarcely ceased,
Ruthfull remembraunce is yet raw
Had, edit. 1565.
in minde, &c
Ibid.
.
The illustration from Brutus is here both apposite and poetical.
Spence, with a reference to the situation of the author lord Buckhurst in the court of queen Elisabeth, has observed in his preface to the modern edition of this tragedy, that
"'tis no wonder, if the language of kings and statesmen should be less happily imitated by a poet than a privy counsellor."
This is an insinuation that Shakespeare, who has left many historical tragedies, was less able to conduct some parts of a royal story than the statesman lord Buckhurst. But I will venture to pronounce, that whatever merit there is in this play, and particularly in the speeches we have just been examining, it is more owing to the poet than the privy counsellor. If a first minister was to write a tragedy, I believe the piece will be the better, the less it has of the first minister. When a statesman turns poet, I should not wish him to fetch his ideas or his language from the canbinet. I know not why a king should be better qualified than a private man, to make kings talk in blank verse.
The chaste elegance of the following description of a region abounding in every convenience, will gratify the lover of classical purity.
Yea, and that half, which in
Within, edit. 1565.
abounding store
Of things that serue to make a welthie realme,
In statelie cities, and in frutefull soyle,
In temperate breathing of the milder heauen,
In thinges of nedeful vse, whiche friendlie sea
Transportes by traffike from the forreine partes
Portes, edit. 1565.
,
In flowing wealth, in honour and in force, &c
Act ii. Sc. i.
.
The close of Marcella's narration of the murther of Porrex by the queen, which many poets of a more enlightened age would have exhibited to the spectators, is perhaps the most moving and pathetic speech in the play. The reader will observe, that our author, yet to a good purpose, has transferred the ceremonies of the tournament to the court of an old British king.
O queene of adamante! O marble breaste!
If not the fauour of his comelie face,
If not his princelie chere and countenaunce,
His valiant active armes, his manlie breaste,
If not his faier and semelie personage,
His noble lymmes in suche proporcion
In the edition of 1565, this word is
preparacion.
I mention this, as a specimen of the great incorrectness of that edition.
caste,
As would have wrapped
Wrapped, rapt, i. e. ravished. I once conjectured
warped.
We have
"wrapped in wo."
Act iv. Sc. ii.
a sillie womans thought,
If this mought not haue moued thy
The, edit. 1565.
bloodie harte,
And that most cruell hande, the wretched weapon
Euen to let fall, and kisse
Ki
e, edit. 1565.
him in the face,
With teares for ruthe to reaue suche one by death:
Should nature yet consent to slaye her sonne?
O mother thou, to murder thus thie childe!
Euen Joue, with Justice, must with lightening flames
From heauen send downe some strange reuenge on thee.
Ah! noble prince, how oft have I beheld
Thee mounted on thy fierce and traumpling stede,
Shyning in armour bright before thy tylte,
And with thy mistresse
sleaue tied on thy helme,
And charge thy staffe, to please thy ladies eie,
That bowed the head peece of thy frendly foe?
Howe oft in armes on horse to bende the mace
The sha
t of the lauce.
?
How oft in arms on foote to breake the sworde?
Which neuer now these eyes may see againe
Act iv. S
. ii.
!
Marcella, the only lady in the play except the queen, is one of the maids of honour; and a modern writer of tragedy would have made her in love with the young prince who is murthered.
The queen laments the loss of her eldest and favorite son, whose defeat and death had just been announced, in the following
oliloquy. The ideas are too general, although happily expressed: but there is some imagination in her wishing the old massy palace had long ago fallen, and crushed her to death.
Why should I lyue, and lynger forth my time
In longer liefe, to double my distresse?
O me most wofull wight, whome no mishap
Long ere this daie could haue bereued hence!
Mought not these handes, by fortune or by fate,
Haue perst this brest, and life with iron re
?
Or in this pallaice here, where I so longe
Haue spent my daies, could not that happie houre
Ones, ones, haue hapt, in which these hugie frames
With death by fall might haue oppressed me!
Or should not this most hard and cruell soile,
So oft where I haue prest my wretched steps,
Somtyme had ruthe of myne accursed liefe
To rend in twaine, and swallowe me therin!
So had my bones possessed nowe in peace
Their happie graue within the closed grounde,
And greadie wormes had gnawen this pyned hart
Without my feelynge paine! So should not now
This lyvynge brest remayne the ruthefull tombe
Wherein my hart, yelden to dethe, is graued, &c
Act iv. Sc. i.
.
There is some animation in these imprecations of prince Ferrex upon his own head, when he protests that he never conceived any malicious design, or intended any injury, against his brother Porrex
Act ii. Sc. i.
.
The wrekefull gods poure on my cursed head
Eternall plagues, and neuer dyinge woes!
The hellish prince
Pluto.
adiudge my dampned ghoste
To Tantales
Tantalus, edit. 1565.
thirste, or proude Ixions wheele,
Or cruel gripe
The vulture of Prometheus.
, to gnaw my growing harte;
To durynge tormentes and vnquenched flames;
If euer I conceiued so foule a thought,
To wishe his ende of life, or yet of reigne.
It must be remembered, that the antient Britons were supposed to be immediately descended from the Trojan Brutus, and that consequently they were acquainted with the pagan history and mythology. Gordobuc has a long allusion to the miseries of the siege of Troy
Act iii. Sc. i.
.
In this strain of correct versification and language, Porrex explains to his father Gordobuc, the treachery of his brother Ferrex.
When thus I sawe the knot of loue unknitte;
All honest league, and faithfull promise broke,
The lawe of kind
Nature.
and trothe thus rent in twaine,
His hart on mischiefe set, and in his brest
Blacke treason hid: then, then did I dispaier
That euer tyme coulde wynne him frende to me;
Then sawe I howe he smyled with slaying knife
Wrapped vnder cloke, then sawe I depe deceite
Lurke in his face, and death prepared for mee, &c
Act iv. Sc. ii.
.
As the notions of subordination, of the royal authority, and the divine institution of kings, predominated in the reign of queen Elisabeth, it is extraordinary, that eight lines, inculcating in plain terms the doctrine of passive and unresisting obedience to the prince, which appeared in the fifth act of the first edition of this tragedy, should have been expunged in the edition of 1571, published under the immediate inspection of the authors
See Signat. D. V. edit. 1571.
. It is well known, that the Calvinists carried their ideas of reformation and refinement into government as well as religion: and it seems probable, that these eight verses were suppressed by Thomas Norton, Sackville's supposed assistant in the play, who was not only an active and I believe a sensible puritan, but a licencer of the publication of books under the commission of the bishop of London
For ins
ance,
"
Seven steppes to heaven, also The seven p
almes reduced into meter by W. Hunnys, The honny succles,
&c."
by Hunnys. Nov. 8, 1581, to Denham. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 185. a. Also, in the same year,
"
The picture of two pernicious varlettes called Prig Pickthank and Clem Clawbacke described by a peevishe painter.
"
Ibid. fol. 184. a. All
"under the hands of Mr. THOMAS NORTON."
Et alibi pas
im.
"The STAGE OF POPISHE TOYES, written by T. N."
perhaps the same, is licenced to Binneman, feb. 22. 1580. Ibid. fol. 178. a.
.
As to Norton's assistance in this play, it is said on better authority than that of Antony Wood, who supposes GORDOBUC to have been in old English rhime, that the three first acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the two last by Sackville. But the force of internal evidence often prevails over the authority of assertion, a testimony which is diminished by time, and may be rendered suspicious from a variety of other circumstances. Throughout the whole piece, there is an invariable uniformity of diction and versification. Sackville has two poems of considerable length in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, which fortunately furnish us with the means of comparison: and every scene of GORDOBUC is visibly marked with his characteristical manner, which consists in a perspicuity of style, and a command of numbers, superior to the tone of his times
The same may be said of Sackville's SONNET prefixed to Thomas Hoby's English version of Castiglio's I
CORTEGIANO, first printed in 1556. The third part, on
the behaviour of Court-ladies,
appears to have been translated in 1551, at the request of the marchioness of Northampton.
. Thomas Norton's poetry is of a very different and a subordinate cast: and if we may judge from his share in our metrical psalmody, he seems to have been much more properly qualified to shine in the miserable mediocrity of Sternhold's stanza, and to write spiritual rhymes for the solace of his illuminated brethren, than to reach the bold and impassioned elevations of tragedy.
SECT. XXXIX.
THIS appearance of a regular tragedy, with the division of acts and scenes, and the accompaniment of the antient chorus, represented both at the Middle-temple and at Whitehall, and written by the most accomplished nobleman of the court of queen Elisabeth, seems to have directed the attention of our more learned poets to the study of the old classical drama, and in a short time to have produced vernacular versions of the JOCASTA of Euripides, as it is called, and of the ten Tragedies of Seneca. I do not find that it was speedily followed by any original compositions on the same legitimate model.
The JOCASTA of Euripides was translated by George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmersh, both students of Grays-inn, and acted in the refectory of that society, in the year 1566. Gascoigne translated the second, third, and fifth acts, and Kinwelmersh the first, and fourth. It was printed in Gascoigne's poems, of which more will be said hereafter, in 1577, under the following title,
"JOCASTA, a Tragedie written in Greeke by Euripides. Translated and digested into Acte, by George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmershe of Graies inn, and there by them presented, An. 1566."
The Epilogue was written in quatraines by Christopher Yelverton, then one of their brother students. So strongly were our audiences still attached to spectacle, that the authors did not venture to present their play, without introducing a DUMB SHEW at the beginning of every act. For this, however, they had the example and authority of GORDOBUC. Some of the earliest specimens of Inigo Jones's Grecian architecture are marred by Gothic ornaments.
It must, however, be observed, that this is by no means a just or exact translation of the JOCASTA, that is the PHOENISSAE, of Euripides. It is partly a paraphrase, and partly an abridgement, of the Greek tragedy. There are many omissions, retrenchments, and transpositions. The chorus, the characters, and the substance of the story, are entirely retained, and the tenor of the dialogue is often preserved through whole scenes. Some of the beautiful odes of the Greek chorus are neglected, and others substituted in their places, newly written by the translators. In the favorite address to Mars
See PHOENISS. pag. 140. edit. Barnes.
, &c.
, Gascoigne has totally deserted the rich imagery of Euripides, yet has found means to form an original ode, which is by no means destitute of pathos or imagination.
O fierce and furious Mars! whose harmefull hart
Reioiceth most to shed the giltlesse blood;
Whose headie will doth all the world subvart,
And doth enuie the pleasant merry mood
Of our estate, that erst in quiet stood:
Why dost thou thus our harmlesse towne annoy,
Whych mighty Bacchus gouerned in ioy?
Father of warre and death, that doost remoue,
With wrathfull wrecke, from wofull mothers brest
The trusty pledges of their tender loue!
So graunt the goddes, that for our finall rest
Dame Venus' pleasant lookes may please thee best:
Whereby, when thou shalt all amazed stand,
The sword may fall out of thy trembling hand
So Tibullus, where he cautions Mar
not to gaze on his mistress. Lib. iv. ii. 3.
. . . . . At tu, violente, caveto,
Ne tibi miranti turpiter arma cadant.
:
And thou mayst proue some other way ful wel
The bloody prowess of thy mighty speare,
Wherewith thou raisest from the depth of hel
The wrathful sprites of all the Furies there;
Who, when they wake, do wander euery where,
And neuer rest to range about the costes,
T' enrich that pit with spoyle of damned ghostes.
And when thou hast our fields forsaken thus,
Let cruel DISCORD beare thee company,
Engirt with snakes and serpents venemous;
Euen She, that can with red vermilion die
The gladsome greene that florisht pleasantly;
And make the greedy ground a drinking cvp,
To sup the blood of murdered bodies vp.
Yet thou returne, O Ioie, and pleasant Peace!
From whence thou didst against our willes depart:
Ne let thy worthie mind from trauel cease,
To chase disdayne out of the poysned heart,
That raysed warre to all our paynes and smart,
Euen from the breast of Oedipus his sonne
Whose swelling pride hath all this iarre begon, &c
Act ii. Sc. ult.
.
I am of opinion, that our translators thought the many mythological and historical allusions in the Greek chorus, too remote and unintelligible, perhaps too cumbersome, to be exhibited in English. In the ode to CONCORD, which finishes the fourth act, translated by Kinwelmershe, there is great elegance of expression and versification. It is not in Euripides.
O blissefull CONCORD, bred in sacred brest
Of hym that rules the restlesse-rolling skie,
That to the earth, for mans assured rest,
From height of heauens vouchsafest downe to flie!
In thee alone the mightie power doth lie,
With sweet accorde to keepe the frowning starres,
And euerie planet els, from hurtful warres.
In thee, in thee, such noble vertue bydes,
As may commaund the mightiest gods to bend:
From thee alone such sugred frendship slydes
As mortall wights can scarcely comprehend.
To greatest strife thou setst deliteful end.
O holy Peace, by thee are only found
The passing ioyes that euerie where abound!
Thou only, thou, through thy celestiall might,
Didst first of all the heauenly pole devide
From th' old confused heap, that Chaos hight:
Thou madste the sunne, the moone, the starres, to glyde
With ordred course, about this world so wyde:
Thou hast ordaynde Dan Tytans shining light
By dawne of day to change the darksome night.
When tract of time returnes the lusty ver
Spring.
,
By thee alone the buds and blossoms spring,
The fields with flours be garnisht euery where;
The blooming trees aboundant fruite doe bring,
The chereful byrdes melodiously doe sing:
Thou doest appoynt the crop of summers seede,
For mans releefe, to serue the winters neede.
Thou dost inspire the hearts o
princely peers,
By prouidence proceeding from aboue,
In flowring youth to choose their proper feeres
Mates.
;
With whom they liue in league of lasting loue,
Till fearfull death doth flitting life remoue:
And looke howe fast to death man payes his due!
So fast agayne doest thou his stock renue.
By thee the basest thing aduanced is:
Thou euery where doest graffe such golden peace,
As filleth man with more than earthly blisse:
The earth by thee doth yeelde her sweete increase,
At beck of thee al bloody discords cease.
And mightiest realmes in quyet do remayne,
Whereas thy hand doth hold the royall rayne.
But if thou fayle, then all things gone to wrack:
The mother then doth dread her natural childe;
Then euery towne is subject to the sack,
Then spotles maydes, then virgins be defilde;
Then rigour rules, then reason is exilde;
And this, thou woful THEBES! to ovr greate payne,
With present spoyle art likely to sustayne.
Methink I heare the waylful-weeping cryes
Of wretched dames in euery coast resound!
Methinks I see, howe vp to heauenly skies,
From battred walles the thundring-claps rebound:
Methink I heare, howe al things go to ground:
Methink I see how souldiers wounded lie
With gasping breath, and yet they cannot die, &c
Act iv. Sc. ult.
.
The constant practice of ending every act with a long ode sung by the chorus, seems to have been adopted from GORDOBUC
It may be proper to observe here, that the tragedy of TANCRED and GISMUND, acted also before the queen at the Innertemple, in 1568, has the chorus. The title of this play, not printed till 1592, shews the quick gradations of taste. It is said to be
"Newlie revived and polished according to the decorum of these daies, by R. W. Lond. printed by T. Scarlet, &c. 1592."
4to. R. W. is Robert Wilmot, mentioned with applause as a poet in Webbe's DISCOURSE, Signat. C 4. The play was the joint-production of five students of the society. Each seems to have taken an act. At the end of the fourth is
Composuit Chr. Hatton,
or sir Christopher Hatton, undoubtedly the same that was afterwards exalted by the queen to the office of lord Keeper for his agility in dancing.
.
But I will give a specimen of this performance as a translation, from that affecting scene, in which Oedipus, blind and exiled from the city, is led on by his daughter Antigone, the rival in filial fidelity of Lear's Cordelia, to touch the dead and murthered bodies of his queen Jocasta, and his sons Eteocles and Polynices. It appears to be the chief fault of the translators, that they have weakened the force of the original, which consists in a pathetic brevity, by needless dilatations, and the affectations of circumlocution. The whole dialogue in the original is carried on in single lines. Such, however, is the pregnant simplicity of the Greek language, that it would have been impossible to have rendered line for line in English.
Daughter, I must commend thy noble heart.
Father, I will not liue in company
I will not marry.
,
And you alone wander in wildernes.
O yes, dear daughter, leaue thou me alone
Amid my plagues: be merry while thou mayst.
And who shall guide these aged feete of yours,
That banisht beene, in blind necessitie?
I will endure, as fatal lot me driues,
Resting these crooked sory sides of mine
Where so the heauens shall lend me harborough.
And, in exchange of rich and stately towres,
The woods, the wildernes, the darkesome dennes,
Shall be the boure of mine unhappy bones.
O father, now where is your glory gone?
One happy day did rayse me to renowne,
One haples day hath throwen mine honor downe.
Yet wil I beare a part of your mishaps.
That fitteth not amyd thy pleasant yeres.
Deare father, yes: let youth geue place to age.
Where is thy mother? Let me touch her face:
That with these hands I may yet feele the harme
That these blind eyes forbid me to behold.
Here father, here her corps, here put your hand.
O wife, O mother! O, both woful names!
O woful mother, and O woful wife!
O would to God, alas! O would to God,
Thou nere had been my mother, nor my wife!
But where now lie the paled bodies two
Of mine vnluckie sonnes? O where be they?
Lo, here they lie, one by another dead!
Stretch out this hand, deare daughter, stretch this hand
Vpon their faces.
Lo father, loe, now you do touch them both.
O bodies deare! O bodies deerely bought
Vnto your father! Bought with hard mishap!
O louely name of my dear Polynice!
Why cannot I of cruel Creon crave,
Ne with my death now purchase thee, a graue?
Now comes Apollo's oracle to passe,
That I in Athens towne should end my dayes.
And since thou doest, O daughter mine, desire
In this exile to be my wofull mate,
Lend me thy hand, and let vs goe together.
Loe here all prest
Ready.
, my deare beloued father
A feeble guyde, and eke a simple scoute,
To passe the perils in
Road. Path.
a doubtful way
Read, of.
.
Vnto the wretched be a wretche guyde.
In this alonly equall to my father.
And where shal I set foorth my trembling feete?
O reach me yet some surer staffe
"She giueth him a staffe and stayeth him herself
also."
Stage-direction.
, to stay
My staggering pace amyd these wayes vnknowen.
Here, father, here, and here, set foorth your feete.
Nowe can I blame none other for my harmes
But secret spite of
ore-decreed fate.
Thou art the cause, that crooked, old, and blind,
I am exilde farre from my countrey soyle, &c
Act v. Sc. ult.
.
That it may be seen in some measure, how far these two poets, who deserve much praise for even an attempt to introduce the Grecian drama to the notice of our ancestors, have succeeded in translating this scene of the tenderest expostulation, I will place it before the reader in a plain literal version.
"OED. My daughter, I praise your filial piety. But yet—ANT. But if I was to marry Creon's son, and you, my father, be left alone in banishment? OED. Stay at home, and be happy. I will bear my own misfortunes patiently. ANT. But who will attend you, thus blind and helpless, my father? OED. I shall fall down, and be found lying in some field on the ground, as it may chance to happen
It is impossible to represent the Greek, v. 1681.
. ANT. Where is now that Oedipus, and his famous riddle of the Sphinx? OED. He is lost! one day made me happy, and one day destroyed me! ANT. Ought I not, therefore, to share your miseries? OED. It will be but a base banishment of a princess with her blind father! ANT. To one that is haughty: not to one that is humble, and loves her father. OED. Lead me on then, and let me touch the dead body of your mother. ANT. Lo, now your hand is upon her
"The dear old woman,"
in the Greek.
. OED. O my mother! O my most wretched wife! ANT. She lies a wretched corpse, covered with every woe. OED. But where are the dead bodies of my sons Eteocles and Polynices? ANT. They lie just by you, stretched out close to one another. OED. Put my blind hand upon their miserable faces! ANT. Lo now, you touch your dead children with your hand. OED. O, dear, wretched, carcases of a wretched father! ANT. O, to me the most dear name of my brother Polynices
Creon had refused Polynices the rites of sepulture. This was a great aggravation of the distress.
! OED. Now, my daughter, the oracle of Apollo proves true. ANT. What? Can you tell any more evils than those which have happened? OED. That I should die an exile at Athens. ANT. What city of Attica will take you in? OED. The sacred Colonus, the house of equestrian Neptune. Come, then, lend your assistance to this blind father, since you mean to be a companion of my flight. ANT. Go then i
to miserable banishment! O my antient father, stretch out your dear hand! I will accompany you, like a favourable wind to a ship. OED. Behold, I go! Daughter, be you my unfortunate guide! ANT. Thus, am I, am I, the most unhappy of all the Theban virgins! OED. Where shall I fix my old feeble foot? Daughter, reach to me my staff. ANT. Here, go here, after me. Place your foot here, my father, you that have the strength only of a dream. OED. O most unhappy banishment! Creon drives me in my old age from my country. Alas! alas! wretched, wretched things have I suffered, &c
PHOENISS. v. 1677. seq. pag. 170. edit. Barnes.
."
So sudden were the changes or the refinements of our language, that in the second edition of this play, printed again with Gascoigne's poems in 1587, it was thought necessary to affix marginal explanations of many words, not long before in common use, but now become obsolete and unintelligible. Among others, are
behest
and
quell
Command. Kill.
By the way, this is done throughout this edition of Gascoigne's Poems. So we have Nill,
will not,
&c.
. This, however, as our author says, was done at the request of a lady, who did not understand
poetical words or termes
Pag. 128. Among others, words not of the obsolete kind are explained, such as
Monarchie, Diademe,
&c. Gascoigne is celebrated by Gabriel Harvey, as one of the English poets who have written in praise of women. GRATULAT. VALIDENS. edit. Binneman, 1578. 4to. Lib. iv. p. 22.
CHAUCERUSQUE adsit, SURREIUS et inclytus adsit,
GASCOIGNOQUE aliquis sit, mea Corda, locus.
.
Seneca's ten Tragedies were translated at different times and by different poets. These were all printed together in 1581, under this title,
"SENECA HIS TENNE TRAGEDIES, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH.
Mercurii Nutrices horae.
IMPRINTED AT LONDON IN FLEETSTREETE
neare vnto
saincte Dunstons church by Thomas Marshe, 1581
Coloph.
"IMPRINTED AT LONDON IN FLEETSTREETE
Near vnto Sainct Duns
on's church
by Thomas Marshe, 1581."
Containing 217 leaves.
."
The book is dedicated, from Butley in Cheshire, to sir Thomas Henneage, treasurer of the queen's chamber. I shall speak of each man's translation distinctly
I know not the purport of a book licenced to E. Matts,
"Discourses on Seneca the tragedian,"
Jun. 22, 1601. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 71. b.
.
The HYPPOLITUS, MEDEA, HERCULES OETEUS, and AGAMEMNON, were translated by John Studley, educated at Westminster school, and afterwards a scholar of Trinity college in Cambridge. The HYPPOLITUS, which he calls the fourth and
most ruthfull tragedy,
the MEDEA, in which are some alterations of the chorus
See NEWT. edit. fol. 121. a.
, and the HERCULES OETEUS, were all first printed in Thomas Newton's collection of 1581, just mentioned
But I must except the MEDEA, which is entered as translated by John Studley of Trinity college in Cambridge, in 1565-6, with T. Colwell. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 140. b. I have never seen this separate edition. Also the HIPPOLITUS, is entered to Jones and Charlewood, in 1579. REGISTR. B. In 1566-7, I find an entry to Henry Denham, which I do not well understand,
"for printing the fourth part of Seneca's workes."
REGISTR. A. fol. 152. b. HIPPOLITUS is the fourth Tragedy.
. The AGAMEMNON was first and separately published in 1566, and entitled,
"The eyght Tragedie of Seneca entituled AGAMEMNON, translated out of Latin into English by John Studley student in Trinitie college in Cambridge. Imprinted at London in Flete streete beneath the Conduit at the signe of S. John. Euangelyst by Thomas Colwell A. D. M. D. LXVI
Bl
Lett. 12mo.
."
This little book is exceedingly scarce, and hardly to be found in the choicest libraries of those who collect our poetry in black letter
Entered in 1565-6. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 136. b.
. Recommendatory verses are prefixed, in praise of our translator's performance
See supr. p. 290.
. It is dedicated to secretary Cecil. To the end of the fifth act our translator has added a whole scene: for the purpose of relating the death of Cassandra, the imprisonment of Electra, and the flight of Orestes. Yet these circumstances were all known and told before. The narrator is Euribates, who in the commencement of the third act had informed Clitemnestra of Agamemnon's return. These efforts, however imperfect or improper, to improve the plot of a drama by a new conduct or contrivance, deserve particular notice at this infancy of our theatrical taste and knowledge. They shew that authors now began to think for themselves, and that they were not always implicitly enslaved to the prescribed letter of their models. Studley, who appears to have been qualified for better studies, misapplied his time and talents in translating Bale's Acts of the Popes. That translation, dedicated to Thomas lord Essex, was printed in 1574
In quarto. Bl. Lett.
"The pageaunt of POPES, &c. &c. Englished with sundrye additions, by J. S."
For Thomas Marshe, 1574.
. He has left twenty Latin distichs on the death of the learned Nicholas Carr, Cheke's successor in the Greek professorship at Cambridge
At the end of Bartholomew Dodington's EPISTLE of Carr's Life and Death, addressed to sir Walter Mildmay, and subjoined to Carr's Latin Translation of seven Orations of Demosthenes. Lond. 1571. 4to. Dodington, a fellow of Trinity college, succeeded Carr in the Greek chair, 1560. See Camden's MONUM. Eccles. Coll. Westmon. edit. 1600. 4to. Signat. K 2.
.
The OCTAVIA is translated by T. N. or Thomas Nuce, or Newce, a fellow of Pembroke-hall in 1562, afterwards rector of Oxburgh in Norfolk, Beccles, Weston-Market, and vicar of Gaysley, in Suffolk
Where he died in 1617, and is buried with an epitaph in English rhyme. See Bentham's ELY. p. 251.
; and at length prebendary of Ely cathedral in 1586
Feb. 21.
. This version is for the most part executed in the heroic rhyming couplet. All the rest of the translators have used, except in the chorus, the Alexandrine measure, in which Sternhold and Hopkins rendered the psalms, perhaps the most unsuitable species of English versification that could have been applied to this purpose. Nuce's OCTAVIA was first printed in 1566
For in that year, there is a receipt for licence to Henry Denham to print it. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 148. b.
. He has two very long copies of verses, one in English and the other in Latin, prefixed to the first edition of Studley's AGAMEMNON in 1566, just mentioned.
Alexander Nevyle, translated, or rather paraphrased, the OEDIPUS, in the sixteenth year of his age, and in the year 1560, not printed till the year 1581
But in 1563, is a receipt for Thomas Colwell's licence to print
"a boke entituled the Lamentable History of the prynce Oedypus."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 89. a.
. It is dedicated to doctor Wootton, a privy counsellor, and his godfather. Notwithstanding the translator's youth, it is by far the most spirited and elegant version in the whole collection, and it is to be regretted that he did not undertake all the rest. He seems to have been persuaded by his friends, who were of the graver sort, that poetry was only one of the lighter accomplishments of a young man, and that it should soon give way to the more weighty pursuits of literature. The first act of his OEDIPUS begins with these lines, spoken by Oedipus.
The night is gon, and dreadfull day begins at length t' apeere,
And Phoebus, all bedimde with clowdes, himselfe aloft doth reere:
And gliding forth with deadly hue, a dolefull blase in skies
Doth beare: great terror and dismay to the beholders eyes!
Now shall the houses voyde be seene, with Plague deuoured quight,
And slaughter which the night hath made, shall day bring forth to light.
Doth any man in princely throne reioyce? O brittle ioy!
How many ills, how fayre a face, and yet how much annoy,
In thee doth lurk, and hidden lies? What heapes of endles strife?
They iudge amisse, that deeme the Prince to haue the happie life
Fol. 78. a.
.
Nevyl was born in Kent, in 1544
Lambarde, PERAM
. KENT. p. 72.
, and occurs taking a master's degree at Cambridge, with Robert earl of Essex, on the sixth day of July, 1581
MS. Catal. Grad. Univ. Cant.
. He was one of the learned men whom archbishop Parker retained in his family
Strype's GRINDAL, p. 196.
: and at the time of the archbishop's death, in 1575, was his secretary
Strype, LIFE OF PARKER, p. 497. He is styled ARMIGER. See also the Dedication to his KETTUS.
. He wrote a Latin narrative of the Norfolk insurrection under Kett, which is dedicated to archbishop Parker, and was printed in 1575
Lond. 4to. The title is,
"KETTUS,
ive de furoribus Norfolcienfium Ketto duce."
Again at London, 1582, by Henry Binneman, 8vo. And in English, 1615, and 1623. The disturbance was occasioned by an inclosure in 1549, and began at an annual play, or spectacle, at Wymondham, which lasted two days and two nights, according to antient custom, p. 6. edit. 1582. He cites part of a
allad sung by the rebels, which had a most powerful effect in spreading the commotion, p. 88. Prefixed is a copy of Latin verses on the death of his patron archbishop Parker. And a recommendatory Latin copy by Thomas Drant, the first translator of Horace. See also Strype's PARKER, p. 499. N
vile has another Latin work, APOLOGIA AD WALLIAE P
OCE
ES, Lond. for Binneman, 1576. 4to. He is mentioned in that part of G. Gascoi
e's poem
called DEVISES. His name, and the date 1565, are inscribed on the CARTULARIUM S. GREGORII CANTUARIAE, among bishop More's books, with two Latin lines which I hope he did not intend for hexameters.
. To thi
he added a Latin account of Norwich, printed the same year, called NORVICUS, the plates of which were executed by Lyne and Hogenberg, archbishop Parker's domestic engravers, in 1574
It is sometimes accompanied with an engraved map of the Saxon and British kings. See Hollinsh. CHRON. i. 139.
. He published the Cambridge verses on the death of sir Philip Sydney, which he dedicated to lord Leicester, in 1587
Lond. 4to. viz.
"Academiae Cantabrigie
sis Lacrymae tumulo D. Philippi Sidneii sacratae."
. He projected, but I suspect never completed, an English translation of Livy, in 1577
See Note in the Register of the Stationers Company, dated May 3, 1577. Registr. B. fol. 139. b. It was not finished in 1597.
. He died in 1614
Octob. 4. Batteley's CANTERB. App. 7. Where see his Epitaph. He is buried in a chapel in Canterbury cathedral with his brother Thomas, dean of that church. The publication of Seneca's OEDIPUS in English by Studley, or rather Gascoigne's JOCASTA, produced a metrical tale of ETROCLES AND POLYNICES, in
"THE FORREST OF FANCY, wherein is contained very pretty APOTHEGMES, and PLEASANT HISTORIES, both in
meeter
and
prose,
SONGES, SONETS, E
IGRAMS, and EPISTLES, &
. Imprinted at London by Thomas Pur
oote, &c. 1579."
4to. See SIGNAT. Bij. Perhaps Henry Chettle, or Henry Con
able, is the writer or compiler. [See supr. p. 292.] At least the colophon is,
"Fini
, H. C."
By the way, it appears, that Chettle was the publisher of Greene's GROATSWORTH OF WIT in 1592. It is entered to W. Wrighte, Sept. 20. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 292. b.
.
The HERCULES FURENS, THYESTES, and TROAS, were translated into English by Jasper Heywood. The HERCULES FURENS was first printed at London in 1561
In 12mo.
, and dedicated to William Herbert lord Pembroke, with the following pedantic Latin title.
"Lucii Annaei Senecae tragoedia prima, quae inscribitur HERCULES FURENS, nuper recognita, et ab omnibus bus mendis quibus scatebat sedulo purgata, et in studiosae juventutis utilitatem in Anglicum tanta
ide conversa, ut carmen pro carmine, quoad Anglica lingua patiatur, pene redditum videas, per Jasperum Heywodum Oxoniensem."
The THYESTES, said to be
faithfully Englished by Iasper Heywood felow of Alsolne colledge in Oxenforde,
was also first separately printed by Berthelette at London, in 1560
In 12mo. It is dedicated in verse to sir John Mason. Then follows in verse also,
"The translatour to the booke."
From the metrical Preface which next follows
I h
v
cited many stanza
See supr. p. 273. This is a Vision of the poet Seneca, containing 27 pages. In the course of thi
PREFACE, he laments a promising youth just dead, whom he means to compliment by saying, that he now
"lyues with Jo
e, another Ganymede."
But he is happy that the father survives, who seem
to be s
John Mason. Among the old Roman poets he mentions Palingenius. After Seneca has delivered him the THYESTES to translate, he feels an unusual agitation, and implores Megaera to inspire him with tragic rage.
"O thou Megaera, then I sayd,
"If might of thyne it bee
"(Wherewith thou Tantall drouste from hell)
"That thus dysturbeth mee,
"Enspyre my pen!"—
This sayde, I felt the Furies force
Enflame me more and more:
And ten tymes more now cha
te I was
Than e
er yet before.
My haire stoode vp, I waxed wood
Mad.
,
My synewes all dyd shake:
And, as the
urye had me vext,
My teethe began to quake.
And thus en
lamede, &c.
He then enters on his translation. Nothing is here wanting but a better stanza.
. He has added a scene to the fourth act, a soliloquy by Thyestes, who bewails his own misfortunes, and implores vengeance on Atreus. In this scene, the speaker's application of all the torments of hell, to Atreus's unparalleled guil
of feasting on the bowels of his children, furnishes a sort of nauseous bombast, which not only violates the laws of criticism, but provokes the abhorrence of our common sensibilities. A few of the first lines are tolerable.
O kyng of Dytis dungeon darke, and grysly ghost of hell,
That in the deepe and dreadfull denne of blackest Tartare dwell,
Where leane and pale Diseases lye, where Feare and Famyne are,
Where Di
cord standes with bleeding browes, where euery kinde of care;
Where Furies fight on beds of steele, and heares of crauling snakes,
Where Gorgon gremme, where Harpies are, and lothsom limbo lakes,
Where most prodigious
So Milton, on the same subject, and in the true sense of the word, PAR. L. ii. 625.
—All monstrous, all PRODIGIOUS things.
vgly things the hollow hell doth hyde,
If yet a monster more mishapt, &c.
In the TROAS, which was first faultily printed in or before 1560
I have never seen this edition of 1560 or before, but he speaks of it himself in the METRICAL PREFACE to the THYESTES just mentioned, and says it was most carelessly printed at the sign of the hand and star. This must have been at the shop of Richard Tottel within Temple Bar.
, afterwards reprinted in 1581 by Newton, he has taken greater liberties. At the end of the chorus after the first act, he has added about sixty verses of his own invention. In the beginning of the second act, he has added a new scene, in which he introduces the spectre of Achilles raised from hell, and demanding the sacrifice of Polyxena. This scene, which is in the octave stanza, has much of the air of one of the legends in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. To the chorus of this act, he has subjoined three stanzas. Instead of translating the chorus of the third act, which abounds with the hard names of the antient geography, and which would both have puzzled the translator and tired the English reader, he has substituted a new ode. In his preface to the reader, from which he appears to be yet a fellow of All Souls college, he modestly apologises for these licentious innovations, and hopes to be pardoned for his seeming arrogance, in attempting
"to set forth in English this present piece of the flowre of all writers Seneca, among so many fine wittes, and towardly youth, with which England this day florisheth
Fol. 95. a.
."
Our translator Jasper Heywood has several poems extant in the
Paradise of Daintie Deuises,
published in 1573. He was the son of John Heywood, commonly called the epigrammatist, and born in London. In 1547, at twelve years of age, he was sent to Oxford, and in 1553 elected fellow of Merton college. But inheriting too large a share of his father's facetious and free disposition, he sometimes in the early part of life indulged his festive vein in extravagancies and indiscretions, for which being threatened with expulsion, he resigned his fellowship
See Harrington's Epigrams,
"Of old Haywood's sonnes."
B. ii. 102.
. He exercised the office of Christmasprince, or lord of misrule, to the college: and seems to have given offence, by suffering the levities and jocularities of that character to mix with his life and general conversation
Among Wood's papers, there is an oration DE LIGNO ET FOEN
, spoken by Heywood's cotemporary and fellow-collegian, David de la Hyde, in commendation of his execution of this office.
. In the year 1558, he was recommended by cardinal Pole, as a polite scholar, an able disputant, and a steady catholic, to sir Thomas Pope founder of Trinity college in the same university, to be put in nomination for a fellowship of that college, then just founded. But this scheme did not take place
MS. Collectan. Fr. Wise. See LIF
OF SIR T. POPE.
. He was, however, appointed fellow of All Souls college the same year. Dissatisfied with the change of the national religion, within four years he left England, and became a catholic priest and a Jesuit at Rome, in 1562. Soon afterwards he was placed in the theological chair at Dilling in Switzerland, which he held for seventeen years. At length returning to England, in the capacity of a popish missionary, he was imprisoned, but released by the interest of the earl of Warwick. For the deliverance from so perilous a situation, he complimented the earl in a copy of English verses, two of which, containing a most miserable paronomasy on his own name, almost bad enough to have condemned the writer to another imprisonment, are recorded in Harrington's Epigrams
EPIGR. lib. iii. Epigr. i.
. At length he retired to Naples, where he died in 1597
ATH. OXON. i. 290.
. He is said to have been an accurate critic in the Hebrew language
H. Morus, HIST. PROVIN
. ANGL. SOC. JES. Lib. iv. num. 11. sub ann. 1585.
. His translation of the TROAS, not of Virgil as it seems, is mentioned in a copy of verses by T. B
With these initials, there is a piece pre
ixed to Gas
oigne's poems, 1579.
. prefixed to the first edition, abovementioned, of Studley's AGAMEMNON. He was intimately connected abroad with the biographer Pitts, who has given him rather too partial a panegyric.
Thomas Newton, the publisher of all the ten tragedies of Seneca in English, in one volume, as I have already remarked, in 1581
There is a receipt from Marsh for
"Seneca
s Tragedies in Englishe."
Jul. 2. 1581. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 181. b. The English version seems to have produced an edition of the original for Man and Brome, Sept. 6. 1585. Ibid. fol. 205. b.
, himself added only one to these versions of Studley, Nevile, Nuce, and Jafper Heywood. This is the THEBAIS, probably not written by Seneca, as it so essentially differs in the
atastrophe from his OEDIPUS. Nor is it likely the same poet should have composed two tragedies on the same subject, even with a variation of incidents. It is without the chorus and a fifth act. Newton appears to have made his translation in 1581, and perhaps with a view only of completing the collection. He is more prosaic than most of his fellow-labourers, and seems to have paid the chief attention to perspicuity and fidelity. In the general EPISTLE DEDICATORY to sir Thomas Henneage, prefixed to the volume, he says,
"I durst not haue geuen the aduenture to approch your presence, vpon trust of any singularity, that in this Booke hath vnskilfully dropped out of myne owne penne, but that I hoped the perfection of others artificiall workmanship that haue trauayled herein, as well as myselfe, should somewhat couer my nakednesse
and purchase my pardon.—Theirs I knowe to be deliuered with singular dexterity: myne, I confesse to be an vnflidge [unfledged] nestling, vnable to flye; an vnnatural abortion
and an vnperfect embryon: neyther throughlye laboured at Aristophanes and Cleanthes candle, neither yet exactly waighed in Critolaus his precise ballaunce. Yet this I dare saye, I haue deliuered myne authors meaning with as much perspicuity as so meane a scholar, out of so meane a stoare, in so smal a time, and vpon so short a warning, was well able to performe, &c
Dated.
"From Butley in Cheshyre the 24. of Aprill. 1581."
I am informed by a manuscript note of Oldys, that Richard Robinson translated the THEBAIS. Of this I know no more, but R. Robinson was a large writer both in verse and prose. Some of his pieces I have already mentioned. He wrote also
"CHRISMAS RECREATIONS of histories and moralizations aplied for our solace and consolacions,"
licenced to T. East, Dec. 5. 1576. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 136. b. And, in 1
69, is entered to Binneman,
"The ruefull tragedy of H
midos, &c. by Richard Robinson."
REGISTR. A. fol. 190. a. And, to T. Dawson in 1579, Aug. 26,
"The Vineyard of Vertue a booke gathered by R. Robinson."
REGISTR. B. fol. 163. a. He was a citizen of London. The reader recollects hi
English GESTA ROMANORUM, in 1577. He wrote also
"The avncient order, societie, and vnitie laudable, of PRINCE ARTHURE, and his knightly armory of the ROUND TABLE. With a threefold assertion, &c. Translated and collected by R. R."
Lond. for J. Wol
e, 1583. Bl. Lett. 4to. This work is in metre, and the armorial bearings of the knights are in verse. Prefixed is a poem by Churchyard, in praise of the Bow. His translation of Leland's ASSERTIO ARTHURI (Bl. Lett. 4to.) is entered to J. Wolfe, Jun. 6, 1582. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 189. b. I find, licenced to R. James in 1565,
"A boke intituled of very pleasaunte sonnettes and storyes in myter [metre] by Clement Robynson."
REGISTR. B. fol. 141. a.
."
Of Thomas Newton, a slender contributor to this volume, yet perhaps the chief instrument of bringing about a general translation of Seneca, and otherwise deserving well of the literature of this period, some notices seem necessary. The first letter of his English THEBAIS is a large capital D. Within it is a shield exhibiting a sable Lion rampant, crossed in argent on the shoulder, and a half moon argent in the dexter corner, I suppose his armorial bearing. In a copartment, towards the head, and under the semicircle, of the letter, are his initials, T. N. He was descended from a respectable family in Cheshire, and was sent while very young, about thirteen years of age, to Trinity college in Oxford
REGISTR. ibid.
. Soon afterwards he went to Queen's college in Cambridge; but returned within a very few years to Oxford, where he was readmitted into Trinity college
Ibid.
. He quickly became famous for the pure elegance of his Latin poetry. Of this he has left a specimen in his ILLUSTRIA ALIQUOT ANGLORUM ENCOMIA, published at London in 1589
His master John Brunswerd, at Macclesfield
school, in Cheshire, was no bad Latin poet. See his PROGYMNASMATA ALQUOT POEMATA, Lond. 1590. 4to. See Newton's ENCOM. p. 128. 131. Brunswerd died in 1589, and his
pitaph, made by his scholar Newton, yet remains in the chancel of the church of Macclesfield.
Alpha poetarum, coryphaeus grammaticorum,
Flos
, hac sepelitur humo.
. He is perhaps the first Englishman that wrote Latin elegiacs with a classical clearness and terseness after Leland, the plan of whose ENCOMIA and TROPHAEA he seems to have followed in this little work
Lond. 1589. 4to. Reprinted by Hearne, Oxon. 1715. 8vo.
. Most of the learned and ingenious men of that age, appear to have courted the favours of this polite and popular encomiast. His chief patron was the unfortunate Robert earl of Essex. I have often incidentally mentioned some of Newton's recommendatory verses, both in English and Latin, prefixed to cotemporary books, according to the mode of that age. One of his earliest philological publications is a NOTABLE HISTORIE OF THE SARACENS, digested from Curio, in three books, printed at London in 1575
In quarto. With a SUMMARY annexed on the same subject.
. I unavoidably anticipate in remarking here, that he wrote a poem on the death of queen Elisabeth, called
"ATROPOION DELION,"
or,
"the Death of Delia with the Tears of her funeral. A poetical excusive discourse of our late Eliza. By T. N. G. Lond. 1603
In quarto. For W. Johnes.
."
The next year he published a flowery romance,
"A plesant new history, or a fragrant posie made of three flowers Rosa, Rosalynd, and Rosemary, London, 1604
In quarto.
."
Philips, in his THEATRUM POETARUM, attributes to Newton, a tragedy in two parts, called TAMBURLAIN THE GREAT, OR THE SCYTHIAN SHEPHERD. But this play, printed at London in 1593, was written by Christopher Marloe
See Heywood's Prologue to Marlow's JEW OF MALTA, 1633.
. He seems to have been a partisan of the puritans, from his pamphlet of CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP,
with an Invective against dice-play and other profane games,
printed at London, 1586
In octavo. From the Latin of Lamb
Danaeus.
. For some time our author practised physic, and, in the character of that profession, wrote or translated many medical tracts. The first of these, on a curious subject,
A direction for the health of magistrates and students,
from Gratarolus, appeared in 1574. At length taking orders, he first taught school at Macclesfield in Cheshire, and afterwards at Little Ilford in Essex, where he was beneficed. In this department, and in 1596, he published a correct edition of Stanbridge's Latin Prosody
"Vocabula magistri Stanbrigii ab infinitis quibus scatebant mendis repurgata, observata interim (quoad ejus
ieri potuit) carminis ratione, et meliusc
le etiam correcta, studio et industria Thomae Newtoni Cestreshyrii. Edinb. excud. R. Waldegrave."
I know not if this edition, which is in octavo, is the first. See our author's ENCOM. p. 128. Our author published one or two translations on theological subjects.
. In the general character of an author, he was a voluminous and a laborious writer. He died at Little Ilford, and was interred in his church, in 1607. From a long and habitual course of studious and industrious pursuits he had acquired a considerable fortune, a portion of which he bequeathed in charitable legacies.
It is remarkable, that Shakespeare has borrowed nothing from the English Seneca. Perhaps a copy might not fall in his way. Shakespeare was only a reader by accident. Hollinshed and translated Italian novels supplied most of his plots or stories. His storehouse of learned history was North's Plutarch. The only poetical fable of antiquity, which he has worked into a play, is TROILUS. But this he borrowed from the romance of Troy. Modern fiction and English history were his principal resources. These perhaps were more suitable to his taste: at least he found that they produced the most popular subjects. Shakespeare was above the bondage of the classics.
I must not forget to remark here, that, according to Ames, among the copies of Henry Denham recited in the register of the Company of Stationers
I find nothing of this in REGISTER. B.
, that printer, is said, on the eighth of January, in 1583, among other books, to have
yielded into the hands and dispositions
of the master, wardens, and assistants, of that fraternity,
"Two or three of Seneca his tragedies
They are mentioned by Ames, with these pieces, viz.
"Pasquin in a traunce. The hoppe gardein. Ovid's metamorphosis. The courtier. Cesar's commentaries in English. Ovid's epistles. Image of idlenesse. Flower of frendship. Schole of vertue. Gardener's laborynth. Demosthene's orations."
I take this opportunity of acknowledging my great obligations to that very respectable society, who in the most liberal manner have indulged me with a free and unreserved examination of their original records: particularly to the kind assistance and attention of one of its members, Mr. Lockyer Davies, Bookseller in Holbourn.
."
These, if printed after 1581, cannot be new impressions of any single plays of Seneca, of those published in Newton's edition of all the ten tragedies.
Among Hatton's manuscripts in the Bodleian library at Oxford
MSS. MUS. BODL. 55. 12. [Olim HYPER. BODL.] It begins,
"What harminge hurle of Fortune's arme, &c."
, there is a long translation from the HERCULES OETAEUS of Seneca, by queen Elisabeth. It is remarkable that it is blank verse, a measure which her majesty perhaps adopted from GORDOBUC; and which therefore proves it to have been done after the year 1561. It has, however, no other recommendation but its royalty.
SECT. XL.
BUT, as scholars began to direct their attention to our vernacular poetry, many more of the antient poets now appeared in English verse. Before the year 1600, Homer, Musaeus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Martial, were translated. Indeed most of these versions were published before the year 1580. For the sake of presenting a connected display of these early translators, I am obliged to trespass, in a slight degree, on that chronological order which it has been my prescribed and constant method to observe. In the mean time we must remember, that their versions, while they contributed to familiarise the ideas of the antient poets to English readers, improved our language and versification; and that in a general view, they ought to be considered as valuable and important accessions to the stock of our poetical literature. These were the classics of Shakespeare.
I shall begin with those that were tran
lated first in the reign of Elisabeth. But I must premise, that this inquiry will necessarily draw with it many other notices much to our purpose, and which could not otherwise have been so conveniently disposed and displayed.
Thomas Phaier, already mentioned as the writer of the story of OWEN GLENDOUR in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, a native of Pembrokeshire, educated at Oxford, a student of Lincoln's Inn, and an advocate to the council for the Marches of Wales, but afterwards doctorated in medicine at Oxford, translated the seven first books of the Eneid of Virgil, on his retirement to his patrimonial seat in the forest of Kilgarran in Pembrokeshire, in the years 1555, 1556, 1557. They were printed at London in 1558, for Ihon Kyngston, and dedicated to queen Mary
In quarto. Bl. Lett. At the end of the seventh book is this colophon,
"Per Thomam Phaer in foresta Kilgerran finitum iij. Decembris. Anno 1557. Opus xij dierum."
And at the end of every book is a similar colophon, to the same purpose. The first book was finished in eleven days, in 1555. The second in twenty days, in the same year. The third in twenty days, in the same year. The fourth in fifteen days, in 1556. The fifth in twenty-four days, on May the third, in 1557,
"post periculum eius Karmerdini,"
i. e. at Caermarthen. The sixth in twenty days, in 1557.
Phaier has left many large works in his several professions of law and medicine. He is pathetically lamented by sir Thomas Chaloner as a most skilful physician, ENCOM. p. 356. Lond. 1579. 4to. He has a recommendatory English poem prefixed to Philip Betham's MILITARY PRECEPTS, translated from the Latin of James earl of Purlilias, dedicated to lord Studley, Lond. 1544. 4to. For E. Whitchurch.
There is an entry to Pur
oot in 1566, for printing
"serten verses of Cupydo by Mr. Fayre [Phaier]."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 154. a.
. He afterwards finished the eighth book on the tenth of September, within forty days, in 1558. The ninth, in thirty days, in 1560. Dying at Kilgarran the same year, he lived only to begin the tenth
Ex coloph. ut supr.
. All that was thus done by Phaier, one William Wightman published in 1562, with a dedication to sir Nicholas Bacon,
"The nyne first books of the Eneidos of Virgil conuerted into English verse by Thomas Phaer doctour of physick, &c
In quarto. Bl. Lett. For Rowland Hall.
."
The imperfect work was at length completed, with Maphaeus's supplemental or thirteenth book, in 1583, by Thomas Twyne, a native of Canterbury, a physician of Lewes in Sussex, educated in both universities, an admirer of the mysterious philosophy of John Dee, and patronised by lord Buckhurst the poet
See supr. p. 287. His father was John Twyne of Bolington in Hampshire, an eminent a
tiquary, author of the Commentary DE REBUS ALBIONICIS, &c. Lond. 1590. It is addressed to, and published by, with an epistle, his said son THOMAS. Laurence, a fellow of All Souls and a civilian, and John Twyne, both THOMAS's brothers, have copies of verses prefixed to several cotemporary books, about the reign of queen Elisabeth. THOMAS wrote and translated many tracts, which it would be superfluous and tedious to enumerate here. To his BREVIARIE OF BRITAINE, a translation from the Latin of Humphrey Lhuyd, in 1573, are prefixed recommendatory verses, by Browne prebendary, and Grant the learned schoolmaster, of Westminster, Llodowyke Lloyd a poet in the PARADISE OF DAINTIE DEVISES, and his two brothers, aforesaid, Laurence and John.
Our translator, THOMAS TWYNE, died in 1613, aged 70, and was buried in the chancel of saint Anne's church at Lewes, where his epitaph of fourteen verses still, I believe, remains on a brass plate affixed to the eastern wall.
Large antiquarian and historical manuscript collections, by the father JOHN TWYNE, are now in Corpus Christi library at Oxford. In his COLLECTANEA VARIA, (ibid. vol. iii. fol. 2.) he says he had written the Lives of T. Robethon, T. Lupset, Rad. Barnes, T. Eliot, R. Sampson, T. Wriothesle, Gul Paget, G. Day, Joh. Christopherson, N. Wooton. He is in Leland's ENCOMIA, p. 83.
. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth books, were finished at London in 1573
Coloph. ut supr.
. The whole was printed at London in 1584, with a dedication, dated that year from Lewes, to Robert Sackville
In quarto. Bl. Lett. For Abraham Veale.
, the eldest son of lord Buckhurst, who lived in the dissolved monastery of the Cluniacs at Lewes
Now ruined. But to this day called,
Lord's Place.
. So well received was this work, that it was followed by three new editions in 1596
For Thomas Creed.
, 1607, and 1620
All in quarto. Bl. Lett. In the edition of 1607, printed at London by Thom
s Creede, it is said to
"
be newly set forth
for the delight of such as are studious in poetrie."
. Soon after the last-mentioned period, it became obsolete and was forgotten
In 1562, are entered with Nicholas England
"the fyrste and ix parte of Virgill."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 85. a. I suppose Phaier's
first nine
books of the Eneid. And, in 1561-2, with W. Copland, the
"booke of Virgill in 4to."
Ibid. fol. 73. b. See REGISTR. C. fol. 8. a. sub ann. 1595.
.
Phaier undertook this translation for the
defence,
to use his own phrase, of the English language, which had been by too many deemed incapable of elegance and propriety, and for the
"honest recreation of you the nobilitie, gentlemen, and ladies, who studie in Latine."
He adds,
"By mee first this gate is set open. If now the young writers will uouchsafe to enter, they may finde in this language both large and abvndant camps [fields] of uarietie, wherein they may gather innumerable sortes of most beavtifull flowers, figures, and phrases, not only to supply the imperfection of mee, but also to garnish all kinds of their own verses with a more cleane and compendiovs order of meeter than heretofore hath bene accustomed
See
"Maister Phaer's Conclusion to his interpretation of the Aeneidos of Virgil, by him conuerted into English ver
e."
."
Phaier has omitted, misrepresented, and paraphrased many passages; but his performance in every respect is evidently superior to Twyne's continuation. The measure is the fourteen-footed Alexandrine of Sternhold and Hopkins. I will give a short specimen from the siege of Troy, in the second book. Venus addresses her son Eneas.
Thou to thy parents hest take heede, dread not, my minde obey:
In yonder place, where stones from stones, and bildings huge to sway,
Thou seest, and mixt with dust and smoke thicke stremes of reekings rise,
Himselfe the god Neptùne that side doth furne in wonders
Wonderous.
wise;
With forke threetinde the wall vproots, foundations allto shakes
And quite from vnder soile the towne, with groundworks all vprakes.
On yonder side with Furies most, dame Iuno fiercely stands,
The gates she keeps, and from the ships the Greeks, her friendly bands,
In armour girt she calles.
Lo! there againe where Pallas sits, on fortes and castle-towres,
With Gorgons eyes, in lightning cloudes inclosed grim she lowres.
The father-god himselfe to Greeks their mights and courage steres,
Himselfe against the Troyan blood both gods and armour reres.
Betake thee to thy flight, my sonne, thy labours ende procure,
I will thee neuer faile, but thee to resting place assure.
She said, and through the darke night-shade herselfe she drew from sight:
Appeare the grisly faces then, Troyes en'mies vgly dight.
The popular ear, from its familiarity, was tuned to this measure. It was now used in most works of length and gravity, but seems to have been consecrated to translation. Whatever absolute and original dignity it may boast, at present it is almost ridiculous, from an unavoidable association of ideas, and because it necessarily recalls the tone of the versification of the puritans. I suspect it might have acquired a degreee of importance and reverence, from the imaginary merit of its being the established poetic vehicle of scripture, and its adoption into the celebration of divine service.
I take this opportunity of observing, that I have seen an old ballad called GADS-HILL by
Faire,
that is probably our translator Phaier. In the Registers of the Stationers, among seven
Ballettes
licenced to William Bedell and Richard Lante, one is entitled
"The Robery at Gads hill,"
under the year 1558
REGISTR. A. fol. 32. b. See Clavell's RECANTATION, a poem in quarto, Lond. 1634. Clavell was a robber, and here recites his own adventures on the high-way. His first depredations are on Gad's-hill. See fol. 1.
. I know not how far it might contribute to illustrate Shakespeare's HENRY THE FOURTH. The title is promising.
After the associated labours of Phaier and Twyne, it is hard to say what could induce Robert Stanyhurst, a native of Dublin, to translate the four first books of the Eneid into English hexameters, which he printed at London, in 1583, and dedicated to his brother Peter Plunket, the learned baron of Dusanay in Ireland
In octavo. Licenced to Binneman, Jan. 24. 1582.
"By a copie printed at Leiden."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 192. b. At the end of the Virgil are the four first of David's psalms Englished in Latin measures, p. 82. Then follow
"Certayne Poetical Conceits (in Latyn and English) Lond. 1583."
Afterwards are printed Epitaphs written by our author, both in Latin and English. The first, in Latin, is on James earl of Ormond, who died at Ely-house, Octob. 18. 1546. There is anot
er on his father, James Stanyhurst, Recorder of Dublin, who died, aged 51, Dec. 27, 1573. With translations from More's Epigrams. Stanyhurst has a copy of recommendatory verses prefixed to Verstegan's RESTITUTION OF DECAYED INTELLIGENCE, Antwerp, 1605. 4to.
. Stanyhurst at this time was living at Leyden, having left England for some time on account of the change
religion. In the choice of his measure, he is more unfortunate than his predecessors, and in other respects succeeded worse. It may be remarked, that Meres, in his WITS TREASURIE, printed in 1598, among the learned translators, mentions only
"Phaier, for Virgil's Aeneads
Fol. 289. p. 2.
."
And William Webbe, in his DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETS printed in 1586
For John Charlewood. But there is a former edition for Walley, 1585, 4to. I know not to which translation of Virgil, Puttenham in THE ART
OF ENGLISH POESIE refers, where he says,
"And as one who translating certaine bookes of Virgil's AENEIDOS into English meetre, said, that Aeneas was fayne
to trudge out of Troy,
which terme became better to be spoken of a beggar, or of a rouge or a lackey, &c."
Lib. iii. ch. xxiii. p. 229.
, entirely omits our author, and places Phaier at the Head of all the English translators
Fol. 9.
. Thomas Nashe, in his APOLOGY OF PIERCE PENNILESSE, printed in 1593, observes, that
"Stanyhurst the otherwise learned, trod a foul, lumbring, boisterous, wallowing measure in his translation of Virgil.—He had neuer been praised by Gabriel Harvey
Gabriell Harvey, in his FOURE LETTERS AND CERTAINE SONNETS, says,
"I cordially recommend to the deare louers of the Muses, and namely to the professed sonnes of the same, Edmond Spencer, Richard Stanihurst, Abraham Fraunce, Thomas Watson, Samuell Daniel, Thomas Nashe, and the rest, whom I affectionately thancke for their studious endeuours commendably employed in enriching and polishing their natiue tongue, &c."
LETT. iii. p. 29. Lond. 1592. 4to.
for his labour, if therein he had not been so famously absurd
Signat. B.
."
Harvey, Spenser's friend, was one of the chief patrons, if not the inventor, of the English hexameter, here used by Stanyhurst. I will give a specimen in the first four lines of the second book.
With tentiue listning each wight was setled in harkning;
Then father Aeneas chronicled from loftie bed hautie:
You bid me, O princesse, to scarifie a festered old sore,
How that the Troians were prest by the Grecian armie
Fol. 21.
.
With all this foolish pedantry, Stanyhurst was certainly a scholar. But in this translation he calls Chorebus, one of the Trojan chiefs, a
bedlamite,
he says that old Priam girded on his sword
Morglay,
the name of a sword in the Gothic romances, that Dido would have been glad to have been brought to bed even of a cockney, a
Dandiprat hopthumb,
and that Jupiter, in kissing his daughter,
bust his pretty prating parrot.
He was admitted at University college, in 1563, where he wrote a system of logic in his eighteenth year
"Harmonia
ive Catena Dialectica in Porphyrianas constitutiones,"
a commentary on Porphyry's ISAGOGE. Lond. 1570. fol. Campion, then of S. John's college, afterwards the Jesuit, to whom it was communicated in manuscript, says of the author,
"Mirifice laetatus sum, esse adolescentem in academia nostra, tali familia, eruditione, probitate, cujus extrema pueritia cum multis laudabili maturita
e viris certare possit."
EPISTOL. edit. Ingoldstat. 1602. fol. 50. Four or five of Campion's EPISTLES are addressed to Stanyhurst.
. Having taken one degree, he became successively a student at Furnival's and Lincoln's Inn. He has left many theological, philosophical, and historical books. In one of his EPITAPHS called COMMVNE DEFUNCTORUM, he mentions Julietta, Shakespeare's Juliet, among the celebrated heroines
Meres mentions Stanyhurst and Gabriel Harvey, as
"Jambical poets."
Ubi supr. fol. 282. p. 2. Stanyhurst translated some epigrams of sir Thomas More. They are at the end of his Virgil.
. The title, and some of the lines, deserve to be cited, as they shew the poetical squabbles about the English hexameter.
An Epitaph against rhyme, entituled COMMVNE DEFUNCTORUM such as our vnlearned Rithmours accustomably make vpon the death of euerie Tom Tyler, as if it were a last for euerie one his foote, in which the quantities of syllables are not to be heeded."
—
A Sara for goodnesse, a great Bellona for budgenesse,
For myldnesse Anna, for chastitye godlye Susanna.
Hester in a good shift, a Iudith stoute at a dead lift:
Also IULIETTA, with Dido rich Cleopatra:
With sundrie namelesse, and women many more blamelesse, &c
At the end of his Virgil. SIGNAT
H iij. He mentions the friends Damon and Pythias in the same piece.
.
His Latin DESCRIPTIO HIBERNIAE, translated into English, appears in the first volume of Hollinshed's Chronicles, printed in 1583. He is styled by Camden,
"Eruditissimus ille nobilis Richardus Stanihurstus
In HI
RNIA. Com. WEST
MEATH.
."
He is said to have been caressed for his literature and politeness by many foreign princes
In the title of his H
BDOMADA MARIANA he styles himself
"Serenissimorum principum SAC
LLANUS."
That is, Albert archduke of Austria and his princess Isabell. Antw. 1609. 8vo.
. He died at Brussels in 1618
Coxeter says a miscellany was printed in the latter end of Elisabeth's reign
"by R. S. that is, R. Stanyhurst."
I presume he may probably mean, a collection called
"The PHOENIX NEST, Built vp with most rare and re
ined workes of noble men, woorthy knights, gallant gentlemen, Masters of Art, and braue schollars. Full of varietie, excellent inuention, and singvlar delight, &c. Sett forth by R. S. of the Inner Temple gentleman. Imprinted at London by John Jackson, 1593."
4to. But I take this R. S. to be Richard Stapylton, who has a copy of verses prefixed to Greene's MAMILLIA, printed in 1593. Bl. Lett. By the way, in this miscellany there is a piece by
"W. S. Gent."
p. 77. Perhaps by William Shakespeare. But I rather think by William Smyth, whose
"CLORIS, or the Complaynt of the Passion of the despised Sheppard,"
was licenced to E. Bolifaunt, Oct. 5, 1596. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 14. a. The initials W. S. are subscribed to
"Corin's dreame of his faire CHLORIS,"
in ENGLANDS HELICON. (Signat. H. edit. 1614,) And prefixed to the tragedy of LOCRINE, edit. 1595. Also
"A booke called AMOURS by J. (or G.) D. with certen other Sonnetts by W. S."
is entered to Eleazar Edgar, Jan. 3, 1599. REGISTR. C. fol. 55. a. The initials W. S. are subscribed to a copy of verses prefixed to N. Breton's WIL OF WIT, &c. 1606. 4to.
.
Abraham Fleming, brother to Samuel
They were both born in London. Thinne apud Hollinsh. vol. ii. 1590. Samuel wrote an elegant Latin Life of queen Mary, never printed. He has a Latin recommendatory poem prefixed to Edward Grant's SPICILEGIUM of the Greek tonge, a Dialogue, dedicated to Lord Burleigh, and printed at London in 1575. 8vo.
, published a version of the BUCOLICS of Virgil, in 1575, with notes, and a dedication to Peter Osborne esquire. This is the title,
"The BUKOLIKES of P. Virgilius Maro, with alphabeticall Annotations, &c. Drawne into plaine and familiar Englishe verse by Abr. Fleming student, &c. London by John Charlewood, &c. 1575."
His plan was to give a plain and literal translation, verse for verse. These are the five first lines of the tenth Eclogue.
O Arethusa, graunt this labour be my last indeede!
A few songes vnto Gallo, but let them Lycoris reede:
Needes must I singe to Gallo mine, what man would songes deny?
So when thou ronnest vnder Sicane seas, where froth doth fry,
Let not that bytter Doris of the salte streame mingle make.
Fourteen years afterwards, in 1589, the same author published a new version both of the BUCOLICS and GEORGICS of Virgil, with notes, which he dedicated to John Whitgift archbishop of Canterbury
The Bucolics and Georgics, I think these, are entered, 1600. REGISTR. STAT. See also under 1595, ibid.
. This is commonly said and supposed to be in blank verse, but it is in the regular Alexandrine without rhyme. It is entitled,
"The BUKOLIKES of P. Virgilius Maro, &c. otherwise called his pastoralls or Shepherds Meetings. Together with his GEORGICS, or Ruralls, &c. All newly translated into English verse by A. F. At London by T. O. for T. Woodcocke, &c. 1589."
I exhibit the five first verses of the fourth Eclogue.
O Muses of Sicilia ile, let's greater matters singe!
Shrubs, groves, and bushes lowe, delight and please not every man:
If we do singe of woodes, the woods be worthy of a consul.
Nowe is the last age come, whereof Sybilla's verse foretold;
And now the Virgin come againe, and Saturnes kingdom come.
The fourth Georgic thus begins.
O my Mecenas, now will I dispatch forthwith to shew
The heauenly gifts, or benefits, of airie honie sweet.
Look on this piece of worke likewise, as thou hast on the rest.
Abraham Fleming supervised, corrected, and enlarged the second edition of Hollinshed's chronicle in 1585
His brother Samuel assisted in compiling the INDEX
a very laborious work, and made other improvements.
. He translated Aelian's VARIOUS HISTORY into English in 1576, which he dedicated to Goodman dean of Westminster,
"Aelian's Registre of Hystories by Abraham Fleming
In quarto.
."
He published also
Certaine select epistles of Cicero into English,
in 1576
Lond. in quarto.
. And, in the same year, he imparted to our countrymen a fuller idea of the elegance of the antient epistle, by his
"PANOPLIE OF EPISTLES from Tully, Isocrates, Pliny, and others, printed at London 1576
Quarto. For Ralph Newbery.
."
He translated Synesius's Greek PANEGYRIC on BALDNESS, which had been brought into vogue by Erasmus's MORIAE ENCOMIUM
Lond. 1579. 12mo. At the end, is his FABLE of HERMES.
. Among some other pieces, he Englished many celebrated books written in Latin about the fifteenth century and at the restoration of learning, which was a frequent practice, after it became fashionable to compose in English, and our writers had begun to find the force and use of their own tongue
See supr. p. 260
Among his original pieces are,
"A memorial of the charitable almes deedes of William Lambe, gentleman of the chapel under Henry 8th, and citizen of London, Lond. 1580. 8vo.—The Battel between the Virtues and Vices
Lond. 1582. 8vo.—The Diamant of Devotion in six parts, Lond. 1586. 12mo.—The Cundyt of Comfort, for Denham, 1579."
He prefixed a recommendatory Latin poem in iambics to the VO
AGE of Dennis Settle, a retainer of the earl of Cumberland, and the companion of Martin Frobisher, Lond. 1577. 12mo. Another, in English, to Kendal's FLOWRES OF EPIGRAMMES, Lond. 1577. 12mo. Another to John Baret's ALVEARE, or quadruple Lexicon of English, Latin, Greek, and French. Dedicated to Lord Burleigh, Lond. 1580. fol. edit. 2. [See MUS. ASHMOL. Oxon. 835.] Another to W. Whetstone's ROCK OF REGARD. I take this opportunity of observing, that the works of one John Fleming an antient English poet, are in Dubliucollege library, of which I have no farther notice, than that they are numbered, 304. See REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 160. a. 171. a. 168. a.
. Sir William Cordall, the queen's solicitorgeneral, was his chief patron
His PANOPLIE is dedicated to Cordall. See LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, p. 226. edit. 2.
.
William Webbe, who is styled a graduate, translated the GEORGICS into English verse, as he himself informs us in the DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETRIE, lately quoted, and printed in 1586
For the sake of juxtaposition, I observe here, that Virgil's Bucolics and fourth Georgic were translated by one Mr. Brimsly, and licenced to Man, Sept. 3, 1619. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 305. a. And the
"second parte of Virgill's Aeneids in English, translated by sir Thomas Wroth knight,"
Apr. 4, 1620. Ibid. fol. 313. b.
. And in the same discourse, which was written in defence of the new fashion of English hexameters, he has given us his own version of two of Virgil's BUCOLIC
, written in that unnatural and impracticable mode of versification
In 1594, Richard Jones published
"PAN HIS PIPE, conteyninge Three Pastorall Eglog
in Englyshe hexamiter with other delightfull verses."
Licenced Jan. 3. R
GISTR. STATION
B. fol. 316. b.
. I must not forget here, that the same Webbe ranks Abraham Fleming as a translator, after Barnabie Googe the translator of Palingenius's ZODIAC, not without a compliment to the poetry and the learning of his brother Samuel, whose excellent
Inventions,
he adds, had not yet been made public.
Abraham Fraunce, in 1591, translated Virgil's ALEXIS into English hexameters, verse for verse, which he calls
The lamentation of Corydon for the love of Alexis
At the end of
the countesse of Pembroke's J
y-church,
in the same measure, Lond. 8vo. He wrote also in the same verse,
The lam
ntation of Amyntas for the death of Phillis
Lond. 1587. 4to. He translated i
to English hexameters the beginning of H
liodorus's ETHIOPICS. Lond. 1591. 8vo.
. It must be owned, that the selection of this particular Eclogue from all the ten for an English version, is somewhat extraordinary. But in the reign of queen Elisabeth, I could point out whole sets of sonnets written with this sort of attachment, for which perhaps it will be but an inadequate apology, that they are free from direct impurity of expression and open immodesty of sentiment. Such at least is our observance of external propriety, and so strong the principles of a general decorum, that a writer of the present age who was to print love-verses in this style, would be severely reproached, and universally proscribed. I will instance only in the AFFECTIONATE SHEPHERD of Richard Barnefielde, printed in 1595. Here, through the course of twenty sonnets, not inelegant, and which were exceedingly popular, the poet bewails his unsuccessful love for a beautiful youth, by the name of Ganimede, in a strain of the most tender passion, yet with professions of the chastest affection
At London, for H. Lownes, 1596. 16mo. Another edition appeared the same year, with hi
CYNTHIA and Legend of CASSANDRA. For the same, 1596. 16mo. In the preface of this second edition he apologises for his Sonnets,
"I will vnshaddow my conceit: being nothing else but an imitation of Virgill in the second Eclogue of ALEXIS."
But I find,
"CYNTHIA with certeyne SONNETTES and the Legend of CASSANDRA,"
entered to H. Lownes
Jan. 1
, 1594. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 317. a.
. Many descriptions and incidents which have a like complexion, may be found in the futile novels of Lodge and Lilly.
Fraunce is also the writer of a book, with the affected an
unmeaning title of the
"ARCADIAN RHETORIKE, or the preceptes of Rhetoricke made plaine by examples, Greeke, Latyne, Englisshe, Italyan, Frenche, and Spanishe."
It was printed in 1588, and is valuable for its English examples
Entered to T. Gubbyn and T. Newman, Jun. 11, 1588. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 229. b.
.
In consequence of the versions of Virgil's Bucolics, a piece appeared in 1584, called
"A Comoedie of Titerus and Galathea
Entered April 1, to Cawood. Ibid. fol. 203. b. Lilly's GALATEA, however, appears to be entered as a new copy to T. Man, Oct. 1, 1591. Ibid. fol. 280. b.
."
I suppose this to be Lilly's play called GALLATHEA, played before the queen at Greenwich on New Year's day by the choristers of saint Pauls.
It will perhaps be sufficient barely to mention Spenser's CULEX, which is a vague and arbitrary paraphrase, of a poem not properly belonging to Virgil. From the testimony of many early Latin writers it may be justly concluded, that Virgil wrote an elegant poem with this title. Nor is it improbable that in the CU
EX at present attributed to Virgil, some very few of the original phrases, and even verses, may remain, under the accumulated incrustation of critics, imitators, interpolators, and paraphrasts, which corrupts what it conceals. But the texture, the character, and substance, of the genuine poem is almost entirely lost. The CEIRIS, or the fable of Nisus and Scylla, which follows, although never mentioned by any writer of antiquity, has much fairer pretensions to genuineness. At least the CEIRIS, allowing for uncommon depravations of time and transcription, appears in its present state to be a poem of the Augustan age, and is perhaps the identical piece dedicated to the Messala whose patronage it solicits. It has that rotundity of versification, which seems to have been studied after the Roman poetry emerged from barbarism. It has a general simplicity, and often a native strength, of colouring; nor is it tinctured, except by the casual innovation of grammarians, with those sophistications both of sentiment and expression, which afterwards of course took place among the Roman poets, and which would have betrayed a recent forgery. It seems to be the work of a young poet: but its digressions and descriptions which are often too prolix, are not only the marks of a young poet, but of early poetry. It is interspersed with many lines, now in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Eneid. Here is an argument which seems to assign it to Virgil. A cotemporary poet would not have ventured to steal from poems so well known. It was natural, at least allowable, for Virgil to steal from a performance of his youth, on which he did not set any great value, and which he did not scruple to rob of a few ornaments, deserving a better place. This consideration excludes Cornelius Gallus, to whom Fontanini, with much acute criticism, has ascribed the CEIRIS. Nor, for the reason given, would Virgil have stolen from Gallus. The writer has at least the art of Virgil, in either suppressing, or throwing into shade, the trite and uninteresting incidents of the common fabulous history of Scylla, which were incapable of decoration, or had been preoccupied by other poets. The dialogue between the young princess Scylla, who is deeply in love, and her nurse, has much of the pathos of Virgil. There are some traces which discover an imitation of Lucretius: but on the whole, the structure of the verses, and the predominant cast and manner of the composition, exactly resemble the ARGONAUTICA of Catullus, or the EPITHALAMIUM of PELEUS AND THETIS. I will instance in the following passage, in which every thing is distinctly and circumstantially touched, and in an affected pomp of numbers. He is alluding to the stole of Minerva, interwoven with the battle of the giants, and exhibited at Athens in the magnificent Panathenaic festival. The classical reader will perceive one or two interpolations: and lament, that this rich piece of embroidery has suffered a little from being unskilfully darned by another and a more modern artificer.
Sed magno intexens, si fas est dicere, peplo,
Qualis Erectheis olim portatur Athenis,
Debita cum castae
olvuntur vota Minervae,
Tardaque confecto redeunt quinquennia lustro,
Cum levis alterno Zephyrus concrebuit Euro,
Et prono gravidum provexit pondere cursum.
Felix ille dies, felix et dicitur annus:
Felices qui talem annum videre, diemque!
Ergo Palladiae texuntur in ordine pugnae:
Magna Gigantaeis ornantur pepla tropaeis,
Horrida sanguineo pinguntur praelia cocco.
Additur aurata dejectus cuspide Typho,
Qui prius Ossaeis consternens aethera saxis,
Emathio celsum duplicabat vertice Olympum.
Tale deae velum solemni in tempore portant
Ver. 21. seq.
.
The same stately march of hexameters is observable in Tibullus's tedious panegyric on Messala: a poem, which, if it should not be believed to be of Tibullus's hand, may at least, from this reasoning be adjudged to his age. We are sure that Catullus could not have been the author of the CEIRIS, as Messala, to whom it is inscribed, was born but a very few years before the death of Catullus. One of the chief circumstances of the story is a purple lock of hair, which grew on the head of Nisus king of Megara, and on the preservation of which the safety of that city, now besieged by Minos, king of Crete, entirely depended. Scylla, Nisus's daughter, falls in love with Minos, whom she sees from the walls of Megara: she finds means to cut off this sacred ringlet, the city is taken, and she is married to Minos. I am of opinion that Tibullus, in the following passage, alludes to the CEIRIS, then newly published, and which he points out by this leading and fundamental fiction of Nisus's purple lock.
Pieridas, pueri, doctos et amate poetas;
Aurea nec superent munera Pieridas!
CARMINE PURPUREA est Nisi coma: carmina ni sint,
Ex humero Pelopis non nituisset ebur
ELEG. Lib. i. iv. 61.
.
Tibullus here, in recommending the study of the poets to the Roman youth, illustrates the power of poetry; and, for this purpose, with much address he selects a familiar instance from a piece recently written, perhaps by one of his friends.
Spenser seems to have shewn a particular regard to these two little poems, supposed to be the work of Virgil's younger years. Of the CULEX he has left a paraphrase, under the title of VIRGIL'S GNAT, dedicated to lord Leicester, who died in 1588. It was printed without a title page at the end of the
"TEARES OF THE MUSES, by Ed. Sp. London, imprinted for William Ponsonbie dwelling in Paules church-yard at the sign of the bishops head, 1591
In quarto. White Lett. Containing twenty-four leaves.
."
From the CEIRIS he has copied a long passage, which forms the first part of the legend of Britomart in the third book of the FAIRY QUEEN.
Although the story of MEDEA existed in Guido de Columna, and perhaps other modern writers in Latin, yet we seem to have had a version of Valerius Flaccus in 1565. For in that year, I know not if in verse or prose, was entered to Purfoote,
"The story of Jason, how he gotte the golden flece, and howe he did begyle Media [Medea], oute of Laten into Englisshe by Nycholas Whyte
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 134. a.
."
Of the translator Whyte, I know nothing more.
Of Ovid's METAMORPHOSIS, the four first books were translated by Arthur Golding in 1565
Lond. Bl. Lett. 4to.
.
"The fyrst fower bookes of the Metamorphosis owte of Latin into English meter by Arthur Golding, gentleman, &c. Imprinted at London by Willyam Seres 1565
It is entered
"A boke entituled Ovidii Metamorphoses."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 117. b.
."
But soon afterwards he printed the whole, or,
"The xv. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso entytuled METAMORPHOSIS, translated out of Latin into English meetre, by Arthur Golding Gentleman. A worke uery pleasant and delectable. Lond. 1575."
William Seres was the printer, as before
Bl. Lett. 4to. It is supposed that there were earlier editions, viz. 1567, and 1576. The last i
mentioned in Coxeter's papers, who saw it in Dr. Rawlinson's collection.
. This work became a favorite, and was reprinted in 1587, 1603, and 1612
All in Bl. Lett. 4to. That of 1603, by W. W. Of 1612, by Thomas Purfoot.
. The dedication, an epistle in verse, is to Robert earl of Leicester, and dated at Berwick, April 20, 1567. In the metrical Preface to the Reader, which immediately follows, he apologises for having named so many fictitious and heathen gods. This apology seems to be intended for the weaker puritans
Afterwards he says, of his author,
And now I have him made so well acquainted with our toong,
As that he may in English verse as in his owne be soong,
Wherein although for plesant stile, I cannot make account, &c.
. His style is poetical and spirited, and his versification clear: his manner ornamental and diffuse, yet with a sufficient observance of the original. On the whole, I think him a better poet and a better translator than Phaier. This will appear from a few of the first lines of the second book, which his readers took for a description of an enchanted castle.
The princely pallace of the Sun, stood gorgeous to behold,
On stately pillars builded high, of yellow burnisht gold;
Beset with sparkling carbuncles, that like to fire did shine,
The roofe was framed curiously, of yuorie pure and fine.
The two-doore-leves of siluer clere, a radiant light did cast:
But yet the cunning workemanship of thinges therein far past
The stuffe whereof the doores were made: for there a perfect plat
Had Vulcane drawne of all the world, both of the sourges that
Embrace the earth with winding waves, and of the stedfast ground,
And of the heauen itself also, that both encloseth round.
And first and foremost of the sea, the gods thereof did stand,
Loude-sounding Tryton, with his shrill and writhen trumpe in hand,
Unstable Protew, changing aye his figure and his hue,
From shape to shape a thousand sights, as list him to renue.—
In purple robe, and royall throne of emerauds freshe and greene,
Did Phoebus sit, and on each hand stood wayting well beseene,
Dayes, Months, Yeeres, Ages, Seasons, Times, and eke the equall Houres;
There stood the SPRINGTIME, with a crowne of fresh and fragrant floures:
There wayted SUMMER naked starke, all saue a wheaten hat:
And AUTUMNE smerde with treading grapes late at the pressingvat:
And lastly, quaking for the colde, stood WINTER all forlorne,
With rugged head as white as doue, and garments al to torne;
Forladen
Ove
lad
n.
with the isycles, that dangled vp and downe,
Upon his gray and hoarie beard, and snowie frozen crowne.
The Sunne thus sitting in the midst, did cast his piercing eye, &c.
But I cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing a few more lines, from the transformation of Athamas and Ino, in the fourth book. Tisiphone addresses Juno
Fol. 50. a. edit. 1603.
.
The hatefull hag Tisiphone, with hoarie ruffled heare
Hair.
,
Remouing from her face the snakes, that loosely dangled theare,
Said thus, &c.
He proceeds,
The furious fiend Tisiphone, doth cloth her out of hand,
In garment streaming gory blood, and taketh in her hand
A burning cresset
A torch. The word is used by Milton.
steept in blood, and girdeth her about
With wreathed snakes, and so goes forth, and at her going out,
Feare, terror, griefe, and pensiuenesse, for company she tooke,
And also madnesse with his flaight and gastly-staring looke.
Within the house of Athamas no sooner foote she set,
But that the postes began to quake, and doores looke blacke as iet.
The sunne withdrewe him: Athamas and eke his wife were cast
With ougly sightes in such a feare, that out of doores agast
They would have fled. There stood the fiend, and stopt their passage out;
And splaying
Displaying.
foorth her filthy armes beknit with snakes about,
Did tosse and waue her hatefull head. The swarme of scaled snakes
Did make an yrksome noyce to heare, as she her tresses shakes.
About her shoulders some did craule, some trayling downe her brest,
Did hisse, and spit out poison greene, and spirt with tongues infest.
Then from amid her haire two snakes, with venymd hand she drew,
Of which she one at Athamas, and one at Ino threw.
The snakes did craule about their brests, inspiring in their heart
Most grieuous motions of the minde: the body had no smart
Of any wound: it was the minde that felt the cruell stinges.
A poyson made in syrup-wise, she also with her brings,
The filthy
ome of Cerberus, the casting of the snake
Echidna, bred among the fennes, about the Stygian lake.
Desire of gadding forth abroad, Forgetfullness of minde,
Delight in mischie
e, Woodnesse
Madness.
, Tears, and Purpose whole inclinde
To cruell murther: all the which, she did together grinde.
And mingling them with new-shed blood, she boyled them in brasse,
And stird them with a hemlock stalke. Now while that Athamas
And Ino stood, and quakt for feare, this poyson ranke and fell
She turned into both their brests, and made their hearts to swell.
Then whisking often round about her head, her balefull brand,
She made it soone, by gathering winde, to kindle in her hand.
Thus, as it were in tryumph-wi
e, accomplishing her hest,
To duskie Pluto's emptie realme, she gets her home to rest,
And putteth off the snarled snakes that girded-in her brest.
We have here almost as horrid a mixture as the ingredients in Macbeth's cauldron. In these lines there is much enthusiasm, and the character of original composition. The abruptnesses of the text are judiciously retained, and perhaps improved. The translator seems to have felt Ovid's imagery, and this perhaps is an imagery in which Ovid excells.
Golding's version of the METAMORPHOSIS kept its ground, till Sandys's English Ovid appeared in 1632. I know not who was the author of what is called a
ballet,
perhaps a translation from the Metamorphosis, licenced to John Charlewood, in 1569,
"The vnfortunate ende of Iphis sonne vnto Teucer kynge of Troye
REGISTR. STATION. A.
ol. 186. a. See Malone's SUPPL. SHAKESP. i. 60. seq.
."
Nor must I omit The tragicall and lamentable
"Historie of two faythfull mates Ceyx kynge of Thrachine, and Alcione his wife, drawen into English meeter by William Hubbard, 1569
Impr at London, by W. Howe for R. Johnes. Bl. Lett. 12mo. In eight leaves
."
In stanzas.
Golding was of a gentleman's family, a native of London, and lived with secretary Cecil at his house in the Strand
His dedication to the four first books of Ovid is from Cecil-house, 1564. See his Dedication to his English version of Peter A
etine's WAR OF ITALY WITH THE GOTHS, Lond. 1563. 12mo. To this he has prefixed a long preface on the causes of the irruption of the Goths into Italy. He appears to have also lived in the parish of All Saints
ad murum,
London-wall, in 1577. EPIST. prefixed to his SENECA. His POSTILS of Chytraeus are dedicated from Pauls Belchamp t
sir W. Mildmay, March 10, 1570.
. Among his patrons, as we may collect from his dedications, were also sir Walter Mildmay, William lord Cobham, Henry earl of Huntington, lord Leicester, sir Christopher Hatton, lord Oxford, and Robert earl of Essex. He was connected with sir Philip Sydney: for he finished an English translation of Philip Mornay's treatise in French on the Truth of Christianity, which had been begun by Sydney, and was published in 1587
In quarto. It was afterwards corrected and printed by Thomas Wilcox, 1604.
. He enlarged our knowledge of the treasures of antiquity by publishing English translations, of Justin's History in 1564
Lond. 4to. Again 1578. There is the PSALTER in English, printed with Henry Middleton, by Arthur Golding. Lond. 1571. 4to.
, of Cesar's Commentaries in 1565
The Dedication to Cecil is dated from Pauls Belchamp, 12 Octob. Lond. 12mo. Again, 1590. There was a translation by Tipto
t earl of Worcester, printed by Ra
all. No date. I suppose about 1530.
, of Seneca's BENEFITS in 1577
Lond. 4to. To sir Christopher Hatton.
, and of the GEOGRAPHY of Pomponius Mela, and the POLYHISTORY of Solinus, in 1587, and 1590
Lond. 4to.
. He has left versions of many modern Latin writers, which then had their use, and suited the condition and opinions of the times; and which are now forgotten, by the introduction of better books, and the general change of the system of knowledge. I think his only original work is an account of an Earthquake in 1580. Of his original poetry I recollect nothing more, than an encomiastic copy of verses prefixed to Baret's ALVEARE published in 1580. It may be regretted, that he gave so much of his time to translation. In GEORGE GASCOIGNE'S PRINCELY PLEASURES OF KENILWORTH-CASTLE, an entertainment in the year 1575, he seems to have been a writer of some of the verses,
"The deuise of the Ladie of the Lake also was master Hunnes—The verses, as I think, were penned, some by master Hunnes, some by master Ferrers, and some by master Goldingham
Signat. B ij.
."
The want of exactness through haste or carelessness, in writing or pronouncing names, even by cotemporaries, is a common fault, especially in our old writers; and I suspect Golding is intended in the last name
But I must observe, that one Henry Goldingham is mentioned as a gesticulator, and one who was to perform Arion on a dolphin's back, in some spectacle before queen Elisabeth. M
RY PASSAGES AND JEASTS, MSS. HARL. 6395. One B. Goldingham is an actor and a poet, in 1579. in the pageant before queen Elisabeth at Norwich. Hollinsh. C
RON. iii. f. 1298. col. 1.
. He is ranked among the celebrated translators by Webbe and Meres.
The learned Ascham wishes that some of these translators had used blank verse instead of rhyme. But by blank verse, he seems to mean the English hexameter or some other Latin measure. He says,
"Indeed, Chauser, Thomas Norton of Bristow, my Lord of Surry, M. Wiat, Thomas Phaier, and other gentlemen, in translating Ouide, Palingenius, and Seneca, haue gone as farre to their great praise as the coppy they followed could cary them. But if such good wittes, and forward diligence, had been directed to followe the best examples, and not haue beene caryed by tyme and custome to content themselves with that barbarous and rude Ryming, amongest theyr other woorthye prayses which they haue iustly deserued, this had not been the least, to be counted among men of learning and skill, more like vnto the Grecians than the Gothians in handling of theyr verse
Fol. 52. a. 53. b. edit. 1589. 4to.
."
The sentiments of another cotemporary critic on this subject were somewhat different.
"In queene Maries time florished abou
any other doctour Phaier, one that was learned, and excellently well translated into English verse heroicall, certaine bookes of Virgil's Aeneidos. Since him followed maister Arthur Golding, who with no less commendation turned into English meetre the Metamorphosis of Ouide, and that other doctour who made the supplement to those bookes of Virgil's Aeneidos, which maister Phaier left vndoone."
Again, he commends
"Phaier and Golding, for a learned and well connected verse, specially in translation cleare, and uery faithfully answering their authours intent
Puttenham's A
TE O
ENGLISH PO
SIE, Lond. 1589. 4to. Lib. i. ch. 30. fol. 49. 51.
."
I learn from Coxeter's notes, that the FASTI were translated into English verse before the year 1570. If so, the many little pieces now current on the subject of LUCRETIA, although her legend is in Chaucer, might immediately originate from this source. In 1568, occurs, a
Ballett
called
"the grevious complaynt of Lucrece
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 174. a. To John Alde. The story might however have been taken from Livy: as was
"The Tragedy of Appiu
and Virginia,"
inverse. This, reprinted in 1575, is entered to R. Jones, in 1567. Ibid. fol. 163. a. And there is the Terannye of judge Apius, a ballad, in 1569. Ibid. fol. 184. b.
."
And afterwards, in the year 1569, is licenced to James Robertes,
"A ballet of the death of Lucryssia
REGISTR. A. fol. 192. b.
."
There is also a ballad of the legend of Lucrece, printed in 1576. These publications might give rise to Shakespeare's RAPE OF LUCRECE, which appeared in 1594. At this period of our poetry, we find the same subject occupying the attention of the public for many years, and successively presented in new and various forms by different poets. Lucretia was the grand example of conjugal fidelity throughout the Gothic ages
It is remarkable, that the sign of Berthelette the king's printer in Fleet-street, who flourished about 1540, was the Lucretia, or as he writes it, LUCRETIA ROMANA.
There is another Lucretia belonging to our old poetic story. Laneham, in his Narrative of the queen's visit at Kenilworth-castle in 1575, mentions among the favorite story-books
"Lucres and Eurialus."
p. 34. This is,
"A boke of ij lovers Euryalus and Lucressie [Lucretia] pleasaunte and dilectable,"
entered to T. Norton, in 1569. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 189. a. Again, under the title of
"A booke entituled the excellent historye of Euryalus and Lucretia,"
to T. Creede, Oct. 19, 1596. REGISTR. C. fol. 14. b. This story was first written in Latin prose, and partly from a real event, about the year 1440, by Aeneas Sylvius, then imperial poet and secretary, afterwards pope Pius the second. It may be seen in EPISTOLARUM LACONICARUM ET SELECTARUM FARRAGINES DUAE, collected by Gilbertus Cognatus, and printed at Basil, 1554. 12mo. (See FARRAG. ii. p. 386.) In the course of the narrative, Lucretia is compared by her lover to Polyxena, Venus, and AEMILIA. The last is the Emilia of Boccace's Theseid, or Palamon and Arcite. p. 481.
.
The fable of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, in the fourth book of the METAMORPHOSIS, was translated by Thomas Peend, or De la Peend, in 1565
It is licenced to Colwell that year, with the title of the
"pleasaunte fable of Ovide intituled Salmacis and Hermaphroditus."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 135. a.
. I have seen it only among Antony Wood's books in the Ashmolean Museum. An Epistle is prefixed, addressed to Nicolas Saint Leger esquire, from the writer's
studie
in Chancery-lane opposite Serjeant's-inn. At the end of which, is an explanation of certain poetical words occurring in the poem. In the preface he tells us, that he had translated great part of the METAMORPHOSIS; but that he abandoned his design, on hearing that another, undoubtedly Golding, was engaged in the same undertaking. Peend has a recommendatory poem prefixed to Studley's version of Seneca's AGAMEMNON, in 1566. In 1562, was licenced
"the boke of Perymus and Thesbye,"
copied perhaps in the MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM. I suppose a translation from Ovid's fable of Pyramus and Thisbe
In quarto. Lond. for T. Hackett. Bl. Lett.
.
The fable of Narcissus had been translated, and printed separately in 1560, by a nameless author,
"The fable of Ovid treting of Narcissus translated out of Latin into English mytre, with a moral thereunto, very plesante to rede, Lond. 1560
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 92. a. To William Griffiths. I know not whether the following were regular versions of Ovid, or poems formed from his works now circulating in English. Such as,
"the Ballet of Pygmalion,"
to R. Jones, in 1568. Ibid. fol. 176. a. Afterwards reprinted and a favorite story. There is the
"Ballet of Pygmalion,"
in 1568. Ibid. fol. 176. a.—
"A ballet intituled the Golden Apple,"
to W. Pickering, in 1568. Ibid. fol. 175. a.—
"A ballet intituled Hercules and his Ende,"
to W. Griffiths, in 1563. Ibid. fol. 102. b. There is also, which yet may be referred to another source,
"A ballet intituled the History of Troilus,
whose troth had well been tryed,
"
to Purfoote, in 1565. Ibid. fol. 134. b. This occurs again in 1581, and 1608. The same may be said of the
"History of the tow [two] mooste noble prynces of the worlde Astio
ax and Polixene [Astyanax] of Troy,"
to T. Hackett, in 1565. Ibid. fol. 139. a. Again, in 1567,
"the ballet of Acrisious"
that is, Acrisius the father of Dan
e
Ibid. fol. 177. b. Also,
"A ballet of the mesyrable state of king Medas,"
or Midas, in 1569. Ibid. fol. 185. b. These are a few and early instances out of many. Of the METAMORPHOSIS of PIGMALIONS IMAGE, by Marston, printed 1598, and alluded to by Shakespeare, [MEAS. MEAS. iii. 2.] more will be said hereafter.
There is likewise, which may be referred hither, a
"booke intitled Procris and Cephalus divided into four parts,"
licenced Oct. 22, 1598, to J. Wolfe, perhaps a play, and probably ridiculed in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, under the title
Shefalus and Procrus.
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 302
a.
There is also, at least originating from the English Ovid, a pastoral play, presented by the queen's choir-boys, Peele's ARRAIGNEMENT OF PARIS, in 1584. And I have seen a little novel on that subject, with the same compliment to the queen, by Dickenson, in 1593. By the way, some passages are transferred from that novel into another written by Dickenson
"ARISBAS, Euphues amidst his slumbers, or Cupid's Iourney to hell, &c. By J. D. Lond. For T. Creede, 1594. 4to."
One of them, where Pomona falls in love with a beautiful boy named Hyalus, is as follows. Signat. E 3.
"She, desirous to winne him with ouer-cloying kindnesse, sed him with apples, gaue him plumes, presented him peares. Having made this entrance into her future solace, she would vse oft his company, kisse him, coll him, check him, chucke him, walke with him, weepe for him, in the
ields, neere the fountaines, sit with him,
ue to him, omitting no kindes of dalliance to to woe him, &c."
I have selected this passage, because I think it was recollected by Shakespeare in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, where he describes the caresses bestowed by the queen of the fairies on her
loved
boy, ACT v. Sc. i.
Come sit thee down upon this flowery bed
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head.—
I have a ventrous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel's hoard, &c.
See also, ACT ii. Sc. i. In the ARRAIGNEMENT OF PARIS just mentioned, we have the same subject and language.
Playes with Amyntas lu
ty boye, and coyes him in the dales.
To return. There is, to omit later instances,
"A proper ballet dialogue-wise between Troylus and Cressida,"
Jun. 23, in 1581. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 180. b.
"Endimion a
d Phebe,"
a
booke,
to John Busbye, April 12, 1595. Ibid. fol. 131
b. A ballad,
"a mirror meete for wanton and insolent dames by example of Medusa kinge of Phorcius his daughter."
Feb. 13, 1577. Ibid. fol. 145. b.
"The History of Glau
us and Scylla,"
to R. Jones, Sept. 22, 1589. Ibid fol. 248. b. Narcissus and Phaeton were turned into plays before 1610. See Heywood's APOLOG. ACTORS. Lilly's SAPPHO and PHAO, ENDIMION, and MIDAS, are almost too well known to be enumerated her
. The two last, with his GALATH
A, were licenced to T. Man, Oct. 1, 1590. [But see supr. p. 406.] Of PENELOPES WEBBE, unless Greene's, I can say nothing, licenced to E. Aggas, Jun. 26, 1587. Ibid. fol. 219. b. Among Harrington's EPIGRAMS, is one entitled,
"Ouid's Confession translated into English for General Norreyes, 1593."
EPIGR. 85. lib. iii. Of this I know no more. The subject of this note might be much further illustrated.
."
The translator's name was luckily suppressed. But at the close of the work are his initials,
"Finis. T. H."
Annexed to the fable is a moralisation of twice the length in the octave stanza. Almost every narrative was antiently supposed or made to be allegorical, and to contain a moral meaning. I have enlarged on this subject in the DISSERTATION ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM. In the reign of Elisabeth, a popular ballad had no sooner been circulated, than it was converted into a practical instruction, and followed by its MORALISATION. The old registers of the Stationers afford numerous instances of this custom, which was encouraged by the encrease of puritanism
As,
"Maukin was a Coventry mayde,"
moralised in 1563. REGISTR. A. fol. 102. a. With a thousand others. I have seen other moralisations of Ovid's stories by the puritans. One by W. K. or William Kethe, a Scotch divine, no unready rhymer, mentioned above, p. 305. In our singingpsalms, the psalms 70, 104, 122, 125, 134, are signatured with W. K. or William Kethe. These initials have been hitherto undecyphered. At the end of Knox's APPELLATION to the Scotch bishops, printed at Geneva in 1558, is psalm 93
turned into metre by W. Kethe. 12mo. He wrote, about the same time,
A ball
d on the fall of the whore of Babylon,
called
"Tye the m
re Tom-boy."
See supr. p. 170. n. And Strype, ANN. REF. vol. ii. B. i. ch. 11. pag. 102. edit. 1725. Another is by J. K. or John Kepyer, mentioned above as another coadjutor of Sternhold and Hopkins, (see supr. p. 186.) and who occurs in
"The ARBOR OF AMITIE, wherein is comprised plesaunt poems and pretie poe
ies, set foorth by Thomas Howell gentleman, anno 1568."
Imprinted at London, J. H. Denham, 12mo. Bl. Lett. Dedicated to ladie Anne Talbot. Among the recommendatory copies is one signed, John Keeper, student. See also
"J. K. to his friend H."
fol. 27. a. And
"H. to K."
ibid. Again, fol. 33. b. 34. a. and 38, 39, &c.
. Hence in Randolph's MUSE'S LOOKING-GLASS, where two pu
itans are made spectators of a play, a player, to reconcile them in some degree to a theatre, promises to
moralise
the plot: and one of them answers,
—That MORALIZING
I do approve: it may be for instruction
ACT i. SC. ii. edit. Oxf. 1638. 4to. Again, Mrs. Flowerdew says,
"Pray, sir, continue the MORALIZING."
ACT iii. SC.
.
.
Ovid's IBIS was translated, and illustrated with annotations, by Thomas Underdowne, born, and I suppose educated, at Oxford. It was printed at London in 1569
See REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 177. b.
, with a dedication to Thomas Sackville, lord Buckhurst, the author of GORDOBUC, and entitled,
"Ouid his inuective against Ibis Translated into meeter, whereunto is added by the translator a short draught of all the stories and tales contayned therein uery pleasant to read. Imprinted at London by T. East and H. Middleton, Anno Domini 1569."
The notes are large and historical. There was a second edition by Binneman in 1577
Both are in octavo. Salma
s and Hermaphroditus was translated by F. Beaumont, 1602. He also translated part of Ovid's REMEDY OF LOVE. As did sir T. Overbury the whole soon afterwards, Lond. 1620. 8vo. But I believe there is a former editi
n, no date. 8vo.
. This is the first stanza.
Whole fiftie yeares be gone and past
Since I alyue haue been
Yet of my Muse ere now there hath
No armed verse be seene.
The same author opened a new field of romance, and which seems partly to have suggested sir Philip Sydney's ARCADIA, in translating into English prose the ten books of Heliodorus's Ethiopic history, in 1577
Bl Lett. Lo d. 4to. A second edition appeared in 1587. But in 1
68
9, there is an entry to Francis Coldocke to print
"a boke entit
the end of the xth boke"
of Heliodorus's Ethiopics. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 178. b.
. This work, the beginning of which was afterwards versified by Abraham Fraunce in 1591, is dedicated to Edward earl of Oxford. The knights and dames of chivalry, sir Tristram and Bel Isoulde, now began to give place to new lovers and intrigues: and our author published the
Excellent historie of Theseus and Ariadne,
most probably suggested by Ovid, which was printed at London in 1566
In octavo. Bl. Lett.
.
The ELEGIES of Ovid, which convey the obscenities of the brothel in elegant language, but are seldom tinctured with the sentiments of a serious and melancholy love, were translated by Christopher Marlowe belowmentioned, and printed at Middleburgh without date. This book was ordered to be burnt at Stationers hall, in 1599, by command of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London
REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 316. a. b. There were two impressions.
.
Ovid's REMEDY OF LOVE had an anonymous translator in 1599
Dec. 25. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 55. a. To Brown and Jagger. Under the same year occur,
Ovydes Epistles in Englyshe,
and
Ovydes Metamorphoses in Englyshe.
Ibid. fol. 57. a. There seems to have been some difficulty in procuring a licence for the
"Comedie of Sappho,"
Apr. 6, 1583. REGISTR. B. fol. 198. b.
. But this version was printed the next year under the title of
"Ovidius Naso his REMEDIE OF LOVE, translated and entituled to the youth of England, by F. L. London 1600
In quarto.
."
The HEROICAL EPISTLES of Ovid, with Sabinus's Answers, were
set out and translated
by Thomas Turberville, a celebrated writer of poems in the reign of queen Elisabeth, and of whom more will be said in his proper place
"The Heroycall Epistles of the learned poet Publius Naso in English verse, set out and translated by George Turberville gentleman, with Aulus Sabinus answere to certain of the same."
Lond. for Henry Denham, 1
67. 12mo.
. This version was printed in 1567, and followed by two editions
In 1569 and 1600. All at Lond. Bl. Lett.
. It is dedicated to Thomas Howard viscount Byndon
I find entered to Henry Denham, in 1565-6, a
boke
called
"the fyrste epestle of Ovide."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 148. b. Again the same year, to the same,
"An epestle of Ovide beynge the iiijth epestle."
Ibid. fol. 149. a. In the same year, to the same, the rest of Ovid's Epist
es. Ibid. fol. 152. a. There is
"A booke entit. Oenone to Paris, wherein is deciphered the extremitie of Love, &c."
To R. Jones, May 17, 1594. REGISTR. B. fol. 307. b.
. Six of the Epistles are rendered in blank verse. The rest in four-lined stanzas. The printer is John Charlewood, who appears to have been printer to the family of Howard, and probably was retained as a domestic for that liberal purpose in Arundel-house, the seat of elegance and literature till Cromwell's usurpation
In the
Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophesies,
written by Henry Howard, afterwards earl of Northampton and lord privy-seal, and printed (4to.) in 1583, the printer, John Charlewood, styles himself printer to Philip earl of Arundel. And in many others of his books, he calls himself printer to lord Arundel. Otherwise, he lived in Barbican, at the sign of the Half eagle and Key.
. Turberville was a polite scholar, and some of the passages are not unhappily turned. From Penelope to Ulysses.
To thee that lingrest all too long
Thy wife, Vlysses, sends:
'Gaine write not, but by quicke returne
For absence make amendes.—
O that the surging seas had drencht
That hatefull letcher tho',
When he to Lacedaemon came
Inbarkt, and wrought our woe!
I add here, that Mantuan, who had acquired the rank of a classic, was also versified by Turberville in 1594
The four first Eclogues of Mantuan, I suppose in English, were entered to Binneman in 1566. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 151. b. And
"the rest of the egloggs of Mantuan,"
to the same, in 1566. Ibid. fol. 154. b.
.
Coxeter says, that he had seen one of Ovid's Epistles translated by Robert earl of Essex. This I have never seen; and, if it could be recovered, I trust it would only be valued as a curiosity. A few of his sonnets are in the Ashmolean Museum, which have no marks of poetic genius. He is a vigorous and elegant writer of prose. But if Essex was no poet, few noblemen of his age were more courted by poets. From Spenser to the lowest rhymer he was the subject of numerous sonnets, or popular ballads. I will not except Sydney. I could produce evidence to prove, that he scarce ever went out of England, or even left London, on the most frivolous enterprise, without a pastoral in his praise, or a panegyric in metre, which were sold and sung in the streets. Having interested himself in the fashionable poetry of the times, he was placed high in the ideal Arcadia now just established: and among other instances which might be brought, on his return from Portugal in 1589, he was complimented with a poem, called
"An Egloge gratulatorie entituled to the right honorable and renowned shepherd of Albions Arcadie Robert earl of Essex and for his returne lately into England
Licenced to R. Jones, Aug. 1, 1589. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 246. b.
."
This is a light in which lord Essex is seldom viewed. I know not if the queen's fatal partiality, or his own inherent attractions, his love of literature, his heroism, integrity, and generosity, qualities which abundantly overbalance his presumption, his vanity, and impetuosity, had the greater share in dictating these praises. If adulation were any where justifiable, it must be when paid to the man who endeavoured to save Spenser from starving in the streets of Dublin, and who buried him in Westminster-abbey with becoming solemnity. Spenser was persecuted by Burleigh, because he was patronised by Essex.
Thomas Churchyard, who will occur again, rendered the three first of the TRISTIA, which he dedicated to sir Christopher Hatton, and printed at London in 1580
In quarto. An entry appears in 1577, and 1591. REGISTR. STATION.
.
Among Coxeter's papers is mentioned the
ballet
of Helen's epistle to Paris, from Ovid, in 1570, by B. G. I suspect this B. G. to be the author of a poem called
"A booke intituled a new tragicall historye of too lovers,"
as it is entered in the register of the Stationers, where it is licenced to Alexander Lacy, under the year 1563
REGISTR. A. fol. 102. It was reprinted, in 1568, for Griffiths, ibid. fol. 174. b. Again, the s
me year, for R. Jones,
"The ballet intituled the story of ij faythfull lovers."
Ibid. fol. 177. b. Again, for R. Tottell, in 1564,
"A tragicall historye that happened betweene ij Englishe lovers."
Ibid. fol. 118. a. I know not if this be
"The famooste and notable history of two faythfull lover
named Alfayns and Archelaus in myter,"
for Colwell, in 1565. Ibid fol. 133. a. There is also
"A proper historye of ij Duche lovers,"
for Purfoote, in 1567. Ibid. fol. 163. a. Also,
"The moste famous history of ij Span
she lovers,"
to R. Jones, in 1569. Ibid. fol. 192. b. A poem, called
The tragical history
of DIDACO AND VIOLENTA, was printed in 1576.
. Ames recites this piece as written by Ber. Gar. perhaps Bernard Gardiner
HIST. PRINT. 532. 551.
. Unless Gar, which I do not think, be the full name. The title of BALLET was often applied to poems of considerable length. Thus in the register of the Stationers, Sackville's LEGEND OF BUCKINGHAM, a part of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, is recited, under the year 1557, among a great number of ballads, some of which seem to be properly so styled, and entitled,
"The murninge of Edward duke of Buckynham."
Unless we suppose this to be a popular epitome of Sackville's poem, then just published
I will exhibit the mode of entry more at large.
"To John Kynge THESE BOOKES FOLOWYNGE, Called A
Nosegaye, The scole howse of women,
and also
a Sacke full of Ne
ves
"
Then another paragraph begins,
"To Mr. John Wallis, and Mrs. Toye, these BALLETS FOLOWYNGE, that ys to saye,—."
Then follow about forty pieces, among which is this of the Duke of Buckingham. REGISTR. A. fol. 22. a. But in these records, BOOK and BALLET are often promiscuously used.
. A romance, or History, versified, so as to form a book or pamphlet, was sometimes called a ballad. As
"A ballett entituled an history of Alexander Campaspe and Apelles, and of the faythfull fryndeshippe betweene theym,
printed for Colwell, in 1565
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 137. b.
. This was from the grand romance of Alexander
There is, printed in 1565,
"A ballet intituled Apelles and Pygmalyne, to the tune of the fyrst Apelles."
Ibid. fol. 140. b. And, under the year 1565,
"A ballet of kynge Polliceute [f. Polyeuctes] to the tune of Appelles."
Ibid. fol. 133. b. Also,
"The Songe of Appelles,"
in the same year. Ibid. fol. 138. a. By the way, Lilly's Campaspe, first printed in 1591, might originate from these pieces.
. Sometimes a Ballad is a work in prose. I cannot say whether,
"A ballet intitled the incorraggen all kynde of men to the reedyfyinge and buyldynge Poules steeple againe,"
printed in 1564
Ibid. fol. 116. a.
, was a pathetic ditty, or a pious homily, or both. A play or interlude was sometimes called a ballet, as,
"A Ballet intituled AN ENTERLUDE, The cruel detter by Wayer,"
printed for Colwell, in 1565
Ibid. fol. 138. a.
. Religious subjects were frequently called by this vague and indiscriminating name. In 1561, was published
"A new ballet of iiij commandements
Ibid. fol. 75. b.
."
That is, four of the Ten Commandments in metre. Again, among many others of the same kind, as puritanism gained ground,
"A ballet intituled the xvijth chapter of the iiijth [second] boke of Kynges
Ibid. fol. 166. a.
."
And I remember to have seen, of the same period, a Ballet of the first chapter of Genesis. And John Hall, abovementioned, wrote or compiled in 1564,
"The COURTE OF VERTUE, contaynynge many holy or spretuall songes, sonettes, psalmes, balletts, and shorte sentences, as well of holy scriptures, as others
For T. Marshe. Ibid. fol. 118. b. [See supr. p. 181.]
."
It is extraordinary, that Horace's ODES should not have been translated within the period of which we are speaking
I believe they were first translated by sir Thomas Hawkins, knight, in 1625.
. In the year 1566, Thomas Drant published, what he called,
"A MEDICINABLE MORALL, that is, the two bookes of Horace his satyres Englished, according to the prescription of saint Hierome, &c
That is,
Quod malum est muta, quod bonum est prode, from his Epistle to Ru
inus.
. London, for Thomas Marshe, 1566
At the end of this translation, are,
"The waylings of the prophet Hieremiah done into Englishe verse. Also Epigrammes. T. Drant,
A
tidoti salutaris amator.
Perused and allowed accordyng to the queenes maiesties iniunctions."
Of the Epigrams, four are in English, and seven in Latin. This book is said to be authorised by the bishop of London. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 140. b. I know not whether or no the EPIGRAMS were not printed separate: for in 1567, is licenced to T. Marshe,
"A boke intituled Epygrams and Sentences spirituall by Draunte."
Ibid. fol. 165. a. The argument of the JEREMIAH, which he compared with the Hebrew and the Septuagint, begins,
Jerusalem is iustlie plagude,
And left disconsolate,
The queene of townes the prince of realmes
Deuested from her state.
In 1586, Mar. 11, are entered to J. Wolfe,
"LAMENTATION OF JEREMYE in prose and meeter in English, with Tremellius's Annotations to the prose."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 216. a. See Donne's POEMS, p. 306. seq. edit. 1633. 4to.
."
It is dedicated to
"my Lady Bacon and my Lady Cecill fauourers of learning and vertue."
The following year appeared,
"Horace his Arte of Poetrie, Pistles, and Satyrs Englished, and to the earle of Ormounte by Thomas Drant addressed
With a Greek motto.
. Imprinted at London in Fletestrete nere to S. Dunstones churche, by Thomas Marshe, 1567
In quarto. Bl. L
tt. In the front of the Dedication he styles himself
"Maister of Arte, and Student in Diuinitye."
There is a licence in 1566-7, to Henry Week
s for
"Orace epestles in Engli
she."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 155. a
And there is an entry of the EPISTLES in 1591. REGISTR. B. I find also entered to Colwell,
"The fyrste twoo satars and peysels of Orace Englesshed by Lewis Evans schoolemaister,"
in 1564. REGISTR. A. fol. 121. a. This piece is not catalogued among Evans's works in Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 178. Nor in Tanner, BIBL. p. 270.
."
This version is very paraphrastic, and sometimes parodical. In the address to the reader prefixed, our translator says of his Horace,
"I haue translated him sumtymes at randun. And nowe at this last time welnye worde for worde, and lyne for lyne. And it is maruaile that I, being in all myne oth
r speaches so playne and perceauable, should here desyer or not shun to be harde, so farre forth as I can kepe the lerninge and sayinges of the author."
What follows is too curious not to be transcribed, as it is a picture of the popular learning, and a ridicule of the idle narratives, of the reign of queen Elisabeth.
"But I feare me a number do so thincke of thys booke, as I was aunswered by a prynter not long agone: Though sayth he, sir, your boke be wyse and ful of learnyng, yet peradventure it wyl not be saleable: Signifying indeede, that flim flames, and gue gawes, be they neuer so sleight and slender, are sooner rapte vp thenne are those which be lettered and clarkly makings. And no doubt the cause that bookes of learnynge seme so hard is, because such and so greate a scull of amarouse [amorous] pamphlets haue so preoccupyed the eyes and eares of men, that a multytude beleue ther is none other style or phrase ells worthe gramercy
We have this passage in a poem called PASQUILL'S MADNESSE, Lond. 1600. 4to. fol. 36.
And tell prose writers, stories are so stale,
That pennie ballads make a better s
le.
And in Burton's Melancholy,
ol. 122. edit. 1624.
"If they reade a booke at any time '
is an English Cronicle, sir Huon of Bourdeaux, or Amadis de Gaule, a playe booke, or some pamphle
t of newes."
Hollinshed's and Stowe's CRONICLES became at length the only fashionable reading. In
The Guls Hornbook,
it is said,
"The top [the leads] of saint Paules containes more names than Stowe's Cronicle."
Lond. 1609. 4to. p. 21. Bl. Lett. That the ladies now began to read novels we find from this passage,
"Let them learne plaine workes of all kinde, so they take heed of too open seaming. Insteade of songes and musicke, let them learne cookerie and laundrie. And instead of reading sir Philip Sidney's ARCADIA, let them reade the
Gr
undes of good Huswi
ry.
I like not a female poetesse at any hand.—Th
re is a pretty way of breeding young maides in an Exchange-shop, or Saint Martines le Grand. But many of them gett such a
oolish trick with carrying their band-box to gentlemens chambers, &c."
TOM OF ALL TRADES, or
the plaine Path way to Preferment.
&c." By Thomas Powell, Lond. 1631. 4to. p. 47, 48.
Female writers of poetry seem to have now been growing common: for, in his ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, Puttenham says,
"Darke worde, or doubtfull speach, are not so narrowly to be looked vpon in a large poeme, nor specially in the pretie poesies and deuises of Ladies and Gentlewomen-makers, [poetesses,] whom we would not haue too precise poets, least with their shrewd wits, when they were married, they might become a little too fantasticall wiues."
Lib. iii. ch. xxi. p. 209. Decker, in the GULS HORNBOOK, written in 1609, in the chapter
How a gallant should behave himself in a play-house,
mentions the necessity of hoarding up a quantity of
play-scraps,
to be ready for the attacks of the
"
Arcadian
and
Euphuised
gentlewomen."
Ch. vi. p. 27. seq. Edward Hake, in
A Touchstone for this time present,
speaking of the education of young ladies, says, that the girl is
"eyther altogither kept from exercises of good learning, and knowledge of good letters, or el
e she is so nouseled in AMOROU
bookes, vaine STORIES, and
onde trifeling fancies, &c."
Lond. by Thomas Hacket, 1574, 12mo. SIGNAT. C 4. He adds, after many severe censures on the impiety of dancing, that
"the substaunce which is consumed in twoo yeares space vppon the apparaill of one meane gentlemans daughter, o
vppon the daughter or wife of one citizen, woulde bee sufficient to finde a poore student in the vniuersitye by the space of foure or five yeares at the least."
Ibid. SIGNAT. D 2. But if girls are bred to learning, he says,
"It is for no other ende, but to make them companions of carpet knights, and giglots for amorous louers."
Ibid. SIGNAT. C 4. Gabriel Harvey, in his elegy DE AULICA, or character of the Maid of Honour, says, among many other requisite accomplishments,
Saltet item, pingatque eadem, DOCTUMQUE POEMA
Pangat, nec Musas nesciat illa meas.
See his GRATULATIONES VALDINENSES, Lond. Binneman, 1578. 4to. Lib. iv. p. 21. He adds, that she should have in her library, Chaucer, lord Surrey, and Gascoign
, together with some medical books. Ibid. p. 22.
. No bookes so ryfe or so frindly red, as be these bokes.—But if the settyng out of the wanton tricks of a payre of louers, as for example let theym be cauled sir Chaunticleare and dame Partilote, to tell howe their firste combination of loue began, howe their eyes floted, and howe they anchered, their beames mingled one with the others bewtye. Then, of their perplexed thowghts, their throwes, their fancies, their dryrie driftes, now interrupted now vnperfyted, their loue days, their sugred words, and their sugred ioyes. Afterward, howe enuyous fortune, through this chop or that chaunce, turned their bless to bale, seuerynge two such bewtiful faces and dewtiful hearts. Last, at partynge, to ad-to an oration or twane, interchangeably had betwixt the two wobegone persons, the one thicke powderd with manly passionat pangs, the other watered with womanish teares. Then to shryne them vp to god Cupid, and make martirres of them both, and therwyth an ende of the matter."
Afterwards, reverting to the peculiar difficulty of his own attempt, he adds,
"Neyther any man which can iudge, can iudge it one and the like laboure to translate Horace, and to make and translate a loue booke, a shril tragedye, or a smoth and platleuyled poesye. Thys can I trulye say of myne owne experyence, that I can soner translate twelve verses out of the Greeke Homer than sixe out Horace."
Horace's satirical writings, and even his Odes, are undoubtedly more difficult to translate than the narrations of epic poetry, which depend more on things than words: no
is it to be expected, that his satires and epistles should be happily rendered into English at this infancy of style and taste, when his delicate turns could not be expressed, his humour and his urbanity justly relished, and his good sense and observations on life understood. Drant seems to have succeeded best in the exquisite Epistle to Tibullus, which I will therefore give entire.
To Albius Tibullus, a deuisor
An inventor, a poet.
.
Tybullus, frend and gentle iudge
Of all that I do clatter
He means to express the loose and rough ver
ification of the SERMONES.
,
What dost thou all this while abroade,
How might I learne the matter?
Dost thou inuente such worthy workes
As Cassius' poemes passe?
Or doste thou closelie creeping lurck
Amid the wholsom grasse?
Addicted to philosop
ie,
Contemning not a whitte
That's
That which is.
seemlie for an honest man,
And for a man of witte
Knowledge, wisdom.
Sapient
.
Not thou a bodie without breast!
The goddes made thee t' excell
In shape, the gods haue lent thee goodes,
And arte to vse them well.
What better thing vnto her childe
Can wish the mother kinde?
Than wisedome, and, in fyled frame
Having a comely person. Or, to speak with elegance.
,
To vtter owte his minde:
To haue fayre fauoure, fame enoughe,
And perfect staye, and health;
Things trim at will, and not to feele
The emptie ebb of wealth.
Twixt hope to haue, and care to kepe,
Twixt feare and wrathe, awaye
Consumes the time: eche daye that cummes,
Thinke it the latter daye.
The hower that cummes unlooked for
Shall cum more welcum aye.
Thou shalt Me fynde fat and well fed,
As pubble
I have never seen this word, which is perhaps provincial. The sense is obvious.
as may be;
And, when thou wilt, a merie mate,
To laughe and chat with thee
Signat. C iiij.
.
Drant undertook this version in the character of a grave divine, and as a teacher of morality. He was educated at saint John's college in Cambridge; where he was graduated in theology, in the year 1569
Catal. Grad. Cant. MS.
. The same year he was appointed prebendary of Chichester and of saint Pauls. The following year he was instal
ed archdeacon of Lewes in the cathedral of Chichester. These preferments he probably procured by the interest of Grindall archbishop of York, of whom he was a domestic chaplain
MS. Tann.
. He was a tolerable Latin poet. He translated the ECCLESIASTES into Latin hexameters, which he dedicated to sir Thomas Henneage, a common and a liberal patron of these times, and printed at London in 1572
For Thomas Daye. In quarto. The title is,
"In Solomonis regis ECCLESIASTEM, seu de Vanitate mundi Concionem, paraphrasis poetica. Lond. per Joan. Dayum 1572."
There is an entry to Richard Fielde of the
"Ecclesiastes in Englishe verse."
Nov. 11, 1596. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 15. a. And, by Thomas Granger, to W. Jones, Apr. 30, 1620. Ibid. fol. 313. b.
. At the beginning and end of this work, are six smaller pieces in Latin verse. Among these are the first sixteen lines of a paraphrase on the book of JOB. He has two miscellanies of Latin poetry extant, the one entitled SYLVA, dedicated to queen Elisabeth, and the other POEMATA VARIA ET EXTERNA. The last was printed at Paris, from which circumstance we may conclude that he travelled
Drant has two Latin poems prefixed to Nevill's KETTUS, 1575. 4to. Another, to John Seton's LOGIC with Peter Carter's annotations, Lond. 1574. 12mo. And to the other editions. [Seton was of saint John's in Cambridge, chaplain to bishop Gardiner for seven years, and highly esteemed by him. Made D. D. in 1544. Installed prebendary of Winchester, Mar. 19, 1553. Rector of Henton in Hampshire, being then forty-two years old, and B. D. See A. Wood, MS. C. 287. He is extolled by Leland for his distinguished excellence both in the classics and philosophy. He published much Latin poetry. See Strype's ELIZ. p. 242. Carter was also of S. John's in Cambridge.] Another, with one in English, to John Sadler's English version of Vegetius's TACTICS, done at the request of sir Edmund Brudenell, and addressed to the earl of Bedford, Lond. 1572. 4to. He has a Latin epitaph, or elegy, on the death of doctor Cuthbert Scot, designed bishop of Chester, but deposed by queen Elisabeth for popery, who died a fugitive at Louvaine, Lond. 1565. He probably wrote this piece abroad. There is licenced to T. Marsh, in 1565,
"An Epigrame of the death of Cuthbert Skotte by Roger Sherlock, and replyed agaynste by Thomas Drant."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 134. b. A Latin copy of verses, DE SEIPSO, is prefixed to his HORACE.
. In the SYLVA, he mentions his new version of David's psalms, I suppose in English verse
Fol. 56.
. In the same collection, he says he had begun to translate the Iliad, but had gone no further than the fourth book
Fol. 75.
. He mentions also his version of the Greek EPIGRAMS of Gregory Nazianzen
Fol. 50.
. But we are at a loss to discover, whether the latter were English or Latin versions. The indefatigably inquisitive bishop Tanner has collect
d our translator's Sermons, six in number, which are more to be valued for their type than their doctrine, and at present are of little more use, than to fill the catalogue of the typographical antiquary
Codd. Tanner Oxon. Two are dedicated to Thomas Heneage. Three to sir Francis Knollys. Date of the earliest, 1569. Of the latest, 1572. In that preached at court 1569, he tells the ladies, he can give them a better cloathing than any to be found in the queen's wardrobe: and mentions the speedy downfal of their
"high plumy heads."
Signat. K v. Lond. 1570. 12mo. I find the following note by bishop Tanner.
"Thomae Drantae Angli Andvordingamii PRAESUL. Dedicat. to Archbishop Grindal. PR. DED.—
Illuxit ad extremum dies ille.
"
—I presume, that under the word
Andvording
amii
is concealed our author's n
tive place. His father's name was Thomas.
. Two of them were preached at saint Mary's hospital
At saint
Maries Spittle.
In the statutes of many of the antient colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, it is ordered, that the candidates in divinity shall preach a sermo
, not only at Paul's-cross, but at saint Mary's Hospital in Bishopsgate-street,
"ad Hospitale beatae Mariae."
. Drant's latest publication is dated in 1572.
Historical ballads occur about this period with the initials T. D. These may easily be mistaken for Thomas Drant, but they stand for Thomas Deloney, a famous ballad writer of these times, mentioned by Kemp, one of the original actors in Shakespeare's plays, in his NINE DAIES WONDER. Kemp's miraculous morris-dance, performed in nine days from London to Norwich, had been misrepresented in the popular ballads, and he thus remonstrates against some of their authors.
"I haue made a priuie search what priuate jig-monger of your jolly number had been the author of these abhominable ballets written of me. I was told it was the great ballade maker T. D. or Thomas Deloney, chronicler of the memorable Lives of the SIX YEOMEN OF THE WEST, JACK OF NEWBERY
Entered to T. Myllington, Mar. 7, 1596. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 20. b.
, THE GENTLE CRAFT
I presume he means, an anonymous comedy called
"THE SHOEMAKERS HOLYDAY or the GENTLE CRAFT. With the humorous li
e of sir John Eyre shoemaker, and Lord Mayor of London."
Acted before the queen on New Year's Day by Lord Nottingham's players. I have an edition, Lond. for J. Wright, 1618. Bl. Lett. 4to. Prefixed are the
first and second
THREE MAN'S SONGS. But there is an old prose history in quarto called the GENTLE CRAFT, which I suppose is the subject of Harrington's Epigram,
"Of a Booke called the GENTLE CRAFT."
B. iv. 11.
"A Booke called the GENTL
CRAFTE intreating of Shoemakers,"
is entered to Ralph Blore, Oct. 19, 1597. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 25. a. See also ibid. fol. 63. a.
, and such like honest men, omitted by Stowe, Hollinshed, Grafton, Hall, Froysart, and the rest of those welldeseruing writers
Edit. 1600. 4to. SIGNAT. D 2.
."
I am informed from some manuscript authorities, that in the year 1571, Drant printed an English translation from Tully, which he called,
The chosen eloquent oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero for the poet Archias, selected from his orations, and now first published in English
MSS. Coxeter.
. I have never seen this version, but I am of opinion that the translator might have made a more happy choice. For in this favorite piece of superficial declamation, the specious orator, when he is led to a formal defence of the value and dignity of poetry, instead of illustrating his subject by insisting on the higher utilities of poetry, its political nature, and its importance to society, enlarges only on the immortality which the art confers, on the poetic faculty being communicated by divine inspiration, on the public honours paid to Homer and Ennius, on the esteem with which poets were regarded by Alexander and Themistocles, on the wonderful phenomenon of an extemporaneous
ffusion of a great number of verses, and even recurs to the trite and obvious topics of a school-boy in saying, that poems are a pleasant relief after fatigue of the mind, and that hard rocks and savage beasts have been moved by the power of song. A modern philosopher would have considered such a subject with more penetration, comprehension, and force of reflection. His excuse must be, that he was uttering a popular harangue.
SECT. XLI.
THE EPIGRAMS of Martial were translated in part by Timothy Kendall, born at North Aston in Oxfordshire, successively educated at Eton and at Oxford, and afterwards a student of the law at Staple's-inn. This performance, which cannot properly or strictly be called a translation of Martial, has the following title,
"FLOWRES OF EPIGRAMMES out of sundrie the most singular authors selected, etc. By Timothie Kendall late of the vniuersitie of Oxford, now student of Staple Inn. London, 1577
In duodecimo. They are entered at Stationers Hall, Feb. 25, 1576. REGISTR. B. fol. 138. a. To John Sheppard.
."
It is dedicated to Robert earl of Leicester. The epigrams translated are from Martial, Pictorius, Borbonius, Politian, Bruno, Textor, Ausonius, the Greek anthology, Beza, sir Thomas More, Henry Stephens, Haddon
Walter Haddon's POEMATA, containing a great number of metrical Latin epitaphs, were collected, and published with his LIFE, and verses at his death, by Giles Fletcher and others, in 1576. See T. Baker's Letters to bishop Tanner, MS. Bibl. Bodl. And by Hatcher, 1567. 4to.
, Parkhurst
John Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich, a great re
ormer, published, LUDICRA SEU EPIGRAMMATA JUVENILIA, Lond. 1572. 4to. Also, EPIGRAMMATA SERIA, Lond. 1560. 8vo. He died in 1574. See Wilson's Collection of EPITAPHIA on Charles and Henry Brandon, Lond. 1552.
, and others. But by much the greater part is from Martial
Kendal is mentioned among the English EPIGRAMMATISTS by Meres, ubi supr. fol. 274.
. It is charitable to hope, that our translator Timothy Kendall wasted no more of his time at Staples-inn in culling these fugitive blossoms. Yet he has annexed to these versions his TRIFLES or juvenile epigrams, which are dated the same year
The first line is,
"Borbon in France bears bell awaie."
That is, Nicholas Borbonius, whose NUGAE, or Latin Epigrams, then celebrated, have great elegance. But Joachim du Bellai made this epigram on the Title.
Paule, tuum inscribis NUGARUM nomine librum,
In toto libro nil melius titulo.
Our countryman Owen, who had no notion of Borbonius's elegant simplicity, was still more witty.
Quas tu dixisti NUGAS, non esse putasti,
Non dico NUGAS esse, se
esse puto.
.
Meres, in his WITS TREASURY, mentions doctor Johnson, as the translator of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY, and Watson of Sophocles's ANTIGONE, but with such ambiguity, that it is difficult to determine from his words whether these versions are in Latin or English
Fol. 289. p. 2.
. That no reader may be misled, I observe here, that Christopher Johnson, a celebrated headmaster of Winchester school, afterwards a physician, translated Homer's FROGS AND MICE into Latin hexameters, which appeared in quarto, at London, in 1580
Entered to T. Purfoote, Jan. 4, 1579. With
"certen orations of Isocrates."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 165. a.
. Thomas Watson author of a HUNDRED SONNETS, or
the passionate century of Love,
published a Latin ANTIGONE in 1581
In quarto. Licenced to R. Jones. Jul. 31, 1581. Ibid. fol. 182. b.
. The latter publication, however, shews at this time an attention to the Greek tragedies.
Christopher Marlowe, or Marloe, educated in elegant letters at Cambridge, Shakespeare's cotemporary on the stage, often applauded both by queen Elisabeth and king James the first, as a judicious player, esteemed for his poetry by Jonson and Drayton, and one of the most distinguished tragic poets of his age, translated Coluthus's RAPE OF HELEN into English rhyme, in the year 1587. I have never seen it; and I owe this information to the manuscript papers of a diligent collector of these fugacious anecdotes
MSS. Coxeter.
. But there is entered to Jones, in 1595,
"A booke entituled RAPTUS HELENAE, Helens Rape, by the Athenian duke Theseus
April 12. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 1
1
b.
."
Coluthus's poem was probably brought into vogue, and suggested to Marlowe's notice, by being paraphrased in Latin verse the preceding year by Thomas Watson, the writer of sonnets just mentioned
Printed at Lond. 1586. 4to.
. Before the year 1598, appeared Marlowe's translation of the LOVES OF HERO AND LEANDER, the elegant prolusion of an unknown sophist of Alexandria, but commonly ascribed to the antient Musaeus. It was left unfinished by Marlowe's death; but what was called a second part, which is nothing more than a continuation from the Italian, appeared by one Henry Petowe, in 1598
For Pur
oot, 4to. See Petowe's Preface, which has a high panegyric on Marlowe. He says he begun where Marlowe left off. In 1593, Sept. 28, there is an entry to John Wolfe of
"A book entitled Hero and Leander, beinge an amorous poem devised by Christopher Marlowe."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 300. b. The translation, as the entire work of Marlowe, is mentioned twice in Nashe's LENTEN STUFF, printed in 1599. It occurs again in the registers of the Stationers, in 1597, 1598, and 1600. REGISTR. C. fol. 31. a. 34. a. I learn from Mr. Malone, that Marlowe finished only the two first Sestiads, and about one hundred lines of the third. Chapman did the remainder. Petowe published the
Whipping of Runawaies
for Burbie, in 1603.
There is an old ballad on
Jephtha judge of Israel,
by William Petowe. In the year 1567, there is an entry to Alexander Lacy, of
"A ballett intituled the Songe of Jesphas dowghter at his death."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 162. a. Perhaps this is the old song of which Hamlet in joke throws out some scraps to Polonius, and which has been recovered by Mr. Steevens. HAMLET, ACT ii. Sc. 7. [See also
J
ffa judge o
Israel,
in REGISTR. D. fol. 93. D
c. 14, 1624.] This is one of the pieces which Hamlet calls
pious chansons,
and which taking their rise from the reformation, abounded in the reign of Elisabeth. Hence, by the way, we see the propriety of reading
pious chansons,
and not
po
s chansons,
or ballads sung on
bridges,
with Pope. Rowe arbitrarily substituted
Rubric,
not that the titles of old ballads were ever printed in red.
Rubric
came at length simply to signify
title,
because, in the old manuscripts, it was the custom to write the titles or heads of chapters in red ink. In the Statutes of Winchester and New college, every statu
e is therefore called a RUBRICA.
. Another edition was published, with the first book of Lucan, translated also by Marlowe, and in blank verse, in 1600
But this version of Lucan is entered, as above, Sept. 28, 1593
to John Wolfe, Ibid. fol. 300. b. Nor does it always apappear at the end of MUSAEUS in 1600. There is an edition that year by P. Short.
. At length George Chapman, the translator of Homer, completed, but with a striking inequality, Marlowe's unfinished version, and printed it at London in quarto, 1606
There is another edition in 1616, and 1629. 4to. The edition of 1616, with Chapman's name, and dedicated to Inigo Jones, not two inches long and scarcely one broad, is the most diminutive product of English typography. But it appears a different work from the edition of 1606. The
Ballad of Hero and Le
nder"
is entered to J. White, Jul. 2, 1614. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 252. a. Burton, an excellent Grecian, having occasion to quote MUSAEUS, cites Marlowe's version, MELANCHOLY, pag.
72.
eq. fol. edit. 1624.
. Tanner takes this piece to be one of Marlowe'
plays. It probably suggested to Shakespeare the allusion to Hero and Leander, in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, under the player's blunder of Limander and Helen, where the interlude of Thisbe is presented
Act v. Sc. ult.
. It has many nervous and polished verses. His tragedies manifest traces of a just dramatic conception, but they abound with tedious and uninteresting scenes, or with such extravagancies as proceeded from a want of judgment, and those barbarous ideas of the times, over which it was the peculiar gift of Shakespeare's genius alone to triumph and to predominate
Nashe in his Elegy prefixed to Marlowe's DIDO, mentions five of his plays. Mr. Malone is of opinion, from a similarity of style, that the Tragedy of LOCRINE, published in 1595, attributed to Shakespeare, was written by Marlowe. SUPPL. SHAKESP. ii. 190. He conjectures also Marlowe to be the author of the old KING JOHN. Ibid. i. 163. And of TITUS ANDRONICUS, and of the lines spoken by the players in the interlude in HAMLET. Ibid. i. 371.
. His TRAGEDY OF DIDO QUEEN OF CARTHAGE was completed and published by his friend Thomas Nashe, in 1594
In quarto. At London, by the widow Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke. Played by the children of the chapel. It begins,
"Come gentle Ganimed!"
It has been frequently confounded with John Rightwise's play on the same subject performed at saint Paul's school before Cardinal Wolsey, and afterwards before queen Elisabeth at Cambridge, in 1564. I have before mentioned the Latin tragedy of Dido and Eneas, performed at Oxford, in 1583, before the prince Alasco. [See supr. ii. 383.] See what Hamlet says to the first Player on this favorite story. In 1564, was entered a
"ballet of a lover blamynge his fortune by Dido and Eneas for thayre vntruthe."
REGISTR. STATION. A fol. 116. a. In the TEMPEST, Gonzalo mentions the
"widow Dido."
ACT iii. SC. i. On old ballads we read the
Tune of queen Dido.
Perhaps from some ballad on the subject, Shakespeare took his idea of Dido standing with a willow in her hand on the sea-shore, and beckoning Eneas back to Carthage. MERCH. VEN. ACT. v. SC. i. Shakespeare has also strangely falsified Dido's story, in the S. P. of K. HENRY THE SIXTH. ACT iii. SC. ii. I have before mentioned the interlude of Dido and Eneas at Chester.
.
Although Jonson mentions Marlowe's MIGHTY MUSE, yet the highest testimony Marlowe has received, is from his cotemporary Drayton; who from his own feelings was well qualified to decide on the merits of a poet. It is in Drayton's Elegy,
T
my dearly loved friend Henry Reynolds of Poets and Poesie.
Next Marlowe, bathed in the Thespian springes,
Had in him those braue translunary
Langbaine, who cites these lines without seeming to know their author, by a pleasant mistake has printed this word
sublunary.
DRAM. POETS, p. 342.
thinges,
That the first poets had: his raptvres were
All air, and fire, which made his verses clear:
For that fine madness still he did retaine
Which rightly should possesse a poet's braine
Lond. edit. 1753. iv. p. 1256. That Marlowe was a favorite with Jonson, appears from the Preface to one Bosworth's poems; who says, that Jonson used to call the
mighty lines
of Marlowe's MUSOEUS fitter for admiration than parallel. Thomas Heywood, who published Marlowe's JEW OF MALTA, in 1633, wrote the Prologue, spoken at the Cockpit, in which Marlowe is highly commended both as a player and a poet. It was in this play that Allen, the founder of Dulwich college, acted the JEW with so much applause.
.
In the RETURN FROM PARNASSUS, a sort of critical play, acted at Cambridge in 1606, Marlowe's
buskined
MUSE is celebrated
Hawkins's OLD PL. iii. p. 215. Lond. 1607. 4to. But it is entered in 1605, Oct. 16, to J. Wright, where it is said to have been acted at saint John's. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 130. b. See other cotemporary testimonies of this author, in OLD PLAYS. (in 12 Vol.) Lond. 1780. 12mo. Vol. ii. 308.
. His cotemporary Decker, Jonson's antagonist, having allotted to Chaucer and
graue
Spenser, the highest seat in the Elisian
grove of Bayes,
has thus arranged Marlowe.
"In another companie sat learned Atchlow and, (tho he had ben a player molded out of their pennes, yet because he had been their louer and register to the Muse) inimitable Bentley: these were likewise carowsing out of the holy well, &c. Whilst Marlowe, Greene, and Peele, had gott under the shadow of a large vyne, laughing to see Nashe, that was but newly come to their colledge, still haunted with the same satyricall spirit that followed him here vpon earth
A KNIGHT'S CONJURING, Signat. L. 1607. 4to. To this company Henry Chettle is admitted, [see supr. p. 291.] and is saluted in bumpers of Helicon on his arrival.
."
Marlowe's wit and spriteliness of conversation had often the unhappy effect of tempting him to sport with sacred subjects; more perhaps from the preposterous ambition of courting the casual applause of profligate and unprincipled companions, than from any systematic disbelief of religion. His scepticism, whatever it might be, was construed by the prejudiced and peevish puritans into absolute atheism: and they took pains to represent the unfortunate catastrophe of his untimely death, as an immediate judgment from heaven upon his execrable impiety
See Beard's THEATRE OF GOD'S JUDGMENTS, lib. i. ch. xxiii. And
"Account of the blasphemous and damnable opinions of Christ. Marley and 3 others who came to a sudden and fearfull end of this life."
MSS. HARL. 6853. 80. fol. 320.
. He was in love, and had for his rival, to use the significant words of Wood,
"A bawdy servingman, one rather fitter to be a pimp, than an ingenious
amoretto,
as Marlowe conceived himself to be
ATH. OXON. i. 338. See Meres, WITS TR. fol. 287.
."
The consequence was, that an affray ensued; in which the antagonist having by superior agility gained an opportunity of strongly grasping Marlow's wrist, plunged his dagger with his own hand into his own bosom. Of this wound he died rather before the year 1593
Marston seems to allude to this catastrophe, CERTAINE SATYRES. Lond. for Edmond Matts, 1598, 12mo. SAT. ii.
Tis loose-leg'd Lais, that same common drab,
For whom good Tubro tooke the mortall stab.
By the way, Marlowe in his EDWARD THE SECOND, seems to have ridiculed the puritans under the character of the scholar Spencer, who
"says a long grace at a tables end, wears a little band, buttons like pins heads, and
—"is curate-like in his attire,
"Though inwardly licentious enough, &c."
. One of Marlowe's tragedies is,
The tragical history of the life and death of doctor John Faustus
Entered, I think for the first time, to T. Bushell, Jan. 7, 1600. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 67. b. Or rather 1610, Sept. 13, to J. Wright. Ibid. fol. 199. b.
.
A proof of the credulous ignorance which still prevailed, and a specimen of the subjects which then were thought not improper for tragedy. A tale which at the close of the sixteenth century had the possession of the public theatres of our metropolis, now only frightens children at a puppet-show in a country-town. But that the learned John Faust continued to maintain the character of a conjuror in the sixteenth century even by authority, appears from a
"Ballad of the life and death of doctor Faustus the
great congerer,
"
which in 1588 was licenced to be printed by the learned Aylmer bishop of London
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 241. b.
.
As Marlowe, being now considered as a translator, and otherwise being generally ranked only as a dramatic poet, will not occur again, I take this opportunity of remarking here, that the delicate sonnet called the PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE, falsely attributed to Shakespeare, and which occurs in the third act of THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, followed by the nymph's Reply, was written by Marlowe
See Steevens's SHAKESP. vol. i. p. 297. edit. 1778.
. Isaac Walton in his COMPLEAT ANGLER, a book perhaps composed about the year 1640, although not published till 1653, has inserted this sonnet, with the reply, under the character of
"that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago: and—an Answer to it which was made by sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days: old fashioned poetry, but choicely good."
In ENGLAND'S HELICON, a miscellany of the year 1600, it is printed with Christopher Marlowe's name, and followed by the Reply, subscribed IGNOTO, Raleigh's constant signature
Signat. P. 4. edit. 1614.
. A page or two afterwards, it is imitated by Raleigh. That Marlowe was admirably qualified for what Mr. Mason, with a happy and judicious propriety, calls PURE POETRY, will appear from the following passage of his forgotten tragedy of EDWARD THE SECOND, written in the year 1590, and first printed in 1598. The highest entertainments, then in fashion, are contrived for the gratification of the infatuated Edward, by his profligate minion Piers Gaveston.
I must haue wanton poe
s, pleasant wits,
Musicians, that with touching of a string
May drawe the plyant king which way I please.
Music and poetry are his delight;
Therefore I'll haue Italian masques by night,
Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shewes.
And in the day, when he shall walke abroad,
Like sylvan Nymphs my pages shall be clad,
My men like Satyrs, grazing on the lawnes,
Shall with their goat-feet dance the antick hay.
Sometimes a Louely Boy, in Dian's shape
That is, acting the part of Diana.
,
With haire that gildes the water as it glides,
Crownets of pearle about his naked armes,
And in his sportfull handes an oliue-tree,
Shall bathe him in a spring: and there hard by,
One, lyke Acteon, peeping through the groue,
Shall by the angry goddess be transform'd.—
Such thinges as these best please his maiestie.
It must be allowed that these lines are in Marlowe's best manner. His chief fault in description is an indulgence of the florid style, and an accumulation of conceits, yet resulting from a warm and brilliant fancy. As in the following description of a river.
I walkt along a streame, for purenesse rare,
Brighter than sunshine: for it did acqvaint
The dullest sight with all the glorious pray,
That in the pebble-paved chanell lay.
No molten chrystall, but a richer mine;
Euen natvre's rarest alchemie ran there,
Diamonds resolu'd, and svbstance more diuine;
Throvgh whose bright-gliding current might appeare
A thousand naked Nymphes, whose yuorie shine
Enameling the bankes, made them more deare
Pretious.
Than euer was that gloriovs pallace-gate,
Where the day-shining Sunne in trivmph sate
The description of the palace of the sun wa
a favorite passage in Golding's Ovid.
.
Vpon this brim, the eglantine, and rose,
The tamariske, oliue, and the almond-tree,
(As kind companions) in one vnion growes,
Folding their twining armes: as ofte we see
Turtle-taught louers either other close,
Lending to dullnesse feeling sympathie:
And as a costly vallance
Canopy. Shakespeare means a rich bed-canopy in SEC. P. HENR. iv. ACT iii. SC. i.
Under the canopies of costly state.
oer a bed,
So did their garland-tops the brooke oerspred.
Their leaues that differed both in shape and showe,
(Though all were greene, yet difference such in greene
Like to the checkered bend of Iris' bowe)
Prided, the running maine as it had beene, &c
See ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS, Lond.
600. 12mo. fol. 465.
.
Philips, Milton's nephew, in a work which I think discovers many touches of Milton's hand, calls Marlowe,
"A second Shakespeare, not only because he rose like him from an actor to be a maker of plays, though inferiour both in fame and merit, but also, because in his begun poem of Hero and Leander, he seems to have a resemblance of that CLEAR UNSOPHISTICATED wit, which is natural to that incomparable poet
THEATR. POETAR. MOD. P. p. 24. edit. 1680.
."
Criticisms of this kind were not common, after the national taste had been just corrupted by the false and capricious refinements of the court of Charles the second.
Ten books of Homer's ILIAD were translated from a metrical French version into English by A. H. or Arthur Hall esquire, of Grantham, and a member of parliament
See a process against Hall, in 1580, for writing a pamphlet printed by Binneman, related by Ames, p. 325.
, and printed at London by Ralph Newberie, in 1581
In quarto. Bl. Lett. Novemb. 25, 1580, H. Binneman is licenced to print
"tenne bookes of the Iliades of Homer."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 175. a.
. This translation has no other merit than that of being the first appearance of a part of the Iliad in an English dress. I do not find that he used any known French version. He sometimes consulted the Latin interpretation, where his French copy failed. It is done in the Alexandrine of Sternhold. In the Dedication to sir Thomas Cecil, he compliments the distinguished translators of his age, Phaier, Golding, Jasper Heywood, and Googe; together with the worthy workes of lord Buckhurst,
"and the pretie pythie Conceits of M. George Gascoygne."
He adds, that he began this work about 1563, under the advice and encouragement of,
"Mr. Robert Askame
He me
ns the learned Roger Ascham. It begins,
"I thee beseech, O goddess milde, the hatefull hate to plaine."
, a familiar acquaintance of Homer."
But a complete and regular version of Homer was reserved for George Chapman. He began with printing the Shield of Achilles, in 1596
Lond. 4to.
. This was followed by seven books of the ILIAD the same year
Lond. 4to.
. Fifteen books were printed in 1600
In a thin folio.
. At length appeared without date, an entire translation of the ILIAD
He says in his COMMENTARY on the first book, that he had wholly translated again his first and second books
but that he did not even correct the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth. And that he believed his version of the twelve last to be the best. Butter's edit. ut infr. fol. 14. Meres, who wrote in 1598, mentions
"Chapman's inchoate Homer."
fol. 285. p. 2. Ubi supr.
under the following title,
"The ILIADS OF HOMER Prince of Poets. Neuer before in any language truely translated. With a comment uppon some of his chief places: Done according to the Greeke by George Chapman. At London, printed for Nathaniell Butter
It is an engraved title-page by William Hole, with figures of Achilles and Hector, &c. In folio.
."
It is dedicated in English heroics to Prince Henry. This circumstance proves that the book was printed at least after the year 1603, in which James the first acceded to the throne
I suppose, by an entry in the register of the Stationers, in 1611, April
. REGISTR. C. fol. 207.
.
. Then follows an anagram on the name of his
gracious Mecenas
prince Henry, and a sonnet to the
sole empresse of beautie
queen Anne. In a metrical address to the reader he remarks, but with little truth, that the English language, abounding in consonant monosyllables, is eminently adapted to rhythmical poetry. The doctrine that an allegorical sense was hid under the narratives of epic poetry had not yet ceased; and he here promises a poem on the mysteries he had newly discovered in Homer. In the Preface, he declares that the last twelve books were translated in fifteen weeks: yet with the advice of his learned and valued friends,
Master
Robert Hews
This Robert Hues, or Husius, was a scholar, a good geographer and mathematician, and published
tr
ct in Latin on the Globes, Lond. 1593. 8vo. With other pieces in that way. There was also a Robert Hughes who wrote a Dictionary of the English and Persic. See Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 571. HIST. ANTIQUIT. UNIV. OXON. Lib. ii. p. 288. b.
, and
Master
Harriots. It is certain that the whole performance betrays the negligence of haste. He pays his acknowledgements to his
"most ancient, learned, and right noble friend, Master Richard Stapilton
Already mentioned a
the publisher of a poetical miscellany in 1593. Supr. p. 401.
"The spiritu
ll poems or hymnes of R. S."
are entered to J. Busbie, Oct. 17, 1595. R
GI
TR. STATION. C. fol. 3. b.
, the first most desertfull mouer in the frame of our Homer."
He endeavours to obviate a popular objection, perhaps not totally groundless, that he consulted the prose Latin version more than the Greek original. He says, sensibly enough,
"it is the part of euery knowing and iudicious interpreter, not to follow the number and order of words, but the materiall things themselues, and sentences to weigh diligently; and to clothe and adorne them with words, and such a stile and forme of oration, as are most apt for the language into which they are conuerted."
The danger lies, in too lavish an application of this sort of cloathing, that it may not disguise what it should only adorn. I do not say that this is Chapman's fault: but he has by no means represented the dignity or the simplicity Homer. He is sometimes paraphrastic and redundant, but more frequently retrenches or impoverishes what he could not feel and express. In the mean time, he labours with the inconvenience of an aukward, inharmonious, and unheroic measure, imposed by custom, but disgustful to modern ears. Yet he is not always without strength or spirit. He has enriched our language with many compound epithets, so much in the manner of Homer, such as the
silver-footed
Thetis, the
silver-throned
Juno, the
triple-feathered
helme, the
high-walled
Thebes, the
faire-
aired
boy, the
silver-flowing
floods, the
hugely-peopled
towns, the Grecians
navy-bound,
the
strong-winged
lance, and many more which might be collected. Dryden reports, that Waller never could read Chapman's Homer without a degree of transport. Pope is of opinion, that Chapman covers his defects
"by a daring fiery spirit that animates his translation, which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself to have writ before he arrived to years of discretion."
But his fire is too frequently darkened, by that sort of fustian which now disfigured the diction of our tragedy.
He thus translates the comparison of Diomed to the autumnal star, at the beginning of the fifth book. The lines are in his best manner.
From his bright helme and shield did burne, a most unwearied fire,
Like rich Autumnus' golden lampe, whose brightnesse men admire
Past all the other host of starres, when with his chearefull face
Fresh-washt in loftie ocean waues, he doth the skie enchase
Fol. 63.
.
The sublime imagery of Neptune's procession to assist the Grecians, is thus rendered.
The woods, and all the great hils neare, trembled beneath the weight
Of his immortall mouing feet: three steps he only tooke,
Before he farr-off Aege reach'd: but, with the fourth, it shooke
With his dread entire. In the depth of those seas, did he hold
His bright and glorious pallace, built of neuer-rusting gold:
And there arriu'd, he put in coach his brazen-footed steeds
All golden-maned, and paced with wings
Having wings on their feet.
, and all in golden weeds
Himselfe he clothed. The golden scourge, most elegantly done
Wrought. Finished.
,
He tooke, and mounted to his seate, and then the god begun
To drive his chariot through the waues. From whirlpools euery way
The whales exulted under him, and knewe their king: the sea
For ioy did open, and his horse
For Horses.
so swift and lightly flew,
The vnder axeltree of brasse no drop of water drew
Fol. 169, seq.
.
My copy once belonged to Pope; in which he has noted many of Chapman's absolute interpolations, extending sometimes to the length of a paragraph of twelve lines. A diligent observer will easily discern, that Pope was no careless reader of his rude predecessor. Pope complains that Chapman took advantage of an unmeasureable length of line. But in reality Pope's lines are longer than Chapman's. If Chapman affected the reputation of rendering line for line, the specious expedient of chusing a protracted measure which concatenated two lines together, undoubtedly favoured his usual propensity to periphrasis.
Chapman's commentary is only incidental, contains but a small degree of critical excursion, and is for the most part a pedantic compilation from Spondanus. He has the boldness severely to censure Scaliger's impertinence. It is remarkable that he has taken no illustrations from Eustathius, except through the citations of other commentators. But of Eustathius there was no Latin interpretation.
This volume is closed with sixteen Sonnets by the author, addressed to the chief nobility
To the Duke of Lenox, the lord Chancellor, Lord Salisbury lord treasurer, earl of Suffolk, earl of Northampton, earl of Arundel, earl of Pembroke, earl of Montgomery, lord Lisle, countess of Montgomery, lady Wroth, countess of Bedford, earl of Southampton, earl of Sussex, lord Walden, and sir Thomas Howard. Lady Mary Wroth, here mentioned, wife of sir Robert Wroth, was much courted by the wits of this age. She wrote a romance called URANIA, in imitation of
ir Philip Sydney's ARCADIA. See Jonson's EPIGR. 103. 105.
. It was now a common practice, by these unpoetical and empty panegyrics, to attempt to conciliate the attention, and secure the protection, of the great, without which it was supposed to be impossible for any poem to struggle into celebrity. Habits of submission, and the notions of subordination, now prevailed in a high degree; and men looked up to peers, on whose smiles or frowns they believed all sublunary good and evil to depend, with a reverential awe. Henry Lock subjoined to his metrical paraphrase of Ecclesiastes, and his
Sundry Christian Passions contayned in two hundred Sonnets,
both printed together for Field, in 1597, a set of secular sonnets to the nobility, among which are lord Buckhurst and Anne the amiable countess of Warwick
In quarto.
. And not to multiply more instances, Spenser in compliance with a disgraceful custom, or rather in obedience to the established tyranny of patronage, prefixed to the FAIRY QUEENE fifteen of these adulatory pieces, which in every respect are to be numbered among the meanest of his compositions
This practice is touched by a satirist of those times, in PASQUILL'S MAD CAPPE, Lond. Printed by J. V. 1600. 4to. fol. 2. Speaking of every great man.
He shall have ballads written in his praise,
Bookes dedicate vnto his patronage;
Wittes working for his pleasure many waies:
Petegrues sought to mend his parentage.
.
In the year 1614, Chapman printed his version of the ODYSSEY, which he dedicated to king James's favorite, Carr earl of Somerset. This was soon followed by the BATRACHOMUOMACHY, and the HYMNS, and EPIGRAMS. But I find long before Chapman's time,
"A Ballett betweene the myce and the frogges,"
licenced to Thomas East the printer, in 1568
REGISTR
STATION
A. fol. 177. b. Mr. Steevens informs us, of an anonymous interlude, called THERSYTES
his humours and conceits,
in 1598. See Shakesp. vol. ix. p. 166. See ibid. p. 331. And the versions of Homer perhaps produced a ballad, in 1586,
"The Lamentation of Hecuba and the Ladies of Troye."
Aug. 1, to E. White. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 209. a. Again to W. Matthews, Feb. 22, 1593,
"The Lamentation of Troye for the death of Hector."
Ibid. fol. 305. a.
. And there is a ballad,
"A moste strange weddinge of the frogge and the mouse,"
in 1580
Licenced to E. White, Nov. 21, 1580. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 174. b.
.
He is also supposed to have translated Hesiod. But this notion seems to have arisen from these lines of Drayton, which also contain a general and a very honourable commendation of Chapman's skil
as a translator
See also Bolton's opinion of Chapman, supr. p. 276.
.
Others againe there liued in my days,
That haue of us deserued no less prayse
For their TRANSLATIONS, than the daintiest wit
That on Parnassus thinks he high'st doth sit,
And for a chair may mongst the Muses call
As the most curious Maker of them all:
As reuerend Chapman, who hath brought to vs
Musaeus, Homer, and Hesiodvs,
Out of the Greeke: and by his skill hath rear'd
Them to that height, and to our tongue endear'd,
That were those poets at this day aliue
To see their books thus with vs to suruiue,
They'd think, hauing neglected them so long,
They had been written in the English tongue
Elegy to Reynold
, ut supr.
.
I believe Chapman only translated about fourteen lines from the beginning of the second book of Hesiod's WORKS AND DAYS,
"as well as I could in haste,"
which are inserted in his commentary on the thirteenth Iliad for an occasional illustration
Fol. 185. seq.
. Here is a proof on what slight grounds assertions of this sort are often founded, and, for want of examination, transmitted to posterity
Since this was written, I have discovered that
"Hesiod's Georgic
translated by George Chapman,"
were licenced to Miles Patrich, May 14, 1618. But I doubt if the book was printed. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 290. b.
.
As an original writer, Chapman belongs to the class of dramatic poets, and will not therefore be considered again at the period in which he is placed by the biographers
But this is said not without some degree of restriction. For Chapman wrote
"OVID'S BANQUET OF SAUC
, A Coronet for his mistress Philosophy and his amorous Zodiac. Lond. 1595. 4to."
To which is added,
"The AMOROUS CONTENTION of Phillis and Flora,"
a translation by Chapman from a Latin poem, written, as he says, by a Frier in the year 1400. There is also his PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA, dedicated in a prolix metrical Epistle to Carr earl of Som
rset and Frances his countess. Lond. 1614. 4to. Chapman wrote a vindication of this pie
e, both in prose and verse, called,
A free and offenceless Justification of a late published and misinterpreted poem entitled
ANDROMEDA LIBERATA. Lond. 1614. 4to.
Among Chapman's pieces recited by Wood, the following does not appear.
"A booke called Petrarkes seauen penitentiall psalmes in verse, paraphrastically translated, with other poems philosophicall, and a hymne to Christ upon the crosse, written by Geo. Chapman."
To Matthew Selman, Jan. 13, 1611. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 215. a.
. His translations, therefore, which were begun before the year 1600, require that we should here acquaint the reader with some particulars of his life. He wrote eighteen plays, which although now forgotten, must have contributed in no inconsiderable degree to enrich and advance the English stage. He was born in 1557, perhaps in Kent. He passed about two years at Trinity college in Oxford, with a contempt of philosophy, but in a close attention to the Greek and Roman classics
From the information of Mr. Wise, late Radcliffe's librarian, and keeper of the Archives, at Oxford.
. Leaving the university about 1576, he seems to have been led to London in the character of a poet; where he soon commenced a friendship with Spenser, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Daniel, and attracted the notice of secretary Walsingham. He probably acquired some appointment in the court of king James the first; where untimely death, and unexpected disgrace, quickly deprived him of his liberal patrons Prince Henry and Carr. Jonson was commonly too proud, either to assist, or to be assisted; yet he engaged with Chapman and Marston in writing the Comedy of EASTWARD HOE, which was performed by the children of the revels in 1605
The first of Chapman's plays, I mean with his name, which appears in the Stationers Registers, is the Tragedy of CHARLES DUKE OF BYRON. Entered to T. Thorp, Jun. 5, 1608. REGISTR. C. fol. 168. b.
. But this association gave Jonson an opportunity of throwing out many satirical parodies on Shakespeare with more security. All the three authors, however, were in danger of being pilloried for some reflections on the Scotch nation, which were too seriously understood by James the first. When the societies of Lincoln's-inn and the Middle-temple, in 1613, had resolved to exhibit a splendid masque at Whitehall in honour of the nuptials of the Palsgrave and the princess Elisabeth, Chapman was employed for the poetry, and Inigo Jones for the machinery. It is not clear, whether Dryden's resolution to burn annually one copy of Chapman's best tragedy BUSSY D'AMBOISE, to the memory of Jonson, was a censure or a compliment
Preface to SPANISH FRYER.
. He says, however, that this play pleased only in the representation, like a star which glitters only while it shoots. The manes of Jonson perhaps required some reconciliatory rites: for Jonson being delivered from Shakespeare, began unexpectedly to be disturbed at the rising reputation of a new theatric rival. Wood says, that Chapman was
"a person of most reverend aspect, religious and temperate, QUALITIES RARELY MEETING IN A POET
ATH. OXON. i. 592.
!"
The truth is, he does not seem to have mingled in the dissipations and indiscretions, which then marked his profession. He died at the age of seventy-seven, in 1634, and was buried on the south side of saint Giles's church in the Fields. His friend Inigo Jones planned and erected a monument to his memory, in the style of the new architecture, which was unluckily destroyed with the old church
Wood has preserved part of the epi
aph,
"Georgius Chapmannus, poeta Homericus, philosophus verus (etsi christianus poeta) plusquam celebris, &c."
Ubi supr.
. There was an intimate friendship between our author, and this celebrated restorer of Grecian palaces. Chapman's MUSAEUS, not that begun by Marlowe, but published in 1616, has a dedication to Jones: in which he is addressed as the most skilful and ingenious architect that England had yet seen.
As a poetical novel of Greece, it will not be improper to mention here, the CLITOPHON AND LEUCIPPE of Achilles Tatius, under the title of
"The most delectable and plesant Historye of Clitophon and Leucippe from the Greek of Achilles Statius, &c. by W. B. Lond. 1577
In quarto. T. Creede.
."
The president Montesquieu, whose refined taste was equal to his political wisdom, is of opinion, that a certain notion of tranquillity in the fields of Greece, gave rise to the description of soft and amorous sentiments in the Greek romance of the middle age. But that gallantry sprung from the tales of Gothic chivalry.
"Une certaine idée de tranquillité dans les campagnes de la Greece, fit decrire les sentimens de l'amour. On peut voir les Romans de Grecs du moyen age. L'idée des Paladins, protecteurs de la vertu et de la beauté des femmes, conduisit à celle de la galanterie
Esprit des Loix, Liv. xxvii. ch. 22.
."
I have mentioned a version of Heliodorus.
As Barnaby Googe's ZODIAC of Palingenius was a favorite performance, and is constantly classed and compared with the poetical translations of this period, by the cotemporary critics, I make no apology for giving it a place at the close of this review
I know not if translations of Plautus and Terence are to be mentioned here with propriety. I observe however in the notes, that Plautus's MENAECHMI, copied by Shakespeare, appeared in English by W. W. or William Warner, author of Albion's England. Lond. 1595. Tanner says that he translated but not printed all Plautus. MSS. Tann. Oxon. Rastall printed TERENS IN ENGLISH, that is, the ANDRIA. There is also,
"ANDRIA the first Comedye of Terence,"
by Maurice Ky
lin, Lond. 1588. 4to. By the way, this Kyffyn, a Welshman, published a poem called
"The Blessedness of Brytaine, or a celebration of the queenes holy
ay."
Lond. 1588. 4to. For John Wolfe. The EUNUCHUS was entered at Stationers Hall, to W. Leche, in 1597. And the ANDRIA and EUNUCHUS, in 1600. REGISTR. C
fol. 20 a. Richard Bernard published Terence in English, Cambr. 1598. 4to. A fourth edition was printed at London,
"Opera ac industria R. B. in Axholmiensi in
ula Lincolnesherii Epwortheatis."
By John Legatt, 1614. 4to.
Three or four versions of Cato, and one of Aesop's Fables, are entered in the register of the Stationers, between 1557 and 1571. REGISTR. A.
. It was printed so early as the year 1565, with the following title
A receipt for Ralph Newbery' licence is entered for printing
"A boke called Pallingenius,"
I suppose the original, 1560. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 48 a.
.
"The ZODIAKE OF LIFE, written by the godly and learned poet Marcellus Pallingenius Stellatus, wherein are conteyned twelue bookes disclosing the haynous crymes and wicked vices of our corrupt nature: And plainlye declaring the pleasaunt and perfit pathway vnto eternall life, besides a number of digressions both pleasaunt and profitable. Newly translated into Englishe verse by Barnabee Googe.
Probitas laudatur et alget.
Imprinted at London by Henry Denham for Rafe Newberye dwelling in Fleet-streate. Anno 1565. Aprilis 18
In
2mo. Bl. Lett. Not paged. The
ast signature is Y y iiij. The colophon,
"Imprinted at London by Henry Denham, &c."
On the second leaf after the title, is an armorial coat with six copartments, and at the top the initials B. G. Then follow Latin commendatory verses, by G
lbert Duke, Christopher Carli
e doctor in divinity, James Itzwert, George Chatterton fellow of Christ college in Cambridge, and David Bell, with some anonymous. Doctor Chri
topher Carlile was of Cambridge, and a learned orientalist, about 1550. He pu
lished many tracts in divinity. He was a writer of Greek and Latin verses. He has some in b
languages on the death of Bucer in 1551
See Bucer's ENGLISH WORKS, Bas
l.
ol. 1577. f. 903. And in the Collection on the death of the two Brandons, 1551. 4to. ut supr. Others, before his Reply to Richard Smyth, a papistic divine, Lond. 1582. 4to. He prefixed four Latin copies to Drant's ECCLESIASTES abovementioned, Lond. 1572. 4to. Two, to one of doctor John Jones's books on BATHS, Lond. 1572. 4to. A Sapphic ode to Sadler's version of Vegetius, Lond. 1572. 4to. A Latin copy to Chaloner's DE REP. ANGLORUM, Lond. 1579. 4to. A Latin hexa
tic to Batman's DOOM, Lond. 1581. 4to. Two of his Latin poems IN PAPAM, are (MS. Bale.) in MSS. Cotton. TIT. D. x. f. 77. He translated the Psalms into English prose, with learned notes. Finished Jun. 24, 1573. Among MSS. MORE, 206. Colomesius has published a fragment of a Latin Epistle from him to Castalio, dat. kal. Maii, 1562. CL. VIROR. EPIST. SINGUL. Lond. 1694. 12mo.
."
Bishop Tanner, deceived by Wood's papers, supposes that this first edition, which he had evidently never seen, and which is indeed uncommonly rare, contained only the first seven books. In the epistle dedicatory to secretary sir William Cecill, he mentions his
"simple trauayles lately dedicated vnto your honor."
These are his set of miscellaneous poems printed in 1563, or,
"Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnetes, newly written by Barnabe Googe, 15 Marche, for Rauve [Raufe] Newbury dwelling in Flete-strete a little aboue the Conduit in the late shop of Thomas Berthelet
In 12mo. Bl. Lett. See REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 88. b.
."
He apologises for attempting this work, three books of which, as he had understood too late, were
"both eloquentely and excellently Englished by Maister Smith, clark vnto the most honorable of the queenes maiesties counsell. Whose doings as in other matters I haue with admiration behelde, &c
It is doubtful whether he means sir Thomas Smith, the secretary. Nor does it appear, whether this translation was in verse or prose. Sir Thomas Smith, however, has left some English poetry. While a prisoner in the Tower in 1549, he translated eleven of David's Psalms into English metre, and composed three English metrical prayers, with three English copies of verses besides. These are now in the British Museum, MSS. REG. 17 A. xvii. I ought to have mentioned this before.
."
Googe was first a retainer to Cecill, and afterwards in 1563, a gentlemanpensioner to the queen
Strype's PARKER, p. 144.
. In his address to the
vertuous and frendley reader,
he thus, but with the zeal of a puritan, defends divine poetry.
"The diuine and notable Prophecies of Esay, the Lamentation of Jeremie, the Songs and Ballades of Solomon, the Psalter of Dauid, and the Booke of Hiob
Job.
, were written by the first auctours in perfect and pleasaunt hexameter verses. So that the deuine and canonicall volumes were garnished and set forth with sweete according tunes and heauenly soundes of pleasaunt metre. Yet wyll not the gracelesse company of our pernicious hypocrites allow, that the Psalmes of Dauid should be translated into Englishe metre. Marry, saye they, bycause they were only receiued to be
chaunted
in the church, and not to be song in euery coblers shop. O monstrous and malicious infidels!—do you abhorre to heare [God's] glory and prayse sounding in the mouth of a poore christian artificer? &c."
He adds, that since Chaucer,
"there hath flourished in England so fine and filed phrases, and so good and pleasant poets, as may counteruayle the doings of Virgill, Ouid, Horace, Iuuenal, Martial, &c."
There was a second edition in 1588, in which the former prefatory matters of every kind are omitted
Bl. Lett. 4to.
. This edition is dedicated to lord Buckhurst
At the end is a short copy of verses by Abraham Fleming. See supr. p. 404.
.
From the title of this work, ZODIACUS VITAE, written in Latin hexameters by Marcello Palingeni, an Italian, about the year 1531, the reader at least expects some astronomical allusions. But it has not the most distant connection with the stars: except that the poet is once transported to the moon, not to measure her diameter, but for a moral purpose; and that he once takes occasion, in his general survey of the world, and in reference to his title, to introduce a philosophic explanation of the zodiacal system
B.
i. AQUARIUS.
. The author meaning to divide his poem into twelve books, chose to distinguish each with a name of the celestial signs: just as Herodotus, but with less affectation and inconsistency, marked the nine books or divisions of his history with the names of the nine Muses. Yet so strange and pedantic a title is not totally without a conceit, as the author was born at Stellada, or Stellata, a province of Ferrara, and from whence he calls himself Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus
It should have been STELLATENSIS.
.
This poem is a general satire on life, yet without peevishness or malevolence; and with more of the solemnity of the censor, than the petulance of the satirist. Much of the morality is couched under allegorical personages and adventures. The Latinity is tolerably pure, but there is a mediocrity in the versification. Palingenius's transitions often discover more quickness of imagination, and fertility of reflection, than solidity of judgment. Having started a topic, he pursues it through all its possible affinities, and deviates into the most distant and unnecessary digressions. Yet there is a facility in his manner, which is not always unpleasing: nor is the general conduct of the work void of art and method. He moralises with a boldness and a liberality of sentiment, which were then unusual; and his maxims and strictures are sometimes tinctured with a spirit of libertinism, which, without exposing the opinions, must have offended the gravity, of the more orthodox ecclesiastics. He fancies that a confident philosopher, who rashly presumes to scrutinise the remote mysteries of nature, is shewn in heaven like an ape, for the public diversion of the gods. A thought evidently borrowed by Pope
See ESSAY ON POPE, p. 94.
. Although he submits his performance to the sentence of the church, he treats the authority of the popes, and the voluptuous lives of the monks, with the severest acrimony. It was the last circumstance that chiefly contributed to give this poem almost the rank of a classic in the reformed countries, and probably produced an early English translation. After his death, he was pronounced an heretic; and his body was taken up, and committed to the flames. A measure which only contributed to spread his book, and disseminate his doctrines.
Googe seems chiefly to have excelled in rendering the descriptive and flowery passages of this moral ZODIAC. He thus describes the Spring.
The earth againe doth florishe greene,
The trees repaire their springe;
With pleasaunt notes the nightingale
Beginneth new to sing.
With flowers fresh their heads bedeckt,
The Fairies dance in fielde:
And wanton songes in mossye dennes
The Drids and Satirs yielde.
The wynged Cupide fast doth cast
His dartes of gold yframed, &c
B. ii. TAURUS. Signat. B iij.
.
There is some poetic imagination in SAGITTARIUS, or the ninth book, where a divine mystagogue opens to the poet's eyes an unknown region of infernal kings and inhabitants. But this is an imitation of Dante. As a specimen of the translation, and of the author's fancy, I will transcribe some of this imagery.
Now open wyde your springs, and playne
Your caues abrode displaye,
You sisters of Parnassus hyll
Beset about with baye!
And vnto me, for neede it is,
A hundred tongues in verse
Sende out, that I these ayrie kings
And people may rehearse.—
Here fyrst, whereas in chariot red
Aurora fayre doth ryse,
And bright from out the ocean seas
Appeares to mortal eyes,
And chaset
hence the hellish night
With blushing beauty fayre,
A mighty King I might discerne,
Placde hi
in lofty chayre:
Hys haire with fyry garland deckt
Puft vp in fiendish wise;
Wyth browes full broade, and threatning loke,
And fyry-flaming eyes.
Two monstrous hornes and large he had,
And nostrils wide in sight;
Al black himself, (for bodies black
To euery euyll spright,
And ugly shape, hath nature dealt,)
Yet white his teeth did showe;
And white his grenning tuskes stode,
Large winges on him did growe,
Framde like the wings of flindermice;
His fete of largest sise,
In fashion as the wilde-duck beares,
Or goose that creaking cries:
His tayle such one as lions haue:
All naked sate he there,
But bodies couered round about
Wyth lothsome shagged haire,
A number great about him stoode, &c
B. ix. Signat. H H ii
j.
.
After viewing the wonders of heaven, his guide Timalphes, the son of Jupiter and Arete, shews him the moon, whose gates are half of gold and half of silver. They enter a city of the moon.
The loftie walles of diamonde strong
Were raysed high and fr
mde;
The bulwarks built of carbuncle
That all as fyer yflamde.—
And wondred at the number great
That through the city so,
Al clad in whyte, by thousands thick,
Amyd the streates did go.
Their heads beset with garlands fayre:
In hand the lillies white
They ioyfull beare
Ibid. Signa
. G G iiij.
.—
Then follows a mixture of classical and christian history and mythology. This poem has many symptoms of the wildness and wanderings of Italian fiction.
It must be confessed, that there is a perspicuity and a freedom in Googe's versification. But this metre of Sternhold and Hopkins impoverished three parts of the poetry of queen Elisabeth's reign. A hermit is thus described, who afterwards proves to be sir EPICURE, in a part of the poem which has been copied by sir David Lyndesey.
His hoary beard with siluer heares
His middle fully rought
Reached.
;
His skin was white, and ioyfull face:
Of diuers colours wrought,
A flowry garland gay he ware
About his semely heare, &c
Lib. iii. E j.
.
The seventh book, in which the poet looks down upon the world, with its various occupations, follies, and vices, is opened with these nervous and elegant stanzas.
My Muse aloft! raise vp thyself,
And vse a better flite:
Mount vp on hie, and think it scorn
Of base affayres to write.
More great renoune, and glory more,
In hautye matter lyes:
View thou the gods, and take thy course
Aboue the starrye skies:
Where spring-tyme lasts for euermore,
Where peace doth neuer quayle;
Where Sunne doth shyne continuallye,
Where light doth neuer fayle.
Clowd-causer southwinde none there is,
No boystrous Boreas blowes;
But mylder breathes the western breeze
Where sweet ambrosia growes.
Take thou this way, and yet sometimes
Downe falling fast from hye,
Nowe vp, nowe downe, with sundry sort
Of gates
Going.
aloft go flye.
And as some hawty place he seekes
That couets farre to see,
So vp to Joue, past
Beyond.
starres to clyme,
Is nedefull nowe for thee.
There shalt thou, from the towry top
Of crystall-colour'd skie,
The plot of all the world beholde
With viewe of perfit eye
Signat. N j.
.
One cannot but remark, that the conduct and machinery of the old visionary poems is commonly the same. A rural scene, generally a wilderness, is supposed. An imaginary being of consummate wisdom, a hermit, a goddess, or an angel, appears; and having purged the poet's eye with a few drops of some celestial elixir, conducts him to the top of an inaccessible mountain, which commands an unbounded plain filled with all nations. A cavern opens, and displays the torments of the damned: he next is introduced into heaven, by way of the moon, the only planet which was thought big enough for a poetical visit. Although suddenly deserted by his mystic intelligencer, he finds himself weary and desolate, on the sea-shore, in an impassable forest, or a flowery meadow.
The following is the passage which Pope has copied from Palingenius: and as Pope was a great reader of the old English poets, it is most probable that he took it immediately from our translator, or found it by his direction
Pope's lines are almost too well-known to be transcribed.
Superiour beings, whe
of late they saw
A mo
tal man unfold all nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthy shape,
And shew'd a Newton as we shew an Ape.
.
An Ape, quoth she, and iesting-stock
Is Man, to god in skye,
As oft as he doth trust his wit
Too much, presuming hie,
Dares searche the thinges of nature hid,
Her secrets for to speake;
When as in very deed his minde
Is dull, and all to weake
B. vi. Signat. Q iij.
.
These are the lines of the original.
Simia caelicolum risusque jocusque deorum est,
Tunc Homo, cum temere ingenio confidit, et audet
Abdita naturae scrutari, arcanaque rerum;
Cum revera ejus crassa imbecillaque sit mens
B. vi. v. 186.
.
Googe, supposed to have been a native of Alvingham in Lincolnshire, was a scholar, and was educated both at Christ's college in Cambridge, and New-college in Oxford. He is complimented more than once in Turberville's SONNETS
See fol. 8. b. 11. a. 124. a. edit. 1571.
. He published other translations in English. I have already cited his version of Naogeorgus's hexametrical poem on ANTICHRIST, or the PAPAL DOMINION, printed at London in 1570, and dedicated to his chief patron sir William Cecill
I suspect there is a former edition for W. Pickering, Lond. 1566. 4to.
. The dedication is dated from Staples-inn, where he was a student. At the end of the book, is his version of the same author's SPIRITUAL AGRICULTURE, dedicated to queen Elisabeth
In quarto.
. Thomas Naogeorgus, a German, whose real name is Kirchmaier, was one of the many moral or rather theological Latin poets produced by the reformation
Kirchmaier
ignifies the same in German as his assumed Greek name ΝΑΟΓΕΟΡΓΟΣ, a labourer in the church. He wrote besides, five books of Satires, and two tragedies in Latin. He died in 1578. See
"Thomae Naogeorgii REGNUM PAP
STICUM, cui adjecta sunt qua
dam alia ejusdem argumenti. Basil. 1553."
8vo. Ibid. 1559. One of his Latin tragedies called HAMAN
S, is printed among Oporin
's DRAMATA SACRA, or plays from the Old Testament, in 1547, many of which are Latin versions from the vernacular German. S
e Oporin. DRAM. S. vol. ii. p. 107.
. Googe also translated and enlarged Conrade Heresbach's treatise on agriculture, gardening, orchards, cattle, and domestic fowls
In quarto, for Richard Watkins. In the Preface to the first edition, he says,
"For my safety in the vniuersitie, I craue the aid and appeal to the defence of the famous Christ-college in Cambridge whereof I was on
an vnprofitable member, and [of] the ancient mother of learned men the New-college in Oxford."
. This version was printed in 1577, and dedicated from Kingston to sir William Fiztwilliams
Feb. 1, 1577. There were other editions, 1578, 1594. Lond. 4to.
. Among Crynes's curious books in the Bodleian at Oxford
Cod. CRYNES, 886.
, is Googe's translation from the Spanish of Lopez de Mendoza's PROVERBES, dedicated to Cecill, which I have never seen elsewhere, printed at London by R. Watkins in 1579
Sm. 8vo.
. In this book the old Spanish paraphrast mentions Boccace's THESEID
Fol. 71. a.
.
But it was not only to these later and degenerate classics, and to modern tracts, that Googe's industry was confined. He also translated into English what he called Aristotle's TABLE OF THE TEN CATEGORIES
MSS. Coxeter.
, that capital example of ingenious but useless subtlety, of method which cannot be applied to practice, and of that affectation of unnecessary deduction and frivolous investigation, which characterises the philosophy of the Greeks, and which is conspicuous not only in the demonstrations of Euclid, but in the Socratic disputations recorded by Xenophon. The solid simplicity of common sense would have been much less subject to circumlocution, embarrassment, and ambiguity. We do not want to be told by a chain of proofs, that two and two make four. This specific character of the schools of the Greeks, is perhaps to be traced backwards to the loquacity, the love of paradox, and the fondness for argumentative discourse, so peculiar to their nation. Even the good sense of Epictetus was not proof against this captious phrenzy. What patience can endure the solemn quibbles, which mark the stoical conferences of that philosopher perserved by Arrian? It is to this spirit, not solely from a principle of invidious malignity, that Tully alludes, where he calls the Greeks,
"Homines contentionis quam veritatis cupidiores
De ORATORE, Lib. i. §. xi.
."
And in another part of the same work he says, that it is a principal and even a national fault of this people,
"Quocunque in loco, quoscunque inter homines visum est, de rebus aut DIFFICILLIMIS aut non NECESSARIIS, ARGUTISSIME DISPUTARE
Ibid. Lib. ii. §. iv.
."
The natural liveliness of the Athenians, heightened by the free politics of a democracy, seems to have tinctur
d their conversation with this sort of declamatory disputation, which they frequently practiced under an earnest pretence of discovering the truth, but in reality to indulge their native disposition to debate, to display their abundance of words, and their address of argument, to amuse, surprise, and perplex. Some of Plato's dialogues, professing a profundity of speculation, have much of this talkative humour.
Beside these versions of the Greek and Roman poets, and of the antient writers in prose, incidentally mentioned in this review, it will be sufficient to observe here in general, that almost all the Greek and Roman classics appeared in English before the year 1600. The effect and influence of these translations on our poetry, will be considered in a future section.
SECT. XLII.
BUT the ardour of translation was not now circumscribed within the bounds of the classics, whether poets, historians, orators, or critics, of Greece and Rome.
I have before observed, that with our frequent tours through Italy, and our affectation of Italian manners, about the middle of the sixteenth century, the Italian poets became fashionable, and that this circumstance, for a time at least, gave a new turn to our poetry. The Italian poets, however, were but in few hands; and a practice of a more popular and general nature, yet still resulting from our communications with Italy, now began to prevail, which produced still greater revolutions. This was the translation of Italian books, chiefly on fictitious and narrative subjects, into English.
The learned Ascham thought this novelty in our literature too important to be passed over without observation, in his reflections on the course of an ingenuous education. It will be much to our purpose to transcribe what he has said on this subject: although I think his arguments are more like the reasonings of a rigid puritan, than of a man of liberal views and true penetration; and that he endeavours to account for the origin, and to state the consequences, of these translations, more in the spirit of an early calvinistic preacher, than as a sensible critic or a polite scholar.
"These be the inchauntments of Circe, brought out of Italie to marre mens manners in England: much, by example of ill life, but more by precepts of fonde bookes, of late translated oute of Italian into English, solde in euery shop in London, commended by honest titles, the sooner to corrupt honest manners, dedicated ouer boldly to vertuous and honorable personages, the easelyer to beguile simple and honest wittes. It is pitty, that those which haue authoritie and charge to allow and disallow works to be printed, be no more circumspect herein than they are. Ten Sermons at Paules Crosse doe not so much good for moouing men to true doctrine, as one of these bookes does harme with inticing men to ill living. Yea I say farther, these bookes tend not so much to corrupt honest liuing, as they do
to subuert true religion. More papists be made by your merry bookes of Italy, than by your earnest bookes of Louain
Serious book
in divinity, written by the papists. The study of controversial theology flourished at the univ
rsity of Louvain.
.—When the busie and open papists could not, by their contentious bookes, turne men in Englande faste inough from troth and right iudgemente in doctrine, then the suttle and secret papists at home procured bawdie bookes to be translated out of the Italian toong, whereby ou
rmany yong willes and witts, allured to wantonnes, doe now boldly conte
ne all seuere bookes that sound to honestie and godlines. In our forefathers time, when papistrie, as a standing poole, couered and ouerflowed all England, few bookes were red in our toong, sauyng certayne Bookes of Chiualrie, as they sayd for pastime and pleasure, which, as some say, were made in monasteries by idle monkes or wanton chanons: as one for example, MORTE ARTHUR, the whole pleasure of which booke standeth in two specyall poyntes, in open mans slaghter and bolde bawdrie: in which booke those be counted the noble
t knights that doe kill most men without any quarrell, and commit fowlest aduoulteries by sutlest shifts: as, syr Launcelote with the wife of king Arthure his maister: syr Tristram with the wife
of king Marke his vn
le: syr Lamerocke with the wife of king Lote that was his own aunte. This is good stuffe for wise men to laughe at, or honest men to take pleasure at. Yet I knowe when God's Bible was banished the court, and MORTE ARTHUR receaued into the princes chamber. What toyes the dayly reading of such a booke may worke in the will of a yong ientleman, or a yong maide, that liueth welthely and idlely, wife men can iudge, and honest men doe pittie. And yet ten MORTE ARTHURES doe not the tenth part so much harme, as one of these bookes made in Italie, and translated in England. They open, not fond and common ways to vice, but such suttle, cunning, new and diuerse shifts, to carry yong willes to vanitie and yong wittes to mischiefe, to teache old bawdes new schoole pointes, as the simple head of an Englishman is not hable to inuent, nor neuer was heard of in England before, yea when papistrie ouerflowed all. Suffer these bookes to be read, and they shall soon displace all bookes of godly learning. For they, carrying the will to vanitie, and marring good manners, shall easily corrupt the minde with ill opinions, and false judgement in doctrine: first to thinke ill of all true religion, and at last, to thinke nothing of God himselfe, one speciall poynt that is to be learned in Italie and Italian bookes. And that which is most to be lamented, and therefore more nedefull to be looked to, there be more of these vngracious bookes set out in print within these fewe moneths, than haue been seene in England many score yeares before. And because our Englishmen made Italians cannot hurt but certaine persons, and in certaine places, therefore these Italian bookes are made English, to bringe mischie
e inough openly and boldly to all states
Conditions of life.
, great and meane, yong and old, euery where.—Our English men Italianated haue more in reuerence the TRIUMPHES of Petrarche
In such universal vogue were the TRIUMPHS of Petrarch, or h
TRIONFI D' AMOUR, that they were made into a public pageant at the entrance, I think, of Charles th
fifth into Madrid.
, than the GENESIS of Moyses. They make more accompt of Tullies Offices, than saint Paules Epistles: of a Tale in Boccace, than the Story of the Bible, &c
Ascham's SCHOOLEMASTER, edit. 1589. fol. 25. a. seqq. This book was begun soon after the year 1563. PREFACE, p. 1.
."
Ascham talkes here exactly in the style of Prynne's HISTRIOMASTIX. It must indeed be confessed, that by these books many pernicious obscenities were circulated, and perhaps the doctrine of intrigue more accurately taught and exemplified than before. But every advantage is attended with its inconveniencies and abuses. That to procure translations of Italian tales was a plot of the papists, either for the purpose of facilitating the propagation of their opinions, of polluting the minds of our youth, or of diffusing a spirit of scepticism, I am by no means convinced. But I have nothing to do with the moral effects of these versions. I mean only to shew their influence on our literature, more particularly on our poetry, although I reserve the discussion of this point for a future section. At present, my design is to give the reader a full and uniform view of the chief of these translations from the Italian, which appeared in England before the year 1600.
I will begin with Boccace. The reader recollects Boccace's THESEID and TROILUS, many of his Tales, and large passages from Petrarch and Dante, translated by Chaucer. But the golden mine of Italian fiction opened by Chaucer, was soon closed and forgotten. I must however premise, that the Italian language now began to grow so fashionable, that it was explained in lexicons and grammars, written in English, and with a view to the illustration of the three principal Italian poets. So early as 1550, were published,
"Principal rules of the Italian grammar, with a dictionarie for the better vnderstanding of Boccase, Petrarche, and Dante, g
thered into this tonge by William Thomas
In quarto, for T. Berthelett. Again, 4to, 1561. For T. Powell. Again, 4to. 1567. For H. Wykes. It was written at Padua in 1548. Thomas, a bachelor in civil law at Oxford, and a clergyman, is said to have been rewarded by Edward the sixth with several preferments. See Strype's GRINDAL, p. 5.
."
It is dedicated to sir Thomas Chaloner, an accomplished scholar. The third edition of this book is dated in 1567. Scipio Lentulo's Italian grammar was translated into English in 1578, by Henry Grantham
For T. Vautrollier. 8vo.
. Soon afterwards appeared, in 1583,
"CAMPO DI FIOR, or The Flourie Field of four Languages of M. Claudius Desainliens, for the furtherance of the learners of the Latine, French, and English, but chieflie of the Italian tongue
For Vautrollier. 12mo.
."
In 1591, Thomas Woodcock printed,
"Florio's second frutes to be gathered of twelve trees of divers but delightfull tastes to the tongues of Italian and Englishmen. To which is annexed a gardine of recreation yelding 6000 Italian prouerbs
But his
First Frute,
or, Dialogues in Italian and English, with instruction for the Italian, appeared in 1578. His Italian dictionary, in 1595.
."
Florio is Shakespeare's Holophernes in Love's Labour Lost
See ACT iv. Sc. ii.
. And not to extend this catalogue, which I fear is not hitherto complete, any further, The ITALIAN SCHOOLEMASTER was published in 1591
For Thomas Purfoot. 12mo.
. But to proceed.
Before the year 1570, William Paynter, clerk of the Office of Arms within the Tower of London, and who seems to have been master of the school of Sevenoaks in Kent, printed a very considerable part of Boccace's novels. His first collection is entitled,
"The PALACE OF PLEASURE, the first volume, containing sixty novels out of Boccacio, London, 1566."
It is dedicated to lord Warwick
A second edition was printed for H. Binneman, Lond. 1575. 4to.
. A second volume soon appeared,
"The PALLACE OF PLEASURE the second volume containing thirty-four novels, London, 1567
A second edition was printed by Thomas Marsh, in octavo. Both volumes appeared in 1575. 4to.
."
This is dedicated to sir George Howard; and dated from his house near the Tower, as is the former volume. It would be superfluous to point out here the uses which Shakespeare made of these volumes, after the full investigation which his antient allusions and his plots have so lately received. One William Painter, undoubtedly the same, translated William Fulk's ANTIPROGNOSTICON, a treatise written to expose the astrologers of those times
Lond. 1570. 12mo. At the end is an English tract against the astrologers, very probably written by Painter. Edward Dering, a fellow of Christ's college Cambridge, in a copy of recommendatory verses prefixed to the second edition o
Googe's Palingenius, attacks PAINTER,
ucas, and others, the abettors of Fulk's ANTIPROGNOSTICON, and the censu
rs of astrology. In the antient registers of the Stationers company, an Almanac is usually joined with a PROGNOSTICATION. See REGISTR. A. fol. 59. b. 61. a.
. He also prefixed a Latin tetrastic to Fulk's original, printed in 1570
In 1563, is a receipt for a licence to William Joiner for printing
"The Citye of Cyvelite, translated into Englesshe by William Paynter."
REGISTR
A
ut supr. fol. 86. b. In 1565, there is a receipt for licence to W. James to print
"Serten historyes collected oute of dyvers ryghte good and profitable authors by William Paynter."
Ibid. fol. 134. b. The second part of the
"Palice of Pleasur
,"
i
entered with Nicholas Englonde, in 1565. Ibid. fol. 156. a.
.
With Painter's PALACE OF PLEASURE, we must not confound
"A petite Pallace of Pettie his plesure,"
although properly claiming a place here, a book of stories from Italian and other writers, translated and collected by William Pettie
a student of Christ-church in Oxford about the year 1576
Entered that year, Aug. 5. to Watkins. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 134. a.
. It is said to contain,
"manie prettie histories by him set forth in comely colors and most delightfully discoursed."
The firs
edition I have seen was printed in 1598, the year before our author's death, by James Roberts. The first tale is SINORIX AND CAMMA, two lovers of Sienna in Italy, the last ALEXIUS
There is an Epistle to the Reader by R. W. In 1569, there is an entry with Richard James for printing
"A ballet int
tuled Sinorix Canna and Sinnatus."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 191. b. In Pettie'
tale, Camma is wife to Sinnatus.
. Among Antony Wood's books in the Ashmolean Museum, is a second edition dated 1608
There was a third in 1613. By. G. Eld. Lond. 4to. Bl. Lett.
. But Wood, who purchased and carefully preserved this performance, solely because it was writ
en by his great-uncle, is of opinion, that
"it is now so far from being excellent or fine, that it is more fit to be read by a school-boy, or rusticall amoretto, than by a gentleman of mode and language
ATH. OXON. i. 240. Pattie in conjunction with Bartholomew Young, translated the
Civil
Conversation
of Stephen
Guazzo, 1586. 4to.
."
Most of the stories are classical, perhaps supplied by the English Ovid, yet with a variety of innovations, and a mixture of modern manners.
Painter at the end of his second volume, has left us this curious notice.
"Bicause sodaynly, contrary to expectation, this Volume is risen to greater heape of leaues, I doe omit for this present time SUNDRY NOUELS of mery devise, reseruing the same to be joyned with the rest of an other part, wherein shall succeede the remnant of Bandello, specially sutch, suffrable, as the learned French man François de Belleforrest hath selected, and the choysest done in the Italian. Some also out of Erizzo, Ser Giouanni Florentino, Parabosco, Cynthio, Straparole, Sansouino, and the best liked out of the Queene of Nauarre, and other Authors. Take these in good part, with those that haue and shall come forth."
But there is the greatest reason to believe, that no third volume ever appeared. And it is probable, that Painter by the interest of his booksellers, in compliance with the prevailing mode of publication, and for the accommodation of universal readers, was afterwards persuaded to print his
sundry novels
in the perishable form of separate pamphlets, which cannot now be recovered.
Boccace's FIAMETTA was translated by an Italian, who seems to have borne some office about the court, in 1587, with this title,
"AMOROUS FIAMETTA, wherein is sette downe a catalogve of all and singvlar passions of loue and iealousie incident to an enamored yong gentlewoman, with a notable caueat for all women to eschew deceitfull and wicked loue, by an apparent example of a Neapolitan lady, her approued and long miseries, and wyth many sound dehortations from the same. Fyrst written in Italian by master John Boccace, the learned Florentine, and poet lavreat. And now done into English by B. Giouanno del M. Temp
In quarto, for Thomas Gubbins.
."
The same year was also printed,
"Thirteene most pleasaunt and delectable questions entituled A DISPORT of diuers noble personages from Boccace. Imprinted at London by A. W. for Thomas Woodcock, 1587
In quarto. There is entered with Richard Smyth, in 1566,
"A boke intituled the xiij questions composed in the Italian by John Boccace."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 153. a.
."
Several tales of Boccace's DECAMERON were now translated into English rhymes. The celebrated story of the friendship of TITUS AND GESIPPUS was rendered by Edward Lewicke, a name not known in the catalogue of English poets, in 1562
See supr. vol. ii. p. 342 And EM. ADD.
. The title is forgotten with the translator.
"The most wonderfull and pleasaunt history of Titus and Gisippus, whereby is fully declared the figure of perfect frendshyp drawen into English metre by Edwarde Lewicke. Anno 1562. For Thomas Hacket
In 12mo Ad calc.
"FINIS
quod Edward L
wick.
"
There is entered, in 1570, with H. Binneman,
"The pet
full history of ij lovyng Italians."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 204. b.
."
It is not suspected, that those affecting stories, the CYMON AND IPHIGENIA, and the THEODORE AND HONORIA, of Boccace, so beautifully paraphrased by Dryden, appeared in English verse, early in the reign of queen Elisabeth.
THEODORE AND HONORIA was translated, in 1569, by doctor Christopher Tye, the musician, already mentioned as a voluminous versifier of scripture in the reign of Edward the sixth. The names of the lovers are disguised, in the following title.
"A notable historye of Nastagio and Trauersari, no less pitiefull than pleasaunt, translated out of Italian into English verse by C. T. Imprinted at London in Poules churchyarde, by Thomas Purefoote dwelling at the signe of the Lucrece. Anno. 1569
In 12mo. Bl. Lett. In that year Purfoot has licence to print
"the History of Nostagio."
The same book. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 183. b. [See supr. p. 194.]
."
Tye has unluckily applied to this tale, the same stanza which he used in translating the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. The knight of hell pursuing the lady, is thus described.
He sawe approche with swiftie foote
The place where he did staye,
A dame, with scattred heares vntrussde,
Bereft of her araye.—
Besides all this, two mastiffes great
Both fierce and full he sawe,
That fiercely pinchde her by the flanke
With greedie rauening rawe.
And eke a Knight, of colour swarthe,
He sawe behinde her backe,
Came pricking after, flinging forthe
Vpon a courser blacke:
With gastlye thretning countenaunce,
With armyng sworde in hande;
His looke wold make one feare, his eyes
Were like a fiery brande, &c
SIGNAT. A v.
.
About the same time appeared the tale of CYMON AND IPHIGENIA,
"A pleasaunt and delightfull History of Galesus, Cymon, and Iphigenia, describing the ficklenesse of fortune in love. Translated out of Italian into Englishe verse by T. C. gentleman. Printed by Nicholas Wyer in saint Martin's parish besides Charing Cross
In 12mo. Bl. Lett.
."
It is in stanzas. I know not with what poet of that time the initials T. C. can correspond, except with Thomas Churchyard, or Thomas Campion. The latter is among the poets in ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS printed in 1600, is named by Camden with Spenser, Sidney, and Drayton; and, among other pieces, published
"Songs, bewailing the untimely death of Prince Henry, set forth to bee sung to the lute or viol by John Coprario, in 1613
See also Meres, ubi supr. fol. 280. Under his name at length are
"Obseruations on the Art of English Poesie, Lond. by R. Field, 1602."
12mo. Dedicated to lord Buckhurst, whom he calls
"the noblest judge of poesie, &c."
This piece is to prove that English is capable of all the Roman measures. He gives a specimen of
Lincenti
te Iambickes
in English, our present blank verse, p. 12. More of this hereafter. T. C. in our singing-psalms, is affixed to psalm 136. See above, p. 170. I believe he is the author of a Masque presented on Saint Stephen's Night, 1604.
."
But he seems rather too late to have been our translator. Nicholas Wyer the printer of this piece, not mentioned by Ames, perhaps the brother of Robert, was in vogue before or about the year 1570.
It is not at all improbable, that these old translations now entirely forgotten and obsolete, suggested these stories to Dryden's notice. To Dryden they were not more antient, than pieces are to us, written soon after the restoration of Charles the second: and they were then of sufficient antiquity not to be too commonly known, and of such mediocrity, as not to preclude a new translation. I think we may trace Dryden in some of the rhymes and expressions
In 1569, Thomas Colwell has licence to print
"A ballet of two faythfull frynds beynge bothe in love with one lady."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 193. a. This seems to be PALAMON AND ARCIT
. I know not whether I should mention here, Robert Wilmot's tragedy of TANCRED AND GISMUND, acted before queen Elisabeth at the Inner-temple, in 1568,
nd printed in 1592, as the story, originally from Boccace, is in Paynter's Collection, and in an old English poem. [See supr. vol. ii. 238.] There is also an old French poem called GUICHARD ET SIGISMONDE, translated from Boccace into Latin by Leo Aretine, and thence into French verse by Jean Fleury. Paris. Bl. Lett. 4to. See DECAM
RON, Giorn. iv. Nov. i.
.
It must not be forgot, that Sachetti published tales before Boccace. But the publication of Boccace's DECAMERON gave a stability to this mode of composition, which had existed in a rude state before the revival of letters in Italy. Boccace collected the common tales of his country, and procured others of Grecian origin from his friends and preceptors the Constantinopolitan exiles, which he decorated with new circumstances, and delivered in the purest style. Some few perhaps are of his own invention. He was soon imitated, yet often unsuccessfully, by many of his countrymen, Poggio, Bandello, the anonymous author of LE CIENTO NOVELLE ANTIKE, Cinthio, Firenzuola, Malespini, and others. Even Machiavel, who united the liveliest wit with the profoundest reflection, and who composed two comedies while he was compiling a political history of his country, condescended to adorn this fashionable species of writing with his NOVELLA DI BELFEGOR, or the tale of Belphegor.
In Burton's MELANCHOLY, there is a curious account of the diversions in which our ancestors passed their winter-evenings. They were not totally inelegant or irrational. One of them was to read Boccace's novels aloud.
"The ordinary recreations which we haue in winter, are cardes, tables and dice, shouelboard, chesse-play, the philosopher's game, small trunkes, balliardes, musicke, maskes, singing, dancing, vle-games
games. See what is said above of UL
, vol. ii. p. 315.
, catches, purposes, questions: merry tales, of errant-knights, kings, queenes, louers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfes, thieves, fayries, BOCCACE'S NOUELLES, and the rest
P. ii. §. 2. pag. 230. edit. fol. 1624.
."
The late ingenious and industrious editors of Shakespeare have revived an antient metrical paraphrase, by Arthur Brooke, of Bandello's history of Romeo and Juliet.
"THE TRAGICALL HYSTORY OF ROMEUS AND JULIET: Contayning in it a rare example of true Constancie, with the subtill Counsels and practises of an old
ryer and ther ill event. Imprinted at London in Fleete-streete within Temple Barre at the signe of the hand and starre by Richard Tottill the xix
ay of November. Ann. Dom. 1562
Under which year is entered in the register of the Stationers,
"Recevyd of Mr. Tottle for his license for pryntinge of the Tragicall history of the ROMEU
AND JULIETT with Sonnettes."
REGISTR. A. fol. 86. a. It is again entered in these Registers to be printed, viz. Feb. 18, 1582, for Tottel. And Aug. 5, 1596
as a
n
we ballet,
for Edward White. REGISTR. C. fol. 12. b.
."
It is evident from a coincidence of absurdities and an identity of phraseology, that this was Shakespeare's original, and not the meagre outline which appears in Painter. Among the copies delivered by Tottel the printer to the stationers of London, in 1582, is a
booke
called ROMEO AND JULETTA
REGI
TR. B. fol. 193. a. See last Note.
. But I believe there were two different translations in verse. It must be remembered here, that the original writer of this story was Luigi da Porto, a gentleman of Verona, who died in 1529. His narrative appeared at Venic
in 1535, under the title of LA GIULIETTA, and was soon afterwards adopted by Bandello. Shakespeare, misled by the English poem, missed the opportunity of introducing a most affecting scene by the natural and obvious conclusion of the story. In Luigi's novel, Juliet awakes from her trance in the tomb before the death of Romeo. From Turberville's poems printed in 1567, we learn, that Arthur Brooke was drowned in his passage to New-haven, and that he was the author of this translation, which was the distinguished proof of his excellent poetical abilities.
Apollo lent him lute for solace sake,
To sound his verse by touch of stately string;
And of the neuer fading baye did make
A laurell crowne, about his browes to clinge,
In proofe that he for myter did excell,
As may be iudge by
Iulyet and her Mate;
For ther he shewde his cunning passing well
When he the tale to English did translate.—
Aye mee, that time, thou crooked dolphin, where
Wast thou, Aryon's help and onely stay,
That safely him from sea to shore didst beare,
When Brooke was drownd why was thou then away? &c
Fol. 143. b. 144. a.
Epitaph on th
Death of Maister Arthur Brook
.
edit. 2. 12mo. 1570.
.
The enthusiasts to Shakespeare must wish to see more of Arthur Brooke's poetry, and will be grati
ied with the dullest anecdotes of an author to whom perhaps we owe the existence of a tragedy at which we have all wept. I can discover nothing more of Arthur Brooke, than that he translated from French into English,
The Agreement of sundrie places of Scripture seeming to iarre,
which was printed at London in 1563. At the end is a copy of verses written by the editor Thomas Brooke the younger, I suppose his brother; by which it appears, that the author Arthur Brooke was shipwrecked before the year 1563
In octavo. PRINC.
"Some men heretofore h
ue attempted."
. Juliet soon furnished a female name to a new novel. For in 1577, Hugh Jackson printed
"The renowned Historie of Cleomenes and Juliet
Oct. 14. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 142. b.
."
Unless this be Brooke's story disguised and altered.
Bishop Tanner, I think, in his correspondence with the learned and accurate Thomas Baker of Cambridge, mentions a prose English version of the NOVELLE of Bandello, who endeavoured to avoid the obscenities of Boccace and the improbabilities of Cinthio, in 1580, by W. W. Had I seen this performance, for which I have searched Tanner's library in vain, I would have informed the inquisitive reader, how far it accommodated Shakespeare in the conduct of the Tragedy of ROMEO AND JULIET. As to the translator, I make no doubt that the initials W. W. imply William Warner the author of ALBION'S ENGLAND
But W. W. may mean William Webbe, author of the DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETRIE, 1586. I remember an old book with these initials; and which is entered to Richard Jones, in 1586,
"A history entituled a strange and petifull nouell, dyscoursynge of a noble lorde and his lady, with their tragicall ende of them and thayre ij children executed by a blacke morryon."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 187. b. There is a
ine old pathetic ballad, rather too bloody, on this story, I think in Wood's collection of ballads in the Ashmolean Museum.
, who was esteemed by his cotemporaries as one of the refiners of our language, and is said in Meres's WIT'S TREASURY, to be one of those by whom
"the English tongue is mightily enriched, and gorgeously invested in rare ornaments and resplendent habiliments
Fol. 280. edit. 1598.
."
Warner was also a translator of Plautus; and wrote a novel, or rather a suite of stories, much in the style of the adventures of Heliodorus's Ethiopic romance, dedicated to lord Hunsdon, entitled,
"SYRINX, or a seauenfold Historie, handled with varietie of pleasant and profitable, both commicall and tragicall, argument. Newly perused and amended by the first author W. WARNER. At London, printed by Thomas Purfoote, &c. 1597
In quarto. Bl. Lett. This is the second edition. The first being full of faults. TO THE READER, he says,
"One in penning pregnanter, and a schollar better than myselfe, on whose graue the grasse now groweth green, whom otherwise, though otherwise to me guilti
, I name not, hath borrowed out of
uerie CALAMUS [of the Syri
x,] of the Storie herein handl
d, argument and inuention to seuerall bookes by him published. Another of late, hauing (fayning the same a Translation) set foorth an historie of a Duke of Lancaster neuer before authored, hath vouchsafed to incerte therein whole pages verbatim as they are herein extant, &c."
The first edition i
entered to Pur
oot, Sept. 22, 1584. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 201. a.
."
Warner in his ALBION'S ENGLAND, commonly supposed to be first printed in 1592
Lond. by T. Orwin. 4to. Bl. Lett. But it is entered to Thomas Tadman, Nov. 7, 1586. REGISTR. B. fol. 212. b. As printed.
, says,
"Written haue I already in Prose, allowed of some, and now offer I Verse, attending indifferent censvres."
In 1598 was published, as it seems,
"A fyne Tuscane hystorye called ARNALT AND LUCINDA."
It is annexed to
"The ITALIAN SCHOOLEMAISTER, conteyninge rules for pronouncynge the Italyan tongue
Entered to the two Purfootes, Aug. 19, REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 40. b.
."
Among George Gascoigne's WEEDES printed in 1576, is the Tale of Ferdinando Jeronimi, or
"The pleasant fable of Ferdinando Ieronimi and Leonora de Valasco, translated out of the Italian riding tales of Bartello."
Much poetry is interwoven into the narrative. Nor, on the mention of Gascoigne, will it be foreign to the present purpose to add here, that in the year 1566, he translated one of Ariosto's comedies called SUPPOSITI, which was acted the same year at Gray's-inn. The title is,
"SVPPOSES. A comedie written in the Italian tongue by Ariosto, Englished by George Gascoigne of Graies inne esquire, and there presented, 1566
See Gascoigne's HEAR
S, fol. 1.
."
This comedy was first written in prose by Ariosto, and afterwards reduced into rhyme. Gascoigne's translation is in prose. The dialogue is supported with much spirit and ease, and has often the air of a modern conversation. As Gascoigne was the first who exhibited on our stage a story from Euripides, so in this play he is the first that produced an English comedy in prose. By the way, the quaint name of Petruchio, and the incident of the master and servant changing habits and characters, and persuading the Scenese to personate the father, by frightening him with the hazard of his travelling from Sienna to Ferrara against the commands of government, was transferred into the TAMING OF THE SHREW. I doubt not however, that there was an Italian novel on the subject. From this play also the ridiculous name and character of Doctor Dodipoll seems to have got into our old drama
See fol. 4, &c. See also Nashe's Preface to G. Harvey's
Hunt is up:
printed in 1596.
"The wisdome of doctor Dodepole plaied by the children of Paules,"
is entered to R. Olyffe, Oct. 7, 1600. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 65. b.
. But to return.
In Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Beatric
uspects she shall be told she had
"her good wit out of the HUNDRED MERRY TALES
Act ii. Sc
i.
."
A translation of LES CENT NOUVELLES NOUVELLES, printed at Paris before the year 1500, and said to have been written by some of the royal family of France, but a compilation from the Italians, was licenced to be printed by John Waly, in 1557, under the title of
"A Hundreth mery tayles,"
together with
The freere and the boye, stans puer ad mensam, and youthe, charite, and humylite
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 22. a. See also B. sub ann. 1581. fol. 186. a.
. It was frequently reprinted, is mentioned as popular in Fletcher's NICE VALOUR; and in the LONDON CHAUNTICLERES, so late as 1659, is cried for sale by a ballad-vender, with the SEVEN WISE MEN OF GOTHAM
Of these, see supr. p. 72. There is an entry to R. Jones, Jan. 5, 1595,
"A COMEDIE entitled A KNACK TO KNOWE A KNAVE, newlye sett fourth, as it hath sundrye tymes ben plaid by Ned Allen and his companie, with Kemp's MERYMENTES OF THE MEN OF GOTHEHAM."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 304. a.
, and Scogan's JESTS
Under a licence to T. Colwell, in 1565,
"The geystes of Skoggon gathered together in th
s volume."
REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 134. a.
.
In 1587, George Turberville the poet, already mentioned as the translator of Ovid's EPISTLES, published a set of tragical tales in prose, selected from various Italian novelists. He was a
kilful master of the modern languages, and went into Russia in the quality of secretary to Thomas Randolph esquire, envoy to the emperor of Russia
It may be doubted whether the trea
ise on Hunting reprinted with his Falconrie, in 1611, and called a translation, with verses by Gascoigne, is to be ascribed to him. One or both came out first in 1575. The Dedication and Epilogue to the Falconrie, are signed by Turbe
vill
.
. This collection, which is dedicated to his brother Nicholas, is entitled,
"TRAGICAL TALES, translated by Turberville in time of his troubles, out of sundrie Italians, with the argument and lenvoy to each tale
Lond. for Abel Jeffes, 15
7. 12mo.
."
Among Mr. Oldys's books, was the
"Life of Sir Meliado a Brittish knight
Meliadu
del Espinoy, and M
liadus le noir Oeil, are the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth knights of the ROUND TA
LE, in R. Robinson's AVNCIENT ORDER, &c. Lond. 1583. 4to. Bl. Lett. Chiefly a French translation.
,"
translated from the Italian, in 1572. By the way, we are not here to suppose that BRITTISH means English. A BRITTISH knight means a knight of Bretagne or Britanny, in France. This is a common mistake, arising from an equivocation which has converted many a French knight into an Englishman. The learned Nicholas Antonio, in his SPANISH LIBRARY, affords a remarkable example of this confusion, and a proof of its frequency, where he is speaking of the Spanish translation of the romance of TIRANTE THE WHITE, in 1480.
"Ad fabularum artificem stylum convertimus, Joannem Martorell Valentiae regni civem, cujus est liber hujus commatis, TIRANT LE BLANCH inscriptus, atque anno 1480, ut aiunt, Valentiae in folio editus. MORE HIC ALIORUM TALIUM OTIOSORUM CONSUETO, fingit se hunc librum ex ANGLICA in Lusitanam, deinde Lusitana in Valentinam linguam, anno, 1460, transtulisse, &c
BIBL. HISPAN. L. x. c. ix. p. 193. num. 490.
."
That is,
"I now turn to a writer of fabulous adventures, John Martorell of the kingdom of Valencia, who wrote a book of this cast, entitled TIRANTE THE WHITE, printed in folio at Valencia in 1480. This writer, according to a practice common to such idle historians, pretends he translated this book from English into Portugueze, and from thence into the Valencian language."
The hero is a gentleman of Bretagne, and the book was first written in the language of that country. I take this opportunity of observing, that these mistakes of England for Britanny, tend to confirm my hypothesis, that Bretagne, or Armorica, was antiently a copious source of romance: an hypothesis, which I have the happiness to find was the opinion of the most learned and ingenious M. La Croze, as I am but just now informed from an entertaining little work,
Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Monsieur La Croze,
printed by M. Jordan at Amsterdam, in 1741
Chez François Changuion, 12mo.
. La Croze's words, which he dictated to a friend, are these.
"Tous les ROMANS DE CHEVALERIE doivent leur origin á la BRETAGNE, et au pays de Galles [Wales] dont notre Bretagne est sortie. Le Roman D'AMADIS DE GAULE commençe par un Garinter roi de la PETITE BRETAGNE, de la
Poquenna Bretonne,
et ce roi fut ayeul maternel d'Amadis. Je ne dis rien ici de LANCELOT DU LAC, et de plusieurs autres qui sont tous BRETONS. Je n'en excepte point le Roman de PERCEFOREST, dont j'ai vu un tres-beau manuscrit en velin dans la bibliotheque du roi de France.—Il y a un fort belle Preface sur l'origine de notre BRETAGNE ARMORIQUE.—Si ma santé le comportoit, je m'étendrois davantage et je pourrois fournir un Supplement assez amusant au Traitè du docte M. Huet sur L'ORIGINE DES ROMANS
Pag. 219. seq. See Crescimben. HIST. POES. VULGAR. L. v. ch. 2, 3, 4.
"The Historye of twoe Brittaine louers,"
that is of Britanny, is entered to Charlewood, Jan
4, 1580. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 176. b. Again,
"Philocasander and Elamira the fayre ladye of Brytayne,"
to Purfoot, Aug. 19, 1598. REGISTR. C. fol. 40. b. Our king Arthur wa
sometimes called Arthur of Little Brittayne, and there is a romance with that title, reprinted in 1609.
."
I know not from what Italian fabler the little romance called the BANISHMENT OF CUPID, was taken. It is said to have been translated out of Italian into English by Thomas Hedly, in 1587
Lond. For Thomas Marshe, 12mo. It is among Sampson Awdeley's copies, a
a former grant, 1581. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 186. a.
. I conceive also
"The fearfull fantyses of the Florentyne Cowper,"
to be a translation from the Italian
Licenced in 1567. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 164. b. There is an edition in 15
9. Bl. Lett. 8vo. Purfoot.
.
Nor do I know with what propriety the romance of AURELIO AND ISABELLA, the scene of which is laid in Scotland, may be mentioned here. But it was printed in 1586, in one volume, in Italian, French, and English
Licenced to E. White, Aug. 8, 1586. R
GISTR. STATION. B. fol. 209. b. I have
"L'HI
TOI
D'AU
LIO ET ISABELLA en Italien et Françoise,"
printed at Lyons by G. Rouille, in 1555. 16mo
Annexed
s LA D
IPHIRE, by the author of the romance, as I apprehend, LeonBaptista Alberti
in Italian and French.
. And again, in Italian, Spanish, French, and English, in 1588
Licenced to Aggas, Nov. 20, 1588. RE
ISTR. B. fol. 237. a.
. I was informed by the late Mr. Collins of Chichester, that Shakespeare's TEMPEST, for which no origin is yet assigned, was formed on this favorite romance. But although this information has not proved true on examination, an useful conclusion may be drawn from it, that Shakespeare's story is somewhere to be found in an Italian novel, at least that the story preceded Shakespeare. Mr. Collins had searched this subject with no less fidelity, than judgment and industry: but his memory failing in his last calamitous indisposition, he probably gave me the name of one novel for another. I remember he added a circumstance, which may lead to a discovery, that the principal character of the romance, answering to Shakespeare's Prospero, was a chemical necromancer, who had bound a spirit like Ariel to obey his call and perform his services. It was a common pretence of the dealers in the occult sciences to have a demon at command. At least Aurelio, or Orelio, was probably one of the names of this romance, the production and multiplication of gold being the grand object of alchemy. Taken at large, the magical part of the TEMPEST is founded in that sort of philosophy which was practised by John Dee and his associates, and has been called the Rosicrusian. The name Ariel came from the Talmudistic mysteries with which the learned Jews had infected this science.
To this head must also be referred, the Collections which appeared before 1600, of tales drawn indiscriminately from French and Spanish, as well as Italian authors, all perhaps originally of Italian growth, and recommended by the general love of fable and fiction which now prevailed. I will mention a few.
In point of selection and size, perhaps the most capital miscellany of this kind is Fenton's book of tragical novels. The title is,
"Certaine TRAGICALL DISCOURSES written oute of French and Latin, by Geffraie Fenton, no lesse pro
itable than pleasaunt, and of like necessitye to al degrees that take pleasure in antiquityes or forraine reportes.
Mon be
r viendra.
Imprinted at London in Flete-strete nere to sainct Dunstons Churche by Thomas Marshe. Anno Domini, 1567
In 4to. Bl. Lett. Cont. 612 pages. See licence from the archbishop of Canterbury, 1566. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 156. a. See ibid. fol. 162. b. Ames mentions another edition by Marshe, 1579. 4to.
."
This edition never was seen by Ames, nor was the book known to Tanner. The dedication is dated from his chamber at Paris, in 1567
Jun. 22.
, to the Lady Mary Sydney, and contains many sensible reflections on this of reading. He says,
"Neyther do I thynke that oure Englishe recordes are hable to yelde at this daye a ROMANT more delicat and chaste, treatynge of the veraye th
am
and effect
s of loue, than theis HYSTORIES, of no lesse credit than sufficient authoritie, by reason the moste of theym were within the compasse of memorye, &c
He commends his illustrious patroness, for
"you
worthi
participation with the excellent gifts of temperance and wonderfull modestie in the ii. moste famous erles of Leicester and Warwike your bretherne, and most
vertuous and renowned ladye the countesse of Huntington your sy
ter, &c."
."
Among the recommendatory poems pr
fixed
Sir John Conway, M. H. who writes in Latin, and Peter Beverley. The latter wrote in verse
"The tragecall and pleasaunte history of Ariodanto and Jen
ura daughter vnto the kynge of Scots,"
licenced to H. We
kes, 1565. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 140. b. There is an edition dedicated from Staples inn, for R. Wa
kins, 1600. 12mo.
, there is one by George Turberville, who lavishes much praise on Fenton's
curious fyle,
which could
frame this passing-pleasant booke.
He adds,
The learned stories erste, and sugred tales that laye
Remoude from simple common sence, this writer doth displaye:
Nowe men of meanest skill, what BANDEL wrought may vew,
And tell the tale in Englishe well, that erst they neuer knewe:
Discourse of sundrye strange, and tragicall affaires,
Of louynge ladyes haples haps, theyr deathes, and deadly cares, &c.
Most of the stories are on Italian subjects, and many from Bandello, who was soon translated into French. The last tale, the Penance of Don Diego on the Pyrenean mountains for the love of Genivera la blonde, containing some metrical inscriptions, is in Don Quixote, and was versified in the octave stanza apparently from Fenton's publication, by R. L. in 1596, at the end of a set of sonnets called DIELLA
"DIELLA, Certaine Sonnets adioy
ing to the amorous poeme of Dom Diego and Gineura. By R. L. Gentleman.
Ben balla á chi fortu
a suona.
At London, Printed for Henry Olney, &c. 1596."
16mo. The sonnets are twenty-eight in number.
.
Fenton was a translator of other books from the modern languages. He translated into English the twenty books of Guicciardin's History of Italy, which he dedicated to queen Elisabeth from his apartment near the Tower, the seventh day of January, 1578
I observe here, that there is a receipt from T. Marshe for printing the
"Storye of Italie,"
Jun. 24, 1560. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 62. b.
. The predominating love of narrative, more especially when the exploits of a favorite nation were the subject, rendered this book very popular; and it came recommended to the public by a title page which promised almost the entertainment of a romance,
"The Historie of Guiccardin, containing the warres of Italie, and other partes, continued for many yeares under sundry kings and princes, together with the variations of the same, Diuided into twenty bookes, &c. Reduced into English by Geffrey Fenton.
Mon heur viendra
For Norton, with his rebus, Lond, 1579. Fol. There were other editions, in 1599. 1618. Fol.
."
It is probably to this book that Gabriel Harvey, Spenser's Hobbinol, alludes, where he says,
"Even Guiccardin's siluer Historie, and Ariosto's golden Cantos, growe out of request, and the countess of Pembrooke's Arcadia is not greene enough for queasie stomaches but they must haue Greene's Arcadia, &c
Foure Letters, &c. Lond. 1592. 4to. LETT. 3. p. 29.
."
Among his versions are also, the GOLDEN EPISTLES of Antonio de Guevara, the secretary of Charles the fifth, and now a favorite author, addressed to Anne countess of Oxford, from his chamber at the Dominican or black friars, the fourth of February, 1575
Lond. 1577. 4to. His FAMILIAR EPISTLES were translated by Edward Hellowes
groome of the Leashe,
1574. 4to. Fenton also translated into English, a Latin DISPUTATION held at the Sorbonne, Lond. 1571. 4to. And, an Epistle about obedience to the pastors of the Flemish church at Antwerp, from Antonio de Carro, Lond. 1570. 8vo. His Discourses on the civil wars in France under Charles the ninth, in 1569, are entered with Harrison and Bishop. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 191. a. There was an Edward Fenton, who translated from various authors.
"Certaine secretes and wonders of nature, &c."
Dedicated to lord Lumley, 1569. 4to. For H. Binneman. See Fuller, WORTH. ii. 318. MSS. Ashmol. 816.
. I apprehend him to be the same sir Jeffrey Fenton, who is called
"a privie counsellor in Ireland to the queen,"
in the BLAZON OF JEALOUSIE written in 1615
Lond. 1615. 4to. See fol. 60. 63.
, by R. T. the translator of Ariosto's Satires, in 1608
For R. Jackson.
. He died in 1608
Ware, 137. There is an old Art of English Poetry by one Fenton.
.
With Fenton's DISCOURSES may be mentioned also,
"Foure straunge lamentable tragicall histories translated out of Frenche into Englishe by Robert Smythe,"
and published, as I apprehend, in 1577
Licenced to Hugh Jackson, Jul. 30. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 142. a. I have never
een a work by Tarleton the player, licenced to J. Charlewood, Feb. 5, 1577.
"Tarketib's TRAGICALL TREATISES conteyninge sundrie discourses and pretie conceiptes both in prose and verse."
Ibid. 145. a.
.
A work of a similar nature appeared in 1571, by Thoms Fortescue. It is divided into four books, and called
"The FOREST or collection of Historyes no lesse profitable, than pleasant and necessary, doone out of Frenche into English by Thomas Fortescue
Lond. 4to. Bl. Lett. A second edition was printed in 1576. For John Day, 4to. It is licenced with W. Jones in 1570, and with the authority of the bishop of London. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 205. b. Again with Danter, Nov. 8, 1596. REGISTR. C. fol. 15. a. Similar to this is the
"PARAGON of pleasaunt Historyes, or the this Nutt was new cracked, contayninge a discourse of a noble kynge and his three sonnes,"
with Ponsonby, Jan. 20. 1595. Ibid. fol. 7. a.
."
It is dedicated to John Fortescue esquire, keeper of the wardrobe. The genius of these tales may be discerned from their history. The book is said to have been written in Spanish by Petro de Messia, then translated into Italian, thence into French by Claude Cruget a citizen of Paris, and lastly from French into English by Fortescue. But many of the stories seem to have originally migrated from Italy into Spain
Among many others that might be mentioned I think is the romance or novel entitled,
"A MARGARITE OF AMERICA. By T. Lodge. Printed for John Busbie, &c. 1596."
4to. Bl. Lett. This piece has never yet been recited among Lodge's works. In the Dedication to Lady Russell, and Pre
ace to the
gentlemen rea
ers,
he says, that being at sea four years before with M. Cavendish, he found this history in the Spanish tongue in the lib
ary of the Jesuits
f Sanctum; and that he translated it in the ship, in passing through the Straits of Magellan. Many sonnets and metrical inscriptions are intermixed. One of the sonnets is said to be in imitation of Dolce the Italian. SIGNAT. C. Again, SIGNAT. K 3. About the walls of the chamber of prince Protomachus,
"in curious imagerie were the Seuen Sages of Greece, set forth with their seuerall vertues eloquently discouered in Arabicke verses."
The arch of the bed is of ebonie sett with pretious stones, and depictured with the stages of man's life from infancy to oldage. SIGNAT. B 3. The chamber of Margarite, in the same castle, is much more sumptuous. Over the portico were carved in the whitest marble, Diana blushing at the sudden intrusion of Acteon, and her
"naked Nymphes, who with one hand couering their owne secret pleasures, with blushes, with the other cast a beautifull vaile ouer their mistresse daintie nakedness. The two pillars of the doore were beautified with the two Cupides of Anacreon, which well-shaped Modestie often seemed to whip, le
t they should growe ouer-wanton."
Within,
"All the chaste Ladies of the world inchased out of siluer, looking through faire mirrours of chrisolites, carbuncles, sapphires, and greene emeraults, fixed their eyes on the picture of Eternitie, &c."
In the tape
try, was the story of Orpheus, &c. SIGN. B 3. A sonnet of
"that excellent poet of Itali
Lodouico Pascale,"
is introduced, SIGNAT. L. Another,
"in imitation of Martelli, hauing the right nature of an Italian melancholie,"
SIGNAT. L. He mentions
"the sweet conceites of Philip du Portes, whose poeticall writings being alreadie for the most part Englished, and ordinarilie in euerie man's hands,"
are not here translated. SIGNAT. L 2.
I think I have also seen in Italian
"The straunge and wonderfull aduentures of Simonides a gentilman Spaniarde. Conteyning uerie pleasaunte discourse. Gathered as well for the recreation of our noble yong gentilmen as our honourable courtly ladies. By Barnabe Riche gentilman. London, for Robert Walley, 1581."
Bl. Lett. 4to. Much poetry is intermixed. A recommendatory poem in the octave stanza is prefixed by Lodge, who says he corrected the work, and has now laid his muse aside. There is another in the same stanza by R. W. But it would be endless to pursue publications of this sort. I only add, that Barnabe Riche abovementioned wrote in prose THE HONESTIE OF THIS AGE, &c. Lond. 1615. 4to, A curious picture of the times. Also
"the PATHWAY TO MILITARY PRACTICE, with a kalendar for the ymbattallinge of men, newly written by Barnabie Riche,"
entered to R. Walley, 22 March, 1586. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 216. b. Riche in the title-page to his IRISH HUBBUB (Lond. 1617. 4to.) call
that book his twenty-sixth. I have seen most of them.
.
The learned doctor Farmer has restored to the public notice a compilation of this class, unmentioned by any typographic annalist, and entitled,
"The ORATOR, handling a hundred seuerall Discourses in form of Declamations: some of the Arguments being drawne from Titus Liuius, and other ancient writers, the rest of the author's own Invention. Part of which are of matters happened in our age. Written in French by Alexander Silvayn, and Englished by L. P. [or "Lazarus Pilot.] London, printed by Adam Islip, 1596
I know not exactly what connection this piece may have with an entry, under the year 1590, to Aggas and Wo
fe,
"Certen tragicall cases conteyninge Lv Hystories with their seu
rall declamations both accusative and defensive, written in ffrenshe by Alexander Vandenbrygt alias Silvan, translated into Englishe by R. A."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 263. b. Perhaps R. A. is Robert Allot, the publisher of ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS in 1600. See supr. p. 280. And add, that he has some Latin hexameters prefixed to Christopher Middleton's LEGEND OF DUKE HUMPHREY, Lond. 1600. 4to.
."
The subject of the ninety-fifth DECLAMATION is,
Of a Jew who would for his debt haue a pound of the flesh of a Christian
See fol. 401.
. We have here the incident of the BOND, in Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE, which yet may be traced to a much higher source
See supr. DISS. GEST. ROMAN. lxxxiii.
. This Alexander Sylvain compiled in French
Epitomes de cent Histoires Tragiques partie extraictes des Actes des Romains et autres,
a work licenced to Islip to be translated into English in 1596
Jul. 15. REGISTR. C. fol. 12. a.
. Perhaps the following passage in Burton's MELANCHOLY, may throw light on these DECLAMATIONS.
"In the Low Countries, before these warres, they had many solemne feastes, playes, challenges, artillery [archery] gardens, colledges of rimers, rhetoricians, poets, and to this day, such places are curiously maintained in Amsterdam. In Italy, they have solemne Declamations of certaine select yonge gentlemen in Florence, like these reciters in old Rome, &c
P. ii. §. 2. p. 229. edit. 1624.
."
In 1582, a suite of tales was published by George Whetstone, a sonnet-writer of some rank, and one of the most
passionate among us to bewaile the perplexities of love
Meres, ubi supr. fol. 284. W. Webbe, a cotemporary, calls him
"A man singula
ly well skilled in this faculty of poetry."
, under the title of HEPTAMERON, and containing some novels from Cinthio
This title adopted from the queen of Navarre was popular. There is entered to Jones, Jan. 11, 1581,
"An HEPTAMERON of civill discourses vnto the Christmas exercises of sundry well courted gentlemen and gentlewomen."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol 185. b. I suppose a book of tales. There is also, August 8, 1586, to E. White,
"MORANDO, the TRITAMERON OF LOV
."
Ibid. fol. 209. b.
. Shakespeare, in MEASURE FOR MEASURE, has fallen into great improprieties by founding his plot on a history in the HEPTAMERON, imperfectly copied or translated from Cinthio's original
See Whetstone's RIGHT EXCELLENT AND FAMOUS HISTORYE OF PROMOS AND CASSANDRA, Divided into Commical DISCOURSES, printed in 1578. Entered to R. Jones, 31 Jul. 1578. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 150. b.
. Many faults in the conduct of incidents for which Shakespeare's judgement is arraigned, often flowed from the casual book of the day, whose mistakes he implicitly followed without looking for a better model, and from a too hasty acquie
cence in the present accommodation. But without a book of this sort, Shakespeare would often have been at a loss for a subject. Yet at the same time, we look with wonder at the structures which he forms, and even without labour or deliberation, of the basest materials
In the Prologue to a comedy called CUPID'S WHIRLIGIG,
As it hath bene sundrie times acted by the Chil
ren of his Maiesties Reuel
,
written by E. S. and printed in quarto by T. Creede in 1616, perhaps before, an oblique stroke seems intended at some of Shakespeare's plots.
Our author'
pen loues not to swimme in blood,
He dips no inke from oute blacke Acheron:
Nor crosses seas to get a forraine plot.—
Nor doth he touch the falls of mighty kings,
No ancient hystorie, no shepherd's love,
No statesman's life, &c.
He blames some other dramatic writers for their plots of heathen gods. So another, but who surely had forgot Shakespeare, in PASQUI
L'S MADCAPPE'S MESSAGE, p. 11. Lond. 1600. Printed by V. S. 4to.
Go, bid the poets studdie better matter,
Than Mars and Venus in a tragedie.
.
Ames recites a large collection of novels in two volumes, dedicated to sir George Howard master of the armory, and printed for Nicholas England in 1567
Pag. 328.
. I have never seen them, but presume they are translations from Boccace, Cinthio, and Bandello
Cont. 856 leaves
8vo.
. In 1589, was printed the CHAOS OF HISTORYES
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 246. a. Jul. 28, to Abell Jeffes.
. And in 1563,
"A boke called Certaine noble storyes contaynynge rare and worthy matter
To Berys. REGISTR. A. fol. 89. b. I have here thrown together many pieces of the same sort, before 1585, from the registers of the Stationers. Mar. 10
1594, to T. Creede,
"MOTHER REDD-CAPPE her last will and testament, conteynyng sundrye conceipted and pleasant tales furnished with muche varyeti
to move delighte."
REGISTR. B. fol. 130. a.—Nov. 3
1576, to H. Bynneman,
"MERY TALES, wittye questions, and quicke answers."
Ibid fol. 135. b.—April 2, 1577, to R. Jones,
"A FLORISHE UPON FANCIE, as gallant a glose of suche a triflinge a texte as euer was written, compiled by N. B. gent. To which are a
nexe
manie pretie pamphlets for pleasaunte heades to passe away idell time withall compiled by the same author."
Ibid. fol. 138. b. And by the same author, perhaps Nicholas Breton, Jun. 1, 1577, to Watkins, afterwards T. Dawson,
"The woo
kes o
a yong witte truste up, with a FARDELL of pretie fantasies pro
itable to yong poets, compiled by N. B. gent."
Ibid. fol. 139. b.—Jun. 5, 1577, to R. Jones,
"A HANDEFULL OF HIDDEN S
CRETS, conteyninge therein certayne Sonnettes and other pleasaunte devises, pickt out of the closet of sundrie worthie writers, and collected by R. Williams."
[N. B. This is otherwise entitled, The GALLERY OF GALLANT INUENTIONS.] Ibid. fol. 140. a.—Jun. 23
1584, to T. Hacke
, two books,
"A DIALL for daintie darlings,"
and
"the B
NQUET of daintie conceipts."
Ibid. fol. 200. b.—
"The parlour of pleasaunte delyghtes,"
to Yarret James, Jan. 13, 1580. Ibid. fol. 177. b.—
"A ballad of the traiterous and vnbrideled crueltye of one Lucio a knyght executed ouer Eriphile daughter to Hortensia Castilion of Genoway in Italy,"
to H. Carre, Sept. 3, 1580. Ibid. fol. 171. b.—
"The deceipts in loue discoursed in a Comedie of ij Italyan gentlemen and translated into Engli
she,"
to S. Waterson, Nov. 10, 1584. Ibid. fol. 202. a. Most of these pieces I have seen: and although perhaps they do not all exactly coincide with the class of books pointed out in the text, they illustrate the general subject of this
ection.
."
These pieces are perhaps to be catalogued in the same class.
In the year 1590, sir James Harrington, who will occur again in his place as an original writer, exhibited an English version of Ariosto's ORLANDO FURIOSO
At least in that year, Feb. 26, was entered to Richard Field, under the hands of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London,
"A booke enti
uled John Harrington's Orlando Furioso, &c."
REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 271. b. But there is entered to Cuthbert Burbye, to be printed by Danter, May 28, 1594,
"The Historie o
Orlando Furioso."
Ibid. fol. 306. b. See also fol. 303. a. And Ariosto's story of Rogero and Rhodomont, translated from the French of Philip de Portes, by G. M. [Gervis Markham] is entered to N. Linge, Sept. 15, 1598. Ibid. C. fol. 41. b.
: which, although executed without spirit or accuracy, unanimated and incorrect, enriched our poetry by a communication of new stores of fiction
nd imagination, both of the romantic and comic species, of Gothic machinery and familiar manners.
Fairfax is commonly supposed to be the first translator of Tasso. But in 1593, was licenced
"A booke called Godfrey of Bolloign an heroycall poem of S. Torquato Tasso, Englished by R. E. esquire
To Christopher Hunt, Jan. 25. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 304. b. The same version of T
sso is again entered Nov. 22, 1599. REGISTR. C. fol. 54. a. Among Rawlinson's manuscripts are two fair copies in large folio of a translation of Tasso in octave stanzas, by sir G. T. An inserted note says this is George Turberville, the poet of queen Elisabeth's reign
and that he was knighted by the queen while ambassador.
."
In consequence of this version, appeared the next year
"An enterlude entituled Godfrey of Bolloigne with the Conquest of Jerusalem
To John Danter, Jun. 19. Ibid. fol.
09. b.
."
Hall in his Satires published in 1597, enumerates among the favorite stories of his time, such as, Saint George, Brutus, king Arthur, and Charlemagne,
What were his knights did SALEM'S SIEGE maintayne,
To which he immediately adds Ariosto's Orlando
B. vi. Sat. i.
.
By means of the same vehicle, translation from Italian books, a precise and systematical knowledge of the antient heathen theology seems to have been more effectually circulated among the people in the reign of queen Elisabeth. Among others, in 1599 was published,
"THE FOUNTAINE OF ANTIENT FICTION, wherein is depictured the images and statues of the gods of the antients with their proper and particular expositions. Done into Englishe by Richard Linche gentleman
B. vi. Sat. i.
.
Tempe è figliuola di verità.
London, imprinted by Valentine Sims, 1599
In quarto. From some other book of the kind, says John Marston in his SATYRES, Lond. for E. Matts, 1593. 12mo. SAT. ii.
Reach me some poets Index that will shew
IMAGINES DEORUM. Booke of Epithites,
Natalis Comes, thou, I know, recites,
And mak'st anatomie of poesie.
With this might have been bound up
"A treasorie and storehouse of similis,"
for T. Creede, 1600.
."
This book, or one of the same sort, is censured in a puritanical pamphlet, written the same year, by one H. G. a
painfull minister of God's word in Kent,
as the
Spawne of Italian Gallimawfry,
as tending to corrupt the pure and
unidolatrous
worship of the one God, and as one of the
deadly snares
of popish deception
In 1599 was published by G. Potter,
"A commendacion of true poetry and a discommendacion of all baudy, pybald, and paganizde [paganised] poets, &c."
See REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 55. b.
. In the history of the puritans, their apprehensions that the reformed faith was yet in danger from paganism, are not sufficiently noted. And it should be remembered, that a PANTHEON had before appeared; rather indeed with a view of exposing the heathen superstitions, and of shewing their conformity to the papistic, than of illustrating the religious fable of antiquity. But the scope and design of the writer will appear from his title, which from its archness alone deserves to be inserted.
"The GOLDEN BOOKE OF THE LEADEN GODDES, wherein is described the vayne imaginations of the heathen pagans, and counterfeit christians. With a description of their severall tables, what each of their pictures signified
In quarto, for Thomas Marshe, 1577. It contains only 72 pages. Licenced Aug. 26, 1577. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 142. b.
."
The writer, however, doctor Stephen Batman, had been domestic chaplain to archbishop Parker, and is better known by his general chronicle of prodigies called Batman's DOOM
Lond. 1581. 4to.
. He was also the last translator of the Gothic Pliny, BARTHOLOMEUS DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM, and collected more than a thousand manuscripts for archbishop Parker's library.
This enquiry might be much farther enlarged and extended. But let it be sufficient to observe here in general, that the best stories of the early and original Italian novelists, either by immediate translation, or through the mediation of Spanish, French, or Latin versions, by paraphrase, abridgement, imitation, and often under the disguise of licentious innovations of names, incidents, and characters, appeared in an English dress, before the close of the reign of Elisabeth, and for the most part, even before the publication of the first volume of Belleforrest's grand repository of tragical narratives, a compilation from the Italian writers, in 1583. But the CENT HISTOIRES TRAGIQUES of Belleforrest himself, appear to have been translated soon afterwards
See, under 1596, REGISTR. STATION. C.
. In the meantime, it must be remembered, that many translations of Tales from the modern languages were licenced to be printed, but afterwards suppressed by the interest of the puritans. It appears from the register of the Stationers, that among others, in the year 1619
"The DECAMERON of Mr. John Boccace Florentine,"
was revoked by a sudden inhibition of Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury
REGISTR. C. fol. 311. a.
. But not only the clamours of the Calvinists, but caprice and ignorance, perhaps partiality, seem to have had some share in this business of licencing books. The rigid arbiters of the press who condemned Boccace in the gross, could not with propriety spare all the licentious cantos of Ariosto. That writer's libertine friar, metamorphosis of Richardetto, Alcina and Rogero, Anselmo, and host's tale of Astolfo, are shocking to common decency. When the four or five first books of AMADIS DE GAUL in French were delivered to Wolfe to be translated into English and to be printed, in the year 1592, the signature of bishop Aylmer was affixed to every book of the original
RE
ISTR. STATION. B. fol.
86. a. Hence D
kker's familiarity of allusion, in The VNTRUSSING OF THE HUMOROUS PO
"Farewell my
d
Gaule!"
Lond. 1602. 4to. Signat. D 2.
. The romance of PALMERIN OF ENGLAND was licenced to be printed in 1580, on condition, that if any thing reprehensible was found in the book after publication, all the copies should be committed to the flames
To John Charlewood, Feb. 13. Ibid. fol. 177.
.
. Notwithstanding, it is remarkable, that in 1587, a new edition of Boccace's DECAMERON in Italian
Two or three other Italian book
,
proof of the popularity of the language, were allowed to b
printed in 1588. Ibid. fol. 233. b. fol. 234
b.
by Wolfe, should have been permitted by archbishop Whitgift
Sept. 13. Together with the Histori
of Chi
oth in Itali
n a
d English.
: and the English AMOROUS FIAMETTA of Boccace, abovementioned, in the same year by the bishop of London
Ibid. Sept. 18.
.
But in the year 1599, the Hall of the Stationers underwent as great a purgation as was carried on in Don Quixote's library. Marston's Pygmalion, Marlowe's Ovid, the Satires of Hall and Marston, the Epigrams of Davies and others, and the CALTHA POETARUM, were ordered for immediate conflagration, by the prelates Whitgift and Bancroft
There are also r
cited,
"The Shadowe of Truth
in Epigram
and S
tires. Sn
ing Satyres. The book
againste women. The xv ioyes of marriage."
. By the same authority, all the books of Nash and Gabriel Harvey were anathematised; and, like thieves and outlaws, were ordered
to be taken wheresoever they maye be found.
It was decreed, that no S
tires of Epigrams should be printed for the future. No plays were to be printed without the inspection and permission of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, nor any
Englishe Historyes,
I suppose novels and romances, without the sanction of the Privy-council. Any pieces of this nature, unlicenced, or now at large and wandering abroad, were to be diligently sought, recalled, and delivered over to the ecclesiastical arm at London-house
REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 316. a. b.
.
If any apology should be thought necessary for so prolix and intricate an examination of these compositions, I shelter this section under the authority of a polite and judicious Roman writer,
"Sit apud te honos ANTIQUITATI, sit ingentibus factis, sit FABULIS quoque
Plin. EPIST. viii. 24.
."
SECT. XLIII.
ENOUGH has been opened of the reign of queen Elisabeth, to afford us an opportunity of forming some general reflections, tending to establish a full estimate of the genius of the poetry of that reign; and which, by drawing conclusions from what has been said, and directing the reader to what he is to expect, will at once be recapitulatory and preparatory. Such a survey perhaps might have stood with more propriety as an introduction to this reign. But it was first necessary to clear the way, by many circumstantial details, and the regular narration of those particulars, which lay the foundation of principles, and suggest matter for discursive observation. My sentiments on this subject shall therefore compose the concluding section of the present volume.
The age of queen Elisabeth is commonly called the golden age of English poetry. It certainly may not improperly be styled the most POETICAL age of these annals.
Among the great features which strike us in the poetry of this period, are the predominancy of fable, of fiction, and fancy, and a predilection for interesting adventures and pathetic events. I will endeavour to assign and explain the cause of this characteristic distinction, which may chiefly be referred to the following principles, sometimes blended, and sometimes operating singly: The revival and vernacular versions of the classics, the importation and translation of Italian novels, the visionary reveries or refinements of false philosophy, a degree of superstition sufficient for the purpose
of poetry, the adoption of the machineries of romance, and the frequency and improvements of allegoric exhibition in the popular spectacles.
When the corruptions and impostures of popery were abolished, the fashion of cultivating the Greek and Roman learning became universal: and the literary character was no longer appropriated to scholars by profession, but assumed by the nobility and gentry. The ecclesiastics had found it their interest to keep the languages of antiquity to themselves, and men were eager to know what had been so long injuriously concealed. Truth propagates truth, and the mantle of mystery was removed not only from religion but from literature. The laity, who had now been taught to assert their natural privileges, became impatient of the old monopoly of knowledge, and demanded admittance to the usurpations of the clergy. The general curiosity for new discoveries, heightened either by just or imaginary ideas of the treasures contained in the Greek and Roman writers, excited all persons of leisure and fortune to study the classics. The pedantry of the present age was the politeness of the last. An accurate comprehension of the phraseology and peculiarities of the antient poets, historians, and orators, which yet seldom went farther than a kind of technical erudition, was an indispensable and almost the principal object in the circle of a gentleman's education. Every young lady of fashion was carefully instituted in classical letters: and the daughter of a duchess was taught, not only to distil strong waters, but to construe Greek. Among the learned females of high distinction, queen Elisabeth herself was the most conspicuous. Roger Ascham, her preceptor, speaks with rapture of her astonishing progress in the Greek nouns; and declares with no small degree of triumph, that during a long residence at Windsor-castle, she was accustomed to read more Greek in a day, than
"some prebendary of that church did Latin, in one week
SCHOOLEMASTER. p
19. b. edit. 1589. 4to.
."
And although perhaps a princess looking out words in a lexicon, and writing down hard phrases from Plutarch's Lives, may be thought at present a more incompatible and extraordinary character, than a canon of Windsor understanding no Greek and but little Latin, yet Elisabeth's passion for these acquisitions was then natural, and resulted from the genius and habitudes of her age.
The books of antiquity being thus familiarised to the great, every thing was tinctured with antient history and mythology. The heathen gods, although discountenanced by the Calvinists on a suspicion of their tending to cherish and revive a spirit of idolatry, came into general vogue. When the queen paraded through a country-town, almost every pageant was a pantheon. When she paid a visit at the house of any of her nobility, at entering the hall she was saluted by the Penates, and conducted to her privy-chamber by Mercury. Even the pastry-cooks were expert mythologists. At dinner, select transformations of Ovid's metamorphoses were exhibited in confectionary: and the splendid iceing of an immense historic plumb-cake, was embossed with a delicious basso-relievo of the destruction of Troy. In the afternoon, when she condescended to walk in the garden, the lake was covered with Tritons and Nereids: the pages of the family were converted into Wood-nymphs who peeped from every bower: and the footmen gamboled over the lawns in the figure of Satyrs. I speak it without designing to insinuate any unfavourable suspicions, but it seems difficult to say, why Elisabeth's virginity should have been made the theme of perpetual and excessive panegyric: nor does it immediately appear, that there is less merit or glory in a married than a maiden queen. Yet, the next morning, after sleeping in a room hung with the tapestry of the voyage of Eneas, when her majesty hunted in the Park, she was met by Diana, who pronouncing our royal prude to be the brightest paragon of unspotted chastity, invited her to groves free from the intrusions of Acteon. The truth is, she was so profusely flattered for this virtue, because it was esteemed the characteristical ornament of the heroines, as fantastic honour was the chief pride of the champions, of the old barbarous romance. It was in conformity to the sentiments of chivalry, which still continued in vogue, that she was celebrated for chastity: the compliment, however, was paid in a classical allusion.
Queens must be ridiculous when they would appear as women. The softer attractions of sex vanish on the throne. Elisabeth sought all occasions of being extolled for her beauty, of which indeed in the prime of her youth she possessed but a small share, whatever might have been her pretensions to absolute virginity. Notwithstanding her exaggerated habits of dignity and ceremony, and a certain affectation of imperial severity, she did not perceive this ambition of being complimented for beauty, to be an idle and unpardonable levity, totally inconsistent with her high station and character. As she conquered all nations with her arms, it matters not what were the triumphs of her eyes. Of what consequence was the complexion of the mistress of the world? Not less vain of her person than her politics, this stately coquet, the guardian of the protestant faith, the terror of the sea, the mediatrix of the factions of France, and the scourge of Spain, was infinitely mortified, if an embassador, at the first audience, did not tell her she was the finest woman in Europe. No negociation succeeded unless she was addressed as a goddess. Encomiastic harangues drawn from this topic, even on the supposition of youth and beauty, were surely superfluous, unsuitable, and unworthy; and were offered and received with an equal impropriety. Yet when she rode through the streets of the city of Norwich, Cupid, at the command of the mayor and aldermen, advancing from a groupe of gods who had left Olympus to grace the procession, gave her a golden arrow, the most effective weapon of his well-furnished quiver, which under the influence of such irresistible charms was sure to wound the most obdurate heart.
"A gift, says honest Hollinshed, which her majesty, now verging to her fiftieth year, received very thankfullie
CHRON. iii. f. 1297.
."
In one of the fulsome interludes at court, where she was present, the singing-boys of her chapel presented the story of the three rival goddesses on mount Ida, to which her majesty was ingeniously added as a fourth: and Paris was arraigned in form for adjudging the golden apple to Venus, which was due to the queen alone.
This inundation of classical pedantry soon infected our poetry. Our writers, already trained in the school of fancy, were suddenly dazzled with these novel imaginations, and the divinities and heroes of pagan antiquity decorated every composition. The perpetual allusions to antient fable were often introduced without the least regard to propriety. Shakespeare's Mrs. Page, who is not intended in any degree to be a learned or an affected lady, laughing at the cumbersome courtship of her corpulent lover Falstaffe, says,
"I had rather be a giantess and lie under mount Pelion
MERRY W. Act. ii. Sc. i.
."
This familiarity with the pagan story was not, however, so much owing to the prevailing study of the original authors, as to the numerous English versions of them, which were consequently made. The translations of the classics, which now employed every pen, gave a currency and a celebrity to these fancies, and had the effect of diffusing them among the people. No sooner were they delivered from the pale of the scholastic languages, than they acquired a general notoriety. Ovid's metamorphoses just translated by Golding, to instance no farther, disclosed a new world of fiction, even to the illiterate. As we had now all the antient fables in English, learned allusions, whether in a poem or a pageant, were no longer obscure and unintelligible to common readers and common spectators. And here we are led to observe, that at this restoration of the classics, we were first struck only with their fabulous inventions. We did not attend to their regularity of design and justness of sentiment. A rude age, beginning to read these writers, imitated their extravagancies, not their natural beauties. And these, like other novelties, were pursued to a blameable excess.
I have before given a sketch of the introduction of classical stories, in the splendid show exhibited at the coronation of queen Anne Boleyn. But that is a rare and a premature instance: and the pagan fictions are there complicated with the barbarisms of the catholic worship, and the doctrines of scholastic theology. Classical learning was not then so widely spread, either by study or translation, as to bring these learned spectacles into fashion, to frame them with sufficient skill, and to present them with propriety.
Another capital source of the poetry peculiar to this period, consisted in the numerous translations of Italian tales into English. These narratives, not dealing altogether in romantic inventions, but in real life and manners, and in artful arrangements of fictitious yet probable events, afforded a new gratification to a people which yet retained their antient relish for taletelling, and became the fashionable amusement of all who professed to read for pleasure. They gave rise to innumerable plays and poems, which would not otherwise have existed; and turned the thoughts of our writers to new inventions of the same kind. Before these books became common, affecting situations, the combination of incident, and the pathos of catastrophe, were almost unknown. Distress, especially that arising from the conflicts of the tender passion, had not yet been shewn in its most interesting forms. It was hence our poets, particularly the dramatic, borrowed ideas of a legitimate plot, and the complication of facts necessary to constitute a story either of the comic or tragic species. In proportion as knowledge encreased, genius had wanted subjects and materials. These pieces usurped the place of legends and chronicles. And although the old historical songs of the minstrels contained much bold adventure, heroic enterprise, and strong touches of rude delineation, yet they failed in that multiplication and disposition of circumstances, and in that description of characters and events approaching nearer to truth and reality, which were demanded by a more discerning and curious age. Even the rugged features of the original Gothic romance were softened by this sort of reading: and the Italian pastoral, yet with some mixture of the kind of incidents described in Heliodorus's Ethiopic history now newly translated, was engrafted on the feudal manners in Sydney's ARCADIA.
But the reformation had not yet destroyed every delusion, nor disinchanted all the strong holds of superstition. A few dim characters were yet legible in the mouldering creed of tradition. Every goblin of ignorance did not vanish at the first glimmerings of the morning of science. Reason suffered a few demons still to linger, which she chose to retain in her service under the guidance of poetry. Men believed, or were willing to believe, that spirits were yet hovering around, who brought with them
airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,
that the ghost was duely released from his prison of torment at the sound of the curfue, and that fairies imprinted mysterious circles on the turf by moonlight. Much of this credulity was even consecrated by the name of science and profound speculation. Prospero had not yet
broken and buried his staff,
nor
drowned his book deeper than did ever plummet sound.
It was now that the alchymist, and the judicial astrologer, conducted his occult operations by the potent intercourse of some preternatural being, who came obsequious to his call, and was bound to accomplish his severest services, under certain conditions, and for a limited duration of time. It was actually one of the pretended feats of these fantastic philosophers, to evoke the queen of the Fairies in the solitude of a gloomy grove, who, preceded by a sudden rustling of the leaves, appeared in robes of transcendent lustre
Lilly's LIFE, p. 151.
. The Shakespeare of a more instructed and polished age, would not have given us a magician darkening the sun at noon, the sabbath of the witches, and the cauldron of incantation.
Undoubtedly most of these notions were credited and entertained in a much higher degree, in the preceding periods. But the arts of composition had not then made a sufficient progress, nor would the poets of those periods have managed them with so much address and judgement. We were now arrived at that point, when the national credulity, chastened by reason, had produced a sort of civilized superstition, and left a set of traditions, fanciful enough for poetic decoration, and yet not too violent and chimerical for common sense. Hobbes, although no friend to this doctrine, observes happily,
"In a good poem both judgement and fancy are required; but the fancy must be more eminent, because they please for the EXTRAVAGANCY, but ought not to displease by INDISCRETION
LEVIATH. Part i. ch. viii.
."
In the mean time the Gothic romance, although somewhat shook by the classical fictions, and by the tales of Boccace and Bandello, still maintained its ground: and the daring machineries of giants, dragons, and inchanted castles, borrowed from the magic storehouse of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso, began to be employed by the epic muse. These ornaments have been censured by the bigotry of precise and servile critics, as abounding in whimsical absurdities, and as unwarrantable deviations from the practice of Homer and Virgil. The author of AN ENQUIRY INTO THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF HOMER is willing to allow a fertility of genius, and a felicity of expression, to Tasso and Ariosto; but at the same time complains, that,
"quitting life, they betook themselves to aerial beings and Utopian characters, and filled their works with Charms and Visions, the modern Supplements of the Marvellous and Sublime. The best poets copy nature, and give it such as they find it. When once they lose sight of this, they write false, be their talents ever so great
SECT. V. p. 69.
."
But what shall we say of those Utopians, the Cyclopes and the Lestrigons in the Odyssey? The hippogrif of Ariosto may be opposed to the harpies of Virgil. If leaves are turned into ships in the Orlando, nymphs are transformed into ships in the Eneid. Cacus is a more unnatural savage than Caliban. Nor am I convinced, that the imagery of Ismeno's necromantic forest in the Gierusalemme Liberata, guarded by walls and battlements of fire, is less marvellous and sublime, than the leap of Juno's horses in the Iliad, celebrated by Longinus for its singular magnificence and dignity
IL
AD, V. 770. Longin. §. ix.
. On the principles of this critic, Voltaire's Henriad may be placed at the head of the modern epic. But I forbear to anticipate my opinion of a system, which will more properly be considered, when I come to speak of Spenser. I must, however, observe here, that the Gothic and pagan fictions were now frequently blended and incorporated. The Lady of the Lake floated in the suite of Neptune before queen Elisabeth at Kenilworth; Ariel assumes the semblance of a sea-nymph, and Hecate, by an easy association, conducts the rites of the weird sisters in Macbeth.
Allegory had been derived from the religious dramas into our civil spectacles. The masques and pageantries of the age of Elisabeth were not only furnished by the heathen divinities, but often by the virtues and vices impersonated, significantly decorated, accurately distinguished by their proper types, and represented by living actors. The antient symbolical shews of this sort began now to lose their old barbarism and a mixture of religion, and to assume a degree of poetical elegance and precision. Nor was it only in the conformation of particular figures that much fancy was shewn, but in the contexture of some of the fables or devices presented by groupes of ideal personages. These exhibitions quickened creative invention, and reflected back on poetry what poetry had given. From their familiarity and public nature, they formed a national taste for allegory; and the allegorical poets were now writing to the people. Even romance was turned into this channel. In the Fairy Queen, allegory is wrought upon chivalry, and the feats and figments of Arthur's round table are moralised. The virtues of magnificence and chastity are here personified: but they are imaged with the forms, and under the agency, of romantic knights and damsels. What was an afterthought in Tasso, appears to have been Spenser's premeditated and primary design. In the mean time, we must not confound these moral combatants of the Fairy Queen with some of its other embodied abstractions, which are purely and professedly allegorical.
It may here be added, that only a few critical treatises, and but one ART OF POETRY, were now written. Sentiments and images were not absolutely determined by the canons of composition: nor was genius awed by the consciousness of a future and final arraignment at the tribunal of taste. A certain dignity of inattention to niceties is now visible in our writers. Without too closely consulting a criterion of correctness, every man indulged his own capriciousness of invention. The poet's appeal was chiefly to his own voluntary feelings, his own immediate and peculiar mode of conception. And this freedom of thought was often expressed in an undisguised frankness of diction. A circumstance, by the way, that greatly contributed to give the flowing modulation which now marked the measures of our poets, and which soon degenerated into the opposite extreme of dissonance and asperity. Selection and discrimination were often overlooked. Shakespeare wandered in pursuit of universal nature. The glancings of his eye are from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. We behold him breaking the barriers of imaginary method. In the same scene, he descends from his meridian of the noblest tragic sublimity, to puns and quibbles, to the meanest merriments of a plebeian farce. In the midst of his dignity, he resembles his own Richard the second, the
skipping king,
who sometimes discarding the state of a monarch,
Mingled his royalty with carping fools
FIRST P. HENRY iv. Act iii. Sc. ii.
.
He seems not to have seen any impropriety, in the most abrupt transitions, from dukes to buffoons, from senators to sailors, from counsellors to constables, and from kings to clowns. Like Virgil's majestic oak,
—Quantum vertice ad auras
Aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit
GEOR
. ii. 29
.
.
No Satires, properly so called, were written till towards the latter end of the queen's reign, and then but a few. Pictures drawn at large of the vices of the times, did not suit readers who loved to wander in the regions of artificial manners. The Muse, like the people, was too solemn and reserved, too ceremonious and pedantic, to stoop to common life. Satire is the poetry of a nation highly polished.
The importance of the female character was not yet acknowledged, nor were women admitted into the general commerce of society. The effect of that intercourse had not imparted a comic air to poetry, nor softened the severer tone of our versification with the levities of gallantry, and the familiarities of compliment, sometimes perhaps operating on serious subjects, and impe
ceptibly spreading themselves in the general habits of style and thought. I do not mean to insinuate, that our poetry has suffered from the great change of manners, which this assumption of the gentler
ex, or rather the improved state of female education, has produced, by giving elegance and variety to life, by enlarging the sphere of conversation, and by multiplying the topics and enriching the stores of wit and humour. But I am marking the peculiarities of composition: and my meaning was to suggest, that the absence of so important a circumstance from the modes and constitution of ant
ent life, must have influenced the cotemporary poetry. Of the state of manners among our ancestors respecting this point, many traces remain. Their style of courtship may be collected from the love-dialogues of Hamlet, young Percy, Henry the fifth, and Master Fenton. Their tragic heroines, their Desdemonas and Ophelias, although of so much consequence in the piece, are degraded to the back-ground. In comedy, their ladies are nothing more than MERRY WIVES, plain and chearful matrons, who stand upon the
chariness of their honesty.
In the smaller poems, if a lover praises his mistress, she is complimented in strains neither polite nor pathetic, without elegance and without affection: she is described, not in the address of intelligible yet artful panegyric, not in the real colours, and with the genuine accomplishments, of nature, but as an eccentric ideal being of another system, and as inspiring sentiments equally unmeaning, hyperbolical, and unnatural.
All or most of these circumstances, contributed to give a descriptive, a picturesque, and a figurative cast to the poetical language. This effect appears even in the prose compositions of the reign of Elisabeth. In the subsequent age, prose became the language of poetry.
In the mean time, general knowledge was encreasing with a wide diffusion and a hasty rapidity. Books began to be multiplied, and a variety of the most useful and rational topics had been discussed in our own language. But science had not made too great advances. On the whole, we were now arrived at that period, propitious to the operations of original and true poetry, when the coyness of fancy was not always proof against the approaches of reason, when genius was rather directed than governed by judgement, and when taste and learning had so far only disciplined imagination, as to suffer its excesses to pass without censure or controul, for the sake of the beauties to which they were allied.
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.