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.
VOLUME THE FIRST.
By THOMAS WARTON, B. D. FELLOW of TRINITY COLLEGE OXFORD, and of the SOCIETY of ANTIQUARIES.
LONDON: Printed for, and sold by J. DODSLEY, Pall Mall; J. WALTER, Charing Cross; T. BECKET, Strand; J. ROBSON, New Bond-Street; G. ROBINSON, and J. BEW, Pater-noster-Row; and Messrs. FLETCHER, at Oxford. M. DCC. LXXIV.
TO HIS GRACE GEORGE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, MARQUIS OF BLANDFORD, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER of the GARTER, A JUDGE AND A PATRON OF THE POLITE ARTS, THIS WORK IS MOST HUMBLY INSCRIBED
By his Grace's most obliged, And most obedient Servant, THOMAS WARTON.
PREFACE.
IN an age advanced to the highest degree of refinement, that species of curiosity commences, which is busied in contemplating the progress of social life, in displaying the gradations of science, and in tracing the transitions from barbarism to civility.
That these speculations should become the favourite pursuits, and the fashionable topics, of such a period, is extremely natural. We look back on the savage condition of our ancestors with the triumph of superiority; we are pleased to mark the steps by which we have been raised from rudeness to elegance: and our reflections on this subject are accompanied with a conscious pride, arising in great measure from a tacit comparison of the infinite disproportion between the feeble efforts of remote ages, and our present improvements in knowledge.
In the mean time, the manners, monuments, customs, practices, and opinions of antiquity, by forming so strong a contrast with those of our own times, and by exhibiting human nature and human inventions in new lights, in in unexpected appearances, and in various forms, are objects which forcibly strike a feeling imagination.
Nor does this spectacle afford nothing more than a fruitless gratification to the fancy. It teaches us to set a just estimation on our own acquisitions; and encourages us to cherish that cultivation, which is so closely connected with the existence and the exercise of every social virtue.
On these principles, to develop the dawnings of genius, and to pursue the progress of our national poetry, from a rude origin and obscure beginnings, to its perfection in a polished age, must prove an interesting and instructive investigation. But a history of poetry, for another reason, yet on the same principles, must be more especially productive of entertainment and utility. I mean, as it is an art, whose object is human society: as it has the peculiar merit, in its operations on that object, of faithfully recording the features of the times, and of preserving the most picturesque and expressive representations of manners: and, because the first monuments of composition in every nation are those of the poet, as it possesses the additional advantage of transmitting to posterity genuine delineations of life in its simplest stages. Let me add, that anecdotes of the rudiments of a favourite art will always be particularly pleasing. The more early specimens of poetry must ever amuse, in proportion to the pleasure which we receive from its finished productions.
Much however depends on the execution of such a design, and my readers are to decide in what degree I have done justice to so specious and promising a disquisition. Yet a few more words will not be perhaps improper, in vindication, or rather in explanation, of the manner in which my work has been conducted. I am sure I do not mean, nor can I pretend, to apologise for its defects.
I have chose to exhibit the history of our poetry in a chronological series: not distributing my matter into detached articles, of periodical divisions, or of general heads. Yet I have not always adhered so scrupulously to the regularity of annals, but that I have often deviated into incidental digressions; and have sometimes stopped in the course of my career, for the sake of recapitulation, for the purpose of collecting scattered notices into a single and uniform point of view, for the more exact inspection of a topic which required a separate consideration, or for a comparative survey of the poetry of other nations.
A few years ago, Mr. MASON, with that liberality which ever accompanies true genius, gave me an authentic copy of Mr. POPE'S scheme of a History of English Poetry, in which our poets were classed under their supposed respective schools. The late lamented Mr. GRAY had also projected a work of this kind, and translated some Runic odes for its illustration, now published: but soon relinquishing the prosecution of a design, which would have detained him from his own noble inventions, he most obligingly condescended to favour me with the substance of his plan, which I found to be that of Mr. POPE, considerably enlarged, extended, and improved.
It is vanity in me to have mentioned these communications. But I am apprehensive my vanity will justly be thought much greater, when it shall appear, that in giving the history of English poetry, I have rejected the ideas of men who are its most distinguished ornaments. To confess the real truth, upon examination and experiment, I soon discovered their mode of treating my subject, plausible as it is, and brilliant in theory, to be attended with difficulties and inconveniencies, and productive of embarassment both to the reader and the writer. Like other ingenious systems, it sacrificed much useful intelligence to the observance of arrangement; and in the place of that satisfaction which results from a clearness and a fulness of information, seemed only to substitute the merit of disposition, and the praise of contrivance. The constraint imposed by a mechanical attention to this distribution, appeared to me to destroy that free exertion of research with which such a history ought to be executed, and not easily reconcileable with that complication, variety, and extent of materials, which it ought to comprehend.
The method I have pursued, on one account at least, seems preferable to all others. My performance, in its present form, exhibits without transposition the gradual improvements of our poetry, at the same time that it uniformly represents the progression of our language.
Some perhaps will be of opinion, that these annals ought to have commenced with a view of the Saxon poetry. But besides that a legitimate illustration of that jejune and intricate subject would have almost doubled my labour, that the Saxon language is familiar only to a few learned antiquaries, that our Saxon poems are for the most part little more than religious rhapsodies, and that scarce any compositions remain marked with the native images of that people in their pagan state, every reader that reflects but for a moment on our political establishment must perceive, that the Saxon poetry has no connection with the nature and purpose of my present undertaking. Before the Norman accession, which succeeded to the Saxon government, we were an unformed and an unsettled race. That mighty revolution obliterated almost all relation to the former inhabitants of this island; and produced that signal change in our policy, constitution, and public manners, the effects of which have reached modern times. The beginning of these annals seems therefore to be most properly dated from that era, when our national character began to dawn.
It was recommended to me, by a person eminent in the republic of letters, totally to exclude from these volumes any mention of the English drama. I am very sensible that a just history of our Stage is alone sufficient to form an entire and extensive work; and this argument, which is by no means precluded by the attempt here offered to the public, still remains separately to be discussed, at large, and in form. But as it was professedly my intention to comprise every species of English Poetry, this, among the rest, of course claimed a place in these annals, and necessarily fell into my general design. At the same time, as in this situation it could only become a subordinate object, it was impossible I should examine it with that critical precision and particularity, which so large, so curious, and so important an article of our poetical literature demands and deserves. To have considered it in its full extent, would have produced the unwieldy excrescence of a disproportionate episode: not to have considered it at all, had been an omission, which must detract from the integrity of my intended plan. I flatter myself however, that from evidences hitherto unexplored, I have recovered hints which may facilitate the labours of those, who shall hereafter be inclined to investigate the antient state of dramatic exhibition in this country, with due comprehension and accuracy.
It will probably be remarked, that the citations in the first volume are numerous, and sometimes very prolix. But it should be remembered, that most of these are extracted from antient manuscript poems never before printed, and hitherto but little known. Nor was it easy to illustrate the darker and more distant periods of our poetry, without producing ample specimens. In the mean time, I hope to merit the thanks of the antiquarian, for enriching the stock of our early literature by these new accessions: and I trust I shall gratify the reader of taste, in having so frequently rescued from oblivion the rude inventions and irregular beauties of the heroic tale, or the romantic legend.
The design of the DISSERTATIONS is to prepare the reader, by considering apart, in a connected and comprehensive detail, some material points of a general and preliminary nature, and which could not either with equal propriety or convenience be introduced, at least not so formally discussed, in the body of the book; to establish certain fundamental principles to which frequent appeals might occasionally be made, and to clear the way for various observations arising in the course of my future enquiries.
CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS in the FIRST VOLUME.
SECTION I.
STATE of Language. Prevalence of the French language before and after the Norman conquest. Specimens of Norman-Saxon poems. Legends in verse. Earliest love-song. Alexandrine verses. Satirical pieces. First English metrical romance.
SECTION II.
Satirical ballad in the thirteenth century. The king's poet. Robert of Gloucester. Antient political ballads. Robert of Brunne. The
Brut of England. Le Roman le Rou.
Gests and jestours. Erceldoune and Kendale. Bishop Grosthead. Monks write for the Minstrels. Monastic libraries full of romances. Minstrels admitted into the monasteries.
Regnorum Chronica
and
Mirabilia Mundi.
Early European travellers into the east. Elegy on Edward the first.
SECTION III.
Effects of the increase of tales of chivalry. Rise of chivalry. Crusades. Rise and improvements of Romance. View of the rise of metrical romances. Their currency about the end of the thirteenth century. French minstrels in England. Provencial poets. Popular romances. Dares Phrygius. Guido de Colonna. Fabulous histories of Alexander. Pilpay's Fables.
Roman d'Alexandre.
Alexandrines. Communications between the French and English minstrels. Use of the Provencial writers. Two sorts of troubadours.
SECTION IV.
Examination and specimens of the metrical romance of
Richard the First.
Greek fire. Military machines used in the crusades. Musical instruments of the Saracen armies. Ignorance of geography in the dark ages.
SECTION V.
Specimens of other popular metrical romances which appeared about the end of the thirteenth century. Sir
Guy.
The
Squier of Low Degree.
Sir
Degore. King Robert of Sicily.
The
King of Tars. Ippomedon. La Mort Arthure.
Subjects of antient tapestry.
SECTION VI.
Adam Davie flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Specimens of his poetry. His
Life of Alexander.
Robert Baston's comedies. Anecdotes of the early periods of the English, French, and Italian, drama.
SECTION VII.
Character of the reign of Edward the third. Hampole's
Pricke of Conscience.
SECTION VIII.
Pierce Plowman's Visions.
Antient state and original institution of fairs.
Donat
explained. Antichrist.
SECTION IX.
Pierce the Plowman's Crede.
Constitution and character of the four orders of mendicant friars. Wickliffe.
SECTION X.
Various specimens of alliterative poetry. Antient alliterative hymn to the Virgin Mary.
SECTION XI.
John Barbour's
History of Robert Bruce,
and Blind Harry's
Sir William Wallace.
Historical romances of recent events commence about the close of the fourteenth century. Chiesly composed by heralds. Character and business of antient heralds. Narratives written by them. Froissart's History. His life and character. Retrospective view of manners.
SECTION XII.
General view of the character of Chaucer. Boccacio's
Teseide.
A Greek poem on that subject. Tournaments at Constantinople. Common practice of the Greek exiles to translate the popular Italian poems. Specimens both of the Greek and Italian Theseid. Critical examination of the
Knight's Tale.
SECTION XIII.
The subject of Chaucer continued. His
Romaunt of the Rose.
William of Lorris and John of Meun. Specimens of the French
Le Roman de la Rose.
Improved by Chaucer. William of Lorris excells in allegorical personages. Petrarch dislikes this poem.
SECTION XIV.
Chaucer continued. His
Troilus and Cresseide.
Boccacio's
Troilo.
Sentimental and pathetic strokes in Chaucer's poem.
House of Fame.
A Provencial composition. Analysed. Improperly imitated by Pope.
SECTION XV.
Chaucer continued. The supposed occasion of his
Canterbury Tales
superior to that of Boccacio's
Decameron. Squire's Tale,
Chaucer's capital poem. Origin of its fictions. Story of
Patient Grisilde.
Its origin, popularity, and characteristic excellence. How conducted by Chaucer.
SECTION XVI.
Chaucer continued. Tale of the
Nun's Priest.
Its origin and allusions.
January
and
May.
Its imitations. Licentiousness of Boccacio.
Miller's Tale.
Its singular humour and ridiculous characters. Other Tales of the comic species. Their origin, allusions, and respective merits.
Rime of Sir Thopas.
Its design and tendency.
SECTION XVII.
Chaucer continued. General view of the
Prologues
to the
Canterbury Tales.
The
Prioresse.
The
Wife
of
Bath.
The
Frankelein.
The
Doctor
of
Physicke.
State of medical erudition and practice. Medicine and astronomy blended. Chaucer's physician's library. Learning of the Spanish jews. The
Sompnour.
The
Pardonere.
The
Monke.
Qualifications of an abbot. The
Frere.
The
Parsoune.
The
Squire.
English crusades into Lithuania. The
Reeve.
The
Clarke
of
Oxenford.
The
Serjeaunt of Lawe.
The
Hoste.
Supplemental Tale, or
History of Beryn.
Analysed and examined.
SECTION XVIII.
Chaucer continued. State of French and Italian poetry: and their influence on Chaucer. Rise of allegorical composition in the dark ages. Love-courts, and Love-fraternities, in France. Tales of the troubadours.
Dolopathos.
Boccacio, Dante, and Petrarch. Decline of Provencial poetry. Succeeded in France by a new species. Froissart. The
Floure and the Leafe.
Floral games in France. Allegorical beings.
OF THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION in EUROPE.
DISSERTATION I.
THAT peculiar and arbitrary species of Fiction which we commonly call Romantic, was entirely unknown to the writers of Greece and Rome. It appears to have been imported into Europe by a people, whose modes of thinking, and habits of invention, are not natural to that country. It is generally supposed to have been borrowed from the Arabians. But this origin has not been hitherto perhaps examined or ascertained with a sufficient degree of accuracy. It is my present design, by a more distinct and extended inquiry than has yet been applied to the subject, to trace the manner and the period of its introduction into the popular belief, the oral poetry, and the literature, of the Europeans.
It is an established maxim of modern criticism, that the fictions of Arabian imagination were communicated to the western world by means of the crusades. Undoubtedly those expeditions greatly contributed to propagate this mode of fabling in Europe. But it is evident, although a circumstance which certainly makes no material difference as to the principles here established, that these fancies were introduced at a much earlier period. The Saracens, or Arabians, having been for some time seated on the northern coasts of Africa, entered Spain about the beginning of the eighth century
See ALMAKIN, edit. Pocock. p. 72.
. Of this country they soon effected a complete conquest: and imposing their religion, language, and customs, upon the inhabitants, erected a royal seat in the capital city of Cordoua.
That by means of this establishment they first revived the sciences of Greece in Europe, will be proved at large in another place
See the second Dissertation.
: and it is obvious to conclude, that at the same time they disseminated those extravagant inventions which were so peculiar to their romantic and creative genius. A manuscript cited by Du Cange acquaints us, that the Spaniards, soon after the irruption of the Saracens, entirely neglected the study of the Latin language; and captivated with the novelty of the oriental books imported by these strangers, suddenly adopted an unusual pomp of style, and an affected elevation of diction
"Arabico eloquio
sublimati,
&c.
Du Cang. Gloss. Med. Inf. Latinitat. tom. i. Praef. p. xxvii. §. 31.
. The ideal tales of these eastern invaders, recommended by a brilliancy of description, a variety of imagery, and an exuberance of invention, hitherto unknown and unfamiliar to the cold and barren conceptions of a western climate, were eagerly caught up, and universally diffused. From Spain, by the communications of a constant commercial intercourse through the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, they soon passed into France and Italy.
In France, no province, or district, seems to have given these fictions of the Arabians a more welcome or a more early reception, than the inhabitants of Armorica or Basse Bretagne, now Britany; for no part of France can boast so great a number of antient romances
The reason on which this conclusion is founded will appear hereafter.
. Many poems of high antiquity, composed by the Armorican bards, still remain
In the British Museum is a set of old French tales of chivalry in verse, written, as it seems, by the bards of Bretagne. MSS. Harl. 978. 107.
"TRISTRAM a WALES"
is mentioned, f. 171. b.
Tristram ki bien saveit HARPEIR.
In the adventure of the knight ELIDUC. f. 172. b.
En Bretaigne un chevalier
Pruz, e curteis, hardi, e fier.
Again, under the same champion, f. 173.
Il tient sun chemin tut avant
A la mer vient si est passez
En Toteneis est arrivez
Plusurs reis ot en la tere
Entre eus eurent e strif e guere
Vers Excestre en cil pais.
TOTENEIS is Totness in Devonshire.—
Under the knight MILUN. f. 166.
Milun fu de Suthwales nez.
He is celebrated for his exploits in Ireland, Norway, Gothland, Lotharingia, Albany, &c.
Under LAUNVAL, f. 154. b.
En Bretains lapelent Launval.
Under GUIGEMAR. f. 141.
La chambre est peint tut entur
Venus de devesse damur
Futres bien en la paintur
Le traiz mustres e la natur
Coment hume deit amur tenir
E lealment e bien servir
Le livre Ovide ou il enseine, &c.
This description of a chamber painted with Venus and the three mysteries of nature, and the allusion to Ovid, prove the tales before us to be of no very high antiquity. But they are undoubtedly taken from others much older, of the same country. At the end of ELIDUC'S tale we have these lines. f. 181.
Del aventure de ces trais
Li
auntien
BRITUN curteis
Firent
le lai
pour remember
Q'hum nel deust pas oublier.
And under the tale of FRESNE, f. 148.
Li BRITUN enfirent un
lai.
At the conclusion of most of the tales it is said that these LAIS were made by the poets of Bretaigne. Another of the tales is thus closed. f. 146.
Que cest kunte ke oi avez
Fu Guigemar le LAI trouvez
Q hum fait en harpe en rote
Bone est a oir la note.
, and are frequently cited by father Lobineau in his learned history of Basse Bretagne
HISTOIRE DE BRETAGNE, ii. tom. fol.
. This territory was as it were newly peopled in the fourth century by a colony or army of the Welsh, who migrated thither under the conduct of Maximus a Roman general in Britain
Maximus appears to have set up a separate interest in Britain, and to have engaged an army of the provincial Britons on his side, against the Romans. Not succeeding in his designs, he was obliged to retire with his British troops to the continent, as in the text. He had a considerable interest in Wales, having married Ellena daughter of Eudda a powerful chieftain of North-wales. She was born at Caernarvon, where her chapel is still shewn. Mon. Antiq. p. 166. seq.
, and Conan lord of Meiriadoc or Denbigh-land
See Hist. de Bretagne, par d'Argentre, p. 2. Powel's WALES, p. 1. 2. seq. and p. 6. edit. 1584. Lhuyd's Etymol. p. 32. col. 3. And Galfrid. Mon. HIST. BRIT. Lib. v. c. 12. vii. 3. ix. 2. Compare Borlase, Antiq. Cornwall, B. i. ch. 10. p. 40.
. The Armoric language now spoken in Britany is a dialect of the Welsh: and so strong a resemblance still subsists between the two languages, that in our late conquest of Belleisle, such of our soldiers as were natives of Wales were understood by the peasantry. Milton, whose imagination was much struck with the old British story, more than once alludes to the Welsh colony planted in Armorica by Maximus and the prince of Meiriadoc.
Et tandem ARMORICOS Britonum sub lege colonos
MANSUS.
.
And in the PARADISE LOST he mentions indiscriminately the knights of Wales and Armorica as the customary retinue of king Arthur.
—What resounds
In fable or romance, of Uther's son
Begirt with BRITISH and ARMORIC knights
Parad. L. i. 579. Compare Pelloutier, MEM. sur la Langue Celt. fol. tom. i. 19.
.
This migration of the Welsh into Britany or Armorica, which during the distractions of the empire, in consequence of the numerous armies of barbarians with which Rome was surrounded on every side, had thrown off its dependence on the Romans, seems to have occasioned a close connection between the two countries for many centuries
This secession of the Welsh, at so critical a period, was extremely natural, into a neighbouring maritime country, with which they had constantly trafficked, and which, like themselves, had disclaimed the Roman yoke. It is not related in any Greek or Roman historian. But their silence is by no means a sufficient warrant for us to reject the numerous testimonies of the old British writers concerning this event. It is mentioned, in particular, by Llywarchen, a famous bard, who lived only one hundred and fifty years afterwards. Many of his poems are still extant, in which he celebrates his twenty-four sons who wore gold chains, and were all killed in battles against the Saxons.
. Nor will it prove less necessary to our purpose to observe, that the Cornish Britons, whose language was another dialect of the antient British, from the fourth or fifth century downwards, maintained a no less intimate correspondence with the natives of Armorica: intermarrying with them, and perpetually resorting thither for the education of their children, for advice, for procuring troops against the Saxons, for the purposes of traffick, and various other occasions. This connection was so strongly kept up, that an ingenious French antiquary supposes, that the communications of the Armoricans with the Cornish had chiefly contributed to give a roughness or rather hardness to the romance or French language in some of the provinces, towards the eleventh century, which was not before discernible
M. l'Abbé Lebeuf. RECHERCHES, &c. Mem. de Litt. tom. xvii. p. 718. edit. 4to.
"Je pense que cela dura jusqu'à ce que le commerce de ces provinces avec les peuples du Nord, et de l'Allemagne, et SUR TOUT celui des HABITANS DE L'ARMORIQUE AVEC L'ANGLOIS, vers l'onzieme siecle, &c."
. And this intercourse will appear more natural, if we consider, that not only Armorica, a maritime province of Gaul, never much frequented by the Romans, and now totally deserted by them, was still in some measure a Celtic nation; but that also the inhabitants of Cornwall, together with those of Devonshire and of the adjoining parts of Somersetshire, intermixing in a very slight degree with the Romans, and having suffered fewer important alterations in their original constitution and customs from the imperial laws and police than any other province of this island, long preserved their genuine manners and British character: and forming a sort of separate principality under the government of a succession of powerful chieftains, usually denominated princes or dukes of Cornwall, remained partly in a state of independence during the Saxon heptarchy, and were not entirely reduced till the Norman conquest. Cornwall, in particular, retained its old Celtic dialect till the reign of Elizabeth
See Camd. Brit. i. 44. edit. 1723. Lhuyd's Arch. p. 253.
.
And here I digress a moment to remark, that in the circumstance just mentioned about Wales, of its connection with Armorica, we perceive the solution of a difficulty which at first sight appears extremely problematical: I mean, not only that Wales should have been so constantly made the theatre of the old British chivalry, but that so many of the favorite fictions which occur in the early French romances, should also be literally found in the tales and chronicles of the elder Welsh bards
The story of LE COURT MANTEL, or the BOY AND THE MANTLE, told by an old French troubadour cited by M. de Sainte Palaye, is recorded in many manuscript Welsh chronicles, as I learn from original letters of Lhuyd in the Ashmolean Museum. See Mem. Anc. Chev. i. 119. And Obs. Spenser, i. §. ii. p. 54. 55. And from the same authority I am informed, that the fiction of the giant's coat composed of the beards of the kings whom he had conquered, is related in the legends of the bards of both countries. See Obs. Spens. ut supr. p. 24. seq. But instances are innumerable.
. It was owing to the perpetual communication kept up between the Welsh, and the people of Armorica who abounded in these fictions, and who naturally took occasion to interweave them into the history of their friends and allies. Nor are we now at a loss to give the reason why Cornwall, in the same French romances, is made the scene and the subject of so many romantic adventures
Hence in the Armorican tales just quoted, mention is made of Totness and Exeter, anciently included in Cornwall. In Chaucer's ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE we have
"Hornpipis of Cornewaile,"
among a great variety of musical instruments. v. 4250. This is literally from the French original, v. 3991.
. In the meantime we may observe, what indeed has been already implied, that a strict intercourse was upheld between Cornwall and Wales. Their languages, customs, and alliances, as I have hinted, were the same; and they were separated only by a strait of inconsiderable breadth. Cornwall is frequently styled West-Wales by the British writers. At the invasion of the Saxons, both countries became indiscriminately the receptacle of the fugitive Britons. We find the Welsh and Cornish, as one people, often uniting themselves as in a national cause against the Saxons. They were frequently subject to the same prince
Who was sometimes chosen from Wales and Cornwall, and sometimes from ARMORICA. Borlase, ubi supr. p. 403. See also p. 375. 377. 393. And Concil. Spelman. tom. i. 9. 112. edit. 1639. fol. Stillingfleet's Orig. Brit. ch. 5. p. 344. seq. edit. 1688. fol. From CORNUWALLIA, used by the Latin monkish historians, came the present name Cornwall. Borlase, ibid. p. 325.
, who sometimes resided in Wales, and sometimes in Cornwall; and the kings or dukes of Cornwall were perpetually sung by the Welsh bards. Llygad Gwr, a Welsh bard, in his sublime and spirited ode to Llwellyn, son of Grunfludd, the last prince of Wales of the British line, has a wish,
"May the prints of the hoofs of my prince's steed be seen as far as CORNWALL
Evans, p. 43.
.
Traditions about king Arthur, to mention no more instances, are as popular in Cornwall as in Wales: and most of the romantic castles, rocks, rivers, and caves, of both nations, are alike at this day distinguished by some noble atchievement, at least by the name, of that celebrated champion. But to return.
About the year 1100, Gualter, archdeacon of Oxford, a learned man, and a diligent collector of histories, travelling through France, procured in Armorica an antient chronicle written in the British or Armorican language, entitled, BRUTY-BRENHINED, or THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN
In the curious library of the family of Davies at Llanerk in Denbighshire, there is a copy of this chronicle in the handwriting of Guttyn Owen, a celebrated Welsh bard and antiquarian about the year 1470, who ascribes it to Tyssilio a bishop, and the son of Brockmael-Yscythroc prince of Powis. Tyssilio indeed wrote a HISTORY OF BRITAIN; but that work, as we are assured by Lhuyd in the ARCHAEOLOGIA, was entirely ecclesiastical, and has been long since lost.
. This book he brought into England, and communicated it to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh Benedictine monk, an elegant writer of Latin, and admirably skilled in the British tongue. Geoffrey, at the request and recommendation of Gualter the archdeacon, translated this British chronicle into Latin
See Galfr. Mon. L. i. c. 1. xii. 1. 20. ix. 2. Bale, ii. 65. Thompson's Pref. to Geoffrey's Hist. Transl. edit. Lond. 1718. p. xxx. xvi.
, executing the translation with a tolerable degree of purity and great fidelity, yet not without some interpolations
Geoffrey confesses, that he took some part of his account of king Arthur's atchievements from the mouth of his friend Gualter, the archdeacon; who probably related to the translator some of the traditions on this subject which he had heard in Armorica, or which at that time might have been popular in Wales. Hist. Brit. Galfr. Mon. lib. xi. c. i. He also owns that Merlin's prophecies were not in the Armorican original. Ib. vii. 2. Compare Thompson's Pref. ut supr. p. xxv. xxvii. The speeches and letters were forged by Geoffrey; and in the description of battles, our translator has not scrupled frequent variations and additions.
I am obliged to an ingenious antiquarian in British literature, Mr. Morris of Penbryn, for the following curious remarks concerning Geoffrey's original and his translation.
"Geoffrey's SYLVIUS, in the British original, is SILIUS, which in Latin would make JULIUS. This illustrates and confirms Lambarde's, BRUTUS JULIUS. Peramb. Kent, p. 12. So also in the British bards. And hence Milton's objection is removed. Hist. Engl. p. 12. There are no FLAMINES or ARCHFLAMINES in the British book. See Usher's Primord. p. 57. Dubl. edit. There are very few speeches in the original, and those very short. Geoffrey's FULGENIUS is in the British copy SULIEN, which by analogy in Latin would be JULIANUS. See Milton's Hist. Eng. p. 100. There is no LEIL in the British; that king's name was LLEON. Geoffrey's CAERLISLE is in the British CAERLLEON, or West-Chester. In the British, LLAW AP CYNFARCH, should have been translated LEO, which is now rendered LOTH. This has brought much confusion into the old Scotch history. I find no BELINUS in the British copy; the name is BELI, which should have been in Latin BELIUS, or BELGIUS. Geoffrey's BRENNUS in the original is BRAN, a common name among the Britons; as BRAN AP DYFNWAL, &c. See Suida's
. It appears by the original, that the British name of CARAUSIUS was CARAWN; hence TREGARAUN, i. e. TREGARON, and the river CARAUN, which gives name to ABERCORN. In the British there is no division into books and chapters, a mark of antiquity. Those whom the translator calls CONSULS of Rome, when Brennus took it, are in the original TWYSOGION, i. e. princes or generals. The Gwalenses, GWALO, or GWALAS, are added by Geoffrey, B. xii. c. 19."
To what is here observed about SILIUS, I will add, that abbot Whethamsted, in his MS. GRANARIUM, mentions SILOIUS the father of Brutus.
"Quomodo Brutus SILOII filius ad litora Angliae venit," &c.
GRANAR. Part. i. Lit. A. MSS. Cotton. NERO, C. vi. Brit. Mus.
This gentleman has in his possession a very antient manuscript of the original, and has been many years preparing materials for giving an accurate and faithful translation of it into English. The manuscript in Jesus college library at Oxford, which Wynne pretends to be the same which Geoffrey himself made use of, is evidently not older than the sixteenth century. Mr. Price, the Bodleian librarian, to whose friendship this work is much indebted, has two copies lately given him by Mr. Banks, much more antient and perfect. But there is reason to suspect, that most of the British manuscripts of this history are translations from Geoffrey's Latin: for
Britannia
they have BRYTTAEN, which in the original would have been PRYDAIN. Geoffrey's translation, and for obvious reasons, is a very common manuscript. Compare Lhuyd's Arch. p. 265.
. It was probably finished after the year 1138
Thompson says, 1128. ubi supr. p. xxx. Geoffrey's age is ascertained beyond a doubt, even if other proofs were wanting, from the cotemporaries whom he mentions. Such as Robert earl of Glocester, natural son of Henry the first, and Alexander bishop of Lincoln, his patrons: he mentions also William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon. Wharton places Geoffrey's death in the year 1154. Episc. Assav. p. 306. Robert de Monte, who continued Sigebert's chronicle down to the year 1183, in the preface to that work expresly says, that he took some of the materials of his supplement from the HISTORIA BRITONUM,
lately translated out of British into Latin.
This was manifestly Geoffrey's book. Alfred of Beverly, who evidently wrote his ANNALES, published by Hearne, between the years 1148 and 1150, borrowed his account of the British kings from Geoffrey's HISTORIA, whose words he sometimes literally transcribes. For instance, Alfred, in speaking of Arthur's keeping Whitsuntide at Caerleon, says, that the HISTORIA BRITONUM enumerated all the kings who came thither on Arthur's invitation: and then adds,
"Praeter hos non remansit princeps alicujus pretii citra Hispaniam qui ad istud edictum non venerit."
Alured. Bev. Annal. p. 63. edit. Hearne.
These are Geoffrey's own words; and so much his own, that they are one of his additions to the British original. But the curious reader, who desires a complete and critical discussion of this point, may consult an original letter of bishop Lloyd, preserved among Tanner's manuscripts at Oxford, num. 94.
.
It is difficult to ascertain exactly the period at which our translator's original romance may probably be supposed to have been compiled. Yet this is a curious speculation, and will illustrate our argument. I am inclined to think that the work consists of fables thrown out by different rhapsodists at different times, which afterwards were collected and digested into an entire history, and perhaps with new decorations of fancy added by the compiler, who most probably was one of the professed bards, or rather a poetical historian, of Armorica or Basse Bretagne. In this state, and under this form, I suppose it to have fallen into the hands of Geoffrey of Monmouth. If the hypothesis hereafter advanced concerning the particular species of fiction on which this narrative is founded, should be granted, it cannot, from what I have already proved, be more antient than the eighth century: and we may reasonably conclude, that it was composed much later, as some considerable length of time must have been necessary for the propagation and establishment of that species of fiction. The simple subject of this chronicle, divested of its romantic embellishments, is a deduction of the Welsh princes from the Trojan Brutus to Cadwallader, who reigned in the seventh century
This notion of their extraction from the Trojans had so infatuated the Welsh, that even so late as the year 1284, archbishop Peckham, in his injunctions to the diocese of St. Asaph, orders the people to abstain from giving credit to idle dreams and visions, a superstition which they had contracted from their belief in thedream of their founder Brutus, in the temple of Diana, concerning his arrival in Britain. The archbishop very seriously advises them to boast no more of their relation to the conquered and fugitive Trojans, but to glory in the victorious cross of Christ. Concil. Wilkins, tom. ii. p. 106. edit. 1737. fol.
. It must be acknowledged, that many European nations were antiently fond of tracing their descent from Troy. Hunnibaldus Francus, in his Latin history of France, written in the sixth century, beginning with the Trojan war, and ending with Clovis the first, ascribes the origin of the French nation to Francio a son of Priam
It is among the SCRIPTORES RER. GERMAN. Sim. Schard. tom. i. p. 301. edit. Basil. 1574. fol. It consists of eighteen books.
. So universal was this humour, and carried to such an absurd excess of extravagance, that under the reign of Justinian, even the Greeks were ambitious of being thought to be descended from the Trojans, their antient and notorious enemies. Unless we adopt the idea of those antiquaries, who contend that Europe was peopled from Phrygia, it will be hard to discover at what period, or from what source, so strange and improbable a notion could take its rise, especially among nations unacquainted with history, and overwhelmed in ignorance. The most rational mode of accounting for it, is to suppose, that the revival of Virgil's Eneid about the sixth or seventh century, which represented the Trojans as the founders of Rome, the capital of the supreme pontiff, and a city on various other accounts in the early ages of christianity highly reverenced and distinguished, occasioned an emulation in many other European nations of claiming an alliance to the same respectable original. The monks and other ecclesiastics, the only readers and writers of the age, were likely to broach, and were interested in propagating, such an opinion. As the more barbarous countries of Europe began to be tinctured with literature, there was hardly one of them but fell into the fashion of deducing its original from some of the nations most celebrated in the antient books. Those who did not aspire so high as king Priam, or who found that claim preoccupied, boasted to be descended from some of the generals of Alexander the Great, from Prusias king of Bithynia, from the Greeks or the Egyptians. It it not in the mean time quite improbable, that as most of the European nations were provincial to the Romans, those who fancied themselves to be of Trojan extraction might have imbibed this notion, at least have acquired a general knowledge of the Trojan story, from their conquerors: more especially the Britons, who continued so long under the yoke of Rome
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 127, 128.
. But as to the story of Brutus in particular, Geoffrey's hero, it may be presumed that his legend was not contrived, nor the history of his successors invented, till after the ninth century: for Nennius, who lived about the middle of that century, not only speaks of Brutus with great obscurity and inconsistency, but seems totally uninformed as to every circumstance of the British affairs which preceded Cesar's invasion. There are other proofs that this piece could not have existed before the ninth century. Alfred's Saxon translation of the Mercian law is mentioned
L. iii. c. 13.
. Charlemagne's Twelve Peers, and by an anachronism not uncommon in romance, are said to be present at king Arthur's magnificent coronation in the city of Caerleon
L. ix. c. 12.
. It were easy to produce instances, that this chronicle was undoubtedly framed after the legend of saint Ursula, the acts of saint Lucius, and the historical writings of the venerable Bede, had undergone some degree of circulation in the world. At the same time it contains many passages which incline us to determine, that some parts of it at least were written after or about the eleventh century. I will not insist on that passage, in which the title of legate of the apostolic see is attributed to Dubricius in the character of primate of Britain; as it appears for obvious reasons to have been an artful interpolation of the translator, who was an ecclesiastic. But I will select other arguments. Canute's forest, or Cannock-wood in Staffordshire occurs; and Canute died in the year 1036
L. vii. c. 4.
. At the ideal coronation of king Arthur, just mentioned, a tournament is described as exhibited in its highest splendor.
"Many knights, says our Armoric fabler, famous for feats of chivalry, were present, with apparel and arms of the same colour and fashion. They formed a species of diversion, in imitation of a fight on horseback, and the ladies being placed on the walls of the castles, darted amorous glances on the combatants. None of these ladies esteemed any knight worthy of her love, but such as had given proof of his gallantry in three several encounters. Thus the valour of the men encouraged chastity in the women, and the attention of the women proved an incentive to the soldier's bravery
L. ix. c. 12.
."
Here is the practice of chivalry under the combined ideas of love and military prowess, as they seem to have subsisted after the feudal constitution had acquired greater degrees not only of stability but of splendor and refinement
Pitts mentions an anonymous writer under the name of EREMITA BRITANNUS, who studied history and astronomy, and flourished about the year 720. He wrote, besides a book in an unknown language, entitled,
Sanchem Graal, De Rege Arthuro et rebus gestis ejus.
Lib. i.
De Mensa rotunda et
STRENUIS EQUITIBUS, lib. i. See Pits. p. 122. Bale, x. 21. Usser. Primord. p. 17. This subject could not have been treated by so early a writer.
. And although a species of tournament was exhibited in France at the reconciliation of the sons of Lewis the feeble, in the close of the ninth century, and at the beginning of the tenth, the coronation of the emperor Henry was solemnized with martial entertainments, in which many parties were introduced fighting on horseback; yet it was long afterwards that these games were accompanied with the peculiar formalities, and ceremonious usages, here described
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 109. xii. p. 347, 348. I will here produce, from that learned orientalist M. D'Herbelot, some curious traites of Arabian knight-errantry, which the reader may apply to the principles of this Dissertation as he pleases.
"BATTHALL.—Une homme hardi et vaillant, qui
cherchè des avantures
tels qu' etoient les
chevaliers errans
de nos anciens Romans."
He adds, that Batthall, an Arabian, who lived about the year of Christ 740, was a warrior of this class, concerning whom many marvellous feats of arms are reported: that his life was written in a large volume,
"mais qu'elle est toute remplie d'
exaggerations
et de
menteries.
"
Bibl. Oriental. p. 193. a. b. In the royal library at Paris, there is an Arabian book entitled,
"Scirat al Mogiah-edir,"
i. e.
"The Lives of the most valiant Champions.
Num. 1079.
. In the mean time, we cannot answer for the innovations of a translator in such a description. The burial of Hengist, the Saxon chief, who is said to have been interred not after the
pagan
fashion, as Geoffrey renders the words of the original, but after the
manner of the
SOLDANS, is partly an argument that our romance was composed about the time of the crusades. It was not till those memorable campaigns of mistaken devotion had infatuated the western world, that the soldans or sultans of Babylon, of Egypt, of Iconium, and other eastern kingdoms, became familiar in Europe. Not that the notion of this piece being written so late as the crusades in the least invalidates the doctrine delivered in this discourse. Not even if we suppose that Geoffrey of Monmouth was its original composer. That notion rather tends to confirm and establish my system. On the whole we may venture to affirm, that this chronicle, supposed to contain the ideas of the Welsh bards, entirely consists of Arabian inventions. And, in this view, no difference is made whether it was compiled about the tenth century, at which time, if not before, the Arabians from their settlement in Spain must have communicated their romantic fables to other parts of Europe, especially to the French; or whether it first appeared in the eleventh century, after the crusades had multiplied these fables to an excessive degree, and made them universally popular. And although the general cast of the inventions contained in this romance is alone sufficient to point out the source from whence they were derived, yet I chuse to prove to a demonstration what is here advanced, by producing and examining some particular passages.
The books of the Arabians and Persians abound with extravagant traditions about the giants Gog and Magog. These they call Jagiouge and Magiouge; and the Caucasian wall, said to be built by Alexander the Great from the Caspian to the Black Sea, in order to cover the frontiers of his dominion, and to prevent the incursions of the Sythians
Compare M. Petis de la Croix, Hist. Genghizcan, l. iv. c. p.
, is called by the orientals the WALL of GOG and MAGOG
Herbelot. Bibl. Oriental. p. 157. 291. 318. 438. 470. 528. 795. 796. 811, &c. They call Tartary the land of Gajiouge and Majiouge. This wall, some few fragments of which still remain, they pretend to have been built with all sorts of metals. See Abulfaraj Hist. Dynast. edit. Pococke, p. 62. A. D. 1673. It was an old tradition among the Tartars, that the people of Jajgioue and Majiouge were perpetually endeavouring to make a passage through this fortress; but that they would not succeed in their attempt till the day of judgment. See Hist. Geneal. des Tartars, d'Abulgazi Bahadut Khân. p. 43. About the year 808, the caliph Al Amin having heard wonderful reports concerning this wall or barrier, sent his interpreter Salam, with a guard of fifty men, to view it. After a dangerous journey of near two months, Salam and his party arrived in a desolated country, where they beheld the ruins of many cities destroyed by the people of Jajiouge and Majiouge. In six days more they reached the castles near the mountain Kokaiya or Caucasus. This mountain is inaccessibly steep, perpetually covered with snows and thick clouds, and encompasses the country of Jagiouge and Magiouge, which is full of cultivated fields and cities. At an opening of thi
mountain the fortress appears: and trave ling forwards, at the distance of two stages, they found another mountain, with a ditch cut through it one hundred and fifty cubits wide; and within the aperture an iron gate fifty cubits high, supported by vast buttresses, having an iron bulwark crowned with iron turrets, reaching to the summit of the mountain itself, which is too high to be seen. The valves, lintels, threshold, bolts, lock and key, are all represented of proportionable magnitude. The governor of the castle abovementioned, once in every week mounted on horseback with ten others on horseback, comes to this gate, and striking it three times with a hammer weighing five pounds, and then listening, hears a murmuring noise from within. This noise is supposed to proceed from the Jagiouge and Magiouge confined there. Salam was told that they often appeared on the battlements of the bulwark. He returned after passing twentyeight months in this extraordinary expedition. See Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. iv. B. i. § 2. pag. 15. 16. 17. And Anc. vol. xx. pag. 23. Pliny, speaking of the PORTAE CAUCASIAE, mentions,
"ingens naturae opus, montibus interruptis repente, ubi fores obditae ferratis trabibus," &c.
Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 2.
Czar Peter the first, in his expedition into Persia, had the curiosity to survey the ruins of this wall: and some leagues within the mountain he found a skirt of it which seemed entire, and was about fifteen feet high. In some other parts it is still six or seven feet in heighth. It seems at first sight to be built of stone: but it consists of petrified earth, sand, and shells, which compose a substance of great solidity. It has been chiefly destroyed by the neighbouring inhabitants, for the sake of its materials: and most of the adjacent towns and villages are built out of its ruins. Bentink's Notes on Abulgazi, p, 722. Eng. edit. See Chardin's Travels. p. 176. And Struys's Voyage, B. iii. c. 20. p. 226. Olearius's Travels of the Holstein Ambassad. B. vii. p. 403. Geograph. Nubiens. vi. c. 9. And Act. Petropolit. vol. i. p. 405. By the way, this work probably preceded the time of Alexander: it does not appear, from the course of his victories, that he ever came near the Caspian gates. The first and fabulous history of the eastern nations, will perhaps be found to begin with the exploits of this Grecian hero.
. One of the most formidable giants, according to our Armorican romance, which opposed the landing of Brutus in Britain, was Goemagot. He was twelve cubits high, and would unroot an oak as easily as an hazel wand: but after a most obstinate encounter with Corineus, he was tumbled into the sea from the summit of a steep cliff on the rocky shores of Cornwall, and dashed in pieces against the huge crags of the declivity. The place where he fell, adds our historian, taking its name from the giant's fall, is called LAM-GOEMAGOT, or GOEMAGOT'S LEAP, to this day
Lib. i. c. 16.
. A no less monstrous giant, whom king Arthur slew on Saint Michael's Mount in Cornwall, is said by this fabler to have come from Spain. Here the origin of these stories is evidently betrayed
L. x. c. 3.
. The Arabians, or Saracens, as I have hinted above, had conquered Spain, and were settled there. Arthur having killed this redoubted giant, declares, that he had combated with none of equal strength and prowess, since he overcame the mighty giant Ritho, on the mountain Arabius, who had made himself a robe of the beards of the kings whom he had killed. This tale is in Spenser's Faerie Queene. A magician brought from Spain is called to the assistance of Edwin, a prince of Northumberland
The Cumbrian and Northumbrian Britons, as powerful opponents of the Saxons, were strongly allied to the Welsh and Cornish.
, educated under Solomon king of the Armoricans
Lib. xii. c. 1, 4, 5, 6.
. In the prophecy of Merlin, delivered to Vortigern after the battle of the dragons, forged perhaps by the translator Geoffrey, yet apparently in the spirit and manner of the rest, we have the Arabians named, and their situations in Spain and Africa.
"From Conau shall come forth a wild boar, whose tusks shall destroy the oaks of the forests of France. The ARABIANS and AFRICANS shall dread him; and he shall continue his rapid course into the most distant parts of Spain
Lib. vii. c. 3.
."
This is king Arthur. In the same prophecy, mention is made of the
"Woods of Africa."
In another place Gormund king of the Africans occurs
Lib. xii. 2. xi. 8. 10.
. In a battle which Arthur fights against the Romans, some of the principal leaders in the Roman army are Alifantinam king of Spain, Pandrasus king of Egypt, Boccus king of the Medes, Evander king of Syria, Micipsa king of Babylon, and a duke of Phrygia
Lib. x. c. 5. 8. 10.
. It is obvious to suppose how these countries became so familiar to the bard of our chronicle. The old fictions about Stonehenge were derived from the same inexhaustible source of extravagant imagination. We are told in this romance, that the giants conveyed the stones which compose this miraculous monument from the farthest coasts of Africa. Every one of these stones is supposed to be mystical, and to contain a medicinal virtue: an idea drawn from the medical skill of the Arabians
See infr. SECT. i. p. 10. And SECT. xiii. p. 378. infr.
, and more particularly from the Arabian doctrine of attributing healing qualities, and other occult properties, to stones
This chronicle was evidently compiled to do honour to the Britons and their affairs, and especially in opposition to the Saxons. Now the importance with which these romancers seem to speak of Stonehenge, and the many beautiful fictions with which they have been so studious to embellish its origin, and to aggrandise its history, appear to me strongly to favour the hypothesis, that Stonehenge is a British monument; and indeed to prove, that it was really erected in memory of the three hundred British nobles massacred by the Saxon Hengist. See SECT. ii. infr. p. 52. No DRUIDICAL monument, of which so many remains were common, engaged their attention or interested them so much, as this NATIONAL memorial appears to have done.
. Merlin's transformation of Uther into Gorlois, and of Ulfin into Bricel, by the power of some medical preparation, is a species of Arabian magic, which professed to work the most wonderful deceptions of this kind, and is mentioned at large hereafter, in tracing the inventions of Chaucer's poetry. The attribution of prophetical language to birds was common among the orientals: and an eagle is supposed to speak at building the walls of the city of Paladur, now Shaftesbury
Lib. ii. c. 9. See SECT. inf. xv. p. 413.
. The Arabians cultivated the study of philosophy, particularly astronomy, with amazing ardour
See DISS. ii. And SECT. xv. inf. p. 402.
. Hence arose the tradition, reported by our historian, that in king Arthur's reign, there subsisted at Caer-leon in Glamorganshire a college of two hundred philosophers, who studied astronomy and other sciences; and who were particularly employed in watching the courses of the stars, and predicting events to the king from their observations
Lib. ix. c. 12.
. Edwin's Spanish magician above-mentioned, by his knowledge of the flight of birds, and the courses of the stars, is said to foretell future disasters. In the same strain Merlin, prognosticates Uther's success in battle by the appearance of a comet
L. viii. c. 15.
. The same enchanter's
wonderful skill in mechanical powers,
by which he removes the giant's Dance, or Stonehenge, from Ireland into England, and the notion that this stupendous structure was raised by a PROFOUND PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS, are founded on the Arabic literature
L. viii. c. 10. See infr. SECT. xv. passim.
. To which we may add king Bladud's magical operations
L. ii. 10.
. Dragons are a sure mark of orientalism. One of these in our romance is a
"terrible dragon flying from the west, breathing fire, and illuminating all the country with the brightness of his eyes
L. x. c. 2.
."
In another place we have a giant mounted on a winged dragon: the dragon erects his scaly tail, and wafts his rider to the clouds with great rapidity
L. vii. c. 4.
.
Arthur and Charlemagne are the first and original heroes of romance. And as Geoffrey's history is the grand repository of the acts of Arthur, so a fabulous history ascribed to Turpin is the ground work of all the chimerical legends which have been related concerning the conquests of Charlemagne and his twelve peers. Its subject is the expulsion of the Saracens from Spain: and it is filled with fictions evidently cogenial with those which characterise Geoffrey's history
I will mention only one among many others. The christians under Charlemagne are said to have found in Spain a golden idol, or image of Mahomet, as high as a bird can fly. It was framed by Mahomet himself of the purest metal, who by his knowledge in necromancy had sealed up within it a legion of diabolical spirits. It held in its hand a prodigious club; and the Saracens had a prophetic tradition, that this club should fall from the hand of the image in that year when a certain king should be born in France, &c. J. Turpini Hist. de Vit. Carol. Magn. et Rolandi. cap. iv. f. 2. a.
.
Some suppose, as I have hinted above, this romance to have been written by Turpin, a monk of the eighth century; who, for his knowledge of the Latin language, his sanctity, and gallant exploits against the Spanish Saracens, was preferred to the archbishoprick of Rheims by Charlemagne. Others believe it to have been forged under archbishop Turpin's name about that time. Others very soon afterwards, in the reign of Charles the Bald
See Hist. Acad. des Inscript. &c. vii. 293. edit. 4to.
. That is, about the year 870
See Catel, Mem. de l'Hist. du Languedoc. pag. 545.
.
Voltaire, a writer of much deeper research than is imagined, and the first who has displayed the literature and customs of the dark ages with any degree of penetration and comprehension, speaking of the fictitious tales concerning Charlemagne, has remarked,
"Ces fables qu'un moine ecrivit au onzieme siecle, sous le nom de l'archeveque Turpin
"Hist. Gen. ch. viii. Oeuvr, tom. i. p. 84. edit. Genev. 1756.
."
And it might easily be shewn that just before the commencement of the thirteenth century, romantic stories about Charlemagne were more fashionable than ever among the French minstrels. That is, on the recent publication of this fabulous history of Charlemagne. Historical evidence concurs with numerous internal arguments to prove, that it must have been compiled after the crusades. In the twentieth chapter, a pretended pilgrimage of Charlemagne to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem is recorded: a forgery seemingly contrived with a design to give an importance to those wild expeditions, and which would easily be believed when thus authenticated by an archbishop
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 124.
.
There is another strong internal proof that this romance was written long after the time of Charlemagne. Our historian is speaking of the numerous chiefs and kings who came with their armies to assist his hero: among the rest he mentions earl Oell, and adds,
"Of this man there is a song commonly sung among the minstrels
even to this day
"De hoc canitur in Cantilena
sque
ad hodiernum diem.
"
cap. xi. f. 4. b. edit. Schard. Francof. 1566. fol. Chronograph. Quat.
."
Nor will I believe, that the European art of war, in the eighth century, could bring into the field such a prodigious parade of battering rams and wooden castles, as those with which Charlemagne is said to have besieged the city Agennum
Ibid. cap. ix. f. 3. b. The writer adds,
"Caeterisque
artificiis ad capiendum,
&c."
See also cap. x. ibid. Compare SECT. iv. infr. p. 160. In one of Charlemagne's battles, the Saracens advance with horrible visors bearded and horned, and with drums or cymbals.
"Tenentesque singuli TYMPAN
, quae manibus fortiter percutiebant."
The unusual spectacle and sound terrified the horses of the christian army, and threw them into confusion. In a second engagement, Charlemagne commanded the eyes of the horses to be covered, and their ears to be stopped. Turpin. cap. xviii. f. 7. b. The latter expedient is copied in the Romance of RICHARD THE FIRST, written about the eleventh century. See SECT. iv. infr. p. 165. See also what is said of the Saracen drums. ibid. p. 167.
: the crusades seem to have made these huge military machines common in the European armies. However we may suspect it appeared before, yet not long before, Geoffrey's romance; who mentions Charlemagne's TWELVE PEERS, so lavishly celebrated in Turpin's book, as present at king Arthur's imaginary coronation at Caer-leon. Although the twelve peers of France occur in chronicles of the tenth century
Flodoard of Rheims first mentions them, whose chronicle comes down to 966.
; and they might besides have been suggested to Geoffrey's original author, from popular traditions and songs of minstrels. We are sure it was extant before the year 1122, for Calixtus the second in that year, by papal authority, pronounced this history to be genuine
Magn. Chron. Belgic. pag. 150. sub ann. Compare J. Long. Bibl. Hist. Gall. num. 6671. And Lambec. ii. p. 333.
. Monsieur Allard affirms, that it was written, and in the eleventh century, at Vienna by a monk of Saint Andrew's
Bibl. de Dauphiné. p. 224.
. This monk was probably nothing more than some Latin translator: but a learned French antiquary is of opinion, that it was originally composed in Latin; and moreover, that the most antient romances, even those of the Round Table, were originally written in that language
See infr. SECT. viii. p. 464.
. Oienhart, and with the greatest probability, supposes it to be the work of a Spaniard. He quotes an authentic manuscript to prove, that it was brought out of Spain into France before the close of the twelfth century
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 135.
; and that the miraculous exploits performed in Spain by Charlemagne and earl Roland, recorded in this romantic history, were unknown among the French before that period: except only that some few of them were obscurely and imperfectly sketched in the metrical tales of those who sung heroic adventures
Arnoldi Oienharti Notit. utriusque Vasconiae, edit. Paris. 1638. 4to. pag. 397. lib. iii. c. 3. Such was Roland's song, sung at the battle of Hastings. But see this romance, cap. xx. f. 8. b. Where Turpin seems to refer to some other fabulous materials or history concerning Charlemagne. Particularly about Galafar and Braiamant, which make such a figure in Boyardo and Ariosto.
. Oienhart's supposition that this history was compiled in Spain, the centre of oriental fabling in Europe, at once accounts for the nature and extravagance of its fictions, and immediately points to their Arabian origin
Innumerable romantic stories, of Arabian growth, are to this day current among the common people of Spain, which they call CUJENTOS DE VIEJAS. I will relate one from that lively picture of the Spaniards, RELATION DU VOYAGE D'ESPAGNE, by Madamoiselle Danois. Within the antient castle of Toledo, they say, there was a vast cavern whose entrance was strongly barricadoed. It was universally believed, that if any person entered this cavern, the most fatal disasters would happen to the Spaniards. Thus it remained closely shut and unentered for many ages. At length king Roderigo, having less credulity but more courage and curiosity than his ancestors, commanded this formidable recess to be opened. At entering, he began to suspect the traditions of the people to be true: a terrible tempest arose, and all the elements seemed united to embarrass him. Nevertheless, he ventured forwards into the cave, where he discerned by the light of his torches certain figures on statues of men, whose habiliments and arms were strange and uncouth. One of them had a sword of shining brass, on which it was written in Arabic characters, that the time approached when the Spanish nation should be destroyed, and that it would not be long before the warriors, whose images were placed there, should arrive in Spain. The writer adds,
"Je n'ai jamais été en aucun endroit, où l'on fasse PLUS DE CAS des CONTES FABULEUX qu'en Espagne."
Edit. a la Haye, 1691. tom. iii. p. 158. 159. 12mo.
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 112. And the LIFE of CERVANTES, by Don Gregorio Mayans. §. 27. §. 47. §. 48. §. 49.
. As to the French manuscript of this history, it is a translation from Turpin's Latin, made by Michel de Harnes in the year 1207
See Du Chesne, tom. v. p. 60. And Mem. Lit. xvii. 737. seq. It is in the roval library at Paris, Num. 8190. Probably the French Turpin in the British Museum is the same, Cod. MSS. Harl. 273. 23. f. 86. See infr. SECT. iii. p. 135. See instances of the English translating prose Latin books into English, and sometimes French, verse. SECT. ii. infr. passim.
In the king's library at Paris, there is a translation of Dares Phrygius into French rhymes by Godfrey of Waterford an Irish Jacobin, a writer not mentioned by Tanner, in the thirteenth century. Mem. Litt. tom. xvii. p. 736. Compare SECT. iii. infr. p. 125. In the Notes.
. And, by the way, from the translator's declaration, that there was a great impropriety in translating Latin prose into verse, we may conclude, that at the commencement of the thirteenth century the French generally made their translations into verse.
In these two fabulous chronicles the foundations of romance seem to be laid. The principal characters, the leading subjects, and the fundamental fictions, which have supplied such ample matter to this singular species of composition, are here first displayed. And although the long continuance of the crusades imported innumerable inventions of a similar complexion, and substituted the atchievements of new champions and the wonders of other countries, yet the tales of Arthur and of Charlemagne, diversified indeed, or enlarged with additional embellishments, still continued to prevail, and to be the favourite topics: and this, partly from their early popularity, partly from the quantity and the beauty of the fictions with which they were at first supported, and especially because the design of the crusades had made those subjects so fashionable in which christians fought with infidels. In a word, these volumes are the first specimens extant in this mode of writing. No European history before these has mentioned giants, enchanters, dragons, and the like monstrous and arbitrary fictions. And the reason is obvious: they were written at a time when a new and unnatural mode of thinking took place in Europe, introduced by our communication with the east.
Hitherto I have considered the Saracens either at their immigration into Spain about the ninth century, or at the time of the crusades, as the first authors of romantic fabling among the Europeans. But a late ingenious critic has advanced an hypothesis, which assigns a new source, and a much earlier date, to these fictions. I will cite his opinion of this matter in his own words.
"Our old romances of chivalry may be derived in a LINEAL DESCENT from the antient historical songs of the Gothic bards and scalds.—Many of those songs are still preserved in the north, which exhibit all the seeds of chivalry before it became a solemn institution.—Even the common arbitrary fictions of romance were most of them familiar to the antient scalds of the north, long before the time of the crusades. They believed the existence of giants and dwarfs, they had some notion of fairies, they were strongly possessed with the belief of spells and inchantment, and were fond of inventing combats with dragons and monsters
Percy, on, ANTIENT METR. ROM. i. p. 3. 4. edit. 1767.
."
Monsieur Mallet, a very able and elegant inquirer into the genius and antiquities of the northern nations, mantains the same doctrine. He seems to think, that many of the opinions and practices of the Goths, however obsolete, still obscurely subsist. He adds,
"May we not rank among these, for example, that love and admiration for the profession of arms which prevailed among our ancestors even to fanaticism, and as it were through system, and brave from a point of honour?— Can we not explain from the Gothic religion, how judiciary combats, and proofs by the ordeal, to the astonishment of posterity, were admitted by the legislature of all Europe
For the judiciary combats, as also for common athletic exercises, they formed an amphitheatrical circus of rude stones.
"Quaedam [saxa] CIRCOS claudebant, in quibus gigantes et pugiles DUELLO strenue decertabant."
Worm. p. 62.
And again,
"Nec mora, CIRCUATUR campus, milite CIRCUS stipatur, concurrunt pugiles."
p. 65.
It is remarkable, that circs of the same sort are still to be seen in Cornwall, so famous at this day for the athletic art: in which also they sometimes exhibited their scriptural interludes. See infr. SECT. vi. p. 237. Frotho the Great, king of Denmark, in the first century, is said to have been the first who commanded all controversies to be decided by the sword. Worm. p. 68. In favour of this barbarous institution it ought to be remembered, that the practice of thus marking out the place of battle must have prevented much bloodshed, and saved many innocent lives: for if either combatant was by any accident forced out of the circus, he was to lose his cause, or to pay three marks of pure silver as a redemption for his life. Worm. p. 68, 69. In the year 987, the ordeal was substituted in Denmark instead of the duel; a mode of decision, at least in a political sense, less absurd, as it promoted military skill.
: and how, even to the present age, the people are still infatuated with a belief of the power of magicians, witches, spirits, and genii, concealed under the earth or in the waters?—Do we not discover in these religious opinions, that source of the marvellous with which our ancestors filled their romances; in which we see dwarfs and giants, fairies and demons," &c
Mallet, Introduction a l' Histoire de Dannemarc, &c. tom. ii. p. 9.
.
And in another place.
"The fortresses of the Goths were only rude castles situated on the summits of rocks, and rendered inaccessible by thick misshapen walls. As these walls ran winding round the castles, they often called them by a name which signified SERPENTS or DRAGONS; and in these they usually secured the women and young virgins of distinction, who were seldom safe at a time when so many enterprising heroes were rambling up and down in search of adventures. It was this custom which gave occasion to antient romancers, who knew not how to describe any thing simply, to invent so many fables concerning princesses of great beauty guarded by dragons, and afterwards delivered by invincible champions
Ib. ch. ix. p. 243. tom. ii.
.
I do not mean entirely to reject this hypothesis: but I will endeavour to shew how far I think it is true, and in what manner or degree it may be reconciled with the system delivered above.
A few years before the birth of Christ, soon after Mithridates had been overthrown by Pompey, a nation of Asiatic Goths, who possessed that region of Asia which is now called Georgia, and is connected on the south with Persia, alarmed at the progressive encroachments of the Roman armies, retired in vast multitudes under the conduct of their leader Odin, or Woden, into the northern parts of Europe, not subject to the Roman government, and settled in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other districts of the Scandinavian territory
"Unicam gentium Asiaticarum Immigrationem, in orbem Arctoum factam, nostrae antiquitates commemorant. Sed eam tamen non primam. Verum circa annum tandem vicesimum quartum ante natum Christum, Romanis exercitibus auspiciis Pompeii Magni in Asiae parte, Phrygia Minore, grassantibus. Illa enim epocha ad hanc rem chronologi nostri utuntur. In cujus (GYLVI SU
CIAE regis) tempora incidit Odinus, Asiaticae immigrationis, sactae anno 24 ante natum Christum, antesignanus."
Crymogaea, Arngrim. Jon. lib. i. cap. 4. p. 30. 31. edit. Hamburg. 1609.
See also Bartholin. Antiquitat. Dan. Lib. ii. cap. 8. p. 407. iii. c. 2. p. 652. edit. 1689. Lazius, de Gent. Migrat. L. x. fol. 573. 30. edit. fol. 1600. Compare Ol. Rudbeck. cap. v. sect. 2. p. 95. xiv. sect. 2. p. 67. There is a memoir on this subject lately published in the Petersburgh Transactions, but I chuse to refer to original authorities. See tom v. p. 297. edit. 1738. 4to.
. As they brought with them many useful arts, particularly the knowledge of letters, which Odin is said to have invented
"Odino etiam et aliis, qui ex Asia huc devenere, tribuunt multi antiquitatum Islandicarum periti; unde et Odinus RUNHOFDI seu Runarum (i. e.
Literarum)
auctor vocatur."
Ol. Worm. Liter. Runic. cap. 20. edit. Hafn. 1651.
Some writers refer the origin of the Grecian language, sciences, and religion to the Scythians, who were connected towards the south with Odin's Goths. I cannot bring a greater authority than that of Salmasius,
"Satis certum ex his colligi potest linguam, ut gentem, HELLENICAM, a septentrione et SCYTHIA originem traxisse, non a meridie. Inde LITERAE GRAECORUM, inde MUSAE PIERIDES, inde sacrorum initia."
Salmas. de Hellenist. p. 400.
As a further proof I shall observe, that the antient poet Thamyris was so much esteemed by the Scythians, on account of his poetry,
, that they chose him their king. Conon. Narrat. Poet. cap. vii. edit. Gal. But Thamyris was a Thracian: and a late ingenious antiquarian endeavours to prove, that the Goths were descended from the Thracians, and that the Greeks and Thracians were only different clans of the same people. Clarke's Connexion, &c. ch. ii. p. 65.
, they were hospitably received by the natives, and by degrees acquired a safe and peaceable establishment in the new country, which seems to have adopted their language, laws, and religion. Odin is said to have been stiled a god by the Scandinavians; an appellation which the superiour address and specious abilities of this Asiatic chief easily extorted from a more savage and uncivilised people.
This migration is confirmed by the concurrent testimonies of various historians: but there is no better evidence of it, than that conspicuous similarity subsisting at this day between several customs of the Georgians, as described by Chardin, and those of certain cantons of Norway and Sweden, which have preserved their antient manners in the purest degree
See Po
toppidan. Nat. Hist. Norway, tom. ii. c. 10. §. 1. 2. 3.
. Not that other striking implicit and internal proofs, which often carry more conviction than direct historical assertions, are wanting to point out this migration. The antient inhabitants of Denmark and Norway inscribed the exploits of their kings and heroes on rocks, in characters called Runic; and of this practice many marks are said still to remain in those countries
See Saxo Grammat. Praef. ad Hist. Dan. And Hist. lib. vii. See also Ol. Worm. Monum. Dan. lib. iii.
. This art or custom of writing on rocks is Asiatic
Paulus Jovius, a writer indeed not of the best credit, says, that Annibal engraved characters on the Alpine rocks, as a testimony of his passage over them, and that they were remaining there two centuries ago. Hist. lib. xv. p. 163.
. Modern travellers report, that there are Runic inscriptions now existing in the deserts of Tartary
See Voyage par Strahlemberg, &c.
A Description of the northern and eastern Parts of Europe and Asia.
Schroder says, from Olaus Rudbeckius, that RUNES, or letters, were invented by Magog the Scythian, and communicated to Tuisco the celebrated German chieftain, in the year of the world 1799. Praef. ad Lexicon Latino-Scandic.
. The WRITTEN MOUNTAINS of the Jews are an instance that this fashion was oriental. Antiently, when one of these northern chiefs fell honourably in battle, his weapons, his war-horse, and his wife, were consumed with himself on the same funeral pile
See Keysler, p. 147. Two funeral ceremonies, one of BURNING, the other of BURYING their dead, at different times prevailed in the north; and have distinguished two eras in the old northern history. The first was called the AGE OF FIRE, the second the AGE of HILLS.
. I need not remind my readers how religiously this horrible ceremony of sacrificing the wife to the dead husband is at present observed in the east. There is a very remarkable correspondence, in numberless important and fundamental points, between the Druidical and the Persian superstitions: and notwithstanding the evidence of Cesar, who speaks only from popular report, and without precision, on a subject which he cared little about, it is the opinion of the learned Banier, that the Druids were formed on the model of the Magi
Mytholog. Expliq. ii. p. 628. 4to.
. In this hypothesis he is seconded by a modern antiquary; who further supposes, that Odin's followers imported this establishment into Scandinavia, from the confines of Persia
M. Mallet. Hist. Dannem. i. p. 56. See also Keysler, p. 152.
. The Scandinavians attributed divine virtue to misletoe; it is mentioned in their EDDA, or system of religious doctrines, where it is said to grow on the west side of Val-hall, or Odin's elysium
EDD. ISL. fab. xxviii. Compare Key
ler, Antiquit. Sel. Sept. p. 304. seq. The Germans, a Teutonic tribe, call it to this day
"the Branch of Spectres."
But see Dr. Percy's ingenious note on this passage in the EDDA. NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES, vol. ii. p. 143.
. That Druidical rites existed among the Scandinavians we are informed from many antient Erse poems, which say that the British Druids, in the extremity of their affairs, sollicited and obtained aid from Scandinavia
Ossian's Works. CATHLIN, ii, p. 216. Not. edit. 1765. vol. ii. They add, that among the auxiliaries came many magicians.
. The Gothic hell exactly resembles that which we find in the religious systems of the Persians, the most abounding in superstition of all the eastern nations. One of the circumstances is, and an oriental idea, that it is full of scorpions and serpents
See Hyde, Relig. Vet. Pers. p. 399. 404. But compare what is said of the EDDA, towards the close of this Discourse.
. The doctrines of Zeno, who borrowed most of his opinions from the Persian philosophers, are not uncommon in the EDDA. Lok, the evil deity of the Goths, is probably the Arimanius of the Persians. In some of the most antient Islandic chronicles, the Turks are mentioned as belonging to the jurisdiction of the Scandinavians. Mahomet, not so great an inventor as is imagined, adopted into his religion many favourite notions and superstitions from the bordering nations which were the offspring of the Scythians, and especially from the Turks. Accordingly, we find the Alcoran agreeing with the Runic theology in various instances. I will mention only one. It is one of the beatitudes of the Mahometan paradise, that blooming virgins shall administer the most luscious wines. Thus in Odin's Val-hall, or the Gothic elysium, the departed heroes received cups of the strongest mead and ale from the hands of the virgin-goddesses called Valkyres
Odin only, drank wine in Valhall. EDD. Myth. xxxiv. See Keysler, p. 152.
. Alfred, in his Saxon account of the northern seas, taken from the mouth of Ohther, a Norwegian, who had been sent by that monarch to discover a north-east passage into the Indies, constantly calls these nations the ORIENTALS
See Preface to Alfred's Saxon Orosius, published by Spelman. VIT. AELFREDI. Spelm. Append. vi.
. And as these eastern tribes brought with them into the north a certain degree of refinement, of luxury and splendor, which appeared singular and prodigious among barbarians; one of their early historians describes a person better dressed than usual, by saying,
"he was so well cloathed, that you might have taken him for one of the Asiatics
LANDNAMA-SAGA. See Mallet. Hist. Dannem. c. ii.
."
Wormius mentions a Runic incantation, in which an Asiatic inchantress is invoked
Lit. Run. p. 209, edit. 1651. The Goths came from the neighbourhood of Colchis, the region of Witchcraft, and the country of Medea, famous for her incantations. The eastern pagans from the very carliest ages, have had their enchanters.
Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Exod. vii. 11. See also vii. 18, 19. ix. 11, &c. When the people of Israel had over-run the country of Balak, he invites Baalam a neighbouring prince to
curse them,
or destroy them by magic, which he seems to have professed.
And the elders of Moab departed with the rewards of
DIVINATION
in their hand.
Num. xxii. 7.
Surely there is no
ENCHANTMENT
against Israel.
xxiii. 23.
And he went out, as at other times, to seek for
ENCHANTMENTS. xxiv. 1. &c. Odin himself was not only a warrior, but a magician, and his Asiatics were called
Incantationum auctores.
Chron. Norweg. apud Bartholin. L. iii. c. 2. p. 657. Crymog. Arngrim. L. i. cap. vii. p. 511. From this source, those who adopt the principles just mentioned in this discourse, may be inclined to think, that the notion of spells got into the ritual of chivalry. In all legal single combats, each champion attested upon oath, that he did not carry about him any herb, SPELL, or ENCHANTMENT. Dugdal. Orig. Juridic. p. 82. See Hickes's account of the silver Dano-Saxon shield, dug up in the isle of Ely, having a magical Runic inscription, supposed to render those who bore it in battle invulnerable. Apud Hickes. Thesaur. Dissertat. Epistol. p. 187.
. Various other instances might here be added, some of which will occasionally arise in the future course of our inquiries.
It is notorious, that many traces of oriental usages are found amongst all the European nations during their pagan state; and this phenomenon is rationally resolved, on the supposition that all Europe was originally peopled from the east. But as the resemblance which the pagan Scandinavians bore to the eastern nations in manners, monuments, opinions, and practices, is so very perceptible and apparent, an inference arises, that their migration from the east must have happened at a period by many ages more recent, and therefore most probably about the time specified by their historians. In the mean time we must remember, that a distinction is to be made between this expedition of Odin's Goths, who formed a settlement in Scandinavia, and those innumerable armies of barbarous adventurers, who some centuries afterwards, distinguished by the same name, at different periods overwhelmed Europe, and at length extinguished the Roman empire.
When we consider the rapid conquests of the nations which may be comprehended under the common name of Scythians, and not only those conducted by Odin, but by Attila, Theodoric, and Genseric, we cannot ascribe such successes to brutal courage only. To say that some of these irresistible conquerors made war on a luxurious, effeminate, and enervated people, is a plausible and easy mode of accounting for their conquests: but this reason will not operate with equal force in the histories of Genghizcan and Tamerlane, who destroyed mighty empires founded on arms and military discipline, and who baffled the efforts of the ablest leaders. Their science and genius in war, such as it then was, cannot therefore be doubted: that they were not deficient in the arts of peace, I have already hinted, and now proceed to produce more particular proofs. Innumerable and very fundamental errors have crept into our reasonings and systems about savage life, resulting merely from those strong and undistinguishing notions of barbarism, which our prejudices have hastily formed concerning the character of all rude nations
See this argument pursued in the following DISSERTATION.
.
Among other arts which Odin's Goths planted in Scandinavia, their skill in poetry, to which they were addicted in a peculiar manner, and which they cultivated with a wonderful enthusiasm, seems to be most worthy our regard, and especially in our present inquiry.
As the principal heroes of their expedition into the north were honourably distinguished from the Europeans, or original Scandinavians, under the name of Asae, or Asiatics, so the verses, or language, of this people, were denominated ASAMAL, or ASIATIC speech
"Linguam Danicam antiquam, cujus in rythmis usus fuit, veteres appellarunt ASAMAL, id est Asiaticam, vel ASARUM SERMONEM; quod eum ex Asia Odinus secum in Daniam, Norwegiam, Sueciam, aliasque regiones septentrionales, invexerit."
Steph. Stephan. Praefat. ad Saxon. Grammat. Hist.
. Their poetry contained not only the praises of their heroes, but their popular traditions and their religious rites; and was filled with those fictions which the most exaggerated pagan superstition would naturally implant in the wild imaginations of an Asiatic people. And from this principle alone, I mean of their Asiatic origin, some critics would at once account for a certain capricious spirit of extravagance, and those bold eccentric conceptions, which so strongly distinguish the old northern poetry
A most ingenious critic observes, that
"what we have been long accustomed to call the ORIENTAL VEIN of poetry, because some of the EARLIEST poetical productions have come to us from the east, is probably no more ORIENTAL than OCCIDENTAL."
Blair's Crit. Diss. on Ossian. vol. ii. p. 317.
But all the LATER oriental writers through all ages have been particularly distinguished for this VEIN. Hence it is here characteristical of a country not of an age. I will allow, on this writer's very just and penetrating principles, that an early northern ode shall be as sublime as an eastern one. Yet the sublimity of the latter shall have a different character; it will be more inflated and gigantic.
. Nor is this fantastic imagery, the only mark of Asiaticism which appears in the Runic odes. They have a certain sublime and figurative cast of diction, which is indeed one of their predominant characteristics
Thus, a Rainbow is called,
the bridge of the gods.
Poetry,
the mead of Odin.
The earth,
the vessel that floats on ages.
A ship,
the horse of the waves.
Ice,
the vast bridge.
Herbs,
the fleece of the earth.
A Battle,
a bath of blood, the hail of Odin, the shock of bucklers.
A Tongue,
the sword of words.
Night,
the veil of cares.
Rocks,
the bones of the earth.
Arrows,
the hailst
nes of
elmets, &c. &c.
. I am very sensible that all rude nations are naturally apt to cloath their sentiments in this style. A propensity to this mode of expression is necessarily occasioned by the poverty of their language, which obliges them frequently to substitute similitudes and circumlocutions: it arises in great measure from feelings undisguised and unrestrained by custom or art, and from the genuine efforts of nature working more at large in uncultivated minds. In the infancy of society, the passions and the imagination are alike uncontrouled. But another cause seems to have concurred in producing the effect here mentioned. When obvious terms and phrases evidently occurred, the Runic poets are fond of departing from the common and established diction. They appear to use circumlocution and comparisons not as a matter of necessity, but of choice and skill: nor are these metaphorical colourings so much the result of want of words, as of warmth of fancy
In a strict geographical sense, the original country of these Asiatic Goths might not be so situated as physically to have produced these effects. Yet it is to be observed, that intercourse and vicinity are in this case sometimes equivalent to climate. The Persian traditions and superstitions were current even in the northern parts of Tartary. Georgia, however, may be fairly considered as a part of Persia. It is equal in fertility to any of the eastern Turkish provinces in Asia. It affords the richest wines, and other luxuries of life, in the greatest abundance. The most beautiful virgins for the seraglio are fetched from this province. In the mean time, thus much at least may be said of a warm climate, exclusive of its supposed immediate physical influence on the human mind and temperament. It exhibits all the productions of nature in their highest perfection and beauty: while the excessive heat of the sun, and the fewer incitements to labour and industry, dispose the inhabitants to indolence, and to living much abroad in scenes of nature. These circumstances are favourable to the operations of fancy.
.
Their warmth of fancy, however, if supposed to have proceeded from the principles above suggested, in a few generations after this migration into Scandinavia, must have lost much of its natural heat and genuine force. Yet ideas and sentiments, especially of this sort, once imbibed, are long remembered and retained, in savage life. Their religion, among other causes, might have contributed to keep this spirit alive; and to preserve their original stock of images, and native mode of expression, unchanged and unabated by climate or country. In the mean time we may suppose, that the new situation of these people in Scandinavia, might have added a darker shade and a more savage complexion to their former fictions and superstitions; and that the formidable objects of nature to which they became familiarised in those northern solitudes, the piny precipices, the frozen mountains, and the gloomy forests, acted on their imaginations, and gave a tincture of horror to their imagery.
A skill in poetry seems in some measure to have been a national science among the Scandinavians, and to have been familiar to almost every order and degree. Their kings and warriors partook of this epidemic enthusiasm, and on frequent occasions are represented as breaking forth into spontaneous songs and verses
Harold Hardraade, king of Norway, composed sixteen songs of his expedition into Africa. Asbiorn Pruda, a Danish champion, described his past life in nine strophes, while his enemy Bruce, a giant, was tearing out his bowels.
"i.
Tell my mother Suanhita in Denmark, that she will not this summer comb the hair of her son. I had promised her to return, but now my side shall feel the edge of the sword.
ii. It was far otherwise,
when we sate at home in mirth, chearing ourselves with the drink of ale; and coming from Hordeland passed the gulf in our ships; when we quaffed mead, and conversed of liberty. Now I alone am fallen into the narrow prisons of the giants.
iii. It was far otherwise, &c."
Every stanza is introduced with the same choral burden. Bartholin. Antiquit. Danic. L. i. cap. 10. p. 158. edit. 1689. The noble epicedium of Regner Lodbrog is more commonly known. The champion Orvarodd, after his expeditions into various countries, sung, on his death-bed, the most memorable events of his life in metre. Hallmund, being mortally wounded, commanded his daughter to listen to a poem which he was about to deliver, containing histories of his victories, and to engrave it on tablets of wood. Bartholin. ibid. p. 162. Saxo Grammaticus gives us a regular ode, uttered by the son of a king of Norway, who by mistake had been buried alive, and was discovered and awakened by a party of soldiers digging for treasure. Sax. Grammat. L. 5. p. 50. There are instances recorded of their speaking in metre on the most common occurrences.
. But the exercise of the poetical talent was properly confined to a stated profession: and with their poetry the Goths imported into Europe a species of poets or singers, whom they called SCALDS or POLISHERS of LANGUAGE. This order of men, as we shall see more distinctly below, was held in the highest honour and veneration: they received the most liberal rewards for their verses, attended the festivals of heroic chiefs, accompanied them in battle, and celebrated their victories
The Sogdians were a people who lived eastward of the Caspian sea, not far from the country of Odin's Goths. Quintus Curtius relates, that when some of that people were condemned to death by Alexander on account of a revolt, they rejoiced greatly, and testified their joy by SINGING VERSES and dancing. When the king enquired the reason of their joy, they answered,
"that being soon to be RESTORED TO THEIR ANCESTORS by so great a conqueror, they could not help celebrating so honourable a death, which was the WISH of all brave men, in their own ACCUSTOMED SONGS."
Lib. vii. c. 8.
I am obliged to doctor Percy for pointing out this passage. From the correspondence of manners and principles it holds forth between the Scandinavians and the Sogdians, it contains a striking proof of Odin's migration from the east to the north: first, in the spontaneous exercise of the poetical talent; and secondly, in the opinion, that a glorious or warlike death, which admitted them to the company of their friends and parents in another world, was to be embraced with the most eager alacrity, and the highest sensations of pleasure. This is the doctrine of the Edda. In the same spirit, RIDENS MORIAR is the triumphant close of Regner Lodbrog's dying ode. [See Keysler, ubi infr. p. 127.] I cannot help adding here another stroke from this ode, which seems also to be founded on eastern manners. He speaks with great rapture of drinking,
"ex concavis crateribus craniorum."
The inhabitants of the island of Ceylon to this day carouse at their feasts, from cups or bowls made of the sculls of their deceased ancestors. Ives's VOYAGE TO INDIA, ch. 5. p. 62. Lond. 1773. 4to. This practice these islanders undoubtedly received from the neighbouring continent. Compare Keysler, Antiquitat. Sel. Septentrional. p. 362. seq.
.
These Scandinavian bards appear to have been esteemed and entertained in other countries besides their own, and by that means to have probably communicated their fictions to various parts of Europe. I will give my reasons for this supposition.
In the early ages of Europe, before many regular governments took place, revolutions, emigrations, and invasions, were frequent and almost universal. Nations were alternately destroyed or formed; and the want of political security exposed the inhabitants of every country to a state of eternal fluctuation. That Britain was originally peopled from Gaul, a nation of the Celts, is allowed: but that many colonies from the northern parts of Europe were afterwards successively planted in Britain and the neighbouring islands, is an hypothesis equally rational, and not altogether destitute of historical evidence. Nor was any nation more likely than the Scandinavian Goths, I mean in their early periods, to make descents on Britain. They possessed the spirit of adventure in an eminent degree. They were habituated to dangerous enterprises. They were acquainted with distant coasts, exercised in navigation, and fond of making expeditions, in hopes of conquest, and in search of new acquisitions. As to Scotland and Ireland, there is the highest probability, that the Scutes, who conquered both those countries, and possessed them under the names of Albin Scutes and Irin Scutes, were a people of Norway. The Caledonians are expressly called by many judicious antiquaries a Scandinavian colony. The names of places and persons, over all that part of Scotland which the Picts inhabited, are of Scandinavian extraction. A simple catalogue of them only, would immediately convince us, that they are not of Celtic, or British, origin. Flaherty reports it as a received opinion, and a general doctrine, that the Picts migrated into Britain and Ireland from Scandinavia
It is conjectured by Wormius, that
Ireland
is derived from the Runic Yr, a bow, for the use of which the Irish were once famous. Lit. Run. c. xvii. p. 101. The Asiatics near the lake Maeotis, from which Odin led his colony in Europe, were celebrated archers. Hence Hercules in Theocritus, Idyll. xiii. 56.
—
.
Compare Salmas. de Hellen. p. 369. And Flahert. Ogyg. Part. iii. cap. xviii. p. 188. edit. 1685. Stillingfleet's Orig. Brit. Praef. p. xxxviii.
. I forbear to accumulate a pedantic parade of authorities on this occasion: nor can it be expected that I should enter into a formal and exact examination of this obscure and complicated subject in its full extent, which is here only introduced incidentally. I will only add, that Scotland and Ireland, as being situated more to the north, and probably less difficult of access than Britain, might have been objects on which our northern adventurers were invited to try some of their earliest excursions: and that the Orkney-islands remained long under the jurisdiction of the Norwegian potentates.
In these expeditions, the northern emigrants, as we shall prove more particularly below, were undoubtedly attended by their scalds or poets. Yet even in times of peace, and without the supposition of conquest or invasion, the Scandinavian scalds might have been well known in the British islands. Possessed of a specious and pleasing talent, they frequented the courts of the British, Scottish, and Irish chieftains. They were itinerants by their institution, and made voyages, out of curiosity, or in quest of rewards, to those islands or coasts which lay within the circle of their maritime knowledge. By these means, they established an interest, rendered their profession popular, propagated their art, and circulated their fictions, in other countries, and at a distance from home. Torfaeus asserts positively, that various Islandic odes now remain, which were sung by the Scandinavian bards before the kings of England and Ireland, and for which they received liberal gratuities
Torf. Hist. Orcad. in Praefat.
. They were more especially caressed and rewarded at the courts of those princes, who were distinguished for their warlike character, and their passion for military glory.
Olaus Wormius informs us, that great numbers of the northern scalds constantly resided in the courts of the kings of Sweden, Denmark, and England
Lit. Dan. p. 195. ed. 4to.
. Hence the tradition in an antient Islandic Saga, or poetical history, may be explained; which says, that Odin's language was originally used, not only in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but even in England
Bartholin. iii. 2. p. 651. It was a constant old British tradition, that king Arthur conquered Ireland, Gothland, Denmark, and Norway. See Galfrid. Monum. ix. 11. Rob. of Glouc. ed. Hearne, p. 180. 182. What is said in the text must have greatly facilitated the Saxon and Danish conquests in England. The works of the genuine Caedmon are written in the language of the antient Angles, who were nearly connected with the Jutes. Hence that language resembled the antient Danish, as appears from passages of Caedmon cited by Wanley. Hence also it happened, that the later Dano-Saxonic dialect, in which Junius's POETICAL PARAPHRASE OF GENESIS was written, is likewise so very similar to the language of the antient Angles, who settled in the more northern parts of England. And in this dialect, which indeed prevailed in some degree almost over all England, many other poems are composed, mentioned likewise in Wanley's Catalogue. It is the constant doctrine of the Danish historians, that the Danes and Angles, whose successors gave the name to this island, had the same origin.
. Indeed it may be naturally concluded from these suggestions, that the Scandinavian tongue became familiar in the British islands by the songs of the scalds: unless it be rather presumed, that a previous knowledge of that tongue in Britain was the means of facilitating the admission of those poets, and preparing the way for their reception.
And here it will be much to our present argument to observe, that some of the old Gothic and Scandinavian superstitions are to this day retained in the English language. MARA, from whence our Night-mare is derived, was in the Runic theology a spirit or spectre of the night, which seized men in their sleep, and suddenly deprived them of speech and motion
See Keysler, Antiquitat. Sel. Septentrional. p. 497. edit. 1720.
. NICKA was the Gothic demon who inhabited the element of water, and who strangled persons that were drowning
See Keysler, ut supr. p. 261. And in ADDEND. ibid. p. 588.
. BOH was one of the most fierce and formidable of the Gothic generals
See Keysler, ibid. p. 105. p. 130.
, and the son of Odin: the mention of whose name only was sufficient to spread an immediate panic among his enemies
See Temple's Essays, part 4. pag. 346. See also instances of conformity between English and Gothic superstitions in Bartholinus, L. ii. cap. 2. p. 262. 266. It may be urged, that these superstitions might be introduced by the Danes; of whom I shall speak below. But this brings us to just the same point. The learned Hickes was of opinion, from a multitude of instances, that our trials by a jury of Twelve, was an early Scandinavian institution, and that it was brought from thence into England. Yet he supposes, at a period later than is necessary, the Norman invasion. See Wootton's Conspectus of Hickes's Thesaur. pag. 46. Lond. 1708. And Hickes. Thesaur. Dissertat. Epistol. vol. i. p. 38. seq. The number TWELVE was sacred among the Septentrional tribes. Odin's Judges are TWELVE, and have TWELVE seats in Gladheim. EDD. ISL. fab. vii. The God of the Edda has TWELVE names, ibid. fab. i. An Aristocracy of TWELVE is a well known antient establishment in the north. In the Dialogue between Hervor and Angantyr, the latter promises to give Hervor TWELVE MENS DEATHS. Hervarer-Saga, apud Ol. Verel. cap. vii. p. 91. The Druidical circular monuments of separate stones erect, are more frequently of the number TWELVE, than of any other number. See Borlase, ANTIQUIT. Cornw. B. iii. ch. vii. edit. 1769. fol. And Toland, Hist. Druid. p. 89. 158. 160. Se also Martin's Hebrid. p. 9. In Zealand and Sweden, many antient circular monuments, consisting each of twelve rude stones, still remain, which were the places of judicature. My late very learned, ingenious, and respected friend, doctor Borlase, pointed out to me monuments of the same sort in Cornwall. Compare Keysler, p. 93. And it will illustrate remarks already made, and the principles insinuated in this Dissertation, to observe, that these monuments are found in Persia near Tanris. Geoffrey of Monmouth affords instances in his British History. The knights sent into Wales by Fitzhammon, in 1091, were TWELVE. Powel, p. 124. sub anno. See also an instance in Du Carell, Anglo-Norman ANTIQ. p. 9. It is probable that Charlemagne formed his TWELVE PEERS on this principle. From whom Spenser evidently took his TWELVE KNIGHTS.
.
The fictions of Odin and of his Scandinavians, must have taken still deeper root in the British islands, at least in England, from the Saxon and Danish invasions.
That the tales of the Scandinavian scalds flourished among the Saxons, who succeeded to the Britons, and became possessors of England in the sixth century, may be justly presumed
"Ex vetustioribus poetis Cimbrorum, nempe Scaldis et Theotiscae gentis versificatoribus, plane multa, ut par est credere, sumpsere."
Hickes. Thesaur. i. p. 101.
See p. 117.
. The Saxons were originally seated in the Cimbric Chersonese, or those territories which have been since called Jutland, Angelen, and Holstein; and were fond of tracing the descent of their princes from Odin
See Gibson's Chron. Saxon. p. 12. seq. Historians mention WODEN'S BEORTH, i. e. Woden's hill, in Wiltshire. See Milton, Hist. Engl. An. 588.
. They were therefore a part of the Scandinavian tribes. They imported with them into England the old Runic language and letters. This appears from inscriptions on coins
See Sir A. Fountaine's Pref. Saxon Money. OFFA. REX. SC. BOTRED MONETARIUS, &c. See also Serenii Diction. Anglo-Suecico-Latin. Praef. pag. 21.
, stones
See Hickes's Thesaur. BAPTISTERIUM BRIDEKIRKENSE. Par. iii. p. 4. Tab. ii
SAXUM REVELLENSE
apud Scotos.
Ibid. Tab. iv. pag. 5.—CRUX LAPIDEA
apud Beaucastle.
Wanley Catal. MSS. Anglo-Sax. pag. 248. ad calc. Hickes. Thesaur. ANNULUS AUREUS. Drake's York, Append. p. 102. Tab. N. 26. And Gordon's Itin. Septentr. p. 168.
, and other monuments; and from some of their manuscripts
See Hickes's Thesaur. Par. i. pag. 135. 136. 148. Par. iii. Tab. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. It may be conjectured, that these characters were introduced by the Danes. It is certain that they never grew into common use. They were at least inconvenient, as consisting of capitals. We have no remains of Saxon writing so old as the sixth century. Nor are there any of the seventh, except a very few charters. [Bibl. Bodl. NE. D. 11. 19. seq.] See Hickes's Thesaur. Par. i. pag. 169. See also CHARTA ODILREDI AD MONASTERIUM DE BERKING. Tab. i. Casley's Cat. Bibl. Reg. In the British Museum.
. It is well known that Runic inscriptions have been discovered in Cumberland and Scotland: and that there is even extant a coin of king Offa, with a Runic legend
See ARCHAEOL. vol. ii. p. 131. A. D. 1773. 4to.
. But the conversion of the Saxons to christianity, which happened before the seventh century, entirely banished the common use of those characters
But see Hickes, ubi supr. i. p. 140.
, which were esteemed unhallowed and necromantic; and with their antient superstitions, which yet prevailed for some time in the popular belief, abolished in some measure their native and original vein of poetic fabling
It has been suggested to me by an ingenious friend, that GUY and sir BEVIS, the first of which lived in the reign of Athelstan, and the latter, as some suppose, in that of Edgar, both christian champions against the pagan Danes, were originally subjects of the genuine Saxon bards. But I rather think, they begun to be celebrated in or after the crusades; the nature of which expeditions dictated to the romance-writers, and brought into vogue, stories of christians fighting with infidel heroes. The cause was the same, and the circumstances partly parallel; and this being once the fashion, they consulted their own histories for heroes, and combats were feigned with Danish giants, as well as with the Saracen. See infr. SECT. iii. p. 142. 143. 145. There is the story of BEVIS in British, YSTORI BOUN O HAMTUN. Lhuyd's Arch. Brit. p. 264.
. They suddenly became a mild and polished people, addicted to the arts of peace, and the exercise of devotion; and the poems they have left us are chiefly moral rhapsodies, scriptural histories, or religious invocations
Except an ode on Athelstan, translated below. See SECT. i. p. z. See also the description of the city of Durham. Hickes, p. 179. It has nothing of the wild strain of poetry. The saints and relics of Durham church seem to have struck the poet most, in describing that city. I cannot discern the supposed sublimity of those mysterious dithyrambics, which close the Saxon MENOLOGE, or poetic calendar, written about the tenth century, printed by Hickes, Gramm. Anglo-Sax. p. 207. They seem to be prophesies and proverbs; or rather, splendid fragments from different poems, thrown together without connection.
. Yet even in these pieces they have frequent allusions to the old scaldic fables and heroes. Thus, in an Anglo-Saxon poem on Judith, Holofernes is called BALDER, or
leader and prince of warriors.
And in a poetical paraphrase on Genesis, Abimelech has the same appellation
See Hickes. Thesaur. i. p. 10. Who adds many more instances.
. This Balder was a famous chieftain of the Asiatic Goths, the son of Odin, and supposed to inhabit a magnificent hall in the future place of rewards. The same Anglo-Saxon paraphrast, in his prosopopea of Satan addressing his companions plunged in the infernal abyss, adopts many images and expressions used in the very sublime description of the Eddic hell
Fab. xlix. See Hickes, ubi supr. p. 116.
: Henry of Huntingdon complains of certain
extraneous words
and
uncommon figures
of speech, in a Saxon ode on a victory of king Athelstan
Who has greatly misrepresented the sense by a bad Latin translation. Hist. Lib. v. p. 203.
. These were all scaldic expressions or allusions. But I will give a literal English translation of this poem, which cannot be well understood without premising its occasion. In the year 938, Anlaff, a pagan king of the Hybernians and the adjacent isles, invited by Constantine king of the Scots, entered the river Abi or Humber with a strong fleet. Our Saxon king Athelstan, and his brother Eadmund Clito, met them with a numerous army, near a place called Brunenburgh; and after a most obstinate and bloody resistance, drove them back to their ships. The battle lasted from daybreak till the evening. On the side of Anlaff were slain six petty kings, and seven chiefs or generals.
"King Adelstan, the glory of leaders, the giver of gold chains to his nobles, and his brother Eadmund, both shining with the brightness of a long train of ancestors, struck [the adversary] in war; at Brunenburgh, with the edge of the sword, they clove the wall of shields. The high banners fell. The earls of the departed Edward fell; for it was born within them, even from the loins of their kindred, to defend the treasures and the houses of their country, and their gifts, against the hatred of strangers. The nation of the Scots, and the fatal inhabitants of ships, fell. The hills resounded, and the armed men were covered with sweat. From the time the sun, the king of stars, the torch of the eternal one, rose chearful above the hills, till he returned to his habitation. There lay many of the northern men, pierced with lances; they lay wounded, with their shields pierced through: and also the Scots, the hateful harvest of battle. The chosen bands of the West-Saxons, going out to battle, pressed on the steps of the detested nations, and slew their flying rear with sharp and bloody swords. The soft effeminate men yielded up their spears. The Mercians did not fear or fly the rough game of the hand. There was no safety to them, who sought the land with Anlaff in the bosom of the ship, to die in fight. Five youthful kings fell in the place of fight, slain with swords; and seven captains of Anlaff, with the innumerable army of Scottish mariners: there the lord of the Normans [Northern-men] was chased; and their army, now made small, was driven to the prow of the ship. The ship sounded with the waves; and the king, marching into the yellow sea, escaped alive. And so it was, the wise northern king Constantine, a veteran chief, returning by flight to his own army, bowed down in the camp, left his own son worn out with wounds in the place of slaughter; in vain did he lament his earls, in vain his lost friends. Nor less did Anlaff, the yellowhaired leader, the battle-ax of slaughter, a youth in war, but an old man in understanding, boast himself a conqueror in fight, when the darts flew against Edward's earls, and their banners met. Then those northern soldiers, covered with shame, the sad refuse of darts in the resounding whirlpool of Humber, departed in their ships with rudders, to seek through the deep the Irish city and their own land. While both the brothers, the king and Clito, lamenting even their own victory, together returned home; leaving behind them the flesh-devouring raven, the dark-blue toad greedy of slaughter, the black crow with horny bill, and the hoarse toad, the eagle a companion of battles with the devouring kite, and that brindled savage beast the wolf of the wood, to be glutted with the white food of the slain. Never was so great a slaughter in this island, since the Angles and Saxons, the fierce beginners of war, coming hither from the east, and seeking Britain through the wide sea, overcame the Britons excelling in honour, and gained possession of their land
The original was first printed by Wheloc in the Saxon Chronicle, p. 555. Cant. 1644. See Hickes. Thes. Praefat. p xiv. And ibid. Gramm. Anglo-Sax. p. 181.
."
This piece, and many other Saxon odes and songs now remaining, are written in a metre much resembling that of the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr, which has been beautifully translated into English, in the true spirit of the original, and in a genuine strain of poetry, by Gray. The extemporaneous effusions of the glowing bard seem naturally to have fallen into this measure, and it was probably more easily suited to the voice or harp. Their versification for the most part seems to have been that of the Runic poetry.
As literature, the certain attendant, as it is the parent, of true religion and civility, gained ground among the Saxons, poetry no longer remained a separate science, and the profession of bard seems gradually to have declined among them: I mean the bard under those appropriated characteristics, and that peculiar appointment, which he sustained among the Scandinavian pagans. Yet their national love of verse and music still so strongly predominated, that in the place of their old scalders a new rank of poets arose, called GLEEMEN or Harpers
GLEEMAN answers to the Latin JOCULATOR. Fabyan, speaking of Blagebride, an antient British king, famous for his skill in poetry and music, calls him
"a conynge musicyan, called of the Britons god of GLEEMEN.
CHRON. f. xxxii. ed. 1533.
This, Fabyan translated from Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of the same British king,
"ut DEUS JOCULATORUM videretur."
Hist. Brit. lib. i. cap. 22.
Itappears from the injunctions given to the British church in the year 680, that female harpers were not then uncommon. It is decreed that no bishop, or any ecclesiastic, shall keep or have CITHARAEDAS, and it is added QUAECUMQUE SYMPHONIACA; nor permit plays or sports, LUDOS VEL JOCOS, undoubtedly mimical and gesticulatory entertainments, to be exhibited in his presence. Malmesb. Gest. Pontif. lib. iii. p. 263. edit. vet. And Concil. Spelman. tom. i. p. 159. edit. 1639. fol.
. These probably gave rise to the order of English Minstrels, who flourished till the sixteenth century.
And here I stop to point out one of the principal reasons, why the Scandinavian bards have transmitted to modern times so much more of their native poetry, than the rest of their southern neighbours. It is true, that the inhabitants of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, whether or no from their Asiatic origin, from their poverty which compelled them to seek fortunes at foreign courts by the exercise of a popular art, from the success of their bards, the nature of their republican government, or their habits of unsettled life, were more given to verse than any other Gothic, or even Celtic, tribe. But this is not all: they remained pagans, and retained their original manners, much longer than any of their Gothic kindred. They were not completely converted to christianity till the tenth century
See bishop Lloyd's Hist. Account of Church Government in Great Britain, &c. chap. i. §. 11. pag. 4to. Lond. 1684. And Crymog. Arngrim. L. i. cap. 10. p. 104.
. Hence, under the concurrence however of some of the causes just mentioned, their scaldic profession acquired greater degrees of strength and of maturity: and from an uninterrupted possession through many ages of the most romantic religious superstitions, and the preservation of those rough manners which are so favourable to the poetical spirit, was enabled to produce, not only more genuine, but more numerous, compositions. True religion would have checked the impetuosity of their passions, suppressed their wild exertions of fancy, and banished that striking train of imagery, which their poetry derived from a barbarous theology. This circumstance also suggests to our consideration, those superior advantages and opportunities arising from leisure and length of time, which they enjoyed above others, of circulating their poetry far and wide, of giving a general currency to their mode of fabling, of rendering their skill in versification more universally and familiarly known, and a more conspicuous and popular object of admiration or imitation to the neighbouring countries. Hence too it has happened, that modern times have not only attained much fuller information concerning their historical transactions, but are so intimately acquainted with the peculiarities of their character.
It is probable, that the Danish invasions produced a considerable alteration in the manners of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Although their connections with England were transient and interrupted, and on the whole scarcely lasted two hundred years, yet many of the Danish customs began to prevail among the inhabitants, which seem to have given a new turn to their temper and genius. The Danish fashion of excessive drinking, for instance, a vice almost natural to the northern nations, became so general among the Anglo-Saxons, that it was found necessary to restrain so pernicious and contagious a practice by a particular statute
See Lambarde's Archaionom. And Bartholin. ii. c. xii. p. 542.
. Hence it seems likely, that so popular an entertainment as their poetry gained ground; especially if we consider, that in their expeditions against England they were of course attended by many northern scalds, who constantly made a part of their military retinue, and whose language was understood by the Saxons. Rogwald, lord of the Orcades, who was also himself a poet, going on an expedition into Palestine, carried with him two Islandic bards
g Ol. Worm. Lit. Run. p. 195. edit. 1636.
. The noble ode, called in the northern chronicles the ELOGIUM OF HACON
In this ode are these very sublime imageries and prosopopeas.
"The goddesses who preside over battles come, sent forth by Odin. They go to chuse among the princes of the illustrious race of Yngvon a man who is to perish, and to go to dwell in the palace of the gods."
"Gondola leaned on the end of her lance, and thus bespoke her companions. The assembly of the gods is going to be increased: the gods invite Hacon, with his numerous host, to enter the palace of Odin."
"Thus spake these glorious nymphs of war: who were seated on their horses, who were covered with their shields and helmets, and appeared full of some great thought."
"Hacon heard their discourse. Why, said he, why hast thou thus disposed of the battle? Were we not worthy to have obtained of the gods a more perfect victory? It is we, she replied, who have given it thee. It is we who have put thine enemies to flight."
"Now, added she, let us push forward our steeds across those green worlds, which are the residence of the god
. Let us go tell Odin that the king is coming to visit him in his palace."
"When Odin heard this news, he said, Hermode and Brago, my sons, go to meet the king: a king, admired by all men for his valour, approaches to our hall."
"At length king Hacon approaches; and arriving from the battle is still all besprinkled and running down with blood. At the sight of Odin he cries out, Ah! how severe and terrible does this god appear to me!"
"The hero Brago replies, Come, thou that wast the terror of the bravest warriors: Come hither, and rejoin thine eight brothers: the heroes who reside here shall live with thee in peace: Go, drink Ale in the circle of heroes."
"But this valiant king exclaims, I will still keep my arms: a warrior ought carefully to preserve his mail and helmet: it is dangerous to be a moment without the spear in one's hand."—
"The wolf Fenris shall burst his chain
and dart with rage upon his enemies, before so brave a king shall again appear upon earth, &c."
Snorron. Hist. Reg. Sept. i. p. 163.
This ode was written so early as the year 960. There is a great variety and boldness in the transitions. An action is carried on by a set of the most aweful ideal personages, finely imagined. The goddesses of battle, Odin, his sons Hermode and Brago, and the spectre of the deceased king, are all introduced, speaking and acting as in a drama. The panegyric is nobly conducted, and arises out of the sublimity of the fiction.
, king of Norway, was composed on a battle in which that prince, with eight of his brothers fell, by the scald Eyvynd; who for his superior skill in poetry was called the CROSS of POETS, and fought in the battle which he celebrated. Hacon earl of Norway was accompanied by five celebrated bards in the battle of Jomsburgh: and we are told, that each of them sung an ode to animate the soldiers before the engagement began
Bartholin. p. 172.
. They appear to have been regularly brought into action. Olave, a king of Norway, when his army was prepared for the onset, placed three scalds about him, and exclaimed aloud,
"You shall not only record in your verses what you have HEARD, but what you have SEEN."
They each delivered an ode on the spot
Olaf. Sag. apud Verel. ad HERV. SAG. p. 178. Bartholin. p. 172.
. These northern chiefs appear to have so frequently hazarded their lives with such amazing intrepidity, merely in expectation of meriting a panegyric from their poets, the judges, and the spectators of their gallant behaviour. That scalds were common in the Danish armies when they invaded England, appears from a stratagem of Alfred; who, availing himself of his skill in oral poetry and playing on the harp, entered the Danish camp habited in that character, and procured a hospitable reception. This was in the year 878
Ingulph: Hist. p. 869. Malmesb. ii. c. 4. p. 43.
. Anlaff, a Danish king, used the same disguise for reconnoitring the camp of our Saxon monarch Athelstan: taking his station near Athelstan's pavilion, he entertained the king and his chiefs with his verses and music, and was dismissed with an honourable reward
Malmesb. ii. 6. I am aware, that the truth of both these anecdotes respecting Alfred and Anlaff has been controverted. But no sufficient argument has yet been offered for pronouncing them spurious, or even suspicious. See an ingenious Dissertation in the ARCHAEOLOGIA, vol. ii. p. 100. seq. A. D. 1773. 4to.
. As Anlaff's dialect must have discovered him to have been a Dane; here is a proof, of what I shall bring more, that the Saxons, even in the midst of mutual hostilities, treated the Danish scalds with favour and respect. That the Islandic bards were common in England during the Danish invasions, there are numerous proofs. Egill, a celebrated Islandic poet, having murthered the son and many of the friends of Eric Blodoxe, king of Denmark or Norway, then residing in Northumberland, and which he had just conquered, procured a pardon by singing before the king, at the command of his queen Gunhilde, an extemporaneous ode
See Crymogr. Angrim. Jon. Lib. ii. pag. 125 edit. 1609.
. Egill compliments the king, who probably was his patron, with the appellation of the English chief.
"I offer my freight to the king. I owe a poem for my ransom. I present to the ENGLISH CHIEF the mead of Odin
See Ol. Worm. Lit. Run. p. 227. 195. All the chiefs of Eric were also present at the recital of this ode, which is in a noble strain.
."
Afterwards he calls this Danish conqueror the commander of the Scottish fleet.
"The commander of the Scottish fleet fattened the ravenous birds. The sister of Nera [Death] trampled on the foe: she trampled on the evening food of the eagle."
The Scots usually joined the Danish or Norwegian invaders in their attempts on the northern parts of Britain
See the Saxon epinicion in praise of king Athelstan. supr. citat. Hen. Hunting. L. v. p. 203. 204.
: and from this circumstance a new argument arises, to shew the close communication and alliance which must have subsisted between Scotland and Scandinavia. Egill, although of the enemy's party, was a singular favourite of king Athelstan. Athelstan once asked Egill how he escaped due punishment from Eric Blodoxe, the king of Northumberland, for the very capital and enormous crime which I have just mentioned. On which Egill immediately related the whole of that transaction to the Saxon king, in a sublime ode still extant
Torfaeus Hist. Orcad. Praefat.
"Rei statim ordinem metro nunc satis obscuro exposuit."
Torfaeus adds, which is much to our purpose,
"nequaquam ita narraturus NON INTELLIGENTI."
. On another occasion Athelstan presented Egill with two rings, and two large cabinets filled with silver; promising at the same time, to grant him any gift or favour which he should chuse to request. Egill, struck with gratitude, immediately composed a panegyrical poem in the Norwegian language, then common to both nations, on the virtues of Athelstan, which the latter as generously requited with two marcs of pure gold
Crymog. Arn. Jon. p. 129. ut supr.
. Here is likewise another argument that the Saxons had no small esteem for the scaldic poetry. It is highly reasonable to conjecture, that our Danish king Canute; a potentate of most extensive jurisdiction, and not only king of England, but of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, was not without the customary retinue of the northern courts, in which the scalds held so distinguished and important a station. Human nature, in a savage state, aspires to some species of merit; and in every stage of society is alike susceptible of flattery, when addressed to the reigning passion. The sole object of these northern princes was military glory. It is certain that Canute delighted in this mode of entertainment, which he patronised and liberally rewarded. It is related in KNYTLINGA-SAGA, or Canute's History, that he commanded the scald Loftunga to be put to death, for daring to comprehend his atchievements in too concise a poem.
"Nemo, said he, ante te, ausus est de me BREVES CANTILENAS componere."
A curious picture of the tyrant, the patron, and the barbarian, united! But the bard extorted a speedy pardon, and with much address, by producing the next day before the king at dinner an ode of more than thirty strophes, for which Canute gave him fifty marcs of purified silver
Bartholin. Antiquit. Danic. Lib. i. cap. 10. p. 169. 170. See KNYTLINGA SAGA, in Catal. Codd. MSS. Bibl. Holm. Hickes. Thesaur. ii. 312.
. In the mean time, the Danish language began to grow perfectly familiar in England. It was eagerly learned by the Saxon clergy and nobility, from a principle of ingratiating themselves with Canute: and there are many manuscripts now remaining, by which it will appear, that the Danish runes were much studied among our Saxon ancestors, under the reign of that monarch
Hickes, ubi supr. i. 134. 136.
.
The songs of the Irish bards are by some conceived to be strongly marked with the traces of scaldic imagination; and these traces, which will be reconsidered, are believed still to survive among a species of poetical historians, whom they call TALE-TELLERS, supposed to be the descendants of the original Irish bards
We are informed by the Irish historians, that saint Patrick, when he converted Ireland to the Christian faith, destroyed three hundred volumes of the songs of the Irish bards. Such was their dignity in this country, that they were permitted to wear a robe of the same colour with that of the royal family. They were constantly summoned to a triennial festival: and the most approved songs delivered at this assembly were ordered to be preserved in the custody of the king's historian or antiquary. Many of these compositions are referred to by Keating, as the foundation of his history of Ireland. Ample estates were appropriated to them, that they might live in a condition of independence and ease. The profession was hereditary: but when a bard died, his estate devolved not to his eldest son, but to such of his family as discovered the most distinguished talents for poetry and music. Every principal bard retained thirty of inferior note, as his attendants; and a bard of the secondary class was followed by a retinue of fifteen. They seem to have been at their height in the year 558. See Keating's History of Ireland, p. 127. 132. 370. 380. And Pref. p. 23. None of their poems have been translated.
There is an article in the LAWS of Keneth king of Scotland, promulged in the year 850, which places the bards of Scotland, who certainly were held in equal esteem with those of the neighbouring countries, in the lowest station.
"Fugitivos, BARDOS, otio addictos, s
urras et hujusmodi hominum genus, loris et flagris caedunto."
Apud Hector. Boeth. Lib. x. p. 201. edit. 1574.
But Salmasius very justly observes, that for BARDOS we should read VARGOS, or VERGOS, i. e. Vagabonds..
. A writer of equal elegance and veracity city relates,
"that a gentleman of the north of Ireland has often told me of his own experience, that in his wolfhuntings there, when he used to be abroad in the mountains three or four days together, and laid very ill in the night, so as he could not well sleep, they would bring him one of these TALE-TELLERS, that when he lay down would begin a story of a KING, or a GIANT, a DWARF, and a DAMSEL
Sir W. Temple's Essays, part iv. p. 349.
."
These are topics in which the Runic poetry is said to have been greatly conversant.
Nor is it improbable that the Welsh bards
The bards of Britain were originally a constitutional appendage of the druidical hierarchy. In the parish of Llanidan in the isle of Anglesey, there are still to be seen the ruins of an arch-druid's mansion, which they call TRER DREW, that is the DRUID'S MANSION. Near it are marks of the habitations of the separate conventual societies, which were under his immediate orders and inspection. Among these is TRER BEIRD, or, as they call it to this day, the HAMLET OF THE BARDS. Rowlands's MONA, p. 83. 88. But so strong was the attachment of the Celtic nations, among which we reckon Britain, to poetry, that, amidst all the changes of government and manners, even long after the order of Druids was extinct, and the national religion altered, the bards, acquiring a sort of civil capacity, and a new establishment, still continued to flourish. And with regard to Britain, the bards flourished most in those parts of it, which most strongly retained their native Celtic character. The Britons living in those countries that were between the Trent or Humber and the Thames, by far the greatest portion of this island, in the midst of the Roman garrisons and colonies, had been so long inured to the customs of the Romans, that they preserved very little of the British; and from this long and habitual intercourse, before the fifth century, they seem to have lost their original language. We cannot discover the slightest trace, in the poems of the bards, the LIVES of the British saints, or any other antient monument, that they held any correspondence with the Welsh, the Cornish, the Cumbrian, or the Strathcluyd Britons. Among other British institutions grown obsolete among them, they seem to have lost the use of Bards; at least there are no memorials of any they had, nor any of their songs remaining: nor do the Welsh or Cumbrian poets ever touch upon any transactions that passed in those countries, after they were relinquished by the Romans.
And here we see the reason why the Welsh bards flourished so much and so long. But moreover the Welsh, kept in awe as they were by the Romans, harrassed by the Saxons, and eternally jealous of the attacks, the encroachments, and the neighbourhood of aliens, were on this account attached to their Celtic manners: this situation, and these circumstances, inspired them with a pride and an obstinacy for mantaining a national distinction, and for preserving their antient usages, among which the bardic profession is so eminent.
might have been acquainted with the Scandinavian scalds. I mean before their communications with Armorica, mentioned at large above. The prosody of the Welsh bards depended much on alliteration
See infr. SECT. x. p. 32.
. Hence they seem to have paid an attention to the scaldic versification. The Islandic poets are said to have carried alliteration to the highest pitch of exactness in their earliest periods: whereas the Welsh bards of the sixth century used it but sparingly, and in a very imperfect degree. In this circumstance a proof of imitation, at least of emulation, is implied
I am however informed by a very intelligent antiquary in British literature, that there are manifest marks of alliteration in some druidical fragments still remaining, undoubtedly composed before the Britons could have possibly mixed in the smallest degree with any Gothic nation. Rhyme is likewise found in the British poetry at the earliest period, in those druidical triplets called ENGLYN MILWR, or the WARRIOR'S SONG, in which every verse is closed with a consonant syllable. See a metrical Druid oracle in Borlase's Antiquit. Cornwall. B. iii. ch. 5. p. 185. edit. 1769.
. There are moreover, strong instances of conformity between the manners of the two nations; which, however, may be accounted for on general principles arising from our comparative observations on rude life. Yet it is remarkable that mead, the northern nectar, or favourite liquor of the Goths
And of the antient Franks. Gregory of Tours mentions a Frank drinking this liquor; and adds, that he acquired this habit from the BARBAROUS or Frankish nations. Hist. Franc. lib. viii. c. 33. p. 404. ed. 1699. Paris. fol.
, who seem to have stamped it with the character of a poetical drink, was no less celebrated among the Welsh
See infr. SECT. xvi. p. 430.
. The songs of both nations abound with its praises: and it seems in both to have been alike the delight of the warrior and the bard. Taliessin, as Lhuyd informs us, wrote a panegyrical ode on this inspring beverage of the bee; or, as he translates it, De Mulsorum HYDROMELI
Tanner Bibl. p. 706.
. In Hoel Dha's Welsh laws, translated by Wootton, we have,
"In omni convivio in quo MULSUM bibitur
LEG. WALL. L. i. cap. xxiv. p. 45.
."
From which passage, it seems to have been served up only at high festivals. By the same constitutions, at every feast in the king's castlehall, the prefect or marshal of the hall is to receive from the queen, by the hands of the steward, a HORN OF MEAD. It is also ordered, among the privileges annexed to the office of prefect of the royal hall, that the king's bard shall sing to him as often as he pleases
Ibid. L. i. cap. xii. p. 17.
. One of the stated officers of the king's houshold is CONFECTOR MULSI: and this officer, together with the master of the horse
When the king makes a present of a horse, this officer is to receive a fee; but not when the present is made to a bishop, the master of the hawks, or to the Mimus. The latter is exempt, on account of the entertainment he afforded the court at being presented with a horse by the king: the horse is to be led out of the hall with
capistrum testiculis alligatum.
Ibid. L. i. cap. xvii. p. 31. MIMUS seems here to be a MIMIC, or a gesticulator. Carpentier mentions a
"JOCULATOR qui sciebat TOMBARE, to
tumble.
"
Cang. Lat. Gloss. Suppl. V. TOMBARE.
In the Saxon canons given by king Edgar, about the year 960, it is ordered, that no priest shall be a POET, or exercise the MIMICAL or histrionical art in
any degree,
either in public or private. Can. 58. Concil. Spelman, tom. i. p. 455. edit. 1639. fol. In Edgar's Oration to Dunstan, the MIMI, Minstrels, are said both to sing and dance. Ibid. p. 477. Much the same injunction occurs in the Saxon Laws of the NORTHUMBRIAN PRIESTS, given in 988. Cap. xli. ibid. p. 498. MIMUS seems sometimes to have signified THE FOOL. As in Gregory of Tours, speaking of the MIMUS of Miro a king of Gallicia.
"Erat enim MIMUS REGIS, qui ei per VERBA JOCULARIA LAETITIAM crat solitus EXCITARE. Sed non cum adjuvit aliquis CACHINNUS, neque praestigiis artis suae, &c."
Gregor. Turonens. MIRACUL. S. Martin. lib. iv. cap. vii. p. 1119. Opp. Paris. 1699. fol. edit. Ruinart.
, the master of the hawks, the smith of the palace
He is to work free: except for making the king's cauldron, the iron bands, and other furniture for his castle-gate, and the iron-work for his mills. LEG. WALL. L. i. cap. xliv. p. 67.
, the royal bard
By these constitutions, given about the year 940, the bard of the Welsh kings is a domestic officer. The king is to allow him a horse and a woollen robe; and the queen a linen garment. The prefect of the palace, or governor of the castle, is privileged to sit next him in the hall, on the three principal feast days, and to put the harp into his hand. On the three feast days he is to have the steward's robe for a fee. He is to attend, if the queen desires a song in her chamber. An ox or cow is to be given out of the booty or prey (chiefly consisting of cattle) taken from the English by the king's domestics: and while the prey is dividing, he is to sing the praises of the BRITISH KINGS or KINGDOM. If, when the king's domestics go out to make depredations, he sings or plays before them, he is to receive the best bullock. When the king's army is in array, he is to sing the Song of the BRITISH KINGS. When invested with his office, the king is to give him a harp, (other constitutions say a chess-board,) and the queen a ring of gold: nor is he to give away the harp on any account. When he goes out of the palace to sing with other bards, he is to receive a double portion of the largesse or gratuity. If he ask a gift or favour of the king, he is to be fined by singing an ode or poem: if of a nobleman or chief, three; if of a vassal, he is to sing him to sleep. LEG. WALL. L. i. cap. xix. p. 35. Mention is made of the bard who gains the CHAIR in the hall. Ibid. ARTIC. 5. After a contest of bards in the hall, the bard who gains the chair, is to give the JUDGE OF THE HALL, another officer, a horn,
(cornu bubalinum)
a ring, and the cushion of his chair. Ibid. L. i. cap. xvi. p. 26. When the king rides out of his castle, five bards are to accompany him. Ibid. L. i. cap. viii. p. 11. The
Cornu Bubalinum
may be explained from a passage in a poem, composed about the year 1160, by Owain Cyveiliog prince of Powis, which he entitled HIRLAS, from a large drinking horn so called, used at feasts in his castle-hall.
"Pour out, o cup-bearer, sweet and pleasant mead (the spear is red in the time of need) from the horns of wild oxen, covered with gold, to the souls of those departed heroes."
Evans, p. 12.
By these laws the king's harp is to be worth one hundred and twenty pence: but that of a gentleman, or one not a vassal, sixty pence. The king's chess-board is valued at the same price: and the instrument for fixing or tuning the strings of the king's harp, at twenty-four pence. His drinking-horn, at one pound. Ibid. L. iii. cap. vii. p. 265.
, the first musician
There are two muficians: the Musicus PRIMARIUS, who probably was a teacher, and certainly a superintendant over the rest; and the HALL-MUSICIAN. LEG. ut supr. L. i. cap. xlv. p. 68.
, with some others, have a right to be
"Jus cathedrae."
Ibid. L. i. cap. x. p. 13.
seated in the hall. We have already seen, that the Scandinavian scalds were well known in Ireland: and there is sufficient evidence to prove, that the Welsh bards were early connected with the Irish. Even so late as the eleventh century, the practice continued among the Welsh bards, of receiving instructions in the bardic profession from Ireland. The Welsh bards were reformed and regulated by Gryffyth ap Conan, king of Wales, in the year 1078. At the same time he brought over with him from Ireland many Irish bards, for the information and improvement of the Welsh
See Selden, Drayt. POLYOLB. S. ix. pag. 156. S. iv. pag. 67. edit. 1613. fol.
. Powell acquaints us, that this prince
"brought over with him from Ireland divers cunning musicians into Wales, who devised in a manner all the instrumental music that is now there used: as appeareth, as well by the bookes written of the same, as also by the names of the tunes and measures used among them to this daie
Hist. of Cambr. p. 191. edit. 1584.
."
In Ireland, to kill a bard was highly criminal: and to seize his estate, even for the public service and in time of national distress, was deemed an act of sacrilege
Keating's Hist. Ireland, pag. 132.
. Thus in the old Welsh laws, whoever even slightly injured a bard, was to be fined six cows and one hundred and twenty pence. The murtherer of a bard was to be fined one hundred and twenty-six cows
LEG. WALL. ut supr. L. i. cap. xix. pag. 35. seq. See also cap. xlv. p. 68. We find the same respect paid to the bard in other constitutions.
"QUI HARPATOREM, &c. whoever shall strike a HARPER who can harp in a public assembly, shall compound with him by a composition of
four times more,
than for any other man of the same condition."
Legg. Ripuariorum et Wesinorum. Lindenbroch. Cod. LL. Antiq. Wisigoth. etc. A. D. 1613. Tit. 5. §. ult.
The caliphs, and other eastern potentates, had their bards: whom they treated with equal respect. Sir John Maundeville, who travelled in 1340, says, that when the emperor of Cathay, or great Cham of Tartary, is seated at dinner in high pomp with his lords,
"no man is so hardi to speak to him except it be MUSICIANS
to solace the emperour.
"
chap. lxvii. p. 100.
Here is another proof of the correspondence between the eastern and northern customs: and this instance might be brought as an argument of the bardic institution being fetched from the east. Leo Afer mentions the
Poetae curiae
of the Caliph's court at Bagdad, about the year 990. De Med. et Philos. Arab. cap. iv. Those poets were in most repute among the Arabians, who could speak extemporaneous verses to the Caliph. Euseb. Renaudot. apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiii. p. 249. Thomson, in the CASTLE of INDOLENCE, mentions the BARD IN WAITING being introduced to lull the Caliph asleep. And Maundeville mentions MINSTRELLES as established officers in the court of the emperor of Cathay.
. Nor must I pass over, what reflects much light on this reasoning, that the establishment of the houshold of the old Irish chiefs, exactly resembles that of the Welsh kings. For, besides the bard, the musician, and the smith, they have both a physician, a huntsman, and other corresponding officers
See Temple, ubi supr. p. 346.
. We must also remember, that an intercourse was necessarily produced between the Welsh and Scandinavians, from the piratical irruptions of the latter: their scalds, as I have already remarked, were respected and patronised in the courts of those princes, whose territories were the principal objects of the Danish invasions. Torfaeus expressly affirms this of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish kings; and it is at least probable, that they were entertained with equal regard by the Welsh princes, who so frequently concurred with the Danes in distressing the English. It may be added, that the Welsh, although living in a separate and detached situation, and so strongly prejudiced in favour of their own usages, yet from neighbourhood, and unavoidable communications of various kinds, might have imbibed the ideas of the Scandinavian bards from the Saxons and Danes, after those nations had occupied and overspread all the other parts of our island.
Many pieces of the Scottish bards are still remaining in the high-lands of Scotland. Of these a curious specimen, and which considered in a more extensive and general respect, is a valuable monument of the poetry of a rude period, has lately been given to the world, under the title of the WORKS OF OSSIAN. It is indeed very remarkable, that in these poems, the terrible graces, which so naturally characterise, and so generally constitute, the early poetry of a barbarous people, should so frequently give place to a gentler set of manners, to the social sensibilities of polished life, and a more civilised and elegant species of imagination. Nor is this circumstance, which disarranges all our established ideas concerning the savage stages of society, easily to be accounted for, unless we suppose, that the Celtic tribes, who were so strongly addicted to poetical composition, and who made it so much their study from the earliest times, might by degrees have attained a higher vein of poetical refinement, than could at first sight or on common principles be expected among nations, whom we are accustomed to call barbarous; that some few instances of an elevated strain of friendship, of love, and other sentimental feelings, existing in such nations, might lay the foundation for introducing a set of manners among the bards, more refined and exalted than the real manners of the country: and that panegyrics on those virtues, transmitted with improvements from bard to bard, must at length have formed characters of ideal excellence, which might propagate among the people real manners bordering on the poetical. These poems, however, notwithstanding the difference between the Gothic and the Celtic rituals, contain many visible vestiges of Scandinavian superstition. The allusions in the songs of Ossian to spirits, who preside over the different parts and direct the various operations of nature, who send storms over the deep, and rejoice in the shrieks of the shipwrecked mariner, who call down lightning to blast the forest or cleave the rock, and diffuse irresistible pestilence among the people, beautifully conducted indeed, and heightened, under the skilful hand of a master bard, entirely correspond with the Runic system, and breathe the spirit of its poetry. One fiction in particular, the most EXTRAVAGANT in all Ossian's poems, is founded on an essential article of the Runic belief. It is where Fingal fights with the spirit of Loda. Nothing could aggrandise Fingal's heroism more highly than this marvellous encounter. It was esteemed among the antient Danes the most daring act of courage to engage with a ghost
Bartholin. De Contemptu Mortis apud Dan. L. ii. c. 2. p. 258. And ibid. p. 260. There are many other marks of Gothic customs and superstitions in Ossian. The fashion of marking the sepulchres of their chiefs with circles of stones, corresponds with what Olaus Wormius relates of the Danes. Monum. Danic. Hafn. 1634. p. 38. See also Ol. Magn. Hist. xvi. 2. In the HERVARER SAGA, the sword of Suarfulama is forged by the dwarfs, and called Tirsing. Hickes, vol. i. p. 193. So Fingal's sword was made by an enchanter, and was called the SON of LUNO. And, what is more, this Luno was the Vulcan of the north, lived in Juteland, and made complete suits of armour for many of the Scandinavian heroes. See TEMORA, B. vii. p. 159. OSSIAN, vol. ii. edit. 1765. Hence the bards of both countries made him a celebrated enchanter. By the way, the names of sword-smiths were thought worthy to be recorded in history. Hoveden says, that when Geoffrey of Plantagenet was knighted, they brought him a sword from the royal treasure, where it had been laid up from old times,
"being the workmanship of GALAN, the most excellent of all sword-smiths."
Hoved. f. 444. ii. SECT. 50.
The mere mechanic, who is only mentioned as a skilful artist in history, becomes a magician or a preternatural being in romance.
. Had Ossian found it convenient, to have introduced religion into his compositions
This perplexing and extraordinary circumstance, I mean the absence of all religious ideas from the poems of Ossian, is accounted for by Mr. Macpherson with much address. See DISSERTATION prefixed, vol. i. p. viii. ix. edit. 1765. See also the elegant CRITICAL DISSERTATION of the very judicious Dr. Blair, vol. ii. p. 379.
, not only a new source had been opened to the sublime, in describing the rites of sacrifice, the horrors of incantation, the solemn evocations of infernal beings, and the like dreadful superstitions, but probably many stronger and more characteristical evidences would have appeared, of his knowledge of the imagery of the Scandinavian poets.
Nor must we forget, that the Scandinavians had conquered many countries bordering upon France in the fourth century
Hickes. Thes. i. part ii. p. 4.
. Hence the Franks must have been in some measure used to their language, well acquainted with their manners, and conversant in their poetry. Charlemagne is said to have delighted in repeating the most antient and barbarous odes, which celebrated the battles of antient kings
Eginhart. cap. viii. n. 34. Bartholin. i. c. 10. p. 154. Diodorus Siculus says, that the Gauls, who were Celts, delivered the spoils won in battle, yet reeking with blood, to their attendants: these were carried in triumph, while an epinicial song was chanted,
. Lib. 5. p. 352. See also p. 308.
"The Celts, says Aelian, I hear, are the most enterprising of men: they make those warriors who die bravely in fight the subject of songs,
."
Var. Hist. Lib. xxii. c. 23.
Posidonius gives us a specimen of the manner of a Celtic bard. He reports, that Lu
rnius, a Celtic chief, was accustomed, out of a desire of popularity, to gather crouds of his people together, and to throw them gold and silver from his chariot. Once he was attended at a sumptuous banquet by one of their bards, who received in reward for his song a purse of gold. On this the bard renewed his song, adding, to express his patron's excessive generosity, this hyperbolical panegyric,
"The earth over which his chariot-wheels pass, instantly brings forth gold and precious gifts to enrich mankind."
Athen. vi. 184.
Tacitus says, that Arminius, the conqueror of Varus,
"is yet sung among the barbarous nations."
That is, probably among the original Germans. A
nal. ii. And Mor. Germ. ii. 3. Joannes Aventinus, a Bavarian, who wrote about the year 1520, has a curious passage,
"A great number of verses in praise of the virtues of Attila, are still extant among us,
patrio sermone more majorum perscripta.
"
Annal. Boior. L. ii. p. 130. edit. 1627.
He immediately adds,
"Nam et adhuc VULGO CANITUR, et est popularibus nostris, etsi LITERARUM RUDIBUS, notissimus."
Again, speaking of Alexander the Great, he says,
"Boios eidem bellum indixisse ANTIQUIS CANITUR CARMINIBUS."
ibid. Lib. i. p. 25.
Concerning king Brennus, says the same historian,
"Carmina
vernacul
sermone
facta legi in bibliothecis."
ibid. Lib. i. p. 16. and p. 26.
And again, of Ingeram, Adalogerion, and others of their ancient heroes,
"Ingerami et Adalogerionis nomina frequentissime in fastis referuntur; ipsos, more majorum,
antiquis proavi celebrarunt carminibus,
quae in bibliothecis extant. Subsequuntur, quos patrio sermone
adhuc canimus,
Laertes atque Ulysses."
ibid. Lib. i. p. 15.
The same historian also relates, that his countrymen had a poetical history called the BOOK of HEROES, containing the atchievements of the German warriors. ibid. Lib. i. p. 18. See also ibid. Lib. vii. p. 432. Lib. i. p. 9. And many other passages to this purpose. Suffridus Petrus cites some old Frisian rhymes, De Orig. Frisior. l. iii. c. 2. Compare Robertson's Hist. Charles V. vol. i. p. 235. edit. 1772. From Trithemius a German abbot and historian, who wrote about 1490, we learn, that among the antient Franks and Germans, it was an exercise in the education of youth, for them to learn to repeat and to sing verses of the atchievements of their heroes. Compend. Annal. L. i. p. 11. edit. Francof. 1601. Probably these were the poems which Charlemagne is said to have
committed to memory.
The most antient Theotisc or Teutonic ode I know, is an Epinicion published by Schilter, in the second volume of his THESAURUS ANTIQUITATUM TEUTONICARUM, written in the year 883. He entitles it EI
INIKION
rythmo Teutonico Ludovico regi acclamatum cum Nortbmannos anno
DCCCCXXXIII
vicisset.
It is in rhyme, and in the four-lined stanza. It was transcribed by Mabillon from a manuscript in the monastery of Saint Amand in Holland. I will give a specimen from Schilter's Latin interpretation, but not on account of the merit of the poetry.
"The king seized his shield and lance, galloping hastily. He truly wished to revenge himself on his adversaries. Nor was there a long delay: he found the Normans. He said, thanks be to God, at seeing what he desired. The king rushed on boldly, he first begun the customary song
Kyrie eleison,
in which they all joined. The song was sung, the battle begun. The blood appeared in the cheeks of the impatient Franks. Every soldier took his revenge, but none like Louis. Impetuous, bold, &c."
As to the military chorus
Kyrie eleison,
it appears to have been used by the christian emperors before an engagement. See Bona, Rer. Liturg. ii. c. 4. Vossius, Theolog. Gentil. i. c. 2. 3. Matth. Brouerius de Niedek, De Populor. vet. et recent. Adorationibus, p. 31. And, among the antient Norvegians, Erlingus Scacchius before he attacked carl Sigund, commanded his army to pronounce this formulary aloud, and to strike their shields. See Dolmerus ad HIRD-SKRAAN, sive Jus Aulicum antiq. Norvegic. p. 51. p. 413. edit. Hafn. 1673. Engelhusius, in describing a battle with the Huns in the year 934, relates, that the christians at the onset cried.
Kyrie eleison,
but on the other side,
diabolica vox
hiu, hiu, hiu,
auditur.
Chronic. p. 1073. in tom. ii. Scriptor. Bruns. Leibnit. Compare Bed. Hist. Eccles. Anglican. lib. ii. c. 20. And Schilterus, ubi supr. p. 17. And Sarbiev. Od. 1. 24. The Greek church appears to have had a set of military hymns, probably for the use of the soldiers, either in battle or in the camp. In a Catalogue of the manuscripts of the library of Berne, there is
"Sylloge Tacticorum Leonis Imperatoris cui operi
inem imponunt HYMNI MILITARES quibus iste titulus,
, &c."
Catal. Cod, &c. p. 600.
See Meursius's edit. of Leo's TACTICS, c. xii. p. 155. Lugd. Bat. 1612. 4to. But to return to the main subject of this tedious note. Wagenseil, in a letter to Cuperus, mentions a trearise written by one Ernest Casimir Wassenback, I suppose a German, with this title,
"De Bardis ac Barditu, five antiquis Carminibus ac Cantilenis veterum Germanorum Dissertatio, cui junctus est de S. Annone Coloniensi archiepiscopo vetustissimus omnium Germanorum rhythmus et monumentum."
See Polen. Supplem. Thesaur. Gronov. et Graev. tom. iv. p. 24. I do not think it was ever published. See Joach. Swabius, de Semnotheis veterum Germanorum philosophis. p. 8. And SECT. i. infr. p. 7 8. Pelloutier, sur la Lang. Celt. part i. tom. i. ch. xii. p. 20.
We must be careful to distinguish between the poetry of the Scandinavians, the Teutonics, and the Celts. As most of the Celtic and Teutonic nations were early converted to christianity, it is hard to find any of their native songs. But I must except the poems of Ossian, which are noble and genuine remains of the Celtic poetry.
. But we are not informed whether these were Scandinavian, Celtic, or Teutonic poems.
About the beginning of the tenth century, France was invaded by the Normans, or NORTHERN-MEN, an army of adventurers from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. And although the conquerors, especially when their success does not solely depend on superiority of numbers, usually assume the manners of the conquered, yet these strangers must have still further familiarised in France many of their northern fictions.
From this general circulation in these and other countries, and from that popularity which it is natural to suppose they must have acquired, the scaldic inventions might have taken deep root in Europe
Of the long continuance of the Celtic superstitions in the popular belief, see what is said in the most elegant and judicious piece of criticism which the present age has produced, Mrs. Montague's ESSAY ON SHAKESPEARE. p. 145. edit. 1772.
. At least they seem to have prepared the way for the more easy admission of the Arabian fabling about the ninth century, by which they were, however, in great measure, superseded. The Arabian fictions were of a more splendid nature, and better adapted to the increasing civility of the times. Less horrible and gross, they had a novelty, a variety, and a magnificence, which carried with them the charm of fascination. Yet it is probable, that many of the scaldic imaginations might have been blended with the Arabian. In the mean time, there is great reason to believe, that the Gothic scalds enriched their vein of fabling from this new and fruitful source of fiction, opened by the Arabians in Spain, and afterwards propagated by the crusades. It was in many respects cogenial with their own
Besides the general wildness of the imagery in both, among other particular circumstances of coincidence which might be mentioned here, the practice of giving names to swords, which we find in the scaldic poems, occurs also among the Arabians. In the HERVARER SAGA, the sword of Suar
ulama is called TIRFING. Hickes. Thes. i. p. 193. The names of swords of many of the old northern chiefs are given us by Olaus Wormius, Lit Run. cap. xix. p. 110. 4to. ed. Thus, Herbelot recites a long catalogue of the names of the swords of the most famous Arabian and Persic warriors. V. SAIF. p. 736. b. Mahomet had nine swords, all which are named. As were also his bows, quivers, cuirasses, helmets, and lances. His swords were called
The Piercing, Ruin, Death,
&c. Mod. Univ. Hist. i. p. 253. This is common in the romance-writers and Ariosto. Mahomet's horses had also pompous or heroic appellations. Such as the
Swift, The Thunderer, Shaking the earth with his hoof, The Red,
&c. As likewise his mules, asses, and camels. Horses were named in this manner among the Runic heroes. See Ol. Worm. ut supr. p. 110. Odin's horse was called SLEIPNER. See EDDA Island. fab. xxi. I could give other proofs. But we have already wandered too far, in what Spenser calls,
this delightfull londe of Faerie.
Yet I must add, that from one, or both, of these sources, king Arthur's sword is named in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lib. ix. cap. 11. Ron is also the name of his lance. ibid. cap. 4. And Turpin calls Charlemagne's sword
Gaudiosa.
See Obs. Spens. i. §. vi. p. 214. By the way, from these correspondencies, an argument might be drawn, to prove the oriental origin of the Goths. And some perhaps may think them proofs of the doctrine just now suggested in the text, that the scalds borrowed from the Arabians.
: and the northern bards, who visited the countries where these new fancies were spreading, must have been naturally struck with such wonders, and were certainly fond of picking up fresh embellishments, and new strokes of the marvellous, for augmenting and improving their stock of poetry. The earliest scald now on record is not before the year 750. From which time the scalds flourished in the northern countries, till below the year 1157
Ol. Worm. Lit. Run. p. 241.
. The celebrated ode of Regner Lodbrog was composed about the end of the ninth century
Id. Ibid. p. 196.
.
And that this hypothesis is partly true, may be concluded from the subjects of some of the old Scandic romances, manuscripts of which now remain in the royal library at Stockholm. The titles of a few shall serve for a specimen; which I will make no apology for giving at large.
"SAGAN AF HIALMTER OC OLWER. The History of Hialmter king of Sweden, son of a
Syrian
princess, and of Olver Jarl. Containing their expeditions into Hunland, and
Arabia,
with their numerous encounters with the Vikings and the giants. Also their leagues with Alsola, daughter of Ringer king of
Arabia,
afterwards married to Hervor king of Hunland, &c.—SAGAN AF SIOD. The History of Siod, son of Ridgare king of England; who first was made king of England, afterwards of
Babylon
and
Niniveh.
Comprehending various occurrences in Saxland,
Babylon, Greece, Africa,
and especially in Eirice
In the Latin EIRICAEA REGIONE. f. Erse or Irish land.
the region of the giants.—SAGAN AF ALEFLECK. The History of Alefleck, a king of England, and of his expeditions into
India
and
Tartary.
—SAGAN AF ERIK WIDFORLA. The History of Eric the traveller, who, with his companion Eric, a Danish prince, undertook a wonderful journey to Odin's Hall, or Oden's Aker, near the river
Pison
in
India
Wanley, apud Hickes, iii. p. 314. seq.
."
Here we see the circle of the Islandic poetry enlarged; and the names of countries and cities belonging to another quarter of the globe, Arabia, India, Tartary, Syria, Greece, Babylon, and Niniveh, intermixed with those of Hunland, Sweden, and England, and adopted into the northern romantic narratives. Even Charlemagne and Arthur, whose histories, as we have already seen, had been so lavishly decorated by the Arabian fablers, did not escape the Scandinavian scalds
It is amazing how early and how universally this fable was spread. G. de la Flamma says, that in the year 1339, an antient tomb of a king of the Lombards was broke up in Italy. On his sword was written,
"C'el est l'espée de Meser Tristant, un qui occist l'Amoroyt d'Yrlant."
—i. e.
"This is the sword of sir Tristram, who killed Amoroyt of Ireland."
SCRIPT. ITAL. tom. xii. 1028.
The Germans are said to have some very antient narrative songs on our old British heroes, Tristram, Gawain, and the rest of the knights
Von der Tafel-ronde.
See Goldast. Not. Vit. Carol. Magn. p. 207. edit. 1711.
. Accordingly we find these subjects among their Sagas.
"SAGAN AF ERIK EINGLANDS KAPPE. The History of Eric, son of king Hiac, king Arthur's chief wrestler.—HISTORICAL RHYMES of king Arthur, containing his league with Charlemagne.—SAGAN AF IVENT. The History of Ivent, king Arthur's principal champion, containing his battles with the giants
They have also,
"BRETOMANNA SAGA, The History of the Britons, from Eneas the Trojan to the emperor Constantius."
Wanl. ibid. There are many others, perhaps of later date, relating to English history, particularly the history of William the Bastard and other christians, in their expedition into the holy land. The history of the destruction of the monasteries in England, by William Rufus. Wanl. ibid.
In the history of the library at Upsal, I find the following articles, which are left to the conjectures of the curious enquirer. Historia Biblioth. Upsaliens. per Celsium. Ups. 1745. 8vo.—pag. 88. Artic. vii. Variae Britannorum fabulae, quas in carmine conversas olim, atque in conviviis ad citharam decantari solitas fuisse, perhibent. Sunt autem relationes de GUIAMARO equite Britanniae meridionalis Aeskeliod Britannis veteribus dictae. De Nobilium duorum conjugibus gemellos enixis; et id genus alia.—pag. 87. Artic. v. Drama
, fol. in membran. Res continet amatorias, olim, ad jocum concitandum Islandica lingua scriptum.—ibid. Artic. vii. The history of Duke Julianus, son of S. Giles. Containing many things of Earl William and Rosamund. In the antient Islandic. See OBSERVATIONS ON THE FAIRY QUEEN, i. pag. 203. 204. §. vi.
.—SAGAN AF KARLAMAGNUSE OF HOPPUM HANS.
The History of Charlemagne, of his champions, and captains.
Containing all his actions in several parts. 1. Of his birth and coronation: and the combat of Carvetus king of Babylon, with Oddegir the Dane
Mabillon thinks, that Turpin first called this hero a Dane. But this notion is refuted by Bartholinus, Antiq. Danic. ii. 13. p. 578. His old Gothic sword, SPATHA, and iron shield, are still preserved and shewn in a monastery of the north. Bartholin. ibid. p. 579.
. 2. Of Aglandus king of Africa, and of his son Jatmund, and their wars in Spain with Charlemagne. 3. Of Roland, and his combat with Villaline king of Spain. 4. Of Ottuel's conversion to christianity, and his marriage with Charlemagne's daughter. 5. Of Hugh king of Constantinople, and the memorable exploits of his champions. 6. Of the wars of Ferracute king of Spain. 7. Of Charlemagne's atchievements in Rouncevalles, and of his death
Wanley, ut supr. p. 314.
."
In another of the Sagas, Jarl, a magician of Saxland, exhibits his feats of necromancy before Charlemagne. We learn from Olaus Magnus, that Roland's magical horn, of which archbishop Turpin relates such wonders, and among others that it might be heard at the distance of twenty miles, was frequently celebrated in the songs of the Islandic bards
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 132.
. It is not likely that these pieces, to say no more, were composed till the Scandinavian tribes had been converted to christianity; that is, as I have before observed, about the close of the tenth century. These barbarians had an infinite and a national contempt for the christians, whose religion inculcated a spirit of peace, gentleness, and civility; qualities so dissimilar to those of their own ferocious and warlike disposition, and which they naturally interpreted to be the marks of cowardice and pusillanimity
Regner Lodbrog, in his DYING ODE, speaking of a battle fought against the christians, says, in ridicule of the eucharist,
"There we celebrated a MASS [Missu,
Island.]
of weapons."
. It has, however, been urged, that as the irruption of the Normans into France, under their leader Rollo, did not take place till towards the beginning of the tenth century, at which period the scaldic art was arrived to the highest perfection in Rollo's native country, we can easily trace the descent of the French and English romances of chivalry from the Northern Sagas. It is supposed, that Rollo carried with him many scalds from the north, who transmitted their skill to their children and successors: and that these, adopting the religion, opinions, and language, of the new country, substituted the heroes of christendom, instead of those of their pagan ancestors, and began to celebrate the feats of Charlemagne, Roland, and Oliver, whose true history they set off and embellished with the scaldic figments of dwarfs, giants, dragons, and inchantments
Percy's Ess. Metr. Rom. p. viii.
. There is, however, some reason to believe, that these fictions were current among the French long before; and, if the principles advanced in the former part of this dissertation be true, the fables adhering to Charlemagne's real history must be referred to another source.
Let me add, that the inchantments of the Runic poetry are very different from those in our romances of chivalry. The former chiefly deal in spells and charms, such as would preserve from poison, blunt the weapons of an enemy, procure victory, allay a tempest, cure bodily diseases, or call the dead from their tombs: in uttering a form of mysterious words, or inscribing Runic characters. The magicians of romance are chiefly employed in forming and conducting a train of deceptions. There is an air of barbaric horror in the incantations of the scaldic fablers: the magicians of romance often present visions of pleasure and delight; and, although not without their alarming terrors, sometimes lead us through flowery forests, and raise up palaces glittering with gold and precious stones. The Runic magic is more like that of Canidia in Horace, the romantic resembles that of Armida in Tasso. The operations of the one are frequently but mere tricks, in comparison of that sublime solemnity of necromantic machinery which the other so awefully displays.
It is also remarkable, that in the earlier scaldic odes, we find but few dragons, giants, and fairies. These were introduced afterwards, and are the progeny of Arabian fancy. Nor indeed do these imaginary beings often occur in any of the compositions which preceded the introduction of that species of fabling. On this reasoning, the Irish tale-teller mentioned above, could not be a lineal descendant of the elder Irish bards. The absence of giants and dragons, and, let me add, of many other traces of that fantastic and brilliant imagery which composes the system of Arabian imagination, from the poems of Ossian, are a striking proof of their antiquity. It has already been suggested, at what period, and from what origin, those fancies got footing in the Welsh poetry: we do not find them in the odes of Taliessin or Aneurin
Who flourished about the year 570. He has left a long spirited poem called GODODIN, often alluded to by the later Welsh bards, which celebrates a battle fought against the Saxons near Cattraeth, under the conduct of Mynnydawe Eiddin, in which all the Britons, three only excepted, among which was the bard Aneurin himself, were slain. I will give a specimen.
"The men whose drink was mead, comely in shape, hastened to Cattraeth. These impetuous warriors in ranks, armed with red spears, long and bending, began the battle. Might I speak my revenge against the people of the Deiri, I would overwhelm them, like a deluge, in one slaughter: for unheeding I have lost a friend, who was brave in resisting his enemies. I drank of the wine and metheglin of Mordai, whose spear was of huge size. In the shock of the battle, he prepared food for the eagle. When Cydwal hastened forward, a shout arose: before the yellow morning, when he gave the signal, he broke the shield into small splinters. The men hastened to Cattraeth, noble in birth: their drink was wine and mead, out of golden cups. There were three hundred and sixty three adorned with chains of gold; but of those, who filled with wine, rushed on to the fight, only three escaped, who hewed their way with the sword, the warrior of Acron, Conan Dacarawd, and I the bard Aneurin, red with blood, otherwise I should not have survived to compose this song. When Caradoc hastened to the war, he was the son of a wild boar, in hewing down the Saxons; a bull in the conflict of fight, he twisted the wood [spear] from their hands. Gurien saw not his father after he had lifted the glistening mead in his hand. I praise all the warriors who thus met in the battle, and attacked the foe with one mind. Their life was short, but they have left a long regret to their friends. Yet of the Saxons they slew more than seven ..... There was many a mother shedding tears. The song is due to thee who hast attained the highest glory: thou who wast like fire, thunder and storm: O Rudd Fedell, warlike champion, excellent in might, you still think of the war. The noble chiefs deserve to be celebrated in verse, who after the fight made the rivers to overflow their banks with blood. Their hands glutted the throats of the darkbrown eagles, and skilfully prepared food for the ravenous birds. Of all the chiefs who went to Cattraeth with golden chains,"
&c. This poem is extremely difficult to be understood, being written, if not in the Pictish language, at least in a dialect of the Britons very different from the modern Welsh. See the learned and ingenious Mr. Evans's DISSERTATIO DE BARDIS, p. 68.—75.
. This reasoning explains an observation of an ingenious critic in this species of literature, and who has studied the works of the Welsh bards with much attention.
"There are not such extravagant FLIGHTS in any poetic compositions, except it be in the EASTERN; to which, as far as I can judge by the few translated specimens I have seen, they
bear a near resemblance
Evans, ubi supr. Pref. p. iv.
."
I will venture to say he does not meet with these flights in the elder Welsh bards. The beautiful romantic fiction, that king Arthur, after being wounded in the fatal battle of Camlan, was conveyed by an Elfin princess into the land of Faery, or spirits, to be healed of his wounds, that he reigns there still as a mighty potentate in all his pristine splendour, and will one day return to resume his throne in Britain, and restore the solemnities of his champions, often occurs in the antient Welsh bards
The Arabians call the Fairies
Ginn,
and the Persians
Peri.
The former calls Fairy-land
Ginnistian,
many beautiful cities of which they have described in their fabulous histories. See Herbelot. Bibl. Orient. GIAN. p. 306. a. GENN. p. 375. a. PERI. p. 701. b. They pretend that the fairies built the city of Esthekar, or Persepolis. Id. in. V. p. 327. a. One of the most eminent of the oriental fairies was MERGIAN PERI, or
Mergian the Fairy.
Herbel. ut supr. V. PERI. p. 702. a. THAHAMURATH, p. 1017. a. This was a good fairy, and imprisoned for ages in a cavern by the giant Demrusch, from which she was delivered by Thahamurath, whom she afterwards assisted in conquering another giant, his enemy. Id. ibid. And this is the fairy or elfin queen, called in the French romances MORGAIN LE FAY, Morgain the fairy, who preserved king Arthur. See Obs. on Spenser's Fairy Queen, i. 63. 65. §. ii.
. But not in the most antient. It is found in the compositions of the Welsh bards only, who flourished after the native vein of British fabling had been tinctured by these FAIRY TALES, which the Arabians had propagated in Armorica, and which the Welsh had received from their connection with that province of Gaul. Such a fiction as this is entirely different from the cast and complection of the ideas of the original Welsh poets. It is easy to collect from the Welsh odes, written after the tenth century, many signatures of this EXOTIC imagery. Such as,
"Their assault was like strong lions. He is valourous as a lion, who can resist his lance? The dragon of Mona's sons were so brave in fight, that there was horrible consternation, and upon Tal Moelvre a thousand banners. Our lion has brought to Trallwng three armies. A dragon he was from the beginning, unterrified in battle. A dragon of Ovain. Thou art a prince firm in battle, like an elephant. Their assault was as of strong lions. The lion of Cemais fierce in the onset, when the army rusheth to be covered with red. He saw Llewellyn like a burning dragon in the strife of Arson. He is furious in fight like an outrageous dragon. Like the roaring of a furious lion, in the search of prey, is thy thirst of praise."
Instead of producing more proofs from the multitude that might be mentioned, for the sake of illustration of our argument, I will contrast these with some of their natural unadulterated thoughts.
"Fetch the drinking horn, whose gloss is like the wave of the sea. Tudor is like a wolf rushing on his prey. They were all covered with blood when they returned, and the high hills and the dales enjoyed the sun equally
The high mountains in Merionethshire.
. O thou virgin, that shinest like the snow on the brows of Aran
A beautiful periphrasis for noon day, and extremely natural in so mountainous a country as Wales. This circumstance of time added to the merit of the action.
: like the fine spiders webs on the grass on a summer's day. The army at Offa's dike panted for glory, the soldiers of Venedotia, and the men of London, were as the alternate motion of the waves on the seashore, where the sea-mew screams. The hovering crows were numberless: the ravens croaked, they were ready to suck the prostrate carcases. His enemies are scattered as leaves on the side of hills driven by hurricanes. He is a warrior, like a surge on the beach that covers the wild salmons. Her eye was piercing like that of the hawk
See infr. SECT. xiii. p. 380.
: her face shone like the pearly dew on Eryri
Mountains of snow, from
Eiry,
snow.
. Llewellyn is a hero who setteth castles on fire. I have watched all night on the beach, where the sea-gulls, whose plumes glitter, sport on the bed of billows; and where the herbage, growing in a solitary place, is of a deep green
See Evans, ubi supr. p. 8. 10. 11. 15. 16. 21. 22. 23. 26. 28. 34. 37. 39. 40. 41. 42. And his Diss. de Bard. p. 84. Compare Aneurin's ode, cited above.
."
These images are all drawn from their own country, from their situation and circumstances; and, although highly poetical, are in general of a more sober and temperate colouring. In a word, not only that elevation of allusion, which many suppose to be peculiar to the poetry of Wales, but that fertility of fiction, and those marvellous fables recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth, which the generality of readers, who do not sufficiently attend to the origin of that historian's romantic materials, believe to be the genuine offspring of the Welsh poets, are of foreign growth. And, to return to the ground of this argument, there is the strongest reason to suspect, that even the Gothic EDDA, or system of poetic mythology of the northern nations, is enriched with those higher strokes of oriental imagination, which the Arabians had communicated to the Europeans. Into this extravagant tissue of unmeaning allegory, false philosophy, and false theology, it was easy to incorporate their most wild and romantic conceptions
Huet is of opinion, that the EDDA is entirely the production of Snorro's fancy. But this is saying too much. See Orig. Roman. p. 116. The first Edda was compiled, undoubtedly with many additions and interpolations, from fictions and traditions in the old Runic poems, by Soemund Sigfusson, surnamed the Learned, about the year 1057. He seems to have made it his business to select or digest into one body such of these pieces as were best calculated to furnish a collection of poetic phrases and figures. He studied in Germany, and chiefly at Cologne. This first Edda, being not only prolix, but perplexed and obscure, a second, which is that now extant, was compiled by Snorro Sturleson, born in the year 1179.
It is certain, and very observable, that in the EDDA we find much more of giants, dragons, and other imaginary beings, undoubtedly belonging to Arabian romance, then in the earlier Scaldic odes. By the way, there are many strokes in both the EDDAS taken from the REVEL ATIONS of Saint John, which must come from the compilers who were Christ ians.
.
It must be confessed, that the ideas of chivalry, the appendage and the subject of romance, subsisted among the Goths. But this must be understood under certain limitations. There is no peculiarity which more strongly discriminates the manners of the Greeks and Romans from those of modern times, than that small degree of attention and respect with which those nations treated the fair sex, and that inconsiderable share which they were permitted to take in conversation, and the general commerce of life. For the truth of this observation, we need only appeal to the classic writers: in which their women appear to have been devoted to a state of seclusion and obscurity. One is surprised that barbarians should be greater masters of complaisance than the most polished people that ever existed. No sooner was the Roman empire overthrown, and the Goths had overpowered Europe, than we find the female character assuming an unusual importance and authority, and distinguished with new privileges, in all the European governments established by the northern conquerors. Even amidst the confusions of savage war, and among the almost incredible enormities committed by the Goths at their invasion of the empire, they forbore to offer any violence to the women. This perhaps is one of the most striking features in the new state of manners, which took place about the seventh century: and it is to this period, and to this people, that we must refer the origin of gallantry in Europe. The Romans never introduced these sentiments into their European provinces.
The Goths believed some divine and prophetic quality to be inherent in their women; they admitted them into their councils, and consulted them on the public business of the state. They were suffered to conduct the great events which they predicted. Ganna, a prophetic virgin of the Marcomanni, a German or Gaulish tribe, was sent by her nation to Rome, and admitted into the presence of Domitian, to treat concerning terms of peace
Dio. lib. lxvii. p. 761.
. Tacitus relates, that Velleda, another German prophetess, held frequent conferences with the Roman generals; and that on some occasions, on account of the sacredness of her person, she was placed at a great distance on a high tower, from whence, like an oracular divinity, she conveyed her answers by some chosen messenger
Hist. lib. iv. p. 953. edit. D'Orlean. fol.
. She appears to have preserved the supreme rule over her own people and the neighbouring tribes
He says just before,
"ea virgo
late imperitabat.
"
Ibid. p. 951. He saw her in the reign of Vespasian. De Morib. German. p. 972. Where he likewise mentions Aurinia.
. And there are other instances, that the government among the antient Germans was sometimes vested in the women
See Tacit. Hist. lib. v. p. 969. ut supr.
. This practice also prevailed among the Sitones or Norwegians
De Morib. German. p. 983. ut supr.
. The Cimbri, a Scandinavian tribe, were accompanied at their assemblies by venerable and hoary-headed prophetesses, apparelled in long linen vestments of a splendid white
Strab. Geograph. lib. viii. p. 205. edit. Is. Cas. 158
. fol. Compare Keysler, Antiquit. Sel. Septentrional. p. 371. viz. DISSERTATIO de Mulieribus Fatidicis veterum Celtarum gentiumque Septentrionalium. See also Cluverius's GERMANIA ANTIQUA, lib. i. cap. xxiv. pag. 165. edit. fol. Lugd. Bat. 1631. It were easy to trace the WEIRD sisters, and our modern witches, to this source.
. Their matrons and daughters acquired a reverence from their skill in studying simples, and their knowledge of healing wounds, arts reputed mysterious. The wives frequently attended their husbands in the most perilous expeditions, and fought with great intrepidity in the most bloody engagements
See SECT. vii. infr. p. 254. Diodorus Siculus says, that among the Scythians the women are trained to war as well as the men, to whom they are not inferior in strength and courage. L. ii. p. 90.
. These nations dreaded captivity, more on the account of their women, than on their own: and the Romans, availing themselves of this apprehension, often demanded their noblest virgins for hostages
Tacit. de Morib. Germ. pag. 972. ut supr.
. From these circumstances, the women even claimed a sort of precedence, at least an equality subsisted between the sexes, in the Gothic constitutions.
But the deference paid to the fair sex, which produced the spirit of gallantry, is chiefly to be sought for in those strong and exaggerated ideas of female chastity which prevailed among the northern nations. Hence the lover's devotion to his mistress was encreased, his attentions to her service multiplied, his affection heightened, and his sollicitude aggravated, in proportion as the difficulty of obtaining her was enhanced: and the passion of love acquired a degree of delicacy, when controlled by the principles of honour and purity. The highest excellence of character then known was a superiority in arms; and that rival was most likely to gain his lady's regard, who was the bravest champion. Here we see valour inspired by love. In the mean time, the same heroic spirit which was the surest claim to the favour of the ladies, was often exerted in their protection: a protection much wanted in an age of rapine, of plunder, and piracy; when the weakness of the softer sex was exposed to continual dangers and unexpected attacks
See instances of this sort of violence in the antient HISTORY of HIALMAR, a Runic romance, p. 135. 136. 140. Diss. Epist. Ad calc. Hickes. Thesaur. vol. i. Where also is a challenge between two champions for king Hialmar's daughter. But the king composes the quarrel by giving to one of them, named Ulfo, among other rich presents, an inestimable horn, on which were inlaid in gold the images of Odin, Thor, and Freya: and to the other, named Hramur, the lady herself, and a drum, embossed with golden imagery, which foretold future events. This piece, which is in Runic capital characters, was written before the year 1000. Many stories of this kind might be produced from the northern chronicles.
. It is easy to suppose the officious emulation and ardour of many a gallant young warrior, pressing forward to be foremost in this honourable service, which flattered the most agreeable of all passions, and which gratified every enthusiasm of the times, especially the fashionable fondness for a wandering and military life. In the mean time, we may conceive the lady thus won, or thus defended, conscious of her own importance, affecting an air of stateliness: it was her pride to have preserved her chastity inviolate, she could perceive no merit but that of invincible bravery, and could only be approached in terms of respect and submission.
Among the Scandinavians, a people so fond of cloathing adventures in verse, these gallantries must naturally become the subject of poetry, with its fictitious embellishments. Accordingly, we find their chivalry displayed in their odes; pieces, which at the same time greatly confirm these observations. The famous ode of Regner Lodbrog, affords a striking instance; in which, being imprisoned in a loathsome dungeon, and condemned to be destroyed by venomous serpents, he solaces his desperate situation by recollecting and reciting the glorious exploits of his past life. One of these, and the first which he commemorates, was an atchievement of chivalry. It was the delivery of a beautiful Swedish princess from an impregnable fortress, in which she was forcibly detained by one of her father's captains. Her father issued a proclamation, promising that whoever would rescue the lady, should have her in marriage. Regner succeeded in the attempt, and married the fair captive. This was about the year 860
See Torf. Hist. Norw. tom. i. lib. 10. Saxo Grammat. p. 152. And Ol. Worm. Lit. Rom. p. 221. edit. 4. I suspect that the romantic amour between Regner and Aslauga is the forgery of a much later age See REGNARA LODBROG'S Saga. C. 5. apud Biorneri Histor. Reg. Her. et Pugil. Res. praeclar. gest. Stockholm. 1737.
. There are other strokes in Regner's ode, which, although not belonging to this particular story, deserve to be pointed out here, as illustrative of our argument. Such as,
"It was like being placed near a beautiful virgin on a couch.—It was like kissing a young widow in the first seat at a feast. I made to struggle in the twilight that golden-haired chief, who passed his mornings among the young maidens, and loved to converse with widows.—He who aspires to the love of young virgins, ought always to be foremost in the din of arms
St.. 13. 14. 19. 23.
."
It is worthy of remark, that these sentiments occur to Regner while he is in the midst of his tortures, and at the point of death. Thus many of the heroes in Froissart, in the greatest extremities of danger, recollect their amours, and die thinking of their mistresses. And by the way, in the same strain, Boh, a Danish champion, having lost his chin, and one of his cheeks, by a single stroke from Thurstain Midlang, only reflected how he should be received, when thus maimed and disfigured, by the Danish girls. He instantly exclaimed in a tone of savage gallantry,
"The Danish virgins will not now willingly or easily give me kisses, if I should perhaps return home
Chron. Norveg. p. 136.
."
But there is an ode, in the KNYTLINGA-SAGA, written by Harald the VALIANT, which is professedly a song of chivalry; and which; exclusive of its wild spirit of adventure, and its images of savage life, has the romantic air of a set of stanzas, composed by a Provencial troubadour. Harald, appears to have been one of the most eminent adventurers of his age. He had killed the king of Drontheim in a bloody engagement. He had traversed all the seas, and visited all the coasts, of the north; and had carried his piratical enterprises even as far as the Mediterranean, and the shores of Africa. He was at length taken prisoner, and detained for some time at Constantinople. He complains in this ode, that the reputation he had acquired by so many hazardous exploits, by his skill in single combat, riding, swimming, gliding along the ice, darting, rowing, and guiding a ship through the rocks, had not been able to make any impression on Elissiff, or Elisabeth, the beautiful daughter of Jarilas, king of Russia
Bartholin. p. 54.
.
Here, however, chivalry subsisted but in its rudiments. Under the feudal establishments, which were soon afterwards erected in Europe, it received new vigour, and was invested with the formalities of a regular institution. The nature and circumstances of that peculiar model of government, were highly favourable to this strange spirit of fantastic heroism; which, however unmeaning and ridiculous it may seem, had the most serious and salutary consequences in assisting the general growth of refinement, and the progression of civilisation, in forming the manners of Europe, in inculcating the principles of honour, and in teaching modes of decorum. The genius of the feudal policy was perfectly martial. A numerous nobility, formed into separate principalities, affecting independence, and mutually jealous of their privileges and honours, necessarily lived in a state of hostility. This situation rendered personal strength and courage the most requisite and essential accomplishments. And hence, even in time of peace, they had no conception of any diversions or public ceremonies, but such as were of the military kind. Yet, as the courts of these petty princes were thronged with ladies of the most eminent distinction and quality, the ruling passion for war was tempered with courtesy. The prize of contending champions was adjudged by the ladies; who did not think it inconsistent to be present or to preside at the bloody spectacles of the times; and who, themselves, seem to have contracted an unnatural and unbecoming ferocity, while they softened the manners of those valorous knights who fought for their approbation. The high notions of a noble descent, which arose from the condition of the feudal constitution, and the ambition of forming an alliance with powerful and opulent families, cherished this romantic system. It was hard to obtain the fair feudatary, who was the object of universal adoration. Not only the splendor of birth, but the magnificent castle surrounded with embattelled walls, guarded with massy towers, and crowned with lofty pinnacles, served to inflame the imagination, and to create an attachment to some illustrious heiress, whose point of honour it was to be chaste and inaccessible. And the difficulty of success on these occasions, seems in great measure to have given rise to that sentimental love of romance, which acquiesced in a distant respectful admiration, and did not aspire to possession. The want of an uniform administration of justice, the general disorder, and state of universal anarchy, which naturally sprung from the principles of the feudal policy, presented perpetual opportunities of checking the oppressions of arbitrary lords, of delivering captives injuriously detained in the baronial castles, of punishing robbers, of succouring the distressed, and of avenging the impotent and the unarmed, who were every moment exposed to the most licentious insults and injuries. The violence and injustice of the times gave birth to valour and humanity. These acts conferred a lustre and an importance on the character of men professing arms, who made force the substitute of law. In the mean time, the crusades, so pregnant with enterprize, heightened the habits of this warlike fanaticism. And when these foreign expeditions were ended, in which the hermits and pilgrims of Palestine had been defended, nothing remained to employ the activity of adventurers but the protection of innocence at home. Chivalry by degrees was consecrated by religion, whose authority tinctured every passion, and was engrafted into every institution, of the superstitious ages; and at length composed that singular picture of manners, in which the love of a god and of the ladies were reconciled, the saint and the hero were blended, and charity and revenge, zeal and gallantry, devotion and valour, were united.
Those who think that chivalry started late, from the nature of the feudal constitution, confound an improved effect with a simple cause. Not having distinctly considered all the particularities belonging to the genius, manners, and usages of the Gothic tribes, and accustomed to contemplate nations under the general idea of barbarians, they cannot look for the seeds of elegance amongst men, distinguished only for their ignorance and their inhumanity. The rude origin of this heroic gallantry was quickly overwhelmed and extinguished, by the superior pomp which it necessarily adopted from the gradual diffusion of opulence and civility, and that blaze of splendor with which it was surrounded, amid the magnificence of the feudal solemnities. But above all, it was lost and forgotten in that higher degree of embellishment, which at length it began to receive from the representations of romance.
From the foregoing observations taken together, the following general and comprehensive conclusion seems to result.
Amid the gloom of superstition, in an age of the grossest ignorance and credulity, a taste for the wonders of oriental fiction was introduced by the Arabians into Europe, many countries of which were already seasoned to a reception of its extravagancies, by means of the poetry of the Gothic s
alds, who perhaps originally derived their ideas from the fame fruitful region of invention. These fictions, coinciding with the reigning manners, and perpetually kept up and improved in the tales of troubadours and minstrels, seem to have centered about the eleventh century in the ideal histories of Turpin and Geoffrey of Monmouth, which record the supposititious atchievements of Charlemagne and king Arthur, where they formed the ground-work of that species of fabulous narrative called romance. And from these beginnings or causes, afterwards enlarged and enriched by kindred fancies fetched from the crusades, that singular and capricious mode of imagination arose, which at length composed the marvellous machineries of the more sublime Italian poets, and of their disciple Spenser.
ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING into ENGLAND.
DISSERTATION II.
THE irruption of the northern nations into the western empire, about the beginning of the fourth century, forms one of the most interesting and important periods of modern history. Europe, on this great event, suffered the most memorable revolutions in its government and manners; and from the most flourishing state of peace and civility, became on a sudden, and for the space of two centuries, the theatre of the most deplorable devastation and disorder. But among the disasters introduced by these irresistible barbarians, the most calamitous seems to have been the destruction of those arts which the Romans still continued so successfully to cultivate in their capital, and which they had universally communicated to their conquered provinces. Towards the close of the fifth century, very few traces of the Roman policy, jurisprudence, sciences, and literature, remained. Some faint sparks of knowledge were kept alive in the monasteries; and letters and the liberal arts were happily preserved from a total extinction during the confusions of the Gothic invaders, by that slender degree of culture and protection which they received from the prelates of the church, and the religious communities.
But notwithstanding the famous academy of Rome
Theodosius the younger, in the year 425, founded an academy at Constantinople, which he furnished with able professors of every science, intending it as a rival institution to that at Rome. Gianon. Hist. Napl, ii. ch. vi. sect. 1. A noble library had been established at Constantinople by Constantius and Valens before the year 380, the custody of which was committed to four Greek and three Latin antiquaries or curators. It contained sixty thousand volumes. Zonaras relates, that among other treasures in this library, there was a roll one hundred feet long, made of a dragon's gutt or intestine, on which Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were written in golden letters. See Bibl. Histor. Literar. Select. &c. Ienae, 1754: p. 164. seq. Literature flourished in the eastern empire, while the western was depopulated by the Goths; and for many centuries afterwards. The Turks destroyed one hundred and twenty thousand volumes, I suppose in the imperial library, when they sacked Constantinople in the year 1454. HOD. DE GRAEC. ILLUSTR. ii. 1. p. 192.
with other literary seminaries had been destroyed by Alaric in the fourth century; yet Theodoric the second, king of the Ostrogoths, a pious and humane prince, restored in some degree the study of letters in that city, and encouraged the pursuits of those scholars who survived this great and general desolation of learning
He died A. D. 526. See Cassiodor. Epist. lib. i. 39. See also Func. de inerti et decrep. Latin. Linguae Senectut. cap. ii. p. 81.
. He adopted into his service Boethius, the most learned and almost only Latin philosopher of that period. Cassiodorus, another eminent Roman scholar, was Theodoric's grand secretary: who retiring into a monastery in Calabria, passed his old age in collecting books, and practising mechanical experiments
Func. ut supr. xiii. p. 471. xi. p. 595.
. He was the author of many valuable pieces which still remain
Cave. Saecul. Eutych. Hist Lit. p. 391.
. He wrote with little elegance, but he was the first that ever digested a series of royal charts or instruments; a monument of singular utility to the historian, and which has served to throw the most authentic illustration on the public transactions and legal constitutions of those times. Theodoric's patronage of learning is applauded by Claudian, and Sidonius Apollinaris. Many other Gothic kings were equally attached to the works of peace; and are not less conspicuous for their justice, prudence, and temperance, than for their fortitude and magnanimity. Some of them were diligent in collecting the scattered remains of the Roman institutes, and constructing a regular code of jurisprudence
Gianon. Hist. Nap. iii. c. 1
. It is highly probable, that those Goths who became masters of Rome, sooner acquired ideas of civility, from the opportunity which that city above all others afforded them of seeing the felicities of polished life, of observing the conveniencies arising from political economy, of mixing with characters respectable for prudence and learning, and of employing in their counsels men of superior wisdom, whose instruction and advice they found it their interest to follow. But perhaps these northern adventurers, at least their princes and leaders, were not even at their first migrations into the south, so totally savage and uncivilised as we are commonly apt to suppose. Their enemies have been their historians, who naturally painted these violent disturbers of the general repose in the warmest colours. It is not easy to conceive, that the success of their amazing enterprizes was merely the effect of numbers and tumultuary depredation: nor can I be persuaded, that the lasting and flourishing governments which they established in various parts of Europe, could have been framed by brutal force alone, and the blind efforts of unreflecting savages. Superior strength and courage must have contributed in a considerable degree to their rapid and extensive conquests; but at the same time, such mighty atchievements could not have been planned and executed without some extraordinary vigour of mind, uniform principles of conduct, and no common talents of political sagacity.
Although these commotions must have been particularly unfavourable to the more elegant literature, yet Latin poetry, from a concurrence of causes, had for some time begun to relapse into barbarism. From the growing encrease of christianity, it was deprived of its old fabulous embellishments, and chiefly employed in composing ecclesiastical hymns. Amid these impediments however, and the necessary degeneration of taste and style, a few poets supported the character of the Roman muse with tolerable dignity, during the decline of the Roman empire. These were Ausonius, Paulinus, Sidonius, Sedulius, Arator, Juvencus, Prosper, and Fortunatus. With the last, who flourished at the beginning of the sixth century, and was bishop of Poitiers, the Roman poetry is supposed to have expired.
In the sixth century Europe began to recover some degree of tranquillity. Many barbarous countries during this period, particularly the inhabitants of Germany, of Friesland, and other northern nations, were converted to the christian faith
Cave. Saecul. Monoth. p. 440.
. The religious controversies which at this time divided the Greek and Latin churches, roused the minds of men to literary enquiries. These disputes in some measure called forth abilities which otherwise would have been unknown and unemployed; and, together with the subtleties of argumentation, insensibly taught the graces of style, and the habits of composition. Many of the popes were persons of distinguished talents, and promoted useful knowledge no less by example than authority. Political union was by degrees established; and regular systems of government, which alone can ensure personal security, arose in the various provinces of Europe occupied by the Gothic tribes. The Saxons had taken possession of Britain, the Franks became masters of Gaul, the Huns of Pannonia, the Goths of Spain, and the Lombards of Italy. Hence leisure and repose diffused a mildness of manners, and introduced the arts of peace; and, awakening the human mind to a consciousness of its powers, directed its faculties to their proper objects.
In the mean time, no small obstruction to the propagation or rather revival of letters, was the paucity of valuable books. The libraries, particularly those of Italy, which abounded in numerous and inestimable treasures of literature, were every where destroyed by the precipitate rage and undistinguishing violence of the northern armies. Towards the close of the seventh century, even in the papal library at Rome, the number of books was so inconsiderable, that pope Saint Martin requested Sanctamand bishop of Maestricht, if possible to supply this defect from the remotest parts of Germany
Concil. Tom. xv. pag. 285. edit. Paris, 1641.
. In the year 855, Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres in France, sent two of his monks to pope Benedict the third, to beg a copy of CICERO DE ORATORE, and QUINTILIAN'S INSTITUTES
There are very early manuscripts of Quintilian's Institutes, as we shall see below; and he appears to have been a favorite author with some writers of the middle ages. He is quoted by John of Salisbury, a writer of the eleventh century. Polycrat. vii. 14. iii. 7. x. 1. &c. And by Vincent of Beauvais, a writer of the thirteenth. Specul. Hist. x. 11. ix. 125. His declamations are said to have been abridged by our countryman Adelardus Bathoniensis, and dedicated to the bishop of Bayeux, about the year 1130. See Catal. Bibl. Leidens. p. 381. A. D. 1716. Poggius Florentinus, an eminent restorer of classical literature, says, that in the year 1446, he found a much more correct copy of Quintilian's Institutes than had been yet seen in Italy, almost perishing, at the bottom of a dark neglected tower of the monastery of saint Gall, in France, together with the three first books, and half the fourth of Valerius Flaccus's Argonautics, and Asconius Pedianus's comment on eight orations of Tully. See Poggii Op. p. 309. Amst. 1720. 8vo. The very copy of Quintilian, found by Poggius, is said to have been in lord Sunderland's noble library now at Blenheim. Poggius, in his Dialogue De Infelicitate Principum, says of himself, that he travelled all over Germany in search of books. It is certain that by his means Quintilian, Tertullian, Asconius Pedianus, Lucretius, Sallust, Silius Italicus, Columella, Manilius, Tully's Orations, Ammianus Marcellinus, Valerius Flaccus, and some of the Latin grammarians, and other antient authors, were recovered from oblivion, and brought into general notice by being printed in the fifteenth century. Fr. Babarus Venetus, Collaudat. ad Pogg. dat. Venet. 1417. 7 Jul. See also
Giornale de Letterati d' Italia,
tom. ix. p. 178. x. p. 417. And Leonard. Aretin. Epist. lib. iv. p. 160. Chaucer mentions the Argonautics of Valerius Flaccus, as I have observed, SECT. iii. p. 126. infr. Colomesius affirms, that Silius Italicus, is one of the classics discovered by Poggius in the tower of the monastery of Saint Gaul. Ad Gyrald. de Poet. Dial. iv. p. 240. But Philippo Rosso, in his
Rit
rato di Roma antica,
mentions a very antient manuscript of this poet brought from Spain into the Vatican, having a picture of Hannibal,
il quale boggi si ritrova nella pr
ditta libraria,
p. 83.
, and some other books:
"for, says the abbot, although we have part of th
se books, yet there is no whole or complete copy of them in all France
Murator. Antiq. Ital. iii. p. 8
5. And Lup. Ep. ad Baron. ad an. 856. n. 8, 9, 10.
".
Albert abbot of Gemblours, who with incredible labour and immense expence had collected an hundred volumes on theological and fifty on profane subjects, imagined he had formed a splendid library
Fleury. Hist. Eccl. l. lviii. c. 52.
. About the year 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting to the abbot and monks of Sithiu, for making their gloves and girdles of the skins of the deer they killed, and covers for their books
Mabillon. De Re Dipl. p. 611.
. We may imagine that these religious were more fond of hunting than reading. It is certain that they were obliged to hunt before they could read: and at least it is probable, that under these circumstances, and of such materials, they did not manufacture many volumes. At the beginning of the tenth century books were so scarce in Spain, that one and the same copy of the bible, Saint Jerom's Epistles, and some volumes of ecclesiastical offices and martyrologies, often served several different monasteries
Fleury, ubi supr. l. liv. c. 54. See other instances in Hist. Lit. Fr. par Rel. Benedict. vii. 3.
. Among the constitutions given to the monks of England by archbishop Lanfranc, in the year 1072, the following injunction occurs. At the beginning of Lent, the librarian is ordered to deliver a book to each of the religious: a whole year was allowed for the perusal of this book: and at the returning Lent, those monks who had neglected to read the books they had respectively received, are commanded to prostrate themselves before the abbot, and to supplicate his indulgence
"Unusquisque reddat librum qui ad legendum sibi alio anno fuerat commendatus: et qui cognoverat se non legisse librum, quem recepit, prostratus culpam dicat, et indulgentiam petat. Iterum librorum custos unicuique fratrum alium librum tribuat ad legendum."
Wilkins. Concil. i. 332.
See also the order of the Provincial chapter,
De occupatione monacharum.
Reyner, Append. p. 129.
. This regulation was partly occasioned by the low state of literature which Lanfranc found in the English monasteries. But at the same time it was a matter of necessity, and is in great measure to be referred to the scarcity of copies of useful and suitable authors. In an inventory of the goods of John de Pontissara, bishop of Winchester, contained in his capital palace of Wulvesey, all the books which appear are nothing more than
"Septendecem pecie librorum de diversis Scienciis
Registr. Pontissar. f. 126. MS.
."
This was in the year 1294. The same prelate, in the year 1299, borrows of his cathedral convent of St. Swithin at Winchester, BIBLIAM BENE GLOSSATAM, that is, the Bible, with marginal Annotations, in two large folio volumes: but gives a bond for due return of the loan, drawn up with great solemnity
"Omnibus Christi fidelibus presentes literas visuris vel inspecturis, Johannes dei gracia Wynton episcopus, salutem in domino. Noveritis nos ex commodato recepisse a dilectis filiis nostris Priore et conventu ecclesie nostre Wynton, unam Bibliam in duobus voluminibus bene glosatam, que aliquando fuit bone memorie domini Nicolai Wynton episcopi predecessoris nostri, termino perpetuo, seu quamdiu nobis placuerit, inspiciendam, tenendam, et habendam. Ad cujus Restitutionem eisdem fideliter et sine dolo faciendam, obligamus nos per presentes: quam si in vita nostra non restituerimus eisdem, obligamus executores nostros, et omnia bona nostra mobilia et immobilia, ecclesiastica et mundana, cohercioni et districtioni cujuscunque judicis ecclesiastici et secularis quem predictus Prior et conventus duxerit eligendum, quod possint eosdem executores per omnimodam districtionem compellere, quousque dicta Biblia dictis filiis et fratribus sit restituta. In cujusrei testimonium, sigillum, &c. Dat. apud Wulveseye, vi. Kal. Maii, anno 1299."
Registr. Pontissar. ut supr. f. 193.
. This Bible had been bequeathed to the convent the same year by Pontissara's predecessor, bishop Nicholas de Ely: and in consideration of so important a bequest, that is,
"pro bona Biblia dicti episcopi bene glosata,"
and one hundred marks in money, the monks founded a daily mass for the soul of the donor
Ibid. f. 19.
. When a single book was bequeathed to a friend or relation, it was seldom without many restrictions and stipulations
As thus:
"Do Henrico Morie scolari meo, si contingat eum presbyterari: aliter erit liber domini Johannis Sory, sic quod non vendatur, sed transeat inter cognatos meos, si fuerint aliqui inventi: sin autem, ab uno presbytero ad alium."
Written at the end of Latin
Homelies on the Canticles,
MSS. Reg. 5. C. iii. 24. Brit. Mus.
. If any person gave a book to a religious house, he believed that so valuable a donation merited eternal salvation, and he offered it on the altar with great ceremony. The most formidable anathemas were peremptorily denounced against those who should dare to alienate a book presented to the cloister or library of a religious house. The prior and convent of Rochester declare, that they will every year pronounce the irrevocable sentence of damnation on him who shall purloin or conceal a Latin translation of Aristotle's PHYSICS, or even obliterate the title
MSS. Reg. 12 G. ii.
. Sometimes a book was given to a monastery on condition that the donor should have the use of it during his life: and sometimes to a private person, with the reservation that he who receives it should pray for the soul of his benefactor. The gift of a book to Lincoln cathedral, by bishop Repingdon, in the year 1422, occurs in this form and under these curious circumstances. The memorial is written in Latin, with the bishop's own hand, which I will give in English, at the beginning of Peter's BREVIARY OF THE BIBLE.
"I Philip of Repyndon, late bishop of Lincoln, give this book called Peter de Aureolis to the new library to be built within the church of Lincoln: reserving the use and possession of it to Richard Trysely, clerk, canon and prebendary of Miltoun, in fee, and to the term of his life: and afterwards to be given up and restored to the said library, or the keepers of the same, for the time being, faithfully and without delay. Written with my own hand, A. D. 1422
MSS. Reg. 8 G. fol. iii. Brit. Mus.
."
When a book was bought, the affair was of so much importance, that it was customary to assemble persons of consequence and character, and to make a formal record that they were present on this occasion. Among the royal manuscripts, in the book of the SENTENCES of Peter Lombard, an archdeacon of Lincoln has left this entry
It is in Latin.
.
"This book of the SENTENCES belongs to master Robert, archdeacon of Lincoln, which he bought of Geoffrey the chaplain, brother of Henry vicar of Northelkington, in the presence of master Robert de Lee, master John of Lirling, Richard of Luda, clerk, Richard the almoner, the said Henry the vicar and his clerk, and others: and the said archdeacon gave the said book to God and saint Oswald, and to Peter abbot of Barton, and the convent of Barden
9 B. ix. 1.
."
The disputed property of a book often occasioned the most violent altercations. Many claims appear to have been made to a manuscript of Matthew Paris, belonging to the last-mentioned library: in which John Russell, bishop of Lincoln, thus conditionally defends or explains his right of possession.
"If this book can be proved to be or to have been the property of the exempt monastery of saint Alban in the diocese of Lincoln, I declare this to be my mind, that, in that case, I use it at present as a loan under favour of those monks who belong to the said monastery. Otherwise, according to the condition under which this book came into my possession, I will that it shall belong to the college of the blessed Winchester Mary at Oxford, of the foundation of William Wykham. Written with my own hand at Bukdane, 1 Jan. A. D. 1488. Jo. LINCOLN. Whoever shall obliterate or destroy this writing, let him be anathema
Written in Latin. Cod. MSS. Reg. 14 C. viii. 2. fol. In this manuscript is written by Matthew Paris in his own hand,
Hunc Librum dedit frater Matthaeus Parisiensis
—Perhaps,
deo et ecclesiae S. Albani,
since erased.
."
About the year 1225, Roger de Insula, dean of York, gave several Latin bibles to the university of Oxford, with a condition that the students who perused them should deposit a cautionary pledge
Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. ii. 48. col. 1. It was common to lend money on the deposit of a book. There were public chests in the universities, and perhaps some other places, for receiving the books so deposited; many of which still remain, with an insertion in the blank pages, containing the conditions of the pledge. I will throw together a few instances in this note. In Peter Comestor's SCHOLASTICAL HISTORY,
"Cautio Thomae Wybaurn excepta in Cista dé Chichele, A. D. 1468, 20 die mens. Augusti. Et est liber M. Petri, &c. Et jacet pro xxvi
s.
viii
d.
"
Mus. Brit. MSS. Reg. 2 C. fol. i.
In a PSALTER cum glossa,
"A. D. 1326,
ste Liber impignoratur Mag. Jacobo de
spania canonico S. Pauli London, per fratrem Willielmum de Rokesle de ordine et conventu Praedicatorum Londonie, pro xx
. quem idem frater Willielmus recepit mutuo de predicto Jacobo ad opus predicti conventus, solvendos in quindena S. Michaelis proxime ventura.
Condonatur quia pauper.
"
Ibid. 3 E vii. fol.
In Bernard's HOMELIES ON THE CANTICLES,
"Cautio Thome Myllyng imposita ciste de Rodbury, 10 die Decemb. A. D. 1491. Et jacet pro xx
s.
"
Ibid. 6 C. ix.
These pledges, among other particulars, shew the prices of books in the middle ages, a topic which I shall touch upon below.
. The library of that university, before the year 1300, consisted only of a few tracts, chained or kept in chests in the choir of St. Mary's church
Registr. Univ. Oxon. C. 64. a.
. In the year 1327, the scholars and citizens of Oxford assaulted and entirely pillaged the opulent Benedictine abbey of the neighbouring town of Abingdon. Among the books they found there, were one hundred psalters, as many grayles, and forty missals, which undoubtedly belonged to the choir of the church: but besides these, there were only twentytwo CODICES, which I interpret books on common subjects
Wood, Hist. ut supr. i. 163. col. 1. Leland mentions this library, but it is just before the dissolution of the monastery.
"Cum excu
erem pulverem et blattas Abbandunensis bibliothecae."
Script. Brit. p. 238.
See also J. Twyne, Comm. de Reb. Albionic. lib. ii. p. 130. edit. Lond. 1590. I have mentioned the libraries of many monasteries below. See also what is said of the libraries of the Mendicant Friars, SECT. ix. p. 292. infr. That of Grey Friars in London was filled with books at the cost of five hundred and fifty-six pounds in the year 1432. Leland. Coll. i. 109. In the year 1482, the library of the abbey of Leicester contained eight large stalls which were filled with books. Gul. Charyte, Registr. Libr. et Jocal. omnium in monast. S. Mar. de pratis prope Lecestriam. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Laud. l. 75. fol. membr. See f. 139. There is an account of the library of Dover priory, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Arch. B. 24. Leland says, that the library of Norwich priory was
"bonis refertissima libris."
Script. Brit. p. 247.
See also Leland's account of St. Austin's library at Canterbury, ibid. p. 299. Concerning which, compare
Liber Thomae Sprotti de libraria S. Augustini Cantuaria
,
MSS. C. C. C. Oxon. 125. And Bibl Cotton. Brit. Mus. JUL. C. vi. 4. And Leland, Coll. iii. 10. 120. Leland who was librarian to Henry the eighth, removed a large quantity of valuable manuscripts from St. Austin's Canterbury and from other monasteries at the dissolution, to that king's library at Westminster. See Script. Brit. ETHELSTANUS. And MSS. Reg. 1 A. xviii. For the sake of connection I will observe, that among our cathedral libraries of secular canons, that of the church of Wells was most magnificent: it was built about the year 1420, and contained twentyfive windows on either side. Leland, Coll. i. p. 109. In which state, I believe, it continues at present. Nor is it quite foreign to the subject of this note to add, that king Henry the sixth intended a library at Eton college, fifty-two feet long, and twenty-four broad: and another at King's college in Cambridge of the same breadth, but one hundred and two feet in length. Ex Testam. dat. xii. Mar. 1447.
. And although the invention of paper, at the close of the eleventh century, contributed to multiply manuscripts, and consequently to facilitate knowledge, yet even so late as the reign of our Henry the sixth, I have discovered the following remarkable instance of the inconveniencies and impediments to study, which must have been produced by a scarcity of books. It is in the statutes of St. Mary's college at Oxford, founded as a seminary to Oseney abbey in the year 1446.
"Let no scholar occupy a book in the library above one hour, or two hours at most; so that others shall be hindered from the use of the same
"Nullus occupet unum librum, vel occupari faciat, ultra unam horam et duas ad majus: sic quod caeteri retrahantur a visu et studio ejusdem."
Statut. Coll. S. Mariae pro Oseney. DE LIBRARIA. f. 21. MSS. Rawlins. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon.
".
The famous library established in the university of Oxford, by that munificent patron of literature Humphrey duke of Gloucester, contained only six hundred volumes
Wood, ubi supr. ii. 49. col. ii. It was not opened till the year 1480. Ibid. p. 50. col. 1.
. About the commencement of the fourteenth century, there were only four classics in the royal library at Paris. These were one copy of Cicero, Ovid, Lucan, and Boethius. The rest were chiefly books of devotion, which included but few of the fathers: many treatises of astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, and medicine, originally written in Arabic, and translated into Latin or French: pandects, chronicles, and romances. This collection was principally made by Charles the fifth, who began his reign in 1365. This monarch was passionately fond of reading, and it was the fashion to send him presents of books from every part of the kingdom of France. These he ordered to be elegantly transcribed, and richly illuminated; and he placed them in a tower of the Louvre, from thence called,
la toure de la libraire.
The whole consisted of nine hundred volumes. They were deposited in three chambers; which, on this occasion, were wainscotted with Irish oak, and cieled with cypress curiously carved. The windows were of painted glass, fenced with iron bars and copper wire. The English became masters of Paris in the year 1425. On which event the duke of Bedford, regent of France, sent this whole library, then consisting of only eight hundred and fifty-three volumes, and valued at two thousand two hundred and twentythree livres, into England; where perhaps they became the ground-work of duke Humphrey's library just mentioned
See M. Boivin, Mem. Lit. ii. p. 747. 4to. Who says, that the regent presented to his brother in law Humphrey duke of Gloucester a rich copy of a translation of Livy into French, which had been presented to the king of France.
. Even so late as the year 1471, when Louis the eleventh of France borrowed the works of the Arabian physician Rhasis, from the faculty of medicine at Paris, he not only deposited by way of pledge a quantity of valuable plate, but was obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him as surety in a deed
See Bury's PHILOBIBLON, mentioned at large below,
De modo communicandi studentibus libros nostros.
cap. xix.
, by which he bound himself to return it under a considerable forfeiture
Robertson's Hist. Charles V. vol. i. p. 281. edit. 8vo.
. The excessive prices of books in the middle ages, afford numerous and curious proofs. I will mention a few only. In the year 1174, Walter prior of St. Swithin's at Winchester, afterwards elected abbot of Westminster, a writer in Latin of the lives of the bishops who were his patrons
William Giffard and Henry de Blois, bishops of Winchester.
, purchased of the monks of Dorchester in Oxfordshire, Bede's Homilies, and saint Austin's Psalter, for twelve measures of barley, and a pall on which was embroidered in silver the history of saint Birinus converting a Saxon king
Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin. Winton. ut supr. MS. quatern...
"Pro duodecim mens. (or mod.) ordei, et una palla brusdata in argento cum historia sancti Birini convertentis ad fidem Kynegylsum regem Gewyseorum: necnon Oswaldi regis Northumbranorum suscipientis de fonte Kynegylsum."
Gewyseorum is the West Saxons. This history, with others of saint Birinus, is represented on the antient font of Norman workmanship in Winchester cathedral: on the windows of the abbey-church of Dorchester near Oxford: and in the western front and windows of Lincoln cathedral. With all which churches Birinus was connected. He was buried in that of Dorchester, Whart. Angl. Sacr. i. 190. And in Bever's manuscript Chronicle, or his Continuator, cited below, it is said, that a marble cenotaph of marvellous sculpture was constructed over his grave in Dorchester church about the year 1320. I find no mention of this monument in any other writer. Bever. Chron. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. Num. x. f. 66.
. Among the royal manuscripts in the British museum there is COMESTOR'S SCHOLASTIC HISTORY in French; which, as it is recorded in a blank page at the beginning, was taken from the king of France at the battle of Poitiers; and being purchased by William Montague earl of Salisbury for one hundred mars, was ordered to be sold by the last will of his countess Elizabeth for forty livres
MSS. 19 D ii. LA BIBLE HYSTORIAUS, ou LES HISTORIES ESCOLASTRES. The transcript is of the fourteenth century. This is the entry,
"Cest livre fust pris oue le roy de France a la bataille de Peyters: et le bon counte de Saresbirs William Montagu la achata pur cent mars, et le dona a sa compaigne Elizabeth la bone countesse, que dieux assoile.—Le quele lyvre le dite countesse assigna a ses executours de le rendre pur xl. livres."
. About the year 1400, a copy of John of Meun's ROMAN DE LA ROSE, was sold before the palacegate at Paris for forty crowns or thirty-three pounds six and six-pence
It belonged to the late Mr. Ames, author of the TYPOGRAPHICAL ANTIQUITIES. In a blank leaf was written,
"Cest lyvir cost a palas du Parys quarante corones d' or sans mentyr."
I have observed in another place, that in the year 1430, Nicholas de Lyra was transcribed at the expence of one hundred marcs. SECT. ix. p. 292. infr. I add here the valuation of books bequeathed to Merton college at Oxford, before the year 1300. A Scholastical History, 20
s.
A Concordantia, 10
s.
The four greater Prophets, with glosses, 5
s.
Liber Anselmi cum quaestionibus Thomae de Malo, 12
s.
Quodlibetae H. Gandavensis et S. Thomae Aquinatis, 10
s.
- A Psalter with glosses, 10
s.
Saint Austin on Genesis, 10
s.
MS. HIST. of MERTON COLLEGE, by A. Wood. Bibl. Bodl. Cod. Rawlins. I could add a variety of other instances. The curious reader who seeks further information on this small yet not unentertaining branch of literary history, is referred to Gabr. Naud. Addit. à l' Hist. de Louys xi. par Comines. edit. Fresn. tom. iv. 281, &c.
. But in pursuit of these anecdotes, I am imperceptibly seduced into later periods, or rather am deviating from my subject.
After the calamities which the state of literature sustained in consequence of the incursions of the northern nations, the first restorers of the antient philosophical sciences in Europe, the study of which, by opening the faculties and extending the views of mankind, gradually led the way to other parts of learning, were the Arabians. In the beginning of the eighth century, this wonderful people, equally famous for their conquests and their love of letters, in ravaging the Asiatic provinces, found many Greek books, which they read with infinite avidity: and such was the gratification they received from this fortunate acquisition, and so powerfully their curiosity was excited to make further discoveries in this new field of knowledge, that they requested their caliphs to procure from the emperor at Constantinople the best Greek writers. These they carefully translated into Arabic
See Abulfarag. per Pocock, Dynast. p. 160. Greek was a familiar language to the Arabians. The accompts of the caliph's treasury were always written in Greek till the year of Christ 715. They were then ordered to be drawn in Arabic. Many proofs of this might be mentioned. Greek was a familiar language in Mahomet's houshold. Zaid, one of Mahomet's secretaries, to whom he dictated the Koran, was a perfect master of Greek. Sale's Prelim. Disc. p. 144, 145. The Arabic gold coins were always inscribed with Greek legends till about the year 700.
. But every part of the Grecian literature did not equally gratify their taste. The Greek poetry they rejected, because it inculcated polytheism and idolatry, which were inconsistent with their religion. Or perhaps it was too cold and too correct for their extravagant and romantic conceptions
Yet it appears from many of their fictions, that some of the Greek poets were not unfamiliar among them, perhaps long before the period assigned in the text. Theophilus Edessenus, a Maronite, by profession an astronomer, translated Homer into Syriac about the year 770. Theophan. Chronogr. p. 376. Abulfarag. ut supr. p. 217. Reinesius, in his very curious account of the
manuscript collection of Greek chemists
in the library of Saxe-Gotha, relates, that soon after the year 750, the Arabians translated Homer and Pindar, amongst other Greek books. Ernest. Salom. Cyprian. Catal. Codd. MSS. Bibl. Gothan. p. 71. 87. Apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xii. p. 753. It is however certain, that the Greek philosophers were their objects. Compare Euseb. Renaudot. de Barb. Aristotel. Versionib. apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xii. p. 252. 258.
. Of the Greek history they made no use, because it recorded events which preceded their prophet Mahomet. Accustomed to a despotic empire, they neglected the political systems of the Greeks, which taught republican freedom. For the same reasons they despised the eloquence of the Athenian orators. The Greek ethics were super
eded by their Alcoran, and on this account they did not study the works of Plato
Yet Reinesius says, that about the year 750, they translated Plato into Arabic: together with the works of S. Austin, Ambrose, Jerom, Leo, and Gregory the Great. Ubi supr. p. 260. Leo Africanus mentions, among the works of Averroes, EXPOSITIONES REIPUBLICAE PLATONIS. But he died so late as the year 1206. De Med. et Philosoph. Arab. cap. xx.
. Therefore no other Greek books engaged their attention but those which treated of mathematical, metaphysical, and physical knowledge. Mathematics coincided with their natural turn to astronomy and arithmetic. Metaphysics, or logic, suited their speculative genius, their love of tracing intricate and abstracted truths, and their ambition of being admired for difficult and remote researches. Physics, in which I include medicine, assisted the chemical experiments to which they were so much addicted
The earliest Arab chemist, whose writings are now extant, was Jeber. He is about the seventh century. His book, called by Golius his Latin translator,
Lapis Philosophorum,
was written first in Greek, and af
erwards translated by its author into Arabic. For Jeber was originally a Greek and a christian, and afterwards went into Asia, and embraced Mohammedism. See L
o African. lib. iii. c. 106. The learned Boerhaave asserts, that many of Jeber's experiments are verified by present practice, and that several of them have been revived as modern discoveries. Boerhaave adds, that, except the fancies about the philosopher's stone, the exactness of Jeber's operations is suprising. Hist. Chemistr. p. 14. 15. Lond. 1727.
: and medicine, while it was connected with chemistry and botany, was a practical art of immediate utility
Their learning, but especially their medical knowledge, flourished most in Salerno, a city of Italy, where it formed the famous
Schola Salernitana.
The little book of medical precepts in leonine heroics, which bears the name of that school, is well known. This system was composed at the desire of Robert duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror's brother: who returning from Jerusalem in one of the crusades, and having heard of the fame of those Salernitan physicians, applied to them for the cure of a wound made by a poisoned arrow. It was written not only in verse, but in rhyming verse, that the prince might more easily retain the rules in his memory. It was published 1100. The author's name is Giovanni di Milano, a celebrated Salernitan physician. The monks of Cassino, hereafter mentioned, much improved this study. See Chron. Cassin. 1. iii. c. 35. Medicine was at first practised by the monks or the clergy, who adopted it with the rest of the Arabian learning. See P. Diac. De Vir. illustr. cap. xiii. et ibid. Not. Mar. See also Ab. De Nuce ad Chron. Cassin. 1. i. c. 9 And Leon. Ostiens. Chron. 1. iii. c. 7. See SECT. xvii. p. 442. infr.
. Hence they studied Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates, with unremitted ardour and assiduity: they translated their writings into the Arabic tongue
Compare Renaudot. ubi supr. p. 258.
, and by degrees illustrated them with voluminous commentaries
Their caliph Al-manun, was a singular encourager of these translations. He was a great master of the speculative sciences; and for his better information in them, invited learned men from all parts of the world to Bagdat. He favoured the learned of every religion: and in return they made him presents of their works, collected from the choicest pieces of eastern literature, whether of Indians, Jews, Magians, or oriental christians. He expended immense sums in purchasing valuable books written in Hebrew, Syriac, and Greek, that they might be translated into Arabic. Many Greek treatises of medicine were translated into that language by his orders. He hired the most learned persons from all quarters of his vast dominions to make these translations. Many celebrated astronomers flourished in his reign: and he was himself famed for his skill in astronomy. This was about the year of Christ 820. See Leo African. de Med. et Phil. Arab. cap. i. Al-Makin, p. 139, 140. Eutych. p. 434, 435.
A curious circumstance of the envy with which the Greeks at Constantinople treated this growing philosophy of the Arabians, is mentioned by Cedrenus. Al-Manun hearing of one Leo, an excellent inathematician at Constantinople, wrote to the emperor, requesting that Leo might be permitted to settle in his dominions, with a most ample salary, as a teacher in that science. The emperor by this means being made acquainted with Leo's merit, established a school, in which he appointed Leo a professor, for the sake of a specious excuse. The caliph sent a second time to the emperor, entreating that Leo might reside with him for a short time only; offering likewise a large sum of money, and terms of lasting peace and alliance. On which the emperor immediately created Leo bishop of Thessalonica. Cedren. Hist. Comp. 548. seq. Herbelot also relates, that the same caliph, so universal was his search after Greek books, procured a copy of Apollonius Pergaeus; the mathematician. But this copy contained only seven books. In the mean time, finding by the Introduction that the whole consisted of eight books, and that the eighth book was the foundation of the rest, and being informed that there was a complete copy in the emperor's library at Constantinople, he applied to him for a transcript. But the Greeks, merely from a principle of jealousy, would not suffer the application to reach the
mperor, and it did not take effect. Biblioth. Oriental. p. 978. col. a.
. These Arabic translations of the Greek philosophers produced new treatises of their own, particularly in medicine and metaphysics. They continued to extend their conquests, and their frequent incursions into Europe before and after the ninth century, and their absolute establishment in Spain, imported the rudiments of useful knowledge into nations involved in the grossest ignorance, and unpossessed of the means of instruction. They founded universities in many cities of Spain and Africa
See Hotting. Hist. Eccl. Saec. ix. sect. ii. lit. G g. According to the best writers of oriental history, the Arabians had made great advances on the coasts communicating with Spain, I mean in Africa, about the year of Christ 692. And they became actually masters of Spain itself in the year 712. See Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 168. 179. edit. 1759. It may be observed, that Sicily became part of the dominion of the Saracens, within sixty years after Mahomet's death, and in the seventh century, together with almost all Asia and Africa. Only part of Greece and the lesser Asia then remained to the Gre
ian empire at Constantinople Conring. De Script. &c. Comment. p. 101. edit. Wratisl. 1727. See also, Univ. Hist. ut supr.
. They brought with them thei
books, which Charlemagne, emperor of France and Germany, commanded to be translated from Arabic into Latin
Cuspinian. de Caesarib. p. 419.
: and which, by the care and encouragement of that liberal prince, being quickly disseminated over his extensive dominions, soon became familiar to the western world. Hence it is, that we find our early Latin authors of the dark ages chiefly employed in writing systems of the most abstruse sciences: and from these beginnings the Aristotelic philosophy acquired such establishment and authority, that from long prescription it remains to this day the sacred and uncontroverted doctrine of our schools
Yet it must not be forgot, that S. Austin had translated part of Aristotle's logic from the original Greek into Latin before the fifth century; and that the peripatetic philosophy must have been partly known to the western scholars from the writings and translations of Boethius, who flourished about the year 520. Alcuine, Charlemagne's master, commends S. Austin's book De Praedicamentis, which he calls, DECEM NATURAE VERBA. Rog. Bacon, de Util. Scient. cap. xiv. See also Op. Maj. An ingenious and learned writer, already quoted, a
ir
s, that in the age of Charlemagne there were many Greek scholars who made translations of Aristotle, which were in use below the year 1100. I will not believe that any Europeans, properly so called, were competently skilled in Greek for this purpose in the time of Charlemagne: nor, if they were, is it likely that of themselves they should have turned their thoughts to Aristotle's philosophy. Unless, by
viri Graece d
i,
this writer means the learned Arabs of Spain, which does not appear from his context. See Euseb. Renaudot. ut supr. p. 247.
. From this fountain the infatuations of astrology took possession of the middle ages, and were continued even to modern times. To the peculiar genius of this people it is owing, that chemistry became blended with so many extravagancies, obscured with unintelligible jargon, and filled with fantastic notions, mysterious pretensions, and superstitious operations. And it is easy to conceive, that among these visionary philosophers, so fertile in speculation, logic, and metaphysics, contracted much of that refinement and perplexity, which for so many centuries exercised the genius of profound reasoners and captious disputants, and so long obstructed the progress of true knowledge. It may perhaps be regretted, in the mean time, that this predilection of the Arabian scholars for philosophic enquiries, prevented them from importing into Europe a literature of another kind. But rude and barbarous nations would not have been polished by the history, poetry, and oratory of the Greeks. Although capable of comprehending the solid truths of many parts of science, they are unprepared to be impressed with ideas of elegance, and to relish works of taste. Men must be instructed before they can be refined; and, in the gradations of knowledge, polite literature does not take place till some progress has first been made in philosophy. Yet it is at the same time probable, that the Arabians, among their literary stores, brought into Spain and Italy many Greek authors not of the scientific species
It must not be forgot, that they translated Aristotle's POETICS. There is extant
"Averroys Summa in Aristotelis poetriam ex Arabico sermone in Latinum traducta ab Hermano Alemanno; Praemittitur determinatio Ibinrosdin in poetria Aristotelis. Venet. 1515."
There is a translation of the POETICS into Arabic by Abou Muschar Metta, entitled, ABOTIKA. See Herbel. Bibl. Oriental. p. 18. col. a. p. 971. b. p. 40. col. 2. p. 337. col. 2. Farabi, who studied at Bagdad about the year 930, one of the translator's of Aristotle's ANALYTICS, wrote sixty books on that philosopher's Rhetoric; declaring that he had read it over two hundred times, and yet was equally defirous of reading it again. Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiii. 265. Herbelot mentions Aristotle's MORALS, translated by Honain. Bibl. Oriental. p. 963. a. See also p. 971. a. 973. p. 974. b. Compare Mosheim. Hist. ch. i. p. 217. 288. Note C, p. 2. ch. 1. Averroys also paraphrased Aristotle's RHETORIC. There are also translations into Arabic of Aristotle's ANALYTICS, and his treatise of INTERPRETATION. The first they called ANALUTHICA, and the second, BARI ARMENIAS. But Aristotle's logic, metaphysics, and physics pleased them most; particularly the eight books of his physics, which exhibit a general view of that science. Some of our countrymen were translators of these Arabic books into Latin. Athelard, a monk of Bath, translated the Arabic Euclid into Latin, about 1000. Leland. Script. Brit. p. 200. There are some manuscripts of it in the Bodleian library, and elsewhere. But the most beautiful and elegant copy I have seen is on vellum, in Trinity college library at Oxford. Cod. MSS. Num. 10.
: and that the migration of this people into the western world, while it proved the fortunate instrument of introducing into Europe some of the Greek classics at a very early period, was moreover a means of preserving those genuine models of composition, and of transmitting them to the present generation
See what I have said concerning the destruction of many Greek classics at Constantinople, in the Preface to Theocritus, Oxon. 1770. tom. i. Prefat. p. xiv. xv. To which I will add, that so early as the fourth century, the christian priests did no small injury to antient literature, by prohibiting and discouraging the study of the old pagan philosophers. Hence the story, that Jerom dreamed he was whipped by the devil for reading Cicero. Compare what is said of Livy below.
. It is certain, that about the close of the ninth century, polite letters, together with the sciences, began in some degree to be studied in Italy, France, and Germany. Charlemagne, whose munificence and activity in propagating the Arabian literature has already been mentioned, founded the universities of Bononia, Pavia, Paris, and Osnaburgh. Charles the Bald seconded the salutary endeavours of Charlemagne. Lothaire, the brother of the latter, erected schools in the eight principal cities of Italy
A. D. 823. See Murator. Scriptor. Rer. Italic
r. i. p. 151.
. The number of monasteries and collegiate churches in those countries was daily encreasing
Cave mentions,
"Coenobia
Italica,
Cassinense, Ferrariense:
Germanica,
Fuldense, Sangellense, Augiense, Lobiense:
Gallica,
Corbiense, Rhemense, Orbacense, Floriacense," &c.
Hist. Lit. Saec. Photian. p. 503. edit. 1688.
Charlemagne also founded two archbishopricks and nine bishopricks in the most considerable towns of Germany. Aub. Miraei Op. Diplomat. i. p. 16. Charlemagne seems to have founded libraries. See J. David. Koe
er, Diss. De Bibliotheca Caroli Mag. Al
org. 1727. And Act. Erudit. et curios. Francon. P. x. p. 716. seq. 60. And Hist. Lit. Franc. tom. iv. 4to. p. 223. Compare Laun. c. iv. p. 30. Eginhart mentions his private library. Vit. Car. Mag. p. 41. a. edit. 1565. He even founded a library at Jerusalem, for the use of those western pilgrims who visited the holy sepulchre. Hist. Lit. ut supr. p. 373. His successor also, Charles the Bald, erected many libraries. Two of his librarians, Holduin and Ebbo, occur under that title in subscriptions. Bibl. Hist. Liter. Struvii et Jugl. cap. ii. sect. xvii. p. 172. This monarch, before his last expedition into Italy about the year 870, in case of his decease, orders his large library to be divided into three parts, and disposed of accordingly. Hist. Lit. ut supr. tom. v. p. 514. Launoy justly remarks, that many noble public institutions of Charles the Bald, were referred, by succeeding historians, to their more favorite hero Charlemagne. Ubi supr. p. 53. edit. Fabric. Their immediate successors, at least of the German race, were not such conspicuous patrons of literature.
: in which the youth, as a preparation to the study of the sacred scriptures, were exercised in reading profane authors, together with the antient doctors of the church, and habituated to a Latin style. The monks of Cassino in Italy were distinguished before the year 1000, not only for their knowledge of the sciences, but their attention to polite learning, and an acquaintance with the classics. Their learned abbot Desiderius collected the best of the Greek and Roman writers. This fraternity not only composed learned treatises in music, logic, aftronomy, and the Vitruvian architecture, but likewise employed a portion of their time in transcribing Tacitus
Lipsius says, that Leo the tenth gave five hundred pieces of gold for the five first books of Tacitus's Annals, to the monks of a convent in Saxony. This Lipsius calls the resurrection of Tacitus to life. Ad Annal. Tacit. lib. ii. c. 9. At the end of the edition of Tacitus, published under Leo's patronage by Beroaldus in 1515, this edict is printed,
"Nomine Leonis X. proposita sunt praemia non mediocria his qui ad eum libros veteres neque hactenus editos adtul
rint."
, Jornandes, Josephus, Ovid's Fasti, Cicero, Seneca, Donatus the grammarian, Virgil, Theocritus, and Homer
Chron. Cassin. Monast. lib. iii. c. 35. Poggius Florentinus found a STRATAGEMATA of Frontinus, about the year 1420, in this monastery. Mabillon. Mus. Ital. tom. i. p. 133. Manuscripts of the following classics now in the Harleian collection, appear to have been written between the eighth and tenth centuries inclusively. Two copies of Terence, Brit. Mus. MSS. Harl. 2670. 2750. Cicero's Paradoxa Stoicorum, the first book De Natura D
orum, Orations against Cataline, De Oratore, De Inventione Rhetorica, Ad Herennium, n. 2622. 2716. 2623. And the Epistles, with others of his works, n. 2682. A fragment of the Aeneid, n. 2772. Livy, n. 2672. Lucius Florus, n. 2620. Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti, n. 2737. Quintilian, n. 2664. Horace, the Odes excepted, n. 2725. Many of the same and other classic authors occur in the British Museum, written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. See n. 5443. 2656. 2475. 2624. 2591. 2668. 2533. 2770. 2492. 2
09 2655. 2654. 2664. 2728. 5534. 2609. 2724. 5412. 2643. 5304. 2633. There are four copies of Statius, one of the twelfth century, n. 2720. And three others of the thirteenth, n. 2608. 2636. 2665. Plautus's Comedies are among the royal manuscripts, written in the tenth, 15 C. xi. 4. And some parts of Tully in the same, ibid. 1. Suetonius, 15
C. iv. 1. Horace's Art of Poetry, Epistles, and Satires, with Eutropius, in the same, 15 B. vii. 1. 2. 3. xvi. 1. &c. Willibold, one of the learned Saxons whose literature will be mentioned in its proper place, having visited Rome and Jerusalem, retired for some time to this monastery, about the year 730. Vit. Williboldi, Cani
. Antiq. Lect. xv. 695. And Pantal. de Vir. Illustr. par. ii. p. 263. And Birinus, who came into England from Rome about the year 630, with a design of converting the Saxons, brought with him one Benedict, a monk of Cassino, whom he placed over the monks or church of Winchester. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. 190.
.
In the mean time England shared these improvements in knowledge: and literature, chiefly derived from the same sources, was communicated to our Saxon ancestors about the beginning of the eighth century
Cave, Saecul. Eutych. p. 382.
. The Anglo-Saxons were converted to christianity about the year 570. In consequence of this event, they soon acquired civility and learning. Hence they necessarily established a communication with Rome, and acquired a familiarity with the Latin language. During this period, it was the prevailing practice among the Saxons, not only of the clergy but of the better sort of laity, to make a voyage to Rome
"Hiis temporibus multi Anglorum gentis nobiles et ignobiles viri et foeminae, duces et privati, divini numinis instinctu, Romam venire consueverant."
&c. Bede, DE TEMP. Apud Leland, Script. Brit. CEOLFRIDUS.
. It is natural to imagine with what ardour the new converts visited the holy see, which at the same time was fortunately the capital of literature. While they gratified their devotion, undesignedly and imperceptibly they became acquainted with useful science.
In return, Rome sent her emissaries into Britain. Theodore, a monk of Rome, originally a Greek priest, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, and sent into England by pope Vitellian, in the year 688
Birchington, apud Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. 2. Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 464. Parker, Antiquitat. Brit. p. 53.
. He was skilled in the metrical art, astronomy, arithmetic, church-music, and the Greek and Latin languages
Bed. Hist. Ecclesiast. Gent. Angl. iv. 2. Bede says of Theodore and of Adrian mentioned below,
"Usque hodie supersunt de eorum discipulis, qui Latinam Graecamque linguam, aeque ut propriam in qua nati sunt, norunt."
See also ibid. c. 1.
. The new prelate brought with him a large library, as it was called and esteemed, consisting of numerous Greek and Latin authors; among which were Homer in a large volume, written on paper with most exquisite elegance, the homilies of saint Chrysostom on parchment, the psalter, and Josephus's Hypomnesticon, all in Greek
Parker, ut supr. p. 80. See also Lambarde's Peramb. Kent, p. 233. A transcript of the Josephus 500 years old was given to the public library at Cambridge, by the archbishop. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. x. 109.
. Theodore was accompanied into England by Adrian, a Neapolitan monk, and a native of Africa, who was equally skilled in sacred and profane learning, and at the same time appointed by the pope to the abbacy of saint Austin's at Canterbury. Bede informs us, that Adrian requested pope Vitellian to confer the archbishoprick on Theodore, and that the pope consented on condition that Adrian,
"who had been
twice in France,
and on that account was
better acquainted
with the nature and difficulties of so long a journey,"
would conduct Theodore into Britain
Bed. Hist. Eccl. iv. 1.
"Et ob id majorem notitiam hujus itineris, &c."
. They were both escorted to the city of Canterbury by Benedict Biscop, a native of Northumberland, and a monk, who had formerly been acquainted with them in a visit which he made to Rome
See Math. Westmon. sub. an. 703. Lel. Script. Brit. p. 109.
. Benedict seems at this time to have been one of the most distinguished of the Saxon ecclesiastics: availing himself of the arrival of these two learned strangers, under their direction and assistance, he procured workmen from France, and built the monastery of Weremouth in Northumberland. The church he constructed of stone, after the manner of the Roman architecture; and adorned its walls and roof with pictures, which he purchased at Rome, representing among other sacred subjects the Virgin Mary, the twelve apostles, the evangelical history, and the visions of the Apocalypse
See Bede, Hist. Abbat. Wiremuth. p. 295. 297. edit. Cantab. In one of his expeditions to Rome, he brought over John, arch-chantor of St. Peter's at Rome, who introduced the Roman method of singing mass. Bed. ibid. p. 295. He taught the monks of Benedict's abbey; and all the singers of the monasteries of that province came from various parts to hear him sing. Bed. Hist. Eccl. iv. 18. He likewise brought over from Rome two silken palls of exquisite workmanship, with which he afterwards purchased of king Aldfrid, successor of Elfrid, two pieces of land for his monastery. Bed. Vit. Abb
ut supr. p. 297. Bale censures Benedict for being the first who introduced into England painters, glasiers,
et id genus alios
AD VOLUPTATEM
artifices.
Cent. i. 82. This is the language of a PURITAN in LIFE, as well as in Religion.
. The windows were glazed by artists brought from France. But I mention this foundation to introduce an anecdote much to our purpose. Benedict added to his monastery an ample library, which he stored with Greek and Latin volumes, imported by himself from Italy
Lel. ubi supr. 110.
. Bede has thought it a matter worthy to be recorded, that Ceolfrid, his successor in the government of Weremouth-abbey, augmented this collection with three volumes of pandects, and a book of cosmography wonderfully enriched with curious workmanship, and bought at Rome
Bede, Hist. Abbat. Wiremuth. p. 299. Op. Bed. edit. Cantab.
. The example of the pious Benedict was immediately followed by Acca bishop of Hexham in the same province: who having finished his cathedral church by the help of architects, masons, and glasiers hired in Italy, adorned it, according to Leland, with a valuable library of Greek and Latin authors
Lel. ibid p. 105.
. But Bede, Acca's cotemporary, relates, that this library was entirely composed of the histories of those apostles and martyrs to whose relics he had dedicated several altars in his church, and other ecclesiastical treatises, which he had collected with infinite labour
Bed. Hist. v. 21.
. Bede however calls it a most copious and noble library
Hist. v. c. 20.
. Nor is it foreign to our purpose to add, that Acca invited from Kent into Northumberland, and retained in his service during the space of twelve years, a celebrated chantor named Maban: by the assistance of whose instructions and superintendance he not only regulated the church music of his diocese, but introduced the use of many Latin hymns hitherto unknown in the northern churches of England
Bed. Hist. Eccl. v. c. 21. Maban had been taught to sing in Kent by the succes
ors of the disciples of saint Gregory. Compare Bed. iv. 2. If we may believe William of Malmesbury, who wrote about the year 1120, they had organs in the Saxon churches before the conquest. He says that archbishop Dunstan, in king Edgar's reign, gave an organ to the abbeychurch of Malmesbury; which he describe
to have been like those in use at present.
"Organa, ubi per aereas fistulas musicis mensuris elaboratas, dudum conceptas follis vomit anxius auras."
William, who was a monk of this abbey, adds, that this benefaction of Dunstan was inscribed in a Latin distich, which he quotes, on the organ pipes. Vit. Aldhelm. Whart. Ang. Sacr. ii. p. 33. See what is said of Dunstan below. And Osb. Vit. S. Dunst. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. 93.
. It appears that before the arrival of Theodore and Adrian, celebrated schools for educating youth in the sciences had been long established in Kent
See Bed. Op. per Smith, p. 724.
q. Append.
. Literature, however, seems at this period to have flourished with equal reputation at the other extremity of the island, and even in our most northern provinces. Ecbert bishop of York, founded a library in his cathedral, which, like some of those already mentioned, is said to have been replenished with a variety of Latin and Greek books
el. p. 114.
. Alcuine, whom Ecbert appointed his first librarian, hints at this library in a Latin epistle to Charlemagne.
"Send me from France some learned treatises, of equal excellence with those which I preserve here in England under my custody, collected by the industry of my master Ecbert: and I will send to you some of my youths, who shall carry with them the flowers of Britain into France. So that there shall not only be an
enclosed garden
at York, but also at Tours some sprouts of Paradise
al
, ii. 15.
," &c.
William of Malmesbury judged this library to be of sufficient importance not only to be mentioned in his history, but to be styled,
"Omnium liberalium artium armarium, nobilissimam bibliothecam
De Reg. i. 1.
."
This repository remained till the reign of king Stephen, when it was destroyed by fire, with great part of the city of York
Pits, p. 154.
. Its founder Ecbert died in the year 767
Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 486.
. Before the end of the eighth century, the monasteries of Westminster, Saint Alban's, Worcester, Malmesbury, Glastonbury, with some others, were founded, and opulently endowed. That of Saint Alban's was filled with one hundred monks by king Offa
A. D. 793. See Dudg. Mon. i. p. 177.
. Many new bishopricks were also established in England: all which institutions, by multiplying the number of ecclesiastics, turned the attention of many persons to letters.
The best writers among the Saxons flourished about the eighth century. These were Aldhelm, bishop of Shirburn, Ceolfrid, Alcuine, and Bede; with whom I must also join king Alfred. But in an enquiry of this nature, Alfred deserves particular notice, not only as a writer, but as the illustrious rival of Charlemagne, in protecting and assisting the restoration of literature. He is said to have founded the university of Oxford; and it is highly probable, that in imitation of Charlemagne's similar institutions, he appointed learned persons to give public and gratuitous instructions in theology, but principally in the fashionable sciences of logic, astronomy, arithmetic, and geometry, at that place, which was then a considerable town, and conveniently situated in the neighbourhood of those royal seats at which Alfred chiefly resided. He suffered no priest that was illiterate to be advanced to any ecclesiastical dignity
MS. Bever. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. Codd. xlvii. f. 82.
. He invited his nobility to educate their sons in learning, and requested those lords of his court who had no children, to send to school such of their younger servants as discovered a promising capacity, and to breed them to the clerical profession
Bever, ibid.
. Alfred, while a boy, had himself experienced the inconveniencies arising from a want of scholars, and even of common instructors, in his dominions: for he was twelve years of age, before he could procure in the western kingdom a master properly qualified to teach him the alphabet. But, while yet unable to read, he could repeat from memory a great variety of Saxon songs
Flor. Vigorn. sub ann. 871. Brompton, Chron. in ALFR. p. 814. And MS. Bever, ut supr. It is curious to observe the simplicity of this age, in the method by which Alfred computed time. He caused six wax tapers to be made, each twelve inches long, and of as many ounces in weight: on these tapers he ordered the inches to be regularly marked; and having found that one of them burned just four hours, he committed the care of them to the keepers of his chapel, who from time to time gave due notice how the hours went. But as in windy weather the candles were more wasted; to remedy this inconvenience he invented lanthorns, there being then no glass to be met with in his dominions. Asser. Menev. Vit. Alfr. p. 68. edit. Wi
e. In the mean time, and during this very period, the Persians imported into Europe a machine, which presented the first rudiments of a striking clock. It was brought as a present to Charlemagne, from Abdella king of Persia, by two monks of Jerusalem, in the year 800. Among other presents, says Eginhart, was an horologe of brass, wonderfully constructed by some mechanical artifice, in which the course of the twelve hours
ad
eps
dram vertebatur,
with as many little brasen balls, which at the close of each hour dropped down on a sort of bells underneath, and sounded the end of the hour. There were also twelve figures of ho
semen, who, when the twelve hours were completed, issued out at twelve windows, which till then stood open, and returning again, shut the windows after them. He adds, that there were many other curiosities in this instrument, which it would be tedious to recount. Eginhart, Kar. Magn. p. 108. It is to be remembered, that Eginhart was an eye-witness of what is here described; and that he was an abbot, a skilful architect, and very learned in the sciences.
. He was fond of cultivating his native tongue: and with a view of inviting the people in general to a love of reading, and to a knowledge of books which they could not otherwise have understood, he translated many Latin authors into Saxon. These, among others, were Boethius OF THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, a manuscript of which of Alfred's age still remains
MSS. Cott. OTH. A. 6. 8vo. membr.
, Orosius's HISTORY OF THE PAGANS, saint Gregory's PASTORAL CARE, the venerable Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, and the SOLILOQUIES of saint Austin. Probably saint Austin was selected by Alfred, because he was the favorite author of Charlemagne
He was particularly fond of Austin's book DE CIVITATE DEI. Eginhart. Vit. Car. Magn. p. 29.
. Alfred died in the year 900, and was buried at Hyde abbey, in the suburbs of Winchester, under a sumptuous monument of porphyry
Asser. Menev. p. 72. ed. Wise.
.
Aldhelm, nephew of Ina king of the West Saxons, frequently visited France and Italy. While a monk of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, he went from his monastery to Canterbury, in order to learn logic, rhetoric, and the Greek language, of archbishop Theodore, and of Albin abbot of saint Austin's
Bede says, that Theodore and Adrian taught Tobias bishop of Rochester the Greek and Latin tongues so perfectly, that he could speak them as fluently as his native Saxon. Hist. Eccl. v. 23.
, the pupil of Adrian
Lel. p. 97. Thorn says, that Albin learned Greek of Adrian. Chron. Dec. Script. p. 1771.
. But he had before acquired some knowledge of Greek and Latin under Maidulf, an Hibernian or Scot, who had erected a small monastery or school at Malmesbury
W. Malmsb. ubi infr. p. 3.
. Camden affirms, that Aldhelm was the first of the Saxons who wrote in Latin, and that he taught his countrymen the art of Latin versification
Wiltsh. p. 116. But this Aldhelm affirms of himself in his treatise on Metre. See W. Malmsb. apud. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. 4. seq.
. But a very intelligent antiquarian in this sort of literature, mentions an anonymous Latin poet, who wrote the life of Charlemagne in verse; and adds, that he was the first of the Saxons that attempted to write Latin verse
Conringius, Script. Comment. p. 108. This poem was printed by R
neccius at Helmstadt many years ago, with a large commentary. Compare Voss. Hist. Lat. iii. 4.
. It is however certain, that Aldhelm's Latin compositions, whether in verse or prose, as novelties were deemed extraordinary performances, and excited the attention and admiration of scholars in other countries. A learned cotemporary, who lived in a remote province of a Frankish territory, in an epistle to Aldhelm has this remarkable expression,
"VESTRAE LATINITATIS PANEGYRICUS RUMOR has reached us even at this distance
W. Malms
. ut. sup
. p. 4.
, &c."
In reward of these uncommon merits he was made bishop of Shirburn in Dorsetshire in the year 705
Cave, p. 466.
. His writings are chiefly theological: but he has likewise left in Latin verse a book of AENIGMATA, copied from a work of the same title under the name of Symposius
See Fabric. Bibl. Med. Lat. iv. p. 693. And Bibl. Lat. i. p. 681. And. W. Malm
ubi supr. p. 7. Among the manuscripts of Exeter cathedral is a book of AENIGMATA in Saxon, some of which are written in Runic characters, 11. fol. 98.
, a poem de VIRGINITATE hereafter cited, and treatises on arithmetic, astrologv, rhetoric, and metre. The last treatise is a proof that the ornaments of composition now began to be studied. Leland mentions his CANTIONES SAXONICAE, one of which continued to be commonly sung in William of Malmesbury's time: and, as it was artfully interspersed with many allusions to passages of Scripture, was often sung by Aldhelm himself to the populace in the streets, with a design of alluring the ignorant and idle, by so specious a mode of instruction, to a sense of duty, and a knowledge of religious subjects
Malms
. ubi supr. p. 4.
. Malmesbury observes, that Aldhelm might be justly deemed
"ex acumine Graecum, ex nitore Romanum, et ex pompa Anglum
Ubi supr. p. 4.
."
It is evident, that Malmesbury, while he here characterises the Greeks by their acuteness, took his idea of them from their scientifical literature, which was then only known. After the revival of the Greek philosophy by the Saracens, Aristotle and Euclid were familiar in Europe long before Homer and Pindar. The character of Aldhelm is thus drawn by an antient chronicler,
"He was an excellent harper, a most eloquent Saxon and Latin poet, a most expert chantor or singer, a DOCTOR EGREGIUS, and admirably versed in the scriptures and the liberal sciences
Chron. Anon. Leland. Collectan. ii. 278. To be skilled in singing is often mentioned as an accomplishment of the antient Saxon ecclesiastics. Bede says, that Edda a monk of Canterbury, and a learned writer, was
"primus cantandi magister."
Hist. lib. iv. cap. 2.
Wolstan, a learned monk of Winchester, of the same age, was a celebrated singer, and even wrote a treatise de TONORUM HARMONIA, cited by William of Malmesbury, De Reg. lib. ii. c. 39. Lel. Script. Brit. p. 165. Their skill in playing on the harp is also frequently mentioned. Of saint Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 988, it is said, that among his sacred studies, he cultivated the arts of writing, harping, and painting. Vit. S. Dunstan. MSS. Cott. Brit. Mus. FAUSTIN. B. 13. Hickes has engraved a figure of our Saviour drawn by saint Dunstan, with a specimen of his writing, both remaining in the Bodleian library. Gram. Saxon. p. 104. cap. xxii. The writing and many of the pictures and illuminations in our Saxon manuscripts were executed by the priests. A book of the gospel, preserved in the Cotton library, is a fine specimen of the Saxon calligraphy and d
corations. It is written by Eadfrid bishop of Durham, in the most exquisite manner. Ethelwold his successor did the illuminations, the capital letters, the picture of the cross, and the evangelists, with infinite labour and elegance: and Bilfrid, the anachoret
covered the book, th
s written and adorned, with gold and silver plates and precious stones. All this is related by Aidred, the Saxon glossator, at the end of St. John's gospel. The work was finished about the year 720. MSS. Cott. Brit. Mus. NERO. D. 4. Cod. membr. fol. quadrat. Aelfsin, a monk, is the elegant scribe of many Saxon pieces chiefly historical and scriptural in the same library, and perhaps the painter of the figures, probably soon after the year 978. Ibid. TITUS. D. 26. Cod. membr. 8vo. The Saxon copy of the four evangelists, which king Athelstan gave to Durham church, remains in the same library. It has the painted images of S. Cuthbert, radiated and crowned, blessing king Athelstan, and of the four evangelists. This is undoubtedly the work of the monks; but Wanley believed it to have been done in France. OTHO. B. 9. Cod. membran. fol. At Trinity college in Cambridge is a Psalter in Latin and Saxon, admirably written, and illuminated with letters in gold, silver, miniated, &c. It is full of a variety of historical pictures. At the end is the figure of the writer Eadwin, supposed to be a monk of Canterbury, holding a pen of metal, undoubtedly used in such sort of writing; with an inscription importing his name, and excellence in the calligraphic art. It appears to be performed about the reign of king Stephen. Cod. membr. fol. post Class. a dextr. Ser. Med
5. [among the
Single Codices.]
Eadwin was a famous and frequent writer of books for the library of Christ-church at Canterbury, as appears by a catalogue of their books taken A. D. 1315. In Bibl. Cott. GALB. E 4. The eight historical pictures richly illuminated with gold of the
Anunciation,
the
Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth,
&c. in a manuscript of the gospel, are also thought to be of the reign of king Stephen, yet perhaps from the same kind of artists. The Saxon clergy were ingenious artificers in many other respects. S. Dunstan above-mentioned, made two of the bells of Abingdon abbey with his own hands. Mona
t. Anglic. tom. i. p. 104. John of Glastonbury, who wrote about the year 1400, relates, that there remained in the abbey at Glastonbury, in his time, crosses, incense-vessels, and vestments, made by Dunstan while a monk there. cap. 161. He adds, that Dunstan also handled,
"scalpellum ut sculperet."
It is said, that he could model any image in brass, iron, gold, or silver. Osb. Vit. S. Dunstan. apud Whart. ii
94. Ervene, one of the teachers of Wolstan bishop of Worcester, perhaps a monk of Bury, was famous for calligr
phy, and skill in colours. To invite his pupils to read, he made use of a Psalter and Sacramentary, whose capital letters he had richly illuminated with gold. This was about the year 980. Will. Malmesb. Vit. W
lst. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. p. 244. William of Malmesbury says, that Elfric, a Saxon abbot of Malmesbury, was a skilful architect,
a
dificandi g
arus.
Vit. Aldhelm. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. p. 33. Herman, one of the Norman bishops of Salisbury, about 1080, condescended to write, bind, and illuminate books, Monast. Angl. tom. iii. p. 375.
In some of these instances I have wandered below the Saxon times. It is indeed evident from various proofs which I could give, that the religious practised these arts long afterwards. But the object of this note was the existence of them among the the Saxon clergy.
."
Alcuine, bishop Ecbert's librarian at York, was a cotemporary pupil with Aldhelm under Theodore and Adrian at Canterbury
Dedicat. Hist. Eccl. Bed.
. During the present period, there seems to have been a close correspondence and intercourse between the French and Anglo-Saxons in matters of literature. Alcuine was invited from England into France, to superintend the studies of Charlemagne, whom he instructed in logic, rhetoric, and astronomy
Eginhart. Vit. Kar. Magn. p. 30. ed. 1565. 4to.
. He was also the master of Rabanus Maurus, who became afterwards the governor and preceptor of the great abbey of Fulda in Germany, one of the most flourishing seminaries in Europe, founded by Charlemagne, and inhabited by two hundred and seventy monks
Rabanus instructed them not only in the scriptures, but in profane literature. A great number of other scholars frequented these lectures. He was the first founder of a library in this monastery. Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 540. Saec. Phot. His leisure hours being entirely taken up in reading or transcribing; he was accused by some of the idle monks of attending so much to his studies, that he neglected the public duties of his station, and the care of the revenues of the abbey. They therefore removed him, yet afterwards in vain attempted to
call him. Serrar. Rer. Mogunt. lib. iv. p. 625.
. Alcuine was likewise employed by Charlemagne to regulate the lectures and discipline of the universities
John Mailros, a Scot, one of Bede's scholars, is said to have been employed by Charlemagne in founding the university of Pavia. Dempst. xii. 904.
, which that prudent and magnificent potentate had newly constituted
See Op. Alcuin. Paris. 1617. fol. Praesat. Andr. Quercetan. Mabillon says, that Alcuine pointed the homilies, and St. Au
tin's
pistles, at the instance of Charlemagne. CARL. MAGN. R. Diplomat. p. 52. a. Charlemagne was most fond of a
tronomy. He learned also arithmetic. In his treasury he had three tables of silver, and a fourth of gold, of great weight and size. One of these, which was square, had a picture or representation of Constantinople: another, a round one, a map of Rome: a third, which was of the most exquisite workmanship, and greatest weight, consisting of three orbs, contained a map of the world. Eginhart, ubi supr. p. 29. 31. 41.
. He is said to have joined to the Greek and Latin, an acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue, which perhaps in some degree was known sooner than we may suspect; for at Trinity college in Cambridge there is an Hebrew Psalter, with a Normanno-Gallic interlinear version of great antiquity
MSS. Cod. Coll. S. S. Trin. Cant. Class. a dextr. Ser. Med. 5. membran. 4to. Bede says, that he compiled part of his CHRONICON, EX HEBRAICA VERITATE, that is from S. Jerom's Latin translation of the bible; for he adds,
"nos qui per beati interpretis Hieronymi
industriam
puro HEBRAICAE VERITATIS fonte potamur," &c.
And again,
"Ex Hebraica veritate, quae
ad nos per memoratum interpretem
pure pervenisse," &c.
He mentions on this occasion the Greek Septuagint translation of the bible, but not as if he had ever seen or consulted it. Bed. CHRON. p. 34. edit. Cant.
p. Bed.
. Homilies, lives of saints, commentaries on the bible, with the usual systems of logic, astronomy, rhetoric, and grammar, compose the formidable catalogue of Alcuine's numerous writings. Yet in his books of the sciences, he sometimes ventured to break through the pedantic formalities of a systematical teacher: he has thrown one of his treatises in logic, and I think, another in grammar, into a dialogue between the author and Charlemagne. He first advised Bede to write his ecclesiastical history of England; and was greatly instrumental in furnishing materials for that early and authentic record of our antiquities
Dedicat. Hist. Eccl. Bed. To king Ceolwulphus, p. 37. 38. edit. Op. Cant.
.
In the mean time we must not form too magnificent ideas of these celebrated masters of science, who were thus invited into foreign countries to conduct the education of mighty monarchs, and to plan the rudiments of the most illustrious academies. Their merits are in great measure relative. Their circle of reading was contracted, their systems of philosophy jejune; and their lectures rather served to stop the growth of ignorance, than to produce any positive or important improvements in knowledge. They were unable to make
xcursions from their circumscribed paths of scientific instruction, into the spacious and fruitful regions of liberal and manly study. Those of their hearers, who had passed through the course of the sciences with applause, and aspired to higher acquisitions, were exhorted to read Cassiodorus and Boethius; whose writings they placed at the summit of profane literature, and which they believed to be the great boundaries of human erudition.
I have already mentioned Ceolfrid's presents of books to Benedict's library at Weremouth abbey. He wrote an account of his travels into France and Italy. But his principal work, and I believe the only one preserved, is his diss
rtation concerning the clerical tonsure, and the rites of celebrating Easter
Bed, Hist. Eccl. v. 22. And Concil. Gen. vi. p. 1423.
. This was written at the desire of Naiton, a Pictish king, who dispatched ambassadors to Ceolfrid for information concerning these important articles; requesting Ceolfrid at the same time to send him some skilful architects, who could build in his country a church of stone, after the fashion of the Romans
Bed. Hist. Eccl. ib. c. 21. iv. 18.
. Ceolfrid died on a journey to Rome, and was buried in a monastery of Navarre, in the year 706
Bed. Hist. Abb. p. 300.
.
But Bede, whose name is so nearly and necessarily connected with every part of the literature of this period, and which has therefore been often already mentioned, emphatically styled the Venerable by his cotemporaries, was by far the most learned of the Saxon writers. He was of the northern school, if it may be so called; and was educated in the monastery of saint Peter at Weremouth, under the care of the abbots Ceolfrid and Biscop
Bed. Hist. Eccl. v. 24.
. Bale affirms, that Bede learned physics and mathematics from the purest sources, the original Greek and Roman writers on these subjects
ii. 94.
. But this hasty assertion, in part at least, may justly be doubted. His knowledge, if we consider his age, was extensive and profound: and it is amazing, in so rude a period, and during a life of no considerable length, he should have made so successful a progress, and such rapid improvements, in scientifical and philological studies, and have composed so many elaborate treatises on different subjects
"Libros septuaginta octo edidit, quos ad finem HISTORIAE suae ANGLICANAE edidit. [See Op. edit. Cant. p.
22. 223. lib. v. c. 24.] Hic succumbit ing
uium, deficit
loquium, sufficienter admirari hominem a scholastico exercitio tam procul amotum, tam sobrio sermone tanta elabora
volumina," &c.
Chron. Praef. Bever. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. ut supr. f. 65.
[Bever was a monk of Westminster circ. A. D. 1400.] For a full and exact list of Bede's works, the curious reader i
referred to Mabillon, Saec. iii. p. i. p. 539. Or Cave, Hi
t. Lit. ii. p.
2.
. It is diverting to see the French critics censuring Bede for credulity: they might as well have accused him of superstition
It is true, that Bede has introduced many miracles and visions into his history. Yet some of these are pleasing to the imagination: they are
inctured with the gloom of the cloist
r, operating on the extravagancies of oriental inv
ntion. I will give an instance or two. A monk of Northumberland di
d, and was brought again to life. In this interval of death, a young man in shining apparel came and led him, without speaking, to a valley of infinite depth, length, and breadth: one side was formed by a prodigious sheet of fire, and the opposite side filled with hail and ice. Both sides were swarming with souls o
departed men; who were for ever in search of rest, alternately shifting their situation to these extremes of heat and cold. The monk supposing this place to be hell, was told hy his guide that he was mistaken. The guide then led him, greatly terrified with this spectacle, to a more distant place, where he says,
"I saw on a sudden a darkness come on, and every thing was obscured. When I entered this place I could discern no object, on account of the encreasing darkness, except the countenance and glittering garments of my conductor. As we went forward I beheld vast torrents of flame spouting upwards from the ground, as from a large well, and falling down into it again. As we came near it my guide suddenly vanished, and left me alone in the midst of darkness and this horrible vision. Deformed and uncouth spirits arose from this blazing chasm, and attempted to draw me in with fiery forks."
But his guide here returned, and they all retired at his appearance. Heaven is then described with great strength of fancy. I have seen an old ballad, called the
Dead Man's Song,
on this story. And Milton's hell may perhaps be taken from this idea. Bed. Hist. Eccl. v. 13. Our historian in the next chapter relates, that two most beautiful youths came to a person lying sick on his death-bed, and offered him a book to read, richly ornamented, in which his good actions were recorded. Immediately after this, the house was surrounded and filled with an army of spirits of most horrible aspect. One of them, who by the gloom of his darksome countenance appeared to be their leader, produced a book,
codic
m horr
ndae visionis, et magnitudinis enormis et pond
ris paene importabilis,
and ordered some of his attendant demons to bring it to the sick man. In this were contained all his sins, &c. ib. cap. 14.
. There is much perspicuity and facility in his Latin style. But it is void of elegance, and often of purity; it shews with what grace and propriety he would have written, had his mind been formed on better models. Whoever looks for digestion of materials, disposition of parts, and accuracy of narration, in this writer's historical works, expects what could not exist at that time. He has recorded but few civil transactions: but besides that his history professedly considers ecclesiastical affairs, we should remember, that the building of a church, the preferment of an abbot, the canonisation of a martyr, and the importation into England of the shin-bone of an apostle, were necessarily matters of much more importance in Bede's conceptions than victories or revolutions. He is fond of minute description; but particularities are the fault and often the merit of early historians
An ingenious author, who writes under the name of M. de Vigneul Marville, observes, that Bede,
"when he speaks of the Magi who went to worship our Saviour, is very particular in the account of their names, age, and respective offerings. He says, that Melchior was old, and had grey hair, with a long beard; and that it was he who offered gold to Christ, in acknowledgment of his sovereignty. That Gaspar, the second of the magi, was young, and had no beard, and that it was he who offered frankincense, in recognition of our Lord's divinity: and that Balthasar the third, was of a dark complexion, had a large beard, and offered myrrh to our Saviour's humanity."
He is likewise very circumstantial in the description of their dresses. Melanges d' l'Hist. et de Lit. Paris, 1725. 12mo. tom. iii. p. 283, &c. What was more natural than this in such a writer and on such a subject? In the mean time it may be remarked, that this description of Bede, taken perhaps from constant tradition, is now to be seen in the old pictures and popular representations of the
Wi
e Men's Off
ring.
. Bede wrote many pieces of Latin poetry. The following verses from his MEDITATIO DE DIE JUDICII, a translation of which into Saxon verse is now preserved in the library of Bennet college at Cambridge
Cod. MSS. lxxix. P. 161.
, are at least well turned and harmonious.
Inter florigeras foecundi cespitis herbas,
Flamine ventorum resonantibus undique ramis
Malmsb. apud Whart. ut supr. p. 8.
.
Some of Aldhelm's verses are exactly in this cast, written on the Dedication of the abbey-church at Malmesbury to saint Peter and saint Paul.
Hic celebranda rudis
Recent. Newly built.
florescit gloria templi,
Limpida quae sacri celebrat vexilla triumphi.
Hic Petrus et Paulus, tenebrosi lumina mundi,
Praecipui patres populi qui frena gubernant,
Carminibus crebris alma celebrantur in aula.
Claviger o caeli, portam qui pandis in aethra,
Candida qui meritis recludis limina caeli,
Exaudi clemens populorum vota tuorum,
Marcida qui riguis humectant fletibus ora
W. Malmsb. ut supr. Apud Whart. p. 8.
.
The strict and superabundant attention of these Latin poets to prosodic rules, on which it was become fashionable to write didactic systems, made them accurate to excess in the metrical conformation of their hexameters, and produced a faultless and flowing monotony. Bede died in the monastery of Weremouth, which he never had once quitted, in the year 735
Cave, ubi supr. p. 473. Saec. Eiconocl.
.
I have already observed, and from good authorities, that many of these Saxon scholars were skilled in Greek. Yet scarce any considerable monuments have descended to modern times, to prove their familiarity with that language. I will, however, mention such as have occurred to me. Archbishop Parker, or rather his learned scribe Jocelin, affirms, that the copy of Homer, and of some of the other books imported into England by archbishop Theodore, as I have above related, remained in his time
Antiquitat.
rit. p. 80.
. There is however no allusion to Homer, nor any mention made of his name, in the writings of the Saxons now existing
See SECT. iii. p. 124. infr. Where it is observed, that Homer is cited by Geoffrey of Monmouth. But he is not mentioned in Geoffrey's Armoric original.
. In the Bodleian library are some extracts from the books of the Prophets in Greek and Latin: the Latin is in Saxon, and the Greek in Latino-greek capital characters. A Latino-greek alphabet is prefixed. In the same manuscript is a chapter of Deuteronomy, Greek and Latin, but both are in Saxon characters
NE. D. 19. MSS. membr. 8vo. fol. 24. 19.
. In the curious and very valuable library of Bennet college in Cambridge, is a very antient copy of Aldhelm DE LAUDE VIRGINITATIS. In it is inserted a specimen of Saxon poetry full of Latin and Greek words, and at the end of the manuscript some Runic letters occur
Cod. MSS. K 12.
. I suspect that their Grecian literature was a matter of ostentation rather than use. William of Malmesbury, in his life of Aldhelm, censures an affectation in the writers of this age; that they were fond of introducing in their Latin compositions a difficult and abstruse word latinised from the Greek
Ubi supr. p. 7
. There are many instances of this pedantry in the early charters of Dugdale's Monasticon. But it is no where more visible than in the LIFE of Saint WILFRID, archbishop of Canterbury, written by Fridegode a monk of Canterbury, in Latin heroics, about the year 960
Printed by Mabillon, Saec. Benedictin. iii. p. 1. P. 169.
. Malmesbury observes of this author's style,
"Latinitatem perosus,
Graecitatem
amat,
Graecula
verba frequentat
Gest. Pontific. i. f. 114.
."
Probably to be able to read Greek at this time was esteemed a knowledge of that language. Eginhart relates, that Charlemagne could speak Latin as fluently as his native Frankish: but slightly passes over his accomplishment in Greek, by artfully saying, that he understood it better than he could pronounce it
Vit. Kar. Magn. p. 30.
. Nor, by the way, was Charlemagne's boasted facility in the Latin so remarkable a prodigy. The Latin language was familiar to the Gauls when they were conquered by the Franks; for they were a province of the Roman empire till the year 485. It was the language of their religious offices, their laws, and public transactions. The Franks who conquered the Gauls at the period just mentioned, still continued this usage, imagining there was a superior dignity in the language of imperial Rome: although this incorporation of the Franks with the Gauls greatly corrupted the latinity of the latter, and had given it a strong tincture of barbarity before the reign of Charlemagne. But while we are bringing proofs which tend to extenuate the notion that Greek was now much known or cultivated, it must not be dissembled, that John Erigena, a native of Aire in Scotland, and one of king Alfred's first lecturers at Oxford
Wood Hist. Antiquit. Univ. Oxon. i. 15.
, translated into Latin from the Greek original four large treatises of Dionysius the Areopagite, about the year 860
This translation, with dedications in verse and prose to Charles the Bald, occurs twice in the Bodleian library, viz. MSS. Mus. 148. And Hyper. Bodl. 148. p. 4. seq. See also Laud.
. 59. And in Saint John's college Oxford, A. xi. 2. 3. William of Malmesbury says, that he wrote a book entitled, PERIPHISMERISMUS, (that is
) and adds, that in this piece
"a Latinorum tramite deviavit, dum in Graecos acriter oculos intendit."
Vit. Aldhelm. p. 28. Wharton. Angl. Sacr. ii. It was printed at Oxford by Gale. Erigena, in one of the dedications above-mentioned, says, that he had translated into Latin ten of Dionysius's Epistles. Hoveden and Matthew Paris have literally transcribed the words of Malmesbury just cited, and much more, Hov. fol. 234. And M. Paris, p. 253. It is doubtful whether the VERSIO MORALIUM ARISTOTELIS is from the Greek: it might be from the Arabic. Or whether our author's. See Praefat. Op. nonnull. Oxon. edit. per Gale, cum Not. 1681. fol.
. This translation, which is dedicated to Charles the Bald, abounds with Greek phraseology and is hardly intelligible to a mere Latin reader. He also translated into Latin the Scholia of saint Maximus on the difficult passages of Gregory Nazianzen
Printed at Oxford as above. Erigena died at Malmesbury, where he had opened a school in the year 883. Cave, His
. Lit. Saec. Phot. p. 548. 549. William of Malmesbury says, that Erigena was one of the wits of Charles the Bald's table, and his constant companion. Ubi supr. p. 27.
. He frequently visited his munificent patron Charles the Bald, and is said to have taken a long journey to Athens, and to have spent many years in studying not only the Greek but the Arabic and Chaldee languages
Spelm. Vit. Aelfred. Bale xiv. 3
. Pits. p. 168.
.
As to classic authors, it appears that not many of them were known or studied by our Saxon ancestors. Those with which they were most acquainted, either in prose or verse, seem to have been of the lower empire; writers who, in the declension of taste, had superseded the purer and more anti
nt Roman models, and had been therefore more recen
ly and frequently transcribed. I have mentioned Alfred's translations of Boethius and Orosius. Prudentius was also perhaps one of their favorites. In the British Museum there is a manuscript copy of that poet's PSYCOMACHIA. It is illustrated with drawings of historical figures, each of which have an explanatory legend in Latin and Saxon letters; the Latin in large red characters, and the Saxon in black, of great antiquity
MSS. Cott. CLEOPATR. C. 8. membr. 8vo.
. Prudentius is likewise in Bennet college library at Cambridge, transcribed in the time of Charles the Bald, with several Saxon words written into the text
Miscellan. MSS. M. membran.
. Sedulius's hymns are in the same repository in Saxon characters, in a volume containing other Saxon manuscripts
MSS. S. 11. Cod. membran.
. Bede says, that Aldhelm wrote his book DE VIRGINITATE, which is both prose and verse, in imitation of the manner of Sedulius
Eccl. Hist. 19.
. We learn from Gregory of Tours, what is not foreign to our purpose to remark, that king Chilperic, who began to reign in 562, wrote two books of Latin verses in imitation of Sedulius. But it was without any idea of the common quantities
Gregor. Turonens. l. vi. c. 46.
. A manuscript of this poet in the British Museum is bound up with Nennius and Felix's MIRACLES OF SAINT GUTHLAC, dedicated to Alfwold king of the East Angles, and written both in Latin and Saxon
MSS. Cotton. VESP. D. xxi. 8vo.
. But these classics were most of them read as books of religion and morality. Yet Aldhelm, in his tract de METRORUM GENERIBUS, quotes two verses from the third book of Virgil's Georgics
W. Malmesb. Vit. Aldhelm. Wharton. Angl. Sacr. ii. 4.
: and in the Bodleian library we find a manuscript of the first book of Ovid's Art of Love, in very antient Saxon characters, accompanied with a British gloss
NE D. 19. membr. 8vo.
ol. 37.
. And the venerable Bede, having first invoked the Trinity, thus begins a Latin panegyrical hymn on the miraculous virginity of Ethildryde.
"Let Virgil sing of wars, I celebrate the gifts of peace. My verses are of chastity, not of the rape of the adulteress Helen. I will chant heavenly blessings, not the battles of miserable Troy
Bed. Eccl. Hist. iv. 20.
."
These however are rare instances. It was the most abominable heresy to have any concern with the pagan fictions. The graces of composition were not their objects, and elegance found no place amidst their severer pursuits in philosophy and theology
u Medicine was one of their favorite sciences, being a part of the Arabian learning. We have now remaining Saxon manuscript translations of Apuleius de VIRIBUS HERBARUM. They have also left a larg
system of medicine in Saxon, often cited by Somner in his Lexicon, under the title of LIBER MEDICINALIS. It appears by this tract, that they were well acquainted with the Latin physicians and naturalists, Marcellus, Scribonius Largu
, Pliny
Caelius Aurelianus, Theodore, Priscus, &c. MSS. Bibl. Reg. Brit. Mus. Cod. membr. ... It is probable that this manuscript is of the age of king Alfred. Among Hatton's books in the Bodleian library, is a Saxon manuscript which has been entitled by Junius MEDICINA EX QUADRUPEDIBUS. It is pretended to be taken from Idpart, a fabulous king of Egypt. It is followed by two epistles in La
in of Evax king of the Arabians to Tiberius Cesar, concerning the names and virtu
s of oriental precious stones used in medicine. Cod. Hatton. 100. membr. fol. It is believed to be a manuscript before the conquest. These ideas of a king of Egypt, and another of Arabia, and of the use of oriental precious stones in the medical art, evidently betray their origin. Apuleius's HERBARIUM occurs in the Briti
h Museum in Latin and Saxon,
"quod accepit ab ESCULAPIO et a CHIRONE CENTAURO MAGISTRO ACHILLIS."
Together with the MEDICINA EX QUADRUPEDIBUS abovementioned. MSS. Cot. VITEL. C. iii. Cod. membr. fol. iii. p. 19. iv. p. 75. It is remarkable that the Arabians attribute the invention of SIMIA, one of their magical sciences, to KIRUN or CARUN, that is Chiron the centaur, the master of Achilles. See Herbelot. Dict. Orient. Artic. SIMIA. p. 1005.
The Greeks reputed Chiron the inventor of medicine. His medical books are mentioned by many antient writers, particularly by Apuleius Celsus, De Herbis: and Kircher observes, that Chiron's treatise of MULO
DICINA was familiar to the Arabians. Oedip. Egypt. tom. iii. p. 68. Lambeccius describes a very curious and antient manuscript of Dioscorides: among the beautiful illuminations with which it was enriched, was a square picture with a gold ground, on which were represented the seven antient physician
, Machaon
CHIRON, Niger, Her
ulides
Mantias, Xenocrates, and Pamphilus. P. Lambecc. de Bibl. Vindob. lib. ii. p. 525. seq. I have mentioned above, MEDICINA
X QUADRUPEDIBUS. A Greek poem or fragment called MEDICINA EX PISCI
US has been attributed to Chiron. It was written by Marcellus Sidetas of Pamphylia, a physician under Marcus Antoninus, and is printed by Fabricius. Bibl. Gr. i. p. 16. seq. And see xiii. p. 317. The MEDICINA EX QUADRUPEDIBUS seems to be the treatise entitled, MEDICINA EX ANIMALIBUS, under the name of Sextu
Platonicus, and printed in Stephens's
DICAE ARTIS PRINCIPES, p. 684. This was a favorite medical system of the dark ages. See Fabric. ibid. xiii. 395
xii. 613.
.
It is certain that literature was at its height among our Saxon ancestors about the eighth century. These happy beginnings were almost entirely owing to the attention of king Alfred, who encouraged learning by his own example, by founding
eminaries of instruction, and by rewarding the labours of scholars. But the efforts of this pious monarch were soon blasted by the supineness of his successors, the incursions of the Danes, and the distraction of national affairs. Bede, from the establishment of learned bishops in every diocese, and the universal tranquillity which reigned over all the provinces of England, when he finished his ecclesiastical history, flatters his imagination in anticipating the most advantageous consequences, and triumphantly closes his narrative with this pleasing presentiment. The Picts, at this period, were at peace with the Saxons or English, and converted to christianity. The Scots lived contented within their own boundary. The Britons or Welsh, from a natural enmity, and a dislike to the catholic institution of keeping Easter, sometimes attempted to disturb the national repose; but they were in some measure subservient to the Saxons. Among the Northumbrians, both the nobility and private persons rather chose their children should receive the monastic tonsure, than be trained to arms
Bede, Eccl. Hist. v. 23.
.
But a long night of confusion and gross ignorance succeeded. The principal productions of the most eminent monasteries for three centuries, were incredible legends which discovered no marks of invention, unedifying homilies, and trite expositions of the scriptures. Many bishops and abbots began to consider learning as pernicious to true piety, and confounded illiberal igno
ance with christian simplicity. Leland frequently laments the loss of libraries destroyed in the Danish invasions
See Malmesb. apud Lel. Coll. 1. p. 140. edit. n
p.
. Some slight attempts were made for restoring literary pursuits, but with little success. In the tenth century, Oswald archbishop of Canterbury, finding the monasteries of his province extremely ignorant not only in the common elements of grammar, but even in the canonical rules of their respective orders, was obliged to send into France for competent masters, who might remedy these evils
Wharton. Angl. Sacr. ii. 201. Many
vid
n
s of the ignorance which prevailed in other countries during the tenth century have been collected by Muratori, Antiquit. Ital. Med. aev. iii. 831. ii. 141. And Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. i. 288.
. In the mean time, from perpetual commotions, the manners of the people had degenerated from that mildness which a short interval of peace and letters had introduced, and the national character had contracted an air of rudenes
and ferocity.
England at length, in the beginning of the eleventh century, received from the Normans the rudiments of that cultivation which it has preserved to the present times. The Normans were a people who had acquired ideas of splendor and refinement from their residence in France; and the gallantries of their f
udal system introduced new magnificence and elegance among our rough unpolished ancestors. The conqueror's army was composed of the flower of the Norman nobility; who sharing allotments of land in different parts of the new territory, diffused a general knowledge of various improvements entirely unknown in the most flourishing eras of the Saxon government, and gave a more liberal turn to the manners even of the provincial inhabita
ts. That they brought with them the arts, may yet be seen by the castles and churches which they built on a more extensive and stately plan
This point will be further illustrated in a work now preparing for the press, entitled, OBSERVATIONS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, ON CASTLES, CHURCHES, MONASTERIES, and other MONUM
NTS O
ANTIQUITY IN VARIOUS P
RTS OF ENGLAND. To which will be prefixed, THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND.
. Literature, in particular, the chief object of our present research, which had long been reduced to the most abject condition, appeared with new lustre in consequence of this important revolution.
Towards the close of the tenth century, an event took place, which gave a new and very fortunate turn to the state of letters in France and Italy. A little before that time, there were no schools in Europe but those whic
belonged to the monasteries or episcopal churches; and the monks were almost the only masters employed to educate the youth in the principles of sacred and profane erudition. But at the commencement of the eleventh century, many learned persons of the laity, as well as of the clergy, undertook in th
most capital cities of France and Italy this important charge. The Latin versions of the Greek philosophers from the Arabic, had now become so frequent and common, as to fall into the hands of the people; and many of these new preceptors having travelled into Spain with a design of studying in the Arabic schools
This fashion continued for a long time. Among many who might here be mentioned was Daniel Merlac, an Englishman, who, in the year 1185, went to Toledo to learn mathematics, and brought back with him into England several books of the Arabian philosophy. Wood Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. p. 56. col. i.
, and comprehending in their course of institution, more numerous and useful branches of science than the monastic teachers were acquainted with, communicated their knowledge in a better method, and taught in a much more full, perspicuous, solid, and rational manner. These and other beneficial effects, arising from this practice of admitting others besides ecclesiastics to the profession of letters, and the education of youth, were imported into England by means of the Norman conquest.
The conqueror himself patronised and loved letters. He filled the bishopricks and abbacies of England with the most learned of his countrymen, who had been educated at the university of Paris, at that time the most flourishing school in Europe. He placed Lanfranc, abbot of the monastery of Saint Stephen at Caen, in the see of Canterbury; an eminent master of logic, the subtleties of which he employed with great dexterity in a famous controversy concerning the real presence. Anselm, an acute metaphysician and theologist, his immediate successor in the same see, was called from the government of the abbey of Bec in Normandy. Herman, a Norman bishop of Salisbury, founded a noble library in the antient cathedral of that see
"Nobilem bibliothecam, comparatis in hoc optimis juxta ac antiquissimis illustrium autorum monumentis, Severiae posuit."
Leland. Script. Brit. p. 174.
He died 1099. He was so fond of letters, that he did not disdain to bind and illuminate books. Mon. Angl. iii. p. 375. Vid. supr. The old church of Salisbury stood within the area of that noble antient military work, called
Old-castle.
Leland says, that he finished the church which his i predecessor Herman had begun, and filled its chapter with eminent scholars.
. Many of the Norman prelates preferred in England by the conqueror, were polite scholars. Godfrey, prior of Saint Swithin's at Winchester, a native of Cambray, was an elegant Latin epigrammatist, and wrote with the smartness and ease of Martial
Camden has cited several of his
pigrams. Remains, p. 421. edit. 1674. I have read all his pieces now remaining. The chief of them are,
"PROVERBIA, ET EPIGRAMMATA SATYRICA."
—
"CARMINA HISTORICA, DE REGE CANUTO, REGINA EMMA," &c.
Among these last, none of which were ever printed, is an eulogy on Walkelin bishop of Winchester, and a Norman, who built great part of his stately cathedral, as it now stands, and was bishop there during Godfrey's priorate, viz.
Consilium, virtutis amor, facundia comis,
WALCHELINE pater, fixa fuere tibi.
Corrector juvenum,
enibus documenta ministrans,
Exemplo vitae pastor utrosque regis.
Pes
ueras claudis, caecis imitabile lumen,
Portans invalidos, qui cecidere levans.
Divitiis dominus, facilis largitor earum,
Dum resicis multo
, de
icis ipse tibi, &c.
Among the Epigram
, the following is not cited by Camden.
Pauca Titus pretiosa dabat, sed vilia plura:
Ut meliora habeam, pauca det, or
, Titus.
These pieces are in the Bodleian library, MSS. Digb. 65. ut. 112. The whole collection is certainly worthy of publication. I do not mean merely as a curiosity. Leland mentions his epistles
"familiari illo et DULCI stylo editae."
Script. Brit. p. 159. Godfrey died 1107. He was made prior of Winchester A. D. 1082. Wharton. Angl. Sacr. i. 324. He was interred in the old chapter-house, whose area now makes part of the dean's garden.
. A circumstance, which by the way shews that the literature of the monks at this period was of a more liberal cast than that which we commonly annex to their character and profession. Geoffrey, a learned Norman, was invited from the university of Paris to superintend the direction of the school of the abbey of Dunstable; where he composed a play called the Play of SAINT CATHARINE
See infr. SECT. vi. p. 236.
, which was acted by his scholars. This was perhaps the first spectacle of the kind that was ever attempted, and the first trace of theatrical representation which appeared, in England. Mathew Paris, who first records this anecdote, says, that Geoffrey borrowed copes from the sacrist of the neighbouring abbey of saint Alban's to dress his characters. He was afterwards elected abbot of that opulent monastery
Vit. Abbat. ad calc Hi
t. p. 56. edit. 1639. See also. Bul. Hist. Acad. Paris. ii. 225.
.
The king himself gave no small countenance to th
clergy, in sending his son Henry Beauclerc to the abbey of Abingdon, where he was initiated in the sciences under the care of the abbot Grymbald, and Fa
ice a physician of Oxford. Robert d'Oilly, constable of Oxford castle, was ordered to pay for the board of the young prince in the convent, which the king himself frequently visited
Hist. Anti
. Univ. Oxon. i. 46.
. Nor was William wanting in giving ample revenues to learning: he founded the magnificent abbies of Battel and Selby, wit
other smaller convents. His nobles and their successors cooperated with this liberal spirit in erecting many monasteries. Herbert de Losinga, a monk of Normandy, bishop of Thetford in Norfolk, instituted and endowed with large possessions a Benedictine abbey at Norwich, consisting of sixty monks. To mention no more instances, such great institutions of persons dedicated to religious and literary leisure, while they diffused an air of civility, and softened the manners of the people in their respective circles, must have afforded powerful invitations to studious pursuits, and have consequently added no small degree of stability to the interests of learning.
By these observations, and others which have occurred in the course of our enquiries, concerning the utility of monasteries, I certainly do not mean to defend the monastic system. We are apt to pass a general and undistinguishing censure on the monks, and to suppose their foundations to have been the retreats of illiterate indolence at every period of time. B
t it should be remembered, that our universities about the time of the Norman conquest, were in a low condition: while the monasteries contained ample endowments and accommodations, and were the only respectable seminaries of literature. A few centuries afterwards, as our universities began to flourish, in consequence of the distinctions and
onours which they conferred on scholars, the establishment of colleges, the introduction of new systems of science, the universal ardour which prevailed of breeding almost all persons to letters, and the abolition of that exclusive right of teaching which the ecclesiastics had so long claimed; the monasteries of course grew inattentive to studies, which were more strongly encouraged, more commodiously pursued, and more successfully cultivated, in other places: they gradually became contemptible and unfashionable as nurseries of learning, and their fraternities degenerated into sloth and ignorance. The most eminent scholars which England produced, both in philosophy and humanity, before and even below the twelfth century, were educated in our religious houses. The encouragement given in the English monasteries for transcribing books, the scarcity of which in the middle ages we have before remarked, was very considerable. In every great abbey there was an apartment called the SCRIPTORIUM: where many writers were constantly busied in transcribing not only the service-books for the choir, but books for the library
This was also a practice in the monasteries abroad; in which the boys and novices were chiefly employed. But the missals and bibles were ordered to be written by monks of mature age and discretion. Du Fresne, Gloss. Lat. Med. V. SCRIPTORIUM. And Praefat. f. vi. edit. prim. See also Monast. Anglic. ii. 726. And references in the windows of the library of saint Alban's abbey. Ibid. 183. At the foundation of Winchester college, one or more transcribers were hired and employed by the founder to
make books
for the library. They transcribed and took their commons within the college, as appears by computations of expences on their account now remaining.
. The Scriptorium of Saint Alban's abbey was built by abbot Paulin, a Norman, who ordered many volumes to be written there, about the year 1080. Archbishop Lanfranc furnished the copies
Mat. Paris, p. 1003. See Lelan
. Script. Brit. p. 166.
. Estates were often granted for the support of the Scriptorium. That at Saintedmonsbury was endowed with two mills
Registr. Nigr. S. Edmund. Abbat. fol. 228.
. The tythes of a rectory were appropriated to the cathedral convent of saint Swithin at Winchester,
ad libros transcribendos,
in the year 1171
Registr. Joh. Pontissar. episcop. Wint. f. 164. MS.
See Mon. Angl. i. 131. Heming. Chartul. per Hearne, p. 265. Compare also Godwin. de Praesul. p. 121. edit. 1616.
. Many instances of this species of benefaction occur from the tenth century. Nigel, in the year 1160, gave the monks of Ely two churches,
ad libros faciendos
Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. p. 619. See also, p. 634, and 278. Hearne has published a grant from R. De Paston to Bromholm abbey in Norfolk, of 12
d.
per annum, a rent-charge on his lands, to keep their books in repair,
ad emendacionem librorum.
Ad. Domerham. Num. iii.
. This employment appears to have been diligently practised at Croyland; for Ingulphus relates, that when the library of that convent was burnt in the year 1091, seven hundred volumes were consumed
Hist. Croyland. Dec. Script. p 98.
. Fifty-eight volumes were transcribed at Glastonbury, during the government of one abbot, about the year 1300
Tanner, Not. Mon. edit. 8vo. Pref.
. And in the library of this monastery, the richest in England, there were upwards of four hundred volumes in the year 1248
See Joann. Glafton. ut infr. And Leland, Script. Brit. p. 131.
. More than eighty books were thus transcribed for saint Alban's abbey, by abbot Wethamstede, who died about 1440
Weaver, Fun. Mon. p. 566.
. Some of these instances are rather below our period; but they illustrate the subject, and are properly connected with those of more antient date. I find some of the classics written in the English monasteries very early. Henry, a Benedictine monk of Hyde-abbey near Winchester, transcribed in the year 1178, Terence, Boethius
It is observable, that Boethius in his metres constantly follows Seneca's tragedies. I believe there is not one form of verse in Boethius but what is taken from Seneca.
, Suetonius
Suetonius is frequently cited by the writers of the middle ages, particularly by Vincentius Bellovacensis. Specul. Hist. lib. x. c. 67. And Rabanus Maurus, Art. Gram. Op. tom. i. p. 46. Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, about the year 838, a learned philosophical writer, educated under Rabanus Maurus, desires abbot Marquard to send him Suetonius,
On the Caesars,
"in duos nec magnos codices divisum."
Epistol. Lup. Ferrariens. xcix. Apud Andr. Du Chesne, Script. Rer. Franc. tom. ii. p. 726.
Isidorus Hispalensis, a bishop of the seventh century, gives the origin of Poetry from Suetonius, Origin. viii. 7. Chaucer's tale of Nero in the MONKE'S TALE, is taken from Suetonius,
"as tellith us Suetonius."
v. 491. p. 164. edit. Urr.
, and Claudian. Of these he formed one book, illuminating the initials, and forming the brazen bosses of the covers with his own hands
"Suis manibus apices literarum artificiose pinxit et illuminavit, necnon aereos umbones in tegminibus appinxit."
MS. Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin, Winton. Quatern. . . In archiv. Wulves. Many of the monks were skilful illuminators. They were also taught to bind books. In the year 1277, these constitutions were given to the Benedictine monasteries of the province of Cante
bury.
"Abbates monachos suos claustrales, loco operis manualis, secundum suam habilitatem caeteris occupationibus deputent: in studendo, libros scribendo, corrigendo, illuminando, ligando."
Capit. Gen. Ord. Benedictin. Provinc. Cant. 1277. apud MSS. Br. Twyne, 8 p. 272. archiv. Oxon.
. But this abbot had more devotion than taste: for he exchanged this manuscript a few years afterwards for four missals, the Legend of saint Christopher, and saint Gregory's PASTORAL CARE, with the prior of the neighbouring cathedral convent
Ibid.
. Benedict, abbot of Peterborough, author of the Latin chronicle of king Henry the second, amongst a great variety of scholastic and theological treatises, transcribed Seneca's epistles and tragedies
Nicholas Antonius says, that Nicholas Franeth, a Dominican, illustrated Seneca's tragedies with a gloss, soon after the year 1300. Bibl. Vet. Hispan. apud Fabric. Bibl. Lat. lib. ii. c. 9. He means Nicholas Trivet, an English Dominican, author of the ANNALS published by Hearne.
, Terence, Martial
John of Salisbury calls Martial COCUS, Policrat. vi. 3. As do several writers of the middle ages. Martial is cited by Jerom of Padua, a Latin poet and physician, who flourished about the year 1300. See Christian. Daumii Not. ad Catonis Distich. p. 140. One of the two famous manuscripts of Terence in the Vatican, is said to have been written in the time, perhaps under the encouragement, of Charlemage; and to have been compared with the more antient copies by Calliopius Scholasticus. Fontanin. Vindic. Antiquit. Diplomat. p. 37.
S
hola
icus
means a master in the ecclesiastical schools. Engelbert, abbot of Tr
voux, a writer of the tenth century, mentions
Terentius Poeta,
but in such a manner as shews h
had but little or no knowledge of him. He confounds this poet with Terentius the Roman senator, whom Scipio delivered from prison at Carthage, and brought to Rome. Bibl. Patr. tom. xxv. edit. Lugd. p. 370.
, and Claudian, to which I will add GESTA ALEXANDRI
See SECT. iii. infr. p. 128.
, about the year 1180
Swaffham, Hist. Caenob. Burg. ii. p. 97. per Jos. Sparke.
"Epistolae Senecae cum aliis Senecis in uno volumine, Martialis totus et Terentius in uno volumine," &c.
Sub. Tit.
De Libris ejus.
He died in 1193. In the library of Peterborough abbey, at the dissolution, there were one thousand and seven hundred books in manuscript. Gunton's Peterb. p. 173.
. In a catalogue of the
See Chron. Joh. Glaston. edit. Hearne, Oxon. 1726. viz.
Num
rus Librorum Glastoniensis ecclesiae qui fuerunt de
LIBRARIA
anno gracia
,
M. CC. XL. VII. p. 423. Leland, who visited all the monasteries just before their dissolution, seems to have been struck with the venerable air and amplitude of this room. Script. Brit. p. 196. See what is said of the monastery libraries above.
books of the library of Glastonbury we find Livy
It is pretended, that Gregory the Great, in the year 580, ordered all the manuscripts of Livy to be burnt which could be found, as a writer who enforced the doctrine of prodigies. By the way, Livy himself often in
inuates his disbelief of those superstitions. He studies to relate the mo
t ridiculous portents; and he only meant, when it came in his way, to record the credulity of the people, not to propagate a belief of such absurdities. It was the superstition of
he people, not of the historian. Antonio Beccatelli is said to have purchased of Poggius a beautiful manuscript of Livy, for which he gave the latt
r a large field, in the year 1455. Gallaes. De Bibliothecis, p. 186. Se
Liron, Singularites Hist. et
itt. tom i. p. 166.
, Sallust
Fabricius mentions two manuscripts of Sallust, one written in the year 1178, and and the other in the year 900. Bibl. Lat. L. i. c. 9. Sallust is cited by a Byzantine writer, Joannes Antiochenus, of an early century. Excerpt. Peiresc. p 393. Mr. Hume says, that Sallust's larger history is cited by Fitz Stephens, in his d
scription of London. Hist. Engl. ii. 440. 4to. edit.
, Seneca, Tully DE SENECTUTE and AMICITIA
Paulus Jovius says, that Poggius, about the year 1420, first brought T
lly's books
De Fini
us
and
De Legibus
into Italy, trans
ribed by himself from other manuscript
. Vo
. Hist. Lat. p. 550. About the same time BRUTUS
de Claris Oratoribus,
and some of the Rhetorical pieces, with a complete copy of
De Oratore,
were discovered and circulated by Flavius Blondus, and his friends. Flav. Blond. Ital. Illustrat. p. 346. Leland says, that William Selling, a monk of Canterbury, about 1480, brought with him from Italy Cicero's book
De Republica,
but that it was burnt with other manuscripts. Script. Brit. CELLINGUS.
, Virgil, Persius, and Claudian, in the year 1248. Among the royal manuscripts of the British Museum, is one of the twelve books of Statius's Thebaid, supposed to have been written in the tenth century, which once belonged to the cathedral convent of Rochester
15 C. x. 1.
. And another of Virgil's Eneid, written in the thirteenth, which came from the library of saint Austin's at Canterbur
15 B vi.
. Wallingford, abbot of saint Alban's, gave or sold from the library of that monastery to Richard of Bury, bishop of Durham, author of the PHILOBIBLON, and a great collector of books, Terence, Virgil, Quintilian, and Jerom against Rufinus, together with thirty-two other volumes valued at fifty pounds of silver
Vit. Abbat. S. Albani. Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. Claud. E. iv. In the royal manuscripts in John of Salisbury's ENTENTICUS, there is written,
"Hunc librum fecit dominus Symon abbas S. Albani: quem postea venditum domino RICARDO DE BURY, episcopo Dunelmensi emit Michael abbas S. Albani ab executoribus praedicti episcopi, A. D. 1345."
MSS. 13 D. iv. 3.
Richard de Bury, otherwise called Richard Aungervylle, is said to have alone possessed more books than all the bishops of England together. Besides the fixed libraries which he had formed in his several palaces, the floor of his common apartment was so covered with books, that those who entered could not with due reverence approach his presence. Gul. Chambre, Contin. Hist. Dunelm. apud Whart. Angl. Sacr. i. 765. He kept binders, illuminators, and writers in his palaces.
"Antiquariorum, scriptorum, correctorum, colligatorum, illuminatorum, &c."
Philobibl. cap. viii. p. 34. edit. 1599.
Petrarch says, that he had once a conversation with Aungervylle, concerning the island called by the antients Thule, whom he calls
Virum ardentis i
genii.
Pe
arch, Epist. i. 3. His book entitled PHILOBIBLON, or
De Amore librorum
t institutione Bibliothecae,
supposed to be really written by Robert Holcott a Dominican friar, was finished in his manor of Aulkland, A. D. 1343. He fo
nded a libr
ry at Oxford: and it is remarkable, that in the book abovementioned, he apologise
for admitting th
poets into his collection.
"Quare non negleximus
FABULAS POETARUM.
"
Cap. xiii. p. 43. xviii. p. 57. xix. 58.
But he is more complaisant to the prejudices of his age, wh
re he says, that the laity are unworthy to be admitted to any commerce with books.
"Laici omnium librorum communione sunt indigni."
Cap. xvii. p. 55.
He prefers books of the liberal arts to treatises in law. Cap. xi. p. 41. He laments that good literature had entirely ceased in the university of Paris. Cap. ix. p. 38. He admits
Pa
letos exiguos
into his library. Cap. viii. 30. He employed
Sta
ionari
s
and
Librarios,
not only in England, but in France, Italy, and Germany. Cap. x. p. 34. He regrets the total ignorance of the Greek language; but adds, that he has provided for the students of his library both Greek and Hebrew grammars. Ibid. p. 40. He calls Paris the
paradise of the world,
and says, that he purchased there a variety of invaluable volumes in all sciences, which yet were neglected and perishing. Cap. viii. p. 31. While chancellor and treasurer of England, instead of the usual presents and new-year's gifts appendant to his office, he chose to receive those perquisites in books. By the favour of Edward the third he gained access to the libraries of the most capital monasteries; where he shook off the dust from volumes preserved in chests and presses which had not been opened for many ages. Ibid. 29, 30.
. The scarcity of parchment undoubtedly prevented the transcription of many other books in these societies. About the year 1120, one master Hugh, being appointed by the convent of Saintedmondsbury in Suffolk to write and illuminate a grand copy of the bible for their library, could procure no parchment for this purpose in England
Monast. Angl. i. p. 200. In the great revenue-roll of one year of John Gerveys, bishop of Winchester, I find expended
"in parcheamento empto ad rotulos, v
s.
"
This was a considerable sum for such a commodity in the year 1266. But as the quantity or number of the rolls is not specified, no precise conclusion can be drawn. Comp. MS. membran. in archiv. Wulves. Winton. Compare Anderson, Comm. i. 153. sub ann. 131
.
.
In consequence of the taste for letters and liberal studies introduced by the Normans, many of the monks became almost as good critics as catholics; and not only in France but in England, a great variety of Latin writers, who studied the elegancies of style, and the arts of classical composition, appeared soon after the Norman conquest. A view of the writers of this class who flourished in England for the two subsequent centuries, till the restless spirit of novelty brought on an attention to other studies, necessarily follows from what has been advanced, and naturally forms the conclusion of our present investigation.
Soon after the accession of the conqueror, John commonly called Joannes Grammaticus, having studied polite literature at Paris, which not only from the Norman connection, but from the credit of its professors, became the fashionable university of our countrymen, was employed in educating the sons of the Norman and English nobility
See Bale, iv. 40.
. He wrote an explanation of Ovid's Metamorphoses
Integumenta super Ovidii Metamorphoses.
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. sup. A 1. Art. 86. Where it is given to Johannes Guallensis, a Franciscan friar of Oxford, and afterwards a student at Paris. It is also MSS. Dig
. 104. fol. 323. The same piece is extant under the name of this latter John, entitled,
Expositiones
ive moralitates in Lib.
1.
Metamorphoseos
ive Fabularum,
&c. Printed at Paris 1599. But this Johannes Guallensis seems to have been chiefly a philosopher and theologist. He flourished about A. D. 1250. Alexander Necham wrote in
Metamorphosin Ovidii.
Tann. Bibl. p. 540
, and a treatise on the art of metre or versification
Another title of this piece is,
Poetria magna Johannis Anglici,
&c. Cantabr. MSS. More, 121. It is both in prose and verse. He begins with this panegyric on the university of Paris.
"Parisiana jubar diffundit gloria clerus."
He likewise wrote
Compendium Grammatices.
. Among the manuscripts of the library of New College in Oxford, I have seen a book of Latin poetry, and many pieces in Greek, attributed to this writer
MSS. Bibl. Coll. Nov. Oxon. 236. 237. But these are said to belong to Joannes Philoponus. See Phot. Bibl. Cod. lxxv. Cave, p 441. edit. 1.
. He flourished about the year 1070. In the reign of Henry the first, Laurence, prior of the church of Durham, wrote nine books of Latin elegies. But Leland, who had read all his works, prefers his compositions in oratory; and adds, that for an improvement in rhetoric and eloquence, he frequently exercised his talents in framing Latin defences on dubious cases which occurred among his friends. He likewise, amongst a variety of other elaborate pieces on saints, confessors, and holy virgins, in which he humoured the times and his profession, composed a critical treatise on the method of writing Epistles, which appears to have been a favourite subject
See what is said of John Hanvill below.
. He died in 1154
Lel. Script. Brit
p. 204. 205.
. About the same time Robert Dunstable, a monk of Saint Alban's, wrote an elegant Latin poem in elegiac verse, containing two books
It is a long poem, containing thirte
n hundred and sixty lines.
, on the life of saint Alban
In the British Museum, MSS. Cott. JU
. D. iii. 2. CLAUD. E. 4
There are more of his Latin poems on sacred
ubjects in the British Museum. But most of them are of an inferior composition, and, as I suppose, of another hand.
. The first book is opened thus:
Albani celebrem caelo terrisque triumphum
Ruminat inculto carmine Clio rudis.
We are not to expect Leonine rhymes in these writers, which became fashionable some years afterwards
Leonine verses are said to have been invented and first used by a French monk of Saint Victor at Marseilles, named Leoninus, or Leonine, about the year 1135. Pasquier, Recherch. de la France, vii. 2. p. 596. 3. p. 600. It is however certain, that rhymed Latin verses were in use much earlier. I have before observed, that the
Schola Salernitana
was published 1100. See Massieu, Hist. Fr. Poes. p. 77. Fauchett, Rec. p. 52. 76. seq. And I have seen a Latin poem of four hundred lines,
"Moysis Mutii Bergomatis de rebus Bergomensibus, Justiniani hujus nominis secundi Byzantii Imperato
is jussu conscrip
um, anno a salute nostra 707."
The author was the emperor's scribe or secretary. It begins thus:
Alme Deus, rector qui mundi regna gubernas,
Nec sinis absque modo sedes fluitare supernas.
It is at the end of
"Achillis Mutii theatrum. Bergomi, typis Comini Venturac, 1596."
Pelloutier has given a very early specim
n of Latin Rhymes. Mem. sur la Lang. Celt. part i. vol. i. ch. xii. p. 20. He quotes th
writer of the life of S. Faron, who relates, that Clotarius the second, having conquered the Saxons in the beginning of the sevent
century, commanded a Latin panegyrical song to be composed on that occasion,
hich was sung all over France. It is somewhat in the measure of their vernacular poetry
at that time made to be sung to the harp
and begins with this stanza.
De Clotario est c
nere rege Francoru
Qui ivit pug
are cum gente Saxonum
Quam graviter provenisset mi
is Saxo nu
Si non fuisset inclitu
Faro de gente Burgundionum.
Latin rhymes seem to have been first used in the church-hymns. But Leonine verse
are properly the Roman hexamet
rs or pe
tameters rhymed. And it is not improbab
e that they took their name from the monk abovementioned, who was the most popular
nd almost only Latin poet of his time in France. He wrote many Latin pie
es not in rhyme, and in a good style of Latin ver
ification. Particularly a Latin heroi
poem in twelve books, containing the history of the bible from th
creation of the world to the story of Ruth. Also some elegies
which have a tolerable degree of classic purity. Some suppose, that pope Leo the second, about the year 680, a great reformer of the chants and hymns of the church, invented this sort of verse.
It is remarkable, that Bede who lived in the eigh
h century, in his book
E ART
M
TRICA, does not see
to have know
that rhyme was a common ornament of the church hymns of his time, many of which he quotes. See Opp. tom. i. 34
cap. penult. But this chapter, I think, is all take
rom Marius Victorinus, a much older writer. The hymns which Bede quotes are extremely barbarous, consisting of a modulated structure, or a certain number of fee
without quantity; like the odes of the minstrels or scalds of that age.
"Ut sunt, he says, carmina VULGARIUM POETARUM."
In the mean time we must not forget, that the early French troubadours mention a sort of rhyme in their vernacular poetry partly distinguished from the common species, which they call Leonine or Leonime. Thus Gualtier Arbalestrier de Belle-perche, in the beginning of his romance of Judas Maccabeus, written before the year 1280.
Je ne di pas k' aucun biau dit
Ni mette par faire la ryme
Ou
conson
nte
ou
leonime.
But enough has been said on a subject of so little importance.
Their verses are of a higher cast, and have a classical turn. The following line, which begins the second book, is remarkably flowing and harmonious, and much in the manner of Claudian.
Pieridum studiis claustri laxare rigorem.
Smoothness of versification was an excellence which, like their Saxon predecessors, they studied to a fault. Henry of Huntingdon, commonly known and celebrated as an historian, was likewise a terse and polite Latin poet of this period. He was educated under Alcuine of Anjou, a canon of Lincoln cathedral. His principal patrons were Aldwin and Reginald, both Normans, and abbots of Ramsey. His turn for poetry did not hinder his arriving to the dignity of an archdeacon. Leland mentions eight books of his epigrams, amatorial verses
See Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. 29.
, and poems on philosophical subjects
Lel. Script. Brit. p. 197.
. The proem to his book DE HERBIS, has this elegant invocation.
Vatum magne parens, herbarum Phoebe repertor,
Vosque, quibus resonant Tempe jocosa, deae!
Si mihi serta prius hedera florente parastis,
Ecce meos flores, serta parate, fero.
But Leland appears to have been most pleased with Henry's poetical epistle to Elfleda, the daughter of Alfred
Ut supr.
. In the Bodleian library, is a manuscript Latin poem of this writer, on the death of king Stephen, and the arrival of Henry the second in England, which is by no means contemptible
MSS. Digb. 65. fol. 27. His writings are numerous, and of various kinds. In Trinity college library at Oxford there is a fine copy of his book
De imagine Mundi.
MSS. Cod. 64. pergamen. This is a very common manuscript.
. He occurs as a witness to the charter of the monastery of Sautree in the year 1147
Wharton, Ang. Sacr. ii. 872.
. Geoffrey of Monmouth was bishop of Saint Asaph in the year 1152
Wharton, Eccles. Assav. p. 306.
. He was indefatigable in his enquiries after British antiquity; and was patronised and assisted in this pursuit by Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, a diligent antiquarian, and Alexander, bishop of Lincoln
Wharton, Eccles. Assav. p. 306.
. His credulity as an historian has been deservedly censured: but fabulous histories were then the fashion, and he well knew the recommendation his work would receive from comprehending all the popular traditions
Leland, Script. Brit. p. 190.
. His latinity rises far above mediocrity, and his Latin poem on Merlin is much applauded by Leland
See SECT. iii. infr. p. 124.
.
We must not judge of the general state of society by the more ingenious and dignified churchmen of this period; who seem to have surpassed by the most disproportionate degrees in point of knowledge, all other members of the community. Thomas of Becket, who belongs to the twelfth century, and his friends, in their epistles, distinguish each other by the appellation of philosophers, in the course of their correspondence
In the British Museum, MSS. Cot
TIT. A. xix. VESPAS. E. iv.
. By the present diffusion of literature, even those who are illiterate are yet so intelligent as to stand more on a level with men of professed science and knowledge; but the learned ecclesiastics of those times, as is evident
See Quadrilog. Vit. T. Becket, Bruxell. 1682. 4to. And Concil. Mag. Brit. et Hib. tom. i. p. 441. Many of these epistle
are still in manuscript.
from many passages in their writings, appear, and not without reason, to have considered the rest of the world as totally immersed in ignorance and barbarity. A most distinguished ornament of this age was John of Salisbury
"Studuit in Italia omnium bonarum artium facile post Graeciam parente."
Leland. Script. Brit. p. 207.
But he likewise spent some time at Oxford. Policrat. viii. 22.
. His style has a remarkable elegance and energy. His POLICRATICON is an extremely pleasant miscellany; replete with erudition, and a judgment of men and things, which properly belongs to a more sensible and reflecting period, His familiar acquaintance with the classics, appears not only from the happy facility of his language, but from the many citations of the purest Roman authors, with which his works are perpetually interspersed. Montfaucon asserts, that some parts of the supplement to Petronius, published as a genuine and valuable discovery a few years ago, but since supposed to be spurious, are quoted in the POLICRATICON
Bibl. MSS. There is an allusion to the Policraticon in the ROMAN DE LAROSE.
Et verras en POLICRATIQUE.
v. 7056.
. He was an illustrious rival of Peter of Blois, and the friend of many learned foreigners
Lel. ibid.
. I have not seen any specimens of his Latin poetry
Except the fable of the belly and members in long and short. Fabric. Med. Aev. iv. p. 877.
; but an able judge has pronounced, that nothing can be more easy, finished, and flowing than his verses
Lel. ut supr. p. 207.
. He was promoted to high stations in the church by Henry the second, whose court was crouded with scholars, and almost equalled that of his cotemporary William king of Sicily, in the splendor which it derived from encouraging erudition, and assembling the learned of various countries
See Leland, Script. Brit. p. 210. Henry the second sent Gualterus, styled ANGLICUS, his chaplain, into Sicily, to instruct William king of Sicily in literature. William was so pleased with his master, that he made him archbishop of Palermo. Bale, xiii. 73. He died in 1177. Peter of Blois was Gualter's coadjutor; and he tells us, that he taught William the rudiments
"versificatoriae artis et literatoriae."
Epist. Petr. Blesens. ad Gualt
. Pitt
mentions a piece of Gualterus
De lingu
e Latinae rudimentis,
p. 141. There is a William of Blois, cotemporary with Peter and his brother, ther, whom I mention here, as he appears to have written what were called
Com
edi
e
t Trag
ediae,
and to have been preferred to an abbacy in Sicily. [See SECT. vi. inf. p. 234.] Peter mentions this William in his epistles,
"Illud nobile ingenium fratris mei magistri Gulielmi, quandoque in scribendis Comoediis et Tragoediis quadam occupatione servili degenerans, &c."
Epist. lxxvi. And again to the said William,
"Nomen vestrum diuturniore memoria quam quatuor abbatiae commendabile reddent Tragoedia vestra de FLAURA et MARCO, versus de PULICE ET MUSCA, Comoedia vestra DE ALDA, &c."
Epist. xciii.
. Eadmer was a monk of Canterbury, and endeared by the brilliancy of his genius, and the variety of his literature, to Anselm, archbishop of that see
Leland, Script. Brit. p. 178. There is a poem DE LAUDIBUS ANSELMI, and an epicedion on that prelate, commonly ascribed to Eadmer. See Fabric. Bibl. Med. Lat. ii. p. 210. seq. Leland doubts whether these piece
belong to him or to William of Chester, a learned monk, patronised by Anselm. Script. Brit. p. 185.
. He was an elegant writer of history, but exceeded in the artifices of composition, and the choice of matter, by his cotemporary William of Malmesbury. The latter was a monk of Malmesbury, and it reflects no small honour on his fraternity that they elected him their librarian
Lel. p. 195. But see Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. Praef. p. xii.
. His merits as an historian have been justly displayed and recommended by lord Lyttelton
In his History of Henry the second.
. But his abilities were not confined to prose. He wrote many pieces of Latin poetry; and it is remarkable, that almost all the professed writers in prose of this age made experiments in verse. His patron was Robert earl of Glocester; who, amidst the violent civil commotions which disquieted the reign of king Stephen, found leisure and opportunity to protect and promote literary merit
See Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 661.
. Till Malmesbury's works appeared, Bede had been the chief and principal writer of English history. But a general spirit of writing history, owing to that curiosity which more polished manners introduce, to an acquaintance with the antient historians, and to the improved knowledge of a language in which facts could be recorded with grace and dignity, was now prevailing. Besides those I have mentioned, Simeon of Durham, Roger Hoveden, and Benedict abbot of Peterborough, are historians whose narratives have a liberal cast, and whose details rise far above the dull uninteresting precision of patient annalists and regular chronologers. John Hanvill, a monk of Saint Alban's, about the year 1190, studied rhetoric at Paris, and was distinguished for his taste even among the numerous and polite scholars of that flourishing seminary
Lel. p. 259.
. His ARCHITRENIUS is a learned, ingenious, and very entertaining performance. It is a long Latin poem in nine books, dedicated to Walter bishop of Rouen. The design of the work may be partly conjectured from its affected Greek title: but it is, on the whole, a mixture of satire and panegyric on public vice and virtue, with some historical digressions. In the exordium is the following nervous and spirited address.
Tu Cyrrhae latices nostrae, deus, implue menti;
Eloquii rorem siccis infunde lab
llis:
Distillaque favos, quos nondum pallidus auro
Scit Tagus, aut sitiens admotis Tantalus undis:
Dirige quae timide suscepit dextera, dextram
Audacem pavidamque juva: Tu mentis habenas
Fervoremque rege, &c.
In the fifth book the poet has the following allusions to the fables of Corineus, Brutus, king Arthur, and the population of Britain from Troy. He seems to have copied these traditions from Geoffrey of Monmouth
See Hist. Galfrid. Mon. i. xi. xvi. xvii. &c.
.
—Tamen Architrenius instat,
Et genus et gentem quaerit studiosius: illi
Tros genus, et gentem tribuit Lodonesia, nutrix
Praebuit irriguam morum Cornubia mammam,
Post odium fati, Phrygiis inventa: Smaraudus
Hanc domitor mundi Tyrinthius, alter Achilles,
Atridaeque timor Corinaeus, serra gygantum,
Clavaque monstrifera, sociae delegit alumnam
Omnigenam Trojae, pluvioque fluviflua lacte
Filius exilio fessae dedit ubera matri.
A quo dicta prius Corineia, dicitur aucto
Tempore corrupte Cornubia nominis haeres.
Ille gygantaeos attritis ossibus artus
Implicuit letho, Tyrrheni littoris hospes,
Indomita virtute gygas; non corpore mole
Ad medium pressa, nec membris densior aequo,
Sarcina terrifica tumuit Titania mente.
Ad Ligeris ripas Aquitanos fudit, et amnes
Francorum potuit lacrymis, et caede vadoque
Sanguinis ense ruens, satiavit rura, togaque
Punicea vestivit agros, populique verendi
Grandiloquos fregit animosa cuspide fastus.
Integra, nec dubio bellorum naufraga fluctu,
Nec vice suspecta titubanti saucia fato,
Indilata dedit subitam victoria laurum.
Inde dato cursu, Bruto comitatus Achate,
Gallorum spolio cumulatus, navibus aequor
Exarat, et superis auraque faventibus utens,
Litora felices intrat Tolonesia portus:
Promissumque soli gremium monstrante Diana,
Incolumi census loculum ferit Albion alno.
Haec eadem Bruto regnante Britannia nomen
Traxit in hoc tempus: solis Titanibus illa,
Sed paucis, habitata domus; quibus uda ferarum
Terga dabant vestes, cruor haustus pocula, trunci
Antra lares, dumeta toros, caenacula rupes,
Praeda cibos, raptus venerem, spectacula caedes,
Imperium vires, animum furor, impetus arma,
Mortem pugna, sepulchra rubus: monstrisque gemebat
Monticolis tellus: sed eorum plurima tractus
Pars erat occidui terror; majorque premebat
Te furor extremum zephyri, Cornubia, limen.
Hos avidum belli Corinaei robur Averno
Praecipites misit; cubitis ter quatuor altum
Gogmagog Herculea suspendit in aer
lucta,
Anthaeumque suum scopulo demisit in aequor
Potavitque dato Thetis ebria sanguine fluctus,
Divisumque tulit mare corpus, Cerberus umbram.
Nobilis a Phrygiae tanto Cornubia gentem
Sanguine derivat, successio cujus Iulus
In generis partem recipit complexa Pelasgam
Anchisaeque domum: ramos hinc Pandrasus, inde
Sylvius extendit, socioque a sidere sidus
Plenius effundit triplicatae lampadis ignes.
Hoc trifido sola Corinaei postera mundum
Praeradiat pubes, quartique puerpera Phoebi
Pullulat Arthurum, facie dum falsus adulter
Tintagel irrumpit, nec amoris Pendragon aestu
Vincit, et omnificas Merlini consulit artes,
Mentiturque ducis habitus, et rege latente
Induit absentis praesentia Gorlois ora
Milton appears to have been much
truck with this part of the antient British History, and to have designed it for the subject of an epic poem. EPITAPH. DAMONIS, v. 162.
Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per aequora puppes
Dicam, et Pandrasidos regnum vetus Inogeniae,
Brennumque Arviragumque duces, priscumque Belinum,
Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos:
Tum gravidam Arturo, fatali fraude, Iogernen,
Mendaces vultus, assumptaque Gorlois arma,
Merlini dolus.—
See also Milton's MANSUS, v. 80.
.
There is a false glare of expression, and no great justness of sentiment, in these verses; but they are animated, and flow in a strain of poetry. They are pompous and sonorous; but these faults have been reckoned beauties even in polished ages. In the same book our author thus characterises the different merits of the satires of Horace and Persius.
Persius in Flacci pelago decurrit, et audet
Mendicasse stylum satyrae, serraque cruentus
Rodit, et ignorat polientem pectora limam
Juvenal is also cited by John of Salisbury, Peter of Blois, Vincentius Bellovacensis, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and other writers of the middle ages. They often call him ETHICUS. See particularly Petr. Bles. Epist. lxxvii. Some lines from Juvenal
re cited by Honorius Augustodunus, a priest of Burgundy, who wrote about 1300, in his
De Philosophia Mundi,
Prae
at.
d lib. iv. The tenth satire of Juvenal is quoted by Chaucer in TROILUS and CRESSEID
, b. iv. v. 197. pag. 307. edit. Urr. There is an old Italian metaphrase of Juvenal done in 1475, and published soon afterwards, by Georgio Summaripa, of Verona. Giornale de Letterati d'Italia, tom. viii. p. 41. Juvenal was printed at Rome as early as 1474.
.
In the third book he describes the happy parsimony of the Cistercian monks.
O sancta, o felix, albis galeata cucullis,
Libera paupertas! Nudo jejunia pastu
Tracta diu solvens, nec corruptura palatum
Mollitie mensae. Bacchus convivia nullo
Murmure conturbat, nec sacra cubilia mentis
Inquinat adventu. Stomacho languénte ministrat
Solennes epulas ventris gravis hospita Thetis,
Et paleis armata Ceres. Si tertia mensae
Copia succedat, truncantur oluscula, quorum
Offendit macies oculos, pacemque meretur,
Deterretque famem pallenti sobria cultu
There are two manuscripts of this poem
from which I transcribe, in the Bodleian library. MSS. Digb. 64. and 157. One of these has a gloss, but not that of Hugo Legatus, mentioned by Baillet. J
g
m
Sav. iv. p. 257. edit. 4to. This poem is said to have been printed at P
is 1517, 4to. Bibl. Thuan. tom. ii. p. 286. This edition I have never seen, and believe it to be an extremely scarce book.
.
Among Digby's manuscripts in the Bodleian library, are Hanvill's Latin epigrams, epistles, and smaller poems, many of which have considerable merit
Cod. Digb. 64. ut supr.
. They are followed by a metrical tract, entitled DE EPISTOLARUM COMPOSITIONE. But this piece is written in rhyme, and seems to be posterio
to the age, at least inferior to the genius, of Hanvill. He was buried in the abbey church of saint Alban's, soon after the year 1200
Bale. iii. 49.
. Gyraldus Cambrensis deserves particular regard for the universality of his works, many of which are written with some degree of elegance. He abounds with quotations of the best Latin poets. He was an historian, an antiquary, a topographer, a divine, a philosopher, and a poet. His love of science was so great, that he refused two bishopricks; and from the midst of public business, with which his political talents gave him a considerable connection in the court of Richard the first, he retired to Lincoln for seven years, with a design of pursuing theological studies
Wharton. Angl. Sacr. ii. 374.
. He recited his book on the topography of Ireland in public at Oxford, for three days successively. On the first day of this recital he entertained all the poor of the city; on the second, all the doctors in the several faculties, and scholars of better note; and on the third, the whole body of students, with the citizens and soldiers of the garrison
Wood. Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 56.
. It is probable that this was a ceremony practised on the like occasion in the university of Paris
But W
d insinuates, that this sumptuous entertainment was partly given by Gyr
ldus, as an inceptor in the arts. Ubi
upr. p. 25. col. 1. Which practice I have mentioned, S
CT. ix. p. 290. in
. And I will here add o
her instances, especially as they are proofs of the estimation in which letters, at least literary honours, were held. In
he year 1268, the inceptors in civil law at Oxford were so nume
ous, and attended by such a number of g
ests,
at the academical houses or hostels were no
sufficient for their accommodation:
nd the company filled not only these, but even the re
ec
ory, clois
e
s, and many apartmen
o
Oseney abbey, near the suburbs of Oxford. At which time many Italians studying at Oxford were admitted in that faculty. Wood, ubi supr. p. 25. col. 1. It appears that the mayor and citizens of Oxford were constantly invited to these solemnities. In the year 1400, two monks of the priory of Christ Church in Canterbury were severally admitted to the degree of doctor in divinity and civil law at Oxford. The expences were paid by their monastery, and amounted to 118
l.
3
s.
8
d.
Regis
r. Priorat. pergamen. MSS. Tanner, Oxon. Num. 165.
ol. 212.
. Among other articles there is,
"In solutione facta HISTRIONIBUS."
ol. 213. a. [See SECT. ii. p. 91. in
r.] At length these scholastic banquets grew to such excess, that it was ordered in the year 1434
that no inceptor in arts should expend more than
"3000 grossos Turonenses."
Vet. Stat. Se
Leland, Coll. P. ii. tom. i. p. 296, 297. edit. 1770. But the limitation was a considerable sum. Each is somewhat less than an English groat. Notwithstanding, Neville, afterwards archbishop of York, on his admission to the degree of master of a
ts in 1452,
easted the academics and many strangers for two successive days, at two entertainments, consisting of nine hundred costly dishes. Wood. ibid. 219. col. 1. 2. Nor was this reverence to learning, and attention to its institutions, confined to the circle of our universities. Such was the pedantry of the times, that in the year 1503, archbishop Wareham, chancellor of Oxford, at his feast of inthronisation, ordered to be introduced in the first course a curious dish, in which were exhibited the eight towers of the university. In every tower s
ood
bedell; and under the towers were figures of the king, to whom the ch
ncellor Wareham, encircled with many doctors properly habited, presented four Latin verses, which were answered by his majesty. The eight towers were those of Merton, Magdalene, and New College, and of the monasteries of Oseney, Rewley, the Dominican, Augustine, and Franciscan friars, which five last are now utterly destroyed. Wood, ubi supr. lib. i. p. 239. col. 1. Compare Robinson's Charles V. i. 323. seq.
; where Giraldus had studied for twenty years, and where he had been elected professor of canon law in the year 1189
Wharton, ibid.
. His account of Wales was written in consequence of the observations he made on that country, then almost unknown to the English, during his attendance on an archiepiscopal visitation. I cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing from this book his picture of the romantic situation of the abbey of Lantony in Monmouthshire. I will give it in English, as my meaning is merely to shew how great a master the author was of that selection of circumstances which forms an agreeable description, and which could only flow from a cultivated mind.
"In the deep vale of Ewias, which is about a bowshot over, and enclosed on all sides with high mountains, stands the abbey church of saint John, a structure covered with lead, and not unhandsomely built for so lonesome a situation: on the very spot, where formerly stood a small chapel dedicated to saint David, which had no other ornaments than green moss and ivy. It is a situation fit for the exercise of religion; and a religious edifice was first founded in this sequestered retreat to the honour of a solitary life, by two hermits, remote from the noise of the world, upon the banks of the river Hondy, which winds through the midst of the valley.—The rains which mountainous countries usually produce, are here very frequent, the winds exceedingly tempestuous, and the winters almost continually dark. Yet the air of the valley is so happily tempered, as scarcely to be the cause of any diseases. The monks sitting in the cloisters of the abbey, when they chuse for a momentary refreshment to cast their eyes abroad, have on every side a pleasing prospect of mountains ascending to an immense height, with numerous herds of wild deer feeding aloft on the highest extremity of this lofty horizon. The body of the sun is not visible above the hills till after the meridian hour, even when the air is most clear."
Giraldus adds, that Roger bishop of Salisbury, prime minister to Henry the first, having visited this place, on his return to court told the king, that all the treasure of his majesty's kingdom would not suffice to build such another cloister. The bishop explained him
elf by saying, that he meant the circular ridge of mountains with which the vale of Ewias was enclosed
Girald. Cambrens. ITIN. CAMB
. Lib. i. c. 3. p. 89. seq. Lond. 1585. 12mo.
. Alexander Neckham was the friend, the associate, and the correspondent of Peter of Blois already mentioned. He received the first part of his education in the abbey of saint Alban's, which he afterwards completed at Paris
L
l. Script. Brit. p. 240. seq.
. His compositions are various, and croud the department of manuscripts in our public libraries. He has left n
merous treatises of divinity, philosophy, and morality: but he was likewise a poet, a philologist, and a grammarian. He wrote a tract on the mythology of the antient poets, Esopian fables, and a system of grammar and rhetoric. I have seen his elegiac poem on the monastic life
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digb. 65. f. 18.
, which contains some finished lines. But his capital piece of Latin poetry is On the Praise of DIVINE WISDOM, which consists of seven books. In the introduction h
commemorates the innocent and unreturning pleasures of his early days, which he passed among the learned monks of saint Alban's, in these perspicuous and unaffected elegiacs.
—Claustrum
Martyris Albani sit tibi tuta quies.
Hic locus aetatis nostrae primordia novit,
Annos felices, laetitiaeque dies.
Hic locus ingenuis pueriles imbuit annos
Artibus, et nostrae laudis origo fuit.
Hic locus insignes magnosque creavit alumnos,
Felix eximio martyre, gente, situ.
Militat hic Christo, noctuque dieque labori
Indulget sancto religiosa cohors
Apud Lel. Script. Brit. p. 240.
.
Neckham died abbot of Cirencester in the year 1217
Willis, Mitr. Abb. i. 61, 62.
. He was much attached to the studious repose of the monastic profession, yet he frequently travell
d into Italy
Lel. ibid.
. Walter Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford, has been very happily styled the Anacreon of the eleventh century
Lord Lyttelton's Hist. Hen. II. Not. B. ii. p. 133. 4to.
. He studied at Paris
See infr. SECT. ii. p 63.
. His vein was chiefly festive and satirical
Tanner, Bibl. p. 507.
: and as his wit was frequently levelled against the corruptions of the clergy, his poems often appeared under fictitious names, or have been ascribed to others
Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 706. Compare Tanner, Bibl. 351. 507. In return, many pieces went under the name of our author. As, for instance,
De Thetide
t de Ly
o,
which is a ridiculous pi
ce of scurrility. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Digb. 166. f. 104.
. The celebrated drinking ode
See Camd. Rem. p. 436. RYTHMI.
of this genial archdeacon has the regular returns of the monkish rhyme: but they are here applied with a characteristical propriety, are so happily invented, and so humourously introduced, that they not only suit the genius but heighten the spirit of the piece
In Bibl. Bodl. a piece
De Nugis Curialium
is given to Mapes. MSS. Arch. B. 52. It was written A. D. 1182. As appears from
Distin
t.
iv. cap. 1. It is in five books. Many Latin poems in this manuscript are given to Mapes. One in particular, written in a flowing style, in short lines, preserving no fixed metrical rule, which seems to have been intended for singing. In another manuscript I find various pieces of Latin poe
ry, by some attributed to Mapes, Bibl. Bodl. NE. F. iii. Some of these are in a good taste. Camden has printed his
Disputatio inter Cor
t Oculum.
Rem. p. 439. It is written in a sort of Anacreontic verse, and has some humour. It is in MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Digb. ut supr. 166. See also Camd. ibid. p. 437.
. He boasts that good wine inspires him to sing verses equal to those of Ovid. In another Latin ode of the same kind, he attacks with great liveliness the new injunction of pope Innocent, concerning the celibacy of the clergy; and hopes that every married priest with his bride, will say a pater noster for the soul of one who had thus hazarded his salvation in their defence.
Ecce jam pro clericis multum allegavi,
Necnon pro presbyteris plura comprobavi:
PATER NOSTER nunc pro me, quoniam peccavi,
Dicat quisque Presbyter, cum sua Suavi
Camd. Rem. ut supr.
.
But a miracle of this age in classical composition was Joseph of Exeter, commonly called Josephus Iscanus. He wrote two epic poems in Latin heroics. The first is on the Trojan War; it is in six books, and dedicated to Baldwin archbishop of Canterbury
See lib. i. 32. It was first printed at Basil, but very corruptly, in the year 1541. 3vo. Under the name of Cornelius Nepo
. The existence and name of this poem seem to have been utterly unknown in England when Leland wrote. He first met with a manuscript copy of it by mere accident in Magdalene college library at Oxford. He never had even heard of it before. He afterwards
ound two more copies at Paris. But these were all imperfect, and without the name o
the author, except a marginal hint. At length he discovered a complete copy of it in the library of Thorney abbey in Cambridgeshire, which seems to have ascertained the author's name, but not his country. Script. Brit. p. 238. The neglect of this poem among our ancestors, I mean in the ages which followed Iscanus, appears from the few manuscripts of
now remaining in England. Leland
who searched all our libraries, could find only two. There is at present one in the church of Westminster. Another in Bibl. Bodl. Digb. 157. That in Magdalen college is MSS. Cod. 50. The best edition is at the end of
"Dictys Cretensis et Dares Phrygius, in u
. Sereni
. Delph. cum Interpret. A. Daceriae, &c. Amstael. 1702."
4to. But all the printed copies have omitted passages which I find in the Digby manuscript. Particularly they omit, in the address to Baldwin, four lines after v. 32. lib. i. Thirteen lines, in which the poet alludes to his intended ANTIOCHEIS, are omitted before v. 962. lib. vi. Nor have they the verses in which he compliments Henry the second, said by Leland to be at the end of the fourth book, Script. Brit. p. 238. The truth is, these passages would have betrayed their first editor's pretence of this poem being written by Cornelius Nepos. As it is, he was obliged in the address to Baldwin, to change Cantia, KENT, into
Tantia;
for which he substitutes
Pontia
in the margin, as an ingenious conjecture.
. The second is entitled ANTIOCHEIS, the War of Antioch, or the Crusade; in which his patron th
archbishop was an actor
Leland, p. 224, 225.
. The poem of the Trojan war is founded on Dares Phrygius, a favorite fabulous historian of that time
The manuscript at Magdalen college, mentioned by Leland
is entitled,
Dares Phrygius de bello Trojano.
Lel. p. 236. As also MSS. Digb. supr. citat. But see SECT. iii. p. 135. infr.
. The diction of this poem is generally pure, the periods round, and the numbers harmonious: and on the whole, the structure of the versification approaches nearly to that of polished Latin poetry. The writer appears to have possessed no common command of poetical phraseology, and wanted nothing but a knowledge of the Virgilian chastity. His style is a mixture of Ovid, Statius, and Claudian, who seem then to have been the popular patterns
Statius is cited in the epistles of Stephen of To
rnay, a writer of the twelfth century.
"Divinam ejus responsionem, ut
Thebais
Aeneida,
longe sequor, et vestigia-semp
r adoro.
"
He died in 1200. EPISTOLAE, Paris. 1611. 4to. Epist. v. p. 535. On account of the variety of his matter, and the facility of his manner, none of the antient poets are more frequently cited in the writers of the dark ages than Ovid. His FASTI seems to have been their favorite: a work thus admirably characterised by an ingenious French writer.
"Les Fastes d' Ovide renferment plus d' erudition qu' aucun autre ouvrage de l' antiquité. C'est le chef d' oeuvre de ce poete, et une espece de devotion paienne."
Vigneul Marville, Misc. Hist. et Lit. tom. ii. p. 306.
A writer of the thirteenth century, DE MIRABILIBUS ROMAE, published by Montfaucon, calls this work MARTILOGIUM
Ovidii in Fastis.
Montf. Diar. Italic. c. xx. p. 293.
. But a few specimens will best illustrate this criticism. He thus, in a strain of much spirit and dignity, addresses king Henry the second, who was going to the holy war
Voltaire has expressed his admiration of the happy choice of subject which Tasso made. We here see a poet of an age much earlier than Tasso celebrating the same sort of expedition.
, the intended subject of his ANTIOCHEIS.
—Tuque, oro, tuo da, maxime, vati
Ire iter inceptum, Trojamque aperire jacentem:
Te sacrae assument acies, divinaque bella,
Tunc dignum majore tuba; tunc pectore toto
Nitar, et immensum mecum spargere per orbem
Lib. 1. 47.
,
The tomb or mausoleum of Teuthras is feigned with a brilliancy of imagination and expression; and our poet's classical ideas seem here to have been tinctured with the description of some magnificent oriental palace, which he had seen in the romances of his age.
Regia conspicuis moles inscripta figuris
Exceptura ducem, senis affulta columnis,
Tollitur: electro vernat basis, arduus auro
Ardet apex, radioque stylus candescit eburno.
—Gemmae quas littoris Indi
Dives arena tegit, aurum quod parturit Hermus,
In varias vivunt species, ditique decorum
Materie contendit opus: quod nobile ductor
Quod clarum gessit, ars explicat, ardua pandit
Moles, et totum reserat sculptura tyrannum
Lib. iv. 451.
.
He thus describes Penthesilea and Pyrrhus.
Eminet, horrificas rapiens post terga secures,
Virginei regina chori: non provida cultus
Cura trahit, non forma juvat, frons aspera, vestis
Discolor, insertumque armis irascitur aurum.
Si visum, si verba notes, si lumina pendas,
Nil leve, nil fractum: latet omni foemina facto.
Obvius ultrices accendit in arma cohortes,
Myrmidonasque suos, curru praevectus anhelo,
Pyrrhus, &c.
—Meritosque offensus in hostes
Arma patris, nunc ultor, habet: sed tanta recusant
Pondera crescentes humeri, majoraque cassis
Colla petit, breviorque manus vix colligit hastam
Lib. vi. p. 589.
.
Afterwards a Grecian leader, whose character is invective, insults Penthesilea, and her troop of heroines, with these reproaches.
Tunc sic increpitans, Pudeat, Mars inclyte, dixit:
En!, tua signa gerit, quin nostra effoeminat arma
Staminibus vix apta manus. Nunc stabitis hercle
Perjurae turres; calathos et pensa puellae
Plena rotant, sparguntque colos. Hoc milite Troja,
His fidit telis. At non patiemur Achivi:
Etsi turpe viris timidas calcare puellas,
Ibo tamen contra. Sic ille: At virgo l
quacem
Tarda sequi sexum, velox ad praelia, solo
Respondet jaculo
Lib. vi. 609.
, &c.—
I will add one of his comparisons. The poet is speaking of the reluctant advances of the Trojans under their new leader Memnon, after the fall of Hector.
Qualiter Hyblaei mellita pericula reges,
Si signis iniere datis, labente tyranno
Alterutro, viduos dant agmina stridula questus;
Et, subitum vix nacta ducem, metuentia vibrant
Spicula, et imbelli remeant in praelia rostro
Lib. vi. 19.
.
His ANTIOCHEIS was written in same strain, and had equal merit. All that remains of it is the following fragment
Camd. Rem. p. 410. POEMS. See also Camd. Brit. Leland having learned from the
B
llum Trojanum
that Josephus had likewise written a poem on the crusade, searched for it in many places, but without success. At length he found a pi
ce of it in the library of Abingdon abbey in Berkshire.
"Cum excuterem pulverem et tineas Abbandunensis bibliothecae."
Ut supr. p. 238. Here he discovered that Josephus was a native of Exeter, which city was highly celebrated in that fragment.
, in which the poet celebrates the heroes of Britain, and particularly king Arthur.
—Inclyta fulsit
Posteritas ducibus tantis, tot dives alumnis,
Tot foecunda viris, premerent qui viribus orbem
Et fama veteres. Hinc Constantinus adeptus
Imperium, Roman tenuit, Byzantion auxit.
Hinc, Senonum ductor, captiva Brennius urbe
f.
"Captiva Brennus in."
Romuleas domuit flammis victricibus arces.
Hinc et Scaeva satus, pars non obscura tumultus
Civilis, Magnum solus qui mole soluta
Obsedit, meliorque stetit pro Caesare murus.
Hinc, celebri fato, felici floruit ortu,
Flos regum Arthurus
From this circumstance, Pits absurdly recites the title of this poem thus.
Antiocheis in Regem Arthurum.
JOS. ISC.
, cujus tamen acta stupori
Non micuere minus: totus quod in aure voluptas,
Et populo plaudente favor
The text seems to be corrupt in this sentence. Or perhaps somewhat is wanting. I have changed
favus,
which is in Camden, into
favor.
. Quaecunque
f.
Quemcunque.
priorum
Inspice: Pellaeum commendat fama tyrannum,
Pagina Caesareos loquitur Romana triumphos:
Alciden domitis attollit gloria monstris;
Sed nec pinetum coryli, nec sydera solem
Aequant. Annales Graios Latiosque revolve,
Prisca parem nescit, aequalem postera nullum
Exhibitura dies. Reges supereminet omnes:
Solus praeteritis melior, majorque futuris.
Camden asserts, that Joseph accompanied king Richard the first to the holy land
Rem. ut supr. p. 407.
, and was an eye-witness of that heroic monarch's exploits among the Saracens, which afterwards he celebrated in the ANTIOCHEIS. Leland mentions his love-verses and epigrams, which are long since perished
Leland, ut supr. p. 239. Our biographers mention
Panegyricum in Henricum.
But the notion of this poem seems to have taken rise from the verses on Henry the second, quoted by Leland from the
Bellum Trojanum.
He is likewise said to have written in Latin verse
De Institutione Cyri.
. He
Italy had at that time produced no writer comparable to Iscanus.
flourished in the year 1210
Bale, iii. 60. Compare
Dresenius ad Lectorem.
Prefixed to the DE BELLO TROJANO. Fancof. 1620. 4to. Mr. Wise the late Radcliffe librarian, told me, that a manuscript of the ANTIOCHEIS was in the library of the duke of Chandois at Canons.
.
There seems to have been a rival spirit of writing Latin heroic poems about this period. In France, Guillaume le Breton, or William of Bretagny, about the year 1230, wrote a Latin heroic poem on Philip Augustus king of France, about the commencement of the thirteenth century, in twelve books, entitled PHILIPPIS
He wrote it at fifty-five years of age. PHILIPP. lib. iii. v. 381. It was first printed in Pithou's Eleven Historians of France, Francof. 1536. fol. Next in D
Chesne, SCRIPT. FRANC. tom. v. p. 93. Paris. 1694. fol. But the best edition is with Barthius's notes, Cygn. 1657. 4to. Brito says in the PHILIPPIS, that he wrote a poem called KARLOTTIS, in praise of
Petri Carlotti sui,
then not fifteen years old. PHILIPP. lib. i. v. 10. This poem was never printed, and is hardly known.
. Barthius gives a prodigious character of this poem: and affirms that the author, a few gallicisms excepted, has expressed the facility of Ovid with singular happiness
In Not. p. 7. See also Adversar. xliii. 7. He prefers it to the ALEXANDREIS mentioned below, in Not. p. 528. See Mem. Lit. viii. 536. edit. 4to.
. The versification much resembles that of Joseph Iscanus. He appears to have drawn a great part of his materials from Roger Hoveden's annals. But I am of opinion, that the PHILIPPID is greatly exceeded by the ALEXANDREID of Philip Gualtier de Chatillon, who flourished likewise in France, and was provost of the canons of Tournay, about the year 1200
It was first printed, Argent. 1513. 8vo. And two or three times since.
. This poem celebrates the actions of Alexander the Great, is founded on Quintus Curtius
See infr. SECT. iii. p. 139. And Barth. Advers. lii. 16.
, consists of ten books, and is dedicated to Guillerm archbishop of Rheims. To give the reader an opportunity of comparing Gualtier's style and manner with those of our countryman Josephus, I will transcribe a few specimens from a beautiful and antient manuscript of the ALEXANDREID in the Bodleian library
MSS. Digb. 52. 4to.
. This is the exordium.
Gesta ducis Macedum totum vulgata per orbem,
Quam late dispersit opes, quo milite Porum
Vicerit et Darium; quo principe Graecia victrix
Risit, et a Persis rediere tributa Corinthum,
Musa, refer
fol. 1. a.
.
A beautiful rural scene is thus described.
—Patulis ubi frondea ramis
Laurus odoriferas celabat crinibus herbas:
Saepe sub hac memorat carmen sylvestre canentes
Nympharum vidisse choros, Satyrosque procaces.
Fons cadit a laeva, quem cespite gramen obumbrat
Purpureo, verisque latens sub veste locatur.
Rivulus at lento lavat inferiora meatu
Garrulus, et strepitu facit obsurdescere montes.
Hic mater Cybele Zephyrum tibi, Flora, maritans,
Pullulat, et vallem foecundat gratia fontis
Qualiter Alpinis spumoso vortice saxis
Descendit Rhodanus, ubi Maximianus Eoos
Extinxit cuneos, dum sanguinis unda meatum
Fluminis adjuvit.
fol. xiii. a.
.—
He excells in similies. Alexander, when a stripling, is thus compared to a young lion.
Qualiter Hyrcanis cum forte leunculis arvis
Cornibus elatos videt ire ad pabula cervos,
Cui nondum totos descendit robur in artus,
Nec bene firmus adhuc, nec dentibus asper aduncis,
Palpitat, et vacuum ferit improba lingua palatum;
Effunditque prius animis quam dente cruorem
fol. xxi. a.
.
The ALEXANDREID soon became so popular, that Henry of Gaunt, archdeacon of Tournay, about the year 1330, complains that this poem was commonly taught in the rhetorical schools, instead of Lucan
Here, among many other proofs which might be given, and which will occur hereafter, is a proof of the estimation in which Lucan was held during the middle ages. He is quoted by Geoffrey of Monmouth and John of Salisbury, writers of the eleventh century. Hist. Brit. iv. 9. and Policrat. p. 215. edit. 1515. &c. &c. There is an anonymous Italian translation of Lucan, as early as the year 1310. The Italians have also
Lucano in volgare,
by cardinal Montichelli, at Milan 1492. It is in the octave rime, and in ten books. But the translator has so much departed from the original, as to form a sort of romance of his own. He was translated into Spanish prose,
Lucano poeta y historiador antiquo,
by Martin Lasse de Orespe, at Antwerp, 1585. Lucan was first printed in the year 1469. And before the year 1500, there were six other editions of this classic, whose declamatory manner rendered him very popular. He was published at Paris in French in 1500. Labb. Bibl. p. 339.
and Virgil
See Hen. Gandav. Monastichon. c. 20. and Fabric. Bibl. Gr. ii. 218. Alanus de Insulis, who died in 1202, in his poem called ANTI-CLAUDIANUS, a Latin poem of nine books, much in the manner of Claudian, and written in defence of divine providence against a passage in that poet's RUFINUS, thus attacks the rising reputation of the ALEXANDREID.
Maevius in coelis ardens os ponere mutum,
GESTA DUCIS MACEDUM, tenebrosi carminis umbra,
Dicere dum tentat.—
. The learned Charpentier cites a passage from the manuscript statutes of the university of Tholouse, dated 1328, in which the professors of grammar are directed to read to their pupils
"De Historiis Alexandri
Suppl. Du Cang. Lat. Gloss. tom. ii. p. 1255. V. METRIFICATURA. By which barbarous word they signified the Art of Poetry, or rather the Art of writing Latin verses.
."
Among which I include Gualtier's poem
See SECT. iii. p. 128. infr.
. It is quoted as a familiar classic by Thomas Rodburn, a monkish chronicler, who wrote about the year 1420
Hist. Maj. Winton. apud Wharton
Angl. Sacr. i. 242.
. An anonymous Latin poet, seemingly of the thirteenth century, who has left a poem on the life and miracles of saint Oswald, mentions Homer, Gualtier, and Lucan, as the three capital heroic poets. Homer, he says, has celebrated Hercules, Gualtier the son of Philip, and Lucan has sung the praises of Cesar. But, adds he, these heroes much less deserve to be immortalised in verse, than the deeds of the holy confessor Oswald.
In nova fert animus antiquas vertere prosas
Carmina, &c.
Alciden hyperbolice commendat HOMERUS,
GUALTERUS pingit torvo Philippida vultu,
Caesareas late laudes LUCANUS adauget:
TRES illi famam meruerunt, tresque poetas
Auctores habuere suos, multo magis autem
Oswaldi regis debent insignia dici
I will add some of the exordial lines almost immediately following, as they contain names, and other circumstances, which perhaps may lead to point out the age if not the name of the author. They were never before printed.
Tu quoque digneris, precor, aspirare labori,
Flos cleri, MARTINE, meo; qui talis es inter
Abbates, qualis est patronus tuus inter
Pontifices: hic est primas, tu primus eorum, &c.
Hic per Aidanum sua munificentia munus
Illi promeruit, &c.
Tuque benigne Prior, primas, et prime Priorum,
Qui cleri, ROGERE, rosam geris, annue vati, &c.
Tuque Sacrista, sacris instans, qui jure vocaris
SYMON, id
st humilis, quo nemo benignior alter
Abbatis praecepta sui velocior audit,
Tardius obloquitur: qui tot mea carmina servas
Scripta voluminibus, nec plura requirere cessas.
Praeteritos laudas, praesentes dilige versus, &c.
The manuscript is Bibl. Bodl. A. 1. 2. B. (Langb. 5. p. 3.) This piece begins at f. 57. Other pieces precede, in Latin poetry. As VITAE SANCTORUM.
T. Becket.
f. 3.
Qui moritur? Praesul. Cur? pro Grege, &c.
Prol.
pr. f. 23.
Detineant alios Parnassi culmina, Cyrrhae Plausus, Pieridum vox, Heliconis opes.
D
partu Virginis.
f. 28. b.
Nectareum rorem terris, &c.
S. Birinus,
f. 42.
Et pudet, et fateor, &c.
The author of the life of Birinus says, he was commanded to write by Peter, probably Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester. Perhaps he is Michael Blaunpayne. Alexander Esseby wrote lives of saints in Latin verse. See MSS. Harl. 1819. 531.
.
I do not cite this writer as a proof of the elegant versification which had now become fashionable, but to shew the popularity of the ALEXANDREID, at least among scholars. About the year 1206, Gunther a German, and a Cistercian monk of the diocese of Basil, wrote an heroic poem in Latin verse entitled, LIGURINUS, which is scarce inferior to the PHILIPPID of Guillaum le Breton, or the ALEXANDREID of Gualtier: but not so polished and classical as the TROJAN WAR of our Josephus Iscanus. It is in ten books, and the subject is the war of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa against the Milanese in Liguria
First printed August. Vindel. 1507. fol. And frequently since.
. He had before written a Latin poem on the expedition of the emperor Conrade against the Saracens, and the recovery of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bulloign, which he called SOLYMARIUM
He mentions it in his LIGURIUM, lib. i. v. 13. seq. v. 648. seq. See also Voss. Poet. Lat. c. vi. p. 73. It was never printed. Gunther wrote a prose history of the sack of Constantinople by Baldwin: The materials were taken from the mouth of abbot Martin, who was present at the siege, in 1204. It was printed by Canisius, Antiqu. Lect. tom. iv. P. ii p. 358. Ingolstad. 1604. 4to. Again, in a new edition of that compilation, Amst. 1725. fol
tom. iv. See also Pagi, ad A. D. 1519.
. xiv.
. The subject is much like that of the ANTIOCHEIS; but which of the two pieces was written first it is difficult to ascertain.
While this spirit of classical Latin poetry was universally prevailing, our countryman Geoffrey de Vinesauf, an accomplished scholar, and educated not only in the priory of saint Frideswide at Oxford, but in the universities of France and Italy, published while at Rome a critical didactic poem entitled, DE NOVA POETRIA
It has been often printed. I think it is called in some manuscripts,
De Arte dict
ndi, versificandi, et transferendi.
See Selden, Praefat. DEC. SCRIPTOR. p. xxxix. And Selden, Op. ii. 168. He is himself no contemptible Latin poet, and is celebrated by Chaucer. See Urry's edit.
. 468. 560. He seems to have lived about 1200.
. This book is dedicated to pope Innocent the third: and its intention was to recommend and illustrate the new and legitimate mode of versification which had lately begun to flourish in Europe, in opposition to the Leonine or barbarous species. This he compendiously styles, and by way of distinction,
The
NEW
Poetry.
We must not be surprised to find Horace's Art of Poetry entitled HORATII NOVA POETRIA, so late as the year 1389, in a catalogue of the library of a monastery at Dover
Ex Matricula monach. Monast. Dover. apud MSS. Br. Twyne, notat. 8. p. 758. archiv. Oxon. Yet all Horace's writings were often transcribed, and not unfamiliar, in the dark ages. His odes are quoted by Fitz-Stephens in his DESCRIPTION of LONDON. Rabanus Maurus above-mentioned quotes two verses from the ART O
POETRY. Op. tom. ii. p. 46
edit. Colon. 1627. fol.
.
Even a knowledge of the Greek language imported from France, but chiefly from Italy, was now beginning to be diffused in England. I am inclined to think, that many Greek manuscripts found their way into Europe from Constantinople in the time of the crusades: and we might observe that the Italians, who seem to have been the most polished and intelligent people of Europe during the barbarous ages, carried on communications with the Greek empire as early as the reign of Charlemagne. Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, an universal scholar, and no less conversant in polite letters than the most abstruse sciences, cultivated and patronised the study of the Greek language. This illustrious prelate, who is said to have composed almost two hundred books, read lectures in the school of the Franciscan friars at Oxford about the year 1230
Kennet, Paroch. Antiq. p. 217.
. He translated Dionysius the Areopagite and Damascenus into Latin
Leland, Script. Brit. p. 283.
. He greatly facilitated the knowledge of Greek by a translation of Suidas's Lexicon, a book in high repute among the lower Greeks, and at that time almost a recent compilation
Boston of Bury says, that he translated the book called SUDA. Catal. Script. Eccles. ROBERT. LINCOLN. Boston lived in the year 1410. Such was their ignorance at this time even of the name of this lexicographer.
. He promoted John of Basingstoke to the archdeaconry of Leicester; chiefly because he was a Greek scholar, and possessed many Greek manuscripts, which he is said to have brought from Athens into England
Lel. Script. Brit. p. 266. Matthew Paris asserts, that he introduced into England a knowledge of the Greek numeral letters. That historian adds,
"De quibus figuris HOC MAXIME ADMIRANDUM, quod unica figura quilibet numerus repraesentatur: quod non est in Latino vel in Algorismo."
Hist. edit. Lond. 1684. p. 721.
He translated from Greek into Latin a grammar which he called DONATUS GRAECORUM. See Pegge's Life of Roger de Weseham, p. 46. 47. 51. And infr. p. 281. He seems to have flourished about the year 1230. Bacon also wrote a Greek grammar, in which is the following curious passage.
"Episcopus consecrans ecclesiam, scribat Alphabetum Graecum in pulvere cum cuspide baculi pastoralis: sed omnes episcopi QUI GRAECUM IGNORANT, scribant tres notas num
rorum quae non sunt literae, &c."
GR. GRAM. cap. ult. p. iii. MSS. Apud MSS. Br. Twyne, 8. p. 649. archiv. Oxon.
See what is said of the new translations of Aristotle, from the original Greek into Latin, about the twelfth century. SECT. ix. p. 292. infr. I believe the translators understood very little Greek. Our countryman Michael Scotu
was one of the first of them; who was assisted by Andrew a Jew. Michael was astrologer to Frederick emperor of Germany, and appears to have executed his translations at Toledo in Spain, about the year 1220. These new versions were perhaps little more than corrections from those of the early Arabians, made under the inspection of the learned Spanish
Saracens. To the want of a true knowledge of the original language of the antient Greek philosophers, Roger Bacon attributes the
low and imperfect advances of real science at this period. On this account their improvements were very inconsiderable, notwithstanding the appearance of erudition, and the
ervour with which almost every branch of philosophy had been now studied in various countries for near half a century. See Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 120. seq. Dempster, xii
940. Baconi Op. Maj. per Jebb, i. 15. ii. 8. Tanner, Bibl. p. 526. And MSS. Cotton. C. 5. fol. 138. Brit. Mus.
A learned writer affirms, that Aristotle's books in th
original Greek were brought out of the east into Europe about the ye
r 1200. He is also of opinion, that during the crusades many Europeans, from their commerce with the Syrian Palestines, got a knowledge of Arabic: and that importing into Europe Arabic versions of some parts of Aristotle's works, which they found in the east, they turned them into Latin. These were chiefly his Ethics and Politics. And these NEW TRANSLATORS he further supposes were employed at their return into Europe in revising the old translations of other parts of Aristotle, made from Arabic into Latin. Euseb. Renaudot. De Barba
. Aristot. Versionib. apu
Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xii p. 248. S
e also Murator. Antiq. It
. Med. Aev. iii. 936
. He entertained, as a domestic in his palace, Nicholas chaplain of the abbot of saint Alban's, surnamed GRAECUS, from his uncommon proficiency in Greek; and by his assistance he translated from Greek into Latin the testaments of the twelve patriarchs
See MSS. Reg. B
it. Mus. 4 D. vii. 4. Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. O
on. i. 82. And M. Paris, sub anno. 1242.
. Grosthead had almost incurred the censure of excommunication for preferring a complaint to the pope, that most of the opulent benefices in England were occupied by Italians
Godwin, Episc. p. 348. edit. 1616.
. But this practice, although notoriously founded on the monopolising and arbitrary spirit of papal imposition, and a manifest act of injustice to the English clergy, probably contributed to introduce many learned foreigners into England, and to propagate philological literature.
Bishop Grosthead is also said to have been profoundly skilled in the Hebrew language
He is mentioned again, SECT. ii. p. 61. 78. infr.
. William the conqueror permitted great numbers of Jews to come over from Rouen, and to settle in England about the year 1087
Hollingsh. Chron. sub ann. p. 15. a.
. Their multitude soon encreased, and they spread themselves in vast bodies throughout most of the cities and capital towns in England, where they built synagogues. There were fifteen hundred at York about the year 1189
Anders. Comm. i. 93.
. At Bury in Suffolk is a very complete remain of a Jewish synagogue of stone in the Norman style, large and magnificent. Hence it was that many of the learned English ecclesiastics of these times became acquainted with their books and language. In the reign of William Rufus, at Oxford the Jews were remarkably numerous, and had acquired a considerable property; and some of their Rabbis were permitted to open a school in the university, where they instructed not only their own people, but many christian students, in the Hebrew literature, about the year 1054
Angl. Judaic. p. 8.
. Within two hundred years after their admission or establishment by the conqueror, they were banished the kingdom
Hollingsh. ibid. sub. ann. 1289. p. 285. a. Matthew of Westminster says, that 16511 were banished. Flor. Hist. ad an. 1290. Great numbers of Hebrew rolls and charts
relating to their estates in England, and escheated to the king, are now remaining in the Tower among the royal records.
. This circumstance was highly favourable to the circulation of their learning in England. The suddenness of their dismission obliged them for present subsistence, and other reasons, to sell their moveable goods of all kinds, among which were large quantities of Rabbinical books. The monks in various parts availed themselves of the distribution of these treasures. At Huntingdon and Stamford there was a prodigious sale of their effects, containing immense stores of Hebrew manuscripts, which were immediately purchased by Gregory of H
ntingdon, prior of the abbey of Ramsey. Gregory speedily became an adept in the Hebrew, by means of these valuable acquisitions, which he bequeathed to his monastery about the year 1250
Leland, Script. Brit. p. 321. And MSS. Bibl. Lambet
. Wharton, L. p. 661.
"Libri Prioris Gregorii de Ramesey.
Prima pars Bibliothecae Hebraicae,
" &c.
. Other members of the same convent, in consequence of these advantages, are said to have been equal proficients in the same language, soon after the death of prior Gregory: among which were Robert Dodford, librarian of Ramsey, and Laurence Holbech, who compiled a Hebrew Lexicon
Bale, iv. 41. ix. 9. Lel. ubi supr. p. 452.
. At Oxford, great multitudes of their books fell into the hands of Roger Bacon, or were bought by his brethren the Franciscan friars of that university
Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 77. 132. See also SECT. ix. p. 291. infr.
.
But, to return to the leading point of our enquiry, this promising dawn of polite letters and rational knowledge was soon obscured. The temporary gleam of light did not arrive to perfect day. The minds of scholars were diverted from these liberal studies in the rapidity of their career; and the arts of composition, and the ornaments of language were neglected, to make way for the barbarous and barren subtleties of scholastic divinity. The first teachers of this art, originally founded on that spirit of intricate and metaphysical enquiry which the Arabians had communicated to philosophy, and which now became almost absolutely necessary for defending the doctrines of Rome, were Peter Lombard archbishop of Paris, and the celebrated Abelard: men whose consummate abilities were rather qualified to reform the church, and to restore useful science, than to corrupt both, by confounding the common sense of mankind with frivolous speculation
They both flourished about the year 1150.
. These visionary theologists never explained or illustrated any scriptural topic: on the contrary, they perverted the simplest expressions of the sacred text, and embarrassed the most evident truths of the gospel by laboured distinctions and unintelligible solutions. From the universities of France, which were then filled with multitudes of English students, this admired species of sophistry was adopted in England, and encouraged by Lanfranc and Anselm, archbishops of Canterbury
"Baccalaureus qui legit textum (sc. S. Scripturae) succumbit lectori SENTENTIARUM Parisiis, &c."
Rog. Bacon, ap
d A. Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. p. 53.
Lombard was the author of the
Sente
ces.
. And so successful was its progress at Oxford, that before the reign of Edward the second, no foreign university could boast so conspicuous a catalogue of subtle and invincible doctors.
Nor was the profession of the civil and canonical laws a small impediment to the propagation of those letters which humanise the mind, and cultivate the manners. I do not mean to deny, that the accidental discovery of the imperial code in the twelfth century, contributed in a considerable degree to civilise Europe, by introducing, among other beneficial consequences, more legitimate ideas concerning the nature of government and the administration of justice, by creating a necessity of transferring judicial decrees from an illiterate nobility to the cognisance of scholars, by lessening the attachment to the military profession, and by giving honour and importance to civil employments: but to suggest, that the mode in which this invaluable system of jurisprudence was studied, proved injurious to polite literature. It was no sooner revived, than it was received as a scholastic science, and taught by regular professors, in most of the universities of Europe. To be skilled in the theology of the schools was the chief and general ambition of scholars: but at the same time a knowledge of both the laws was become an indispensable requisite, at least an essential recommendation, for obtaining the most opulent ecclesiastical dignities. Hence it was cultivated with universal avidity. It became so considerable a branch of study in the plan of academical discipline, that twenty scholars out of seventy were destined to the study of the civil and canon laws, in one of the most ample colleges at Oxford, founded in the year 1385. And it is easy to conceive the pedantry with which it was pursued in these seminaries during the middle ages. It was treated with the same spirit of idle speculation which had been carried into philosophy and theology, it was overwhelmed with endless commentaries which disclaimed all elegance of language, and served only to exercise genius, as it afforded materials for framing the flimsy labyrinths of casuistry.
It was not indeed probable, that these attempts in elegant literature which I have mentioned should have any permanent effects. The change, like a sudden revolution in government, was too rapid for duration. It was moreover premature, and on that account not likely to be lasting. The habits of superstition and ignorance were as yet too powerful for a reformation of this kind to be effected by a few polite scholars. It was necessary that many circumstances and events, yet in the womb of time, should take place, before the minds of men could be so far enlightened as to receive these improvements.
But perhaps inventive poetry lost nothing by this relapse. Had classical taste and judgment been now established, imagination would have suffered, and too early a check would have been given to the beautiful extravagancies of romantic fabling. In a word, truth and reason would have chased before their time those spectres of illusive fancy, so pleasing to the imagination, which delight to hover in the gloom of ignorance and superstition, and which form so considerable a part of the poetry of the succeeding centuries.
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY.
SECT. I.
THE Saxon language spoken in England, is distinguished by three several epochs, and may therefore be divided into three dialects. The first of these is that which the Saxons used, from their entrance into this island, till the irruption of the Danes, for the space of three hundred and thirty years
The Saxons came into England A. D. 450.
. This has been called the British Saxon: and no monument of it remains, except a small metrical fragment of the genuine Caedmon, inserted in Alfred's version of the Venerable Bede's ecclesiastical history
Lib. iv. cap. 4. Some have improperly referred to this dialect the HARMONY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS, in the Cotton library; the style of which approaches in purity and antiquity to that of the CODEX ARGENTEUS. It is Frankish. See Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. CALI
. A. 7. membran. octavo. This book is supposed to have belonged to king Canute. Eight richly illuminated historical pictures are bound up with it, evidently taken from another manuscript, but probably of the age of king Stephen.
. The second is the Danish Saxon, which prevailed from the Danish to the Norman invasion
A. D. 1066.
; and of which many considerable specimens, both in verse
See Hickes. Thes. Ling. Vett. Sept. P. i. cap. xxi. pag. 177. And Praefat. fol. xiv. The curious reader is also referred to a Danish Saxon poem, celebrating the wars which Beowulf, a noble Dane, descended from the royal stem of Scyldinge, waged against the kings of Swedeland. MSS. Cotton. ut supr. VITELL. A. 15. Cod. membran. ix. fol. 130. Compare, written in the style Caedmon, a fragment of an ode in praise of the exploits of Brithnoth, Offa's ealdorman, or general, in a battle fought against the Danes. Ibid. OTH. A. 12. Cod. membran. 4to. iii. Brithnoth, the hero of this piece, a Northumbrian, died in the year 991.
and prose, are still preserved: particularly, two literal versions of the four gospels
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. Cod. membran. in Pyxid. 4to grand. quadrat. And MSS. Cotton. ut supr. OTHO. Nor. D. 4. Bot
these manuscripts were written and ornamented in the Saxon times, and are of the highest curiosity and antiquity.
, and the spurious Caedmon's beautiful poetical paraphrase of the Book of Genesis
Printed by Junius, Amst. 1655. The greatest part of the Bodleian manuscript of this book, is believed to have been written about A. D. 1000.—Cod. Jun. xi. membran. fol.
, and the prophet Daniel. The third may be properly styled the Norman Saxon; which began about the time of the Norman accession, and continued beyond the reign of Henry the second
He died 1189.
.
The last of these three dialects, with which these Annals of English Poetry commence, formed a language extremely barbarous, irregular, and intractable; and consequently promises no very striking specimens in any species of composition. Its substance was the Danish Saxon, adulterated with French. The Saxon indeed, a language subsisting on uniform principles, and polished by poets and theologists, however corrupted by the Danes, had much perspicuity, strength, and harmony: but the French imported by the Conqueror and his people, was a confused jargon of Teutonic, Gaulish, and vitiated Latin. In this fluctuating state of our national speech, the French predominated. Even before the conquest the Saxon language began to fall into contempt, and the French, or Frankish, to be substituted in its stead: a circumstance, which at once facilitated and foretold the Norman accession. In the year 652, it was the common practice of the Anglo-Saxons, to send their youth to the monasteries of France for education
Dugd. Mon. i. 89.
: and not only the language, but the manners of the French, were esteemed the most polite accomplishments
Ingulph. Hist. p. 62. sub. ann. 1043.
. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the resort of Normans to the English court was so frequent, that the affectation of imitating the Frankish customs became almost universal: and even the lower class of people were ambitious of catching the Frankish idiom. It was no difficult task for the Norman lords to banish that language, of which the natives began to be absurdly ashamed. The new invaders commanded the laws to be administered in French
But there is a precept in Saxon from William the first, to the sheriff of Somersetshire. Hickes. Thes. i. par. i. pag. 106. See also Praefat. ibid. p. xv.
. Many charters of monasteries were forged in Latin by the Saxon monks, for the present security of their possessions, in consequence of that aversion which the Normans professed to the Saxon tongue
The Normans who practiced every specious expedient to plunder the monks, demanded a sight of the written evidences of their lands. The monks well knew, that it would have been useless or impolitic to have produced these evidences, or charters, in the original Saxon; as the Normans not only did not understand, but would have received with contempt, instruments written in that language. Therefore the monks were compelled to the pious fraud of forging them in Latin: and great numbers of these forged Latin charters, till lately supposed original, are still extant. See Spelman, in Not. ad Concil. Anglic. p. 125. Stillingfl. Orig. Eccle
. Britann. p. 14. Marsham, Praefat. ad D
gd. Monast. And Wharton, Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. Praefat. p. ii. iii. iv. See also Ingulph. p. 512. Launoy and Mabillon have treated this subject with great learning and penetration.
. Even children at school were forbidden to read in their native language, and instructed in a knowledge of the Norman only
Ingulph. p. 71. sub. ann. 1066.
. In the mean time we should have some regard to the general and political state of the nation. The natives were so universally reduced to the lowest condition of neglect and indigence, that the English name became a term of reproach: and several generations elapsed, before one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any distinguished honours, or could so much as attain the rank of baronage
See Brompt. Ch
on. p. 1026. Abb
Rieval. p. 339.
. Among other instances of that absolute and voluntary submission; with which our Saxon ancestors received a foreign yoke, it appears that they suffered their hand-writing to fall into discredit and disuse
Ingulph, p. 85.
; which by degrees became so difficult and obsolete, that few beside the oldest men could understand the characters
Ibid. p. 98. sub. ann. 1091.
. In the year 1095, Wolstan, bishop of Worcester, was deposed by the arbitra
y Normans: it was objected against him, that he was
"a superannuated English idiot, who could not speak French
Matt. Paris. sub. ann.
."
It is true, that in some of the monasteries, particularly at Croyland and Tavistocke, founded by Saxon princes, there were regular preceptors in the Saxon language: but this institution was suffered to remain after the conquest, as a matter only of interest and necessity. The religious could not otherwise have understood their original charters. William's successor, Henry the first, gave an instrument of confirmation to William archbishop of Canterbury, which was written in the Saxon language and letters
H. Wharton, Auctar. Histor. Dogmat. p. 388. The learned Mabillon is mistaken in asserting, that the Saxon way of writing was entirely abolished in England at the time of the Norman conquest. See Mabillon. De Re Diplomat. p. 52. The French antiquaries are fond of this notion. There are Saxon characters in Herbert Losinga's charter for founding the church of Norwich. Temp. Will. Ruf. A. D. 1110. See Lambarde's Diction. V. NORWICH. See also Hickes. Thesaur. i. Par. i. p. 149. See also Praefat. p. xvi. An intermixture of the Saxon character is common in English and Latin manuscripts, before the reign of Edward the third: but of a few types only.
. Yet this is almost a single example. That monarch's motive was perhaps political: and he seems to have practised this expedient with a view of obliging his queen, who was of Saxon lineage; or with a design of flattering his English subjects, and of securing his title already strengthened by a Saxon match, in consequence of so specious and popular an artifice. It was a common and indeed a very natural practice, for the transcribers of Saxon books, to change the Saxon orthography for the Norman, and to substitute in the place of the original Saxon, Norman words and phrases. A remarkable instance of this liberty, which sometimes perplexes and misleads the critics in Anglo-Saxon literature, appears in a voluminous collection of Saxon homilies, preserved in the Bodleian library, and written about the time of Henry the second
MSS. Bodl. NE. F. 4. 12. Cod. membran. fol.
. It was with the Saxon characters, as with the signature of the cross in public deeds; which were changed into the Norman mode of seals and subscriptions
Yet some Norman charters have the cross.
. The Saxon was probably spoken in the country, yet not without various adulterations from the French: the courtly language was French, yet perhaps with some vestiges of the vernacular Saxon. But the nobles, in the reign of Henry the second, constantly sent their children into France, le
t they should contract habits of barbarism in their speech, which could not have been avoided in an English education
Gervas. Tilbur. de Otiis Imperial. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. lib. iii. See du Chesne, iii. p. 363.
. Robert Holcot, a learned Dominican friar, confesses, that in the beginning of the reign of Edward the third, there was no institution of children in the old English: he complains, that they first learned the French, and from the French the Latin language. This he observes to have been a practice introduced by the Conqueror, and to have remained ever since
Lect. in Libr. Sapient. Lect. ii. Paris. 1518. 4to.
. There is a curious passage relating to this subject in Trevisa's translation of Hygden's Polychronicon
x Lib. i. cap. 59. MSS. Coll. S. Johan. Cantabr. But I think it is printed by Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde. Robert of Gloucester, who wrote about 1280, says much the same, edit. Hearne, p. 364.
.
"Children in scole, agenst the usage and manir of all other nations, beeth compelled for to leve hire owne langage, and for to construe hir lessons and hire thynges in Frenche; and so they haveth sethe Normans came first into Engelond. Also gentilmen children beeth taught to speke Frensche, from the tyme that they bith rokked in here cradell, and kunneth speke and play with a childes broche: and uplondissche
Country.
men will likne himself to gentylmen, and fondeth
Delights, tries.
with greet besynesse for to speke Frensche to be told of. This maner was moche used to for first deth
Time.
, and is sith
ome dele changed. For John Cornewaile a maister of grammer, changed the lore in grammer scole, and construction of Frensche into Englische: and Richard Pencriche lernede the manere techynge of him as other men of Pencriche. So that now, the yere of oure Lorde
a thousand thre hundred and four score and five,
and of the seconde Kyng Richard after the conquest nyne, and [in] alle the grammere scoles of Engelond children lereth Frensche and construeth, and lerneth an Englische, &c."
About the same time, or rather before, the students of our universities, were ordered to converse in French or Latin
In the statutes of Oriel College in Oxford, it is ordered, that the scholars, or fellows,
"siqua inter se proferant, colloquio Latino, vel saltem Gallico, perfruantur."
See Hearne's Trokelowe, pag. 298. These statutes were given 23 Maii, A. D. 1328. I find much the same injunction in the statutes of Exeter College, Oxford, given about 1330. Where they are ordered to use,
"Romano aut Gallico saltem sermone."
Hearne's MSS. Collect. num. 132. pag. 73. Bibl. Bodl. But in Merton College statutes, mention is made of the Latin only. In cap. x. They were given 1271. This was also common in the greater monasteries. In the register of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, the domicellus of the Prior of S. Swythin's at Winchester, is ordered to address the bishop, on a certain occasion, in French, A. D. 1398. Registr. Par. iii. fol. 177.
. The latter was much affected by the Normans. All the Norman accompts were in Latin. The plan of the great royal revenue-rolls, now called the pipe-rolls, were of their construction, and in that language. But from the declension of the barons, and prevalence of the commons, most of whom were of English ancestry, the native language of England gradually gained ground: till at length the interest of the commons
o far succeeded with Edward the third, that an act of parliament was passed, appointing all pleas and proceedings of law to be carried on in English
But the French formularies and terms of law, and particularly the French feudal phraseology, had taken too deep root to be thus hastily abolished. Hence, long after the reign of Edward the third, many of our lawyers composed their tracts in French. And reports and some statutes were made in that language. See Fortescut. de Laud. Leg. Angl. cap. xlviii.
: although the same statute decrees, in the true Norman spirit, that all such pleas and proceedings should be enrolled in Latin
Pulton's Statut. 36. Edw. iii. This was A. D. 1363. The first English instrument in Rymer is dated 1368. Foed. vii. p. 526.
. Yet this change did not restore either the Saxon alphabet or language. It abolished a token of subjection and disgrace: and in some degree, contributed to prevent further French innovations in the language then used, which yet remained in a compound state, and retained a considerable mixture of foreign phraseology. In the mean time, it must be remembered, that this corruption of the Saxon was not only owing to the admission of new words, occasioned by the new alliance, but to changes of its own forms and terminations, arising from reasons which we cannot investigate or explain
This subject will be further illustrated in the next section.
.
Among the manuscripts of Digby in the Bodleian library at Oxford, we find a religious or moral Ode, consisting of one hundred and ninety-one stanzas, which the learned Hickes places just after the conquest
Ling. Vett. Thes. Part. i. p. 222. There is another copy not mentioned by Hickes, in Jesus College library at Oxford, MSS. 85. infr. citat. This is entitled
Tractatus guidam in Anglico.
The Digby manuscript has no title.
: but as it contains few Norman terms, I am inclined to think it of rather higher antiquity. In deference however to so great an authority, I am obliged to mention it here; and especially as it exhibits a regular lyric strophe of four lines, the second and fourth of which rhyme together. Although these four lines may be perhaps resolved into two Alexandrines; a measure concerning which more will be said hereafter, and of which it will be sufficient to remark at present, that it appears to have been used very early. For I cannot recollect any strophes of this sort in the elder Runic or Saxon poetry; nor in any of the old Frankish poems, particularly of Otfrid, a monk of Weissenburgh, who turned the evangelical history into Frankish verse about the ninth century, and has left several hymns in that language
See Petr. Lambec. Comment. de Bibl. Caesar. Vindebon. pag. 418. 457.
, of Stricker who celebrated the atchievements of Charlemagne
See Petr. Lambec. ubi supr. lib. ii. cap. 5. There is a circumstance belonging to the antient Frankish versification, which, as it greatly illustrates the subject of alliteration, deserves notice here. Otfrid's dedication of his Evangelical history to Lewis the first, king of the oriental France, consists of four lined stanzas in rhyming couplets: but the first and last line of every stanzas begin and end with the same letter: and the letters of the title of the dedication respectively, and the word of the last line of every tetrastic. Flaccus Illyrius published this work of Otfrid at Basil, 1571. But I think it has been since more correctly printed by Johannes Schilterus. It was written about the year 880. Otfrid was the disciple of Rhabanus Maurus.
, and of the anonymous author of the metrical life of Anno, archbishop of Cologn. The following stanza is a specimen
St. xiv.
.
Sende god biforen him man,
þe hƿile he mai to heuene;
For betere is on elmesse biforen
Danne ben after
euene.
This is perhaps the true reading, from the Trinity manuscript at Cambridge, written about the reign of Henry the second, or Richard the first. Cod. membran. 8vo. Tractat. I. See Abr. Wheloc. Eccles. Hist. Bed. p. 25. 114.
Sende God biforen him man
The while he may to hevene,
For betere is on elmesse biforen
Thanne ben after sevene
MSS. Digb. A. 4. membran.
.
That is,
"Let a man send his good works before him to heaven while he can: for one alms-giving before death is of more value than seven afterwards."
The verses perhaps might have been thus written as two Alexandrines.
Send God biforen him man the while he may to hevene,
For betere is on almesse biforen, than ben after sevene
As I recollect, the whole poem is thus exhibited in the Trinity manuscript.
.
Yet alternate rhyming, applied without regularity, and as rhymes accidentally presented themselves, was not uncommon in our early poetry, as will appear from other examples.
Hickes has printed a satire on the monastic profession; which clearly exemplifies the Saxon adulterated by the Norman, and was evidently written soon after the conquest, at least before the reign of Henry the second. The poet begins with describing the land of indolence or luxury.
Fur in see, bi west Spaynge,
Is a lond ihote Cokaygne:
Ther nis lond under hevenriche
Heaven. Sax.
Of wel of godnis hit iliche.
Thoy paradis bi miri
Merry, chearful.
"Although Paradise is chearful and bright,
Cokayne
is a much more beautiful place."
and brigt
Cokaygn is of fairir sigt.
What is ther in paradis
Bot grass, and flure, and greneris?
Thoy ther be joy
101. Orig.
, and gret dute
Pleasure.
,
Ther nis met, bot frute.
Ther nis halle, bure
Butt
ry.
, no bench;
But watir manis thurst to quench, &c.
In the following lines there is a vein of satirical imagination and some talent at description. The luxury of the monks is represented under the idea of a monastery constructed of various kinds of delicious and costly viands.
Ther is a wel fair abbei,
Of white monkes and of grei,
Ther beth boures and halles:
All of pasteus beth the walles,
Of fleis of fisse, and a rich met,
The likefullist that man mai et.
Fluren cakes beth the schingles
Shingles.
"The tiles, or covering of the house, are of rich cakes."
alle,
Of church, cloister, bours, and halle.
The pinnes
The Pinnacles.
beth fat podinges
Rich met to princes and to kinges.—
Ther is a cloyster fair and ligt,
Brod and lang of sembli sigt.
The pilers of that cloister alle
eth iturned of cristale,
With harlas and capital
Of grene jaspe and red coral.
In the praer is a tree
Swithe likeful for to se,
The rote is gingeur and galingale,
The siouns beth al sed wale.
Trie maces beth the flure,
The rind canel of swete odure:
The frute gilofre of gode smakke,
Of cucubes ther nis no lakke.—
There beth iiii willis
Fountains.
in the abbei
Of tracle and halwei,
Of baume and eke piement
This word will be explained at large hereafter.
,
Ever ernend
Running. Sax.
to rigt rent
Course. Sax.
;
Of thai stremis al the molde,
Stonis pretiuse
The Arabian Philosophy imported into Europe, was full of the doctrine of precious stones.
and golde,
Ther is saphir, and uniune,
Carbuncle and astiune,
Smaragde, lugre, and prassiune,
Beril, onyx, toposiune,
Amethiste and crisolite,
Calcedun and epetite
Our old poets are never so happy as when they can get into a catalogue of things or names. See Obser
at. on the Fairy Queen, i. p. 140.
.
Ther beth birddes mani and fale
Throstill, thruisse, and nigtingale,
Chalandre, and wodwale,
And othir briddes without tale,
That stinteth never bi her migt
Miri to sing dai and nigt.
[Nonnulla desunt.]
Yite I do yow mo to witte,
The gees irostid on the spitte,
Fleey to that abbai, god hit wot,
And gredith
Crieth. Gallo-Franc.
, gees al hote al hote, &c.
Our author then makes a pertinent transition to a convent of nuns; which he supposes to be very commodiously situated at no great distance, and in the same fortunate region of indolence, ease, and affluence.
An other abbai is ther bi
For soth a gret nunnerie;
Up a river of swet milk
Whar is plente grete of silk.
When the summeris dai is hote,
The yung nunnes takith a bote
And doth ham forth in that river
Both with oris and with stere:
Whan hi beth fur from the abbei
Hi makith him nakid for to plei,
And leith dune in to the brimme
And doth him sleilich for to swimme:
The yung monkes that hi seeth
Hi doth ham up and forth hi fleeth,
And comith to the nunnes anon,
And euch monk him takith on,
And snellich
Quick, quickly. Gallo-Franc.
berith forth har prei
To the mochill grei abbei
"To the great Abbey of Grey Monks."
,
And techith the nonnes an oreisun
With jambleus
Lascivious motions. Gambols. Fr. Gambiller.
up and dun
Hickes. Thesaur. i. Part i. p. 231. seq.
.
This poem was designed to be sung at public festivals
As appears fro
this line.
Lordinges gode and hende, &c.
It is in MSS. More, Cantabrig. 784. f. 1.
: a practice, of which many instances occur in this work; and concerning which it may be sufficient to remark at present, that a JOCULATOR or bard, was an officer belonging to the court of William the Conqueror
His lands are cited in Doomsday Book.
"GLOUCESTERSCIRE. Berdic, Joculator Regis, habet iii. villas et ibi v. car. nil redd."
See Anstis, Ord. Gart. ii. 304.
.
Another Norman Saxon poem cited by the same industrious antiquary, is entitled THE LIFE OF SAINT MARGARET. The structure of its versification considerably differs from that in the last-mentioned piece, and is like the French Alexandrines. But I am of opinion, that a pause, or division, was intended in the middle of every verse: and in this respect, its versification resembles also that of ALBION'S ENGLAND, or Drayton's POLYOLBION, which was a species very common about the reign of queen Elisabeth
It is worthy of remark, that we find in the collection of ancient northern monuments, published by M. Biorner, a poem of some length, said by that author to have been composed in the twelfth or thirteenth century. This poem is professedly in rhyme, and the measure like that of the heroic Alexandrine of the French poetry. See Mallet's Introd. Dannem. &c. ch. xiii.
. The rhymes are also continued to every fourth line. It appears to have been written about the time of the crusades. It begins thus.
Olde ant
And. Fr.
yonge I priet
I direct. Fr.
"I advise you, your, &c."
ou, our folies for to lete,
Thinketh on god that yef ou wite, our sunnes to bete.
Here I mai tellen ou, wit wordes faire and swete,
The vie
Life. Fr.
of one maiden was hoten
Called. Saxon.
Margarete.
Hire fader was a patriac, as ic ou tellen may,
In Auntioge wif eches
Chose a wife. Sax.
"He was married in Antioch."
I in the false lay,
Deve godes
"Deaf gods, &c."
ant dombe, he servid nit and day,
So deden mony othere that singeth welaway.
Theodosius was is nome, on Criste ne levede he noutt,
He levede on the false godes, that weren with honden wroutt.
Tho that child sculde cristine ben it com well in thoutt,
Ebed wen
In bed.
it were ibore, to deth it were ibroutt, &c.
In the sequel, Olibrius, lord of Antioch, who is called a Saracen, falls in love with Margaret: but she being a christian, and a candidate for canonization, rejects his sollicitations and is thrown into prison.
Meiden Margarete one nitt in prison lai
Ho com biforn Olibrius on that other dai.
Meiden Margarete, lef up upon my lay,
And Ihu that thou levest on, thou do him al awey.
Lef on me ant be my wife, ful wel the mai spede.
Auntioge and Asie scaltou han to mede:
Ciculauton
Checklaton. See Obs. Fair. Q. i. 194.
and purpel pall scaltou have to wede:
With all the metes of my lond ful vel I scal the
Hickes. i. 225. The legend of
Scint
Juliane
in the Bodleian library is rather older, but of much the same versification. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. NE. 3. xi. membran. 8vo. iii. fol. 36. This manuscript I believe to be of the age of Henry the third or king John: the composition much earlier. It was translated from the Latin. These are the five last lines.
þƿhen d
ihtin o domesdei þindþeð his hþeate,
And þer ƿeð þaet dusti chef to hellene heate,
þe mote beon a corn i godes guldene edene,
De turde ðis of latin to Englische ledene
And he þaet he
least onþ
at sþa as he cuþe. AMEN.
That is,
"When the judge at doomsday winnows his wheat and drives the dusty chaff into the heat of hell; may there be a corner in god's golden Eden for him who turned this book into Latin, &c."
fede.
This piece was printed by Hickes from a manuscript in Trinity college library at Cambridge. It seems to belong to the manuscript metrical LIVES OF THE SAINTS
The same that are mentioned by Hearne, from a manuscript of Ralph Sh
idon. See Hearne's Petr. Langt. p. 542. 607. 608. 609. 611. 628. 670. Saint Winifred's Life is printed from the same collection by bishop Fleetwood, in his
Life and Miracles of S.
inifred,
p. 125. ed. 1713.
, which form a very considerable volume, and were probably translated or paraphrased from Latin or French prose into English rhyme before the year 1200
It is in fact a metrical history of the festivals of the whole year. The life of the respective Saint is described under every Saints day, and the institutions of some sundays, and feasts not taking their rise from saints, are explained, on the plan of the
Legenda Aurea,
written by Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa, about the year 1290, from which Caxton, through the medium of a French version entitled
Legend Doré
,
translated his
Golden Legend.
The
Festival,
or
Fe
iall,
printed by Wynkin de Worde, is a book of the same sort, yet with homilies intermixed. See MSS. Harl. 2247. fol. and 2371. 4to. and 2391. 4to. and 2402. 4to. and 2800. seq. Manuscript lives of Saints, detached, and not belonging to this collection, are frequent in libraries. The
Vitae Patrum
were originally drawn from S. Jerome and Johannes Cassianus. In Gresham college library are metrical lives of ten Saints chiefly from the
Golden Legend,
by Osberne Bokenham, an Augustine canon in the abbey of Stoke-clare in Suffolk, transcribed by Thomas Burgh at Cambridge 1477. The Life of S. Katharine appears to have been composed in 1445. MSS. Coll. Gresh. 315. The French translation of the
L
g
nda Aurea
was made by Jehan de Vignay, a monk, soon after 1300.
. We are sure that they were written after the year 1169, as they contain the LIFE of Saint Thomas of Becket
Ashmole cites this Life, Instit. Ord. Gart. p. 21. And he cites S. Brandon's Life, p. 507. Ashmole's manuscript was in the hands of Silas Taylor. It is now in his Museum at Oxford. MSS. Ashm. 50. [7001.]
. In the Bodleian library are three manuscript copies of these LIVES OF THE SAINTS
MSS. Bodl. 779.—Laud, L. 70. And they make a considerable part of a prodigious folio volume, beautifully written on vellum, and elegantly illuminated, where they have the following title, which also comprehends other antient English religious poems.
"Here begynnen the tytles of the book that is cald in Latyn tonge SALUS ANIME, and in Englysh tonge SOWLEHELE."
It was given to the Bodleian library by Edward Vernon esquire, soon after the civil war. I shall cite it under the title of MS. Vernon. Although pieces not absolutely religious are sometimes introduced, the scheme of the compiler or transcriber seems to have been, to form a complete body of legendary and scriptural history in verse, or rather to collect into one view all the religious poetry he could find. Accordingly the
Lives of the Saints,
a distinct and large work of itself, properly constituted a part of his plan. There is another copy of the
Lives of the Saints
in the British Museum, MSS. Harl. 2277. And in Ashmole's Museum, MSS. Ashm. ut supr. I think this manuscript is also in Ben
college library. The Lives seem to be placed according to their respective festivals in the course of the year. The Bodleian copy (marked 779.) is a thick folio, containing 310 leaves. The variations in these manuscripts seem chiefly owing to the transcribers. The
Life
of Saint Margaret in MSS. Bodl. 779. begins much like that of Trinity library at Cambridge.
Old ant yonge I preye you your folyis for to lete, &c.
I must add here, that in the Harleian library, a few Lives, from the same collection of
Lives of the Saints,
occur, MSS. 2250. 23. f. 72. b. seq. chart. fol. See also ib. 19. f. 48. These Lives are in French rhymes, ib. 2253. f. 1.
, in which the LIFE of Saint Margaret constantly occurs; but it is not always exactly the same with this printed by Hickes. And on the whole, the Bodleian Lives seem inferior in point of antiquity. I will here give some extracts never yet printed.
From the LIFE of Saint Swithin.
Thus in MSS. Harl. fol. 78.
Seint Swiþþin ðe confessour was here of Engelonde
Biside Wynchestre hi was ibore as ic vnderstonde.
Seint Swythan the confessour was her of Engelonde,
Bisyde Wynchestre he was ibore, as ich undirstonde:
Bi the kynges dei Egbert this goode was ibore,
That tho was kyng of Engelonde, and somedele eke bifore;
The eihtethe he was that com aftur Kinewolfe the kynge,
That seynt Berin dude to cristendome in Engelonde furst brynge:
Seynt Austen hedde bifore to cristendom i brouht
Athelbryt the goode kynge as al the londe nouht.
Al setthe
Since.
hyt was that seynt Berin her bi west wende,
And tornede the kynge Kinewolfe as vr lord grace sende:
So that Egbert was kyng tho that Swythan was bore
The eighth was Kinewolfe that so long was bifore, &c.
Seynt Swythan his bushopricke to al goodnesse drough
The towne also of Wynchestre he amended inough,
Ffor he lette the stronge bruge withoute the toune arere
And fond therto lym and ston and the workmen that ther were
f. 93. MS. Vernon.
.
From the LIFE of Saint Wolstan.
Seynt Wolston bysscop of Wirceter was then in Ingelonde,
Swithe holyman was all his lyf as ich onderstonde:
The while he was a yonge childe good lyf hi ladde ynow,
Whenne other children orne play toward cherche hi drow.
Seint Edward was tho vr kyng, that now in hevene is,
And the bisscoppe of Wircester Brytthege is hette I wis, &c.
Bisscop hym made the holi man seynt Edward vre kynge
And undirfonge his dignite, and tok hym cros and ringe.
His bushopreke he wu
t wel, and eke his priorie,
And forcede him to serve wel god and Seinte Marie.
Ffour ȝer he hedde bisscop ibeo and not folliche fyve
Tho seynt Edward the holi kyng went out of this lyve.
To gret reuge to al Engelonde, so welaway the stounde,
Ffor strong men that come sithen and broughte Engelonde to grounde.
Harald was sithen kynge with tresun, allas!
The crowne he bare of England which while hit was.
As William bastard that was tho duyk of Normaundye
Thouhte to winne Englonde thorusg strength and felonye:
He lette hym greith foulke inouh and gret power with him nom,
With gret strengthe in the see he him dude and to Engelonde com:
He lette ordayne his ost wel and his baner up arerede,
And destruyed all that he fond and that londe sore aferde.
Harald hereof tell kynge of Engelonde
He let garke fast his oste agen hym for to stonde:
His baronage of Engelonde redi was ful sone
The kyng to helpe and
k
himself as riht was to done.
The warre was then in Engelonde dolefull and stronge inouh
And heore either of othures men al to grounde slouh:
The Normans and this Englisch men deiy of batayle nom
There as the abbeye is of the batayle a day togedre com,
To grounde thei smiit and slowe also, as god yaf the cas,
William Bastard was above and Harald bi n
othe was
MS. Vernon. fol. 76. b.
.
From the LIFE of Saint Christopher.
MSS. Harl. ut supr. fol. 101. b.
Seint Cristofre was Sarazin in ðe lond of Canaan
In no stede bi his daye ne fond me so strong a man
Four and tuenti
et he was long and þiche and brod y-noug, &c.
Seynt Cristofre was a Sarazin in the londe of Canaan,
In no stud bi him daye mi fond non so strong a man:
Ffour and twenti feete he was longe, and thikk and brod inouh,
Such a mon but he weore stronge methinketh hit weore wouh:
A la cuntre where he was for him wolde fleo,
Therfore hym ythoughte that no man ageynst him sculde beo.
He seide he wolde with no man beo but with on that were,
Hext lord of all men and undir hym non othir were.
Afterwards he is taken into the service of a king.
—Cristofre hym served longe;
The kynge loved melodye much of fithele
Fiddle.
and of songe:
So that his jogeler on a dai biforen him gon to pleye faste,
And in a tyme he nemped in his song the devil atte laste:
Anon so the kynge that I herde he blesed him anon, &c.
MS. Vernon, fol. 119.
From the LIFE of Saint Patrick
Seyn Pateryk com thoru godes grace to preche in Irelonde
To teche men ther ryt believe Jehu Cryste to understonde:
So ful of wormes that londe he founde that no man ni myghte gon,
In som stede for worms that he nas wenemyd anon;
Seynt Pateryk bade our lorde Cryst that the londe delyvered were,
Of thilke foul wormis that none ne com there
Bodl. MSS. 779. fol. 41. b.
.
From the LIFE of Saint Thomas of Becket.
Ther was Gilbert Thomas fadir name the trewe man and gode
He loved God and holi cherche setthe he witte ondirstode
MSS. Harl. fol. 195. b.
Gilbert was Thomas fader name þat true was and gód
And lovede god and holi church siþþe he wit undérstod.
This Harleian manuscript is imperfect in many parts.
.
The cros to the holi cherche in his ȝouthe he nom,
. . . myd on Rychard that was his mon to Jerlem com,
Ther hy dede here pylgrimage in holi stedes fa
te
So that among Sarazyns hy wer nom at laste, &c.
MSS. Bodl. 779. f. 41. b.
This legend of Saint Thomas of Becket is exactly in the style of all the others; and as Becket was martyred in the latter part of the reign of Henry the second from historical evidence, and as, from various internal marks, the language of these legends cannot be older than the twelfth century, I think we may fairly pronounce the LIVES OF THE SAINTS to have been written about the reign of Richard the first
Who died 1199. In the Cotton library I find the lives of Saint Josaphas and Saint Dorman: where the Norman seems to predominate, although Saxon letters are used. Brit. Mus. MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. ix. Cod. membran. 4to. ii. fol. 192.
Ici commence la vie de seint Iosaphaz.
Ri uout vout a nul bien aentendre
Per essample poet mlt aprendre.
iii. fol. 213. b.
Ici commence la vie de
Seint Dormanz.
La vertu deu iur tut ius
dure
E tut iurz est certeine epure.
Many legends and religious pieces in Norman rhyme were written about this time. See MSS. Harl. 2253 f. 1. membr. fol.
upr. citat. p. 14.
.
These metrical narratives of christian faith and perseverance seem to have been chiefly composed for the pious amusement, and perhaps edification, of the monks in their cloisters. The sumptuous volume of religious poems which I have mentioned above
Viz. MS. Vernon.
, was undoubtedly chained in the cloister, or church, of some capital monastery. It is not improbable that the novices were exercised in reciting portions from these pieces. In the British Museum
MSS. Harl. 2391. 70. The dialect is perfectly northern.
there is a set of legendary tales in rhyme, which appear to have been
olemnly pronounced by the priest to the people on sundays and holidays. This sort of poetry
That legends of Saints were sung to the harp at feasts, appears from
The Life of Saint Marine,
MSS. Harl. 2253. fol. memb. f. 64. b.
Herketh hideward and beoth s
ille,
Y
praie ou ȝif hit be or wille,
And ȝe shule here of one virgin
That was ycleped saint Maryne.
And from various other instances.
Some of these religious poems contain the usual address of the minstrel to the company. As in a poem of our Saviour's descent into hell, and his discourse there with Sathanas the porter, Adam, Eve, Abraham, &c. MSS. ibid. f. 57.
Alle herkeneth to me now,
A strif wolle ye tellen ou:
Of Jhesu and of Sathan,
Tho Jhesu wes to hell y-gan.
Other proofs will occur occasionally.
was also sung to the harp by the minstrels on sundays, instead of the romantic subjects usual at public entertainments
As I collect from the following poem, MS. Vernon, fol. 229.
The
Visions
of Seynt Poul won be was ra
t into Paradys.
Lusteneth lordynges leof and dere,
Ȝe that wolen of the Sonday here;
The Sonday a day hit is
That angels and archangels joyn i wis
More in that ilke day
Then any odur, &c.
.
In that part of Vernon's manuscript intitled SOULEHELE, we have a translation of the Old and New Testament into verse; which I believe to have been made before the year 1200. The reader will observe the fondness of our ancestors for the Alexandrine: at least, I find the lines arranged in that measure.
Oure ladi and h
re sustur stoden under the roode,
And seint John and Marie Magdaleyn with wel sori moode:
Vr ladi bi heold hire swete son i brouht in gret pyne,
Ffor monnes gultes nouthen her and nothing for myne.
Marie weop wel sore and bitter teres leet,
The teres fullen uppon the ston doun at hire feet.
Alas, my son, for serwe wel off seide heo
Nabbe iche bote the one that hongust on the treo;
So ful icham of serwe, as any wommon may beo,
That ischal my deore child in all this pyne iseo:
How schal I sone deore, how hast i yougt liven withouten the,
Nusti nevere of serwe nought sone, what seyst you me?
Then spake Jhesus wordus gode to his modur dere,
Ther he heng uppon the roode here I the take a fere,
That trewliche schal serve ye, thin own cosin Jon,
The while that you alyve beo among all thi fon:
Ich the hote Jon, he seide, you wite hire both day and niht
That the Gywes hire fon ne don hire non un riht.
Seint John in the stude vr ladi in to the temple nom
God to serven he hire dude sone so he thider come,
Hole and seeke heo duden good that hes founden thore
Heo hire serveden to hond and foot, the lass and eke the more.
The pore folke feire heo fedde there, heo sege that hit was neode
And the seke heo brougte to bedde and met and drinke gon heom beode.
Wy at heore mihte yong and olde hire loveden bothe syke and fer
As hit was riht for alle and summe to hire servise hedden mester.
Jon hire was a trew feer, and nolde nougt from hire go,
He lokid hire as his ladi deore and what heo wolde hit was i do.
Now blowith this newe fruyt that lat bi gon to springe,
That to his kuynd heritage monkunne schal bringe,
This new fruyt of whom I speke is vre cristendome,
That late was on erthe isow and latir furth hit com,
So hard and luthur was the lond of whom hit scholde springe
That wel unnethe eny rote men mougte theron bring,
God hi was the gardener,
MS. Vernon, fol. 8.
&c.
In the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, among other Norman-Saxon homilies in prose, there is a homily or exhortation on the Lord's prayer in verse: which, as it was evidently transcribed rather before the reign of Richard the first, we may place with some degree of certainty before the year 1185.
Vre feder that in hevene is
That is al sothfull I wis.
Weo moten to theos weordes iseon
That to live and to saule gode beon.
That weo beon swa his sunes iborene
That he beo feder and we him icorene.
That we don alle his ibeden
And his wille for to reden, &c.
Lauerde God we biddeth thus
Mid edmode heorte gif hit us.
That vre soule beo to the icore
Noht for the flesce for lore.
Dole us to biwepen vre sunne
That we ne sternen noht therunne
And gif us, lauerd, that like gifte
Thet we hes ibeten thurh holie scrifte. AMEN
Quart. minor. 185. Cod. membran. vi. f. 21. b.
.
In the valuable library of Corpus Christi college in Cambridge, is a sort of poetical biblical history, extracted from the books of Genesis and Exodus. It was probably composed about the reign of Henry the second or Richard the first. But I am chiefly induced to cite this piece, as it proves the excessive attachment of our earliest poets to rhyme: they were fond of multiplying the same final sound to the most tedious monotony; and without producing any effect of
legance, strength, or harmony. It begins thus:
Man og to luuen that rimes ren.
The wissed wel the logede men.
Hu man may him wel loken
Thog he ne be lered on no boken.
Luuen god and serven him ay
For he it hem wel gelden may.
And to al cristenei men
Boren pais and luue by twem.
Than sal him almighti luuven.
Here by nethen and thund abuuven,
And given him blisse and soules r
ste.
That him sal eavermor lesten.
Ut of Latin this song is a dragen
On Engleis speche on soche sagen,
Cristene men ogen ben so fagen.
So fueles arn quan he it sen dagen.
Than man hem telled soche tale
Wid londes speche and wordes smale
Of blisses dune, of sorwes dale,
Quhu Lucifer that devel dwale
And held him sperred in helles male,
Til god him frid in manliched
Dede mankinde bote and red.
And unswered al the fendes sped
And halp thor he sag mikel ned
Biddi hie singen non other led.
Thog mad hic folgen idel hed.
Fader gode of al thinge,
Almightin louerd, hegest kinge,
Thu give me seli timinge
To thau men this werdes bigininge.
The lauerd god to wurthinge
Quether so hic rede or singe
MSS. R. 11. Cod. membran. octavo. It seems to be in the northern dialect.
.
We find this accumulation of identical rhymes in the Runic odes. Particularly in the ode of Egill cited above, entitled EGILL'S RANSOM. In the Cotton library a poem is preserved of the same age, on the subjects of death, judgment, and hell torments, where the rhymes are singular, and deserve our attention.
Non mai longe lives wene
Ac ofte him lieth the wrench.
Feir weither turneth ofte into reine
And thunderliche hit maketh his blench,
Tharfore mon thu the biwench
At schal falewi thi grene.
Weilawei! nis kin ne quene
That ne schal drincke of deathes drench,
Mon er thu falle of thi bench
Thine sunne thu aquench
Bibl. Cotton, MSS. CALIG. A. ix.—vi. f. 243.
.
To the same period of our poetry I refer a version of Saint Jerom's French psalter, which occurs in the library of Corpus Christi college at Cambridge. The hundredth psalm is thus translated.
Mirthes to god al erthe that es
Serves to louerd in faines.
In go yhe ai in his
iht,
In gladnes that is so briht.
Whites that louerd god is he thus
He us made and our self noht us,
His folk and shep of his fode:
In gos his yhates that are gode:
In schrift his worches believe,
In ympnes to him yhe schrive.
Heryhes his name for louerde is hende,
In all his merci do in strende and strande
O. 6. Cod. membr. 4to.
.
In the Bodleian library there is a translation of the psalms, which much resembles in style and measure this just mentioned. If not the same, it is of equal antiquity. The handwriting is of the age of Edward the second: certainly not later than his successor. It also contains the Nicene creed
Hickes has printed a metrical. version of the creed of St. Athanasius. To whom, to avoid prolix and obselete specimens already printed, I refer the reader. Th
saur. P. i. p. 233. I believe it to be of the age of Henry the second.
, and some church hymns, versified: but it is mutilated and imperfect. The nineteenth psalm runs thus.
Hevenes tellen godes blis
And wolken shewes hond werk his
Dai to dai word rise riht,
And wisdom shewes niht to niht,
Of whilke that noht is herde thar steven.
In al the world out yhode thar corde
And in ende of erthe of tham the worde.
. . . sunne he sette his telde to stande
And b. bridegroome a. he als of his lourd commande.
He gladen als den to renne the wai
Ffrem heighist heven hei outcoming ai,
And his gairenning tilheht sete,
Ne is qwilke mai him from his hete.
Lagh of louerd unwenned isse,
Turnand saules in to blisse:
Witness of lourd is ever trewe
Wisdom servand to littell newe:
Lourd's rihtwisnesse riht hertes famand,
But of lourd is liht eghen sighand,
Drede of lourde hit heli es
Domes of love ful sori sothe are ai
Rihted in thamsalve ar thai,
More to be beyorned over golde
Or ston derwurthi that is holde:
Wel swetter to mannes wombe
Ovir honi and to kombe
MSS. Bodl. pergamen. fol. 425. f. 5.
.
This is the beginning of the eighteenth psalm.
I sal love the Lourd of
lisse
And in mine Lourd festnes min esse,
And in fleming m
n als so
And in lesser out of wo
Ibid. f. 4.
.
I will add another religious fragment on the crucifixion, in the shorter measure, evidently coeval, and intended to be sung to the harp.
Vyen i o the rode se
Jesu nayled to the tre,
Jesu mi lefman,
Sic.
Ibunder bloe and blodi,
An hys moder stant him bi,
Wepand, and Johan:
Hys bac wid scwrge iswungen,
Hys side depe istungen,
Ffor sinne and louve of man,
Weil anti sinne lete
An nek wit teres wete
Thif i of love can
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. B. 3. 18. Th. f. 101. b. (Langb. vi. 209.)
.
In the library of Jesus college at Oxford, I have seen a Norman-Saxon poem of another cast, yet without much invention or poetry
It is also in Bibl. Cotton. MSS. CALIG. ix. A. 5. fol. 230.
. It is a contest between an owl and a nightingale, about superiority in voice and singing; the decision of which is left to the judgment of one John de Guldevord
So it is said in Catal. MSS. Angl. p. 69. But by mistake. Our John de Guldevorde is indeed the author of the poem which immediately precedes in the manuscript, as appears by the following entry at the end of it, in the hand-writing of the very Iearned Edward Lwyhd.
"On part of a broken leaf of this MS. I find these verses written, whearby the author may be guest at.
Mayster Johan eu greteth of Guldworde tho,
And sendeth eu to seggen that synge he nul he wo,
On thisse wise he will endy his songe,
God louerde of hevene, beo us alle amonge.
"
The piece is entitled and begins thus;
Ici commence la Passyun Ihu Crist en engleys.
I hereth eu one lutele tale that ich eu wille telle
As we vyndeth hit iwrite in the godspelle,
Nis hit nouht of Karlemeyne ne of the Duzpere
As of Cristes thruwynge, &c.
It seems to be of equal antiquity with that mentioned in the text. The whole manuscript, consisting of many detached pieces both in verse and prose, was perhaps written in the reign of Henry the sixth.
. It is not later than Richard the first. The rhymes are multiplied, and remarkably interchanged.
Ich was in one sumere dale
In one snwe digele hale,
I herde ich hold grete tale,
An hule
Owl.
and one nightingale.
That plait was stif I stare and strong,
Sum wile softe I lud among.
Another agen other sval
I let that wole mod ut al.
I either seide of otheres custe,
That alere worste that hi wuste
I hure and I hure of others songe
Hi hold plaidung suthe stronge
MSS. Coll. Jes. Oxon. 86. membr.
.
The earliest love-song which I can discover in our language, is among the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum. I would place it before or about the year 1200. It is full of alliteration, and has a burthen or chorus.
Blow northerne wynd, sent
Thou me my suetynge; blow
Northerne wynd, blou, blou, blou.
Ich ot a burde in boure bryht
That fully semly is on syht,
Menskful maiden of myht,
Feire ant fre to fonde.
In al this wurhliche won,
A burde of blod and of bon,
Never
Yet.
ȝete y nuste
Knew not.
non
Lussomore in Londe.
Blow, &c.
With lokkes
Lively.
lefliche and longe,
With front ant face feir to fonde;
With murthes monie mote heo monge
That brid so breme in boure;
With lossum eie grete and gode,
Weth browen blissfoll undirhode,
He that rest him on the rode
That leflych lyf honoure.
Blou,
Sic.
&c.
Hire bire limmes liht,
Ase a lantern a nyht,
Hyr bleo blynkyth so bryht
Blee.
Complexion.
.
So feore heo is ant fyn,
A suetly suyre heo hath to holde,
With armes, shuldre as mon wolde,
Ant fyngres feyre forte fold:
God wolde hue were myn.
Middel heo hath menskfull
mall,
Hire loveliche chere as cristal;
Theyes, legges, fit, and al,
Ywraught of the best;
A lussum ladi lasteless,
That sweting is and ever wes;
A betere burde never was
Yheryed with the heste,
Heo ys dere worthe in day,
Graciouse, stout, and gaye,
Gentil, joly, so the jay,
Workliche when she waketh,
Maiden murgest
Merriest.
of mouth
Bi est, bi west, bi north, bi south,
That nis ficle ne trouth,
That such murthes maketh.
Heo is corall of godnesse,
Heo is rubie of riche fulnesse,
Heo is cristal of clarnesse,
Ant baner of bealtie,
Heo is lilie of largesse,
Heo is parnenke pronesse,
Heo is salsecle of suetnesse,
Ant ladie of lealtie,
To lou that leflich ys in londe
Ytolde as hi as ych understonde, &c
MSS. Harl. 2253. fol. membran. f. 72. b.
.
From the same collection I have extracted a part of another amatorial ditty, of equal antiquity; which exhibits a stanza of no inelegant or unpleasing structure, and approaching to the octave rhyme. It is, like the last, formed on alliteration.
In a fryhte as y con fare framede
Y founde a wet feyr fenge to fere,
Heo glystenide ase gold when hit glemed,
Nes ner gom so gladly on gere,
Y wolde wyte in world who hire kenede
This burde bryht, ȝef hire wil were,
Heo me bed go my gates, lest hire gremede,
Ne kept heo non henynge here
MSS. ibid. f. 66. The pieces which I have cited from this manuscript, appear to be of the hand-writing of the reign of Edward the first.
.
In the following lines a lover compliments his mistress named Alysoun.
Bytween Mershe and Averile when spray beginneth to springe,
The lutel fowl hath hyre wyl on hyre lud to synge,
Ich libbem lonclonginge for semlokest of all thynge.
He may me blysse bringe icham in hire banndonn,
An hendy happe ichabbe yhent ichot from hevene it is me sent.
From all wymmen mi love is lent and lyht on Alisoun,
On hers here is fayre ynoh, hire browe bronne, hire eye blake,
With lossum chere he on me lok with middel smal and welymake,
Bote he me wolle to hire take, &c
MSS. ibid. f. 63. b.
.
The following song, containing a description of the spring, displays glimmerings of imagination, and exhibits some faint ideas of poetical expression. It is, like the three preceding, of the Norman Saxon school, and extracted from the same inexhaustible repository. I have transcribed the whole.
In May hit murgeth when hit dawes
"It is mery at dawn."
In dounes with this dueres plawes
Plays.
,
Ant lef is lyht on lynde;
Blosmes brideth on the bowes,
Al this wylde whytes vowes,
So wel ych under-fynde.
The thresteleue
Throstle. Thrush.
hym threteth so,
Away is huere wynter do,
When woderove syngeth ferly fere,
And blyleth on huere wynter wele,
That al the wode ryngeth;
The rose rayleth hir rode,
The leves on the lyhte wode
Waxen all with will:
The mone mandeth hire bleo
The lilie is lossum to scho;
The fengle and the fille
Wowes this wilde drakes,
Miles huere makes.
As streme that still
Mody moneth so doth mo.
Ichott ycham on of tho
For love that likes ille,
The mone mandeth hire liht,
When briddes syngeth breme,
Deawes donneth the donnes
Deores with huere derne ronnes,
Domes forte deme,
Wormes woweth under cloude,
Wymmen waxith wondir proude,
So wel hyt wol him seme
Yef me shall wonte wille of on
This weale is wole forgon
Ant whyt in wode be fleme.
The following hexastic on a similar subject, is the product of the same rude period, although the context is rather more intelligible: but it otherwise deserves a recital, as it presents an early sketch of a favourite and fashionable stanza.
Lenten ys come with love to tonne,
With blosmen and with briddes ronne,
That al this blisse bryngeth:
Dayes ezes in this dales
Notes suete of nightingales,
Vch foul songe singeth
MSS. ibid. f. 71. b.
.
This specimen will not be improperly succeeded by the following elegant lines, which a cotemporary poet appears to have made in a morning walk from Peterborough on the blessed Virgin: but whose genius seems better adapted to descriptive than religious subjects.
Now skruketh rose and lylie flour,
That whilen ber that suete savour
In somer, that suete tyde;
Ne is no quene so stark ne stour,
Ne no luedy so bryht in bour
That ded ne shal by glyde:
W
oso wol fleshye lust for-gon and hevene-blisse abyde
On Jhesu be is thoht anon, that tharled was ys side
Ibid. f. 80.
.
To which we may add a song, probably written by the same author, on the five joys of the blessed Virgin.
MSS. ibid. ut supr. f. 71. b.
Ase y me rod this ender day,
By grene wode, to seche play;
Mid herte y thohte al on a May.
Sueteste of al thinge:
Lithe, and ich on tell may al of that suete thinge
MSS. ibid. f. 81. b.
.
In the same pastoral vein, a lover, perhaps of the reign of king John, thus addresses his mistress, whom he supposes to be the most beautiful girl,
"Bituene Lyncolne and Lyndeseye, Northampton and Lounde
London.
."
.
When the nytenhale singes the wodes waxen grene,
Lef, gras, and blosme, springes in Avril y wene.
Ant love is to myn harte gon with one spere so kene
Nyht and day my blod hit drynkes myn hart deth me tene
Ibid. f. 80. b.
.
Nor are these verses unpleasing, in somewhat the same measure.
My deth y love, my lyf ich hate for a levedy shene,
Heo is brith so daies liht, that is on me wel sene.
Al y falewe so doth the lef in somir when hit is grene,
Ȝef mi thoht helpeth me noht to whom schal I me mene?
Ich have loved at this yere that y may love na more,
Ich have siked moni syh, lemon, for thin ore,
. . . my love never the ner and that me reweth sore;
Suete lemon, thenck on me ich have loved the sore,
Suete lemon, I preye the, of love one speche,
While y lyve in worlde so wyde other nill I seche
Ibid. f. 80. b.
.
Another, in the following little poem, enigmatically compares his mistress, whose name seems to be Joan, to various gems and flowers. The writer is happy in his alliteration, and his verses are tolerably harmonious.
Ic hot a burde in a bour, ase beryl so bryght,
Ase saphyr in selver semely on syht,
Ase jaspe
Jasper.
the gentil that lemeth
Streams, shines.
with lyht,
Ase gernet
Garnet.
in golde and rubye wel ryht,
Ase onycle
Onyx.
he is on y holden on hyht;
Ase diamand the dere in day when he is dyht:
He is coral yend with Cayser and knyght,
Ase emeraude a morewen this may haveth myht.
The myht of the margaryte haveth this mai mere,
Ffor charbocele iche hire chase bi chyn and bi chere,
Hire rede ys as rose that red ys on ryse
Branch.
,
With lilye white leves lossum he ys,
The primros he passeth, the penenke of prys,
With alisaundre thareto ache and anys:
Quaint.
Coynte as columbine such hire
White complexion.
cande ys,
Glad under gore in gro and in grys
Heo is blosme upon bleo brihtest under bis
With celydone ant sange as thou thi self sys,
From Weye he is wisist into Wyrhale,
Hire nome is in a note of the nyhtegale;
In a note is hire nome nempneth hit non
Who so ryht redeth ronne to Johon
MSS. ibid. f. 63.
.
The curious Harleian volume, to which we are so largely indebted, has preserved a moral tale, a Comparison between age and youth, where the stanza is remarkably constructed. The various sorts of versification which we have already seen, evidently prove, that much poetry had been written, and that the art had been greatly cultivated, before this period.
Herkne to my ron,
As ich ou tell con,
Of elde al hou yt ges.
Of a mody mon,
Hihte Maximion,
Soth without les.
Clerc he was ful god,
So moni mon undirstod.
Nou herkne hou it wes
Ibid. f. 82.
.
For the same reason, a sort of elegy on our Saviour's crucifixion should not be omitted. It begins thus:
I syke when y singe for sorewe that y se
When y with wypinge bihold upon the tre,
Ant se Jhesu the suete
Is hert blod for-lete,
For the love of me;
Ys woundes waxen wete,
Thei wepen, still and mete,
Marie reweth me
Ibid. f. 80.
.
Nor an alliterative ode on heaven, death, judgement, &c.
Middel-erd for mon was mad,
Un-mihti aren is meste mede,
This hedy hath on honde yhad,
That hevene hem is haste to hede.
Ich erde a blisse budel us bade,
The dreri domesdai to drede,
Of sinful sauhting sone be sad,
That derne doth this derne dede,
This wrakefall werkes under wede,
In soule soteleth sone
Ibid. f. 62. b.
.
That he ben derne done.
Many of these measures were adopted from the French chansons
See MSS. Harl. ut supr. f. 49. 76.
. I will add one or two more specimens.
On our Saviour's Passion and Death.
Jesu for thi muchele might
Thou ȝef us of thi grace,
That we mowe day and nyht
Thenken of thi face.
In myn hert it doth me god,
When y thenke on Jhesu blod,
That ran down bi ys syde;
From is harte doune to ys fote,
For ous he spradde is harte blod
His wondes were so wyde
Ibid. f. 79. Probably this song has been somewhat modernised by transcribers.
.
On the same subject.
Lutel wot hit any mon
Hou love hym haveth y bounde,
That for us o the rode ron,
Ant boht us with is wonde;
The love of him us haveth ymaked
ound,
And y cast the grimly gost to ground:
Ever and oo, nyht and day, he haveth us in his thohte,
He nul nout leose that he so deore boht
Ibid. f. 128. These lines afterwards occur, burlesqued and parodied, by a writer of the same age.
.
The following are on love and gallantry. The poet, named Richard, professes himself to have been a great writer of lovesongs.
Weping haveth myn wonges wet,
For wilked worke ant wone of wyt,
Unblithe y be til y ha bet,
Bruches broken ase bok byt:
Of levedis love that y ha let,
That lemeth al with luefly lyt,
Ofte in songe y have hem set,
That is unsemly ther hit syt.
Hit syt and semethe noht,
Ther hit ys seid in song
That y have of them wroht,
Y wis hit is all wrong
Ibid. f. 66.
.
It was customary with the early scribes, when stanzas consisted of short lines, to throw them together like prose. As thus:
"A wayle whiyt as whalles bon | a grein in golde that godly shon | a tortle that min hart is on | in tonnes trewe | Hire gladship nes never gon | while y may glewe
Ut supr. f. 67.
."
Sometimes they wrote three or four verses together as one line.
With longynge y am lad | on molde y waxe mad | a maide marreth me,
Y grede y grone un glad | for
elden y am
ad | that semly for te see.
Levedi thou rewe me | to routhe thou havest me rad | be bote of that y bad | my lyf is long on the
Ibid. 63. b.
.
Again,
Most i rydden by rybbes dale | widle wymmen for te wale | ant welde wreek ich wolde:
Founde were the feirest on | that ever was mad of blod ant bon | in boure best with bolde
Ibid. f. 66.
.
This mode of writing is not uncommon in antient manuscripts of French poetry. And some critics may be inclined to suspect, that the verses which we call Alexandrine, accidentally assumed their form merely from the practice of absurd transcribers, who frugally chose to fill their pages to the extremity, and violated the metrical structure for the sake of saving their vellum. It is certain, that the common stanza of four short lines may be reduced into two Alexandrines, and on the contrary. I have before observed, that the Saxon poem cited by Hickes, consisting of one hundred and ninety one stanzas, is written in stanzas in the Bodleian, and in Alexandrines in the Trinity manuscript at Cambridge. How it came originally from the poet I will not pretend to determine.
Our early poetry often appears in satirical pieces on the established and eminent professions. And the writers, as we have already seen, succeeded not amiss when they cloathed their satire in allegory. But nothing can be conceived more scurrilous and illiberal than their satires when they descend to mere invective. In the British Museum, among other examples which I could mention, we have a satirical ballad on the lawyers
MSS. ut sup
. f. 70. b.
, and another on the clergy, or rather some particular bishop. The latter begins thus:
Hyrd-men hatieth ant vch mones hyne,
For ever uch a parosshe heo polketh in pyne
Ant clastreth wyf heore celle:
Nou wol vch fol clerc that is fayly
Wend to the bysshop ant bugge bayly,
Nys no wyt in is nolle
Ibid. f. 71.
.
The elder French poetry abounds in allegorical satire: and I doubt not that the author of the satire on the monastic profession, cited above, copied some French satire on the subject. Satire was one species of the poetry of the Provencial troubadours. Anselm Fayditt a troubadour of the eleventh century, who will again be mentioned, wrote a sort of satirical drama called the HERESY of the FATHERS, HEREGIA DEL PREYRES, a ridicule on the council which condemned the Albigenses. The papal legates often fell under the lash of these poets; whose favour they were obliged to court, but in vain, by the promise of ample gratuities
Fontenelle, Hist. Theatr. Fr. p. 18.
dit 1742.
. Hugues de Bercy, a French monk, wrote in the twelfth century a very lively and severe satire; in which no person, not even himself, was spared, and which he called the BIBLE, as containing nothing but truth
See Fauchett, Rec. p. 151.
.
In the Harleian manuscripts I find an ancient French poem, yet respecting England, which is a humorous panegyric on a new religious order called LE ORDRE DE BEL EYSE. This is the exordium.
Qui vodra a moi entendre
Oyr purra e aprendre
L'estoyre de un ORDRE NOVEL
Qe mout est delitous bel.
The poet ingeniously feigns, that his new monastic order consists of the most eminent nobility and gentry of both sexes, who inhabit the monasteries assigned to it promiscuously; and that no person is excluded from this establishment who can support the rank of a gentleman. They are bound by their statutes to live in perpetual idleness and luxury: and the satyrist refers them for a pattern or rule of practice in these important articles, to the monasteries of Sempringham in Lincolnshire, Beverley in Yorkshire, the Knights Hospitalers, and many other religious orders then flourishing in England
MSS. ibid. f. 121.
.
When we consider the feudal manners, and the magnificence of our Norman ancestors, their love of military glory, the enthusiasm with which they engaged in the crusades, and the wonders to which they must have been familiarised from those eastern enterprises, we naturally suppose, what will hereafter be more particularly proved, that their retinues abounded with minstrels and harpers, and that their chief entertainment was to listen to the recital of romantic and martial adventures. But I have been much disappointed in my searches after the metrical tales which must have prevailed in their times. Most of those old heroic songs are perished, together with the stately castles in whose halls they were sung. Yet they are not so totally lost as we may be apt to imagine. Many of them still partly exist in the old English metrical romances, which will be mentioned in their proper places; yet divested of their original form, polished in their style, adorned with new incidents, successively modernised by repeated transcription and recitation, and retaining little more than the outlines of the original composition. This has not been the case of the legendary and other religious poems written soon after the conquest, manuscripts of which abound in our libraries. From the nature of their subject they were less popular and common; and being less frequently recited, became less liable to perpetual innovation or alteration.
The most antient English metrical romance which I can discover, is entitled the GESTE OF KING HORN. It was evidently written after the crusades had begun, is mentioned by Chaucer
Rim. Thop. 3402. Urr.
, and probably still remains in its original state. I will first give the substance of the story, and afterwards add some specimens of the composition. But I must premise, that this story occurs in very old French metre in the manuscripts of the British Museum
MSS. Harl. 527. b. f. 59. Cod. membr.
, so that probably it is a translation: a circumstance which will throw light on an argument pursued hereafter, proving that most of our metrical romances are translated from the French.
Mury, king of the Saracens, lands in the kingdom of Suddene, where he kills the king named Allof. The queen, Godylt, escapes; but Mury seizes on her son Horne, a beautiful youth aged fi
teen years, and puts him into a galley, with two of his play-fellows, Achulph and Fykenyld: the vessel being driven on the coast of the kingdom of Westnesse, the young prince is found by Aylmar king of that country, brought to court, and delivered to Athelbrus his steward, to be educated in hawking, harping, tilting, and other courtly accomplishments. Here the princess Rymenild falls in love with him, declares her passion, and is betrothed. Horne, in consequence of this engagement, leaves the princess for seven years; to demonstrate, according to the ritual of chivalry, that by seeking and accomplishing dangerous enterprises he deserved her affection. He proves a most valorous and invincible knight: and at the end of seven years, having killed king Mury, recovered his father's kingdom, and atchieved many signal exploits, recovers the princess Rymenild from the hands of his treacherous knight and companion Fykenyld; carries her in triumph to his own country, and there reigns with her in great splendor and prosperity. The poem itself begins and proceeds thus:
Alle heo ben blythe, that to my songe ylythe
Listen.
:
A songe yet ulle ou singe of Alloff the god kynge,
Kynge he was by weste the whiles hit y leste;
And Godylt his gode quene, no feyrore myhte bene,
Ant huere sone hihte Horne, feyrore childe ne myhte be borne:
For reyne ne myhte by ryne ne sonne myhte shine
Feyror childe than he was, bryht so ever eny glas,
So whyte so eny lilye floure, so rose red was his colour;
He was feyre ant eke bold, and of fyfteene wynter old,
This non his yliche in none kinges ryche.
Tueye feren
Companions.
he hadde, that he with him ladde,
Al rychemenne sonne, and al suyth feyre gromes,
Weth hem forte pley anuste
Alike.
he loved tueye,
That on was hoten Achulph child, and that other Ffykenild,
Aculph was the best, and Ffykenyld the werste,
Yt was upon a somersday also, as ich one telle may,
Allof the gode kynge rode upon his pleying,
Bi the se side, there he was woned to ride;
With him ne ryde bot tuo, at to felde hue were tho:
He fond bi the stronde, aryved on is lond,
Shipes systene of Sarazins kene:
He asked what hue sohten other on his lond brohten.
But I hasten to that part of the story where prince Horne appears at the court of the king of Westnesse.
The kyng com into hall, among his knyghtes alle,
Forth he cleped Athelbrus, his stewarde, him seyde thus:
"Steward tal thou here my fundling for to lere,
"Of some mystere of woode and of ryvere
So Robert de Brunne of king Marian. Hearne's Rob. Gloc. p. 622.
—Marian faire in chere
He couthe of wod and ryvere
In alle maner of venrie, &c.
,
"And toggen othe harpe with is nayles sharpe
In another part of the poem he is introduced playing on his harp.
Horne sett hi abenche, his harpe he gan clenche,
He made Rymenild a lay ant he seide weilaway, &c.
In the chamber of a bishop of Winchester at Merdon castle, now ruined, we find mention made of benches only. Comp. MS. J. Gerveys, Episcop. Winton, 1266.
"Iidem red. comp. de ii. mensis in aula ad m
gnum descum. Et de iii. mensis, ex una parte, et ii. mensis ex altera parte c
m tressellis in aula. Et de i. mensa cum tressellis in camera dom. episcopi. Etv.
ormis
in eadem camera."
Descus,
in old English
dees,
is properly a canopy over the high table. See a curious account of the goods in the palace of the bishop of Nivernois in France, in the year 1287, in Montf. Cat. MSS. ii. p. 984. col. 2.
,
"And teche at the listes that thou ever wistes,
"Byfore me to kerven, and of my course to serven
According to the rules of chivalry, every knight before his creation passed through two offices. He was first a page: and at fourteen years of age he was formally admitted an esquire. The esquires were divided into several departments; that of the body, of the chamber, of the stable, and the carving esquire. The latter stood in the hall at dinner, where he carved the different dishes with proper skill and address, and directed the distribution of them among the guests. The inferior offices had also their respective esquires. Mem. anc. Cheval. i
16. seq.
,
"Ant his feren devyse without other surmise;
"Horne-childe, thou understond, teche hym of harpe and songe."
Athelbrus gon leren Horne and hyse feren;
Horne mid herte laghte al that mon hym taghte,
Within court and withoute, and overall aboute,
Lovede men Horne-child, and most him loved Ymenild
The kinges owne dothter, for he was in hire thohte,
Hire loved him in hire mod, for he was faire and eke gode,
And that tyne ne dorste at worde and myd hem spek ner a worde,
Ne in the halle, amonge the knyhtes alle,
Hyre sorewe and hire payne nolde never fayne,
Bi daye ne bi nyhte for here speke ne myhte,
With Horne that was so feir and fre, tho hue ne myhte with him be;
In herte hue had care and wo, and thus hire bihote hire tho:
Hue sende hyre sonde Athelbrus to honde,
That he come here to, and also childe Horne do,
In to hire boure, for hue bigon to loure,
And the sond
Messenger.
sayde, that seek was the mayde,
And bed hym quyke for hue nis non blyke.
The stewarde was in huerte wo, for he wist whit he shulde do
That Rymenyld bysohte gret wonder him thohte;
About Horne he yinge to boure forte bringe,
He thohte en his mode hit nes for none gode;
He toke with him another, Athulph Horne's brother
Companion, friend.
,
"Athulph, quoth he, ryht anon thou shalt with me to boure gon,
"To speke with Rymenyld stille, and to wyte hire wille,
"Thou art Horne's yliche, thou shalt hire by suyke,
"Sore me adrede that hire wil Horne mys rede."
Athelbrus and Athulf tho to hire boure both ygo,
Upon Athulf childe Rymenilde con wox wilde,
Hue wende Horne it were, that hue hadde there;
Hue setten adown stille, and seyden hire wille,
In her armes tweye Athulf she con leye,
"Horne, quoth heo, wellong I have lovede thee strong,
"Thou shalt thy truth plyht in myne honde with ryht,
"Me to spouse welde and iche the loverde to helde."
"So stille so hit were, Achulf seide in her ere,
"Ne tel thou no more speche may y the byseche
"Thi tale—thou linne, for Horne his nout his ynne, &c."
At length the princess finds she has been deceived, the steward is severely reprimanded, and prince Horne is brought to her chamber; when, says the poet,
Of is fayre syhte al that boure gan lyhte
MSS. ibid. f. 83. Where the title is written,
"þ geste of kynge Horne."
There is a copy, much altered and modernised, in the Advocates library at Edinburgh, W. 4. i. Numb. xxxiv. The title
Horn-childe and Maiden Rinivel.
The begining,
Mi leve frende dere,
Herken and ye shall here.
.
It is the force of the story in these pieces that chiefly engages our attention. The minstrels had no idea of conducting and describing a delicate situation. The general manners were gross, and the arts of writing unknown. Yet this simplicity sometimes pleases more than the most artificial touches. In the mean time, the pictures of antient manners presented by these early writers, strongly interest the imagination: especially as having the same uncommon merit with the pictures of manners in Homer, that of being founded in truth and reality, and actually painted from the life. To talk of the grossness and absurdity of such manners is little to the purpose; the poet is only concerned in the justness and faithfulness of the representation.
SECT. II.
HITHERTO we have been engaged in examining the state of our poetry from the conquest to the year 1200, or rather afterwards. It will appear to have made no very rapid improvement from that period. Yet as we proceed, we shall find the language losing much of its antient barbarism and obscurity, and approaching more nearly to the dialect of modern times.
In the latter end of the reign of Henry the third, a poem occurs, the date of which may be determined with some degree of certainty. It is a satirical song, or ballad, written by one of the adherents of Simon de Montfort earl of Leicester, a powerful baron, soon after the battle of Lewes, which was fought in the year 1264, and proved very fatal to the interests of the king. In this decisive action, Richard king of the Romans, his brother Henry the third, and prince Edward, with many others of the royal party, were taken prisoners.
I.
Sitteth alle stille, ant herkeneth to me:
The kynge of Alemaigne
The king of the Romans.
, bi mi leaute
Loyalty.
,
Thritti thousent pound askede he
For te make the pees
Peace.
in the countre
The barons made this offer of thirty thousand pounds to Richard.
,
And so so he dude more.
Richard, thah
Though.
thou be ever tricchard
Treacherous.
,
Tricthen shall thou never more.
II.
Richard of Alemaigne, whil that he was kying,
He spende al is tresour opon swyvyng,
Haveth he nout of Walingford oferlyng
Overlyng.
i. e. superiour. But perhaps the word is o
terlyng, for
esterlyng,
a French piece of money. Wallingford was one of the honours conferred on Richard, at his marriage with Sanchia daughter of the count of Provence.
,
Let him habbe, ase he brew, bale to dryng
"Let him have, as he brews, poison to drink."
,
Maugre Wyndesore
Windsor-castle was one of the king's chief fortresses.
.
Richard, thah thou, &c,
III.
The kyng of Alemaigne wende do ful wel
"Thought to do full well."
,
He saisede the mulne for a castel
Some old chronicles relate, that at the battle of Lewes Richard was taken in a windmill. Hearne MSS. Coll. vol. 106. p. 82. Robert of Gloucester mentions the same circumstance, edit. Hearne, p. 547.
The king of Alemaigne was in a windmulle inome.
Richard and prince Edward took shelter in the Grey-friars at Lewes, but were afterwards imprisoned in the castle of Wallingford. See Hearne's Langtoft, Glo
. p. 616. And Rob. Glouc. p. 548. Robert de Brunne, a poet of whom I shall speak at large in his proper place, translates the onset of this battle with some spirit, edit. Hearne, p. 217.
Symon com to the felde, and put up his banere,
The king schewed forth his schelde, his dragon ful austere:
The kyng saide on hie,
Simon ieo vous defie,
&c.
,
With hare
Their.
sharpe
werdes he grounde the stel,
He wende that the sayles were mangonel
Battering-rams.
To help Wyndesore.
Richard, thah thou, &c.
IV.
The kyng of Alemaigne gederede
Gathered.
ys ost,
Makede hym a castel of a mulne post
Mill-post.
,
Wende with is prude
Pride.
, ant is muckele bost,
Brohte from Almayne mony sori gost
He brought with him many foreigners, when he returned to England, from taking possession of his dignity of king of the Romans. This gave great offence to the barons. It is here insinuated, that he intended to garrison Windsor-castle with these
oreigners. The barons obliged him to dismiss most of them soon after he landed in England.
To store Wyndesore.
Richard, thah thou, &c.
V.
By god that is aboven ous he dude muche synne,
That let passen over see the erl of Warynne
The earl of Warren and Surry, and Hugh le Bigot the king's justiciary, mentioned in the seventh stanza, had fled into France.
:
He hath robbed Engelond, the mores, ant the fenne,
The gold, ant the selver, and y-boren henne,
For love of Wyndesore.
Richard, thah thou, &c.
VI.
Syre Simonde de Mountfort hath suore bi ys chyn,
Hevede
Had.
he nou here the erle of Waryn,
Shuld he never more come to is yn
Habitation, home.
,
Ne with shelde, ne with spere, ne with other gyn
Engine, Weapon.
,
To help of Wyndesore:
Richard, thah thou, &c.
VII.
Syre Simond de Montfort hath swore bi ys fot,
Hevede he nou here Sire Hue of de Bigot,
Al he shulde grante hen twelfemonth scot
Year's tax. I had transcribed this ballad from the British Museum, and written these few cursory explanations, before I knew that it was printed in the second
dition of doctor Percy's Ballads, ii. 1. See MSS. Harl. ut supr. f. 58. b.
Shulde he never more with his sot pot,
To help Wyndesore.
Richard thah thou, &c
These popular rhymes had probably no small influence in encouraging Leicester's partisans, and diffusing his fction. There is some humour in imagining that Richard supposed the windmill to which he retreated, to be a fortification; and that he believed the sails of it to be military engines. In the manuscript from which this specimen is transcribed, immediately follows a song in French, seemingly written by the same poet, on the battle of Evesham fought the following year; in which Leicester was killed, and his rebellious barons defeated
f. 59. It begins,
Chaunter mestoit | mon ever le voit | en un duré langage,
Tut en pluraunt | fust fet le chaunt | de noitre duz Baronage, &c.
. Our poet looks upon his hero as a martyr: and particularly laments the loss of Henry his son, and Hugh le Despenser justici
ry of England. He concludes with an English stanza, much in the style and spirit of those just quoted.
A learned and ingenious writer, in a work which places the study of the law in a new light, and proves it to be an entertaining history of manners, has observed, that this ballad on Richard of Alemaigne probably occasioned a statute against libels in the year 1275, under the title,
"Against slanderous reports, or tales to cause discord betwixt king and people
OBSERVATIONS UPON THE STATUTES, CHIEFLY THE MORE ANCIENT, &c. edit. 1766. p. 71.
."
That this spirit was growing to an extravagance which deserved to be checked, we shall have occasion to bring further proofs.
I must not pass over the reign of Henry the third, who died in the year 1272, without observing, that this monarch entertained in his court a poet with a certain salary, whose name was Henry de Avranches
See Carew's Surv. Cornw. p. 58. edit. 1602.
. And although this poet was a Frenchman, and most probably wrote in French, yet this first instance of an officer who was afterwards, yet with sufficient impropriety, denominated a
poet laureate
in the English court, deservedly claims particular notice in the course of these annals. He is called
Master Henry the Versifier
Henry of Huntingdon says, that Walo
Versificator
wrote a panegyric on Henry the first. And that the same Walo
Versificator
wrote a poem on the park which that king made at Woodstock. Apud Leland's Collectan. vol. ii. 303. i. 197. edit. 1770. Perhaps he was in the department of Henry mentioned in the text. One Gualo, a Latin poet, who flourished about this time, is mentioned by Bale, iii. 5. and Pitts, p. 233. He is commended in the POLICRATICON. A copy of his Latin hexametrical satire on the monks is printed by Mathias Flacius, among miscellaneous Latin poems
De corrupto Ecclesiae statu,
p. 489. Basil. 1557. oct.
: which appellation perhaps implies a different character from the royal
Minstrel
or
Joculator.
The king's treasurers are ordered to pay this
Master Henry
one hundred shillings, which I suppose to have been a year's stipend, in the year 1251
"Magistro Henrico Versificatori."
See Madox, Hist. Excheq. p. 268.
. And again the same precept occurs under the year 1249
Ibid. p. 674. In MSS. Digb. Bibl. Bodl. I find, in John of Hoveden's
Salutationes quinquaginta Mariae,
"Mag. Henricus, VERSIFICATOR MAGNUS, de B. Virgine, &c."
. Our master Henry, it seems, had in some of his verses reflected on the rusticity of the Cornish men. This insult was resented in a Latin satire now remaining, written by Michael Blaunpayne, a native of Cornwall, and recited by the author in the presence of Hugh abbot of Westminster, Hugh de Mortimer o
icial of the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop elect of Winchester, and the bishop of Rochester
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Arch. Bodl. 29. in pergam. 4to. viz.
"Versus magistri Michaelis Cornubi
nsis contra Mag. Henricum Abricensem coram dom. Hugone abba
e Westmon. et aliis."
fol. 81. b.
Pri
.
"ARCHIPOETA vide quod non sit cura tibi de."
See also fol. 83. b. Again, fol. 85.
Pendo po
ta prius
e diximus ARCHIPOETAM,
Quam pro postico nunc dicimus esse poetam,
Imo poeticulum, &c.
Archipoeta
means here the
king's chief poet.
In another place our Cornish satirist thus attacks master Henry's person.
Est tibi gamba capri, crus passeris, et latus apri;
Os leporis, catuli nasus, dens et gena muli:
Frons vetulae, tauri caput, et color undique mauri.
In a blank page of the Bodleian manuscript, from which these extracts are made, is written,
"Iste liber constat ffratri Johanni de Wallis monacho Rameseye."
The name is elegantly enriched, with a device. This manuscript contains, among other things, Planctus de Excidio Trojae, by Hugo Prior de Montacuto, in rhyming hexameters and pentameters, viz. fol. 89. Camden cites other Latin verses of Michael Blaunpain, whom he calls
"Merry Michael the Cornish poet."
Rem. p. 10. See also p. 489. edit. 1674. He wrote many other Latin pieces, both in prose and verse.
. While we are speaking of the
Versifier
of Henry the third, it will not be foreign to add, that in the thirty-sixth year of the same king, forty shillings and one pipe of wine were given to Richard the king's harper, and one pipe of wine to Beatrice his wife
Rot. Pip. an. 36. Henr. iii.
"Et in uno dolio vini empto et dato magistro Ricardo Citharistae regis, xl. sol. per Br. Reg. Et in uno dolio empto et dato Beatrici uxori ejusdem Ricardi."
. But why this gratuity of a pipe of wine should also be made to the wife, as well as to the husband, who from his profession was a genial character, appears problematical according to our present ideas.
The first poet whose name occurs in the reign of Edward the first, and indeed in these annals, is Robert of Glocester, a monk of the abbey of Glocester. He has left a poem o
considerable length, which is a history of England in verse, from Brutus to the reign of Edward the first. It was evidently written after the year 1278, as the poet mentions king Arthur's sumptuous tomb, erected in that year before the high altar of Glastenbury church
Pag. 224. edit. Hearne. Oxon. 1724.
: and he declares himself a living witness of the rema
kably dismal weather which distinguished the day on which the battle of Evesham abovementioned was fought, in the year 1265
Pag. 560.
. From these and other circumstances this piece appears to have been composed about the year 1280. It is exhibited in the manuscripts, is cited by many antiquaries, and printed by Hearne, in the Alexandrine measure: but with equal probability might have been written in four-lined stanzas. This rhyming chronicle is totally destitute of art or imagination. The author has cloathed the fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth in rhyme, which have often a more poetical air in Geoffrey's prose. The language is not much more easy or intelligible than that of many of the Norman Saxon poems quoted in the preceding section: it is full of Saxonisms, which indeed abound, more or less, in every writer before Gower and Chaucer. But this obscurity is perhaps owing to the western dialect, in which our monk of Glocester was educated. Provincial barbarisms are naturally the growth of extreme counties, and of such as are situated at a distance from the metropolis: and it is probable, that the Saxon heptarchy, which consisted of a cluster of seven independent states, contributed to produce as many different provincial dialects. In the mean time it is to be considered, that writers of all ages and languages have their affectations and singularities, which occasion in each a peculiar phraseology.
Robert of Gloucester thus describes the sports and solemnities which followed king Arthur's coronation.
The kyng was to ys paleys, tho the servyse was y do
"When the service in the church was finished."
,
Ylad wyth his menye, and the quene to hire also.
Vor hii hulde the olde usages, that men wyth men were
By them sulve, and wymmen by hem sulve also there
"They kept the antient custom at festivals, of placing the men and women separate. Kay, king of Anjou, brought a thousand noble knights cloathed in ermine of one suit, or
secta.
"
.
Tho hii were echone ysett, as yt to her stat bycom,
Kay, king of Aungeo, a thousand knytes nome
Of noble men, yclothed in ermyne echone
Of on sywete, and servede at thys noble fest anon.
Bedwer the botyler, kyng of Normandye,
Nom also in ys half a vayr companye
Of one sywyte
"Brought also, on his part, a fair company cloathed uniformly."
worto servy of the botelerye.
Byvore the quene yt was also of al suche cortesye,
Vorto telle al the noblye thet ther was ydo,
They my tonge were of stel, me ssolde noght dure therto.
Wymmen ne kepte of no kyngt as in druery
Modesty, decorum.
,
Bote he were in armys wel yproved, and atte leste thrye
Thrice.
.
That made, lo, the wymmen the chastore lyf lede,
And the kyngtes the stalwordore
More brave.
, and the betere in her dede.
Sone after thys noble mete
"Soon after this noble feast, which was proper at such an occasion, the knights accoutred themselves."
, as ryght was of such tyde,
The kynghts atyled hem aboute in eche syde,
In feldys and in medys to prove her bachelerye
Chivalry, courage, or youth.
.
Somme wyth lance, some wyth suerd, wythoute vylenye,
Wyth pleyinge at tables, other atte chekere
Chess. It is remarkable, that among the nine exercises, or accomplishments, mentioned by Kolson, an antient northern chief, one is Playing at chess. Bartholin. ii. c. 8. p. 420. This game was familiarised to the Europeans after the crusades. The romances which followed those expeditions are full of it. Kolson, above-mentioned, had made a pilgrimage into the holy land. But from the principles advanced in the first INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION, this game might have been known in the North before. In the mean time, it is probable that the Saracens introduced it into Spain before the crusades. It is mentioned by G. of Monmouth, and in the Alexiad of Anna Commena. See Mem. Acad. Lit. v. 232.
,
Wyth castynge, other wyth ssettinge
Different ways of playing at chess.
"The ladies stood on the walks made within the battlements of the castle."
, other in some ogyrt manere.
And wuch so of eny game adde the maystrye,
The kyng hem of ys gyfteth dyde large cortysye.
Upe the alurs of the castles the laydes thanne stode,
And byhulde thys noble game, and wyche kyngts were god.
All the thre hexte dawes
"All the three high, or chief days. In hills and fields, of feasting, and turneying, &c."
ylaste thys nobleye
In halles and in veldes, of mete and eke of pleye.
Thys men com the verthe
Fourth.
day byvore the kynge there,
And he gef hem large gyftys, evere as hii werthe were.
Bisshopryches and cherches clerkes he gef somme,
And castles and townes kyngtes that were ycome
Pag. 191. 192.
.
Many of these lines are literally translated from Geoffry of Monmouth. In king Arthur's battle with the giant at Barbesfleet, there are no marks of Gothic painting. But there is an effort at poetry in the description of the giant's fall.
Tho grislych yal the ssrewe tho, that grislych was his bere,
He vel doung as a gret ok, that bynethe ycorve were,
That it thogte that al hul myd the vallynge ssok
Pag. 208.
.
That is,
"This cruel giant yelled so horribly, and so vehement was his fall, that he fell down like an oak cut through at the bottom, and all the hill shook while he fell."
But this stroke is copied from Geoffry of Monmouth; who tells the same miraculous story, and in all the pomp with which it was perhaps dressed up by his favourite fablers.
"Exclamavit vero invisus ille; et velut quercus ventorum viribus eradicata, cum maximo sonitu corruit."
It is difficult to determine which is most blameable, the poetical historian, or the prosaic poet.
It was a tradition invented by the old fablers, that giants brought the stones of Stonehenge from the most sequestered deserts of Africa, and placed them in Ireland; that every stone was washed with juices of herbs, and contained a medical power; and that Merlin the magician, at the request of king Arthur, transported them from Ireland, and erected them in circles on the plain of Amesbury, as a sepulchral monument for the Britons treacherously slain by Hengist. This fable is thus delivered, without decoration, by Robert of Glocester.
"Sire kyng, quoth Merlin tho, suche thynges y wis
"Ne bethe for to schewe nogt, but wen gret nede ys,
"For gef iche seid in bismare, other bute it ned were,
"Sone from me he wold wende the gost, that doth me lere
If I should say any thing out of wantoness or vanity, the spirit, or demon, which teaches me, would immediately leave me.
"Nam si ea in derisionem, sive vanitatem, proferrem, taceret Spiritus qui me docet, et, cum opus superveniret, rec
deret."
Galfrid. Mon. viii. 10.
:
The kyng, tho non other nas, bod hym som quoyntise
Bithinke about thilk cors that so noble were and wyse
"Bade him use his cunning, for the sake of the bodies of those noble and wise Britons."
.
"Sire kyng, quoth Merlin tho, gef thou wolt here caste
"In the honour of men, a worke that ever schal ylaste
"If you would build, to their honour, a lasting monument."
,
"To the hul of Kylar
"To the hill of Kildare."
send in to Yrlond,
"Aftur the noble stones that ther habbet
Have.
lenge ystonde;
"That was the treche of giandes
"The dance of giants."
The name of this wonderful assembly of immense stones.
, for a quoynte work ther ys
"Of stones al wyth art ymad, in the world such non ys.
"Ne ther nys nothing that me scholde myd strengthe adoune cast.
"Stode heo here, as heo doth there ever a wolde last
"Grandes sunt lapides, nec est aliquis cujus virtuti cedant. Quod si eo modo, quo ibi positi sunt, circa plateam locabuntur, stabunt in aeternum."
Galfrid. Mon. viii. x. 11.
."
The kyng somdele to lyghe
"Somewhat laughed."
, tho he herde this tale,
"How mygte, he seyde, suche stones so grete and so fale
"So great and so many."
,
"Be ybrogt of so fer lond? And get mist of were,
"Me wolde wene, that in this londe no ston to wonke nere,"
"Syre kyng, quoth Merlyn, ne make noght an ydel such lyghyng.
"For yt nys an ydel noght that ich tell this tythyng
Tyding.
.
"For in the farreste stude of Affric giands while fette
"Giants once brought them from the farthest part of Africa, &c."
"Thike stones for medycyne and in Yrlond hem sette,
"While heo wonenden in Yrlond to make here bathes there,
"Ther undir forto bathi wen thei syk were.
"For heo wuld the stones wasch and ther enne bathe ywis.
"For ys no ston ther among that of gret vertu nys
"Lavabant namque lapides et infra balnea diffundebant, unde aegroti curabantur. Miscebant etiam cum herbarum con
ectionibus, unde vuln
rati sanabantur. Non est ibi lapis qui medica mento careat."
Galfrid. Mon. ibid.
."
The kyng and ys conseil radde
Rode.
the stones forto fette,
And with gret power of batail gef any more hem lette
Uter the kynges brother, that Ambrose hett also,
In another name ychose was therto,
And fifteene thousant men this dede for to do
And Merlyn for his quointise thider went also
Pag. 145. 146. 147. That Stonehenge is a British monument, erected in memory of Hengist's ma
acre, rests, I believe, on the sole evidence of Geoffry of Monmouth, who had it from the British bards. But why should not the testimony of the British bards be allowed on this occasion? For they did not invent facts, so much as fables. In the present case, Hengist's massacre in an allowed event. Remove all the apparent
iction, and the bards only say, that an immense pile of stones was raised on the plain of Ambresbury in memory of that event. They lived too near the time to forge this origin of Stonehenge. The whole story was recent, and from the immensity of the work itself, must have been still more notorious. Therefore their forgery would have been too glaring. It may be objected, that they were fond of referring every thing stupendous to their favourite hero Arthur. This I grant: but not when known authenticated facts stood in their way, and while the real cause was remembered. Even to this day, the massacre of Hengist, as I have partly hinted, is an undisputed piece of history. Why should not the other part of the story be equally true? Besides the silence of Nennius, I am aware, that this hypothesis is still attended with many difficulties and improbabilities. And so are all the systems and conjectures ever yet framed about this amazing monument. It appears to me, to be the work of a rude people who had some ideas of art: such as we may suppose the Romans left behind them among the Britons. In the mean time I do not remember, that in the very controverted etymology of the word
Stone
enge
the name of HENGIST has been properly or sufficiently considered.
.
If any thing engages our attention in this passage, it is the wildness of the fiction; in which however the poet had no share.
I will here add Arthur's intrigue with Ygerne.
At the fest of Estre tho kyng sende ys sonde,
That heo comen alle to London the hey men of this londe,
And the levedys al so god, to ys noble fest wyde,
For he schulde crowne here, for the hye tyde.
Alle the noble men of this lond to the noble fest come,
And heore wyves and heore dogtren with hem mony nome,
This fest was noble ynow, and nobliche y do;
For mony was the faire ledy, that y come was therto.
Ygerne, Gorloys wyf, was fairest of echon,
That was contasse of Cornewail, for so fair nas ther non.
The kyng by huld hire faste y now, and ys herte on hire caste,
And thogte, thay heo were wyf, to do folye atte last.
He made hire semblant fair y now, to non other so gret.
The erl nas not ther with y payed, tho he yt under get.
Aftur mete he nom ys wyfe myd stordy med y now,
And, with oute leve of the kyng, to ys contrei drow.
The kyng sende to hym tho, to by leve al nygt,
For he moste of gret consel habbe som insygt.
That was for nogt. Wolde he nogt the kyng sende get ys sonde.
That he by levede at ys parlemente, for nede of the londe.
The kyng was, tho he nolde nogt, anguyssous and wroth.
For despyte he wolde a wreke be he swor ys oth,
Bute he come to amendement. Ys power atte laste
He garkede, and wende forth to Cornewail faste.
Gorloys ys casteles a store al a boute.
In a strong castel he dude ys wyf, for of hire was al ys doute.
In another hym self he was, for he nolde nogt,
Gef cas come, that heo were bothe to dethe y brogt.
The castel, that the erl inne was, the kyng by segede faste,
For he mygte ys gynnes for schame to the oter caste.
Tho he was ther sene nygt, and he spedde nogt,
Igerne the contesse so muche was in ys thogt,
That he nuste nen other wyt, ne he ne mygte for schame
Telle yt bute a pryve knygt, Ulfyn was ys name,
That he truste mest to. And tho the knygt herde this,
"Syre, he seide, y ne can wyte, wat red here of ys,
"For the castel ys so strong, that the lady ys inne,
"For ich wene al the lond ne schulde yt myd strengthe wynne.
"For the se geth al aboute, but entre on ther nys,
"And that ys up on harde rockes, and so narw wei it ys,
"That ther may go bote on and on, that thre men with inne
"Mygte sle al the londe, er heo com ther inne.
"And nogt for than, gef Merlyn at thi conseil were,
"Gef any mygte, he couthe the best red the lere."
Merlyn was sone of send, pleid yt was hym sone,
That he schulde the beste red segge, wat were to done.
Merlyn was sory ynow for the kynge's folye,
And natheles, "Sire kyng, he seide, there mot to maistrie,
"The erl hath twey men hym nert, Brygthoel and Jordan.
"Ich wol make thi self gef thou wolt, thoru art that y can,
"Habbe al tho fourme of the erl, as thou were rygt he,
"And Olfyn as Jordan, and as Brithoel me."
This art was al clene y do, that al changet he were,
Heo thre in the otheres forme, the selve at yt were.
Ageyn even he wende forth, nuste nomon that cas,
To the castel heo come rygt as yt evene was.
The porter y se ys lord come, and ys moste privey twei,
With god herte he lette ys lord yn, and ys men beye.
The contas was glad y now, tho hire lord to hire com
And eyther other in here armes myd gret joye nom.
Tho heo to bedde com, that so longe a two were,
With hem was so gret delyt, that bitwene hem there
Bi gete was the beste body, that ever was in this londe,
Kyng Arthure the noble mon, that ever worthe understonde.
Tho the kynge's men nuste amorwe, wer he was bi come,
Heo ferde as wodemen, and wende he were ynome.
Heo a saileden the castel, as yt schulde a doun anon,
Heo that with inne were, garkede hem echon,
And smyte out in a fole wille, and fogte myd here fon:
So that the erl was y slave, and of ys men mony on,
And the castel was y nome, and the folk to sprad there,
Get, tho thei hadde al ydo, heo ne fonde not the kyng there.
The tything to the contas sone was y come,
That hi
e lord was y slawe, and the castel y nome.
Ac tho the messinger hym sey the erl, as hym thogte,
That he hadde so foule plow, ful sore hym of thogte,
The contasse made som del deol, for no sothnesse heo nuste.
The kyng, for to glade here, bi clupte hire and cust.
"Dame, he seide, no sixt thou wel, that les yt ys al this:
"Ne wost thou wel ich am olyue. Ich wole the segge how it ys.
"Out of the castel stille
iche ych wende al in privete,
"That none of myne men yt nuste, for to speke with the.
"And tho heo miste me to day, and nuste wer ich was,
"Heo ferden rigt as gydie men, myd wam no red nas,
"And fogte with the folk with oute, and habbeth in this manere
"Y lore th
castel and hem s
lue, ac wel thou wost y am here.
"Ac for my castel, that is ylore, sory ich am y now,
"And for myn men, that the kyng and ys power slog.
"Ac my power is now to lute, ther fore y drede sore,
"Leste the kyng us nyme here, and sorwe that we were more.
"Ther fore ich wole, how so yt be, wende agen the kynge,
"And make my pays with hym, ar he us to schame brynge."
Forth he wende, and het ys men that gef the kyng come,
That hei schulde hym the castel gelde, ar he with strengthe it nome.
So he come to
ard ys men, ys own forme he nom,
And levede the erle's fourme, and the kyng Uter by com.
Sore hym of thogte the erle's deth, ac in other half he fonde
Joye in hys herte, for the contasse of spoushed was unbonde,
Tho he hadde that he wolde, and paysed with ys son,
To the contasse he wende agen, me let hym in a non.
Wat halt it to talle longe: bute heo were seth at on,
In gret loue longe y now, wan yt nolde other gon;
And hadde to gedere this noble sone, that in the world ys pere nas,
The kyng Arture, and a dogter, Anne hire name was
Chron. p. 156.
.
In the latter end of the reign of Edward the first, many officers of the French king having extorted large sums of money from the citizens of Bruges in Flanders, were murthered: and an engagement succeeding, the French army, commanded by the count du Saint Pol, was defeated; upon which the king of France, who was Philip the Fair, sent a strong body of troops, under the conduct of the count de Artois, against the Flemings: he was killed, and the French were almost all cut to pieces. On this occasion the following ballad was made in the year 1301
The last battle was fought that year, Jul. 7.
.
Lusteneth, lordinges, bothe ȝonge and olde,
Of the Freynshe men that were so proude ante bolde,
How the Flemmyshe men bohten hem ante solde,
Upon a Wednesday,
Betere hem were at home in huere londe,
Than force seche Flemishe bi the sea stronde
Whare rouch moni Frensh wyf wryngeth hire honde,
And syngeth welaway.
The kynge of Ffrance made statutes newe,
In the londe of Flaundres among false ant trewe,
That the communs of Bruges ful sore can arewe,
And seiden among hem,
Gedere we us to gedere hardilyche at ene,
Take we the bailifs by twenty and bi tene,
Clappe we of the hevedes an oven o the grene,
Ant cast we in the fen.
The webbes ant the fullaris assembled hem alle,
And makeden huere counsail in huere commune halle,
Token Peter conyng huere kynge to call
Ant be huere cheveteyne, &c
MSS. Harl. 2253. f. 73. b.
.
These verses shew the familiarity with which the affairs of France were known in England, and display the disposition of the English towards the French, at this period. It It appears from this and previous instances, that political ballads, I mean such as were the vehicles of political satire, prevailed much among our early ancestors. About the present era, we meet with a ballad complaining of the exhorbitant fees extorted, and the numerous taxes levied, by the king's officers
Ibid. f. 64. There is a song half Latin and half French, much on the same subject. Ibid. f. 137. b.
. There is a libel remaining, written indeed in French Alexandrines, on the commission of trayl-baston
See Spelman and Dufresne in Voc. And Rob. Brunne's Chron. ed. Hearne, p. 328.
, or the justices so denominated by Edward the first, during his absence in the French and Scotch wars, about the year 1306. The author names some of the justices or commissioners, now not easily discoverable: and says, that he served the king both in peace and war in Flanders, Gascony, and Scotland
MSS. Harl. ibid. f. 113. b.
. There is likewise a ballad against the Scots, traitors to Edward the first, and taken prisoners at the battles of Dunbar and Kykenclef, in 1305, and 1306
Ibid. f. 59.
. The licentiousness of their rude manners was perpetually breaking out in these popular pasquins, although this species of petulance usually belongs to more polished times.
Nor were they less dexterous than daring in publishing their satires to advantage, although they did not enjoy the many conveniencies which modern improvements have afforded for the circulation of public abuse. In the reign of Henry the sixth, to pursue the topic a little lower, we find a ballad of this species stuck on the gates of the royal palace, severely reflecting on the king and his counsellors then sitting in parliament. This piece is preserved in the Ashmolean museum, with the following Latin title prefixed.
"Copia scedul
e valvis domini regis existentis in parliamento suo tento apud Westmonasterium mense marcii anno regni Henrici sexti vicesimo octavo."
But the antient ballad was often applied to better purposes: and it appears from a valuable collection of these little pieces, lately published by my ingenious friend and fellow-labourer doctor Percy, in how much more ingenuous a strain they have transmitted to posterity the praises of knightly heroism, the marvels of romantic fiction, and the complaints of love.
At the close of the reign of Edward the first, and in the year 1303, a poet occurs named Robert Mannyng, but more commonly called Robert de Brunne. He was a Gilbertine monk in the monastery of Brunne, or Bourne, near Depyng in Lincolnshire: but he had been before professed in the priory of Sixhille, a house of the same order, and in the same county. He was merely a translator. He translated into English metre, or rather paraphrased, a French book, written by Grosthead bishop of Lincoln, entitled, MANUEL PECHE, or MANUEL de PECHE, that is, the MANUAL OF SINS. This translation was never printed
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. N. 415. membr. fol. Cont. 80. pag. Pr.
"Fadyr and sone and holy goste."
And MSS. Harl. 1701.
. It is a long work, and treats of the decalogue, and the seven deadly sins, which are illustrated with many legendary stories. This is the title of the translator.
"Here bygynneth the boke that men clepyn in Frenshe MANUEL PECHE, the which boke made yn Frenshe Robert Groosteste byshop of Lyncoln."
From the Prologue, among other circumstances, it appears that Robert de Brunne designed this performance to be sung to the harp at public entertainments, and that it was written or begun in the year 1303
Fol. 1. a.
.
For lewed
Laymen, illiterate.
men I undyrtoke,
In Englyshe tonge to make this boke:
For many beyn of suche manere
That talys and rymys wyle blethly
x Gladly.
here,
In gamys and festys at the ale
So in the
Vision
of P. Plowman, fol. xxvi. b. edit. 1550.
I am occupied every day, holy day and other,
With idle tales
at the Al
,
&c.
Again, fol. 1. b.
—
Foughten
at the Al
In glotony, godwote, &c.
Chaucer mentions an
Alestake,
Prol. v. 669. Perhaps, a May-pole. And in the
Plowman's Tale,
p. 185. Urr. edit. v. 2110.
And the chief chantours at the
nal
.
Love men to lestene trotonale
Truth and all.
:
To all crystyn men undir sunne,
And to gode men of Brunne;
And specialli al bi name
The felaushipe of Symprynghame
The name of his order.
,
Roberd of Brunne greteth yow,
In alle godenesse that may to prow
Profit.
.
Of Brymwake yn Kestevene
A part of Lincolnshire. Chron. Br. p. 311.
At Lincoln the parlement was in Lyndesay and Kestevene.
Lyndesay is Lincolnshire, ibid. p. 248. See a story of three monks of Lyndesay, ibid. p. 80.
Syxe myle besyde Sympryngham evene,
Y dwelled in the priorye
Fyftene yere in cumpanye,
In the tyme of gode Dane Jone
Of Camelton that now is gone;
In hys tyme was I ther ten yeres
And knewe and herde of hys maneres;
Sythyn with Dan Jon of Clyntone
Fyve wyntyr wyth hym gan I wone,
Dan Felyp was maystyr in that tyme
That I began thys Englyssh ryme,
The yeres of grace fyd
Fell.
than to be
A thousand and thre hundred and thre.
In that tyme turned y thys
In Englysh tonge out of Frankys.
From the work itself I am chiefly induced to give the following specimen; as it contains an anecdote relating to bishop Grosthead his author, who will again be mentioned, and on that account.
Y shall you tell as I have herd
Of the bysshop seynt Roberd,
Hys toname
Surname. See Rob. Br. Chron. p. 168.
"Thei cald hi this toname, &c."
Fr.
"Est surnomez, &c."
is Grosteste
Of Lyncolne, so seyth the geste.
He lovede moche to here the harpe,
For mans witte yt makyth sharpe.
Next hys chamber, besyde hys study,
Hys harper's chamber was fast the by.
Many tymes, by nightes and dayes,
He hadd solace of notes and layes,
One askede hem the resun why
He hadde delyte in mynstrelsy?
He answerde hym on thys manere
Why he helde the harpe so dere.
"The virtu of the harp, thurgh skyle and ryght,
"Wyll destrye the fendys
Fiend's. The
Devil's.
myght;
"And to the cros by gode skeyl
"Ys the harpe lykened weyl.—
"Thirefore, gode men, ye shall lere,
"When ye any gleman
Harper. Minstrel.
here,
"To worshepe god at your power,
"And Davyd in the sauter
Psalter.
.
"Yn harpe and tabour and symphan gle
Chaucer R. Sir Thop. v. 3321. Urr. edit. p. 135.
Here wonnith the queene of Fairie,
With harpe, and pipe, and
Simphoni
.
"Worship God in trumpes ant sautre:
"Yn cordes, yn organes, and bells ringyng,
"Yn all these worship the hevene kyng, &c
Fol. 30. b. There is an old Latin song in Burton's Melancholy, which I find in this MS. poem. Burton's Mel. Part iii. § 2. Memb. iii. pag. 423.
."
But Robert de Brunne's largest work is a metrical chronicle of England
The second part was printed by Hearne at Oxford, which he calls PETER LANGTOFT'S CHRONICLE, 1725. Of the First part Hearne has given us the Prologue, Pref. p. 96. An Extract, ibid. p. 188. And a few other passages in his Glossary to Robert of Gloucester. But the First Part was never printed entire. Hearne says this Chronicle was not finished till the
ear 1338. Rob. Gloucest. Pref. p. 59. It appears that our author was educated and graduated at Cambridge, from Chron. p. 337.
. The former part, from Aeneas to the death of Cadwallader, is translated from an old French poet called MAISTER WACE or GASSE, who manifestly copied Geoffry of Monmouth
In the British Museum there is a fragment of a poem in very old French verse, a romantic history of England, drawn from Geoffry of Monmouth, perhaps before the year 1200. MSS. Harl. 1605. 1. f. 1. Cod. membran. 4to. In the manuscript library of doctor N. Johnson of Pontefract, now perhaps dispersed, there was a manuscript on vellum, containing a history in old English verse from Brute to the eighteenth year of Edward the second. And in that of Basil lord Denbigh, a metrical history in English from the same period, to Henry
he third. Wanly supposed it to have been of the hand-writing of the time of Edward the fourth.
, in a poem commonly entitled ROMAN DE ROIS D'ANGLETERRE. It is esteemed one of the oldest of the French romances; and begun to be written by Eustace, sometimes called Eustache, Wistace, or Huistace, who finished his part under the title of BRUT D'ANGLETERRE, in the year 1155. Hence Robert de Brunne, somewhat inaccurately, calls it simply the BRUT
The BRUT OF ENGLAND, a prose Chronicle of England, sometimes continued as low as Henry the sixth, is a common manuscript. It was at first translated from a French Chronicle [MSS. Harl. 200. 4to.] written in the beginning of the reign of Edward the third. I think it is printed by Caxton under the title of
Fructus Temporum.
The French have a famous ancient prose romance called BRUT, which includes the history of the Sangreal. I know not whether it is exactly the same. In an old metrical romance, The story of ROLLO, there is this passage. MS. Vernon, Bibl. Bodl. f. 123.
Lordus gif ye wil lesten to me,
Of Croteye the nobile citee
As wrytten i fynde in his story
Of BRUIT the chronicle, &c.
In the British Museum we have
Le petit Bruit,
compiled by Meistre Raufe de Boun, and ending with the death of Edward the first. MSS. Harl. 902. f. 1. Cod. chart. fol. It is an abridgement of the grand BRUT. In the same library I find
Liber de
BRUTO
et de gestis Anglorum metrificatus.
That is, turned into rude Latin hexameters. It is continued to the death of Richard the second. Many prose annotations are intermixed. MSS. ibid. 1808. 24. f. 31. Cod. membran. 4to. In another copy of this piece, one Peckward is said to be the versifier. MSS. i
. 2386. 23. f. 35. In another manuscript the grand BRUT is said to be translated from the French by
"John Maundeule parson of Brunham Thorpe."
MSS. ibid. 2279. 3.
. This romance was soon afterwards continued to William Rufus, by Robert Wace or Vace, Gasse or Gace, a native of Jersey, educated at Caen, canon of Bayeux, and chaplain to Henry the second, under the title of LE ROMAN LE ROU ET LES VIES DES DUCS DE NORMANDIE, yet sometimes preserving its original one, in the year 1160
See Lenglet, Biblioth. des Romans, ii. p. 226. 227. And Lacombe, Diction. de vieux Lang. Fr. pref. p. xviii. Paris. 1767. 8vo. And compare Montfauc. Catal. Manuscr. ii. p. 1669. See also M. Galland, Mem. Lit. iii. p. 426. 8vo.
. Thus both parts were blended, and became one work. Among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum it is thus entitled:
"LE BRUT,
ke maistre Wace translata de Latin en Franceis de tutt les Reis de Brittaigne
3 A. xxi. 3. It occurs again, 4 C. xi.
"Histoire d'Angleterre en vers, par Maistre Wace."
I cannot help correcting a mistake into which both Wanley and bishop Nicholson have fallen, with regard to this Wace. In the Cotton library, a Saxo-norman manuscript occurs twice, which seems to be a translation of Geoffry's History, or very like it. Calig. A. ix. And Otho. C. 13. 4to. In vellum. The translator is one Lazamon, a priest, born at Ernly on Severn. He says, that he had his original from the book of a French clergyman, named
Wa
e;
which book
Wate
the author, had presented to Eleanor, queen of Henry the second. So Lazamon in the preface.
"Bot he nom the thridde, leide ther amidden: tha makede a frenchis clerc: Wate [Wa
e] wes ihoten, &c."
Now because Geoffry of Monmouth in one of his prefaces, cap. i. b. 1. says, that he received his original from the hands of Walter Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford; both Wanly and Nicholson suppose that the
Wate
mentioned by Lazamon is
Walter
Mapes. Whereas Lazamon undoubtedly means Wace, perhaps written or called Wate, author of LE ROMAN LE ROU above-mentioned. Nor is the Saxon t [t] perfectly distinguishable from c. See Wanley's Catal. Hickes's Thesaur. ii. p. 228. And Nicholson Hist. Libr. i. 3. And compare Leland's Coll. vol. i. P. ii. p. 509. edit. 1770.
."
That is, from the Latin prose history of Geoffry of Monmouth. And that master Wace aimed only at the merit of a translator, appears from his exordial verses.
Maistre Gasse l' a translatè
Que en conte le veritè.
Otherwise we might have suspected that the authors drew their materials from the old fabulous Armoric manuscript, which is said to have been Geoffry's original.
Al
hough this romance, in its antient and early manuscripts, has constantly passed under the name of its finisher, Wace; yet the accurate Fauchett cites it by the name of its first author Eustace
Rec. p. 82. edit. 1581.
. And at the same time it is extraordinary, that Robert de Brunne, in his Prologue, should not once mention the name of Eustace, as having any concern in it: so soon was the name of the beginner superseded by that of the continuator. An ingenious French antiquary very justly supposes, that Wace took many of his descriptions from that invaluable and singular monument the
Tapestry of the Norman conquest,
preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Bayeux
Mons. Lancelot, Mem. Lit. viii. 602. 4to. And see Hist. Acad. Inscript. xiii. 41. 4to.
, and lately engraved and explained in the learned doctor Du Carell's Anglo-Norman ANTIQUITIES. Lord Lyttleton has quoted this romance, and shewn that important facts and curious illustrations of history may be drawn from such obsolete but authentic resources
Hist. Henr. II. vol. iii. p. 180.
.
The measure used by Robert de Brunne, in his translation of the former part of our French chronicle or romance, is exactly like that of his original. Thus the Prologue.
Lordynges that be now here,
If ye wille listene and lere,
All the story of Inglande,
Als Robert Mannyng wryten it fand,
And on Inglysch has it schewed,
Not for the lered but for the lewed;
For tho that on this lond wonn
That the Latin ne Frankys conn,
For to half solace and gamen
In felauschip when tha sitt samen
And it is wisdom forto wytten
The state of the land, and hef it wryten,
What manere of folk first it wan,
And of what kynde it first began.
And gude it is for many thynges,
For to here the dedis of kynges,
Whilk were foles, and whilk were wyse,
And whilk of tham couth most quantyse;
And whylk did wrong, and whilk ryght,
And whilk mayntened pes and fyght.
Of thare dedes sall be mi sawe,
In what tyme, and of what law,
I sholl yow from gre to gre,
Sen the tyme of Sir Noe:
From Noe unto Eneas,
And what betwixt tham was,
And fro Eneas till Brutus tyme,
That kynde he tells in this ryme.
For Brutus to Cadweladres,
The last Briton that this lande lees.
Alle that kynd and alle the frute
That come of Brutus that is the Brute;
And the ryght Brute is told no more
Than the Brytons tyme wore.
After the Bretons the Inglis camen,
The lordschip of this land thai namen;
South, and north, west, and east,
That call men now the Inglis gest.
When thai first among the Bretons,
That now ere Inglis than were Saxons,
Saxons Inglis hight all oliche.
Thai aryved up at Sandwyche,
In the kynges synce Vortogerne
That the lande wolde tham not werne, &c.
One mayster WACE the Frankes telles
The Brute all that the Latin spelles,
Fro Eneas to Cadwaladre, &c.
And ryght as mayster Wace says,
I telle myne Inglis the same ways, &c
Hearne's edit. Pref. p. 98.
.
The second part of Robert de Brunne's CHRONICLE, beginning from Cadwallader, and ending with Edward the first, is translated, in great measure, from the second part of a French metrical chronicle, written in five books, by Peter Langtoft, an Augustine canon of the monastery of Bridlington in Yorkshire, who wrote not many years before his translator. This is mentioned in the Prologue preceding the second part.
Frankis spech is cald romance
The Latin tongue ceased to be spoken in France about the ninth century; and was succeeded by what was called the ROMANCE tongue, a mixture of Frankish and bad Latin. Hence the first poems in that language are called ROMANS or ROMANTS. Essay on POPE, p. 281. In the following passages of this Chronicle, where Robert de Brunne mentions ROMANCE, he sometimes means Langto
t's French book, from which he translated. viz. Chron. p. 205.
This that I have said it is Pers sawe
Als he in
Romance
laid thereafter gan I drawe.
See Chauc. Rom. R. v. 2170. Also
Balades,
p. 554. v. 508. Urr. And Crescembin. Istor. della Volg. Poes. vol. i. L. v. p. 316. seq.
,
So sais clerkes and men of France.
Pers of Langtoft, a chanon
Schaven in the house of Bridlyngton
On Frankis style this storie he wrote
Of Inglis kinges, &c
Hearne's edit. Pref. p. 106.
.
As Langtoft had written his French poem in Alexandrines
Some are printed by Hollinsh. Hist. iii. 469. Others by Hearne, Chron. Langt. Pref. p. 58. And in the margin of the pages of the Chronicle.
, the translator, Robert de Brunne, has followed him, the Prologue excepted, in using the double distich for one line, after the manner of Robert of Gloucester. As in the first part he copied the metre of his author Wace. But I will exhibit a specimen from both parts. In the first, he gives us this dialogue between Merlin's mother and king Vortigern, from Master Wace.
Dame, said the kyng, welcom be thow:
Nedeli at the I mette witte how
"I must by all means know of you."
Who than gate
Begott.
thi sone Merlyn
And on what maner was he thin?
His moder stode a throwe
Awhile.
and thought
Are scho
E'er she.
to the kyng ansuerd ouht:
When scho had standen a litelle wight
White,
while.
,
Scho said, by Jhesu in Mari light,
That I ne saugh hym never ne knewe
That this knave
Child.
on me sewe
Begott.
.
Ne I wist, ne I herd,
What maner schap with me so ferd
Lay.
.
But this thing am I wole ograunt
Assured.
,
That I was of elde avenaunt
"I was then young and beautiful."
:
One com to my bed I wist,
With force he me haised
Embraced.
and kist:
Als
As.
a man I him felte,
Als a man he me welte
Wielded,
moved.
;
Als a man he spake to me.
Bot what he was, myght I not se
Apud Hearne's Gl. Rob. Glouc. p.
.
The following, extracted from the same part, is the speech of the Romans to the Britons, after the former had built a wall against the Picts, and were leaving Britain.
We haf closed ther most nede was;
And yf ye defend wele that pas
With archers
Not
Bowmen,
but apertures in the wall for shooting arrows. Viz. In the repairs of Taunton castle, 1266. Comp. J. Gerneys, Episc. Wint.
"TANTONIA.
Expense domorum.
In mercede Cementarii pro muro erigendo juxta turrim ex parte orientali cum Kernellis et Archeriis faciendis, xvi. s. vi. d."
In Archiv. Wolves. apud Wint.
Kernells
mentioned here, and in the next verse, were much the same thing: or perhaps Battlements. In repairs of the great hall at Wolvesey-palace I find,
"In kyrnillis emptis ad idem, xii. d."
Ibid.
There is a patent granted to the monks of Abingdon, in Berkshire, in the reign of Edward the third,
Pro kernellatione monasterii.
Pat. an. 4. par. 1.
and with magnels
Cotgrave has absurdly interpreted this word,
an old-fashioned s
ing.
V. MANGONEAU. It is a catapult, or battering-ram. Viz. Rot. Pip. An. 4. Hen. iii. [A. D. 1219.]
"NORDHANT. Et in expensis regis in obsidione castri de Rockingham, 100
l.
per Br. Reg. Etcustodibus ingeniorum [engines] regis ad ea carianda usque Bisham, ad castrum illud obsidendum, 13
s.
10
d.
per id. Br. Reg. Et pro duobus coriis, emptis apud Northampton ad fundas petrariarum et mangonellorum regis faciciendas, 5
s.
6
d.
per. id. Br. Reg."
—Rot. Pip. 9. Hen. iii. [A. D. 1225.]
"SURR.
Comp. de Cnareburc.
Et pro vii. cablis emptis ad petrarias et mangonellos in eodem castro, 7
s.
11
d.
"
Rot. Pip. 5. Hen. iii. [A. D. 1220.]
"DEVONS. Et in custo posito in 1. petraria et 11. mangonellis cariatis a Nottingham usque Bisham, et in eisdem reductis a Bisham usque Nottingham, 7
l.
4
s.
"
Chaucer mentions both
Mangon
ls
and
Kyrnils,
in a castle in the
Romaunt of th
Rose,
v. 4195. 6279. Also
archers,
i. e.
archeriae,
v. 4191. So in the French
R
man de la Rose,
v. 3945.
Vous puissiez bien les
Mango
aul
,
Veoir la par-dessus les
Creneaulx.
Et aux
archieres
de la Tour
Sont arbalestres tout entour.
Archieres
occur often in this poem. Chaucer, in translating the above passage, has introduced guns, which were not known when the original was written, v. 4191.
I am of opinion, that some of the great military battering engines, so frequently mentioned in the histories and other writers of the dark ages, were fetched from the crusades. See a species of the catapult, used by the Syrian army in the siege of Mecca, about the year 680. Mod. Univ. Hist. B. i. c. 2. tom. ii. p. 117. These expeditions into the east undoubtedly much improved the European art of war. Tasso's warlike machines, which seem to be the poet's invention, are formed on descriptions of such wonderful machines which he had read in the crusade historians, particularly Wilhelmus Tyrensis.
,
And kepe wele the kyrnels;
Ther may ye bothe schote and cast
Waxes bold and fend you fast.
Thinkes your faders wan franchise,
Be ye no more in other servise:
Bot frely lyf to your lyves end:
We fro you for ever wende
Gloss. Rob. Glouc. p. 664.
.
Vortigern king of the Britons, is thus described meeting the beautiful princess Rouwen, daughter of Hengist, the Rosamond of the Saxon ages, at a feast of wassaile. It is a curious picture of the gallantry of the times.
Hengest that day did his might,
That alle were glad, king and knight,
And as thei were best in glading,
And
Sending about the cups apace. Carousing briskly.
wele cop schotin knight and king,
Of chambir Rouewen so gent,
Be fore the king in halle scho went.
A coupe with wyne sche had in hand,
And hir
Attire.
hatire was wele
Very rich.
farand.
Be fore the king on kne sett,
And on hir langage scho him grett.
"Lauerid
Lord.
king, Wassaille," seid sche.
The king asked, what suld be.
On that langage the king
Was not skilled.
ne couthe.
A knight
The.
ther langage
Learned.
lerid in youthe.
Breg
Was called.
hiht that knight born Bretoun,
That lerid the langage of
Saxons.
Sessoun.
This Breg was the
For
Latiner,
or
Latinier,
an
Interpreter.
Thus, in the Romance of KING RICHARD, hereafter cited at large, Saladin's
Latimer
at the siege of Babylon proclaims a truce to the christian army from the walls of the city. Signat. M. i.
The LATEMERE tho tourned his eye
To that other syde of the toune,
And cryed trues with gret soune.
In which sense the French word occurs in the Roman de GARIN. MSS. Bibl. Reg. Paris. Num. 7542.
LATIMER fu si sot parler Roman,
Englois, Gallois, et Breton, et Norman.
And again,
Un LATINI
R vieil ferant et henu
Molt sot de plet, et molt entresnie su.
And in the manuscript Roman de ROU, which will again be mentioned.
L' archevesque Franches a Jumeges ala,
A Rou, et a sa gent par LATINIER parla.
We find it in Froissart, tom. iv. c. 87. And in other antient French writers. In the old Norman poem on the subject of king Dermod's expulsion from his kingdom of Ireland, in the Lambeth library, it seems more properly to signify, in a limited sense, the
king's domestic
SECRETARY.
Par son
demein
LATINIER
Que moi conta de luy l' histoire, &c.
See lord Lyttelton's Hist. Hen ii. vol. iv. App. p. 270. We might here render it literally his
Latinist,
an officer retained by the king to draw up the public instruments in Latin. As in DOMESDAI-BOOK.
"Godwinus accipitrarius, Hugo LATINARIUS, Milo portarius."
MS. Excerpt. penes me. But in both the last instances the word may bear its more general and extensive signification. Camden explains LATIMER by
interpreter.
Rem. p. 158. See also p. 151. edit. 1674.
latimer.
What scho said told Vortager.
"Sir, Breg seid, Rowen yow gretis,
"And king callis and lord yow
Esteems.
letis.
"This es ther custom and ther gest,
"Whan thei are atte the ale or fest.
"Ilk man that louis quare him think,
"Salle say Wosseille, and to him drink.
"He that bidis salle say, Wassaille,
"The tother salle say again, Drinkhaille.
"That sais Wosseille drinkis of the cop,
"Kissand
Kissing.
his felaw he gives it up.
"Drinkheille, he sais, and drinke ther of,
"Kissand him in bourd and
Sport, joke.
skof."
The king said, as the knight gan
To signify.
ken,
Drinkheille, smil
nd on Rouewen.
Rouwen drank as hire list,
And gave the king,
Since, afterwards.
sine him kist.
There was the first wassaille in dede,
And that first of fame
Went.
gede.
Of that wassaille men told grete tale,
And wassaille whan thei were at ale.
And drinkheille to tham that drank,
Thus was wassaille
Taken.
tane to thank.
Fele
Many times.
sithes that maidin
Young.
ying,
Wassailed and kist the king.
Of bodi sche was right
Handsome, gracefully shaped, &c.
avenant,
Of fair colour, with swete
Countenance.
semblaunt.
Hir
Attire.
hatire fulle wele it semed,
Mervelik
Marvellously.
the king sche
Pleased.
quemid.
Oute of messure was he glad,
For of that maidin he wer alle mad.
Drunkenes the feend wroght,
Of that
Pagan, heathen.
paen was al his thoght.
A meschaunche that time him led.
He asked that paen for to wed.
Hengist
Would not fly off a bit.
wild not draw a lite,
Bot graunted him alle so tite.
And Hors his brother consentid sone.
Her frendis said, it were to done.
Thei asked the king to gife hir Kent,
In douary to take of rent.
O pon that maidin his hert so cast,
That thei askid the king made fast.
I wene the king toke her that day,
And wedded hire
In pagans law. According to the heathenish custom.
on paiens lay.
Of prest was ther no
Benediction, blessing.
benison
No mes songen, no orison.
In seisine he had her that night.
Of Kent he gave Hengist the right.
The erelle that time, that Kent alle held,
Sir Goragon, that had the scheld,
Of that gift no thing
Knew not.
ne wist
To
Till.
he was cast oute
By.
with Hengist
Hearne's Gl. Rob. Glo. p. 695.
.
In the second part, copied from Peter Langtoft, the attack of Richard the first, on a castle held by the Saracens, is thus described.
The dikes were fulle wide that closed the castle about,
And depe on ilka side, with bankis hie without.
Was ther non entre that to the castelle gan ligge
Lying.
,
Bot a streiht kauce
Causey.
; at the end a drauht brigge.
With grete duble cheynes drauhen over the gate,
And fifti armed suyenes
S
ain
,
young men, soldiers.
porters at that yate.
With slenges and magneles
Mangonels.
vid. supr.
thei kast
Cast.
to kyng Rychard
Our cristen by parcelles kasted ageynward
In Langtoft's French,
"Dis seriauntz des plus feres e de melz vanez,
Devaunt le cors le Reis sa targe ount portez."
.
Ten sergeauns of the best his targe gan him bere
That egre were and prest to covere hym and to were
Ward,
defend.
.
Himself as a geaunt the cheynes in tuo hew,
The targe was his warant
Guard, defence.
, that non tille him threw.
Right unto the gate with the targe thei yede
Fightand on a gate, undir him the slouh his stede,
Therfor ne wild he sesse
"He could not cease."
, alone into the castele
Thorgh tham all wild presse on fote faught he fulle wele.
And whan he was withinne, and fauht as a wilde leon,
He fondred the Sarazins otuynne
"He formed the Saracens into two parties."
, and fauht as a dragon,
Without the cristen gan crie, allas! Richard is taken,
Tho Normans were sorie, of contenance gan blaken,
To slo downe and to stroye never wild thei stint
Thei left for dede no noye
Annoy.
, ne for no wound no dynt,
That in went alle their pres, maugre the Sarazins alle,
And fond Richard on des fightand, and wonne the halle
Chron. p. 182. 183.
.
From these passages it appears, that Robert of Brunne has scarcely more poetry than Robert of Glocester. He has however taken care to acquaint his readers, that he avoided high description, and that sort of phraseology which was then used by the minstrels and harpers: that he rather aimed to give information than pleasure, and that he was more studious of truth than ornament. As he intended his chronicle to be sung, at least by parts, at public festivals, he found it expedient to apologise for these deficiencies in the prologue; as he had partly done before in his prologue to the MANUAL OF SINS.
I mad noght for no disours
Tale-tellers,
Narratores,
Lat.
Con
eours,
Fr.
Seggers
in the next line perhaps means the same thing, i. e.
Sayers.
The writers either of metrical or of prose romances. See Antholog. Fran. p. 17. 1765. 8vo. Or
Disours
may signify
Discourse,
i.
. adventures in prose. We have the
"Devil's disours,"
in P. Plowman, fol. xxxi. b. edit. 1550.
Disour
precisely signifies
a tale-teller at a feast
in Gower, Conf. Amant. Lib. vii. fol. 155. a. edit. Berthel. 1554. He is speaking of the coronation festival of a Roman Emperor.
When he was gladest at his mete,
And every minstrell had plaide
And every DISSOUR had saide
Which most was pleasaunt to his ere.
Du Cange says, that
Diseurs
were judges of the turney. Diss. Joinv. p. 179.
Ne for seggers no harpours,
Bot for the luf of symple men,
That strange Inglis cannot ken
Know.
:
For many it ere
It ere,
There are.
that strange Inglis
In ryme wate
Knew.
never what it is.
I made it not for to be praysed,
Bot at the lewed men were aysed
Eased.
.
He next mentions several sorts of verse, or prosody; which were then fashionable among the minstrels, and have been long since unknown.
If it were made in ryme
couwce,
Or in
strangere
or
enterlacè,
&c.
He adds, that the old stories of chivalry had been so disguised by foreign terms, by additions and alterations, that they were now become unintelligible to a common audience: and particularly, that the tale of SIR TRISTRAM, the noblest of all, was much changed from the original composition of its first author THOMAS.
I see in
ong in sedgeying tale
"Among the romances that are sung, &c."
Of Erceldoune, and Kendale,
Non tham says as thai tham wroght
"None recite them as they were first written."
,
And
"As
They
tell them."
in ther saying it semes noght,
That may thou here in Sir Tristram
"This you may see, &c."
;
Over gestes
Hearne says that
Gests
were opposed to
Romance.
Chron. Langt. Pref. p. 37. But this is a mistake. Thus we have the
Geste of kyng Horne,
a very old metrical Romance. MSS. Harl. 2253. p. 70. Also in the
Prologue
of
Rychard Cuer de Lyon.
King Richard is the b
st
That is found in any
jeste.
And the passage in the text is a proof against his assertion. Chaucer, in the following passage, by JESTOURS, does not mean
Jesters
in modern signification, but writers of adventures.
House of Fame,
v. 108.
And JESTOURS that tellen tales
Both of wepyng and of game.
In the
House of Fame
he also places those who wrote
"olde
Gestes."
v. 425. It is however obvious to observe from whence the present term
Jest
arose. See Fauchet, Rec. p. 73. In P. Plowman, we have
Job's Jestes.
fol. xlv. b.
Job the gentyl in his
jestes,
greatly wytnesseth.
That is,
"Job in the account of his Life."
In the same page we have,
And japers and judgelers, and jangelers of
jestes.
That is, Minstrels, Reciters of tales. Other illustrations of this word will occur in the course of the work.
Ch
nsons de gestes
were common in France in the thirteenth century among the troubadours. See Mem. concernant les principaux monumens de l' histoire de France, Mem. Lit. xv. p. 582. By the very learned and ingenious M. de la Curne de Sainte Palaye. I add the two first lines of a manuscript entitled,
Art de K
l
nd
r par Rauf,
who lived 1256. Bibl. Bodl. J. b. 2. Th. [Langb. MSS. 5. 439.]
De
geste
ne voil pas chanter,
Ne
veilles estoires
el canter.
There is even
Gesta Pass
onis et Resurrectionis Christi,
in many manuscript libraries.
it has the steem
Esteem.
,
Over all that is or was,
If men yt sayd as made Thomas.—
Thai sayd in so quaynte Inglis
That manyone
Many a one.
wate not what it is.—
And forsooth I couth nought
So strange Inglis as thai wroght.
On this account, he says, he was persuaded by his friends to write his chronicle in a more popular and easy style, that would be better understood.
And men besought me many a time,
To turn it bot in light ryme.
Thai said if I in strange it turne
To here it manyon would skurne
Scorn.
,
For it are names fulle selcouthe
Strange.
That ere not used now in mouth.—
In the hous of Sixille I was a throwe
A little while.
Danz Robert of Meltone,
"Sir Robert of Malton."
It appears from hence that he was born at Malton in Lincolnshire.
that ye knowe,
Did it wryte for felawes sake,
When thai wild solace make
Pref. Rob. Glouc. p. 57. 58.
.
Erceldoune and Kendale are mentioned, in some of these lines of Brunne, as old romances or popular tales. Of the latter I can discover no traces in our antient literature. As to the former, Thomas Erceldoun, or Ashelington, is said to have written
Prophecies,
like those of Merlin. Leland, from the
Scalae Chronicon
An antient French history or Chronicle of England never printed, which Leland says was translated out of French rhyme into French prose. Coll. vol. i. P. ii. pag. 59. edit. 1770. It was probably written or reduced by Thomas Gray into prose. Londinens. Antiquitat. Cant. lib. i. p. 38. Others affirm it to have been the work of John Gray, an eminent churchman, about the year 1212. It begins, in the usual form, with the creation of the world, passes on to Brutus, and closes with Edward the third.
, says, that
"William Banastre
One Gilbert Banestre was a poet and musician. The
Prophesies
of
Banister o
England
are not uncommon among manuscripts. In the
Scotch Prophesies,
printed at Edinburgh, 1680,
Banaster
is mentioned as the author of some of them.
"As Berlington's books and
Banester
tell us."
p. 2. Again,
"Beid hath briev
d in his book and
Banester
also."
p. 18. H
seems to be confounded with William Banister, a writer of the reign of Edward the third. Berlington is probably John Bridlington, an augustine canon of Bridlington, who wrote three books of
Carmina Vaticinalia,
in which he pretends to foretell many accidents that should happen to England. MSS. Digb. Bibl. Bodl. 89. And 186. There are also
Versus Vaticinales
under his name, MSS. Bodl. NE. E. ii. 17. f. 21. He died, aged sixty, in 1379. He was canonised. There are many other
Prophetiae,
which seem to have been fashionable at this time, bound up with Bridlington in MSS. Digb. 186.
, and Thomas Erceldoune, spoke words yn figure as were the prophecies of Merlin
Ub supr. p. 510.
."
In the library of Lincoln cathedral, there is a metrical romance entitled, THOMAS OF ERSELDOWN, which begins with the usual address,
Lordynges both great and small.
In the Bodleian library, among the theological works of John Lawern, monk of Worcester, and student in theology at Oxford, about the year 1448, written with his own hand, a fragment of an English poem occurs, which begins thus:
Joly chepert [sheperd] of Askeldowne
MSS. Bodl. 692. fol.
.
In the British Museum a manuscript English poem occurs, with this French title prefixed,
"La Countesse de Dunbar, demanda a Thomas Essedoune quant la guere d' Escoce prendret fyn
MSS. Harl. 2253. f. 127. It begins thus,
When man as mad a kingge of a capped man
When mon is lever other monnes thynge then ys owen.
."
This was probably our prophesier Thomas of Erceldown. One of his predictions is mentioned in an antient Scots poem entitled, A NEW YEAR'S GIFT, written in the year 1562, by Alexander Scott
Ancient Scots poems, Edinb. 1770. 12mo. p. 194. See the ingenious editor's notes, p. 312.
. One Thomas Leirmouth, or Rymer, was also a prophetic bard, and lived at Erslingtoun, sometimes perhaps pronounced Erseldoun. This is therefore probably the same person. One who personates him, says,
In ERSLINGTOUN I dwell at hame,
THOMAS RYMER men call me.
He has left vaticinal rhymes, in which he predicted the union of Scotland with England, about the year 1279
Se
Scotch Prophesies,
ut supr. p. 19. 11. 13. 18. 36. viz.
The Prophesy of Thomas Rymer.
Pr.
"Stille on my wayes as I went."
. Fordun mentions several of his prophecies concerning the future state of Scotland
Lib. x. cap. 43. 44. I think he is also mentioned by Spotswood. See Dempst. xi. 810.
.
Our author, Robert de Brunne, also translated into English rhymes the treatise of cardinal Bonaventura, his cotemporary
He died 1272. Many of Bonaventure's tracts were at this time translated into English. In the
arleian manuscripts we have,
"The Treatis that is kallid
Prickynge of Love,
made bi a Frere menour Bonaventure, that was Cardinall of the courte of Rome."
2254. 1. f. 1. This book belonged to Dame Alys Braintwat
"the worchypfull prioras of Dartforde."
This is not an uncommon manuscript.
,
De coena et passione domini et poenis S. Mariae Virginis,
with the following title.
"Medytaciuns of the Soper of our Lorde Jhesu, and also of hys Passyun, and eke of the Peynes of hys swete Modyr mayden Marye, the whyche made yn Latyn Bonaventure Cardynall
MSS. Harl. 1701. f. 84. The first line is,
Almighti god in trinite.
It was never printed.
."
But I forbear to give further extracts from this writer, who appears to have possessed much more industry than genius, and cannot at present be read with much pleasure. Yet it should be remembered, that even such a writer as Robert de Brunne, uncouth and unpleasing as he naturally seems, and chiefly employed in turning the theology of his age into rhyme, contributed to form a style, to teach expression, and to polish his native tongue. In the infancy of language and composition, nothing is wanted but writers: at that period even the most artless have their use.
Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln
See DISS. ii.—The author and translator are often thus confounded in manuscripts. To an old English religious poem on the holy Virgin, we find the following title.
Incipit quid
m cantus quem compo
uit frater Thom
s de Hales de ordine fratrum minorum,
&c. MSS. Coll. Jes. Oxon. 85. supr. citat. But this is the title of our friar's original, a Latin hymn de B. MARIA VIRGINE, improperly adopted in the translation. Thomas de Hales was a Franciscan friar, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and
ourished about the year 1340. We shall see other proofs of this.
, who died in 1253, is said in some verses of Robert de Brunne, quoted above, to have been fond of the metre and music of the minstrels. He was most attached to the French minstrels, in whose language he has left a poem, never printed, of some length. This was probably translated into English rhyme about the reign of Edward the first. Nor is it quite improbable, if the translation was made at this period, that the translator was Robert de Brunne; especially as he translated another of Grosthead's pieces. It is called by Leland
Chateau d'Amour
Script. Brit. p. 285.
. But in one of the Bodleian manuscripts of this book we have the following title,
Romance par Mestre Robert Grosseteste
MSS. Bodl. NE. D. 69.
. In another it is called,
Ce est la vie de D. Jhu de sa humanite fet a ordine de Saint Robert Grosseteste ke fut eveque de Nichole
F. 16. Laud. fol. membran. The word
Nicole
is perfectly French, for
Lincoln.
See likewise MSS. Bodl. E. 4. 14.
. And in this copy, a very curious apology to the clergy is prefixed to the poem, for the language in which it is written
In the hand-writing of the poem itself, which is very antient.
.
"Et quamvis lingua romana [romance] coram CLERICIS SAPOREM SUAVITATIS non habeat, tamen pro laicis qui minus intelligunt opusculum illud aptum est
f. 1. So also in M
S. C. C. C. Oxon. 232. In MSS. Harl. 1121. 5.
"De Roberd Grosseteste le evesque de Nichole un tretis en Franceis, del commencement du monde, &c."
f. 156. Cod. membran.
."
This piece professes to treat of the creation, the redemption, the day of judgment, the joys of heaven, and the torments of hell: but the whole is a religious allegory, and under the ideas of chivalry the fundamental articles of christian belief are represented. It has the air of a system of divinity written by a troubadour. The poet, in describing the advent of Christ, supposes that he entered into a magnificent castle, which is the body of the immaculate virgin. The structure of this castle is conceived with some imagination, and drawn with the pencil of romance. The poem begins with these lines.
Ki pense ben, ben peut dire:
Sanz penser ne poet suffise:
De nul bon oure commencer
Deu nos dont de li penser
De ki par ki, en ki, sont
Tos les biens ki font en el mond.
But I hasten to the translation, which is more immediately connected with our present subject, and has this title.
"Her bygenet a tretys that ys yclept CASTEL OF LOVE that biscop Grosteyzt made ywis for lewde mennes byhove
Bibl. Bodl. MS. Vernon, f. 292. This translation was never printed: and is, I believe, a rare manuscript.
."
Then follows the prologue or introduction.
That good thinketh good may do,
And God wol help him thar to:
Ffor nas never good work wrougt
With oute biginninge of good thougt.
Ne never was wrougt non vuel
Well, good.
thyng
That vuel thougt nas the biginnyng.
God ffuder, and sone and holigoste
That alle thing on eorthe sixt
F.
hext.
highest.
and wost,
That one God art and thrillihod
Trinity.
,
And threo persones in one hod
Unity.
,
Withouten end and bi ginninge,
To whom we ougten over alle thinge,
Worschepe him with trewe love,
That kineworthe king art us above,
In whom, of whom, thorw whom beoth,
Alle the good schipes that we hire i seoth,
He leve us thenche and worchen so,
That he us schylde from vre fo,
All we habbeth to help neode
That we ne beth all of one theode,
Ne i boren in one londe,
Ne one speche undirstonde,
Ne mowe we al Latin wite
Understand.
Ne Ebreu ne Gru
Greek. In John Trevisas's dialogue concerning the translation of the Polychronicon, MSS. Harl. 1900. b. f. 42.
"Aristotile's bokes, &c. were translated out of
grue
into Latin. Also with praying of kyng Charles [the Bald], Johan Scott translated Denys bookes out of
gru
into Latyn."
that beth i write,
Ne Ffrench, ne this other spechen,
That me mihte in worlde sechen.
To herie god our derworthi drihte
"To bless God our beloved lord."
,
As vch mon ougte with all his mihte;
Loft song syngen to god ȝerne
Earnestly.
,
With such speche as he con lerne:
Ne monnes mouth ne be i dut
Ne his ledene
Language.
i hud,
To serven his god that him wrougte,
And maade al the worlde of nougte.
Of Englische I shal nir resun schowen
Ffor hem that can not i knowen,
Nouther French ne Latyn
On Englisch I chulle tullen him.
Wherefor the world was i wroht,
Ther after how he was bi tauht,
Adam vre ffader to ben his,
With al the merthe o
paradys
To wonen and welden to such ende
Til that he scholde to hevene wende,
And hou sone he hit fu les
And seththen hou for bouht wes,
Thurw the heȝe kynges sone
That here in eorthe wolde come,
Ffor his sustren that were to boren,
And ffor a prison thas was for loren
And hou he made as ȝe schal heren
That heo i cust and sauht weren
And to wruche a castel he alihte, &c.
But the following are the most poetical passages of this poem.
God nolde a lihte in none manere,
But in feir stude
Place.
and in clere,
In feir and clene siker hit wes,
Ther god almihti his in ches
"Chose his habitation."
In a CASTEL well comeliche,
Muche
Great.
and ffeire, and loveliche,
That is the castell of alle floure,
Of solas and of socour,
In the mere he stont bi twene two,
Ne hath he forlak for no fo:
For the tour
La tur est si bien en clos.
Fr. Orig.
is so wel with outen,
So depe i diched al abouten,
That non kunnes asayling,
Ne may him derven fer no thing;
He stont on heiȝ rocke and sound,
And is y planed to the ground,
That ther may won non vuel
Vile.
thing,
Ne derve ne gynnes castyng;
And thaug he be so lovliche,
He is so dredful and hatcliche,
To all thulke that ben his fon,
That heo flen him everichon;
Ffor smal toures that beth abouten,
To witen the heige toure withouten,
Sethe
Tres bailes en tour.
Fr. Orig.
beoth thre bayles withalle
Moreover there are three, &c.
,
So feir i diht with strunge walle,
As heo beth here after I write,
Ne may no man the
Beauty.
feirschipe i wite,
Ne may no tongue ne may hit telle,
Ne thougt thincke, ne mouthe spelle:
On trusti rocke heo stondeth fast,
And with depe diches bethe bi cast,
And the carnels
Kernels.—Kerneaus bien poli.
Fr. Orig.
so stondeth upright,
Wel I planed, and feir i dight:
Seven barbicanes ther beth i wrouht
With gret ginne al bi thouht
Pur bon engin
ait.
Fr. Orig.
,
And evrichon hath gat and toure,
Ther never fayleth ne socoure.
Never schal fo him stonde with
That thider wold flen to sechen grith
Counsel.
.
This castel is siker fair abouten,
And is al depeynted withouten,
With threo heowes that wel beth sene
La chastel est a bel bon
De hors de peint a en virun
De treis culurs diversement.
Fr. Orig.
;
So is the foundement al grene,
That to the rock fast lith.
Wel is that ther murthe i sith,
Ffor the greneschip lasteth evere,
And his heuh ne leoseth nevere,
Sethen abouten that other heug
So is ynde so ys blu
Si est ynde si est blu.
Fr. Orig.
.
That the midel heug we clepeth ariht
And schyneth so faire and so briht.
The thridde heug an ovemast
Over wrigeth al and so ys i cast
That withinnen and withouten,
The castel lihteth al abouten,
And is raddore than eny rose schal
That shunneth as hit barnd
Burned, on fire.
were
Plus est vermail ke nest rose
E piert un ardant chose.
Fr. Orig.
.
Withinne the castel is whit schinynge
So
As.
the snows that is snewynge,
And casteth that liht so wyde,
After long the tour and be syde,
That never cometh ther wo ne woug,
As swetnesse ther is ever i noug.
Amydde
In mi la tur plus hautein
Est surdant une funtayne
Dunt issent quater ruissell.
Ki bruinet par le gravel, &c.
F
. Orig.
the heige toure is springynge
A well that ever is eorninge
Running.
With four stremes that striketh wel,
And erneth upon the gravel,
And fulleth the duches about the wal,
Much blisse ther is over al,
Ne dar he seeke non other leche
That mai riht of this water eleche.
In
En cele bel tur a bone
A de yvoire un trone
Ke plusa ei
i blanchor
Ci en mi este la beau jur
Par engin e
t compassez, &c.
Fr. Orig.
thulke derworthi faire toure
Ther stont a trone with much honour,
Of whit yvori and feirore of liht
Than the someres day when heis briht,
With cumpas i throwen and with gin al i do
Seven steppes ther beoth therto, &c.
The ffoure smale toures abouten,
That with the heige tour withouten,
Ffour had thewes that about hire i seoth,
Ffoure vertus cardinals beoth, &c.
And
Les treis bailles du chastel
Ki sunt overt au kernel
Qui a compas sunt en virun
E defendent le dungun.
Fr. Orig.
which beoth threo bayles get,
That with the carnels ben so wel i set,
And i cast with cumpas and walled abouten
That wileth the heihe tour with outen:
Bote the inmost bayle i wote
Bitokeneth hire holi maydenhode, &c.
The middle bayle that wite ge,
Bitokeneth hire holi chastite
And sethen the overmast bayle
Bitokeneth hire holi sposaile, &c.
The seven kernels abouten,
That with greot gin beon y wrought withouten,
And witeth this castel so well,
With arwe and with quarrel
Les barbicanes
eet
Kis hors de bailles sunt fait,
Ki bien gardent le chastel,
E de seete e de quarrel.
Fr. Orig.
,
That beoth the seven vertues with wunne
To overcum the seven deadly sinne, &c.
Afterwards the fountain is explained to be God's grace: Charity is constable of the cast
e, &c. &c.
It was undoubtedly a great impediment to the cultivation and progressive improvement of the English language at these early periods, that the best authors chose to write in French. Many of Robert Grosthead's pieces are indeed in Latin; yet where the subject was popular, and not immediately addressed to learned readers, he adopted the Romance or French language, in preference to his native English. Of this, as we have already seen, his MANUEL PECHE, and his CHATEAU D' AMOUR, are sufficient proofs, both in prose and verse: and his example and authority must have had considerable influence in encouraging this practice. Peter Langtoft, our Augustine canon of Bridlington, not only compiled the large chronicle of England, above recited, in French; but even translated Herbert Boscam's Latin Life of Thomas of Beckett into French rhymes
Pits. p. 890. Append. Who with great probability supposes him to have been an Englishman.
. John Hoveden, a native of London, doctor of divinity, and chaplain to queen Eleanor mother of Edward the first, wrote in French rhymes a book entitled,
Rosarium de Nativitate, Passione, Ascensione, Jhesu Christi
MSS. Bibl. C. C. C. Cant. G. 16. where it is also called the
Nightingale.
Pr.
"Alme fesse lit de peresse."
Our author, John Hoveden, was also skilled in sacred music, and a great writer of Latin hymns. He died, and was buried, at Hoveden, 1275. Pits. p. 356. Bale, v. 79.
There is an old French metrical life of Tobiah, which the author, most probably an Englishman, says he undertook at the request of William, Prior of Kenilworth in Warwickshire.
MSS. Jes. Coll. Oxon. 85. supr. citat.
Le prior Gwilleyme me prie
De l' eglyse seynte Marie
De Kenelworth an Ardenne,
Ki porte le plus haute peyne
De charite, ke nul eglyse
Del reaume a devyse
Ke jeo liz en romaunz le vie
De k
lui ki ont nun Tobie, &c.
. Various other proofs have before occurred. Lord Lyttelton quotes from the Lambeth library a manuscript poem in French or Norman verse on the subject of king Dermod's expulsion from Ireland, and the recovery of his kingdom
Hist. Hen. ii. vol. iv. p. 270. Notes. It was translated into prose by Sir George Carew in Q. Elisabeth's time: this translation was printed by Harris in his HIBERNIA. It was probably written about 1190. See Ware, p. 56. And compare Walpole's Anecd. Paint. 1. 28. Notes. The Lambeth manuscript seems to be but a fragment. viz. MSS. Bibl. Lamb. Hib. A. See supr. p. 70.
. I could mention many others. Anonymous French pieces both in prose and verse, and written about this time, are innumerable in our manuscript repositories
I have before hinted that it was sometimes customary to intermix Latin with French. As thus.
MSS. Harl. 2253. f. 137. b.
Di
u roy de Mageste,
Ob personas trinas,
Nostre roy e sa meyne
Ne perire sinas, &c.
Again, ibid
f. 76. Where a lover, an Englishman, addresses his mistress who was of Paris.
Dum ludis floribus velut lacinia,
Le dieu d' amour moi tient en tiel
Angustia,
&c.
Sometimes their poetry was half French and half English. As in a song to the holy virgin on our Saviour's passion.
Ibid. f. 83.
Mayden moder milde, oyez cel oreysoun,
From shome thou me shilde, e de ly mal feloun:
For love of thine childe me menez de tresoun,
Ich wes wod and wilde, ore su en prisoun, &c.
In the same manuscript I find a French poem probably written by an Englishman, and in the year 1300, containing the adventures of Gilote and Johanne, two ladies of gallantry, in various parts of England and Ireland; particularly at Winchester and Pontefract. f. 66. b. The curious reader is also referred to a French poem, in which the poet supposes that a minstrel,
jugleour,
travelling from London, cloathed in a rich tabard, met the king and his retinue. The king asks him many questions; particularly his lord's name, and the price of his horse. The minstrel evades all the king's questions by impertinent answers; and at last presumes to give his majesty advice. Ibid. f. 107. b.
. Yet this fashion proceeded rather from necessity and a principle of convenience, than from affectation. The vernacular English, as I have before remarked, was rough and unpolished: and although these writers possessed but few ideas of taste and elegance, they embraced a foreign tongue, almost equally familiar, and in which they could convey their sentiments with greater ease, grace, and propriety. It should also be considered, that our most eminent scholars received a part of their education at the university of Paris. Another, and a very material circ
mstance, concurred to countenance this fashionable practice of composing in French. It procured them readers of rank and distinction. The English court, for more than two hundred years after the conquest, was totally French: and our kings, either from birth, kindred, or marriage, and from a perpetual intercourse, seem to have been more closely connected with France than with England. It was however fortunate that these French pieces were written, as some of them met with their translators: who perhaps unable to aspire to the praise of original writers, at least by this means contributed to adorn their native tongue: and who very probably would not have written at all, had not original writers, I mean their cotemporaries who wrote in French, furnished them with models and materials.
Hearne, to whose diligence even the poetical antiquarian is much obliged, but whose conjectures are generally wrong, imagines, that the old English metrical romance, called RYCHARDE CUER DE LYON, was written by Robert de Brunne. It is at least probable, that the leisure of monastic life produced many rhymers. From proofs here given we may fairly conclude, that the monks often wrote for the minstrels: and although our Gilbertine brother of Brunne chose to relate true stories in plain language, yet it is reasonable to suppose, that many of our antient tales in verse containing fictitious adventures, were written, although not invented, in the religious houses. The romantic history of
Guy earl of Warwick,
is expressly said, on good authority, to have been written by Walter of Exeter, a Franciscan Friar of Carocus in Cornwall, about the year 1292
Carew's Surv. Cornw. p. 59. edit. ut supr. I suppose Carew means the metrical Romance of GUY. But Bale says that Walter wrote
Vitam Guidonis,
which seems to imply a prose history. x. 78. Giraldus Cambrensis also wrote Guy's history. Hearne has printed an
Historia Guidonis de Warwik,
Append. ad Annal. Dunstaple, num. xi. It was extracted from Girald. Cambrens. hist. Reg. West-Sax. capit. xi. by Girardus Cornubiensis. Lydgate's
life of Guy,
never printed, is translated from this Girardus; as Lydgate himself informs us at the end. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Laud. D. 31. f. 64. Tit.
Her
gyuneth the liff of Guy of Warwyk.
Out of the Latyn made by the Chronycler
Called of old GIRARD CORNUBYENCE:
Which wrote the dedis, with grete diligence,
Of them that were in We
tsex crowned kynges, &c.
See Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. p. 89. Some have thought, that Girardus Cornubiensis and Giraldus Cambrensis were the same persons. This passage of Lydgate may perhaps shew the contrary. We have also in the same Bodleian manuscript, a poem on Guy and Colbrand, viz. MSS. Laud. D. 31. f. 87. More will be said on this subject.
. The libraries of the monasteries were full of romances.
Bevis of Southampton,
in French, was in the library of the abbey of Leicester
See
Registrum Librorum omnium et Jocalium in monasteri
S. Maria
de Pratis prope Leycestriam.
fol. 132. b. In MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Laud. I. 75. This catalogue was written by Will. Charite one of the monks, A. D. 1517. fol. 139.
. In that of the abbey of Glastonbury, we find
Liber de Excidio Trojae, Gesta Ricardi Regis,
and
Gesta Alexandri Regis,
in the year 1247
Hearne's Joann. Glaston. Catal. Bibl. Glaston. p. 435. One of the books on Troy is called
bonus et magnus.
There is also
"Liber de Captione Antiochiae, Gallice.
legibilis.
"
ibid.
. These were some of the most favorite subjects of romance, as I shall shew hereafter. In a catalogue of the library of the abbey of Peterborough are recited,
Amys and Amelion
The same Romance is in MSS. Harl. Brit. Mus. 2386. §. 42. See Du Cang. Gloss. Lat. i. Ind. Auctor. p. 193. There is an old manuscript French MORALITY on this subject,
Comment Amille tue ses deux enfans pour guerir Amis son compagnon,
&c. Beauchamps, Rech. Theatr. Fr. p. 109. There is a Fr
nch metrical romance
Histoire d'Amys et Amilion,
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 12. C. xii. 9.
,
Sir Tristram, Guy de Burgoyne,
and
Gesta Osuelis
There is a Romance called OTUEL, MSS. Bibl. Adv. Edingb. W. 4. 1. xxviii. I think he is mentioned in Charlemagne's story. He is converted to christianity, and marries Charlemagne's daughter.
, all in French: together with
Merlin's Prophecies, Turpin's Charlemagne,
and the
Destruction of Troy
Gunton's Peterb. p. 108. seq.—I will give some of the titles as they stand in the catalogue.
Dares Phrygius de Excidio Trojae,
bis. p. 180.
Prophetiae Merlini versifice.
p. 182.
Gesta Caroli secundùm Turpinum.
p. 187.
Gesta Aeneae post destructionem Trojae.
p. 198.
Bellum contra Runcivallum,
p. 202. There are also the two following articles, viz.
"Certamen inter regem Johannem et Barones, versi
ice. Per H. de Davenech."
p. 188. This I have never seen, nor know any thing of the author.
"Versus de ludo scaccorum."
p. 195.
. Among the books given to Winchester college by the founder William of Wykeham, a prelate of high rank, about the year 1387, we have
Chronicon Trojae
Ex archivis Coll. Wint.
. In the library of Windsor college, in the reign of Henry the eighth, were discovered in the midst of missals, psalters, and homilies,
Duo libri Gallici de Romances, de quibus unus liber de
ROSE,
et alius difficilis materiae
Dugd. Mon. iii. Eccles. Collegiat. p. 80.
. This is the language of the king's commissioners, who searched the archives of the college: the first of these two French romances is perhaps John de Meun's
Roman de la Rose.
A friar, in Pierce Plowman's Visions, is said to be much better acquainted with the
Rimes
of
Robin Hood,
and
Randal of Chester,
than with his Pater-noster
Fol. xxvi. b. edit. 1550.
. The monks, who very naturally sought all opportunities of amusement in their retired and confined situations, were fond of admitting the minstrels to their festivals; and were hence familiarised to romantic stories. Seventy shillings were expended on minstrels, who accompanied their songs with the harp, at the feast of the installation of Ralph abbot of Saint Augustin's at Canterbury, in the year 1309. At this magnificent solemnity, six thousand guests were present in and about the hall of the abbey
Dec. Script. p. 2011.
. It was not deemed an occurrence unworthy to be recorded, that when Adam de Orleton, bishop of Winchester, visited his cathedral priory of Saint Swithin in that city, a minstrel named Herbert was introduced, who sung the
Song of Colbrond
a Danish giant, and the tale of
Queen Emma delivered from the plough-shares,
in the hall of the prior Alexander de Herriard, in the year 1338. I will give this very curious article, as it appears in an antient register of the priory.
"Et cantabat Joculator quidam nomine Herebertus
CANTICUM Colbrondi,
necnon
Gestum Emme regine a judicio ignis liberate,
in aula prioris
Registr. Priorat. S. Swithini Winton. MSS. pergamen. in Archiv. de Wolvesey Wint. These were local stories. Guy fought and conquered Colbrond a Danish champion, just without the northern walls of the city of Winchester, in a meadow to this day called Danemarch: and Colbrond's battle-ax was kept in the treasury of S. Swithin's priory till the dissolution. Th. Rudb. apud Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. 211. This history remained in rude painting
gainst th
walls of the north transept of the cathedral till within my memory. Queen Emma was a patroness of this church, in which she underwent the tryal of walking blindfold over nine red hot ploughshares. Colbrond is mentioned in the old romanc
of the
Squyr of Lowe Degree.
Sign
t. a. iii.
Or els so doughty of my honde
As was the gyaunte syr Colbronde.
See what is said above of Guy earl of Warwick, who will again be mentioned.
."
In an annual accompt-roll of the Augustine priory of Bicester in Oxfordshire, for the year 1431, the following entries relating to this subject occur, which I chuse to exhibit in the words of the original.
"
DONA PRIORIS.
Et in datis cuidam citharizatori in die sancti Jeronimi,
viii. d.
—Et in datis alt
ri citharizatori in ffesto Apostolorum Simonis et Jude cognomine Hendy,
xii d.
—Et in datis cuidam minstrallo domini le Talbot infra natale domini,
xii. d.
—Et in datis ministrallis domini le Straunge in die Epiphanie,
xx. d.
—Et in datis duobus ministrallis domini Lovell in crastino S. Marci evangeliste,
xvi. d.
—Et in datis ministrallis ducis Glo
estrie in ffesto nativitatis beate Marie,
iii s. iv d.
"
I must add, as it likewise paints the manners of the monks,
"Et in datis cuidam Ursario,
iiii d.
Ex. Orig. in Rotul. pergamen. Tit.
"Compotus dni Ricardi Parentyn Prioris, et fratris Ric. Albon canonici, bursarii ibid
m, de omnibus bonis per
osdem receptis et liberatis a crastino Michaelis anno Henrici Sexti post conquestum octavo usque in idem crastinum anno R. Henrici praedicti nono."
In Thesauriar. Coll. SS. Trin. Oxon. Bishop Kennet has printed a Computus of the same monastery under the same reign, in which three or four entries of the same sort occur. Paroch. Antiq. p. 578.
"
In the prior's accounts of the Augustine canons of Maxtoke in Warwickshire, of various years in the reign of Henry the sixth, one of the styles, or general heads, is DE JOCULATORIBUS ET MIMIS. I will, without apology, produce some of the particular articles; not distinguishing between
Mimi, Joculatores, Jocatores, Lusores,
and
Citharistae:
who all seem alternately, and at different times, to have exercised the same arts of popular entertainment.
"Joculatori in septimana S. Michaelis,
iv d.
—Cithariste tempore natalis domini et aliis jocatoribus,
iv d.
—Mimis de Solihull,
vi d.
—Mimis de Coventry,
xx d.
—Mimo domini Ferrers,
vi d.
—Lusoribus de Eton,
viii d.
—Lusoribus de Coventry,
viii d.
—Lusoribus de Daventry,
xii d.
—Mimis de Coventry,
xii d.
—Mimis domini de Asteley,
xii d.
—Item
iiii.
mimis domini de Warewyck,
x d.
—Mimo ceco,
ii d.
—Sex mimis domini de Clynton.—Duobus Mimis de Rugeby,
x d.
—Cuidam cithariste,
vi d.
—Mimis domini de Asteley,
xx d.
—Cuidam cithariste,
vi d.
—Cithariste de Coventry,
vi. d.
—Duobus citharistis de Coventry,
viii d.
—Mimis de Rugeby,
viii d.
—Mimis domini de Buckeridge,
xx d.
—Mimis domini de Stafford,
ii s.
—Lusoribus de Coleshille,
viii d.
Ex orig. penes me.
"
Here we may observe, that the minstrels of the nobility, in whose families they were constantly retained, travelled about the county to the neighbouring monasteries; and that they generally received better gratuities for these occasional performances than the others. Solihull, Rugby, Coleshill, Eton, or Nun-Eton, and Coventry, are all towns situated at no great distance from the priory
In the antient annual rolls of accompt of Winchester college, there are many articles of this sort. The few following, extracted from a great number, may serve as a specimen. They are chiefly in the reign of Edward iv. viz.
In the year
1481.
"Et in sol. ministrallis dom. Regis venientibus ad collegium xv. die Aprilis, cum 12
d.
solut. ministrallis dom. Episcopi Wynton venientibus ad collegium primo die junii, iiii
s.
iiii
d.
—Et in dat. ministrallis dom. Arundell ven. ad Coll. cum viii d. dat. ministrallis dom. de Lawarr, ii
s.
iiii
d.
"
—
In the year
1483.
"Sol. ministrallis dom. Regis ven. ad Coll. iii
s.
iiii
d.
"
In the year
1472.
"Et in dat. ministrallis dom. Regis cum viii
d.
dat. duobus Berewardis ducis Clarentie, xx
d.
—Et in dat. Johanni
Stulto
quondam dom. de Warewyco, cum iiii
d.
dat. Thome Nevyle taborario.—Et in datis duobus ministrallis ducis Glocestrie, cum iiii
d.
dat. uni ministrallo ducis de Northumberlond, viii
d.
—Et in datis duobus citharatoribus ad vices venient. ad collegium viii
d.
"
—
In the year
1479.
"Et in datis satrapis Wynton venientibus ad coll. festo Epiphanie, cum xii
d.
dat. ministrallis dom. episcopi venient. ad coll. infra octavas epiphanie, iii
s.
"
—
In the year
1477.
"Et in dat. ministrallis dom. Principis venient. ad coll. festo Ascensionis Domini, cum xx
d.
dat. ministrallis dom. Regis, v
s.
"
—
In the year
1464.
"Et in dat. ministrallis comitis Kancie venient. ad Coll. in mense julii, iiii
s.
iiii
d.
"
—
In the year
1467.
"Et in datis quatuor mimis dom. de Arundell venient. ad Coll. xiii. die ffebr. ex curialitate dom. Custodis, ii
s.
"
—
In the year
1466.
"Et in dat. satrapis,
[ut supr.]
cum ii
s.
dat. iiii. interludentibus et J. Meke citharistae codem ffesto, iiii
s.
"
—
In the year
1484.
"Et in dat. uni ministrallo dom. principis, et in aliis ministrallis ducis Glocestrie v. die julii, xx
d.
"
—The minstrels of the bishop, of lord Arundel, and the duke of Gloucester, occur very frequently. In domo muniment. coll. praedict. in cista ex orientali latere.
In rolls of the reign of Henry the sixth, the countess of Westmoreland, sister of cardinal Beaufort, is mentioned as being entertained in the college; and in her retinue were the minstrels of her houshold, who received gratuities. Ex Rot. Comp. orig.
In these rolls there is an entry, which seems to prove that the
Lusores
were a sort of actors in dumb show or masquerade.
Rot. ann.
1467.
"Dat lusoribus de civitate Winton venientibus ad collegium in
apparatu
suo mens. julii, v
s.
viii
d.
"
This is a large reward. I will add from the same rolls,
ann.
1479.
"In dat. Joh. Pontisbery and socio ludentibus in aula in die circumcisionis, ii
s.
"
. Nor must I omit that two minstrels from Coventry made part of the festivity at the consecration of John, prior of this convent, in the year 1432, viz.
"
Dat. duobus mimis de Coventry in die consecrationis prioris,
xii d.
Ibid. It appears that the Coventry-men were in high repute for their performances of this sort. In the entertainment presented to queen Elisabeth at Killingworth castle, in the year 1575, The Coventrymen exhibited
"their old storiall sheaw."
Laneham's
Narrative,
&c. p. 32. Minstrels were hired from Coventry to perform at Holy Crosse feast at Abingdon, Berks, 1422. Hearne's Lib. Nig Scacc. ii. p. 598. See an account of their play on Corpus Christi day, in Stevens's Monasticon, i. p. 138. And Hearne's Fordun, p. 1450. sub. an. 1492.
"
Nor is it improbable, that some of our greater monasteries kept minstrels of their own in regular pay. So early as the year 1180, in the reign of Henry the second,
Jeffrey the harper
received a corrody, or annuity, from the Benedictine abbey of Hide near Winchester
Madox, Hist. Exchequer, p. 251. Where he is styled,
"Galfridus citharoedus."
; undoubtedly on condition that he should serve the monks in the profession of a harper on public occasions. The abbies of Conway and Stratflur in Wales respectively maintained a bard
Powel's CAMBRIA.
To the Reader.
pag. 1. edit. 1581.
: and the Welsh monasteries in general were the grand repositories of the poetry of the British bards
Evans's Diss. de Bardis. Specimens of Welsh poetry. p. 92. Wood relates a story of two itinerant priests coming, towards night, to a cell of Benedictines near Oxford, where, on a supposition of their being mimes or minstrels, they gained admittance. But the cellarer, sacrist, and others of the brethren, hoping to have been entertained with their
gesticulatoriis ludicrisque artibus,
and finding them to be nothing more than two indigent ecclesiastics who could only administer spiritual consolation, and being consequently disappointed of their mirth, beat them and turned them out of the monastery. Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 67. Under the year 1224.
.
In the statutes of New-college at Oxford, given about the year 1380, the founder bishop William of Wykeham orders his scholars, for their recreation on festival days in the hall after dinner and supper, to entertain themselves with songs, and other diversions consistent with decency: and to recite poems, chronicles of kingdoms, the wonders of the world, together with the like compositions, not misbecoming the clerical character. I will transcribe his words.
"Quando ob dei reverentiam aut sue matris, vel alterius fancti cujuscunque, tempore yemali, ignis in aula sociis ministratur; tunc scolaribus et sociis post tempus prandii aut cene, liceat gracia recreationis, in aula, in Cantilenis et aliis solaciis honestis, moram facere condecentem; et Poemata, regnorum Chronicas, et mundi hujus Mirabilia, ac cetera que statum clericalem condecorant, seriosius pertractare
Rubric. xviii. The same thing is enjoined in the statutes of Winchester college, Rubr. xv. I do not remember any such passage in the statutes of preceding colleges in either university. But this injunction is afterwards adopted in the statutes of Magdalene college; and from thence, if I recollect right, was copied into those of Corpus Christi, Oxford.
."
The latter part of this injunction seems to be an explication of the former: and on the whole it appears, that the
Cantilenae
which the scholars should sing on these occasions, were a sort of
Poemata,
or poetical Chronicles, containing general histories of kingdoms
Hearne thus understood the passage.
"The wise founder of New college permitted them [metrical chronicles] to be sung by the fellows and scholars upon extraordinary days."
Heming. Cartul. ii. APPEND. Numb. ix. § vi. p. 662.
. It is natural to conclude, that they preferred pieces of English history: and among Hearne's manuscripts I have discovered some fragments on vellum
Given to him by Mr. Murray. See Heming. Chartul. ii. p. 654. And Rob. Glouc. ii. p. 731. Nunc MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. RAWLINS. Cod. 4to. [E. Pr. 87.]
, containing metrical chronicles of our kings; which, from the nature of the composition seem to have been used for this purpose, and answer our idea of these general
Chronicae regnorum.
Hearne supposed them to have been written about the time of Richard the first
Ubi supr.
: but I rather assign them to the reign of Edward the first, who died in the year 1307. But the reader shall judge. The following fragment begins abruptly with some rich presents which king Athelstan received from Charles the third, king of France: a nail which pierced our Saviour's feet on the cross, a spear with which Charlemagne fought against the Saracens and which some supposed to be the spear which pierced our Saviour's side, a part of the holy cross enclosed in crystal, three of the thorns from the crown on our Saviour's head, and a crown formed entirely of precious stones, which wer
endued with a mystical power of reconciling enemies.
Ther in was closyd a nayle grete
That went thorw oure lordis fete.
Gyt
Yet. Moreover.
he presentyd hym the spere
That Charles was wont to bere
Agens the Sarasyns in batayle;
Many swore and sayde saunfayle
Without doubt.
Fr.
,
That with that spere smerte
Sharp, strong. So in the
Lives of the Saints,
MSS. supr. citat. In the Life of S.
dmund.
For Saint Edmund had a
smerte
ȝerde, &c.
i. e.
"He had a strong rod in his hand, &c."
Our lorde was stungen to the herte.
And a party
Part. Piece.
of the holi crosse
In crystal done in a cloos.
And three of the thornes kene
That was in Cristes hede sene,
And a ryche crowne of golde
Non rycher kyng wer y scholde,
Y made within and withowt
With pretius stonys alle a bowte,
Of eche manir vertu thry
Three.
The stonys hadde the maystry
To make frendes that evere were fone,
Such a crowne was never none,
To none erthelyche mon y wrogth
Syth God made the world of nogth.
Kyng Athelstune was glad and blythe,
And thankud the kynge of Ffraunce swythe,
Of gyfts nobul and ryche
In crystiante was no hym leche.
In his tyme, I understonde,
Was Guy of Warwyk yn Inglonde,
And ffor Englond dede batayle
With a mygti gyande, without fayle;
His name was hote Colbrond
Gwy hym slough with his hond.
Seven yere kyng Athelston
Held this his kyngdome
In Inglond that ys so mury,
He dyedde and lythe at Malmesbury
To which monastery he gave the fragment of the holy cross given him by the king of France.
Rob. Glouc. p. 276.
King Athelston lovede much Malmesbury y wis,
He gef of the holy cross som, that there gut ys.
It is extraordinary that Peter Langto
t should not know where Athelstan was buried: and as strange that his translator Rob. de Brunne should supply this defect by mentioning a report that his body was lately found at Hexham in Northumberland. Chron. p. 32.
.
After hym regned his brother Edmond
And was kyng of Ingelond,
And he ne regned here,
But unneth nine yere,
Sith hyt be falle at a feste
At Caunterbury
Rob. of Gloucester says that this happened at Pucklechurch near Bristol. p. 277. But Rob. de Brunne at Canterbury, whither the king went to hold the feast of S. Austin. p. 33.
a cas unwrest
A wicked mischance.
,
As the kyng at the mete sat
He behelde and under that
Of a theef that was desgyse
Amonge hys knyghtes god and wise;
The kyng was hesty and sterte uppe
And hent the thefe by the toppe
Head.
And cast hym doune on a ston:
The theefe brayde out a knyfe a non
And the kyng to the hert threste,
Or any of his knightes weste
Perceived.
:
The baronys sterte up anone,
And slough the theefe swythe sone,
But arst
Arest.
First.
he wounded many one,
Thrugh the fflesh and thrugh the bone:
To Glastenbury they bare the kynge,
And ther made his buryinge
At Gloucester, says Rob. de Brunne, p. 33. But Rob. of Gloucester says his body was brought from Pucklechurch, and interred at Glastonbury: and that hence the town of Pucklechurch became part of the possessions of Glanstonbury abbey. p. 278.
.
After that Edmund was ded,
Reyned his brother Edred;
Edred reyned here
But unnethe thre yere, &c.
After hym reyned seynt Edgare,
A wyse kynge and a warre:
Thilke nyghte that he was bore,
Seynt Dunstan was glad ther fore;
Ffor herde that swete stevene
Of the angels of hevene:
In the songe thei songe bi ryme,
"Y blessed be that ylke tyme
"That Edgare y bore y was,
"Ffor in hys tyme schal be pas,
"Ever more in hys kyngdome
This song is in Rob. Gl. Chron. p. 281.
."
The while he liveth and seynt Dunston,
Ther was so meche grete foyson
Provision.
,
Of all good in every tonne;
All wyle that last his lyve,
Ne lored he never fyght ne stryve.
* * *
The knyghtes of Wales, all and some
Han to swery and othes holde,
And trewe to be as y told,
To bring trynge hym trewage
Ready.
yeare,
CCC. wolves eche ȝere;
And so they dyde trewliche
Three yere pleyneverlyche,
The ferthe yere myght they fynde non
So clene thay wer all a gon,
* * *
And the kyng hyt hem forgat
For he nolde hem greve,
Edgare was an holi man
That oure lorde, &c.
Although we have taken our leave of Robert de Brunne, yet as the subject is remarkable, and affords a striking portraiture of antient manners, I am tempted to transcribe that chronicler's description of the presents received by king Athelstane from the king of France; especially as it contains some new circumstances, and supplies the defects of our fragment. It is from his version of Peter Langtoft's chronicle abovementioned.
At the feste of oure lady the A
umpcion,
Went the king fro London to Abindon.
Thider out of France, fro Charles kyng of fame,
Com the of Boloyn, Adulphus was his name,
And the duke of Burgoyn Edmonde sonne Reynere.
The brouht kynge Athelston present withouten pere:
Fro Charles kyng sanz faile thei brouht a gonfaynoun
Banner.
That saynt Morice in batayle before the legioun;
And scharp lance that thrilled Jhesu side;
And a suerd of golde, in the hilte did men hide
Tuo of tho nayles that war thorh Jhesu f
te;
Tached
Tacked. Fastened.
on the croys, the blode thei out lete;
And som of the thornes that don were on his heved,
And a fair pece that of the croys leved
Remained.
,
That saynt Heleyn sonne at the batayle won
Of the soudan of Askalone his name was Madan.
Than blewe the trumpets full loud and full schille,
The kyng com in to the halle that hardy was of wille:
Than spak Reyner Edmunde sonne, for he was messengere,
"Athelstan, my lord the gretes, Charles that has no pere;
"He sends the this present, and sais, he wille hym bynde
"To the thorh
"Thee through."
Ilde thi sistere, and tille alle thi kynde."
Befor the messengers was the maiden brouht,
Of body so gentill was non in erthe wrouht;
No non so faire of face, of spech so lusty,
Scho granted befor tham all to Charles hir body:
And so did the kyng, and alle the baronage,
Mikelle was the richesse thei purveied in hir passage
Chron. p. 29. 30. Afterwards follows the combat of Guy with
"a hogge [huge] geant, high Colibrant."
As in our fragment. p. 31. See Will. Malms. Gest. Angl. ii. 6. The lance of Charlemagne is to this day shewn among the reli
s of St. Dennis's in France. Carpentier, Suppl. Gloss. Lat. Du-cang. tom. ii. p. 994. edit. 1766.
.
Another of these fragments, evidently of the same composition, seems to have been an introduction to the whole. It begins with the martyrdom of saint Alban, and passes on to the introduction of Wassail, and to the names and division of England.
And now he ys alle so hole y fonde,
As whan he was y leyde on grounde.
And gyf ge wille not
Believe.
trow me,
Goth to Westmynstere, and ye mow se.
In that tyme Seynt Albon,
For Goddys love
Suffered.
tholed martirdome,
And xl. yere with schame and
Confusion.
schonde
Was
Driven, drawn.
drowen oute of Englond.
In that tyme
Know ye.
weteth welle,
Cam ferst Wassayle and drynkehayl
In to this lond, with owte
Doubt.
wene,
Thurghe a mayde
Bright.
brygh and
Fair.
schene.
Sche was
Called.
cleput mayde Ynge.
For hur many dothe rede and synge
Lordyngys
Gentle.
gent and free.
This lond hath y hadde namys thre.
Ferest hit was cleput Albyon,
And syth
From, because of.
for Brut Bretayne a non,
And now Ynglond cleput hit ys,
Aftir mayde Ynge y wysse.
Thilke Ynge fro Saxone was come,
And with here many a moder sonne.
For gret hungure y understonde
Ynge went oute of hure londe.
And thorow leue of oure kyng
In this land sche hadde restyng.
As meche lande of the kyng sche
Requested, desired.
bade,
As with a hole hyde
Men might.
me mygth sprede.
The kyng
Granted her request.
graunt he bonne.
A strong castel sche made sone,
And whan the castel was al made,
The kyng to the mete sche
Bid.
bade.
The kyng graunted here a none.
He wyst not what thay wold done.
* * *
And sayde to
Then.
ham in this manere,
"The kyng to morow schal ete here.
"He and alle hys men,
"Ever
Every.
one of us and one of them,
"To geder schal sitte at the mete.
"And when thay have al most y ete,
"I wole say wassayle to the kyng,
"And sle hym with oute any
Lye.
leyng.
"And loke that ye in this manere
"Eche of gow sle his
Companion.
fere."
And so sche dede thenne,
Slowe the kyng and alle hys men.
And thus, thorowgh here
Stratagem.
queyntyse,
This londe was wonne in this wyse.
Syth
After.
a non sone an
Very.
swythe
Was Englond
Divide
.
deled on fyve,
To fyve kynggys trewelyche,
That were nobyl and swythe ryche.
That one hadde alle the londe of Kente,
That ys free and swythe gente.
And in hys lond bysshopus tweye.
Worthy men
Were.
where theye.
The archebysshop of Caunturbery,
And of Rochestore that ys mery.
The kyng of Essex o
Renown.
renon
He hadde to his portion
Westschire, Barkschire,
Soussex, Southamptshire.
And ther to Dorsetshyre,
All Cornewalle and Devenshire.
All thys were of hys
Empire.
anpyre.
The king hadde on his hond
Five bysshopes starke and strong,
Of Salussbury was that on.
As to the
Mirabilia Mundi,
mentioned in the statutes of New College at Oxford, in conjunction with these
Poemata
and
Regnorum Chronicae,
the immigrations of the Arabians into Europe and the crusades produced numberless accounts, partly true and partly fabulous, of the wonders seen in the eastern countries; which falling into the hands of the monks, grew into various treatises, under the title of
Mirabilia Mundi.
There were also some professed travellers into the East in the dark ages, who surprised the western world with their marvellous narratives, which could they have been contradicted would have been believed
The first European traveller who went far Eastward, is Benjamin a Jew of Tudela in Navarre. He penetrated from Constantinople through Alexandria in Aegypt and Persia to the frontiers of Tzin, now China. His travels end in 1173. He mentions the immense wealth of Constantinople; and says that its port swarmed with ships from all countries. He exaggerates in speaking of the prodigious number of Jews in that city. He is full of marvellous and romantic stories. William de Rubruquis, a monk, was sent into Per
ic Tartary, and by the command of S. Louis king of France, about the year 1245. As was also Carpini, by Pope Innocent the fourth. Their books abound with improbabilities. Marco Polo a Venetian nobleman travelled eastward into Syria and Persia to the country constantly called in the dark ages Cathay, which proves to be the northern part of China. This was about the year 1260. His book is entitled
De R
gionibus Ori
ntis.
He mentions the immense and opulent city of Cambalu, undoubtedly Pekin. Hakluyt cites a friar; named Oderick, who travelled to Cambalu in Cathay, and whose description of that city corresponds exactly with Pekin. Friar Bacon about 1280, from these travels formed his geography of this part of the globe, as may be collected from what he relates of the Tartars. See Purchas Pilgr. iii. 52. And Bac. Op. Maj. 228. 235.
. At the court of the grand Khan, persons of all nations and religions, if they discovered any distinguished degree of abilities, were kindly entertained and often preferred..
In the Bodleian library we have a superb vellum manuscript, decorated with antient descriptive paintings and illuminations, entitled,
Histoire de Graunt Kaan et des
MERVEILLES DU MONDE
MSS. Bodl. F. 10. fol. praegrand. ad calc. Cod. The hand-writing is about the reign of Edward the third. I am not sure whether it is not Mandeville's book.
. The same work is among the royal manuscripts
Brit. Mus. MSS. Bibl. Reg. 19 D. i. 3.
. A Latin epistle, said to be translated from the Greek by Cornelius Nepos, is an extremely common manuscript, entitled,
De situ et Mirabilibus Indiae
It was first printed
à Jacobo Catalanensi
without date or place. Afterwards at Venice 1499. The Epistle is inscribed:
Alexander Magnus Aristo
eli praeceptori s
o salutem dicit.
It was never extant in Gree
.
. It is from Alexander the Great to his preceptor Aristotle: and the Greek original was most probably drawn from some of the fabulous authors of Alexander's story.
There is a manuscript, containing
La Chartre que Prestre Jehan maunda a Fredewik l' Empereur
DE MERVAILLES DE SA TERRE
Ibid. MSS. Reg. 20 A. xii. 3. And in Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Bodl. E. 4. 3.
"Literae Joannis Presbiteri ad Fredericum Imperatorem, &c."
. This was Frederick Barbarossa, emperor of Germany, or his successor; both of whom were celebrated for their many successful enterprises in the holy land, before the year 1230. Prester John, a christian, was emperor of India. I find another tract, DE MIRABILIBUS
Terrae Sanctae
MSS. Reg. 14 C. xiii. 3.
. A book of Sir John Mandeville, a famous traveller into the East about the year 1340, is under the title of
Mirabilia Mundi
MSS. C. C. C. Cant. A. iv. 69. We find
De Mirabilibus Mundi Liber,
MSS. Reg. ut supr. 13. E. ix. 5. And again,
De Mirabilibus Mundi et Viris illustribus Tractatus
14. C. vi. 3.
. His Itinerary might indeed have the same title
His book is supposed to have been interpolated by the monks. Leland observes, that Asia and Africa were parts of the world at this time,
"Anglis de sola fere nominis umbra cognitas."
Script. Br. p. 366. He wrote his Itinerary in French, English, and Latin. It extends to Cathay, or China, before mentioned. Leland says, that he gave to Beckett's shrine in Canterbury cathedral a glass globe enclosing an apple, which he probably brought from the east. Leland saw this curiosity, in which the apple remained fresh and undecayed. Ubi supr. Maundeville, on returning from his travels, gave to the high altar of S. Alban's abbey church a sort of Patera brought from Aegypt, now in the hands of an ingenious antiquary in London. He was a native of the town of S. Alban's, and a physician. He says that he left many MERVAYLES unwritten; and refers the curious reader to his MAPPA MUNDI, chap. cviii. cix. A history of the Tartars became popular in Europe about the year 1310, written or dictated by Aiton a king of Armenia, who having traversed the most remarkable countries of the east, turned monk at Cyprus, and published his travels; which, on account of the rank of the author, and his amazing adventures, gained great
ste
m.
. An English title in the Cotton library is,
"The Voiage and Travailes of Sir John Maundevile knight, which treateth of the way to Hierusaleme and of the MARVEYLES of Inde with other ilands and countryes."
In the Cotton library there is a piece with the title,
Sanctorum Loca,
MIRABILIA MUNDI, &c
Galb. A. xxi. 3.
. Afterwards the wonders of other countries were added: and when this sort of reading began to grow fashionable, Gyraldus Cambrensis composed his book
De
MIRABILIBUS
Hiberniae
It is printed among the
Scriptores Hist. Angl.
Francof. 1602. fol. 692. Written about the year 1200. It was so favourite a title that we have even De MIRABILIBUS
Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
MSS. Coll. Aen. Nas. Oxon. Cod. 12. f. 190. a.
. There is also another
De
MIRABILIBUS
Angliae
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. C. 6.
. At length the superstitious curiosity of the times was gratified with compilations under the comprehensive title of MIRABILIA
Hiberniae, Angliae, et Orientalis
As in MSS. Reg. 13 D. i. 11. I must not forget that the
Polyhistor
of Julius Solinus appears in many manuscripts under the title of
Solinus de Mirabilibus Mundi.
This was so favourite a book, as to be translated into hexameters by some monk in the twelfth century, according to Voss. Hist. Latin. iii. p. 721.
. But enough has been said of these infatuations. Yet the history of human credulity is a necessary speculation to those who trace the gradations of human knowledge. Let me add, that a spirit of rational enquiry into the topographical state of foreign countries, the parent of commerce and of a thousand improvements, took its rise from these visions.
I close this section with an elegy on the death of king Edward the first, who died in the year 1307.
I.
Alle that beoth of huert trewe
"Be of true heart."
A stounde herkneth to my songe
A little while.
,
Of duel that Dethe has dihte us newe.
That maketh me seke and sorewe amonge:
Of a knyht that wes so stronge
Of whom god hath done ys wille;
Methuncheth
Methinks.
that Deth has don us wronge
That he
The king.
so sone shall ligge stille.
II.
Al England ahte
Ought
for
to.
forte knowe:
Of whom that song ys that ysynge,
Of Edward kynge that ys so bolde,
Gent
Through. Sax. gent.
Yent.
al this world is nome con springe:
Trewest mon of al thinge,
Ant in werre ware and wise;
For hym we ahte our honden
Hands.
wrynge,
Of cristendome he bare the pris.
III.
Byfore that oure kynge was ded
He speke as mon that was in care
"Clerkes, knyhts, barrons, he sed
"Ycharge ou
You.
by oure sware
Oath.
"That ye be to Englonde trewe,
"Y deȝe
De
e. DEYE, die.
y ne may lyven na more;
"Helpeth mi sone, ant crowneth him newe,
"For he is
"Next, to be chosen."
nest to buen y-core.
IV.
"Iche biqueth myn hirte aryht,
"That hit be write at mi devys,
"Over the sea that Hue
One of his Officers.
be diht,
"With fourscore knyghtes al of pris,
"In werre that buen war aut wys,
"Agein the hethene for te fyhte,
"To wynne the croize that lowe lys,
"Myself ycholde gef thet y myhte.
V.
Kyng of Fraunce! thou hevedest sunne
Sin.
,
That thou the counsail woldest fonde,
To latte
Let,
hinder.
the wille of kyng Edward,
To wende to the holi londe;
Thet oure kynge hede take on honde,
All Engelond to
geme, protect.
ȝeme and wysse
Govern.
,
To wenden in to the holy londe
To wynnen us heveriche
Every.
blisse.
VI.
The messager to the pope com
And seyede that our kynge was dede
He died in Scotland, Jul. 7, 1307. The chroniclers pretend, that the Pope knew of his death the next day by a vision or some miraculous information. So Robert of Brunne, who recommends this tragical ev
nt to those who
"Singe and say in romance and ryme."
Chron. p. 340. edit. ut supr.
The Pope the tother day wist it in the court of Rome.
The Pope on the morn bifor the clergi cam
And tolde tham biforn, the floure of cristendam
Was ded and lay on bere, Edward of Ingeland.
He said with hevy chere, in spirit he it fond.
He adds, that the Pope granted five years of pardon to those who would pray for his soul.
,
Ys
In
his.
owne honde the lettre he nom
Took.
,
Ywis his herte wes ful gret:
The pope himself the lettre redde,
And spec a word of gret honour.
"Alas! he seid, is Edward ded?
"Of cristendome he ber the flour!"
VII.
The pope is to chaumbre wende
For dole ne mihte he speke na more;
Ant aftur cardinales he sende
That muche couthen of Cristes lore.
Both the lasse
Le
s.
ant eke the more
Bed hem both red ant synge:
Gret deol me
Men.
myhte se thore
There.
,
Many mon is honde wrynge.
VIII.
The pope of Peyters stod at is masse
With ful gret solempnete,
Ther me con
Began.
the soule blisse:
"Kyng Edward, honoured thou be:
"God love thi sone come after the,
"Bringe to
nde that thou hast bygonne,
"The holy crois ymade of tre
"So fain thou woldest hit have ywonne.
IX.
"Jerusalem, thou hast ilore
"The floure of al chivalrie,
"Now kyng Edward liveth na more,
"Alas, that he yet shulde deye!
"He wolde ha rered up ful heyge
"Our baners that bueth broht to grounde:
"Wel longe we may clepe
Call.
and crie,
"Er we such a kyng have yfounde!"
X.
Now is Edward of Carnarvan
Edward the second born in Carnarvon castle.
,
Kyng of Engelond al aplyht
Completely.
;
God lete hem ner be worse man
Then his fader ne lasse of myht,
To holden is pore man to ryht
And understende good counsail,
All Englond for to wysse and dyht
Of gode knightes darh
Thar, there.
hym nout fail.
XI.
Thah mi tonge were mad of stel
Ant min herte yzote of bras
The godness myht y never telle
That with kyng Edward was.
Kyng as thou art cleped conquerour
In vch battaile thou heedest prys,
Gode bringe thi soule to the honeur
That ever was and ever ys
MSS. Harl. 2253. f. 73. In a Miscellany called the
Muses Library,
compiled, as I have been informed, by an ingenious lady of the name of Cooper, there is an elegy on the death of Henry the first,
"wrote immediately after his death, the author unknown."
p. 4. Lond. Pr. for T. Davies, 1738. octavo. But this piece, which has great merit, could not have been written till some centuries afterwards. From the classical allusions and general colour of the phraseology, to say nothing more, it with greater probability belongs to Henry the eighth. It escaped me till just before this work went to press, that Dr. Percy had printed this elegy, Ball. ii. 9.
.
That the pope should here pronounce the funeral panegyric of Edward the first, is by no means surprising, if we consider the predominant ideas of the age. And in the true spirit of these ideas, the poet makes this illustrious monarch's atchievements in the holy land, his principal and leading topic. But there is a particular circumstance alluded to in these stanzas, relating to the crusading character of Edward, together with its consequences, which needs explanation. Edward, in the decline of life, had vowed a second expedition to Jerusalem: but finding his end approach, in his last moments he devoted the prodigious sum of thirty thousand pounds to provide one hundred and forty knights
The poet says eighty.
, who should carry his heart into Palestine. But this appointment of the dying king was never executed. Our elegist, and the chroniclers, impute the crime of witholding so pious a legacy to the advice of the king of France, whose daughter Isabel was married to the succeeding king. But it is more probable to suppose, that Edward the second, and his profligate minion Piers Gaveston, dissipated the money in their luxurious and expensive pleasures.
SECT. III.
WE have seen, in the preceding section, that the character of our poetical composition began to be changed about the reign of the first Edward: that either fictitious adventures were substituted by the minstrels in the place of historical and traditionary facts, or reality disguised by the misrepresentations of invention; and that a taste for ornamental and even exotic expression gradually prevailed over the rude simplicity of the native English phraseology. This change, which with our language affected our poetry, had been growing for some time; and among other causes was occasioned by the introduction and increase of the tales of chivalry.
The ideas of chivalry, in an imperfect degree, had been of old established among the Gothic tribes. The fashion of challenging to single combat, the pride of se
king dangerous adventures, and the spirit of avenging and protecting the fair sex, seem to have been peculiar to the northern nations in the most uncultivated state of Europe. All these customs were afterwards encouraged and confirmed by corresponding circumstances in the feudal constitution. At length the crusades excited a new spirit of enterprise, and introduced into the courts and ceremonies of European princes a higher degree of splendor and parade, caught from the riches and magnificence of eastern cities
I cannot help transcribing here a curious passage from old Fauchett. He is speaking of Louis the young, king of France about the year 1150.
"Le quel fut le premier roy de sa maison, qui monstra dehors ses richesses allant en Jerusalem. Aussi la France commença de son temps a s'embellir de bastimens plus magni
iques: prendre plaisir a pierrieres, et autres delicatesses goustus en L
vant par luy, ou les seigneurs qui avoient ja fait ce voyage. De sorte qu'on peut dire qu'il a este le premier tenant Cour de grand Roy: estant si magnifique, que sa femme dedaignant la simplicité de ses predecesseurs, luy fit elever une sepulture d'argent, au lieu de pierre."
RECUEIL de la Lang. et Poes. Fr. ch. viii. p. 76. edit. 1581.
He adds, that a great number of French romances were composed about this period.
. These oriental expeditions established a taste for hyperbolical description, and propagated an infinity of marvellous tales, which men returning from distant countries easily imposed on credulous and ignorant minds. The unparalleled emulation with which the nations of christendom universally embraced this holy cause, the pride with which emperors, kings, barons, earls, bishops, and knights strove to excel each other on this interesting occasion, not only in prowess and heroism, but in sumptuous equipages, gorgeous banners, armorial cognisances, splendid pavilions, and other expensive articles of a similar nature, diffused a love of war, and a fondness for military pomp. Hence their very diversions became warlike, and the martial enthusiasm of the times appeared in tilts and tournaments. These practices and opinions co-operated with the kindred superstitions of dragons
See Kircher's Mund. Subterran. viii. § 4. He mentions a knight of Rhodes made grand master of the order for killing a dragon, 1345.
, dwarfs, fairies, giants, and enchanters, which the traditions of the Gothic scalders had already planted; and produced that extraordinary species of composition which has been called ROMANCE.
Before these expeditions into the east became fashionable, the principal and leading subjects of the old fablers were the atchievements of king Arthur with his knights of the round table, and of Charlemagne with his twelve peers. But in the romances written after the holy war, a new set of champions, of conquests and of countries, were introduced. Trebizonde took place of Rouncevalles, and Godfrey of Bulloigne, Solyman, Nouraddin, the caliphs, the souldans, and the cities of Aegypt and Syria, became the favourite topics. The troubadours of Provence, an idle and unsettled race of men, took up arms, and followed their barons in prodigious multitudes to the conquest of Jerusalem. They made a considerable part of the houshold of the nobility of France. Louis the seventh, king of France, not only entertained them at his court very liberally, but commanded a considerable company of them into his retinue, when he took ship for Palestine, that they might solace him with their songs during the dangers and inconveniencies of so long a voyage
Velley, Hist. Fr. sub. an. 1178.
. The antient chronicles of France mention
Legions de poetes
as embarking in this wonderful enterprise
Massieu, Hist. Poes. Fr. p. 105. Many of the troubadours, whose works now exist, and whose names are recorded, accompanied their lords to the holy war. Some of the French nobility of the first rank were troubadours about the eleventh century: and the French critics with much triumph observe, that it is the GLORY of the French poetry to number
counts
and
dukes,
that is
sovereigns,
among its professors, from its commencement. What a glory! The worshipfull company of Merchant-taylors in London, if I recollect right, boast the names of many dukes, earls, and princes, enrolled in their community. This is indeed an honour to that otherwise respectable society. But poets can derive no lustre from counts, and dukes, or even princes, who have been enrolled in their lists; only in proportion as they have adorned the art by the excellence of their compositions.
. Here a new and more copious source of fabling was opened: in these expeditions they picked up numberless extravagant stories, and at their return enriched romance with an infinite variety of oriental scenes and fictions. Thus these later wonders, in some measure, supplanted the former: they had the recommendation of novelty, and gained still more attention, as they came from a greater distance
The old French historian Mezeray goes so far as to derive the origin of the French poetry and romances from the crusades. Hist. p. 416, 417.
.
In the mean time we should recollect, that the Saracens or Arabians, the same people which were the object of the crusades, had acquired an establishm
nt in Spain about the ninth century: and that by means of this earlier intercourse, many of their fictions and fables, together with their literature, must have been known in Europe before the christian armies invaded Asia. It is for this reason the elder Spanish romances have professedly more Arabian allusions than any other. Cervantes makes the imagined writer of Don Quixote's history an Arabian. Yet exclusive of their domestic and more immediate connection with this eastern people, the Spaniards from temper and constitution were extravagantly fond of chivalrous exercises. Some critics have supposed, that Spain having learned the art or fashion of romance-writing, from their naturalised guests the Arabians, communicated it, at an early period, to the rest of Europ
Hu
t in some measure adopts this opinion. But that learned man was a very incompetent judge of these matters. Under the common term
Romance,
he confounds romanc
s of chivalry, romances of gallantry, and all the fables of the Provencial poets. What can we think of a writer, who having touched upon the gothic romances, at whose
ictions and barbarisms he is much shocked, talks of the
co
summate d
gr
of art and elegance to which the French are at present arrived in romances?
He adds, that the superior refinem
nt and politess
of the French gallantry has happily given them an advantage of shining in thi
species of composition. Hist. Rom. p. 138. But the sophistry and ignorance of Huet's Treatise has been already detected and exposed by a critic of another cast, in the SUPPLEMENT TO JARVIS'S PREFACE, prefixed to the
Translation of Don Quixot
.
.
It has b
en imagined that the first romances were composed in metre, and sung to the harp by the poets of Provence at f
stival solemnities: but an ingenious Frenchman, who has made deep researches into this sort of literature, attempts to prove, that this mode of reciting romantic adventures was in high reputation among the natives of Normandy, above a century before the troubadours of Provence, who are generally supposed to have led the way to the poets of Italy, Spain, and France, commenced about the year 1162
Mons. L' Eveque de la Ravalerie, in his
Revolutions de Langue Françoise, à la suite des
POESIES DU ROI DE NAVARRE.
. If the critic means to insinuate, that the French troubadours acquired their art of versifying from these Norman bards, this reasoning will favour the system of those, who contend that metrical romances lineally took their rise from the historical odes of the Scandinavian scalds: for the Normans were a branch of the Scandinavian stock. But Fauchett, at the same time that he allows the Normans to have been fond of chanting the praises of their heroes in verse, expressly
"Ce que les Normans avoyent pris des François."
Rec. liv. i. p. 70. edit. 1581.
pronounces that they borrowed this practice from the Franks or French.
It is not my business, nor is it of much consequence, to discuss this obscure point, which properly belongs to the French antiquaries. I therefore proceed to observe, that our Richard the first, who began his reign in the year 1189, a distinguished hero of the crusades, a most magnificent patron of chivalry, and a Provencial poet
See Observations on Spenser, i. § i. p. 28. 29. And Mr. Walpole's Royal and Noble authors, i. 5. See also Rymer's
Short View of Tragedy,
ch. vii. p. 73. edit. 1693. Savarie de Mauleon, an English gentleman who lived in the service of Saint Louis king of France, and one of the Provencial poets, said of Richard,
Coblas a teira faire adroitement
Pou voz oillez enten dompna gentiltz.
"He could make stanzas on the eyes of gentle ladies."
Rymer, ibid. p. 74. There is a curious story recorded by the French chroniclers, concerning Richard's
kill in the minstrel art, which I will here relate.—Richard, in his return from the crusade, was taken prisoner about the year 1193. A whole year elapsed before the English knew where their monarch was imprisoned. Blondell de Nesle, Richard's favourite
instrel, resolved to find out his lord; and after travelling many days without success, at last came to a castle where Richard was detained in custody. Here he found that the castle belonged to the duke of Austria, and that a king was there imprisoned. Suspecting that the prisoner was his master, he found means to place himself directly before a window of the chamber where the king was kept; and in this situation began to sing a French chanson, which Richard and Blondell had formerly written together. When the king heard the song, he knew it was Blondell who sung it; and when Blondell paused after the first half of the song, the king began the other half and completed it. On this, Blondell returned home to England, and acquainted Richard's baro
s with the place of his imprisonment, from which he was soon afterwards released. See also Fauchett, Rec. p. 93. Richard lived long in Provence, where he acquired a taste for their poetry. The only relic of his sonnets is a small fragment in old French accurately cited by Mr. Walpole, and written during his captivity; in which he remonstrates to his men and barons of England, Normandy, Poictiers, and Gascony, that they suffered him to remain so long a prisoner. Catal. Roy. and Nob. Auth. i. 5. Nostradamus's account of Richard is full of false facts and anachronisms. Poet. Provenc. artic. RICHARD.
, invited to his court many minstrels or troubadours from France, whom he loaded with honours and rewards
"De regno Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat."
Rog. Hoved. Ric. i. p. 340. These gratuities were chiefly arms, cloaths, horses, and sometimes money.
. These poets imported into England a great multitude of their tales and songs; which before or about the reign of Edward the second became familiar and popular among our ancestors, who were sufficiently acquainted with the French language. The most early notice of a professed book of chivalry in England, as it should seem, appears under the reign of Henry the third; and is a curious and evident proof of the reputation and esteem in which this sort of composition was held at that period. In the revenue-roll of the twenty-first year of that king, there is an entry of the expence of silver clasps and studs for the king's great book of romances. This was in the year 1237. But I will give the article in its original dress.
"Et in firmaculis hapsis et clavis argenteis ad magnum librum ROMANCIS regis
Rot. Pip. an. 21. Henr. iii.
."
That this superb volume was in French, may be partly collected from the title which they gave it: and it is highly probable, that it contained the Romance of Richard the first, on which I shall enlarge below. At least the victorious atchievements of that monarch were so famous in the reign of Henry the second, as to be made the subject of a picture in the royal palace of Clarendon near Salisbury. A circumstance which likewise appears from the same antient record, under the year 1246.
"Et in camera regis subtus capellam regis apud Clarendon lambruscanda, et muro ex transverso illius camerae amovendo et hystoria Antiochiae in eadem depingenda cum DUELLO REGIS RICARDI
Rot. Pip. an. 36. Henr. iii. Richard the first performed great feats at the siege of Antioch in the crusade. The
Duellum
was another of his exploits among the Saracens. Compare Walpole's Anecd. Paint. i. 10. Who mentions a certain
great book
orrowed for the queen, written in French containing GESTA ANTIOCHIAE
et reg
m aliorum,
&c. This was in the year 1249. He adds, that there was a chamber in the old palace of Westminster painted with this history,
n the reign of Henry the third, and therefore called the ANTIOCH-CHAMBER: and another in the Tower.
."
To these anecdotes we may add, that in the royal library at Paris there is,
"Lancelot du Lac mis en Francois par Robert de Borron, du commandement d' Henri roi de Angleterre avec figures
Cod. 6783. fol. max. See Mont
auc. Catal. MSS. p. 785. a.
."
And the same manuscript occurs twice again in that library in three volumes, and in four volumes of the largest folio
See Montf. ibid.
. Which of our Henrys it was who thus commanded the romance of LANCELOT DU LAC to be translated into French, is indeed uncertain: but most probably it was Henry the third just mentioned, as the translator Robert Borron is placed soon after the year 1200
Among the infinite number of old manuscript French romances on this subject in the same noble repository, the learned Montfaucon recites,
"Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult traduit de Latin en François par Lucas chevalier sieur du chastel du Gast pres de Salisberi, Anglois, avec figures."
Cod. 6776. fol. max. And again,
"Livres de Tristan mis en François par Lucas chevalier sieur de chateau du Gat."
Cod. 6956. seq. fol. max. In another article, this translator the chevali
r Lucas, of whom I can give no account, is called Hu
or Hue. Cod. 6976. seq. Nor do I know of any castle, or place, of this name near Salisbury. See also Cod. 7174
.
But not only the pieces of the French minstrels, written in French, were circulated in England about this time; but translations of these pieces were made into English, which containing much of the French idiom, together with a sort of poetical phraseology before unknown, produced various innovations in our style. These translations, it is probable, were enlarged with additions, or improved with alterations of the story. Hence it was that Robert de Brunne, as we have already seen, complained of
strange
and
quaint
English, of the changes made in the story of SIR TRISTRAM, and of the liberties assumed by his cotemporary minstrels in altering facts and coining new phrases. Yet these circumstances enriched our tongue, and extended the circle of our poetry. And for what reason these fables were so much admired and encouraged, in preference to the languid poetical chronicles of Robert of Gloucester and Robert of Brunne, it is obvious to conjecture. The gallantries of chivalry were exhibited with new splendour, and the times were growing more refined. The Norman fashions were adopted even in Wales. In the year 1176, a splendid carousal, after the manner of the Normans, was given by a Welsh prince. This was Rhees ap Gryffyth king of South Wales, who at Christmas made a great feast in the castle of Cardigan, then called Aberteivi, which he ordered to be proclaimed throughout all Britain; and to
"which came many strangers, who were honourably received and worthily entertained, so that no man departed discontented. And among deeds of arms and other shewes, Rhees caused all the poets of Wales
In illustration of the argument pursued in the text we may observe, that about this time the English minstrels flourished with new honours and rewards. At the magnificent marriage of the countess of Holland, daughter of Edward the first, every king minstrel received xl. shillings. See Anstis Ord. Gart. ii. p. 303. And Dugd. Mon. i. 355. In the same reign a multitude of minstrels attended the ceremony of knighting prince Edward on the feast of Pentecost. They entered the hall, while the king was sitting at dinner surrounded with the new knights. Nic. Trivet. Annal. p. 342. edit. Oxon. The whole number knighted was two hundred and sixty-seven. Dugd. Bar. i. 80. b. Robert de Brunne says, this was the greatest royal feast since king Arthur's at Carleon: concerning which he adds,
"therof yit men
rime."
p. 332. In the wardrobe-roll of the same prince, under the year 1306, we have this
ntry.
"Will. Fox et Cradoco socio suo CANTATORIBUS cantantibus coram Principe et aliis magnatibus in comitiva sua existente apud London, &c. xx
s.
"
Again,
"Willo Ffox et Cradoco
ocio suo cantantibus in praesentia principis et al. Magnatum apud London de dono ejusdem dni p
r manus Johis de Ringwode, &c. 8. di
jan. xx
s.
"
Afterwards, in the same roll, four shillings are given,
"Ministr
llo comitissa
Mareschal. facienti menestral
iam suam coram principe, &c. in comi
iva sua exist
nt. apud Penreth."
Comp. Garderob. Edw. Princip. Wall. ann. 35. Edw. i. This I chiefly cite to shew the greatness of the gratuity. Minstrel
were part of the establishment of the houshold of our nobility before the year 1307. Thomas earl of Lancaster allows at Christmas, cloth, or
vestis liberata,
to his housholdminstrels at a great expence, in the year 1314. Stowe's Surv. Lond. p. 134. edit. 1618. See supr. p. 91. Soon afterwards the minstrels claimed such privileges that it was thought necessary to reform them by an edict, in 1315. See Hearne's Append. Leland. Collectan. vi. 36. Yet, as I have formerly remarked in OBSERVATIONS ON Spenser's FAIERIE QUEENE, we find a person in the character of a minstrel entering Westminster-hall on horseback while Edward the second was solemnizing the feast of
P
ntecost
as above, and presenting a letter to the king. See Walsing. Hist
Angl. Franc. p. 109.
to come thither: and provided chairs for them to be set in his hall, where they should dispute together to try their cunning and gift in their several faculties, where great rewards and rich giftes were appointed for the overcomers
Powell's Wales, 237. edit. 1584. Who adds, that the bards of
"Northwales won the prize, and amonge the musicians Rees's owne houshold men were counted best."
Rhees was one of the Welsh princes who, the preceding year, attended the parliament at Oxford, and were magnificently entertained in the castle of th
city by Henry the second. Lord Lyttelton's Hist. Hen. ii. edit. iii. p. 302. It may not be foreign to our present purpose to mention here, that Henry the second, in the year 1179, was entertained by Welsh bards at Pembroke castle in Wales in his passage into Ireland. Powell, ut supr. p. 238. The subject o
their songs was the history of king Arthur. See Selden on POLYOLB. s. iii. p. 53.
."
Tilts and tournaments, after a long disuse
were revived with superiour lustre in the reign of Edward the first. Roger earl of Mortimer, a magnificent baron of that reign, erected in his stately castle of Kenelwo
th a Round Table, at which he restored the rites of king Arthur. He entertained in this castle the constant retinue of one hundred knights, and as many ladies; and invited thither adventurers in chivalry from every part of christendom
Drayton's Heroic. Epist. MORT. ISABEL
. 53. And Notes ibid. from Walsingham.
. These fables were therefore an image of the manners, customs, mode of life, and favourite amusements, which now prevailed, not only in France but in England, accompanied with all the decorations which fancy could invent, and recommended by the graces of romantic fiction. They complimented the ruling passion of the times, and cherished in a high degree the fashionable sentiments of ideal honour, and fantastic fortitude.
Among Richard's French minstrels, the names only of three are recorded. I have already m
ntioned Blondell de Nesle. Fouqu
t of Marseilles, and Ans
lme Fayditt, many of whose compositions still remain, were also among the poets patronised and entertained in England by Richard. They are both celebrated and sometimes imitated by Dante and Petrarch. Fayditt, a native of Avignon, united the professions of music and verse; and the Provencials used to call his poetry
de bon mots e de bon son.
Petrarch is supposed to have copied, in his TRIUMFO DI AMORE, many strokes of high imagination, from a poem written by Fayditt on a similar subject: particularly in his description of the Palace of Love. But Petrarch has not left Fayditt without his due panegyric: he says that Fayditt's tongue was shield, helmet, sword, and spear
Triunf. Am. c. iv.
. He is likewise in Dante's Paradise. Fayditt was extremely profuse and voluptuous. On the death of king Richard, he travelled on foot for near twenty years, seeking his fortune; and during this long pilgrimage he married a nun of Aix in Provence, who was young and lively, and could accompany her husband's tales and sonnets with her voice. Fouquett de Marseilles had a beautiful person, a ready wit, and a talent for singing: these popular accomplishments recommended him to the courts of king Richard, Raymond count of Tholouse, and Beral de Baulx; where, as the French would say,
il fit les delices de cour.
He fell in love with Adelasia the wife of Beral, whom he celebrated in his songs. One of his poems is entitled,
Las complanchas de Beral.
On the death of all his lords, he received absolution for his sin of poetry, turned monk, and at length was made archbishop of Tholouse
See Beauchamps, Recherch. Theatr. Fr. Paris, 1735. p. 7. 9. It was Jeffrey, Richard's brother, who patronised Jeffrey Rudell, a famous troubadour of Provence, who is also celebrated by Petrarch. This poet had heard, from the adventurers in the crusades, the beauty of a countess of Tripoly highly extolled. He became enamoured from imagination: embarked for Tripoly, fell
ick in the voyage through the fever of expectation, and was brought on shore at Tripoly half expiring. The countess, having received the news of the arrival of this gallant stranger, hastened to the shore and took him by the hand. He opened his eyes; and at once overpowered by his disease and her kindness, had just time to say inarticulately, that
having seen her he died satisfied.
The countess made him a most splendid funeral, and erected to his memory a tomb of porphyry, inscribed with an epitaph in Arabian verse. She commanded his sonnets to be richly copied and illuminated with letters of gold; was seized with a pro
ound melancholy, and turned nun. I will endeavour to translate one of the sonnets which he made on his voyage.
Yrat
t dolent m'en partray,
&c. It has some pathos and sentiment,
"I should depart pensive, but for this love of mine
so far away;
for I know not what difficulties I have to encounter, my native land being
so far away.
Thou who hast made all things, and who formed this love of mine
so far away,
give me strength of body, and then I may hope to see this love of mine
so far away.
Surely my love must be founded on true merit, as I love one
so far away!
If I am easy for a moment, yet I fe
l a thousand pains for her who is
so far away.
No other love ever touched my heart than this for her
so far away.
A fairer than she never touched any heart, either near, or
far away.
"
Every fourth line ends with
du luench.
See Nostradamus, &c.
. But among the many French minstrels invited into England by Richard, it is natural to suppose, that some of them made their magnificent and heroic patron a principal subject of their compositions
Fayditt is said to have written a
Chant sunebre
on his death. Beauchamps, ib. p. 10.
. And this subject, by means of the constant communication between both nations, probably became no less fashionable in France: especially if we take into the account the general popularity of Richard's character, his love of chivalry, his gallantry in the crusades, and the favours which he so liberally conferred on the minstrels of that country. We have a romance now remaining in English rhyme, which celebrates the atchievements of this illustrious monarch. It is entitled RICHARD CUER DU LYON, and was probably translated from the French about the period above-mentioned. That it was, at least, translated from the French, appears from the Prologue.
In Fraunce these rymes were wroht,
Every Englyshe ne knew it not.
From which also we may gather the popularity of his story, in these lines.
King Richard is the beste
This agrees with what Hoveden says, ubi supr.
"Dicebatur ubique quod non erat talis in orbe."
That is found in any geste
Impr. for W. C. 4to. It contains Sign. A. 1.—Q. iii. There is another edition impr. W. de Worde, 4to. 1528. There is a manuscript copy of it in Caius College at Cambridge, A. 9.
.
That this romance, either in French or English, existed before the year 1300, is evident from its being cited by Robert of Gloucester, in his relation of Richard's reign.
In
Romance
of him imade me it may finde iwrite
Chron. p. 487.
.
This tale is also mentioned as a romance of some antiquity among other famous romances, in the prologue of a voluminous metrical translation of Guido de Colonna, attributed to Lidgate
Many speken of men that romaunces rede, &c.
Of Bevys, Gy, and Gawayne,
Of KYNG RYCHARD, and Owayne,
Of Tristram, and Percyvayle,
Of Rowl
d ris, and Aglavaule,
Of Archeroun, and of Octavian,
Of Charles, and of Cassibedlan,
Of Keveloke, Horne, and of Wade,
In romances that of hem bi made
That gestours dos of him gestes
At mangeres and at great festes,
Here d
dis ben in remembraunce,
In many sair romaunce.
But of the worthiest wyght in wede,
That ever bystrod any strede
Spek
s no man, ne in romaunce redes,
Off his battayle ne of his d
des;
Off that battayle spekes no man,
There all prowes of knyghtes began,
Thet was forsothe of the batayle
Thet at TROYE was saunfayle,
Of swythe a fyght as ther was one, &c.—
Ffor ther were in thet on side,
Sixti kynges and dukes of pride.—
And there was the best bodi in dede
Thet ever yit wered wed
,
Sithen the world was made so ferre,
That was ECTOR in eche werre, &c.
Laud K. 76. f. 1. fol. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Cod. membr. Whether this poem was written by Lidgate, I shall not enquire at present. I shall only say here, that it is totally different from eith
r of Lidgate's two poems on the THEBAN and TROJAN WARS; and that the manuscript, which is beautifully written, appears to be of the age of Henry the sixth.
. It is likewise frequently quoted by Robert de Brunne, who wrote much about the same time with Robert of Gloucester.
Whan Philip tille Acres cam litelle was his dede,
The ROMANCE sais gret sham who so that pas
PASSUS. Compare Percy's Ball. ii. 66. 398. edit. 1767.
wil rede.
The ROMANCER it sais Richard did make a pele
p. 157.
.—
The ROMANCE of Richard sais he wan the toun
Ibid.
.—
He tellis in the ROMANCE sen Acres wonnen was
How God gaf him fair chance at the bataile of Caifas
P. 175.
.—
Sithen at Japhet was slayn fanuelle his stede
The ROMANS tellis gret pas of his douhty dede
P. 175.
.—
Soudan so curteys never drank no wyne,
The same the ROMANS sais that is of Richardyn
P. 188.
.
In prisoun was he bounden, as the ROMANCE sais,
In cheynes and lede wonden that hevy was of peis
p. 198.
.—
I am not indeed quite certain, whether or no in some of these instances, Robert de Brunne may not mean his French original Peter Langtoft. But in the following lines he mani
estly refers to our romance of RICHARD, between which and Langtoft's chronicle he expressly makes a distinction. And in the conclusion of the reign,
I knowe no more to ryme of dedes of kyng Richard:
Who so wille his dedes all the sothe se,
The
romance
that men reden ther is propirte.
This that I have said it is Pers sawe
"The words of my original
Peter Langtoft.
"
.
Als he in romance
In French.
lad ther after gan I drawe
p. 205. Du Cange recites an old French manuscript prose romance, entitled
Histoire de la Mort de Richard Roy d'Angleterre.
Gloss. Lat. IND. AUCT. i. p. cxci. There was one, perhaps the same, among the manuscripts of the late Mr. Martin of Palgrave in Suffolk.
.
It is not improbable that both these rhyming chroniclers cite from the English translation: if so, we may fairly suppose that this romance was translated in the reign of Edward the first, or his predecessor Henry the third. Perhaps earlier. This circumstance throws the French original to a still higher period.
In the royal library at Paris, there is
"Histoire de Richard Roi d'Angleterre et de Maquemore d'Irlande en rime
Num. 7532.
."
Richard is the last of our monarchs whose atchievements were adorned with fiction and fable. If not a superstitious belief of the times, it was an hyperbolical invention started by the minstrels, which soon grew into a tradition, and is gravely recorded by the chroniclers, that Richard carried with him to the crusades king Arthur's celebrated sword CALIBURN, and that he presented it as a gift, or relic, of inestimable value to Tancred king of Sicily, in the year 1191
In return for several vessels of gold and silver, horses, bales of silk, four great ships, and fifteen gallies, given by Tancred. Benedict. Abb. p. 642. edit. Hearne.
. Robert of Brunne calls this sword a
jewel
Jocale.
In the general and true sense of the word. Robert de Brunne, in another place, calls a rich pavilion a
jowelle.
p. 152.
.
And Richard at that time gaf him a faire juelle,
The gude swerd CALIBURNE which Arthur luffed so well
Chron. p. 153.
.
Indeed the Arabian writer of the life of the sultan Saladin, mentions some exploits of Richard almost incredible. But, as lord Lyttelton justly observes, this historian is highly valuable on account of the knowledge he had of the facts which he relates. It is from this writer we learn, in the most authentic manner, the actions and negotiations of Richard in the course of the enterprise for the recovery of the holy land, and all the particulars of that memorable war
See Hist. of Hen. ii. vol. iv. p. 361. App.
.
But before I produce a specimen of Richard's English romance, I stand still to give some more extracts from its Prologues, which contain matter much to our present purpose: as they have very fortunately preserved the subjects of many romances, perhaps metrical, then fashionable both in France and England. And on these therefore, and their origin, I shall take this opportunity of offering some remarks.
Many romayns men make newe
Of good knightes and of trewe:
Of ther dedes men make romauns,
Both in England and in Fraunce;
Of
Rowland
and of
Olyvere,
And of everie
Dosepere
Charlemagne's Tw
lve peers.
Douze Pairs.
Fr.
,
Of
Alysaundre
and
Charlemayne,
Of kyng
Arthur
and of
Gawayne;
How they wer knyghtes good and courtoys,
Of
Turpin
and of
Oger
the Danois.
Of
Troye
men rede in ryme,
Of
Hector
and of
Achilles,
What folk they slewe in pres, &c
Fol. 1. a.
.
And again in a second Prologue, after a pause has been made by the minstrel in the course of singing the poem.
Herkene now how my tale gothe
Though I swere to you no othe
I wyll you rede romaynes none
Ne of
Perhaps Parthenope, or Parthenopeus.
Pertonape,
ne of
Ypomedon,
Ne of
Alisaunder,
ne of
Charlemayne,
Ne of
Arthur,
ne of
Gawayne,
Ne of
Lancelot du Lake,
Ne of
Bevis,
ne of
Guy
of
Sydrake
Read,
"ne of
Guy
ne of
Sydrake."
Ne of
Ury,
ne of
Octavian,
Ne of
Hector
the strong man,
Ne of
Jason,
neither of
Achilles,
Ne of
Eneas,
neither
Hercules
Signat. P. iii. To some of these romances the author of the manuscript LIVES OF THE SAINTS, written about the year 1200, and cited above at large, alludes in a sort of prologue. See SECT. i. p. 14. supr.
Wel auht we loug cristendom that is so dere y bougt,
With oure lorde's herte blode that the spere hath y sougt.
Men wilnethe more yhere of batayle of kyngis,
And of knygtis hardy, that mochel is l
syngis.
Of
Roulond
and of
Olyvere,
and
Gy of Warwyk,
Of
Waway
n
and
Tristram
that ne foundde her
y like.
Who so loveth to here tales of suche thinge,
Here he may y here thyng that nys no lesynge,
Of postoles and marteres that hardi knygttes were,
And stedfast were in bataile and fledde nogt for no fere, &c.
The anonymous author of an antient manuscript poem, called
"The boke of Stories, called
CURSOR MUNDI,
"
translated from the French, seems to have been of the same opinion. His work consists of religious legends: but in the prologue he takes occasion to mention many tales of another kind, which were more agreeable to the generality of readers. MSS. Laud, K. 53. f. 117. Bibl. Bodl.
Men lykyn Jestis for to here
And romans rede in divers manere
Of
Alexandre
the conquerour,
Of
Julius Cesar
the emperour,
Of
Gr
ece
and
Troy
the strong stryf,
Ther many a man lost his lyf:
Of
Brut
that baron bold of hand
The first conquerour of Englond,
Of kyng
Art
ur
that was so ryche,
Was non in hys tyme so ilyche:
Of wonders that among his knyghts
elle,
And auntyrs dedyn as men her telle,
As
Gaweyn
and othir full abylle
Which that kept the round tabyll,
How kyng
Charles
and
Rowland
fawght
With Sarazins, nold thei be cawght;
Of
Trystram
and
Ys
ude
the swete,
How thei with love first gan mete.
Of kyng
John
and of
Isenbras
Of
Ydoyne
and
Amadas.
Stories of divers thynges
Of princes, prelates, and kynges,
Many songs of divers ryme
As English, French, and Latyne, &c.
This ylke boke is translate
Into English tong to rede
For the love of English lede
Ffor comyn folk of England, &c.
Syldyn yt ys for any chaunce
English tong preched is in Fraunce, &c.
See Montf. Par. MSS. 7540. And p. 119. supr.
.
Here, among others, some of the most capital and favourite stories of romance are mentioned, Arthur, Charlemagne, the Siege of Troy with its appendages, and Alexander the Great: and there are four authors of high esteem in the dark ages, Geoffry of Monmouth, Turpin, Guido of Colonna, and Callisthenes, whose books were the grand repositories of these subjects, and contained most of the traditionary fictions, whether of Arabian or classical origin, which constantly supplied materials to the writers of romance. I shall speak of these authors, with their subjects, distinctly.
But I do not mean to repeat here what has been already observed
See Diss. i.
concerning the writings of Geoffry of Monmouth and Turpin. It will be sufficient to say at present, that these two fabulous historians recorded the atchievements of Charlemagne and of Arthur: and that Turpin's history was artfully forged under the name of that archbishop about the year 1110, with a design of giving countenance to the crusades from the example of so high an authority as Charlemagne, whose pretended visit to the holy sepulchre is described in the twentieth chapter.
As to the Siege of Troy, it appears that both Homer's poems were unknown, at least not understood in Europe, from the abolition of literature by the Goths in the fourth century, to the fourteenth. Geoffry of Monmouth indeed, who wrote about the year 1160, a man of learning for that age, produces Homer in attestation of a fact asserted in his history: but in such a manner, as shews that he knew little more than Homer's name, and was but imperfectly acquainted with Homer's subject. Geoffry says, that Brutus having ravaged the province of Acquitain with fire and sword, came to a place where the city of Tours now stands,
as Homer testifies
L. i. ch. 14.
. But the Trojan story was still kept alive in two Latin pieces, which passed under the names of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis. Dares's history of the destruction of Troy, as it was called, pretended to have been translated from the Greek of Dares Phrygius into Latin prose by Cornelius Nepos, is a wretched performance, and forged under those specious names in the decline of Latin literature
In the Epistle prefixed, the pretended translator Nepos says, that he found this work at Athens, in the hand-writing of Dares. He adds, speaking of the controverted authenticity of Homer,
De
a re At
enis
JUDICIUM
uit, cum pro insano Homerus haberetur quod deos cum hominibus belligerasse descrip
it.
In which words he does not refer to any public decree of the Athenian judges, but to Plato's opinion in his REPUBLIC. Dares, with Dictys Cretensis next mentioned in the text, was first printed at Milan in 1477. Mabillon says, that a manuscript of the Pseudo-Dares occurs in the Laurentian library at Florence, upwards of eight hundred years old. Mus. Ital. i. p. 169. This work was abridged by Vincentius Bellovacensis, a friar of Burgundy, about the year 1244. See his Specul. Histor. lib. iii. 63.
. Dictys Cretensis is a prose Latin history of the Trojan war, in six books, paraphrased about the reign of Dioclesian or Constantine by one Septimius, from some Grecian history on the same subject, said to be discovered under a sepulchre by means of an earthquake in the city of Cnossus, about the time of Nero, and to have been composed by Dictys, a Cretan, and a soldier in the Trojan war. The fraud of discovering copies of books in this extraordinary manner, in order to infer from thence their high and indubitable antiquity, so frequently practised, betrays itself. But that the present Latin Dictys had a Greek original, now lost, appears from the numerous grecisms with which it abounds: and from the literal correspondence of many passages with the Greek fragments of one Dictys cited by antient authors. The Greek original was very probably forged under the name of Dictys, a traditionary writer on the subject, in the reign of Nero, who is said to have been fond of the Trojan story
See Perizon. Dissertat. de Dict. Cretens. sect. xxix. Constantinus Lascaris, a learned monk of Constantinople, one of the restorers of Grecian literature in Europe near four hundred years ago, says that Dictys Cretensis in Greek was lost. This writer is not once mentioned by Eustathius, who lived about the year 1170, in his elaborate and extensive commentary on Homer.
. On the whole, the work appears to have been an arbitrary metaphrase of Homer, with many fabulous interpolations. At length Guido de Colonna, a native of Messina in Sicily, a learned civilian, and no contemptible Italian poet, about the year 1260, engrafting on Dares and Dictys many new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction easily admitted; at the same time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic stories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus
The Argonautics of Valerius Flaccus are cited in Chaucer's
Hypsipile and Medea.
"Let him reade the boke Argonauticon."
v. 90. But Guido is afterwards cited as a writer on that subject, ibid. 97. Valerius Flaccus is a common manuscript. See pag. 133. infr.
, compiled a grand prose romance in Latin, containing fifteen books, and entitled in most manuscripts
Historia de Bello Trojano
It was first printed Argentorat, 1486. and ibid. 1489. fol. The work was finished, as appears by a note at the end, in 1287. It was translated into Italian by Philip or Christopher Ceffio, a Florentine, and this translation was first printed at Venice in 1481. 4to. It has also been translated into German. See Lambec. ii. 948. The purity of our author's Italian style has been much commended. For his Italian poetry, see Mongitor, ubi supr. p. 167. Compare also, Diar. Eruditor. Ital. xiii. 258. Montfaucon mentions, in the royal library at Paris,
Le
ROMAN
de Ti
bes qui futracine de Troy
la grande.
Catal. MSS. ii. p. 923—198.
. It was written at the request of Mattheo de Porta, archbishop of Salerno. Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis seem to have been in some measure superseded by this improved and comprehensive history of the Grecian heroes: and from this period Achilles, Jason, and Hercules, were adopted into romance, and celebrated in common with Lancelot, Rowland, Gawain, Oliver, and other christian champions, whom they so nearly resembled in the extravagance of their adventures
Bale says, that Edward the first, having met with our author in Sicily, in returning from Asia, invited him into England, xiii. 36. This prince was interested in the Trojan story, as we shall see below. Our historians relate, that he wintered in Sicily in the year 1270. Chron. Rob. Brun. p. 227. A writer quoted by Hearne, supposed to be John Stowe the chronicler, says, that
"Guido de Columpna arriving in England
at the commaundement of king Edward the firste,
made scholies and annotations upon Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrigius. Besides these, he writ at large the Battayle of Troye."
Heming. Cartul. ii. 649. Among his works is recited
Historia de Regibus Rebusque Angliae.
It is quoted by many writers under the title of
Chronicum Britannorum.
He is said also to have written
Chronicum Magnum libris
xxxvi. See Mongitor. Bibl. Sic. i. 265.
. This work abounds with oriental imagery, of which the subject was extremely susceptible. It has also some traites of Arabian literature. The Trojan horse is a horse of brass; and Hercules is taught astronomy, and the seven liberal sciences. But I forbear to enter at present into a more particular examination of this history, as it must often occasionally be cited hereafter. I shall here only further observe in general, that this work is the chief source from which Chaucer derived his ideas about the Trojan story; that it was professedly paraphrased by Lydgate, in the year 1420, into a prolix English poem, called the
Boke of Troye
Who mentions it in a French as well as Latin. edit. 1555. Signat. B. i. pag. 2.
As in the latyn and the frenshe yt is. It occurs in French, MSS. Bibl. Reg. Brit. Mus. 16 F. ix. This manuscript was probably written not long after the year 1300.
, at the command of king Henry the fifth; that it became the ground-work of a new compilation in French, on the same subject, written by Raoul le Feure chaplain to the duke of Burgundy, in the year 1464, and partly translated into English prose in the year 1471, by Caxton, under the title of the
Recuyel of the histories of Troy,
at the request of Margaret dutchess of Burgundy: and that from Caxton's book afterwards modernised, Shakespeare borrowed his drama of
Troilus and Cressida
The western nations, in early times, have been fond of deducing their origin from Troy. This tradition seems to be couched under Odin's original emigration from that part of Asia which is connected with Phrygia. Asgard, or
Asia's
ortr
ss,
was the city from which Odin led his colony; and by some it is called Troy. To this place also they supposed Odin to return after his death, where he was to receive those who died in battle, in a hall roofed with glittering shields. See Bartholin. L. ii. cap. 8. p. 402, 403. seq. This hall, says the Edda, is in the city of Asgard, which is called the
Fi
ld of Ida.
Bartholin. ibid. In the very sublime ode on the Dissolution of the World, cited by Bartholine, it is said, that after the twilight of the gods should be ended, and the new world appear,
the Asae shall meet in the field of Ida, and tell of the destroyed habitations.
Barthol. L. ii. cap. 14. p. 597. Compare Arngrim. Jon. Crymog, l. i. c. 4. p. 45, 46. See also Edda,
ab. 5. In the proem to Resenius's Edda, it is said,
"Odin appointed twelve judges or princes, at Sigtune in Scandinavia, as at TROY; and established there all the laws of TROY, and the customs of the TROJANS."
See Hickes. Thesaur. i. Dissertat. Epist. p. 39. See also Mallett's Hist. Dannem. ii. p. 34. Bartholinus thinks, that the compiler of the Eddic mythology, who lived A. D. 1070, finding that the Britons and Francs drew their descent from Troy, was ambitious of assigning the same boasted origin to Odin. But this tradition appears to have been older than the Edda. And it is more probable, that the Britons and Francs borrowed it from the Scandinavian Goths, and adapted it to themselves; unless we suppose that these nations, I mean the former, were branches of the Gothic stem, which gave them a sort of inherent right to the claim. This reasoning may perhaps account for the early existence and extraordinary popularity of the Trojan story among nations ignorant and illiterate, who could only have received it by tradition. Geoffry of Monmouth took this descent of the Britons from Troy, from the Welsh or Armoric bards, and they perhaps had it in common with the Scandinavian scalders. There is not a syllable of it in the authentic historians of England, who wrote before him; particularly those antient ones, Bede, Gildas, and the uninterpolated Nennius. Henry of Huntingdon began his history from
Caesar;
and it w
s only on further information that he added
Brute.
But this information was from a manuscript found by him in his way to Rome in the abbey of Bec in Normandy, probably Geoffry's original.
H. Hunt. Epistol. ad Warin.
MSS. Cantabr. Bibl. publ. cod. 251. I have mentioned in another place, that Witlaf, a king of the West Saxons, grants in his charter, dated A. D. 833, among other things, to Croyland-abbey, his robe of tissue, on which was embroidered
The Destruction of Troy.
Obs. on Spenser's Fairy Queen, i. sect. v. p. 176. This proves the story to have been in high veneration even long before that period: and it should at the same time be remembered, that the Saxons came from Scandinavia.
This fable of the descent of the Britons from the Trojans was solemnly alledged as an authentic and undeniable proof in a controversy of great national importance, by Edward the first and his nobility, without the least objection from the opposite party. It was in the famous dispute concerning the subjection of the crown of England to that of Scotland, about the year 1301. The allegations are in a letter to pope Bonifa
, signed and sealed by the king and his lords. Ypodigm. Neustr. apud Camd. Angl. Norman. p. 492. Here is a curious instance of the implicit faith with which this tradition continued to be believed, even in a more enlightened age
and an evidence that it was equally credited in Scotland.
.
Proofs have been given, in the two prologues just cited, of the general popularity of Alexander's story, another branch of Grecian history famous in the dark ages. To these we may add the evidence of Chaucer.
Alisaundres storie is so commune,
That everie wight that hath discrecioune
Hath herde somewhat of or al of his fortune
V. 656. p. 165. Urr. ed.
.
And in the
House of Fame,
Alexander is placed with Hercules
V. 323.
. I have already remarked, that he was celebrated in a Latin poem by Gualtier de Chatillon, in the year 1212
See Second Dissertation.
. Other proofs will occur in their proper places
In the reign of Henry the first, the sheriff of Nottinghamshire is ordered to procure the queen's chamber at Nottingham to be painted with the HISTORY of ALEXANDER. Madox, Hist. Exch. p. 249—259.
"Depingi facias HISTORIAM ALEXANDRI undiquaque."
In the Romance of Richard, the minstrell says of an army assembled at a siege in the holy land, Sign. Q. iii.
Covered is both mount and playne,
Kyng ALYSAUNDER and Charlemayne
He never had halfe the route
As is the city now aboute.
By the way, this is much like a passage in Milton, Par. Reg. iii. 337.
Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
When Agrican, &c.
. The truth is, Alexander was the most eminent knight errant of Grecian antiquity. He could not therefore be long without his romance. Callisthenes, an Olinthian, educated under Aristotle with Alexander, wrote an authentic life of Alexander
See Recherch. sur la Vie et les ouvrages de Callisthene. Par M. l'Abbe Sevin. Mem. de Lit. viii. p. 126. 4to. But many very antient Greek writers had corrupted Alexander's history with fabulous narratives, such as Orthagoras, Onesicritus, &c.
. This history, which is frequently referred to by antient writers, has been long since lost. But a Greek life of this hero, under the adopted name of Callisthenes, at present exists, and is no uncommon manuscript in good libraries
Particularly Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. MSS. Barocc. Cod. xvii. And Bibl. Reg. Paris. Cod. 2064. See Montfauc. Catal. MSS. p. 733. See passages cited from this manuscript, in Steph. Byzant. Abr. Berckel. V.
. Caesar Bulenger de Circo, c. xiii. 30, &c. And Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiv. 148. 149. 150. It is adduced by Du Cange, Glossar. Gr. ubi vid. Tom. ii. Catal. Scriptor. p. 24.
. It is entitled,
. That is,
The Life and Actions of Alexander the Macedonian
Undoubtedly many smaller histories, now in our libraries were formed from this greater work.
. This piece was written in Greek, being a translation from the Persic, by Simeon Seth, styled
Magister,
and protovestiary or wardrobe keeper of the palace of Antiochus at Constantinople
,
Protovestiarius.
See du Cange, Constantinop. Christ. lib. ii. § 16. n. 5. Et and Zonar. p. 46.
, about the year 1070, under the emperor Michael Ducas
Allat. de Simeonibus. p. 181. And Labb. Bibl. nov. MSS. p. 115. Sim
on Seth translated many Persic and Arabic books into Greek. Allat. ubi supr. p. 182. seq. Among them he translated from Arabic into Greek, about the year 1100, for the use or at the request of the emperor Alexius Commenus, the celebrated Indian Fables now commonly called the
Fables of Pilpay.
This work he entitled,
, and divided it into fifteen books. It was printed at Berlin, by
eb. Godfr. Starchius, A. D. 1697. 8vo. Under the title,
. These are the names of two African or Asiatic animals, called in Latin
Thoes,
a sort of fox, the principal interlocutors in the fable
. Sect. i. ii. This curious monument of a species of instruction peculiar to the orientals, is upwards of two thousand years old. It has passed under a great vari
ty of names. Khosru a king of Persia, in whose reign Mahomet was born, sent his physician named Burzvisch into India, on purpose to obtain this book, which was carefully preserved among the treasures of the kings of India: and commanded it to be translated out of the Indian language into the antient Persic. H
belot. Dict. Oriental. p. 456. It was soon afterwards turned into Syriac, under the title
C
laileg
and
Damnag.
Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vi. p. 461. About the year of Christ 750, one of the caliphs ordered it to be translated from the antient Persic into Arabic, under the name
Kalila ve Damna.
Herbel. ubi supr. In the year 920, the Sultan Ahmed, of the dynasty of the Samanides, procured a translation into more modern Persic: which was soon afterwards put into verse by a celebrated Persian poet named Roudeki. Herbel. ibid. Fabric. ibid. p. 462. About the year 1130, the Sultan Bahram, not satisfied with this Persian version, ordered another to be executed by Nasrallah, the most eloquent man of his age, from the Arabic text of Mocanna: and this Persian version is what is now extant under the title
Kalila ve Damna.
Herbel. ibid. See also Herbel. p. 118. But as even this last-mentioned version had too many Arabic idioms and obsolete phrases, in the reign of Sultan Hosein Mirza, it was thrown into a more modern and intelligible style, under the name of
Anuar So
eli.
Fraser's Hist. Nad. Shaw. Catal. MSS. p. 19. 20. Nor must it be forgotten, that about the year 1100, the Emir Sohail, general of the armies of Hussain, Sultan of Khorassan of the posterity of Timer, caused a new translation to be made by the doctor Hussien Vaez, which exceeded all others in elegance and perspicuity. It was named
Anwair So
aili,
SPLENDOR
Can
pi,
from the Emir who was called after the name of that star. Herbel. p. 118. 245. It would be tedious to mention every new title and improvement which it has passed through among the eastern people. It has been translated into the Turkish language both in prose and verse: particularly for the use of Bajazet the second and Solyman the second. Herbel. p. 118. It has been also translated into Hebrew, by Rabbi Joel: and into Latin, under the title
Directorium Vitae humanae,
by Johannes of Capua. [fol. sine ann.] From thence it got into Spanish, or Castilian: and from the Spanish was made an Italian version, printed at Ferrara, A. D. 1583. oct. viz.
Lelo Damno
[for
Calilah u Damna
] del Governo de regni, sotto morali,
&c. A second edition appeared at Ferrara in 1610. oct. viz.
Philosophia moral
del doni,
&c. But I have a notion there was an Italian edition at Venice, under the last-mentioned title, with old rude cuts, 1552. 4to. From the Latin version it was translated into German, by the command of Eberhard first duke of Wirtenberg: and this translation was printed at Ulm, 1583. fol. At Strasburgh, 1525. fol. Without name of place, 1548. 4to. At Francfourt on the Mayne, 1565. oct. A French translation by Gilb. Gaulmin from the Persic of Nasrallah above-mentioned appeared at Paris, 1698. But this is rather a paraphrase, and was reprinted in Holland. See Starchius, ubi supr. praef. §. 19. 20. 22. Fabric
bi supr. p. 463. seq. Another translation was printed at Paris, viz.
"Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et De Lokman traduits d'Ali Tchelchi-Bengalek auteur Turc, par M. Galland, 1714."
ii vol. Again, Paris, 1724. ii vol. Fabricius says, that Mons. Galland had procured a Turkish copy of this book four times larger than the printed copies, being a version from the original Persic, and entitled
Humagoun Nameh,
that is,
The royal
or
imperial book,
so called by the orientals, who are of opinion that it contains the whole art of government. See Fabric. ubi supr. p. 465. Herbel. p. 456. A Translation into English from the French of the four first books was printed at London in 1747, under the title of PILPAY'S FABLES.—As to the name of the author of this book, Herbelot says that Bidpai was an Indian philosopher, and that his name signifies the
mer
iful physician.
See Herbelot. p. 206 456. And Bibl. Lugdun. Catal. p. 301. Others relate, that it was composed by the Bramins of India, under the title
Kurtuk D
mnik.
Fraser, ubi supr. p. 19. It is also said to have been written by Isame fifth king of the Indians, and translated into Arabic from the Indian tongue three hundred years before Alexander the Macedonian. Abraham Ecchelens. Not. ad Catal. Ebed Jesu, p. 87.—The Indians reckon this book among the three things in which they surpass all other nations. viz.
"Liber CULILA et DIMNA, ludus Shatangri, et novem figurae numerariae."
Saphad. Comment. ad Carm. Tograi. apud Hyde, prolegom. ad lib. de lud. Oriental. d. 3.
Hyde intended an edition of the Arabic version. Praefat. ad lib. de lud. Oriental. vol. ii. 1767. edit. ad calc. I cannot forsake this subject without remarking, that the Persians have another book, which they esteem older than any writings of Zoroaster, entitled
Javidan Chrad,
that is,
aeterna Sapientia.
Hyde Praefat. Relig. Vet. Persarum. This has been also one of the titles of Pilpay's Fables.
. It was most probably very soon afterwards translated from the Greek into Latin, and at length from thence into French, Italian, and German
Casaub. Epist. ad Jos. Scaliger. 402. 413. Scalig. Epist. ad Casaubon. 113. 115. Who mentions also a translation of this work from the Latin into H
brew, by one who adopted the name of Jos. Gorionides, called Pseudo-Gorionides. This Latin history was translated into German by John Hartlieb Moller, a German physician, at the command of Albert duke of Bavaria, and published August. Vindel. A. D. 1478. fol. See Lambecc. lib. ii. de Bibl. Vindobon. p. 949. Labbe mentions a fabulous history of Alexander; written, as he says, in 1217, and transcribed in 1455. Undoubtedly this in the text. Londinensis quotes
"pervetustum quendam librum manuscriptum de actibus Alexandri."
Hearne's T. Caius ut infr. p. 82. See also p. 86. 258.
. The Latin translation was printed Colon. Argentorat. A. D. 1489
Lenglet mentions
Historia fabulosa incerti authoris de Alexandri Magni praeliis.
fol. 1494. He adds, that it is prin
ed in the last edition of Caesar's Commentaries by Graevius in octavo. Bibl. des Romans, ii. p. 228. 229. edit. Amst. Compare Vogt's
Catalogus librorum rarior,
pag. 24. edit. 1753. Montfaucon says this history of Callisthenes occurs often in the royal library at Paris, both in Greek and Latin: but that he never saw either of them printed. Cat. MSS. ii. pag. 733.—2543. I think a life of Alexander is subjoined to an edition of Quintus Curtius in 1584, by Joannes Monachus.
. Perhaps before. For among Hearne's books in the Bodleian library, there is an edition in quarto, without date, supposed to have been printed at Oxford by Frederick Corsellis, about the year 1468. It is said to have been made by one Aesopus, or by Julius Valerius
Du Cange Glossar. Gr. v.
. Jurat. ad Symmach. iv. 33. Barth. Adversar. ii. 10. v. 14.
: supposititious names, which seem to have been forged by the artifice, or introduced through the ignorance, of scribes and librarians. This Latin translation, however, is of high antiquity in the middle age of learning: for it is quoted by Gyraldus Cambrensis, who flourished about the year 1190
Hearne, T. Caii Vindic. Antiquit. Acad. Oxon. tom. ii. NOT. p. 802. Who thinks it a work of the monks.
"Nec dubium quin monachus quispiam Latine, ut potuit, scripserit. Eo modo, quo et alios id genus foetus parturiebant scriptores aliquot monastici, c fabulis quas vulgo admodum placere sciebant."
ibid.
. About the year 1236, the substance of it was thrown into a long Latin poem, written in elegiac verse
A Greek poem on this subject will be mentioned below, wr
tten in politic verses, entitled
.
, by Aretinus Quilichinus
Labb. Bibl. Nov. MSS. p. 68. Ol. Borrich. Dissertat. de Poet. p. 89.
. This fabulous narrative of Alexander's life and atchievements, is full of prodigies and extravagancies
The writer relates, that Alexander, inclosed in a vessel of glass, dived to the bottom of the ocean for the sake of getting a knowledge of fishes and sea monsters. He is also represented as soaring in the air by the help of gryphons. At the end, the opinions of di
ferent philosophers are recited concerning the sepulchre of Alexander. Nectabanos, a magician and astrologer, king of Aegypt, is a very significant character in this romance. He transforms himself into a dragon, &c. Compare Herbelot. Bibl. Oriental. p. 319. b. seq. In some of the manuscripts of this piece which I have seen, there is an account of Alexander's visit to the trees of the sun and moon: but I do not recollect this in the printed copies. Undoubtedly the original has had both interpolations and omissions. Pseudo-Gorionides above-mentioned seems to hint at the ground-work of this history of Alexander in the following passage.
"Caeteras autem res ab Alexandro gestas, et egregia ejus facinora ac quaecunque demum perpetravit, ea in libris Medorum et Persarum, atque apud Nicolaum, Titum, et Strabonem; et in libris nativitatis Alexandri, rerumque ab ipso gestarum, quos Magi ac Aegyptii eo anno quo Alexander decessit, composuerunt, scripta reperies."
Lib. ii. c. 12.—22. [Lat. Vers.] p. 152. edit. Jo. Frid. Briethaupt.
. But we should remember its origin. The Arabian books abound with the most incredible fictions and traditions concerning Alexander the Great, which they probably borrowed and improved from the Persians. They call him Escander. If I recollect right, one of the miracles of this romance is our hero's horn. It is said, that Alexander gave the signal to his whole army by a wonderful horn of immense magnitude, which might be heard at the distance of sixty miles, and that it was blown or sounded by sixty men at once
It is also in a manuscript entitled
Secretum Secretorum Aristotelis,
Lib. 5. MSS. Bodl. D. 1. 5. This treatise, ascribed to Aristotle, was antiently in high repute. It is pretended to have been translated out of Greek into Arabic or Chaldee by one John a Spaniard; from thence into Latin by Philip a Frenchman; at length into English verse by Lidgate: under whom more will be said of it. I think the Latin is dedicated to Theophina, a queen of Spain.
. This is the horn which Orlando won from the giant Jatmund, and which, as Turpin and the Islandic bards report, was endued with magical power, and might be heard at the distance of twenty miles. Cervantes says, that it was bigger than a massy beam
See Observat. Fair. Qu. i. § v. p. 202.
. Boyardo, Berni, and Ariosto have all such a horn: and the fiction is here traced to its original source. But in speaking of the books which furnished the story of Alexander, I must not forget that Quintus Curtius was an admired historian of the romantic ages. He is quoted in the POLICRATICON of John of Salisbury, who died in the year 1181
viii. 18.
. Eneas Sylvius relates, that Alphonsus the ninth, king of Spain, in the thirteenth century, a great astronomer, endeavoured to relieve himself from a tedious malady by reading the bible over fourteen times, with all the glosses; but not meeting with the expected success, he was cured by the consolation he received from once reading Quintus Curtius
Op. p. 476.
. Peter Blesensis, archdeacon of London, a student at Paris about the year 1150, mentioning the books most common in the schools, declares that he
profited much by frequently looking into this author
Epist. 101.
Frequenter inspicere historias Q. Curtii, &c.
. Vincentius Bellovacensis, cited above, a writer of the thirteenth century, often quotes Curtius in his
Speculum Historiale
iv. 61, &c. Montfaucon, I think, mentions a manuscript of Q. Curtius in the Colbertine library at Paris eight hundred years old. See Barth. ad Claudian. p. 1165. Alexander Bened
ctus, in his history of Venice, transcribes whole pages from this historian. I could give other proofs.
. He was also early translated into French. Among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, there is a fine copy of a French translation of this classic, adorned with elegant old paintings and illuminations, entitled,
Quinte Curse Ruf, des faiz d' Alexandre,
ix
liv. translate par Vasque de Lucene Portugalois. Escript par la main de Jehan du Chesne, a Lille
17 F. i. Brit. Mus. And again, 20 C. iii. And 15 D. iv.
. It was made in 1468. But I believe the Latin translations of Simeon Seth's romance on this subject, were best known and most esteemed for some centuries.
The French, to resume the main tenour of our argument, had written metrical romances on most of these subjects, before or about the year 1200. Some of these seem to have been formed from prose histories, enlarged and improved with new adventures and embellishments from earlier and more simple tales in verse on the same subject. Chrestien of Troys wrote
Le Romans du Graal,
or the adventures of the Sangrale, which included the deeds of king Arthur, Sir Tristram, Lancelot du Lake, and the rest of the knights of the round table, before 1191. There is a passage in a coeval romance, relating to Chrestien, which proves what I have just advanced, that some of these histories previously existed in prose.
Christians qui entent et paine
A rimoyer le meillor conte,
Par le commandement le Conte,
Qu'il soit contez in cort royal
Ce est li contes del Graal
Dont li quens li bailla le livre
Apud Fauchett, Rec. p. 99. Who adds,
"Je croy bien que Romans que nous avons ajourdhuy imprimez, tels que Lancelot du Lac, Tristan, et autres, sont refondus sus les vielles proses et rymes et puis refraichis de language."
Rec. liv. ii. x.
The oldest manuscripts of romances on these subjects which I have seen are the following. They are in the royal manuscripts of the British Museum.
Le Romanz de Tristran,
20 D. ii. This was probably transcribed not long after the year 1200.—
Hist
ire du Lancelot ou S. Graal,
ibid. iii. Perhaps older than the year 1200.—Again,
Hist
ire du S. Graal, ou Lancelot,
20 C. vi. 1. Transcribed soon after 1200. This is imperfect at the beginning. The subject of Joseph of Arimathea bringing a vessel of the Sanguis realis, or Sangral, that is our Saviour's blood, into England, is of high antiquity. It is thus mentioned in
Morte Arthur.
"And then the old man had an harpe, and he sung
an olde songe
how Joseph of Arimathy came into this lande."
B. iii. c. 5.
.
Chrestien also wrote the romance of
Sir Percival,
which belongs to the same history
Fauchett, p. 103. This story was also written in very old rhyme by one Menessier, not mentioned in Fauchett, from whence it was reduced into prose 1530.
ol. Paris. PERCAVAL LE GALOIS,
le quel acheva les avantures du Saint Graal, avec aucun faits du chevalier Gavain, translatée du rime de l'ancien aut
ur
MESSENIER, &c. In the royal library at Paris is LE ROMAN DE PERSEVAL
le Galois, par
CRESTIEN DE TROYES. In verse. fol. Mons. Galland thinks there is another romance under this title, Mem. de Lit. iii. p. 427. seq. 433. 8vo. The author of which he supposes may be Rauol de Biavais, mentioned by Fauchet, p. 142. Compare Lenglet, Bibl. Rom. p. 250. The author of this last-mentioned Percevall, in the exordium, says that he wrote among others, the romances of Eneas, Roy Marc, and Uselt le Blonde: and that he translated into French, Ovid's Art of Love.
. Godfrey de Leigni, a cotemporary, finished a romance begun by Chrestien, entitled
La Charette,
containing the adventures of Launcelot. Fauchett affirms, that Chrestien abounds with beautiful inventions
P. 105. ibid.
. But no story is so common among the earliest French poets as Charlemagne and his Twelve peers. In the British Museum we have an old French manuscript containing the history of Charlemagne, translated into prose from Turpin's Latin. The writer declares, that he preferred a sober prose translation of this authentic historian, as histories in rhyme, undoubtedly very numerous on this subject, looked so much like lies
There is a curious passage to this purpose in an old French prose romance of Charlemagne, written before the year 1200.
"Baudouin Comte de Hainau trouva a sens en Bourgongne le VIE de Charlemagne: et mourant la donna a sa sour Yolond Comtesse de S. Paul qui m'a prie que je la mette en
Roman sans ryme.
Parce que tel se delitera el Roman qui del Latin n'ent cure; et par le Roman sera mielx gardee. Maintes gens en ont ouy conter et chanter, mais n'est ce
mensonge
non ce qu'ils en disent et chantent cil conteour n
cil jugleor. NUZ CONTES RYMEZ N'EN EST VRAIS: TOT MENSONGE CE QU'ILS DIENT."
Liv. quatr.
. His title is extremely curious.
"Ci comence l' Estoire que Turpin le Ercevesque de Reins fit del bon roy Charlemayne, coment il conquist Espaigne, e delivera des Paens. Et pur ceo qe
Estoire rimee semble mensunge,
est ceste mis in prose, solun le Latin qe Turpin mesmes fist, tut ensi cume il le vist et vist
MSS. Harl. 273. 23. Cod. membr. f. 86. There is a very old metrical romance on this subject, ibid. MSS. Harl. 527. 1. f. 1. Cod. membr. 4to.
."
Oddegir the Dane makes a part of Charlemagne's history; and, I believe, is mentioned by archbishop Turpin. But his exploits have been recorded in verse by Adenez, an old French poet, not mentioned by Fauchett, author of the two metrical romances of
Berlin
and
Cleomades,
under the name of
Ogier le Danois,
in the year 1270. This author was master of the musicians, or, as others say, herald at arms, to the duke of Brabant. Among the royal manuscripts in the Museum, we have a poem,
Le Livre de Ogeir de Dannemarche
15 E. vi. 4.
. The French have likewise illustrated this champion in Leonine rhyme. And I cannot help mentioning, that they have in verse
Visions of Oddegir the Dane in the kingdom of Fairy,
"Visions d' Ogeir le Danois au Royaume de Faerie en vers Francois,"
printed at Paris in 1548
8vo. There is also
L'Histoire du preux Meurvin fils
D'OGIER le DANOIS. Paris. 1359. 4to. And 1540. 8vo.
.
On the Trojan story, the French have an antient poem, at least not posterior to the thirteenth century, entitled
Roman de Troye,
written by Benoit de Sainct More. As this author appears not to have been known to the accurate Fauchett, nor la Croix du Maine; I will cite the exordium, especially as it records his name; and implies that the piece translated from the Latin, and that the subject was not then common in French.
Cette estoire n'est pas usée,
N'en gaires livres n'est trouvée:
La retraite ne fut encore
Mais Beneoit de sainte More,
L' a translatè, et fait et dit,
Et a sa main les mots ecrit.
He mentions his own name again in the body of the work, and at the end.
Je n'en fait plus ne plus en dit;
Beneoit qui c'est Roman fit
See M. Galland ut supr. p. 425.
.
Du Cange enumerates a metrical manuscript romance on this subject by Jaques Millet, entitled
De la Destruction de Troie
Gloss. Lat. IND. AUT. p. cxciii.
. Montfaucon, whose extensive enquiries nothing could escape, mentions Dares Phrigius translated into French verse, at Milan, about the twelfth century
Monum. Fr. i. 374.
. We find also, among the royal manuscripts at Paris, Dictys Cretensis, t
anslated into French verse
See Mont
. Catal. MSS. ii. p. 1669.
. To this subject, although almost equally belonging to that of Charlemagne, we may also refer a French romance in verse, written by Philipes Mousques, canon and chancellor of the church of Tournay. It is in fact, a chronicle of France: but the author, who does not chuse to begin quite so high as Adam and Eve, nor yet later than the Trojan war, opens his history with the rape of Helen, passes on to an ample description of the siege of Troy; and, through an exact detail of all the great events which succeeded, conducts his reader to the year 1240. This work comprehends all the fictions of Turpin's Charlemagne, with a variety of other extravagant stories dispersed in many professed romances. But it preserves numberless curious particulars, which throw considerable light on historical facts. Du Cange has collected from it all that concerns the French emperors of Constantinople, which he has printed at the end of his entertaining history of that city.
It was indeed the fashion for the historians of these times, to form such a general plan as would admit all the absurdities of popular tradition. Connection of parts, and uniformity of subject, were as little studied as truth. Ages of ignorance and superstition are more affected by the marvellous than by plain facts; and believe what they find written, without discernment or examination. No man before the sixteenth century presumed to doubt that the Francs derived their o
igin from Francus, a son of Hector; that the Spaniards were descended from Japhet, the Britons from Brutus, and the Scotch from Fergus. Vincent de Beauvais, who lived under Louis the ninth of France, and who, on account of his extraordinary erudition, was appointed preceptor to that king's sons, very gravely classes archbishop Turpin's Charlemagne among the real histories, and places it on a level with Suetonius and Cesar. He was himself an historian, and has left a large history of the world, fraught with a variety of reading, and of high repute in the middle ages; but edifying and entertaining as this work might have been to his cotemporaries, at present it serves only to record their prejudices, and to characterise their credulity
He flourished about 1260.
.
Hercules and Jason, as I have before hinted, were involved in the Trojan story by Guido de Colonna, and hence became familiar to the romance writers
The TROJOMANNA SAGA, a Scandic manuscript at Stockholm, seems to be posteriour to Guido's publication. It begins with Jason and Hercules, and their
oyage to Colchos: proceeds to the rape of Helen, and ends with the siege and destruction of Troy. It celebrates all the Grecian and Asiatic heroes concerned in that war. Wanl. Antiquit. Septentr. p. 315. col. 1.
. The Hercules, the Theseus, and the Amazons of Boccacio, hereafter more particularly mentioned, came from this source. I do not at present recollect any old French metrical romances on these subjects, but presume that there are many. Jason seems to have vied with Arthur and Charlemagne; and so popular was his expedition to Colchos, or rather so firmly believed, that in honour of so respectable an adventure, a duke of Burgundy instituted the order of the
Golden Fleece,
in the year 1468. At the same time his chaplain Raoul le Feure illustrated the story which gave rise to this magnificent institution, in a prolix and elaborate history, afterwards translated by Caxton
See Observat. on Spenser's Fairy Queen, i. § v. P. 176. seq. Montfaucon mentions
M
d
ae et Ja
onis Hi
loria a Guidone de Columna.
Catal. MSS. Bibl. Coislin. ii. p. 1109.—818.
. But I must not forget, that among the royal manuscripts in the Museum, the French romance of
Hercules
occurs in two books, enriched with numerous antient paintings
17 E. ii.
.
Pertonape
and
Ypomedon,
in our Prologue, seem to be Parthenopeus and Hippomedon, belonging to the Theban story, and mentioned, I think, in Statius. An English romance in verse, called
Childe Ippomedone,
will be cited hereafter, most probably translated from the French.
The conquests of Alexander the great were celebrated by one Simon, in old Pictavian or Limosin, about the twelfth century. This piece thus begins:
Chanson voil dis per ryme et per Leoin
Del fil Filippe lo roy de Macedoin
Fauch. p. 77.
.
An Italian poem on Alexander, called
Trionfo Magno,
was presented to Leo the tenth, by Dominicho Falugi Anciseno, in the year 1521. Crescimbeni says it was copied from a Provencial romance
Istor. Volg. Poes. i. iv. p. 332. In the royal manuscripts there is a French poem entitled
La Vengeaunce du graunt Alexandre.
19 D. i. 2. Brit. Mus. I am not sure whether or no it is not a portion of the French
Alexander,
mentioned below, written by Jehan li Nivelois.
. But one of the most valuable pieces of the old French poetry is on the subject of this victorious monarch, entitled,
Roman d' Alexandre.
It has been called the second poem now remaining in the French language, and was written about the year 1200. It was confessedly translated from the Latin; but it bears a nearer resemblance to Simeon Seth's romance, than to Quintus Curtius. It was the confederated performance of four writers, who, as Fauchett expresses himself, were
associez en leur
JONGLERIE
Fauchett, Rec. p. 83.
. Lambert li Cors, a learned civilian, began the poem; and it was continued and completed by Alexander de Paris, John le Nivelois, and Peter de Saint Clost
Fauchett, ibid. Mons. Galland mentions a French romance in verse, unknown to Fauchett, and entitled
Roman
'At
s et de Prophylias,
written by one Alexander, whom he supposes to be this Alexander of Paris. Mem. Lit. iii. p. 429. edit. Amst. It is often cited by Carpentier, Suppl. Cang.
. The poem is closed with Alexander's will. This is no imagination of any of out three poets, although one of them was a civil lawyer. Alexander's will, in which he nominates successors to his provinces and kingdom, was a tradition commonly received, and is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, and Ammianus Marcellinus.
See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. c. iii. l. viii. p. 205.
. I know not whether this work was ever printed. It is voluminous; and in the Bodleian library at Oxford is a vast folio manuscript of it on vellum, which is of great antiquity, richly decorated, and in high preservation
MSS. Bodl B. 264. fol.
. The margins and initials exhibit, not only fantastic ornaments and illuminations exquisitely finished, but also pictures executed with singular elegance, expressing the incidents of the story, and displaying the fashion of buildings, armour, dress, musical instruments
The most frequent of these are organs, h
gpipes, lutes, and trumpets.
, and other particulars appropriated to the times. At the end we read this hexameter, which points out the name of the scribe.
Nomen scriptoris est THOMAS PLENUS AMORIS.
Then follows the date of the year in which the transcript was completed, viz. 1338. Afterwards there is the name and date of the illuminator, in the following colophon, written in golden letters.
"Che livre fu perfais de la enluminiere an xviiio . jour davryl par Jehan de grise l' an de grace m. ccc. xliii.
The bishop of Gloucester has a most beautiful French manuscript on vellum of
Mort d'Arthur,
ornamented in the same manner. It was a present from Vertue the engraver.
"
Hence it may be concluded, that the illuminations and paintings of this superb manuscript, which were most probably begun as soon as the scribe had finished his part, took up six years: no long time, if we consider the attention of an artist to ornaments so numerous, so various, so minute, and so laboriously touched. It has been supposed, that before the appearance of this poem, the
Romans,
or those pieces which celebrated GESTS, were constantly composed in short verses of six or eight syllables: and that in this
Roman d' Alexandre
verses of twelve syllables were first used. It has therefore been imagined, that the verses called ALEXANDRINES, the present French heroic measure, took their rise from this poem; Alexander being the hero, and Alexander the chief of the four poets concerned in the work. That the name, some centuries afterwards, might take place in honour of this celebrated and early effort of French poetry, I think is very probable; but that verses of twelve syllables made their first appearance in this poem, is a doctrine which, to say no more, from examples already produced and examined, is at least ambiguous
See Pref.
Le Roman de la Rose,
par Mons. L'Abbè Lenglet, i. p. xxxvi.
. In this poem Gadifer, hereafter mentioned, of Arabian lineage, is a very conspicuous champion.
Gadifer fu moult preus, d'un Arrabi lignage.
A rubric or title of one of the chapters is,
"Comment Alexander fuit mys en un vesal de vooire pour veoir le merveiles, &c."
This is a passage already quoted from Simeon Seth's romance, relating Alexander's expedition to the bottom of the ocean, in a vessel of glass, for the purpose of inspecting fishes and sea monsters. In another place, from the same romance, he turns astronomer, and soars to the moon by the help of four gryphons. The caliph is frequently mentioned in this piece; and Alexander, like Charlemagne, has his twelve peers.
These were the four reigning stories of romance. On which perhaps English pieces, translated from the French, existed before or about the year 1300. But there are some other English romances mentioned in the prologue of RICHARD CUEUR DE LYON, which we likewise probably received from the French in that period, and on which I shall here also enlarge.
BEUVES
de Hanton,
or
Sir Beavis of Southampton,
is a French romance of considerable antiquity, although the hero is not older than the Norman conquest. It is alluded to in our English romance on this story, which will again be cited, and at large.
Forth thei yode
so saith the boke
Sign. P. ii.
.
And again more expresly,
Under the bridge wer sixty belles,
Right as the
Romans
telles
Signat. E. iv.
.
The
Romans
is the French original. It is called the Romance of
Beuves de Hanton,
by Pere Labbe
Nov. Bibl. p. 334. edit. 1652.
. The very ingenious Monsieur de la Curne de sainte Palaye mentions an antient French romance in prose, entitled
Beufres de Hanton
Mem. Lit. xv. 582. 4to.
. Chaucer mentions BEVIS, with other famous romanc
s, but whether in French or English is uncertain
Rim. Thop.
.
Beuves of Hantonne
was printed at Paris in 1502
4to. Percy's Ball. iii. 217.
. Ascapart was one of his giants, a character
Selden's Drayton. Polyolb. s. iii. p. 37.
in very old French romances. Bevis was a Saxon chieftain, who seems to have extended his dominion along the southern coasts of England, which he is said to have defended against the Norman invaders. He lived at Downton in Wiltshire. Near Southampton is an artificial hill called
Bevis Mount,
on which was probably a fortress
It is now inclosed in the beautiful gardens of General Sir John Mordaunt, and gives name to his seat.
. It is pretended that he was earl of Southampton. His sword is shewn in Arundel castle. This piece was evidently written after the crusades; as Bevis is knighted by the king of Armenia, and is one of the generals at the siege of Damascus.
GUY EARL OF WARWICK is recited as a French romance by Labbe
Ubi supr.
. In the British Museum a metrical history in very old French appears, in which Felicia, or Felice, is called the daughter of an earl of Warwick, and Guido, or Guy of Warwick, is the son of Seguart the earl's steward. The manuscript is at present imperfect
MSS. Harl. 3775. 2.
. Montfaucon mentions among the royal manuscripts at Paris,
Roman de Guy et Beuves de Hanton.
The latter is the romance last mentioned. Again,
Le Livre de Guy de Warwick et de Harold d' Ardenne
Catal. MSS. p. 792.
. This Harold d'Arden is a distinguished warriour of Guy's history, and therefore his atchievements sometimes form a separate romance: as in the royal manuscripts of the British Museum, where we find
Le Romant de Herolt Dardenne
15 E. vi. 8. fol.
. In the English romance of Guy, mentioned at large in its proper place, this champion is called
Syr Heraude of Arderne
Sign. L. ii. vers.
. At length this favourite subject formed a large prose romance, entitled
Guy de Warwick Chevalier d'Angleterre et de la belle fille Felix samie,
and printed at Paris in 1525
Fol. And again, ib. 1526. 4to.
. Chaucer mentions Guy's story among the
Romaunces of Pris
Rim. Thop.
: and it is alluded to in the Spanish romance of
Tirante il Blanco,
or
Tirante the White,
supposed to have been written not long after the year 1430
Percy's Ball. iii. 100.
. This romance was composed, or perhaps enlarged, after the crusades; as we find, that Guy's redoubted encounters with Colbrond the Danish giant, with the monster of Dunsmore heath, and the dragon of Northumberland, are by no means equal to some of his atchievements in the holy land, and the trophies which he won from the soldan under the command of the emperor Frederick.
The romance of SIDRAC, often entitled,
Le Livere Sydrac le philosophe le quel hom appele le livere de le funtane de totes Sciences,
appears to have been very popular, from the present frequency of its manuscripts. But it is rather a romance of Arabian philosophy than of chivalry. It is a system of natural knowledge, and particularly treats of the virtues of plants. Sidrac, the philosopher of this system, was astronomer to an eastern king. He lived eight hundred and fortyseven years after Noah, of whose book of astronomy he was possessed. He converts Bocchus, an idolatrous king of India, to the christian faith, by whom he is invited to build a mighty tower against the invasions of a rival king of India. But the history, no less than the subject of this piece, displays the state, nature, and migrations of literature in the dark ages. After the death of Bocchus, Sidrac's book fell into the hands of a Chaldean renowned for piety. It then successively becomes the property of king Madian, Namaan the Assyrian, and Grypho archbishop of Samaria. The latter had a priest named Demetrius, who brought it into Spain, and here it was translated from the Greek into Latin. This translation is said to be made at Toledo, by Roger de Palermo, a minorite friar, in the thirteenth century. A king of Spain then commanded it to be translated from Latin into Arabic, and sent it as a most valuable present to Emir Elmomenim, lord of Tunis. It was next given to Frederick the Second, emperor of Germany, famous in the crusades. This work, which is of considerable length, was translated into English verse, and will be mentioned on that account again. Sidrac is recited as an eminent philosopher, with Seneca and king Solomon, in the
Marchaunt's Second tale,
ascribed to Chaucer
Urr. p. 616. v. 1932. There is an old translation of SIDRAC into Dutch, MSS. Marshall, Bibl. Bodl. 31. fol.
.
It is natural to conclude, that most of these French romances were current in England, either in the French originals, which were well understood at least by the more polite readers, or else by translation or imitation, as I have before hinted, when the romance of
Richard Cuer de Lyon,
in whose prologue they are recited, was translated into English. That the latter was the case as to some of them, at least, we shall soon produce actual proofs. A writer, who has considered these matters with much penetration and judgment, observes, that probably from the reign of our Richard the first, we are to date that remarkable intercommunication and mutual exchange of compositions which we discover to have taken place at some early period between the French and English minstrels. The same set of phrases, the same species of characters, incidents, and adventures, and often the identical stories, being found in the metrical romances of both nations
Percy's Ess. on Anc. Engl. Minstr. p. 12.
. From close connection and constant intercourse, the traditions and the champions of one kingdom were equally known in the other: and although Bevis and Guy were English heroes, yet on these principles this circumstance by no means destroys the supposition, that their atchievements, although perhaps already celebrated in rude English songs, might be first wrought into romance by the French
Dugdale relates, that in the reign of Henry the fourth, about the year 1410, a lord Beauchamp, travelling into the east, was hospitably received at Jerusalem by the Soldan's lieutenant:
"Who hearing that he was descended from the famous Guy of Warwick,
whose story they had in books of their own language,
invited him to his palace; and royally feasting him, presented him with three precious stones of great value, besides divers cloaths of silk and gold given to his servants."
Baron. i. p. 243. col. 1.
This story is delivered on the credit of John Rouse, the traveller's cotemporary. Yet it is not so very improbable that Guy's history should be a book among the Saracens, if we consider, that Constantinople was not only a central and connecting point between the eastern and western world, but that the French in the thirteenth century had acquired an establishment there under Baldwin earl of Flanders: that the French language must have been known in Sicily, Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Antioch, in consequence of the conquests of Robert Guiscard, Hugo le Grand, and Godfrey of
ulloigne: and that pilgrimages into the holy land were excessively frequent. It is hence easy to suppose, that the French imported many of their stories or books of this sort into the east; which being thus understood there, and suiting the genius of the orientals, were at length translated into their language. It is remarkable, that the Greeks at Constantinople, in the twelfth century, and since, called all the Europeans by the name of Franks; as the Turks do to this day. See Seld. Polyolb. §. viii. p. 130.
. And it seems probable, that we continued for some time this practice of borrowing from our neighbours. Even the titles of our oldest romances, such as
Sir Blandamoure,
Sir Triamoure, Sir Eglamoure, of Artoys
In our English SYR EGLAMOUR OF ARTOYS, there is this reference to the French from which it was translated. Sign. E. i.
His own mother there he wedde,
In ROMAUNCE as we rede.
Again, fol. ult.
In ROMAUNCE this cronycle ys.
The authors of these pieces often refer to their original. Just as Arios
o mentions Turpin for his voucher.
,
La Mort d
Arthur,
with many more, betray their French extraction. It is likewise a presumptive argument in favour of this assertion, that we find no prose romances in our language, before Caxton translated from the French the History of Troy, the Life of Charlemagne, the Histories of Jason, Paris, and Vyenne
But I must not omit here that Du Cange recites a metrical French romance in manuscript,
Le Roman de Girard de Vienne,
written by Bertrand le Clerc. Gloss. Lat. i. IND. AUCT. p.
xciii. Madox has printed the names of several French romances found in the reign of Edward the third, among which one on this subject occurs. Formul. Anglic. p. 12. Compare
Observations on Sp
nser's Fairy Qu
n,
vol. ii. §. viii. p. 43. Among the royal manuscripts, in the British Museum, ther
is in verse
Histoir
de G
ra
t
e Vianne et de ses freres.
20 D. xi. 2. This manuscript was perhaps written before the year 1300.
, the Death of King Arthur, and other prose pieces of chivalry: by which, as the profession of minstrelsy decayed and gradually gave way to a change of manners and customs, romances in metre were at length imperceptibly superseded, or at least grew less in use as a mode of entertainment at public festivities.
Various causes concurred, in the mean time, to multiply books of chivalry among the French, and to give them a superiority over the English, not only in the number but in the excellence of those compositions. Their barons lived in greater magnificence. Their feudal system flourished on a more sumptuous, extensive, and lasting establishment. Schools were instituted in their castles for initiating the young nobility in the rules and practice of chivalry. Their tilts and tournaments were celebrated with a higher degree of pomp; and their ideas of honour and gallantry were more exaggerated and refined.
We may add, what indeed has been before incidentally remarked, that their troubadours were the first writers of metrical romances. But by what has been here advanced, I do not mean to insinuate without any restrictions, that the French entirely led the way in these compositions. Undoubtedly the Provencial bards contributed much to the progress of Italian literature. Raimond the fourth of Arragon, count of Provence, about the year 1220, a lover and a judge of letters, invited to his court the most celebrated of the songsters who professed to polish and adorn the Provencial language by various sorts of poetry
Giovan. Villani, Istor.
. vi. c. 92.
. Charles the first, his son-in-law, and the inheritor of his virtues and dignities, conquered Naples, and carried into Italy a taste for the Provencial literature. At Florence especially this taste prevailed, where he reigned many years with great splendour, and where his successors resided. Soon afterwards the Roman court was removed to Provence
Villani acquaints us, that Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, was the first who attempted to polish the Florentines by improving their taste and style; which he did by writing his grand work the TESORO in Provencial. He died in 1294. See Villan. ibid.
. ix. c. 135.
. Hitherto the Latin language had only been in use. The Provencial writers established a common dialect: and their examples convinced other nations, that the modern languages were no less adapted to composition than those of antiquity
Dante designed at first that his
Inferno,
and Treatise on monarchy, should appear in Latin. But finding that he could not so effectually in that language impress his satirical strokes and political maxims on the laity, or illiterate, he altered his mind, and published those pieces in
talian. Had Petrarch written his
Africa,
his Eclogues, and his prose compositions in Italian, the literature of his country would much sooner have arrived at perfection.
. They introduced a love of reading, and diffused a general and popular taste for poetry, by writing in a language intelligible to the ladies and the people. Their verses being conveyed in a familiar tongue, became the chief amusement of princes and feudal lords, whose courts had now begun to assume an air of greater brilliancy: a circumstance which necessarily gave great encouragement to their profession, and by rendering these arts of ingenious entertainment universally fashionable, imperceptibly laid the foundation of polite literature. From these beginnings it were easy to trace the progress of poetry to its perfection, through John de Meun in France, Dante in Italy, and Chaucer in England.
This praise must undoubtedly be granted to the Provencial poets. But in the mean time, to recur to our original argument, we should be cautious of asserting in general and indiscriminating terms, that the Provencial poets were the first writers of metrical romance: at least we should ascertain, with rather more precision than has been commonly used on this subject, how far they may claim this merit. I am of opinion that there were two sorts of French troubadours, who have not hitherto been sufficiently distinguished. If we diligently examine their history, we shall find that the poetry of the first troubadours consisted in satires, moral fables, allegories, and sentimental sonnets. So early as the year 1180, a tribunal called the
Court of Love,
was instituted both in Provence and Picardy, at which questions in gallantry were decided. This institution furnished eternal matter for the poets, who threw the claims and arguments of the different parties into verse, in a style that afterwards led the way to the spiritual conversations of Cyrus and Clelia
This part of their character will be insisted upon more at large when we come to speak of Chaucer.
. Fontenelle does not scruple to acknowledge, that gallantry was the parent of French poetry
Theatr. Fr. p. 13.
. But to sing romantic and chivalrous adventures was a very different task, and required very different talents. The troubadours therefore who composed metrical romances form a different species, and ought always to be considered separately. And this latter class seems to have commenced at a later period, not till after the crusades had effected a great change in the manners and ideas of the western world. In the mean time, I hazard a conjecture. Cinthio Giraldi supposes, that the art of the troubadours, commonly called the
Gay Science,
was first communicated from France to the Italians, and afterwards to the Spaniards
Apud Huet, Orig. Rom. p. 108.
. This perhaps may be true: but at the same time it is highly probable, as the Spaniards had their JUGLARES or convivial bards very early, as from long connection they were immediately and intimately acquainted with the fictions of the Ara
ians, and as they were naturally fond of chivalry, that the troubadours of Provence in great measure caught this turn of fabling from Spain. The communication, to mention no other obvious means of intercourse in an affair of this nature, was easy through the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, by which the two nations carried on from early times a constant commerce. Even the French critics themselves universally allow, that the Spaniards, having learned rhyme from the Arabians, through this very channel conveyed it to Provence. Tasso preferred
Amadis de Gaul,
a romance originally written in Spain, by Vasco Lobeyra, before the year 1300
Nic. Antonius, Bibl. Hispan. Vet. tom. ii. l. viii. c. 7. num. 291.
, to the most celebrated pieces of the Provencial poets
Disc. del Poem. Eroic. l. ii. p. 45. 46.
. But this is a subject which will perhaps receive illustration from a writer of great taste, talents, and industry, Monsieur de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, who will soon oblige the world with an ample history of Provencial poetry; and whose researches into a kindred subject, already published, have opened a new and extensive field of information concerning the manners, institutions, and literature of the feudal ages
See
Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie,
&c. Paris, 1759. ii. tom. 12mo .
.
SECT. IV.
VARIOUS matters suggested by the Prologue of RICHARD CUEUR DE LYON, cited in the last section, have betrayed us into a long digression, and interrupted the regularity of our annals. But I could not neglect so fair an opportunity of preparing the reader for those metrical tales, which having acquired a new cast of fiction from the crusades and a magnificence of manners from the encrease of chivalry, now began to be greatly multiplied, and as it were professedly to form a separate species of poetry. I now therefore resume the series, and proceed to give some specimens of the English metrical romances which appeared before or about the reign of Edward the second: and although most of these pieces continued to be sung by the minstrels in the halls of our magnificent ancestors for some centuries afterwards, yet as their first appearance may most probably be dated at this period, they properly coincide in this place with the tenour of our history. In the mean time, it is natural to suppose, that by frequent repetition and successive changes of language during many generations, their original simplicity must have been in some degree corrupted. Yet some of the specimens are extracted from manuscripts written in the reign of Edward the third. Others indeed from printed copies, where the editors took great liberties in accommodating the language to the times. However in such as may be supposed to have suffered most from depravations of this sort, the substance of the ancient style still remains, and at least the structure of the story. On the whole, we mean to give the reader an idea of those popular heroic tales in verse, professedly written for the harp, which began to be multiplied among us about the beginning of the fourteenth century. We will begin with the romance of RICHARD CUEUR DE LYON, already mentioned.
The poem opens with the marriage of Richard's father, Henry the second, with the daughter of Carbarryne, a king of Antioch. But this is only a lady of romance. Henry married Eleanor the divorced queen of Louis of France. The minstrels could not conceive any thing less than an eastern princess to be the mother of this magnanimous hero.
—His barons him redde
Advised.
That they graunted hem a wyfe to wedde,
Hastily he sent his sonde
Into many a divers londe
The fayrest woman that was on lyve
They sholde bringe him to wyve.
The messengers or embassadors, in their voyage, meet a ship adorned like Cleopatra's galley.
Suche ne sawe they never none,
For it was so gay begone
Every nayle with gold ygrave
Of pure gold was his sklave
Rudder.
Clavus.
,
Her mast was of yvory,
Of samyte her sayle wytly,
Her ropes al of whyte sylke,
As whyte as ever was ony mylke.
The noble shyp was wythout
With clothes of gold spred about,
And her loft
Deck.
and her wyndlace
Windlass.
Al of gold depaynted was:
In the shyppe there were dyght
Knyghtes and lordes of myght,
And a lady therein was
Bryght as sonne thorowe the glas.
Her men abrode gon stonde
And becked them with her honde,
And prayed them for to dwell
And theyr aventures to tell.—
"To dyverse londes do we wende
"For kynge Harry hath us sende
"For to seche hym a quene,
"The fayrest that myght on
rthe bene."
Up arose a kynge of chayre
With that word, and spake fayre,
The chayre was of carbunkell stone,
Suche sawe they never none,
And other dukes hym besyde,
Noble men of moche pryde,
And welcomed the messengers every chone,
Into the shippe they gan gone.—
Clothes of sylke wer sprad on borde,
The kyng then anon badde,
As it is in ryme radde
i. e. The French original.
,
That his doughter wer forthe fet
And in a chayre by hym set,
Trompettes bigan to blowe,
She was set in a throwe
Immediately.
With xx knygtes her aboute
And double so many of ladyes stoute.—
Whan thei had done their mete
Of adventures they bygyn to speke.
The kyng them told in his reason,
How it cam hym in a vysyon,
In his lond that he came fro
In to Engelond for to go
And hys doughter that was hym der
For to wende with hym in fere
Company.
,
And in this manner we bi dyght
Unto your londe to wende ryght.
Then answerede a messengere,
His name was cleped Barnagere,
"Ferther we will seeke nought
"To my lorde she shal be brought."
They soon arrive in England, and the lady is lodged in the tower of London, one of the royal castles.
The messengers the kyng have tolde
Of that lady fayre and bolde
There she lay in the toure
The lady that was whyt as floure;
Kyng Harry gan hym dyght
With erles, barons, and many a knyght,
Ayenst that ladye for to wende,
For he was courteys and hende:
The damosell to londe was ladde
Clothes of golde bifore her spradde,
The messengers on eche a syde,
And mynystrells of moche pryde.
Kyng Harry liked her seynge
That fayre lady, and her fader the kynge.—
To Westminstir they went in fere
Lordes, ladies, that ther were,
Trompettes bigan for to blowe
To mete
To dinner.
thei went in a throwe, &c
Sign. A. ii.—A. iiii.
.
The first of our hero's atchievements in chivalry is at a splendid tournament held at Salisbury. Clarendon near Salisbury was one of the king's palaces
In the pipe-rolls of this king's reign, I find the following articles relating to this ancient palace, which has been already mentioned incidentally. Rot. Pip. 1. Ric. i.
"WILTES. Et in cariagio vini Regis a Clarendon usque Woodestoke, 34
s.
4
d.
per Br. Reg. Et pro du
endis 200 m. [marcis] a Saresburia usque Bristow, 7
s.
4
d.
p
r Br. Reg. Et pro ducendis 2500 libris a Saresburia usque Glocestriam, 26
s.
10
d.
per Br. Reg. Et pro tonellis et clavis ad eosdem denarios. Et in cariagio de 4000 marcis a Sarum usque Suthanton, et pro tonellis et aliis necessariis, 8
s.
et 1
d.
per Br. Reg."
And again in the reign of Henry the third. Rot. Pip. 30. Hen. iii.
"WILTESCIRE. Et in una marcelsia ad opus regis et reginae apud Clarendon cum duobus interclusoriis, et duabus cameris privatis, hos
io veteris aulae amovendo in porticu, et de eadem aula camera facienda cum camino et fenestris, et camera privata, et quadam magna coquina quadrata, et aliis operationibus, contentis in Brevi, inceptis per eundem Nicolaum et non perfectis, 526.
l.
16
s.
5
d.
ob. per Br. Reg."
Again, Rot. Pip. 39. H
n. iii.
"SUDHAMT.
Comp. Novae forestae.
Et in triginta miliaribus scindularum [shingles] faciend. in eadem foresta et cariand. easdem usque Clarendon ad domum regis ibidem cooperiandam, 6
l.
et 1 marc. per Br. Reg. Et in 30 mill. scindularum faciend. in eadem, et cariand. usque Clarendon, 11
l.
10
s.
"
And again, in the same reign the canons of Ivy church receive pensions for celebrating in the royal chapel there. Rot. Pip. 7. Hen. iii.
"WILTES. Et canonicis de monasterio ederoso ministrantibus in Capella de Clarendon. 35
l.
7
d.
ob."
Stukeley is mistaken in saying this palace was built by king John.
.
Kynge Rychard gan hym dysguyse
In a full stronge queyntyse
See Du Cange, Gl. Lat. COINTISE.
:
He cam out of a valaye
For to se of theyr playe,
As a knyght avanturous
His atyre was orgulous
Proud, pompous.
,
Al together cole blacke
Was his horse without lacke,
Upon his crest a raven stoode
That yaned
Yawned.
as he were wode.—
He bare a shafte that was grete and stronge
It was fourtene fote longe,
And it was gret and stoute,
One or two inches aboute:
The fyrst knyght that he ther mette
Full egerly he hym grette,
With a dint amyd the shelde
His hors he bare downe in the feld, &c
Ib.
.
A battle-ax wh
ch Richard carried with him from England into the holy land is thus described.
Kyng Rycharde I understonde
Or he went out of Engelonde
Let him make an axe
Richard's battle-ax is also mentioned by Brunne, and on this occasion, Chron. p. 159.
for the nones
To brake therewith the Sarasyns
q
The crusades imported the phrase
Jeu Sarrazionois,
for any sharp engagement, into the old French romances.—Thus in the ROMAN of ALEXANDER, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. ut supr. P. i.
Tholom
r le regrette et le plaint en Grijois,
Et dist que s'il cussent o culz telz vingt et trois,
Il nous eussent fet un JEU SARRAZIONOIS.
bones.
The heed was wroght right wele
Therein was twenti bounde
F.
pound
.
of stele:
And when he com into Cyprys londe
The axe toke he in his honde
All that he hytte he all to frapped
The gryffons
The Byzantine Greeks are often called Griffones by the historians of the middle ages. See Du Cange Gloss. Ville-Hard. p. 363. See also Rob. Brun. Chron. p. 151. 157. 159. 160. 165. 171. 173. Wanley supposes that the
Griffin
in heraldry was intended to signify a Greek, or Saracen, whom they thus represented under the figure of an imaginary eastern monster, which never existed but as an armorial badge.
away faste rapped.
And the pryson when he came to
With his axe he smote ryght tho
Dores, barres, and iron chaynes, &c.
Sign. G. i.
This formidable axe is again mentioned at the si
ge of Acon, or Acre, the antient Ptolemais.
Kyng Rycharde after anone ryght
Towarde Acrys gan hym dyght,
And as he sayled towarde Surrye
Syria.
,
He was warned of a spye,
How the folke of the hethen law,
A gret chayne thei had i drawe
Over the haven of Acres
ers
Was fastened to two pyllers
That no shyppe sholde in wynne
So Fabyan of Rosamond's bower,
"that no creature, man or woman, myght
wynne
to her."
i. e.
go in,
by contraction,
Win.
Chron. vol. i. p. 320. col. i. edit. 1533.
.—
Therfore seven yers and more
All crysten kynges laye thore
And with hongre suffre payne
For lettyng of that same chayne.
Whan kyng Rycharde herde that tydinge
For joye his herte bigan to sprynge,
A swyfte strong galey he toke.
Trenchemere
Rob. Brun. Chron. p. 170.
The kynge's owne galeie he cald it
Trencthemere.
, so saith the boke.—
The galey yede as swift
As ony fowle by the lyfte
A bird on wing.
,
And kynge Rycharde that was so goode,
With his axe afore the shippe stoode
And whan he came to the chayne,
With his axe he smote it a twayne
In two. Thus R. de Brunne says,
"he fondred the Sarazyns otuynne."
p. 574. He forced the Saracens into
two parties.
,
That all the barons verament
Sayd it was a noble dent,
And for joye of that dede
The cuppes faste aboute yede
Went.
,
With good wyne, pyment and clarè,
And sailed towards Acrys cityè.
Kynge Rycharde out of his galye
Let caste wilde fire into the skye.
His trompettes yede in his galye
Men might here it to the skye,
Trompettes, horne, and shalmys
Shawms.
,
The sea burnt al of fyre grekys
Sign. G. iii.
.
This
fyre grekys,
or Grecian fire, seems to be a composition belonging to the Arabian chemistry. It is frequently mentioned by the Byzantine historians, and was very much used in the wars of the middle ages, both by sea and land. It was a sort of wild-fire, said to be inextinguishable by water, and chiefly used for burning ships, against which it was thrown in pots or phials by the hand. In land engagements it seems to have been discharged by machines constructed on purpose. The oriental Greeks pretended that this artificial fire was invented by Callinicus, an architect of Heliopolis, under Constantine; and that Constantine prohibited them from communicating the manner of making it to any foreign people. It was however in common use among the nations confederated with the Byzantines: and Anna Commena has given an account of its ingredients
See Du Cange, Not. ad Joinvil. p. 71. And Gl. Lat. V. IGNIS GRAECUS.
, which were bitumen, sulphur, and naptha. It is called
feu gregois
in the French chronicles and romances. Our minstrell, I believe, is singular in saying that Richard scattered this fire on Saladin's ships: many monkish historians of the holy war, in describing the siege of Acon, relate that it was employed on that occasion, and many others, by the Saracens against the Christians
See more particularly Chron. Rob. Brun. p. 170. And Benedict. Abb. p. 652. And Joinv. Hist. L. p. 39. 46. 52. 53. 62. 70.
. Procopius, in his history of the Goths, calls it MEDEA'S OIL, as if it had been a preparation used in the sorceries of that enchantress
iv. 11.
.
The quantity of huge battering rams and other military engines, now unknown, which Richard is said to have transported into the holy land, was prodigious. The names of some of them are given in another part of this romance
Twenty grete gynnes for the nones
Kynge Richard sent for to cast stones,
&c.
Among these were the
Mategri
on
and the
Robynet.
Sign. N. iii. The
ormer of these is thus described. Sign. E. iiii.
I have a castell I understond
Is made of tembre of Englonde
With syxe stages full of toure
les
Well flourysshed with cornelles,
&c.
See Du Cange Not. Joinv. p. 68. MATEGRYFFON is the
Terror or plague of the Greeks.
Du Cange, in his Gallo-Byzantine history, mentions a castle of this name in Peloponnesus. Benedict says, that Richard erected a strong castle, which he called
Mat
-gryff
n,
on the brow of a steep mountain without the walls of the city of Messina in Sicily. Benedict. Abb. p. 621. ed. Hearn. sub ann. 1190. Robert de Brunne mentions this engine from our romance. Chron. p. 157.
The romancer it sais Richarde did make a pele,
On kastelle wise allwais wrought of tre ful wele.—
In schip he ded it lede, &c.—
His pele from that dai forward he cald it
Mate-griffon.
P
le
is a house. Archbishop Turpin mentions Charlemagne's
wooden castles
at the siege of a city in France. cap. ix.
. It is an historical fact, that Richard was killed by the French from the shot of an arcubalist, a machine which he often worked skillfully with his own hands: and Guillaume le Briton, a Frenchman, in his Latin
poem called Philippeis, introduces Atropos making a decree, that Richard should die by no other means than by a wound from this destructive instrument; the use of which, after it had been interdicted by the pope in the year 1139, he revived, and is supposed to have shewn the French in the crusades
See Carpentier's Suppl. Du Cange, Lat. Gl. tom. i. p. 434. And Du Cange ad Ann. Alex. p. 357.
.
Gynnes
Engines.
he had of wonder wyse,
Mangenelles
See supr. p. 157. It is observable, that MANGANUM,
Mangonell,
was not known among the Roman military machines, but existed first in Byzantine Greek
, a circumstance which seems to point out its inventors, at least to shew that it belonged to the oriental art of war. It occurs often in the Byzantine Tactics, although at the same time it was perhaps derived from the Latin
Machina:
yet the Romans do not appear to have used in their wars so formidable and complicated an engine, as this is described to have been in the writers of the dark ages. It was the capital machine of the wars of those ages. Du Cange in his CONSTANTINOPOLIS CHRISTIANA mentions a vast edifice at Constantinople in which the machines of war were kept. p. 155.
of grete quyentyse
See supr. p. 154.
,
Arblast bowe made with gynne
The holy land therewith to wynne;
Over all other utterly
He had a myle
Mill.
of grete maystry,
In the myddes of a shyppe to stonde
Suche ne sawe they never in no londe,
Foure sayles were therto all newe
Yelowe and grene rede and blewe,
With canvas i layde all aboute
Full costly within and withoute,
And all within ful of fyre
Of torches made of wexe clere,
Overth wart and endlonge,
With spryngelles
Espringalles, Fr. engines. See Du Cange, Gl. Lat. SPINGARDA, QUADRELLUS. And Not. Joinv. p. 78. Perhaps he means pellets of tow dipped in the Grecian fire, which sometimes were thrown from a sort of mortar. Joinville says, that the Greek fire thrown from a mortar looked like a huge dragon flying through the air, and that at midnight the flashes of it illuminated the christian camp, as if it had been broad day. When Louis's army was encamped on the banks of the Thanis in Aegypt, says the same curious historian, about the year 1249, they erected two
chats chateil
,
or covered galleries, to shelter their workmen, and at the end of them two
b
frois,
or vast moveable wooden towers, full of cross-bow men who kept a continual discharge on the opposite shore. Besides eighteen other new-invented engines for throwing stones and bolts. But in one night, the deluge of Greek fire ejected from the Saracen camp utterly destroyed these enormous machines. This was a common disaster; but Joinville says, that his pious monarch sometimes averted the danger, by prostrating himself on the ground, and invoking our Saviour with the appellation of
Beau Sire.
p. 37. 39.
of fyre they dyde honde,
Grounde they neyther corne ne good,
But robbed as thei were wood;
Out of their eyen cam rede blode
This device is thus related by Robert of Brunne, chron. p. 175. 176.
Richard als suithe did raise his engyns
The Inglis wer than blythe, Normans and Petevyns:
In bargeis and galeis he set mylnes to go,
The sailes, as men sais, som were blak and blo,
Som were rede and grene, the wynde about them blewe.—
The stones were of Rynes, the noyse dreadfull and grete
It affraied the Sarazins, as leven the fyre out schete.
The noyse was unride, &c.
Rynes
is the river Rhine, whose shores or bottom supplied the stones shot from their military engines. The Normans, a barbarous people, appear to have used machines of immense and very artificial construction at the siege of Paris in 885. See the last note. And Vit. Saladin. per Schultens, p. 135. 141. 167, &c.
:
Before the trough one ther stode
That all in blode was begone
Such another was never none
And hornes he had upon his hede
The Sarasyns of hym had grete drede
Sign. ut supr.
.
The last circumstance recalls a fiend-like appearance drawn by Shakespeare; in which, exclusive of the application, he has converted ideas of deformity into the true sublime, and rendered an image terrible, which in other hands would have probably been ridiculous.
—Methought his eyes
Were two full moons, he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelk'd and wav'd like the enridged sea.
It was some fiend
King Lear, iv. vi.
—.
At the touch of this powerful magician, to speak in Milton's language,
"The griesly terrror grows tenfold more dreadful and deform."
The moving castles described by our minstrell, which seem to be so many fabrics of romance, but are founded in real history, afforded suitable materials for poets who deal in the marvellous. Accordingly they could not escape the fabling genius of Tasso, who has made them instruments of enchantment, and accommodated them, with great propriety, to the operations of infernal spirits.
At the siege of Babylon, the soldan Saladin sends king Richard a
orse. The messenger says,
"Thou sayst thy God is full of myght:
"Wilt thou graunte with spere and shelde,
"To detryve the ryght in the felde,
"With helme, hauberke, and brondes bryght,
"On stronge stedes gode and lyght,
"Whether ben of more power,
"Thy God almight or Jupyter?
"And he sent me to saye this
"Yf thou wylt have an hors of his,
"In all the londes that thou hast gone
"Suche ne thou sawest never none:
"Favell of Sypres, ne Lyard of Prys
Horses belonging to Richard,
"Favel of Cyprus and Lyard of Paris."
Robert de Brunne mentions one of these horses, which he calls PHANUEL. Chron. p. 175.
Sithen at Japhet was slayn PHANUEL his stede,
The Romans telles gret pas ther of his douhty dede.
This is our romance, viz. Sign. Q. iii.
To hym gadered every chone
And slewe FAVELL under hym,
Tho was Richard wroth and grym.
This was at the siege of Jasse, as it is h
r
called.
Favell
of Cyprus is again mentioned, Sign. O. ii.
FAVELL of Cyprus is forth
et
And in the sadell he hym sett.
Robert of Brunne says that Saladin's brother sent king Richard a horse. Chron. p. 194.
He sent to king Richard a stede for curteisie
On of the best reward that was in p
emic.
,
"Ben not at ned as he ys;
"And yf thou wylte, this same daye,
"He shall be brought the to assaye."
Rycharde answered, "thou sayest well
"Suche an horse, by saynt Myghell,
"I wolde have to ryde upon.—
"Bydde hym sende that hors to me,
"And I shall assaye what they be,
"Yf he be trusti, withoute fayle,
"I kepe none other to me in batayle."
The messengers tho home wente,
And told the sowdan in presente,
That Rycharde in the felde wolde come hym unto:
The ryche sowdan bade to com hym unto
A noble clerke that coulde wel conjoure,
That was a mayster nygromansoure
Necromancer.
:
He commaunded, as I you telle,
Thorugh the fende's myght of helle,
Two strong fendes of the ayre
In lykenes of two stedes fayre
Both lyke in hewe and here,
As men sayd that ther were:
No man sawe never none syche
That was one was a mare iliche,
That other a colte, a noble stede,
Where that he wer in ony mede,
(Were the knyght
His Rider.
never so bolde,)
Whan the mare nye
Neigh.
wolde,
(That hym sholde holde ayenst his wylle,)
But soone he wolde go her tylle
Go to her.
,
And kneel downe and souke
Suck.
his dame,
Therewhyle the sowdan with shame
Sholde kynge Rychard quelle,
All this an aungell gan him telle,
That to hym came aboute mydnyght,
"Awake, he sayd, goddis knyght:
"My lorde
God.
doth the to onderstonde
"That the shal com on hors to londe,
"Fayre it is, of body ipyght,
"To betray the if the sowdan myght;
"On hym to ryde have thou no drede
"For he the helpe shall at nede."
The angel then gives king Richard several directions about managing this infernal horse, and a general engagement ensuing, between the Christian and Saracen armies,
In which the Saracen line extended tw
lve miles in length, and
The grounde myght unnethe be sene
For bryght armure and speres kene.
Again,
Lyke as snowe lyeth on the mountaynes
So were fulsylled hylles and playnes
With hauberkes bryght and harneys clere
Of tromp
ttes, and tabourere.
He lepte on hors whan it was lyght;
Or he in his sadel did lepe
Of many thynges he toke kepe.—
His men brought hem that he ba
,
A square tree of fourty fete,
Before his sadell anone he it sete
Faste that they should it brase, &c.
Hymself was richely begone,
From the creste ryght to the tone
From head to foot.
,
He was covered wondersly wele
All with splentes of good stele,
And ther above an hauberke.
A shafte he had of trusty werke,
Upon his shoulders a shelde of stele,
With the lybardes
Leopards.
painted wele;
And helme he had of ryche entayle,
Trusty and trewe was his ventayle:
Upon his creste a dove whyte
Sygnyfycaune of the holy sprite,
Upon a cross the dove stode
Of gold iwroght ryche and gode,
God
Our Saviour.
hymself Mary and Johon
As he was done the rode upon
"As he died upon the cross."
So in an old fragment cited by Hearne, Glo
. Rob. Br. p. 634.
Pyned under Ponce Pilat,
Don on the rod after that.
,
In sygnyfycaunce for whom he faught,
The spere h
d forgat he nauht,
Upon his shaft he wolde it have
Goddis name theron was grave,
Now herken what othe he sware,
Or thay to the battayle went there:
"Yf it were so, that Rycharde myght
"Slee the sowdan in felde with fyght,
"At our wylle everychone
"He and his shold gone
"In to the cyte of Babylone;
"And the kynge of Masydoyne
"He sholde have under his honde;
"And yf the
owdan of that londe
"Myght slee Rycharde in the felde
"With swerde or spere under shelde,
"That Crysten men sholde go
"Out of that londe for ever mo,
"And the Sarasyns theyr wyll in wolde."
Quod kynge Rycharde, "Therto I holde,
"Therto my glove, as I am knyght."
They be armyd and redy dyght:
Kynge Rycharde to his sadell dyde lepe,
Certes, who that wolde take kepe
To se that fyght it were fayre;
Ther stedes ranne with grete ayre
Ire.
,
Al so hard as thei myght dyre
Dare.
,
After theyr fete sprange out fyre:
Tabours and trompettes gan blowe:
Ther men myght se in a throwe
How kynge Rycharde that noble man
Encountred with the sowdan,
The chefe was tolde of Damas
I do not understand this. He seems to mean the Sultan of Damas, or Damascus. See Du Cange, Joinv. p. 87.
His truste upon his mare was,
And tharfor, as the boke us telles
The French romance.
,
Hys crouper henge full of belles
Antiently no person seems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle or some other part of the furniture, was stuck full of small bells. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, censures this piece of pride in the knights templar
. They have, he says, bridles embroidered, or gilded, or adorned with silver,
"Atque in pectoralibus CAMPANULAS INFIXAS MAGNUM emittentes SONITUM, ad gloriam eorum et decorem."
Hist. lib. xxx. cap. 85. Wicliffe, in his TRIALOGE, inveighs against the priests for their
"fair hors, and jolly and gay sadeles, and bridles
ringing
by the way, &c."
Lewis's WICKLIFFE, p. 121. And hence Chaucer may be illustrated, who thus describes the state of a monk on horseback. Prol. Cant. v. 170.
And when he rode, men might his bridell
here
GINGLING in a whistling wind as clere,
And eke as lowde, as doth the chapell bell.
That is, because his horse's bridle or trappings were strung with bells.
,
And his peytrell
The breast-plate, or breast-band of a horse.
Poitral,
Fr.
Pectorale,
Lat. Thus Chaucer of the Chanon YEMAN'S horse.
Chan. Yon. Prol. v. 575. Urr.
About the PAYNTRELL stoode the fome ful hie.
and hys arsowne
The saddle-bow.
"
Arcenarium
extencellatum cum argento,"
occurs in the wardrobe rolls, ab an. 21 ad an. 23 Edw. iii. Membr. xi. This word is not in Du Cange or his supplement.
Thre myle men myght here the sowne.
His mare nyghed, his belles dyd rynge,
For grete pryde, withoute lesynge,
A faucon brode
F.
bird.
in honde he bare,
For he thoght he wolde thare
Have slayne Rycharde with treasowne
Whan his colte sholde knele downe
As a colte sholde souk his dame,
And he was ware of that shame,
His eres
Ears.
with waxe were stopped faste,
Therefore Rycharde was not agaste,
He stroke the stede that under hym wente,
And gave the Sowdan his deth with a dente:
In his shelde verament
Was paynted a serpent,
Wyth the spere that Rycharde helde
He bare hym thorugh under hys shelde,
Non of hys armure myght hym laste,
Brydell and peytrell al to braste,
Hys gyrthes and hys steropes also
Hys mare to grounde wente tho;
Maugre her heed, he made her seche
The grounde, withoute more speche,
Hys feete towarde the fyrmament,
Bihynde hym the spere outwent
Ther he fell dede on the grene,
Rycharde smote the fende with spores
Spurs.
kene,
And yn the name of the holi goost
He dryveth ynto the hethen hoost,
And as sone as he was come,
Asonder he brake the sheltron
Schiltron.
I believe soldiers drawn up in a circle. Rob. de Brunne uses it in describing the battle of Fowkirke, Chron. p. 305.
Thar SCHELTRON sone was shad with Inglis that wer gode.
Shad
is
separated.
,
And al that ever afore hym stode,
Hors and man to the grounde yode,
Twenti fote on either syde, &c.
Whan the kyng of Fraunce and hys men wyste
That the mastry had the Crysten,
They waxed bold, and gode herte toke
Stedes bestrode, and shaftes shoke
Signat. M. ii.
.
Richard arming himself is a curious Gothic picture. It is certainly a genuine picture, and drawn with some spirit; as is the shock of the two necromantic steeds, and other parts of this description. The combat of Richard and the Soldan, on the event of which the christian army got possession of the city of Babylon, is probably the DUEL OF KING RICHARD, painted on the walls of a chamber in the royal palace of Clarendon
See supr. p. 114.
. The soldan is represented as meeting Richard with a hawk on his fist, to shew indifference, or a contempt of his adversary; and that he came rather prepared for the chace, than the combat. Indeed in the feudal times, and long afterwards, no gentleman appeared on horseback, unless going to battle, without a hawk on his fist. In the
Tapestry of the Norman conquest,
Harold is exhibited on horseback, with a hawk on his fist, and his dogs running before him, going on an embassy from king Edward the Confessor to William Duke of Normandy
The hawk on the fist was a mark of great nobility. We frequently find it, upon antique seals and miniatures, attributed to persons of both sexes. So sacred was this bird esteemed, that it was forbidden in a code of Charlemagne's laws, for any one to give his hawk or his sword as part of his ransom.
"In compositionem Wirigildi volumus ut ea dentur quae in lege continentur excepto
accipitre et spatha.
"
Lindebrog. Cod. Leg. Antiq. p. 895. In the year 1337, the bishop of Ely excommunicated certain persons for stealing a hawk, sitting on her perch, in the cloisters of the abbey of Bermondsey in Southwark. This piece of sacrilege, indeed, was committed during service-time in the choir: and the hawk was the property of the bishop. Registr. Adami Orleton, Episc. Winton. fol. 56. b. In Archiv. Winton. In DOMESDEI-BOOK, a Hawk's Airy,
Aira Accipitris,
is sometim
s returned among the most valuable articles of property.
Tabour,
a drum, a common accompanyment of war, is mentioned as one of the instruments of martial music in this battle with characteristical propriety. It was imported into the European armies from the Saracens in the holy war. The word is constantly written tabour, not
tambour,
in Joinville's HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS, and all the elder French romances. Joinville describes a superb bark or galley belonging to a Saracen chief, which he says was filled with cymbals,
tabours,
and Saracen horns
Histoir. de S. Loys, p. 30. The original has
"Cors Sarazinois."
See also p. 52. 56. And Du Cange's Notes, p. 61.
. Jean d'Orronville, an old French chronicler of the life of Louis duke of Bourbon, relates, that the king of France, the king of Thrasimere, and the king of Bugie landed in Africa, according to their custom, with cymbals, kettle drums,
tabours
I cannot find
Glais,
the word that follows, in the French dictionaries. But perhaps it answers to our old English
Gl
.
See Du Cange, Gl. Lat. V. CLASSICUM..
, and whistles
Cap. 76.
Nacaires,
is here the word for kettle-drums. See Du Cange, ubi supr. p. 59. Who also from an old roll
d
la chambre des
COMPTES
de Paris
recites, among the houshold musicians of a French nobleman,
"Menestrel du
Cor Sarazin
i
,"
ib. p. 60. This instrument is not uncommon in the French romances.
. Babylon, here said to be besieged by king Richard, and so frequently mentioned by the romance writers and the chroniclers of the crusades, is Cairo or Bagdat. Cairo and Bagdat, ci
ies of recent foundation, were perpetually confounded with Babylon, which had been destroyed many centuries before, and was situated at a considerable distance from either. Not the least enquiry was made in the dark ages concerning the true situation of places, or the disposition of the country in Palestine, although the theatre of so important a war; and to this neglect were owing, in a great measure, the signal defeats and calamitous distresses of the christian adventurers, whose numerous armies, destitute of information, and cut off from every resource, perished amidst unknown mountains, and impracticable wastes. Geography at this time had been but little cultivated. It had been studied only from the antients: as if the face of the earth, and the political state of nations, had not, since the time of those writers, undergone any changes or revolutions.
So formidable a champion was king Richard against the infidels, and so terrible the remembrance of his valour in the holy war, that the Saracens and Turks used to quiet their froward children only by repeating his name. Joinville is the only writer who records this anecdote. He adds another of the same sort. When the Saracens were riding, and their horses started at any unusal object,
"ils disoient a leurs chevaulx en les picquent de l'esperon,
t cuides tu que ce soit le
ROY RICHART
Hist. de S. Loyis, p. 16. 104. Who had it from a French manuscript chronicle of the holy war. See Du Cange's Notes, p. 45.
?"
It is extraordinary, that these circumstances should have escaped Malmesbury, Matthew Paris, Benedict, Langtoft, and the rest of our old historians, who have exaggerated the character of this redoubted hero, by relating many particulars more likely to be fabulous, and certainly less expressive of his prowess.
SECT. V.
THE romance of SIR GUY, which is enumerated by Chaucer among the
"Romances of pris,"
affords the following fiction, not uncommon indeed in pieces of this sort, conc
rning the redemption of a knight from a long captivity, whose prison was inaccessible, unknown, and enchanted
The Romance of Sir Guy is a considerable volume in quarto. My edition is without date,
"Imprinted at London in Lothburye by Wyllyam Copland."
with rude wooden cuts. It runs to Sign. S. ii. It seems to be older than the
S
uyr of lowe degree,
in which it is quoted. Sign.
. iii.
Or els so bolde in chivalrie
As was syr Gawayne or syr GIE.
The two best manuscripts of this romance are at Cambridge, MS
. Bibl. Publ. Mor. 690. 33. And MSS. Coll. Caii, A. 8.
. His name is Amis of the Mountain.
Here besyde an Elfish knyhte
In Chaucer's Tale of the
Chano
Yeman,
chemistry is termed an ELFISH art, that is, taught or conducted by Spirits. This is an Arabian idea. Chan. Y
m. T. p. 122. v. 772. Urry's edit.
Whan we be ther as we shall exercise
Our ELVISHE craft.—
Again, ibid. v. 863.
Though he sit at his boke both daie and night,
In lerning of this ELVISH nicè lore.
Has taken my lorde in fyghte,
And hath him ledde with him away
In the Fayry
"Into the land of Fairy, into the region of Spirits."
, Syr, permafay.
Was Amis, quoth Heraude, your husbond?
A doughtyer knygte was none in londe.
Then tolde Heraude to Raynborne,
How he loved his father Guyon:
Then sayd Raynburne, for thy sake,
To morrow I shall th
way take,
And nevermore come agayne,
Tyll I bring Amys of the Mountayne.
Raynborne rose on the morrow erly,
And armed hym full richely.—
Raynborne rode tyll it was noone,
Tyll he came to a rocke of stone;
Ther he founde a strong gate,
He blissed hym, and rode in thereat
He rode half a myle the waie,
He saw no light that came of daie,
Then cam he to a watir brode,
Never man ovir suche a one rode.
Within he sawe a place greene
Suche one had he never erst seene.
Within that place there was a pallaice,
Closed with walles of heathenesse
"Walls built by the Pagans or Saracens. Walls built by magic."
Chaucer, in a verse taken from
Syr Bevys,
[Sign. a. ii.] says that his knight had travelled,
As well in Christendom as in HETHNESS.
Prol. p. 2. v. 49. And in Syr
Eglamour of Artoys,
Sign. E. ii.
Eglamour sayd to hym yeys,
I am come out of HETHENES.
Syr Bevys of Hamptoun.
Sign. b. iii.
They found shippes more and lesse
Of panimes and of
hethen
sse.
Also, Sign. C. i.
The first dede withouten lesse
That Bevys dyd in
hethen
sse.
:
The walles thereof were of cristall,
And the sommers of corall.
Raynborne had grete dout to passe,
The watir so depe and brode was:
And at the laste his steede leepe
Into the brode watir deepe.
Thyrty fadom he sanke adowne,
Then cleped
Called.
he to god Raynborne.
God hym help, his steede was goode,
And bure hym ovir that hydious floode.
To the pallaice he yode
Went.
anone,
And lyghted downe of his steede full soone.
Through many a chamber yede Raynborne,
A knyghte he found in dongeon.
Raynborne grete hym as a knyght courtoise,
Who oweth, he said, this fayre Pallaice?
That knyght answered hym, yt is noght,
He oweth it that me hither broght.
Thou art, quod Raynburne, in feeble plight,
Tell me thy name, he sayd, syr knight:
That knyghte sayd to hym agayne,
My name is Amys of the Mountayne.
The lord is an Elvish man
That me into thys pryson wan.
Arte thou Amys, than sayde Raynborne,
Of the Mountaynes the bold barrone?
In grete perill I have gone,
To seke thee in this rocke of stone.
But blissed be God now have I thee
Thou shalt go home with me.
Let be, sayd Amys of the Mountayne,
Great wonder I have of thee certayne;
How that thou hythur wan:
For syth this world fyrst began
No man hyther come ne myghte,
Without leave of the Elvish knyghte.
Me with thee thou mayest not lede, &c.
Sign. K k. iii. seq.
Afterwards, the knight of the mountain directs Raynburne to find a wonderful sword which hung in the hall of the palace. With this weapon Raynburne attacks and conquers the Elvish knight; who buys his life, on condition of conducting his conqueror over the perillous ford, or lake, above described, and of delivering all the captives confined in his secret and impregnable dungeon.
Guyon's expedition into the Souldan's camp, an idea furnished by the crusades, is drawn with great strength and simplicity.
Guy asked his armes anone,
Hosen of yron Guy did upon:
In hys hawberke Guy hym clad,
He drad no stroke whyle he it had.
Upon hys head hys helme he cast,
And hasted hym to ryde full fast.
A syrcle
Circle.
of gold thereon stoode,
The emperarour had none so goode;
Aboute the syrcle for the nones
Were sett many precyous stones.
Above he had a coate armour wyde;
Hys sword he toke by hys syde:
And lept upon his stede anone,
Styrrope with foote touched he none.
Guy rode forth without boste,
Alone to the Soudan's hoste:
Guy saw all that countrie
Full of tentes and pavylyons bee:
On the pavylyon of the Soudone
Stoode a carbuncle-stone:
Guy wist therebie it was the Soudones
And drew hym thyther for the nones,
Alt the meete
At dinner.
he founde the Soudone,
And hys barrons everychone,
And tenne kynges aboute hym,
All they were stout and grymme:
Guy rode forth, and spake no worde,
Tyll he cam to the Soudan's borde
Table. Chaucer, Squ. T. 105.
And up he rideth to the hi
borde.
Chaucer says that his knight had often
"beg
n the bord
abovin all nations."
Prol. 52. The term of chivalry,
to begin the board,
is to be placed in the uppermost seat of the hall. Anstis, Ord. Gart. i. App. p. xv.
"The earl of Surry
began the borde
in presence: the earl of Arundel washed with him, and satt both at the first messe. . . .
Began the borde
at the chamber's end."
i. e. sat at the head of that table which was at the end of the chamber. This was at Windsor, A. D. 1519. In
Syr Eglamour of Artoys,
we have
to begin the d
s
,
which is the same thing.
Lordes in halle wer sette
And waytes blewe to the mete.—
The two knyghtes the
dese began.
Sign D iii. See Chaucer, Squ. T. 99. And Kn. T. 2002. In a celebration of the feast of Christmas at Greenwich, in the year 1488, we have,
"The duc of Bedeford
ega
ne the table
on the right side of the hall, and next untoo hym was the lorde Dawbeney
, &c."
That is,
He sate at the head of t
e
abl
.
Leland. Coll. iii. 237. edit. 1770. To begin the
bourd
is to begin the
tournam
nt.
Lydgate, Chron. Troy, B. ii. ch. 14.
The grete justes,
bordes,
or
tournay.
I will here take occasion to correct Hearne's explanation of the word
Bourder
in Brunne's Chron. p. 204.
A knygt a BOURDOUR king Richard hade
A douty man in stoure his name was Markade.
BOURDOUR, says Hearne, is
boarder,
pensioner. But the true meaning is, a
Wag,
an arch fellow, for he is h
re introduced putting a joke on the king of France. BOURDE is
j
st, trick,
from the French. See above, p. 70. Chau
. Gam. 1974. and Non. Urr. 2294. Knyghton, mentions a favourite in the court of England who could procure any grant from the king
burdando.
Du Cange Not. Joinv. p. 116. Who adds,
"De là vient le mot de
Bourdeurs
qui estoient ces farceurs ou plaisantins qui divertissoient les princes par le recit des fables et des histoires des Romans.—Aucuns estiment que ce mot vient des
behourds
qui estoit une espece des Tournois."
See also Diss. Joinv. p. 174.
;
He ne rought
Cared, valued. Chaucer, Rom. R. 1873.
I ne
rought
of deth ne of life.
with whom he mette,
But on thys wyse the Soudan he grette.
"God's curse have thou and thyne
"And tho that leve
Those who believe.
on Apoline."
Than sayd the Soudan, "What art thou
"That thus prowdlie speakest now?
"Yet found I never man certayne
"That suche wordes durst me sayne."
Guy sayd, "So God me save from hell,
"My ryght nam I shall the tell,
"Guy of Warwicke my name is."
Than sayd the Sowdan ywis,
"Arte thou the bolde knyght Guyon,
"That art here in my pavylyon?
"Thou sluest my cosyn Coldran
"Of all Sarasyns the boldest man, &c
Sign. Q. iii.
.
I will add Guy's combat with the Danish giant Colbrond, as it is touched with great spirit, and may serve to illustrate some preceding hints concerning this part of our hero's history.
Then came Colbronde forthe anone,
On foote, for horse could bare hym none.
For when he was in armure dight
Fower horse ne bare hym might.
A man had ynough to done
To bere hym hys wepon.
Then Guy rode to Colbronde,
On hys stede ful wele rennende
Running.
:
Colbronde smote Guy in the fielde
In the middest of Syr Guyes shelde;
Through Guyes hawberk that stroke went
And for no maner thyng it withstent
"Nothing could stop it."
.
In two yt share
Divided.
Guyes stedes body
And fell to ground hastily.
Guy upstert as an eger lyoune,
And drue hys gode sworde browne:
To Colbronde he let it flye,
But he might not reche so hye.
On hys shoulder the stroke fell downe
Through all hys armure share Guyon
"Guy cut through all the giant's armour."
.
Into the bodie a wounde untyde
That the red blude gan oute glyde.
Colbronde was wroth of that rap,
He thought to give Guy a knap.
He smote Guy on the helme bryght
That out sprang the fyre lyght.
Guy smote Colbronde agayne,
Through shielde and armure certayne.
He made his swerde for to glyde
Into his bodie a wound ryht wyde.
So smart came Guyes bronde
That it braste in hys hond.
The romance of the SQUIRE OF LOW DEGREE, who loved the king's daughter of Hungary
It contains thirty-eight pages in quarto.
"Imprinted at London by me Wyllyam Copland."
I have never seen it in manuscript.
, is alluded to by Chaucer
in the Rime of Sir Topas
See Observations on the Fairy Queen, i. §. iv. p. 139.
. The princess is thus represented in her closet, adorned with painted glass, listening to the squire's complaint
Sign. a. iii.
.
That ladi herde hys mournyng alle,
Ryght undir the chambre walle:
In her oryall
An Oriel seems to have been a recess in a chamber, or hall, formed by the projection of a spacious bow-window from top to bottom. Rot. Pip. an. 18. Hen. iii. [A. D. 1234.]
"Et in quadam capella pulchra et decenti facienda ad caput Orioli camere regis in castro Herefordie, de longitudine xx: pedum."
This Oriel was at the end of the king's chamber, from which the new chapel was to begin. Again, in the castle of Kenilworth. Rot. Pip. an. 19. Hen. iii. [A. D. 1235.]
"Et in uno magno Oriollo pulchro et competenti, ante ostium magne camere regis in castro de Kenilworth faciendo, vi
l.
xvi
s.
iv
d.
per Brev. regis."
there she was,
Closyd well with royall glas,
Fulfyllyd yt was with ymagery,
Every windowe by and by
On eche syde had ther a gynne,
Sperde
Closed, shut. In P. Plowman, of a blind man.
"unsparryd
his eine."
i. e. opened his eyes.
with manie a dyvers pynne.
Anone that ladie fayre and fre
Undyd a pynne of yvere,
And wyd the wyndowes she open set,
The sunne shonne yn at hir closet.
In that arbre fayre and gaye
She saw where that sqyure lay, &c.
I am persuaded to transcribe the following passage, because it delineates in lively colours the fashionable diversions and usages of antient times. The king of Hungary endeavours to comfort his daughter with these promises, after she had fallen into a deep and incurable melancholy from the supposed loss of her paramour.
To morow ye shall yn huntyng fare;
And yede, my doughter, yn a chare,
Yt shal be coverd wyth velvette reede
And clothes of fyne golde al about your heede,
With damaske whyte and asure blewe
Well dyaperd
Embroidered, Diversified. Chaucer of
bow, Rom. R. v. 934.
And it was painted wel and thwitten
And ore all
diapred,
and written, &c.
Thwitten is,
twisted, wreathed.
The following instance from Chaucer is more to our purpose. Knight's Tale, v. 2160.
Upon a stede bay, trappid in s
le,
Coverid with cloth of gold
diaprid
wele.
This term, which is partly heraldic, occurs in the Provisor's rolls of the Greatwardrobe, containing deliveries for furnishing rich habiliments, at tilts and tournaments, and other ceremonies.
"Et ad faciendum tria harnesia pro Rege, quorum duo de velvetto albo operato cum garteriis de blu et
di
s
r
per totam campedinem cum wodehouses."
Ex Comp. J. Coke clerici, Provisor. Magn. Garderob. ab ann. xxi. Edw. iii. de 23 membranis. ad ann. xxiii. memb. x. I believe it properly signifies embroidering on a rich ground, as tissu
, cloth of gold, &c. This is confirmed by Peacham.
"DIAPERING is a term in drawing.—It chi
fly serveth to counterfeit cloth of gold, silver, damask, brancht velvet, camblet, &c."
Compl. Gent. p. 345. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, conjectures, that
Dia
r,
a speci
s of printed linen, took it's name from the city of Ypres in Flanders, where it was first made, being originally called
d'ipr
.
But that city, and others in Flanders, were no less famous for rich manufactures of stuff; and the word in question has better pretensions to such a derivation. Thus
rich cloth
mbroidered with raised work
we called
d'ipre,
and from thence
diaper;
and to do this, or any work like it, was called to
diaper,
from whence the participle.
Sattin of Brug
s,
another city of Flanders, often occurs in inventories of monastic ves
ments, in the r
ign of Henry the eighth: and the cities of Arras and Tours are celebrated for their t
p
stry in Spenser. All these cities and others in their neighbourhood, became
amous for this sort of workmanship before 1200. The
Arm
tor
of Edward the third, who
inishes all the costly apparatus for the shews above-mentioned, consisting, among other things, of variety of the most sumptuous and ornamented embroideries on velvet, sa
in, tissu
, &c. is John of Cologn. Unless it be Colonia in It
ly. Rotul. praedict. memb. viii. memb. xiii.
"Quae omnia ordinata fu
unt per garderob
rium competentem, de precepto ipsius Regis: et facta et parata par manus Johis de Colonia, Armatoris ipsius domini nostri Regis."
Johannes de Strawesburgh [Strasburgh] is mentioned as
broudator r
gis,
i. e. of Richard the second, in Anstis
Ord. Gart. i. 55. See also, ii. 42. I will add a passage from Chaucer's
Wife of Bath,
v. 450.
Of cloth-making she had such a haunt,
She passid them of
Ipre
and of
Gaunt.
"Cloth of Gaunt,"
i. e. Ghent, is mentioned in the
Romaunt of the Rose,
v. 574. Bruges was the chief mart for Italian commodities, about the thirteenth century. In the year 1318, five Venetian gal
asses, laden with Indian goods, arrived at this city in order to dispose of their cargoes at the fair. L. Guic. Descr. di Paesi bass. p. 174. Silk manufactures were introduced from the east into Italy, before 1130. Gianon. Hist. Napl. xi. 7. The crusades much improved the commerce of the Italian states with the east in this article, and produced new artificers of their own. But to recur to the subject of this note.
Diaper
occurs among the rich silks and stuffs in the French
Roman de la Ros
,
where it seems to signify
Damask.
v. 21867.
Samites,
dyaprés,
camelots.
I find it likewise in the
Roman d'Alexandre,
written about 1200. MSS. Bodl. fol. i. b. col. 2.
Dyapres
d'Antioch, samis de Romanie.
Here is also a proof that the Asiatic stuff
were at that time famous: and probably
Romani
is Romania. The word often occurs in old accounts of rich ecclesiastical vestments. Du Cange derives this word from the Italian
diaspro,
a jasper, a precious stone which shifts its colours. V. DIASPRUS. In Dugdale's Monasticon we have
diasperatus,
diapered.
"Sandalia cum caligis de rubeo sameto DIASPERATO breudata cum imaginibus regum."
tom. iii. 314. And 321.
with lyllyes newe:
Your pomelles shalbe ended with golde,
Your chaynes enameled many a folde.
Your mantell of ryche degre
Purple palle and armyne fre.
Jennets of Spayne that ben so wyght
Trapped to the ground with velvet bryght.
Ye shall have harpe, sautry, and songe,
And other myrthes you amonge,
Ye shal have rumney, and malespine,
Both ypocrasse and vernage wyne;
Mountrese and wyne of Greke,
Both algrade and despice eke;
Antioche and bastarde,
Pyment
Sometimes written
pimeate.
In the romance of
Syr B
vys,
a knight just going to repose, takes the usual draught of
pimeate:
which mixed with spices is what the French romances call
vin du couch
r,
and for which an officer, called ESPICIER, was appointed in the old royal houshold of France. Signat. m. iii.
The knight and she to chamber went:—
With
pimea
e,
and with spisery,
When they had dronken the wyne.
See Carpentier, Suppl. Gloss. Lat. Du Cange, tom. iii. p. 842. So Chaucer, Leg. Dido, v. 185.
The spicis parted, and the wine agon,
Unto his chamber he is lad anon.
Froissart says, among the delights of his youth, that he was happy to taste,
—Au couchier, pour mieulx dormir,
Especes, clairet, et rocelle.
Mem. Lit. x. 665. Not. 4to. Lidgate of Tideus and Polimite in the palace of Adrastus at Thebes. Stor. Theb. p. 634. ed. Chauc. 1687.
—Gan anon repaire
To her lodging in a ful stately toure;
Assigned to hem by the herbeiour.
And aftir spicis plenty and the wine
In cuppis grete wrought of gold ful fyne,
Without tarrying to bedde straightes they gone, &c.
Chaucer has it again, Squ. T. v. 311. p. 62. Urr. And Mill. T. v. 270. p. 26.
He sent her
piment,
methe, and spicid ale.
Some orders of monks are enjoined to abstain from drinking
pigmentum,
or
piment.
Yet it was a common refection in the monasteries. It is a drink made of wine, honey, and spices.
"Thei ne could not medell the gefte of Bacchus to the clere honie; that is to say, they could not make ne
piment
ne clarre."
Chaucer's Boeth. p. 371. a. Urr.
Clarre
is clarified wine. In French
Cla
ey.
Perhaps the same as piment, or hypocrass. See Mem. Lit. viii. p. 674. 4to. Compare Chauc. Sh. T. v. 2579. Urr. Du Cange, Gloss. Lat. V. PIGMENTUM. SPECIES. And Suppl. Carp. And Mem. sur l'anc. Chevalier. i. p. 19. 48. I must add, that
, or
, signified an
Apothecary
among the middle and lower Greeks. See Du Cange, Gl. Gr. in Voc. i. 1167. And ii. Append. Etymolog. Vocab. Ling. Gall. p. 301. col. 1. In the register of the bishop of Nivernois, under the year 1287, it is covenanted, that whenever the bishop shall celebrate mass in S. Mary's abbey, the abbess shall present him with a peacock, and a cup of piment. Carpentier, ubi supt. vol. iii. p. 277.
also, and garnarde;
Wine of Greke, and muscadell,
Both clare, pyment, and rochell,
The reed your stomake to defye
And pottes of osey sett you bye.
You shall have venyson ybake
Chaucer says of the Frankelein, Prol. p. 4. Urr. v. 345.
Withoutin
bake mete
never was his house.
And in this poem, Signat. B. iii.
With birds in
bread ybake,
The tele the duck and drake.
,
The best wylde fowle that may be take:
A lese of harehound
In a manuscript of Froissart full of paintings and illuminations, there is a representation of the grand entrance of queen Isabel of England into Paris, in the year 1324. She is attended by a greyhound who has a flag, powdered with fleurs de lys, bound to his neck. Montf. Monum. Fr. ii. p. 234.
with you to streke,
And hart, and hynde, and other lyke,
Ye shalbe set at such a tryst
That hart and hynde sh
ll come to you fyst.
Your de
ease to dryve ye fro,
To here the bugles there yblowe.
Homward thus shall ye ryde,
On haukyng by the ryvers syde,
With goshauke and with gentil fawcon
With buglehorn and merlyon.
When you come home your menie amonge,
Ye shall have revell, daunces, and songe:
Lytle chyldren, great and smale,
Shall syng as doth the nyghtyngale,
Than shal ye go to your evensong,
With tenours and trebles among,
Threscore of copes of damask bryght
Full of perles they shalbe pyghte.—
Your sensours shalbe of golde
Endent with asure manie a folde:
Your quere nor organ songe shal want
With countre note and dyscaunt.
The other halfe on orgayns playing,
With yong chyldren ful fayn syngyng.
Than shal ye go to your suppere
And sytte in tentis in grene arbere,
With clothe of arras pyght to the grounde,
With saphyres set of dyamounde.—
A hundred knyghtes truly tolde
Shall plaie with bowles in alayes colde.
Your disease to dryve awaie,
To se the fisshes yn poles plai
.
To a drawe brydge then shal ye,
Thone halfe of stone, thother of tre,
A barge shal meet you full ryht,
With xxiiii ores ful bryght,
With trompettes and with claryowne,
The fresshe watir to rowe up and downe.
Than shal you, doughter, aske the wyne
Wyth spises that be gode and fyne:
Gentyll pottes, with genger grene,
Wyth dates and deynties you betweene.
Fortie torches brenynge bright
At your brydges to bring you lyght.
Into youre chambre they shall you brynge
Wyth muche myrthe and more lykynge.
Your blankettes shal be of fustyane,
Your shetes shal be of cloths of rayne
Cloath, or linen, of Rennes, a city in Britany. Chaucer, Dr. v. 255.
And many a pilowe, and every bere
Of cloth
of raynes
to slepe on softe,
Him thare not nede to turnin ofte.
Tela de Reynes
is mentioned among habits delivered to knights of the garter, 2 Rich. ii. Anstis, Ord. Gart. i. 55.
:
Your head-shete shal be of pery pyght
"Inlaid with jewels."
Chaucer, Kn. T. v. 2938. p. 22. Urr.
And then with cloth of gold and with
perie.
And in numberless other places.
,
Wyth dy
mondes set and rubys bryght.
Whan you are layd in bed so softe,
A cage of golde shal hange aloft,
Wythe longe peper fayre burning,
And cloves that be swete smellyng,
Frankinsense and olibanum,
That whan ye slepe the taste may come
And yf ye no rest can take
All nyght mynstrels for you shall wake
Sign. D. ii. seq. At the close of the romance it is said, that the king, in the midst of a great feast which lasted forty days, created the squire king in his room; in the presence of his TWELVE LORDS. See what I have observed concerning the number TWELVE, Introd. DISS. i.
.
SYR DEGORE is a romance perhaps belonging to the same period
It contains thirty-two pages in quarto. Coloph.
"Thus endeth the Tretyse of Syr Degore, imprynted by Willyam Copland."
There is another copy dated 1560. There is a manuscript of it among bishop More's at Cambridge, Bibl. Publ. 690. 36. Syr DEGARE.
. After his education under a hermit, Sir Degore's first adventure is against a dragon. This horrible monster is marked with the hand of a master
Sign. B. ii.
.
Degore went furth his waye,
Through a forest half a daye:
He
erd no man, nor sawe none,
Tyll yt past the hygh none,
Then herde he grete strokes falle,
That yt made grete noyse with alle,
Full sone he thoght that to se,
To wete what the strokes myght be:
There was an erle, both stout and gaye,
He was com ther that same daye,
For to hunt for a dere or a do,
But hys houndes were gone hym fro.
Then was ther a dragon grete and grymme,
Full of fyre and also venymme,
Wyth a wyde throte and tuskes grete,
Uppon that knygte fast gan he bete.
And as a lyon then was hys feete,
Hys tayle was long, and full unmeete:
Betwene hys head and hys tayle
Was xxii fote withouten fayle;
Hys body was lyke a wyne tonne,
He shone ful bryght agaynst the sunne:
Hys eyen were bright as any glasse,
His scales were hard as any brasse;
And therto he was necked lyke a horse,
He bare hys hed up wyth grete force:
The breth of hys mouth that did out blow
As yt had been a fyre on lowe.
He was to loke on, as I you telle,
As yt had bene a fiende of helle.
Many a man he had shent,
And many a horse he had rente.
As the minstrell profession became a science, and the audience grew more civilised, refinements began to be studied, and the romantic poet sought to gain new attention, and to recommend his story, by giving it the advantage of a plan. Most of the old metrical romances are, from their nature, supposed to be incoherent rhapsodies. Yet many of them have a regular integrity, in which every part contributes to produce an intended end. Through various obstacles and difficulties one point is kept in view, till the final and general catastrophe is brought about by a pleasing and unexpected surprise. As a specimen of the rest, and as it lies in a narrow compass, I will develope the plan of the fable now before us, which preserves at least a coincidence of events, and an uniformity of design.
A king's daughter of England, extremely beautiful, is sollicited in marriage by numerous potentates of various kingdoms. The king her father vows, that of all these suitors, that champion alone shall win his daughter who can unhorse him at a tournament. This they all attempt, but in vain. The king every year assisted at an anniversary mass for the soul of his deceased queen, who was interred in an abbey at some distance from his castle. In the journey thither, the princess strays from her damsels in a solitary forest: she is discovered by a knight in rich armour, who by many sollicitations prevails over her chastity, and, at parting, gives her a sword without a point, which he charges her to keep safe; together with a pair of gloves, which will fit no hands but her own
Gloves were antiently a costly article of dress, and richly decorated. They were sometimes adorned with precious stones. Rot. Pip. an. 53. Hen
. iii. [A. D. 1267.]
"Et de i. pectine auri c
m lapidibus pretiosis ponderant. xliii
s.
et iii
d.
ob. Et de ii. paribus chirothecarum cum LAPIDIBUS."
This golden comb, set with jewels, realises the wonders of romance.
. At length she finds the road to her father's castle, where, after some time, to avoid discovery, she is secretly delivered of a boy. Soon after the delivery, the princess having carefully placed the child in a cradle, with twenty pounds in gold, ten pounds in silver, the gloves given her by the strange knight, and a letter, consigns him to one of her maidens, who carries him by night, and leaves him in a wood, near a hermitage, which she discerned by the light of the moon. The hermit in the morning discovers the child; reads the letter, by which it appears that the gloves will fit no lady but the boy's mother, educates him till he is twenty years of age, and at parting gives him the gloves found with him in the cradle, telling him that they will fit no lady but his own mother. The youth, who is called Degore, sets forward to seek adventures, and saves an earl from a terrible dragon, which he kills. The earl invites him to his palace, dubs him a knight, gives him a horse and armour, and offers him half his territory. Sir Degore refuses to accept this offer, unless the gloves, which he had received from his foster-father the hermit, will fit any lady of his court. All the ladies of the earl's court are called before him, and among the rest the earl's daughter, but upon trial the gloves will fit none of them. He therefore takes leave of the earl, proceeds on his adventures, and meets with a large train of knights; he is informed that they were going to tourney with the king of England, who had promised his daughter to that knight who could conquer him in single combat. They tell him of the many barons and earls whom the king had foiled in several trials. Sir Degore, however, enters the lists, overthrows the king, and obtains the princess. As the knight is a perfect stranger, she submits to her father's commands with much reluctance. He marries her; but in the midst of the solemnities which preceded the consummation, recollects the gloves which the hermit had given him, and proposes to make an experiment with them on the hands of his bride. The princess, on seeing the gloves, changed colour, claimed them for her own, and drew them on with the greatest ease. She declares to Sir Degore that she was his mother, and gives him an account of his birth: she told him that the knight his father gave her a pointless sword, which was to be delivered to no person but the son that should be born of their stolen embraces. Sir Degore draws the sword, and contemplates its breadth and length with wonder: is suddenly seized with a desire of finding out his father. He sets forward on this search, and on his way enters a castle, where he is entertained at supper by fifteen beautiful damsels. The lady of the castle invites him to her bed, but in vain; and he is lulled asleep by the sound of a harp. Various artifices are used to divert him from his pursuit, and the lady even engages him to encounter a giant in her cause
All the romances have such an obstacle as this. They have all an enchantress, who detains the knight from his quest by objects of pleasure; and who is nothing more than the Calypso of Homer, the Dido of Virgil, and the Armida of Tasso.
. But Sir Degore rejects all her temptations, and pursues his journey. In a forest he meets a knight richly accoutred, who demands the reason why Sir Degore presumed to enter his forest without permission. A combat ensues. In the midst of the contest, the combatants being both unhorsed, the strange knight observing the sword of his adversary not only to be remarkably long and broad, but without a point, begs a truce for a moment. He fits the sword to a point which he had always kept, and which had formerly broken off in an encounter with a giant; and by this circumstance discovers Sir Degore to be his son. They both return into England, and Sir Degore's father is married to the princess his mother.
The romance of KYNG ROBERT OF SICILY begins and proceeds thus
MS. Vernon, ut supr. Bibl. Bodl. f. 299. It is also in Caius College Camb. MSS. Class. E. 147. 4. And Bibl. Publ. Cambr. MSS. More, 690. 35. And Brit. Mus. MSS. Harl. 525. 2. f. 35. Cod. membran. Never printed.
.
Here is of kyng Robert of Cicyle,
Hou pride dude him beguile.
Princes proude that beth in pres,
I wol ou tell thing not lees.
In Cisyle was a noble kyng,
Faire and strong and sumdele ȝyng
Young.
;
He hadde a broder in greete Roome,
Pope of al cristendome;
Another he hadde in Alemayne,
An emperour that Sarazins wrougte payne.
The kynge was hete
Named.
kynge Robert,
Never mon ne wuste him ferte,
He was kyng of great honour
Ffor that he was conquerour:
In al the worlde nas his peer,
Kyng ne prince, far ne neer:
And, for he was of chivalrie flour,
His broder was made emperour:
His oder broder, godes vikere,
Pope of Rome, as I seide ere;
The pope was hote pope Urban,
He was goode to god and man:
The emperour was hote Valemounde,
A stronger warreoure nas non founde,
After his brother of Cisyle,
Of whom that I schal telle awhyle.
The kynge yhoughte he hadde no peer
In al the world, far no neer,
And in his yougt he hadde pryde
Ffor he was nounpere in uche syde.
At midsomer a seynt Jones niht,
The king to churche com ful riht,
Ffor to heren his even-song;
Him thouhte he dwelled ther ful long,
He thouhte more in worldes honour
Than in Crist our saveour:
In Magnificat
The hymn so called.
he herde a vers,
He made a clerke het him rehers,
In language of his own tonge,
In Latyn he nuste
He wist.
Knew not.
what heo songe;
The vers was this I tell ye,
"Deposuit potentes de sede
"Et exaltavit humiles,"
This was the vers withouten les
The clerke seide anone righte,
"Sire suche is godes mihte,
"That he make heyge lowe,
"And lowe heyge, in luytell throwe;
"God may do, withoute lyge
Lie.
,
"His wil in twenkling of an eige
Eye.
,
The kynge seide, with hert unstabl
"All yor song is fals and fable:
"What man hath such power
"Me to bringe lowe in daunger?
"I am floure of chivalrye,
"Myn enemys I may distruye:
"No man lyveth in no londe
"That may me withstonde.
"Then is this a song of noht."
This erreur he hadde in thought,
And in his thought a sleep him tok,
In his pulput
Stall, or seat.
, as seith the boke.
Whan that evensong was al don,
A kyng i lyk hem out gon
And all men with hem wende,
Kyng Roberd lefte oute of mynde
"A king like him went out of the chapel, and all the company with him; while the real king Robert was forgotten and left behind."
.
The newe
Supposed.
kyng was, as I yow telle,
Godes aungell his pruide to felle.
The aungell in hall joye made,
And all men of hym weore glade.
The kynge wakede that laye in churche,
His men he thouhte wo to werche;
Ffor he was left ther alon,
And dark niht hym fel upon.
He gan crie after his men,
Ther nas non that spak agen.
But the sextune atten ende
Of the churche him gan wende
Went to him.
,
And saide, "what dost thou nouth here,
"Thou fals thef, thou losenger?
"Thou art her with felenye
"Holy chirche to robby, &c."
The kyng bigon to renne out faste;
As a mon that was wood,
At his paleys gate he stood,
And hail the porter gadelyng
Renegado, traitor.
,
And bad him com in higing
At the call.
:
The porter seide, "Who clepeth
Calls.
so?"
He answerde, "Anone tho,
"Thou schalt witen ar I go;
"Thi kyng I am thou schalt knowe:
"In prisoun thou schall ligge lowe,
"And ben an hanged and to drawe
"As a traytour bi the lawe,
"You schal wel witen I am kynge, &c."
When admitted, he is brought into the hall; where the angel, who had assumed his place, makes him
the fool of the hall,
and cloathes him in a fool's coat. He is then sent out to lie with the dogs; in which situation he envies the condition of those dogs, which in great multitudes were permitted
o remain in the royal hall. At length the emperor Valemounde sends letters to his brother king Robert, inviting him to visit, with himself, their brother the pope at Rome. The angel, who personates king Robert, welcomes the messengers, and cloathes them in the richest apparel, such as could not be made in the world.
The aungell welcomede the messagers,
And gaf them clothes riche of pers
Price.
,
Ffurred al with ermyne,
In crystendone is non so fyne;
And all was chouched midd
perre
Precious stones.
,
Better was non in cristantè:
Such clothe, and hit werre to dihte,
Al cristendom hit make ne mihte,
Of that wondrede al that londe,
How that clothe was wrought with honde,
Where such cloth was to selle,
He ho hit made couthe no mon telle.
The messengers went with the kynge
That is, the Angel.
To grete Rome, withoute lettynge;
The Fool Robert also went,
Clothed in lodly
Lothly, loathsome.
garnement,
With ffoxes tayles mony a boute
In many knots.
,
Men mihte him knowen in the route,
The aungel was clothed al in whyt
Was never seyge
Seen.
such samyt
Cloth of gold.
:
And al was crouched on pe
les riche,
Never mon seighe non hem liche.
Al whit attyr was, and steede,
The steede was fair ther he yede
Went.
,
So feir a steede as he on rod
Was never mon that ever bi strod.
The aungel cam to Roome sone
Real
Royal.
as fel a kyng to done.
So rech a kyng com never in Roome
All men wondrede whether he come.
His men weore realliche
Royally.
dight
Heore
Their.
riches can seothe no wiht,
Of clothis, gurdles, and other thing,
Evriche sqyzer
Squire.
thoughte a kyng;
And al ride of riche array,
Bote
But.
kyng Robert, as i ow say,
Al men on him gan pyke,
For he rod al other unlyke.
An ape rod of his clothing
In tokne that he was underling.
The pope and the emperour also,
And other lordes mony mo,
Welcommede the aungel as for kyng
And made joye of his comyng;
Theose three bredrene made cumfort,
The aungel was broder mad bi sort,
Wel was the pope and emperour
That hadden a broder of such honour.
Afterwards they return in the same pomp to Sicily, where the angel, after so long and ignominious a penance, restores king Robert to his royalty.
Sicily was conquered by the French in the eleventh century
There is an old French Romance, ROBERT LE DIABLE, often quoted by Carpentier in his Supplement to Du Cange. And a French
Morality,
without date, or name of the author, in manuscript,
Comment il fut enjoint
a ROBERT
le diable, fils du du
de Normandie, pour ses mesfaites, de faire le fol sang parler, et depuis
N. S.
ut merc
du lui.
Beauchamps, Rech. Theat. Fr. p. 109. This is probably the same Robert.
, and this tale might have been originally got or written during their possession of that island, which continued through many monarchies
A passage in Fauchett, speaking of rhyme, may perhaps deserve attention here.
"Pour le regard de
Sicili
ns,
je me tiens presque asseure, que Guillaume Ferrabrach frere de Robert Guischard et autres seigneurs de Calabre et Pouille enfans de Tancred François-Normand, l'ont portee aux pais de leur conqueste, estant une constume des gens de deça chanter, avant que combattre, les beaux faits de leurs ancestres, composez en vers."
Rec. p. 70.
Boccacio's Tancred, in his beautiful Tale of TANCRED AND SIGISMUNDA, was one of these Franco-Norman kings of Sicily. Compare Nouv. Abreg. Chronol. Hist. Fr. pag. 102. edit. 1752.
. But Sicily, from its situation, became a familiar country to all the western continent at the time of the crusades, and consequently soon found its way into romance, as did many others of the mediterranean islands and coasts, for the same reason. Another of them, Cilicia, has accordingly given title to an antient tale called, the KING OF TARS; from which I shall give some extracts, touched with a rude but expressive pencil.
"Her bigenneth of the KYNG OF TARS, and of the Soudan of Dammias
Damascus.
, how the Soudan of Dammias was cristened thoru godis gras
MS. Vernon. Bibl. Bodl. f. 304. It is also in Bibl. Adv. Edingb. W. 4. 1. Num. iv. In five leaves and a half. Never printed.
."
Herkeneth now, bothe old and ȝyng,
Ffor Marie love, that swete thyng:
Howe a werre bi gan
Bi tweene a god cristene kyng,
And an hethene heih lordyng,
Of Damas the Soudan.
The kyng of Tars hadde a wyf,
The feireste that mihte bere lyf,
That eny mon telle can:
A doughter thei hadde ham bi tweene,
That heore
Their.
rihte heire scholde ben;
Whit so
As.
father of swan:
Chaast heo
She.
was, and feir of chere,
With rode
Ruddy.
red so blosme on brere,
Eigen
Eyes.
stepe and gray,
Lowe schuldres, and whyt swere
Neck.
;
Her to seo
See.
was gret preyere
Of princes pert in play.
The worde
The report of her.
of hire spronge ful wyde
Ffeor and ner, bi vch a syde:
The Soudan herde say;
Him thougte his herte wolde broke on five
Bote he mihte have hire to wive,
That was so feire a may,
The Soudan ther he satte in halle;
He sent his messagers faste with alle,
To hire fader the kyng.
And seyde, hou so hit ever bi falle,
That mayde he wolde clothe in palle
And spousen hire with his ryng.
"And alles
Also.
I swere withouten fayle
"I chull
Shall.
hire winnen in pleye battayle
"With mony an heih lordyng, &c."
The Soldan, on application to the king of Tarsus for his daughter, is refused; and the messengers return without success. The Soldan's anger is painted with great characteristical spirit.
The Soudan sate at his des,
I served of his furste mes;
Thei comen into the halle
To fore the prince proud in pres,
Heore tale thei tolde withouten les
And on heore knees gan falle:
And seide, "Sire the king of Tars
"Of wikked wordes nis not scars,
"Hethene hounde
A phrase often applied to the Saracens. So in
Syr Bevys,
Signat. C. ii. b.
To speke with an
hethene hound
.
he doth the
Thee.
calle;
"And or his dogtur he give the tille
"Before his daughter is given to
hee."
Thyn herte blode he woll spille
"And thi barrons alle."
Whan the Soudan this i herde,
As a wod man he ferde,
His robe he rent adoune;
He tar the har
"Tore the hair."
of hed and berde,
And seide he wold her wene with swerde,
Beo his lord seynt Mahoune.
The table adoune rihte he smote,
In to the the floore foote hot
Struck. Stamped.
,
He lokede as a wylde lyoun;
Alle that he hitte he smotte down riht
Both sergeaunt and kniht,
Erle and eke baroun.
So he ferde forsothe a plihte,
Al a day, al a nihte,
That no man mihte him chaste
Check.
:
A morwen when hit was day lihte,
He sent his messagers ful rihte,
After his barouns in haste:
"Lordynges, he seith, what to rede
"What counsel shall we take."
,
"Me is done a grete mysdede,
"Of Taars the cristen kyng;
"I bad him both land and lede
"To have his doughter in worthli wede,
"And spousen hire with my ryng.
"And he seide, withouten fayle
"First he wolde me sle in batayle,
"And mony a grete lordynge.
"At sertes
"But certainly."
he schal be forswore,
"Or to wrothele
Loss of health or safety. Malediction. So R. of Brunne, Chron. Apud. Hearne's Rob. Glouc. p. 737. 738.
Morgan did after conseile,
And wrought him selfe to
wrotherheile.
Again,
To ȝow al was a wikke conseile,
That ȝe selle se full
wrotherheile.
that he was bore,
"Bote he hit therto
"To that issue."
bryng.
"Therefore lordynges, I have after ow sent
"Ffor to come to my parliment,
"To wite of ȝow counsayle."
And all onswerde with gode entent
Thei wolde be at his commaundement
Withouten any fayle.
And when thei were alle at his heste,
The Soudan made a well grete feste,
For love of his battayle;
The Soudan gedrede a hoste unryde
Unright. Wicked.
,
With Sarazyns of muchel pryde,
The kyng of Taars to assayle.
Whan the kyng hit herde that tyde
He sent about on vche syde,
All that he mihte off seende;
Grat werre tho bi gan to wrake
Ffor the marriage ne most be take
Of that same mayden heende
Hend. Handsome.
.
Battayle thei sette uppon a day,
With inne the thridde day of May,
Ne longer nolde thei leende
Tarry.
.
The Soudan com with grete power,
With helme briht, and feir banere,
Uppon that kyng to wende.
The Soudan ladde an huge ost,
And com with muche pruyde and cost,
With the kyng of Taars to fihte.
With him mony a Sarazyn feer
Companion.
,
All the feolds feor and neer,
Of helmes leomede
Shone.
lihte.
The kyng of Taars com also
The Soudan battayle for to do
With mony a cristene knihte;
Either ost gon othur assayle
Ther bi gon a strong batayle
That grisly che was of sihte.
Threo hethene agen twey cristene men,
And felde hem down in the fen,
With wepnes stif and goode:
The steorne Sarazyns in that fihte,
Slowe vr cristen men doun rihte,
Thei fouhte as heo weore woode.
The Souldan's oste in that stounde
Ffeolde the cristene to the grounde,
Mony a freoly foode;
The Sarazyns, with outen fayle,
The cristens culd
Killed.
in that battayle,
Nas non that hem withstoode.
Whan the king of Taars saw the siht
Wood he was for wrathe
Wraþþe. Orig.
a pliht;
In honde he hent a spere,
And to the Soudan he rode ful riht,
With a dunt
Dint.
Wound, stroke.
of much miht,
Adoun he gon him bere:
The Souldan neigh he hadde islawe,
But thritti thousant of hethen lawe
Commen him for to were;
And brougten him agen upon his stede,
And holpe him wel in that nede,
That no mon miht him dere
Hurt.
.
When he was brouht uppon his stede,
He sprong as sparkle doth of glede
Coal. Fire-brand.
,
Ffor wrathe and for envye;
All that he hotte he made them blede,
He ferde as he wolde a wede
"As if he was mad."
,
Mahoun help, he gan crye.
Mony an helm ther was unweved,
And mony a bacinet
Helmet.
to cleved,
And saddles mony emptye;
Men miht se uppon the felde
Moni a kniht ded under schelde,
Of the cristen cumpagnie.
Whon the kyng of Taars saug hem so ryde,
No longer then he nold abyde,
Bote fleyh
Flew.
to his owne citè:
The Sarazyns, that ilke tyde,
Sloug a doun bi vche syde
Vr cristene folk so fre.
The Sarazyns that tyme, sauns fayl
,
Slowe vre cristene in battayle,
That reuthe it was to se;
And on the morwe for heore
Their.
sake
Truwes thei gunne for to gidere take
"They began to make a truce together."
,
A moneth and dayes thre.
As the kyng of Taars satte in his halle,
He made ful gret deol
Dole. Grief.
withalle,
Ffor the folk that he hedde ilore
Lost.
:
His douhter com in riche palle,
On kneos he
She.
gan biforen hym falle,
And seide with sything sore:
"Ffather, he seide, let me bi his wyf
"That ther be no more stryf, &c."
To prevent future bloodshed, the princess voluntarily declares she is willing to be married to the Soldan, although a Pagan: and notwithstanding the king her father peremptorily refuses his consent, and resolves to continue the war, with much difficulty she finds means to fly to the Soldan's court, in order to produce a speedy and lasting reconciliation by marrying him.
To the Souldan heo
She.
is i fare;
He com with mony an heig lordyng,
Ffor to welcom that swete thyng,
Theor he com in hire chare
Chariot.
:
He cust
Ki
t.
hire with mony a sithe
His joye couthe no man hithe
Know.
,
A wei was al hire care.
Into chambre heo was led,
With riche clothes heo was cled,
Hethene as thaug heo were
"As if she had been a heathen. One of that country."
.
The Souldan ther he satte in halle,
He commaunded his knihtes alle
That mayden ffor to fette,
On cloth of riche purpil palle,
And on here hed a comli calle,
Bi the Souldan she was sette.
Unsemli was hit ffor to se
Heo that was so bright of ble
To habbe
Have.
so foule a mette
Mate.
, &c.
They are then married, and the wedding is solemnised with a grand tournament, which they both view from a high tower. She is afterwards delivered of a son, which is so deformed as to be almost a monster. But at length she persuades the Soldan to turn christian; and the young prince is baptised, after which ceremony he suddenly becomes a child of most extraordinary beauty. The Soldan next proceeds to destroy his Saracen idols.
He hente a stof with herte grete,
And al his goddis he gan to bete,
And drough hem al adoun;
And leyde on til that he con swete,
With sterne strokes and with grete,
On Jovyn and Plotoun,
On Astrot and sire Jovyn
On Termagaunt and Apollin,
He brak them scul and croun;
On Termagaunt, that was heore brother,
He left no lym hol witte other,
Ne on his lorde seynt Mahoun, &c.
The Soldan then releases thirty thousand christians, whom he had long detained prisoners. As an apostate from the pagan religion, he is powerfully attacked by several neighbouring Saracen nations: but he sollicits the assistance of his father in law the king of Tars; and they both joining their armies, in a pitched battle, defeat five Saracen kings, Kenedoch, Lesyas king of Taborie, Merkel, Cleomadas, and Membrok. There is a warmth of description in some passages of this poem, not unlike the manner of Chaucer. The reader must have already observed, that the stanza resembles that of Chaucer's RIME OF SIR TOPAS
The romance of SIR LIBEAUX or LYBIUS DISCONIUS, quoted by Chaucer, is in this stanza. MSS. Cott. CAL. A. 2. f. 40.
.
IPOMEDON is mentioned among the romances in the Prologue of RICHARD CUER DE LYON; which, in an antient copy of the British museum, is called SYR IPOMYDON: a name borrowed from the Theban war, and transferred here to a tale of the feudal times
MSS. Harl. 2252. 44. f. 54. And in the library of Lincoln cathedral, (K k. 3. 10.) is an ancient imperfect printed copy, wanting the first sheet.
. This piece is evidently derived from a French original. Our hero Ippomedon is son of Ermones king of Apulia, and his mistress is the fair heiress of Calabria. About the year 1230, William Ferrabras
Bras de fer.
Iron arms.
, and his brethren, sons of Tancred the Norman, and well known in the romantic history of the Paladins, acquired the signories of Apulia and Calabria. But our English romance seems to be immediately translated from the French; for Ermones is called king of
Poyle,
or Apulia, which in French is
Pouille.
I have transcribed some of the most interesting passages
MSS. f. 55.
.
Ippomedon, although the son of a king, is introduced waiting in his father's hall, at a grand festival. This servitude was so far from being dishonourable, that it was always required as a preparatory step to knighthood
See p. supr.
.
Everie yere the kyng weld
At Whytsuntyde a fest held
Of dukis, erlis, and barouns,
Mani ther com frome diverse tounes,
Ladyes, maydens, gentill and fre,
Come thedyr frome ferre countrè:
And grette lordis of ferre lond,
Thedyr were prayd by fore the hond
Before-hand.
.
Whan all were com to gidyr than
Ther was joy of mani a man;
Ffull ryche I wene were there pryse,
Ffor better might no man devyse.
Ippomedon that day servyde in halle,
All spake of hym both grete and smalle,
Ladyes and mayden by helde hym on,
So goodly a youth they had sene non:
Hys feyre chere in halle theym smerte
That mony a lady son smote throw the herte.
And in theyr hartys they made mone
That there lordis ne were suche one.
After mete they went to pley,
All the peple, as I you say;
Some to chambre, and some to boure,
And some to the hye toure
In the feudal castles, where many persons of both sexes were assembled, and who did not know how to spend the time, it is natural to suppose that different parties were formed, and different schemes of amusement invented. One of these, was to mount to the top of one of the highest towers in the castle.
;
And some on the halle stode
And spake what hem thoht gode:
Men that were of that cite
The Apulians.
Enquired of men of other cuntrè, &c.
Here a conversation commences concerning the heiress of Calabria: and the young prince Ippomedon immediately forms a resolution to visit and to win her. He sets out in disguise.
Now they furth go on their way,
Ippomedon to hys men gan say,
That thei be none of them alle,
So hardi by his name hym calle,
Whenso thei wend farre or neare,
Or over the straunge ryvere;
Ne no man telle what I am
Where I schall go, ne where I came.
All they graunted his commaundement,
And furthe thei went with one consent.
Ippomedon and Thelomew
Robys had on and mantills newe,
Of the richest that might be,
Ther nas ne suche in that cuntrèe:
Ffor many was the riche stone
That the mantills were uppon.
So long there waie they have nome
Took.
That to Calabre they are come:
Thei come to the castell yate
The porter was redy there at,
The porter to them thei gan calle
And prayd him go into the halle
And say thy lady
She was lady, by inheritance, of the signory. The female feudataries exercised all the duties and honours of their feudal jurisdiction in person. In Spenser, where we read of the
Lady of the Castle,
we are to understand such a character. See a story of a
Comtesse,
who entertains a knight in her castle with much gallantry. Mem. sur l'anc. Chev. ii. 69. It is well known that anciently in England ladies were sheriffs of counties.
gent and fre,
That commen are men of farre contrèe,
And yf yt please hir we will her pray,
That we might ete with hyr to day.
The porter seyd full cortessly
"Your errand to do I am redy."
The ladie to her mete was sette,
The porter cam and fayr her grette,
"Madame, he seyde, god yow save,
"At your gate gestis you have,
"Straunge men us for to se
"Thei aske mete for charytè."
The ladie commaundeth sone anone
That the gates wer undone,
"And brynge them alle bifore me
"Ffor welle at ese shall thei be."
Thei took heyr pagis hors and alle,
These two men went into the halle,
Ippomedon on knees hym sette,
And the ladye feyre he grette:
"I am a man of straunge countrè
"And prye yow of your will to be
"That I myght dwelle with you to gere
"Of your nourture for to lere
Learn.
,
"I am com from farre lond;
"Ffor speche I here bi fore the hand
"That your nourture and your servyse,
"Ys holden of so grete empryse,
"I pray you that I may dwell here
"Some of your servyse to bere."
The ladye by held Ippomedon,
He semed wel a gentilmon,
She knew non suche in her lande,
So goodli a man and wel farrand
Handsome.
;
She sawe also bi his norture
He was a man of grete valure:
She cast ful sone in hire thoght
That for no servyse cum he noght;
But hit was worship her untoo
In feir servyse hym to do.
She sayd, "Syr, welcome ye be,
"And al that comyn be with the;
"Sithe ye have had so grete travayle,
"Of a servyse ye shall not fayle:
"In this cuntre ye may dwell here
"And al your will for to here,
"Of the cuppe ye shall serve me
"And all your men with you shal be,
"Ye may dwell here at your wille,
"Bote
Unless.
your beryng be full ylle."
"Madame, he said, grantmercy,"
He thanked the ladye corteysly.
She commandith him to the mete,
But or he sette in ony sete,
He saluted theym greete and smalle,
As a gentillmon shuld in halle;
All thei said sone anon,
Thei saw nevir so godli a mon,
Ne so light, ne so glad,
Ne non that so ryche atire had:
There was none that sat nor yede
Walked.
,
But thei had merveille of his dede
Behaviour.
,
And seyd, he was no lytell syre
That myht showe soche atyre.
Whan thei had ete, and grace sayd,
And the tabyll awaye was layd;
Upp then aroos Ippomedon,
Ant to the bottery he went anon,
Ant hys mantyl hym a boute;
On hym lokyd all the route,
Ant everie mon seyd to other there,
"Will ye se the proude squeer
"Shall serve
"Who is to serve."
my ladye of the wyne,
"In hys mantyll that is so fyne?"
That they hym scornyd wist he noght
On othyr thyng he had his thoght.
He toke the cuppe of the botelere,
And drewe a lace of sylke ful clere,
Adowne than felle hys mantylle by,
He preyed hym for hys curtesy,
That lytell gyfte
i. e. His mantle.
that he wold nome
Tell afte sum better come.
Up it toke the bottelere,
By fore the lady he gan it bere
Ant preyd the ladye hartely
To thanke hym of his curtessie,
Al that was tho in the halle
Grete honoure they spake hym alle.
And sayde he was no lytyll man
That such gyftis giffie kan.
There he dwelled moni a day,
And servyd the ladye wel to pay,
He bare hym on so fayre manere
To knightis, ladyes, and squyere,
All loved hym that com hym by,
Ffor he bare hym so cortessly.
The ladye had a cosyn that hight Jason,
Full well he loved Ippomedon;
When that he yed in or oute,
Jason went with hym aboute.
The lady lay, but she slept noght,
For of the squyerre she had grete thoght;
How he was feyre and shapè wele,
Body and armes, and everie dele:
Ther was non in al hir londe
So wel he semyd dougti of honde.
But she howde wele for no case,
Whence he came nor what he was,
Ne of no man could enquere
Other than of that squyere.
She hire bi thought of a quayntyse,
If she miht know in any wise,
To wete whereof he were come;
This was hyr thoght al their some
She thoght to wode hyr men to tame
f. Tempt.
That she myght knowe hym by his game.
On the morow whan yt was day
To her men she gan to say,
"To morrowe whan it is day light,
"Lok ye be al redy dight,
"With your houndis more and lesse,
"In fforrest to take my gresse,
"And thare I will myself be
"Your game to by holde and se."
Ippomedon had houndis three
That he broght from his cuntree;
Whan thei were to the wode gone,
This ladye and her men ichone,
And with hem her houndis ladde,
All that any houndis hadde.
Syr Tholomew for gate he noght,
Hys maistres houndes thedyr he broght,
That many a day he had ronne ere,
Fful wel he thoght to note hem there.
When thei came to the launde on hight,
The quenes pavylyon thar was pight,
That she might see al the best,
All the game of the forrest,
And to the lady broght mani a best
Beast.
,
Herte and hynd, buck and doo,
And othir bestis many mo.
The houndis that wer of gret prise,
Plucked down dere all atryse,
Ippomedon he with his hounds throo
Drew down both buck and doo,
More he took with houndes thre
Than al that othir cumpagnie,
Thare squyres undyd hyr dere
Eche man after his manere:
Ippomedon a dere gede unto,
That ful konningly gon he hit undo,
So feyre that venyson he gan to dight,
That both hym by held squyere and knight:
The ladye looked oute of her pavylyon,
And sawe hym dight the venyson.
There she had grete dainte
And so had all that dyd hym see:
She sawe all that he down droughe
Of huntynge she wist he coude ynoghe
And thoght in her hert then
That he was com of gentillmen:
She bade Jason hire men to calle
Home then passyd grete and smalle:
Home thei com son anon,
This ladye to hir met gan gon,
And of venery
Venison.
had her fille
Ffor they had take game at wille.
He is afterwards knighted with great solemnity.
The heraudes gaff the childe
Ippomedon.
the gee,
And M pounde he had to fee,
Mynstrelles had giftes of gold
And fourty dayes thys fest was holde
MS. f. 61. b.
.
The metrical romance entitled, LA MORT ARTHURE, preserved in the same repository, is supposed by the learned and accurate Wanley, to be a translation from the French: who adds, that it is not perhaps older than the times of Henry the seventh
MSS. Harl. 2252. 49. f. 86. Pr.
"Lordinges that are leffe and deare."
Never printed.
. But as it abounds with many Saxon words, and seems to be quoted in SYR BEVYS, I have given it a place here
Signat. K. ii. b.
. Notwithstanding the title, and the exordium which promises the history of Arthur and the Sangreal, the exploits of Sir Lancelot du Lake king of Benwike, his intrigues with Arthur's queen Geneura, and his refusal of the beautiful daughter of the earl of Ascalot, form the greatest part of the poem. At the close, the repentance of Lancelot and Geneura, who both assume the habit of religion, is introduced. The writer mentions the Tower of London. The following is a description of a tournament performed by some of the knights of the Round Table
MS. f. 89. b.
.
Tho to the castelle gon they fare,
To the ladye fayre and bryhte:
Blithe was the ladye thare,
That thei wold dwell with her that nyght.
Hastely was there soper yare
Ready. See GLOSSARY to the Oxford edition of Shakespeare, 1771. In
Voc.
Of mete and drinke richely dight;
On the morowe gan thei dine and fare
Both Lancellot and that othir knight.
Whan they come in to the felde
Myche ther was of game and play,
Awhile they lovid
Hovered.
and bi held
How Arthur's knightis rode that day,
Sir Galaad's.
Galehodis party bigun to
Perhaps
yeld,
i. e. yield.
held
On fote his knightis ar led away.
Launcellott stiffe was undyr schelde,
Thenkis to help yf that he may.
Besyde him come than syr Gawayne,
Breme
Fierce.
as eny wilde bore;
Lancellot springis hem agayne
Against
,
In rede armys that he bore:
A dynte he gaff with mekill mayne,
Syr Ewayne was unhorsid thare,
That al men went
Weened.
he had be
slayne
So was he woundyd wondyr sare
Sore.
.
Syr Beorte thoughte no thinge good,
When Syr Ewaine unhorsyd was;
Fforth he springis, as he were wode,
To Launcelott withouten lese:
Launcellot
hitt hym on the hode,
The next way to grounde he chese:
Was non so stiffe agayne hym stode
Fful thin he made the thikkest prees
Crowd.
.
Syr Lyonell be gonne to tene
Be Troubled.
,
And hastely he made hym bowne
Ready.
,
To Launcellott, with herte kene,
He rode with helme and sword browne;
Launcellott hytt hym as I wene,
Through the helme in to the crowne:
That eny aftir it was sene
Bothe horse and man ther yod adoune.
The knightis gadrede to gedre than
And gan with crafte, &c.
I could give many more ample specimens of the romantic poems of these nameless minstrells, who probably flourished before or about the reign of Edward the second
Octavian
is one of the romances mentioned in the Prologue to
Cure de Lyon,
above cited. See also p. 119. In the Cotton manuscripts there is the metrical romance of
Octavian imp
rator,
but it has nothing of the history of the Roman emperors. Pr.
"Jhesu þat was with spere ystonge."
Calig. A. 12. f. 20.
It is a very singular stanza. In Bishop More's manuscripts at Cambridge, there is a poem with the same title, but a very different b
ginning, viz.
"Lytyll and mykyll olde and younge."
Bibl. Publ. 690. 30.
The emperor
Octavyen,
perhaps the same, is mentioned in Chaucer's
Dreme,
v. 368. Among Hatton's manuscripts in Bibl. Bodl. we have a French poem,
Romaunce de Otheniem Empereur de Rome.
Hyper. Bodl. 4046. 21.
In the same line of the aforesaid Prologue, we have the romance of
Ury.
This is probably the father of the celebrated Sir Ewaine or Yvain, mentioned in the
Court Mantell.
Mem. Anc. Cheval. ii. p. 62.
Li rois pris par la destre main
L' amiz monseignor Yvain
Qui au ROI URIEN fu filz,
Et bons chevaliers et hardiz,
Qui tant ama chiens et oisiaux.
Specimens of the English
Syr Bevys
may be seen in Percy's Ball. iii. 216, 217, 297. edit. 1767. And
Observations on the Fairy Queen,
§. ii. p. 50. It is extant in the black letter. It is in manuscript at Cambridge, Bibl. Publ. 690. 30. And Coll. Caii. A. 9. 5. And MSS. Bibl. Adv. Edingb. W. 4. 1. Num. xxii.
Si
racke
was translated into English verse by one Hugh Campden; and printed, probably not long after it was translated, at London, by Thomas God
r
y, at the cost of Dan Robert Saltwood, monk of saint Austin's in Canterbury, 1510. This piece therefore belongs to a lower period. I have seen only one manuscript copy of it. Laud, G. 57. fol. membran.
Chaucer mentions, in
Sir Topaz,
among others, the romantic poems of
Sir Blandamoure, Sir Libeaux,
and
Sir Ippotis.
Of the former I find nothing more than the name occurring in Sir
Libeaux.
To avoid prolix repetitions from other works in the hands of all, I refer the reader to Percy's
Essay on antient metrical Romances,
who has analysed the plan of Sir
Libeaux,
or Sir
Libius Disconius,
at large, p. 17. See also p. 24. ibid.
As to Sir
Ippotis,
an antient poem with that title occurs in manuscript, MSS. Cotton, Calig. A. 2. f. 77. and MS. Vernon, f. 296. But as Chaucer is speaking of romances of chivalry, which he means to ridicule, and this is a religious legend, it may be doubted whether this is the piece alluded to by Chaucer. However I will here exhibit a specimen of it from the exordium. MS. Vernon, f. 296.
Her bi ginnith a tretys
That men cl
peth
YPOTIS.
Alle that wolleth of wisdom lere,
Lusteneth now, and ȝe may here;
Of a tale of holi writ
Seynt John the evangelist witnesseth it.
How hit bifelle in grete Rome,
The cheef citee of cristendome,
A childe was sent of mihtes most,
Thorow vertue of the holi gost:
The emperour of Rome than
His name was hoten
ire Adrian;
And when the child of grete honour
Was come bifore the emperour,
Upon his knees he him sette
The emperour full faire he grette:
The emperour with milde chere
Askede him whethence he come were, &c.
We shall have occasion, in the progress of our poetry, to bring other specimens of these compositions. See Obs. on Spenser's Fairy Queen, ii. 42, 43.
I must not forget here, that Sir Gawaine, one of Arthur's champions, is celebrated in a separate romance. Among Tanner's manuscripts, we have the
Weddynge of Sir Ga
vain,
Numb. 455. Bibl. Bodl. It begins,
"Be ye blythe and listeneth to the lyf of a lorde riche."
Dr. Percy has printed the
Marriage of Sir Gawayne,
which he believes to have furnished Chaucer with his
Wife of Bath.
Ball. i. 11. It begins,
"King Arthur lives in merry Carlisle."
I think I have somewhere seen a romance in verse entitled,
The Turke and Gawaine."
. But it is neither my inclination nor intention to write a catalogue, or compile a miscellany. It is not to be expected that this work should be a general repository of our antient poetry. I cannot however help observing, that English literature and English poetry suffer, while so many pieces of this kind still remain concealed and forgotten in our manuscript libraries. They contain in common with the prose-romances, to most of which indeed they gave rise, amusing images of antient customs and institutions, not elsewhere to be found, or at least not otherwise so strikingly delineated: and they preserve pure and unmixed, those fables of chivalry which formed the taste and awakened the imagination of our elder English classics. The antiquaries of former times overlooked or rejected these valuable remains, which they despised as false and frivolous; and employed their industry in reviving obscure fragments of uninstructive morality or uninteresting history. But in the present age we are beginning to make ample amends: in which the curiosity of the antiquarian is connected with taste and genius, and his researches tend to display the progress of human manners, and to illustrate the history of society.
As a further illustration of the general subject, and many particulars, of this section and the three last, I will add a new proof of the reverence in which such stories were held, and of the familiarity with which they must have been known, by our ancestors. These fables were not only perpetually repeated at their festivals, but were the constant objects of their eyes. The very walls of their apartments were clothed with romantic history. Tapestry was antiently the fashionable furniture of our houses, and it was chiefly filled with lively representations of this sort. The stories of the tapestry in the royal palaces of Henry the eighth are still preserved
"The seconde part of the Inventorye of our late sovereigne lord kyng Henry the eighth, conteynynge his guardrobes, houshold-stuff, &c. &c."
MSS. Harl. 1419. fol.
The original. Compare p. 114. supr. and Walpole's Anecd. Paint. i. p. 10.
; which I will here give without reserve, including other subjects as they happen to occur, equally descriptive of the times. In the tapestry of the tower of London, the original and most antient seat of our monarchs, there are recited Godfrey of Bulloign, the three kings of Cologn, the emperor Constantine, saint George, king Erkenwald
So in the record. But he was the third bishop of St. Paul's, London, son of king O
fa, and a great benefactor to St. Paul's church, in which he had a most superb shrine. He was canonised. Dugdale, among many other curious particulars relating to his shrine, says, that in the year 1339 it was decorated anew, when three goldsmiths, two at the wages of
ive shillings by the week, and one at eight, worked upon it for a whole year. Hist. St. Paul's, p. 21. See al
o p. 233.
, the history of Hercules, Fame and Honour, the Triumph of Divinity, Esther and Ahasuerus, Jupiter and Juno, saint George, the eight Kings, the ten Kings of France, the Birth of our Lord, Duke Joshua, the riche history of king David, the seven Deadly Sins, the riche history of the Passion, the Stem of Jesse
This was a favourite subject for a large gothic window. This subject also composed a branch of candlesticks thence called a JESSE, not unusual in the antient churches. In the year 1097, Hugo de Flori, abbot of S. Aust. Canterb. bought for the choir of his church a great branch-candlestick.
"Candelabrum magnum in choro aeneum quod
j
s
vocatur in partibus emit transmarinis."
Thorn, Dec. Script. col. 1796. About the year 1330, Adam de Sodbury,
bbot of Glastonbury, gave to his convent
"Unum dorsale lan
um
le
JESSE."
Hearn. Joan. Glaston. p. 26
. That is, piece of tapestry embroidered with the
iem of Jess
,
to be hung round the choir, or other parts of the church, on high festivals. He also gave a tapestry of this subject for the abbot's hall. Ibid. And I cannot help adding, what indeed is not immediately connected with the subject of this note, that he gave his monastery, among other costly presents, a great clock, processionibus et spectaculis insignitum, an organ of prodigious size, and eleven bells, six for the tower of the church, and five for the clock tower. He also new vaulted the nave of the church, and adorned the new roof with beautiful paintings. Ibid.
, our Lady and Son, king Solomon, the Woman of Canony, Meleager, and the dance of Maccabre
f
6. In many churches of France there was an antient shew or mimicry, in which all ranks of life were personated by the
cclesiastics, who all danced together, and disappeared one after another. It was called DANCE MACCABRE, and seems to have been often performed in St. Innocent's at Paris, where was a famous painting on this subject, which gave rise to Lydgate's poem under the same title. See Carpent. Suppl. Du Cange, Lat. Gl. ii. p. 1103. More will be said of it when we come to Lydgate.
. At Durhamplace we find the Citie of Ladies
A famous French allegorical romance.
, the tapestrie of Thebes and of Troy, the City of Peace, the Prodigal Son
A picture on this favourite subject is mentioned in Shakespeare. And in Randolph's
Muses Looking-glass.
"In painted cloth the story of the PRODIGAL."
Dods
. Old Pl.
vi. 260.
, Esther, and other piec
s of scripture. At Windsor castle the siege of Jerusalem, Ahasuerus, Charlemagne, the siege of Troy, and
hawking and hunting
f. 298.
. At Nottingham castle Amys and Amelion
f. 364.
. At Woodstock manor, the tapestri
of Charlemagne
f. 318.
. At the More, a palace in Hertfordshire, king Arthur, Hercules, Astyages and Cyrus. At Richmond, the arras of Sir Bevis, and Virtue and Vice fighting
f. 346.
. Many of these subjects are repeated at Westminster, Greenwich, Oatelands, Bedington in Surry, and other royal seats, some of which are now unknown as such
Some of the tapestry at Hampton-court, described in this inventory, is to be seen still in a fine old room, now remaining in its original state, called the Exchequer.
. Among the rest we have also Hannibal, Holofernes, Romulus and Remus, Aeneas, and Susannah
Montfaucon, among the tapestry of Charles the Fifth, king of France, in the year 1370, mentions,
Le tappis de la vie du s
int Th
seus.
Here the officer who made the entry calls Theseus a saint.
The seven D
adly Sins, Le saint Graal, Le graunt tappis de Neuf Preux, Reyne d'Ireland,
and
Godfrey of B
lloign.
Monum. Fr. iii. 64. The
neuf preux
are the Nine Worthies. Among the stores of Henry the eighth, taken as above, we have,
"two old stayned clothes of the ix worthies for the greate chamber,"
at Newhall in Essex, f. 362. These were pictures. Again, at the palace of Westminster in
the little study called the Newe Librarye,
which I believe was in Holbein's elegant Gothic gatehouse lately demolished, there is,
"Item, xii pictures of men on horsebacke of enamelled stuffe of the Nyne Worthies, and others upon square tables."
f. 188. MSS. Harl. 1419. ut supr.
. I have mentioned romances written on many of these subjects, and shall mention
thers. In the romance of SYR GUY, that hero's combat with the dragon in Northumberland is said to be represented in tapestry in Warwick castle.
In Warwike the truth shall ye see
In arras wrought ful craftely
Signat. Ca. 1. Some perhaps may think this circumstance an innovation or addition of later minstrells. A practice not uncommon.
.
This piece of tapestry appears to have been in Warwick castle before the year 1398. It was then so distinguished and valued a piece of furniture, that a special grant was made of it by king Richard the second in that year, conveying
"that suit of arras hangings in Warwick castle, which contained the story of the famous Guy earl of Warwick,"
together with the castle of Warwick, and other possessions, to Thomas Holland, earl of Kent
Dugd. Bar. i. p. 237.
. And in the restoration of forfeited property to this lord after his imprisonment, these hangings are particularly specified in the patent of king Henry the fourth, dated 1399. When Margaret, daughter of king Henry the seventh, was married to James king of Scotland, in the year 1503, Holyrood House at Edinburgh was
plendidly decorated on that occasion; and we are told in an antient record, that the
"hanginge of the queenes grett chammer represented the ystory of Troye t
une."
Again,
"the king's grett chammer had one table, w
r was satt, hys chammerlayn, the grett sqyer, and many others, well served; the which chammer was haunged about with the story of Hercules, together with other ystorys
Leland. Coll. vol. iii. p. 295, 296. Opuscul. edit. 1770.
."
And at the same solemnity,
"in the hall wher the qwene's company wer satt in lyke as in the other, an wich was haunged of the history of Hercules, &c.
Ibid.
"
A stately chamber in the castle of Hesdin in Artois, was furnished by a duke of Burgundy with the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, about the year 1468
See Obs
Fair. Qu. i. p. 177.
. The affecting story of Coucy's Heart, which gave rise to an old metrical English romance entitled, the KNIGHT OF COURTESY, and the LADY OF FAGUEL, was woven in tapestry in Coucy castle in France
Howel's Letters, xx, § vi. B. i. This is a true story, about the y
ar 1180. Fauchett relates itat large from an old authentic French chronicle; and then adds,
"A
nsi finerint les amours du Chastelain du Couci et de la dame de Faiel."
Our Castellan, whose name is Regnard de Couci, was famous for his
chansons
and chivalry, but more so for his unfortunate love, which became proverbial in the old French romances. See
auch. Rec. p. 124. 128.
. I have seen an antient suite of arras, containing Ariosto's Orlando and Angelica, where, at every groupe, the story was all along illustrated with short rhymes in romance or old French. Spenser sometimes dresses the superb bowers of his fairy castles with this sort of historical drapery. In Hawes's Poem called the PASTIME OF PLEASURE, written in the reign of Henry the seventh, of which due notice will be taken in its proper place, the hero of the piece sees all his future adventures displayed at large in the sumptuous tapestry of the hall of a castle. I have before mentioned the most valuable and perhaps most antient work of this sort now existing, the entire series of duke William
descent on England, preserved in the church of Bayeux in Normandy, and intended as an ornament of the choir on high festivals. Bartholinus relates, that it was an art much cultivated among the antient Islanders, to weave the histories of their giants and champions in tapestry
Antiquit. Dan. Lib. i. 9. p. 51.
. The same thing is recorded of the old Persians; and this furniture is still in high request among many oriental nations, particularly in Japan and China
In the royal palace of Jeddo, which overflows with a pro
usion of the most exquisite and superb eastern embellishments, the tapestry of the emperor's audience-hall is of the finest silk, wrought by the most skilful arti
icers of that country, and adorned with pearls, gold, and silver. Mod. Univ. Hist. B. xiii. c. ii. vol. ix. p. 83. (Not. G.) edit. 1759.
. It is well known, that to frame pictures of heroic adventures in needle-work, was a favourite practice of classical antiquity.
SECT. VI.
ALTHOUGH much poetry began to be written about the reign of Edward the second, yet I have found only one English poet of that reign whose name has descended to posterity
Robert de Brunne, above mentioned, lived, and perhaps wrote some of his pieces, in this reign; but he more properly belongs to the last.
. This is Adam Davy or Davie. He may be placed about the year 1312. I can collect no circumstances of his life, but that he was marshall of Stratford-le-bow near London
This will appear from citations which follow.
. He has left several poems never printed, which are almost as forgotten as his name. Only one manuscript of these pieces now remains, which seems to be coeval with it's author
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Laud I. 74. fol. membran. It has been much damaged, and on that account is often illegible.
. They are VISIONS, THE BATTELL OF JERUSALEM, THE LEGEND OF SAINT ALEXIUS, SCRIPTURE HISTORIES, OF FIFTEEN TOKNES BEFORE THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT, LAMENTATIONS OF SOULS, and THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER
In the manuscript there is also a piece in prose, intitled,
The Pylgrymages of the holi land.
f. 65.—66. It begins.
"Qwerr soever a cros standyth ther is a forgivenes of payne."
I think it is a description of the holy places, and it appears at least to be of the hand-writing of the rest.
.
In the VISIONS, which are of the religious kind, Adam Davie draws this picture of Edward the second standing before the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster abbey at his coronation. The lines have a stre
gth arising from simplicity.
To our Lorde Jeshu Crist in heven
Iche to day shawe myne sweven
Dream.
,
That iche motte
Thought, dreamed. In the first sense, we have
me m
tte
in Chaucer, Non. Pr. T. v. 1013. Urr. And below.
in one nycht,
Of a knycht of mychel mycht:
His name is
Named.
yhote syr Edward the kyng,
Prince of Wales Engelonde the fair thynge;
Me mott that he was armid wele,
Bothe with yrne and with stele,
And on his helme that was of stel,
A coroune of gold bicom him wel.
Bifore the shryne of Seint Edward he stood,
Myd glad chere and myld of mood
ol. 27.
.
Most of these Visions are compliments to the king. Our poet then proceeds thus:
Another suevene me mette on a twef
it
Twel
th-night.
Bifore the fest of Alhalewen of that ilke knigt,
His name is nempned
Named.
hure bifore,
Blissed be the time that he was bore, &c.
Of Syr Edward oure derworth
Dear-worthy.
kyng
Iche mette of him anothere faire metyng, &c.
Me thought he wod upon an asse,
And that ich take God to witnesse;
A wondur he was in a mantell gray,
Toward Rome he nom
Took.
his way,
Upon his hevede sate a gray hure,
It semed him wel a mesure;
He wood withouten hose and sho,
His wonen was not so to do;
His shankes semeden al bloodrede,
Myne herte wop
Wept.
for grete drede;
As a pylgrym he rood to Rome,
And thider he com wel swithe sone.
The thrid suevene me mette a nigt
Rigt of that derworth knight:
On wednysday a nigt it was
Next the dai of seint Lucie bifore Christenmasse, &c.
Me thougth that ich was at Rome,
And thider iche come swithe sone,
The pope and syr Edward our kyng
Bothe
They.
hy hadde a new dublyng, &c.
Thus Crist ful of grace
Graunte our kyng in every place
Maistrie of his witherwines
And of al wicked Sarasynes.
Me met a suevene one worthig
Worþig. Orig.
a nigth
Of that ilche derworthi knigth,
God iche it shewe and to witnesse take
And so shilde me fro, &c.
Into a chapel I cum of vre lefdy
Lady.
,
Jhe Crist her leve
Dear.
son stod by,
On rod
Cross.
he was an loveliche mon,
Al thilke that on rode was don
He unneled
Unnailed.
his honden two, &c.
Adam
the marchal of
Strattford atte Bowe
Wel swithe wide his name is iknowe
He himself mette this metyng,
To witnesse he taketh Jhu hevene kynge,
On wedenyssday
Wodenis day. Woden's day.
Wednesday.
in clene leinte
Lent.
A voyce me bede I schulde nougt feinte,
Of the suevenes that her ben write
I shulde swithe don
Make haste.
my lord kyng to wite.
The thursday next the beryng
Christmass-day.
of our lefdy
Me thougth an aungel com syr Edward by, &c.
Iche tell you forsoth withoutten les
Lies.
,
Als God of hevene maide Marie to moder ches
"As sure as God chose the Virgin Mary to be Christ's Mother."
,
The aungell com to me
Adam Davie
and seide
Bot
thou
Adam
shewe this thee worthe wel yvel mede, &c.
Whoso wil speke myd me
Adam
the
marchal
In Stretforde bowe he is yknown and over al,
Iche ne schewe nougt this for to have mede
Bot for God almigtties drede.
There is a very old prose romance, both in French and Italian, on the subject of the
Destruction of Jerusalem
In an antient inventory of books, all French romances, made in England in the reign of Edward the third, I find the romance of TITUS and VESPASIAN. Madox, Formul. Anglican. p. 12. See also Scipio Maffei's Traduttori Italiani, p. 48. Crescimbeni (Volg. Poes. vol. i. l. 5. p. 317.) does not seem to have known of this romance in Italian. Du Cange mentions
Le Roman de 'a Prise de Jerusalem par Titus,
in verse. Gloss. Lat. i. IND. AUCT. p. cxciv. A metrical romance on this subject is in the royal manuscripts. 16 E viii. 2. Brit. Mus. There is an old French play on this subject, acted in 1437. It was printed in 1491. fol. M. Beauchamps, Rech. Fr. Theat. p. 134.
. It is translated from a Latin work, in five books, very popular in the middle ages, entitled, HEGESIPPI
de Bello Judaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitanae Libri quinque.
This is a licentious paraphrase of a part of Josephus's Jewish history, made about the fourth century: and the name Hegesippus is most probably corrupted from Josephus, perhaps also called Josippus. The paraphrast is supposed to be Ambrose of Milan, who flourished in the reign of Theodosius
He mentions Constantinople and New Rome: an
the provinces of Scotia and Saxonia. From this work the Maccabe
s seem to have got into romance. It was first printed at Paris. fol. 1511. Among the Bodleian manuscripts there is a most beautiful copy of this book, believed to be written in the Saxon times.
. On the subject of Vespasian's siege of Jerusalem, as related in this book, our poet Adam Davie has left a poem entitled the BATTELL OF JERUSALEM
The latter part of this poem appears detached, in a former part of our manuscript, with the title THE VENGEAUNCE OF GODDES DEATH, viz. f. 22. b. Thi
latter part begins with these lines.
And at the fourty dayes ende,
Whider I wolde he bade me we
de,
Upon the mount of olyvete, &c.
. It begin thus.
Listeneth all that beth alyve,
Both cristen men and wyve:
I wol you telle of a wondur cas,
How Jhesu Crist bihated was,
Of the Jewes felle and kene,
That was on him sithe ysene,
Gospelles I drawe to witnesse
Of this matter more or lesse,
MS. ut supr. f. 72. b.
&c.
In the course of the story, Pilate challenges our Lord to single combat. This subject will occur again.
Davie's LEGEND OF SAINT ALEXIUS THE CONFESSOR, SON OF EUPHEMIUS, is translated from Latin, and begins thus:
All that willen here in ryme,
Howe gode men in olde tyme,
Loveden God almigth;
That weren riche, of grete valoure,
Kynges sones and emperoure
Of bodies strong and ligth;
Ȝee habbeth yherde ofte in geste,
Of holi men maken feste
Both day and nigth,
For to have the joye in hevene
(With aungells song, and merry stevene,)
The which is brode and brigth:
To you all heige and lowe
The rigth sothe to biknowe
Ȝour soules for to save, &c
MS. ut s
pr. f. 22.—72. b.
.
Our author's SCRIPTURE HISTORIES want the beginning. Here they begin with Joseph, and end with Daniel.
Ffor thritti pens
Thirty pence
thei sold that childe
The seller higth Judas,
Iþo. Orig.
Itho Ruben com him and myssed him
Ffor ynow he was
MS. ut supr. f. 66.—72. b.
.
His FIFTEEN TOKNES
Tokens.
BEFORE THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, are taken from the prophet Jeremiah.
The first signe thar ageins, as our lord hymselfe sede,
Hungere schal on erthe be, trecherie, and falshede,
Batteles, and littell love, sekenesse and haterede,
And the erthe schal quaken that vche man schal ydrede:
The mone schal turne to blood, the sunne to derkhede
MS. ut supr. f. 71. b.
, &c.
Another of Davie's poems may be called the LAMENTATION OF SOULS. But the subject is properly a congratulation of Christ's advent, and the lamentation, of the souls of the fathers remaining in limbo, for his delay.
Off joye and blisse is my song care to bileve
Leave.
,
And to here hym among that altour soroug shal reve,
Ycome he is that swete dewe, that swete hony drope,
The kyng of alle kynges to whom is our hope:
Becom he is our brother, whar was he so long?
He it is and no other, that bougth us so strong:
Our brother we mowe
May.
hym clepe wel
Sometimes.
, so seith hymself ilome
MS. ut supr. f. 72.
.
My readers will be perhaps surprised to find our language improve so slowly, and will probably think, that Adam Davie writes in a less intelligible phrase than many more antient bards already cited. His obscurity however arises in great measure from obsolete spelling, a mark of antiquity which I have here observed in exact conformity to a manuscript of the age of Edward the second; and which in the poetry of his predecessors, especially the minstrell-pieces, has been often effaced by multiplication of copies, and other causes. In the mean time it should be remarked, that the capricious peculiarities and even ignorance of transcribers, often occasion an obscurity, which is not to be imputed either to the author or his age
Chaucer in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA mentions
"the grete diversite in English, and
in writing of our tongue.
"
He therefore prays God, that no person would
miswrite,
or
misse-metre
his poem. lib. ult. v. 1792. seq.
.
But Davie's capital poem is the LIFE OF ALEXANDER, which deserves to be published entire on many accounts. It seems to be founded chiefly on Simeon Seth's romance abovementioned; but many passages are also copied from the French ROMAN D' ALEXANDRE, a poem in our author's age perhaps equally popular both in England and France. It is a work of considerable length
MS. ut supr. f. 28.—65.
. I will first give some extracts from the Prologue.
Divers in this myddel erde
To lewed men and
Leg.
lerd.
Learned.
lered, &c.
Natheles wel fele and fulle
Bethe ifound in hart and skulle,
That hadden lever a rybaudye,
Then here of god either seint Marye;
Either to drynke a copful ale,
Than to heren any gode tale:
Swiche ich wolde weren out bishet
For certeynlich it were nett
For hy ne habbeth wilbe ich woot wel
Bot in the got and the barrel, &c.
The work begins thus. f. 28.
Whilom clarkes wel ylerede
On thre digten this myddel erde,
And cleped him in her maistrie,
Europe, Affryk, and Asie:
At Asie also mychel ys
As Ethiope, and Affryke, I wis, &c.
And ends with this distich. f. 65.
Thus ended Alisander the kyng:
God graunte us his blissyng. Amen.
Adam Davie thus describes a splendid procession made by Olympias.
In thei tyme faire and jalyf
Jolly.
.
Olympias that fayre wyfe,
Wolden make a riche fest
Of knightes and lefdyes
Ladies.
honest,
Of burges and of jugelors
And of men of vch mesters
Of each, or every, profession, trade, sort.
,
For mon seth by north and south
"All mankind are agreed."
Wymen .....
Mychal
Much.
she desireth to shewe hire body,
Her fayre hare, her face rody
Ruddy.
,
To have lees
Praise.
and al praising,
And al is folye by heven king.
She has marshales and knyttes
..... to ride and ryttes,
And levadyes and demosile
Which ham .... thousands fele,
In fayre attyre in dyvers ...
F. Guise.
.
Many thar rood
Rode.
in rich wise.
So dude the dame Olympias
Forto shawe hire gentyll face.
A mule also, whyte so
As.
mylke,
With sadel of gold, sambuc of sylke,
Was ybrought to the quene
And mony bell of sylver shene,
Yfastened on orfreys
Embroidered work, cloth of gold.
Auri
rigrium,
Lat.
of mounde
That hangen nere downe to grounde:
Fourth she ferd
Fared. Went.
myd her route,
A thousand lefydes of rych soute
Sort.
.
A sperwek
Sparrow-hawk. A hawk.
that was honest
Well-bred.
So sat on the lefdye's
yst:
Ffoure trompes toforne
Before.
hire blewe;
Many men that day hire knewe.
A hundred thousand, and eke moo,
Alle alonton
Went.
Aller,
Fr.
hire untoo.
All the towne bihonged
"Hung with tapestry."
We find this ceremony practised at the entrance of lady Elisabeth, queen of Henry the seventh, into the city of London.—
"Al the strets ther whiche she shulde passe by wer clenly dressed and besene with cloth, of tappestrye and arras, and some streetes as Chepe, hanged with riche clothes of golde, velvettes and silkes."
This was in the year 1481. Leland. Coll. iv. Opuscul. p. 220. edit. 1770.
was
Agens
"Against her coming."
the lefdy Olympias
See the description of the tournament in Chaucer,
Knight's Tale,
where the city is hanged with cloth of gold. v. 2570. Urr.
:
Orgues, chymbes, vche maner glee
"Organs, chimes, all manner of music."
,
Was drynan ayen that levady fre,
Wythoutin the tounis murey
The town-wall.
Was mered vche maner pley
"All sorts of sports."
,
Thar was knyttes tornaying,
Thar was maydens karoling,
Thar was champions skirmynge
Skirmishing.
,
..... also wrestlynge.
Of lyons chace, and bare bayting,
A bay of bore
"Baying, or bayting of the boar."
, of bole slayting
Slaying bulls,
bull-feasts. Chaucer says that the chamber of Venus was painted with
"white
bolis
grete."
Compl. of Mars and Ven. v. 86.
.
Al the city was byhonge
With ryche samytes
Sattin.
and pelles
Skins.
longe.
Dame Olympias, myd this prees
Croud. Company.
,
Sangle rood
Rode single.
al mantelless.—
Hire yalewe har
Yellow hair.
was fayre attired
Mid riche strenge of golde wyred,
It helyd
"Covered her all over."
hire abouten al
To hire gentil myddle smal.
Bryght and shine was hir face
fol. 55. a.
Everie fairehede
Beauty.
in hir was
John Gower, who lived an hundred years after our author, has described the same procession.
Confess. Amant. lib. vi. fol. 137. a. b. edit. Berthel. 1554.
But in that citee then was
The quene, whiche Olimpias
Was hote, and with solempnitee
The feste of hir nativitee,
As it befell, was than hold:
And for hir lust to be behold,
And preised of the people about,
She shop hir for to ridenout,
Al aftir meet al opinly.
Anon al men were redie;
And that was in the month of Maie:
This lusty quene in gode araie
Was sette upon a mule white
To sene it was a grete delite
The joye that the citie made.
With fresh thinges and with glade
The noble towne was al behonged;
And everie wight was son alonged
To see this lustie ladie ryde.
There was great mirth on al syde,
When as she passed by the streate
There was ful many a tymbre beate,
And many a maide carolende.
And thus throughout the town plaiende
This quene unto the plaiene rode
Whar that she hoved and abode
To se divers games plaie,
The lustie folke just and tornaye.
And so couth every other man
Which play with, his play began,
To please with this noble queen.
Gower continues this story, from a romance mentioned above, to fol. 140.
.
Much in the same strain the marriage of Cleopatras is described.
There was many a blithe grome:
Of olive and of ruge
Red.
floures
Weren ystrewed halle and boures:
Wyth samytes and baudekyns
Weren curtayned the gardyns.
All the innes of the ton
Hadden litel foyson
Provision.
,
That day that comin Cleopatras,
So michel people with hir was.
She rode on a mule white so mylke,
Her harneys were gold-beaten sylke:
The prince hir lad of Sandas,
And of Sydoyne Sir Jonachas.
Ten thousand barons hir come myde,
And to chirche with hir ryde.
Yspoused she is and sett on deys:
Nowe gynneth gestes of grete nobleys:
At the fest was harpyng
And pipyng and tabouryng
fol. 63. a.
.
We have frequent opportunities of observing, how the poets of these times engraft the manners of chivalry on antient classical history. In the following lines Alexander's education is like that of Sir Tristram. He is taught tilting, hunting, and hawking.
Now can Alexander of skirmyng,
And of stedes derayning,
Upon stedes of justyng,
And witte swordes turneying,
Of assayling and defendyng:
In green wood and of huntyng:
And of ryver of haukyng
Chaucer, R. of Sir Thop. v. 3245. Urry's edit. p. 145.
He couth hunt al the wild dere,
And ride an
hawkyng by the rivere.
And in the
Squyr of low degree,
s
pr. citat. p. 179.
—Shall ye
ryde
On hawkyng by the river syde.
Chaucer,
Frankleins Tale,
v. 1752. p. 111. Urr. edit.
These fauconers upon a faire rivere
That with the hawkis han the
heron
s
aine.
:
Of battaile and of alle thyng.
In another place Alexander is mounted on a steed of Narbone; and amid the solemnities of a great feast, rides through the hall to the high table. This was no uncommon practice in the ages of chivalry
See Observations on the Fairy Queen, i. §. v. p. 146.
.
On a stede of Narabone,
He dassheth forth upon thi londe,
The ryche coroune on hys honde,
Of Nicholas that he wan:
Beside hym rydeth mony a gentil man,
To the paleys he comethe ryde,
And fyndeth this feste and all this pryde;
Fforth good Alisaundre sauns stable
Righth unto the hith table
fol. 64.
.
His horse Bucephalus, who even in classical fiction is a horse of romance, is thus described.
An horne in the forehead armyd ward
That wolde perce a shelde hard.
To which these lines may be added.
Alisaunder arisen is,
And in his deys sitteth ywys:
His dukes and barons sauns doute
Stondeth and sitteth him aboute, &c
MS. ut supr. f. 46. b.
.
The two following extracts are in a softer strain, and not inelegant for the rude simplicity of the times.
Mery is the blast of the stynoure
I cannot explain this word. It is a wind-instrument.
,
Mery is the touchyng of the harpoure
This poem has likewise, in the same vein, the following well-known old rhyme, which paints the manners, and is perhaps the true reading. fol. 64.
Merry swithe it is in halle
When the
erdes waveth alle.
And in another place we have,
Merry it is in halle to here the harpe;
The minstrelles synge, the jogelours carpe.
fol.
sine num.
ad
in. Here, by the way, it appears, that the minstrels and juglers were distinct characters. So Robert de Brunne, in describing the coronation of king Arthur, apud Anstis, Ord. Gart. i. p. 304.
Jogeleurs
wer ther inouh
That wer queitise for the drouh,
Mynstrels
many with dyvers glew, &c.
And Chaucer mentions
"minstrels
and
eke joglours."
Rom. R. v. 764. But they are often confounded or made the same.
:
Sweete is the smellynge of the flower,
Sweete it is in maydens bower:
Appel sweete beneth faire col
ure
fol. 40.
.
Again,
In tyme of May the nightingale
In wood maketh mery gale,
So don the foules grete and smale,
Sum in hylles and sum in dale
Ibid.
.
Much the same vernal delights, cloathed in a similar style, with the addition of knights turneying and maidens dancing, invite king Philip on a progress; who is entertained on the road with hearing tales of antient heroes.
Mery tyme yt is in May
The foules syngeth her lay,
The knightes loveth to tournay;
Maydens do dauncen and they play,
The kyng ferth rydeth his journay,
Now hereth gests of grete noblay
fol.
sine num.
.
Our author thus describes a battle
MS. ut supr. f. 45. b.
.
Alisaundre tofore is ryde,
And many gentill a knigth hym myde;
As for to gader his meigne free,
He abideth under a tree:
Ffourty thousande of chyvalerie
He taketh in his compaignye,
He dassheth hym than fast forthward,
And the other cometh afterward.
He seeth his knigttes in meschief,
He taketh it gretlich a greef,
He takes Bultyphal
Bucephalus.
by thi side,
So as a swalewe he gynneth forth glide,
A duke of Perce sone he mett
And with his launce he hym grett.
He perceth his breny, cleveth his sheldè,
The herte tokeneth the yrnè
The duke fel downe to the grounde,
And starf quickly in that stounde:
Alisaunder aloud than seide,
Other tol never ich ne paiede,
Ȝut ȝee schullen of myne paie,
Or ich gon mor assaie.
Another launce in honde he hent
Again the prince of Tyre he went
He .... hym thorow the brest and thare
Sic.
And out of sadel and crouthe hym bare,
And I sigge for soothe thyng
He braak his neck in the fallyng.
...... with mychell wonder,
Antiochus hadde hym under,
And with swerd wolde his heved
From his body habbe yreved:
He seig Alisaundre the gode gome,
Towardes hym swithe come,
He lete his pray, and flew on hors,
Ffor to save his owen cors:
Antiochus on stede lep,
Of none woundes ne tok he kep,
And eke he had foure forde
All ymade with speres ord
Point.
.
Tholomeus and alle his felawen
Fellows.
Of this socour so weren welfawen,
Alysaunder made a cry hardy
"Ore tost aby aby."
Then the knigttes of Achaye
Justed with them of Arabye,
Thoo
They.
of Rome with hem of Mede
Many londe .....
Egipte justed with hem of Tyre,
Simple knigtts with riche syre:
Ther nas foregift ne forberyng
Bitwene vavasoure
Servant. Subject.
ne kyng;
To fore men migtten and by hynde
Cuntecke seke and cuntecke
Strife.
fynde.
With Perciens fougtten the Gregeys
c Greeks.
,
Ther wos cry and gret honteys
Shame.
.
They kidden
Thought.
that they weren mice
They broken speres alto slice.
Ther migth knigth fynde his pere,
Ther les
Lost.
many his destrere
Horse. Lat.
Dextrarius.
:
Ther was quyk in litell thrawe
Short time.
,
Many gentill knigth yslawe:
Many arme, many heved
Head.
Some from the body reved:
Many gentill lavedy
Lady.
Ther les quyk her amy
Paramour.
.
Ther was many maym yled
"Led along, maimed, wounded."
,
Many fair pensel bibled
"Many a rich banner, or flag, sprinkled with blood."
:
Ther was swerdes liklakyng
Clashing.
,
There was speres bathing
MS. baþing. I do not understand the word.
Both kynges ther saunz doute
Beeth in dassht with al her route.
..... speke
The other his harmes for to wreke.
Many londes neir and ferre
Lesen her lord in that werre.
..... quaked of her rydyng,
The wedar
Weather. Sky.
thicked of her cryeyng:
The blode of hem that weren yslawe
Ran by floods to the lowe, &c.
I have already mentioned Alexander's miraculous horn.
He blewe in horne quyk sans doute,
His folk hym swithe
Came, followed.
aboute:
And hem he said with voice clere
Iche bidde frendes that ge ine here
Alisaunder is comen in this londe
With strong knittes with migty honde, &c.
Alexander's adventures in the deserts among the Gymnosophists, and in Inde, are not omitted. The authors whom he quotes for his vouchers, shew the reading and ideas of the times
MS. ut supr. f. 50.
.
Tho Alisaunder went thoroug desert,
Many wonders he seig apert
Saw openly.
,
Whiche he dude wel descryve,
By gode clerkes in her lyve;
By Aristotle his maistr that was,
Beeter clerk sithen non nas;
He was with him, and sew and wroot,
All thise wondre god it woot:
Salomon that al the world thoroug yede
In soothe witnesse held hym myde.
Ysidre
sidor
.
He means, I suppose, Isidorus Hispalensis, a Latin writer of the seventh century.
also that was so wys
In his boke telleth this:
Maister Eustroge bereth hym witnesse,
Of the wondres more and lesse.
Seynt Jerome gu schullen ywyte
Them hath also in book ywryte:
And Magestene, the gode clerk,
Hath made therof mychel werk,
... that was of gode memorie
It sheweth al in his boke of storie:
And also Pompie
He means Justin's Trogus Pompeius the historian, whom he confounds with Pompey the Great.
, of Rome lorde,
.... writen everie worde.
Bie heldeth me thareof no fynder
"Don't look on me as the inventor."
Her bokes ben my shewer:
And the Lyf of Alysaunder
Of whom fleig so riche sklaunder.
Gif gee willeth give listnyng,
Nowe gee shullen here gode thyng.
In somers tyde the daye is long,
Foules syngeth and maketh song:
Kyng Alysaunder ywent is,
With dukes, erles, and folk of pris,
With many knigths, and douty men,
Toward the city of Fa .... aen;
After kyng Porus, that flowen
Fled.
was
Into the citee of Bandas,
He woulde wende thorough desert
This wonders to sene apert,
Gromyes he nome
Took.
of the londe,
Ffyve thousand, I understonde,
That hem shulden lede ryth
Strait.
Thoroug deserts, by day and nyth.
The Sy .. res loveden the kyng nougth,
And wolden have him bicaugth.
Thii ledden hym therefore, als I fynde,
In the straungest peril of Ynde:
As so iche fynd in thi book
Thii weren asshreynt in her crook.
Now rideth Alysaunder with his oost,
With mychel pryde and mychel boost;
As ar hii comen to a castel .. ton.
I schullen speken another lesson.
Lordynges, also I fynde
At Mede so bigynneth Ynde,
Fforsothe ich woot it stretcheth ferrest
Of all the londes in the Est
And oth the
MS. oþþe.
southhalf sikerlyk
To the see of Affryk,
And the north half to a mountayne
That is ycleped Caucasayne
Caucasus.
:
Fforsothe ȝee shullen undirstonde,
Twyes is somer in that londe,
And nevermore wynter, ne chele
Chill. Cold.
,
That lond is ful of all wele.
Twyes hii gaderen fruyt there
And wyne and corne in one yere.
In the londe also I fynd of Ynde
Bene cites fyve-thousynd,
Withouten ydles, and castelis,
And borugh tounnes swithe feles
Very many.
.
In the londe of Ynde thou migth lere
Vyve thousand folk of selcouth
Uncommon.
manere
That ther non is other ylyche
Bie holde thou it nougth ferlyche,
And bi that thou understa
de the gestes,
Both of men and of bestes, &c.
Edward the second is said to have carried with him to the siege of Stirling castle, in Scotland, a poet named Robert Baston. He was a Carmelite friar of Scarborough; and the king intended that Baston, being an eye-witness of the expedition, should celebrate his conquest of Scotland in verse. Hollingshead, an historian not often remarkable for penetration, mentions this circumstance as a singular proof of Edward's presumption and confidence in his undertaking against Scotland: but a poet seems to have been a stated officer in the royal retinue when the king went to war
Leland. Script. Brit. p. 338. Hollingsh. Hist. ii. p. 217. 220. Tanner mentions, as a poet of England, one Gulielmus Peregrinus, who accompanied Richard the first into the holy land, and sung his atchievements there in a Latin poem, entitled ODOEPORICON RICARDI REGIS, lib. i. It is dedicated to Herbert archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Turnham, a captain in the expedition. He flourished about A. D. 1200. Tann. Bibl. p. 591. See Voss. Hist. Lat. p. 441. He is called
"poeta per eam aetatem excellens."
See Bal. iii. 45. Pits. 266.
. Baston, however, appears to have been chiefly a Latin poet, and therefore does not properly fall into our series. At least his poem on the siege of Striveling castle is written in monkish Latin hexameters
It is extant in Fordun's Scoti-chron. c. xxiii. l. 12.
: and our royal bard being taken prisoner in the expedition, was compelled by the Scotch to write a panegyric, for his ransom, on Robert Brus, which is composed in the same style and language
Leland. ut supr. And MSS. Harl. 1819. Brit. Mus. See also Wood, Hist. Ant. Univ. Oxon. i. p. 101.
. Bale mentions his
Poemata, et Rhythmi, Tragaediae et Comoediae vulgares
Apud Tanner, p. 79.
. Some of these indeed appear to have been written in English: but no English pieces of t
is author now remain. In the mean time, the bare existence of dramatic compositions in England at this period, even if written in the Latin tongue, deserve notice in investigating the progress of our poetry. For the same reason I must not pass over a Latin piece, called a comedy, written in this reign, perhaps by Peter Babyon; who by Bale is styled an admirable rhetorician and poet, and flourished about the year 1317. This comedy is thus entitled in the Bodleian manuscript,
De Babione et Croceo domino Babionis et Viola filias
ra Babionis quam Croceus duxit invito Babione, et Pecula uxore Babionis et Fodio suo,
&c
Arch. B. 52.
. It is written in long and short Latin verses, without any appearance of dialogue. In what manner, if ever, this piece was represented theatrically, cannot easily be discovered or ascertained. Unless we suppose it to have been recited by one or more of the characters concerned, at some public entertainment. The story is in Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS. Whether Gower had it from this performance I will not enquire. It appears at least that he took it from some previous book.
I find writte of Babio,
Which had a love at his menage,
Ther was no fairer of hir age,
And hight Viola by name, &c.
And had affaited to his hande
His servant, the which Spodius
Was hote, &c.
A fresh a free and friendly man, &c.
Which Croceus by name hight, &c
Lib. v. f. 109. b. Edit. Berth. 1554.
.
In the mean time it seems most probable, that this piece has been attributed to Peter Babyon, on account of the likeness of the name BABIO, especially as he is a ridiculous character. On the whole, there is nothing dramatic in the structure of this nominal comedy; and it has certainly no claim to that title, only as it contains a familiar and comic story carried on with much scurrilous satire intended to raise mirth. But it was not uncommon to call any short poem, not serious or tragic, a comedy. In the Bodleian manuscript, which comprehends Babyon's poem just mentioned, there follows COMEDIA DE GETA: this is in Latin long and short verses
Carmina composuit, voluitque placere poeta.
, and has no marks of dialogue
f. 121.
. In the library of Corpus Christi college at Cambridge, is a piece entitled, COMEDIA
ad monasterium de Hulme ordinis S. Benedicti Dioces. Norwic. directa ad Reformationem sequentem, cujus data est primo die Septembris sub anno Christi
1477,
et a morte Joannis Fastolfe militis eorum benefactoris
In the episcopal palace at Norwich is a curious piece of old wainscot brought from the monastery of Hulme at the time of its dissolution. Among other antique ornaments are the arms of Sir John Falstaff, their principal benefactor. This magnificent knight was also a benefactor to Magdalene College in Oxford. He bequeathed estates to that society, part of which were appropriated to buy liveries for some of the senior scholars. But this benefaction, in time, yielding no more than a penny a week to the scholars who received the liveries, they were called, by way of contempt,
Falstaff's buckram-men.
precipui
17,
in cujus monasterii ecclesia humatur
Miscell. M. p. 274.
. This is nothing more than a satyrical ballad in Latin; yet some allegorical personages are introduced, which however are in no respect accommodated to scenical representation. About the reign of Edward the fourth, one Edward Watson, a scholar in grammar at Oxford, is permitted to proceed to a degree in that faculty, on condition that within two years he would write one hundred verses in praise of the university, and also compose a COMEDY
Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. ii. 4. col. 2.
. The nature and subject of Dante's COMEDIES, as they are styled, is well known. The comedies ascribed to Chaucer are probably his Canterbury tales. We learn from Chaucer's own words, that tragic tales were called TRAGEDIES. In the Prologue to the MONKES TALE.
TRAGEDY is to tell a certaine story,
As old bokis makin ofte memory,
Of hem that stode in grete prosperite,
And be fallen out of her high degree, &c
v. 85. See also, ibid. v. 103. 786. 875.
.
Some of these, the Monke adds, were written in prose, others in metre. Afterwards follow many tragical narratives: of which he says,
TRAGIDIES
irst wol I tell
Of which I have an
hundred
in my cell.
Lidgate further confirms what is here said with regard to comedy as well as tragedy.
My maister Chaucer with fresh COMEDIES,
Is dead, alas! chief poet of Britaine:
That whilom made ful piteous TRAGEDIES
Prol. F. Pr. v. i. See also Chaucer's Troil. and Cr. v. 1785. 1787.
.
The stories in the MIRROR OF MAGISTRATES are called TRAGEDIES, so late as the sixteenth century
The elegant Fontenelle mentions one Parasols a Limosin, who wrote
Cinque belles
TRAGEDIES
des gestes de Jeanne reine de Naples,
about the year 1383. Here he thinks he has discovered, so early as the fourteenth century,
"une Poete tragique."
I have never seen these five Tragedies, nor perhaps had Fontenelle. But I will venture to pronounce, that they are nothing more than five tragical narratives: Queen Jane murthered her four husbands, and was afterwards put herself to death. See Fontenelle's Hist. de Theatr. Fr. Oevr. tom. trois. p. 20. edit. Paris, 1742. 12mo . Nor can I believe that the
Tragedies
and
Comedi
s,
as they are called, of Anselm Fayditt, and other early troubadours, had any thing dramatic. It is worthy of notice, that pope Clement the seventh rewarded Parasols for his five
tragedies
with two canonries. Compare Recherches sur les Theatr. de France, par M. de Beauchamps, Paris, 1735. 4to . p. 65.
. Bale calls his play, or MYSTERY, of GOD'S PROMISES, a TRAGEDY, which appeared about the year 1538.
I must however observe here, that dramatic entertainments, representing the lives of saints and the most eminent scriptural stories, were known in England for more than two centuries before the reign of Edward the second. These spectacles they commonly styled MIRACLES. I have already mentioned the play of saint Catharine, acted at Dunstable about the year 1110
DISSERTATION ii.
. William Fitz-Stephen, a writer of the twelfth century, in his DESCRIPTION of LONDON, relates that,
"London, for its theatrical exhibitions, has holy plays, or the representation of miracles wrought by confessors, and of the sufferings of martyrs
"Lundonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum quae sancti confessores operati sunt, seu representationes passionum quibus claruit constantia martyrum."
Ad calc. STOWE'S SURVEY OF LONDON, p. 480. edit. 1599.
The reader will observe, that I have construed
sanctiores
in a positive sense. Fitz-Stephen mentions at the end of his tract,
"Imperatricem Matildem, Henricum regem tertium, et beatum Thomam. &c."
p. 483. Henry the third did not accede till the year 1216. Perhaps he implied
futurum
regem tertium.
."
These pieces must have been in high vogue at our present period; for Matthew Paris, who wrote about the year 1240, says that they were such as
"MIRACULA VULGARITER APPELLAMUS
Vit. Abbat. ad calc. Hist. p. 56. edit. 1639.
."
And we learn from Chaucer, that in his time PLAYS OF MIRACLES were the common resort of idle gossips in Lent.
Therefore made I my visitations,
To prechings eke and to pilgrimagis,
To PLAYS of MIRACLES, and mariagis, &c
Prol. Wif. B. v. 555. p. 80. Urr.
.
This is the genial WIFE OF BATH, who amuses herself with these fashionable diversions, while her husband is absent in London, during the holy season of Lent. And in PIERCE PLOWMAN'S CREDE, a piece perhaps prior to Chaucer, a friar Minorite mentions these MIRACLES as not less frequented than markets or taverns.
We haunten no tavernes, ne hobelen abouten,
Att markets and MIRACLES we medeley us never
Signat. A. iii. b. edit. 1561.
.
Among the plays usually represented by the guild of Corpus Christi at Cambridge, on that festival, LUDUS FILIORUM ISRAELIS was acted in the year 1355
Masters's Hist. C. C. C. C. p. 5. vol. i. What w
s the antiquity of the
Guary-Miracle,
or
Miracle-Play
in Cornwall, has not been determined. In the Bodleian library ar
three Cornish interludes, written on parchment. B. 40. Art. In the same library there is also another, written on paper in the year 1611. Arch. B. 31. Of this last there is a translation in the British Museum. MSS. Harl. 1867. 2. It is entitled the CREATION OF THE WORLD. It is called a Cornish play or opera, and said to be written by Mr. William Jordan. The translation into English was made by John Keigwin of Moushole in Cornwall, at the request of Trelawney, bishop of Exeter, 1691. Of this William Jordan I can give no account. In the British Museum there is an antient Cornish poem on the death and resurrection of Christ. It is on vellum, and has some rude pictures. The beginning and end are lost. The writing is supposed to be of the fifteenth century. MSS. Harl. 1782 4to . See the learned Lwhyd's Archaeol. Brit. p. 265. And Borlase's Cornwall, Nat. Hist. p. 295. edit. 1758.
. Our drama seems hitherto to have been almost entirely confined to religious subjects, and these plays were nothing more than an appendage to the specious and mechanical devotion of the times. I do not find expressly, that any play on a profane subject, either tragic or comic, had as yet been exhibited in England. Our very early ancestors scarce knew any other history than that of their religion. Even on such an occasion as the triumphant entry of a king or queen into the city of London, or other places, the pageants were almost entirely scriptural
When our Henry the sixth ent
red Paris in 1431, in the quality of king of France, he was met at the gate of Saint Denis by a Dumb Shew, representing the birth of the Virgin Mary and her marriage, the adoration of the three kings, and the parable of the sower. This pageant indeed was given by the French: but the readers of Hollingshead will recollect many instances immediately to our purpose. See Monstrelet. apud Fonten. Hist. Theatr. ut supr. p. 37.
. Yet I must observe, that an article in one of the pipe-rolls, perhaps of the reign of king John, and consequently about the year 1200, seems to place the rudiments of histrionic exhibition, I mean of general subjects, at a much higher period among us than is commonly imagined. It is in these words.
"Nicola uxor Gerardi de Canvill, reddit computum de centum marcis pro maritanda Matildi filia sua cuicunque voluerit, exceptis MIMICIS regis
Rot. incert. ut videtur Reg. Johann. Apud. MSS. James, Bibl. Bodl. vii. p. 104.
." — "Nicola, wife of Gerard of Canville, accounts to the king for one hundred marks for the privilege of marrying his daughter Maud to whatever person she pleases, the king's MIMICS excepted."
Whether or no MIMICI REGIS are here a sort of players kept in the king's houshold for diverting the court at stated seasons, at least with performances of mimicry and masquerade, or whether they may not strictly imply MINSTRELLS, I cannot indeed determine. Yet we may remark, that MIMICUS is never used for MIMUS, that certain theatrical entertainments called mascarades, as we shall see below, were very antient among the French, and that these MIMICI appear, by the context of this article, to have been persons of no very respectable character
John of Salisbury, who wrote about 1160, says,
"Histriones et mimi non possunt recipere sacram communionem."
POLICRAT. i. 8.
. I likewise find in the wardrobe-rolls of Edward the third, in the year 1348, an account of the dresses,
ad faciendum
LUDOS
domini regis ad ffestum Natalis domini celebratos apud Guldeford,
for furnishing the plays or sports of the king, held in the castle of Guildford at the feast of Christmas
Comp. J. Cooke, Provisoris Magnae Garderob. ab ann. 21. Edw. i. ad ann. 23. Membr. ix.
. In these LUDI, says my record, were expended eighty tunics of buckram of various colours, forty-two visours of various similitudes, that is, fourteen of the faces of women, fourteen of the faces of men with beards, fourteen of heads of angels, made with silver; twenty-eight crests
I do not perfectly understand the Latin original in the place. viz.
"xiiij
Crestes
cum tibiis reversatis et calceatis, xiiij
Crestes
cum montibus et cuniculis."
Among the stuffs are
"viii pelles de Roan."
In the same wardrobe rolls, a little above, I find this entry, which relates to the same festival.
"Et ad faciendum vi pennecellos pro tubis et clarionibus contra ffestum natalis domini, de syndone, vapulatos de armis regis quartellatis."
Membr. ix.
, fourteen mantles embroidered with heads of dragons: fourteen white tunics wrought with heads and wings of peacocks, fourteen heads of swans with wings, fourteen tunics painted with eyes of peacocks, fourteen tunics of English linen painted, and as many tunics embroidered with stars of gold and silver
Some perhaps may think, that these were dresses for a MASQUE at court. If so, Hollingshead is mistaken in saying, that in the year 1512,
"on the daie of Epiphanie at night, the king with eleven others were disguised after the manner of Italie called a ma
ke,
a thing not seen before in England.
They were apparelled in garments long and broad wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold, &c."
Hist. vol. iii. p. 812.
. 40.
Besides, these maskings most probably came to the English, if from Italy, through the medium of France. Hollingshead also contradicts him
elf: for in another place he seems to allow their existence under our Henry the fourth, A. D. 1400.
"The conspi
ators ment upon the sudden to have to have set upon the king in the castell of Windsor, under colour of a
maske
or
mummerie,
&c."
ibid. p. 515. b. 50.
Strype says there were PAGEAUNTS exhibited in London when queen Eleanor rode through the city to her coronation, in 1236. And for the victory over the Scots by Edward the first in 1298. Anecdot. Brit. Topograph. p. 725. Lond. edit. 1768.
. In the rolls of the wardrobe of king Richard the second, in the year 1391, there is also an entry which seems to point out a sport of much the same nature.
"Pro xxi
coifs
de tela linea pro hominibus de lege contrafactis pro LUDO r
gis tempore natalis domini anno xii
Comp. Magn. Gard
rob. an. 14. Ric. ii. f. 193. b.
."
That is,
"for twenty-one linen coifs for counterfeiting men of the law in the king's play at Christmas."
It will be sufficient to add here on the last record, that the serjeants at law at their creation, antiently wore a cap of linen, lawn, or silk, tied under the chin: this was to distinguish them from the clergy who had the tonsure. Whether in both these instances we are to understand a dumb shew, or a dramatic interlude with speeches, I leave to the examination of those who are professedly making enquiries into the
history of our stage from its rudest origin. But that plays on general subjects were no uncommon mode of entertainment in the royal palaces of England, at least at the commencement of the fifteenth century, may be collected from an old memoir of shews and ceremonies exhibited at Christmas, in the reign of Henry the seventh, in the palace of Westminster. It is in the year 1489.
"This cristmas I saw no disguysings, and but
right few
PLAYS. But ther was an abbot of Misrule, that made much sport, and did right well his office."
And again,
"At nyght the kynge, the qweene, and my ladye the kynges moder, cam into the Whitehall, and ther hard a PLAY
Leland. Coll. iii. Append. p. 256. edit. 1770.
."
As to the religious dramas, it was customary to perform this species of play on holy festivals in or about the churches. In the register of William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, under the year 1384, an episcopal injunction is recited, against the exhibition of SPECTACULA in the cemetery of his cathedral
Registr. lib. iii. f. 88.
"Canere Cantilenas, ludibriorum
spectacula
facere, saltationes et alios ludos inhonestos frequentare, choreas, &c."
So in Statut. Eccles. Nannett. A. D. 1405.
No
"mimi vel joculatores, ad
monstra larvarum
in ecclesia et cemeterio,"
are permitted.
Marten. Thesaur. Anecd. iv. p. 993.
And again,
"Joculatores, histriones, saltatrices, in ecclesia, cemeterio, vel porticu.—nec aliquae choreae."
Statut. Synod. Eccles. Leod. A. D. 1287. apud Marten. ut supr. p. 846.
Fontenelle says, that antiently among the French, comedies were acted after divine service, in the church-yard.
"Au sortir du sermon ces bonnes gens alloient a la
Comedie,
c'est a dire, qu'ils changeoint de Sermon."
Hist. Theatr. ut supr. p. 24.
But these were scriptural comedies, and they were constantly preceded by a BENEDICITE, by way of prologue. The French stage will occur again below.
. Whether or no these were dramatic SPECTACLES, I do not pretend to decide. In several of our old scriptural plays, we see some of the scenes directed to be represented
cum cantu et organis,
a common rubric in the missal. That is, because they were performed in a church where the choir assisted. There is a curious passage in Lambarde's Topographical Dictionary written about the year 1570, much to our purpose, which I am therefore tempted to transcribe
Pag. 459. edit. 1730. 4to .
.
"In the dayes of ceremonial religion, they used at Wytney (in Oxfordshire) to set fourthe yearly in maner of a shew, or interlude, the resurrection of our Lord, &c. For the which purposes, and the more lyvely heareby to exhibite to the eye the hole action of the resurrection, the priestes garnished out certain smalle puppettes, representing the persons of Christe, the watchmen, Marie, and others; amongest the which, one bare the parte of a wakinge watchman, who espiinge Christe to arise, made a continual noyce, like to the sound that is caused by the metynge of two styckes, and was thereof commonly called
Jack Snacker of Wytney.
The like toye I myself, beinge then a childe, once sawe in Poule's churche at London, at a feast of Whitsuntyde; wheare the comynge downe of the Holy Gost was set forthe by a white pigion, that was let to fly out of a hole that yet is to be sene in the mydst of the roofe of the greate ile, and by a longe censer which descendinge out of the same place almost to the verie grounde, was swinged up and downe at suche a lengthe, that it reached with thone swepe almost to the west-gate of the churche, and with the other to the quyre staires of the same; breathinge out over the whole churche and companie a most pleasant perfume of such swete thinges as burned therein. With the like doome shewes also, they used everie where to furnish sondrye parts of their church service, as by their spectacles of the nativitie, passion, and ascension, &c."
This practice of acting plays in churches, was at last grown to such an enormity, and attended with such inconvenient consequences, that in the reign of Henry the
ighth, Bonner, bishop of London, issued a proclamation to the clergy of his diocese, dated 1542, prohibiting
"all maner of common plays, games, or interludes to be played, set forth, or declared, within their churches, chapels, &c
Burnet, Hist. Ref. i. Coll. Rec. pag. 225.
."
This fashion seems to have remained even after the Reformation, and when perhaps profane stories had taken place of religious
From a puritanical pamphlet entitled THE THIRD BLAST OF RETRAIT FROM PLAIES, &c. 1580. 12mo . p. 77. Where the author says, the players are
"permitted to publish their mamettrie in everie temple of God, and that, throughout England, &c."
This abuse of acting plays in churches is mentioned in the canon of James the first, which forbids also the profanation of churches by court-leets, &c. The canons were given in the year 1603.
. Archbishop Grindal, in the year 1563, remonstrated against the danger of interludes: complaining that players
"did especially on holy days, set up bills inviting to their play
Strype's Grindall, p. 82.
."
From this ecclesiastical source of the modern drama, plays continued to be acted on sundays so late as the reign of Elizabeth, and even till that of Charles the first, by the choristers or singing-boys of Saint Paul's cathedral in London, and of the royal chapel.
It is certain, that these MIRACLE-PLAYS were the first of our dramatic exhibitions. But as these pieces frequently required the introduction of allegorical characters, such as Charity, Sin, Death, Hope, Faith, or the like, and as the common poetry of the times, especially among the French, began to deal much in allegory, at length plays were formed entirely consisting of such personifications. These were called MORALITIES. The miracle-plays, or MYSTERIES, were totally destitute of invention or plan: they tamely represented stories according to the letter of scripture, or the respective legend. But the MORALITIES indicate dawnings of the dramatic art: they contain some rudiments of a plot, and even attempt to delineate characters, and to paint manners. From hence the gradual transition to real historical personages was natural and obvious. It may be also observed, that many licentious pleasantries were sometimes introduced in these religious representations. This might imperceptibly lead the way to subjects entirely profane, and to comedy, and perhaps earlier than is imagined. In a
MSS. Digb. 134. Bibl. Bodl.
Mystery of the MASSACRE OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS, part of the subject of a sacred drama given by the English fathers at the famous council of Constance, in the year 1417
L'Ensant. ii. 440.
, a low buffoon of Herod's court is introduced, desiring of his lord to be dubbed a knight, that he might be properly qualified to
go on the adventure
of killing the mothers of the children of Bethlehem. This tragical business is treated with the most ridiculous levity. The good women of Bethlehem attack our
night-errant with their spinning-wheels, break his head with their distaffs, abuse him as a coward and a disgrace to chivalry, and send him home to Herod as a recreant champion with much ignominy. It is in an enlightened age only that subjects of scripture history would be supported with proper dignity. But then an enlightened age would not have chosen such subjects for theatrical exhibition. It is certain that our ancestors intended no sort of impiety by these monstrous and unnatural mixtures. Neither the writers nor the spectators saw the impropriety, nor paid a separate attention to the comic and the srious part of these motley scenes; at least they were persuaded that the solemnity of the subject covered or excused all incongruities. They had no just idea of decorum, consequently but little sense of the ridiculous: what appears to us to be the highest burlesque, on them would have made no sort of impression. We must not wonder at this, in an age when courage, devotion, and ignorance, composed the character of European manners; when the knight going to a tournament, first invoked his God, then his mistress, and afterwards proceeded with a safe conscience and great resolution to engage his antagonist. In these Mysteries I have sometimes seen gross and open obscenities. In a play of
the Old and New Testament
MSS. Harl. 2013, &c. Exhibited at Chester in the year 1327, at the expence of the different trading companies of that city.
The Fall of Lucifer
by the Tanners.
The Creation
by the Drapers.
The Deluge
by the Dyers.
Abraham, Melchis
dech,
and
Lot
by the Barbers.
Moses, Balak,
and
Balaam
by the Cappers.
The Salutation
and
Nativity
by the Wrightes.
The Shepherds feeding their flocks by night
by the Painters and Glaziers.
The three Kings
by the Vintners.
The Oblation of the three Kings
by the Mercers.
The Killing of the Innocents
by the Goldsmiths.
The Purification
by the Blacksmiths.
The Temptation
by the Butchers.
The last Supper
by the Bakers.
The Blindmen and Lazarus
by the Glovers.
Jesus and the Lepers
by the Corvesarys.
Christ's Passion
by the Bowyers, Fletchers, and Ironmongers.
Descent into Hell
by the Cooks and Innkeepers.
The Resurrection
by the Skinners.
The Ascension
by the Taylors.
The election of S. Matthias, Sending of the holy ghost,
&c. by the Fishmongers.
Antechrist
by the Clothiers.
Day of Judgment
by the Websters. The reader will perhaps smile at some of these COMBINATIONS. This is the substance and order of the former part of the play. God enters creating the world: he breathes life into Adam, leads him into Paradise, and opens his side while sleeping. Adam and Eve appear naked and
not ashamed,
and the old serpent enters lamenting his fall. He converses with Eve. She eats of the forbidden fruit and gives part to Adam. They propose, according to the stage-direction, to make themselves
subligacula a foliis quibus tegamus Pudenda.
Cover their nakedness with leaves, and converse with God. God's curse. The serpent
exit
hissing. They are driven from Paradise by four angels and the cherubim with a flaming sword. Adam appears digging the ground, and Eve spinning. Their children Cain and Abel enter: The former kills his brother. Adam's lamentation. Cain is banished, &c.
, Adam and Eve are both exhibited on the stage naked, and conversing about their nakedness: this very pertinently introduces the next scene, in which they have coverings of fig-leaves. This extraordinary spectacle was beheld by a numerous assembly of both sexes with great composure: they had the authority of scripture for such a representation, and they gave matters just as they found them in the third chapter of Genesis. It would have been absolute heresy to have departed from the sacred text in personating the primitive appearance of our first parents, whom the spectators so nearly resembled in simplicity: and if this had not been the case, the dramatists were ignorant what to reject and what to retain.
In the mean time, profane dramas seem to have been known in France at a much earlier period
John of Salisbury, a writer of the eleventh century, speaking of the common diversions of his time, says,
"Nostra aetas prolapsa ad fabulas et quaevis inania, non modo aures et cor prostituit vanitati, &c."
POLICRAT. i. 8.
An ingenious French writer, Mons. Duclos, thinks that PLAYS are here implied. By the word
Fabula,
says he, som
thing more is signified than dances, gesticulation, and simple dialogue.
Fable
properly means composition, and an arrangement of things which constitute an action. Mem. Acad. Inscr. xvii. p. 224. 4to . But perhaps
fabula
has too vague and general a sense, especially in its present combination with
quaevis inania,
to bear so precise and critical an interpretation. I will add, that if this reasoning be true, the words will be equally applicable to the English stage.—At Constantinople it seems that the stage flourished much under Justinian and Theodora, about the year 540. For in the Basilical codes we have the oath of an actress
. Tom. vii. p. 682. edit. Fabrot. Graeco-Lat. The antient Greek fathers, particularly saint Chrysostom, are full of declamation against the drama: and complain, that the people heard a comedian with much more pleasure than a preacher of the gospel.
. Du Cange gives the following picture of the king of France dining in public, before the year 1300. During this ceremony, a sort of farces or drolls seems to have been exhibited. All the great officers of the crown and the houshold, says he, were present. The company was entertained with the instrumental music of the minstrells, who played on the kettle-drum, the flagellet
I believe, a sort of pipe. This is the French word, viz. Demy-canon. See Carpent. Du Cange, Gl. Lat. i. p. 760.
, the cornet, the Latin cittern, the Bohemian flute, the trumpet, the Moorish cittern, and the fiddle. Besides there were
"des FARCEURS, des jongleurs, et des plaisantins, qui divertisseoient les compagnies par leur faceties et par leur COMEDIES, pour l'entretien."
He adds, that many noble families in France were entirely ruined by the prodigious expences lavished on those performers
Dissertat. Joinv. p. 161.
. The annals of France very early mention buffoons among the minstrells at these solemnities; and more particularly that Louis le Debonnaire, who reigned about the year 830, never laughed aloud, not even when at the most magnificent festivals, players, buffoons, minstrels, singers, and harpers, attended his table
Ibid.
. In some constitutions given to a cathedral church in France, in the year 1280, the following clause occurs.
"Nullus SPECTACULIS aliquibus quae aut in
Nuptiis
aut in
Scenis
exhibentur, intersit
Montfauc. Catal. Manuscript. p. 1158. See also Marten. Thesaur. Anecd. tom. iv. p. 506. Statut. Synod. A. D. 1468.
"Larvaria ad Nuptias, &c."
Stowe, in his SURVEY OF LONDON, mentions the practice of acting plays at weddings.
."
Where, by the way, the word
Scenis
seems to imply somewhat of a professed stage, although the establishment of the first French theatre is dated not before the year 1398. The play of ROBIN and MARIAN is said to have been performed by the school-boys of Angiers, according to annual custom, in the year 1392
The boys were
deguisiez,
says the old French record: and they had among them
un Fillette desguiseè.
Carpent. ubi supr. V. ROBINET. PENTECOSTE. Our old character of MAYD MARIAN may be hence illustrated. It seems to have been an early fashion in France for school-boys to present these shews or plays. In an antient manuscript, under the year 1477, there is mentioned
"Certaine MORALITE, ou FARCE, que les escolliers de Pontoise avoit fait,
ainsi qu'il est de coustume.
"
Carpent. ubi supr. V. MORALITAS
. The MYSTERY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT is said to have been represented in 1424, by the boys of Paris placed like statues against a wall, without speech or motion, at the entry of the duke of Bedford, regent of France. See J. de Paris, p. 101. And Sauval, Ant. de Paris. ii. 101.
. A royal carousal given by Charles the fifth of France to the emperor Charles the fourth, in the year 1378, was closed with the theatrical representation of the
Conquest of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bulloign,
which was exhibited in the hall of the royal palace
Felib. tom. ii. p. 681.
. This indeed was a subject of a religious tendency; but not long afterwards, in the year 1395, perhaps before, the interesting story of PATIENT GRISILDE appears to have been acted at Paris. This piece still remains, and is entitled,
Le
MYSTERE
de Grisildis marquise de Saluce
It has been printed, more than once, in the black letter. Beauchamps, p. 110.
. For all dramatic pieces were indiscriminately called MYSTERIES, whether a martyr or a heathen god, whether saint Catharine or Hercules was the subject.
In France the religious MYSTERIES, often called PITEAUX, or PITOUX, were certainly very fashionable, and of high antiquity: yet from any written evidence, I do not find them more antient than those of the English. In the year 1384, the inhabitants of the village of Aunay, on the sunday after the feast of saint John, played the MIRACLE of Theophilus,
"ou quel Jeu avoit un personnage de un qui devoit getter d'un canon
Carpentier, Suppl. Du Cange Lat. Gl. V. LUDUS.
."
In the year 1398, some citizens of Paris met at saint Maur to play the PASSION of CHRIST. The magistrates of Paris, alarmed at this novelty, published an ordonnance, prohibiting them to represent,
"aucuns jeux de personages soit de vie de saints ou autrement,"
without the royal licence, which was soon afterwards obtained
Beauchamps, ut supr. p. 90. This was the first theatre of the French: the actors were incorporated by the king, under the title of the
Fraternity of the passion of our Saviour.
Beauch. ibid. See above, Sect. ii. p. 91. n. The
Jeu de personages
was a very common play of the young boys in the larger towns, &c. Carpentier, ut supr. V. PERSONAGIUM. And LUDUS PERSONAG. At Cambray mention is made of the shew of a boy
larvatus cum maza in collo
with drums, &c. Carpent. ib. V. KALENDAE JANUAR.
. In the year 1486, at Anjou, ten pounds were paid towards supporting the charges of acting the PASSION of CHRIST, which was represented by masks, and, as I suppose, by persons hired for the purpose
"Decem libr. ex parte nationis, ad onera supportanda hujus Mi
terii."
Carpent. ut supr. V. PERSONAGIUM.
. The chaplains of Abbeville, in the year 1455, gave four pounds and ten shillings to the PLAYERS of the PASSION
Carpent. ut supr. V. LUDUS. Who adds, from an antient Computus, that three shillings were paid by the ministers of a church in the year 1537, for parchment, for writing LUDUS RESURRECTIONIS DOMINI.
. But the French MYSTERIES were chiefly performed by the religious communities, and some of their FETES almost entirely consisted of a dramatic or personated shew. At the FLAST of ASSES, instituted in honour of Baalam's Ass, the clergy walked on Christmas day in procession, habited to represent the prophets and others. Moses appeared in an alb and cope, with a long beard and rod. David had a green vestment. Baalam with an immense pair of spurs, rode on a wooden ass, which inclosed a speaker. There were also six Jews and six Gentiles. Among other characters the poet Virgil was introduced as a gentile prophet and a translator of the Sibylline oracles. They thus moved in procession, chanting versicles, and conversing in character on the nativity and kingdom of Christ, through the body of the church, till they came into the choir. Virgil speaks some Latin hexameters, during the ceremony, not out of his fourth eclogue, but wretched monkish lines in rhyme. This feast was, I believe, early suppressed
See p. 210.
. In the year 1445, Charles the seventh of France ordered the masters in Theology at Paris to forbid the ministers of the collegiate
Marten. Anecd. tom. i. col. 1804. See also B
let. de Divin. offi
. cap. 72. And Gussanvill. post. Not. ad Petr. Bl
sens. Feilbien confounds
La Fete de Fous et la Fete de Sotise.
The latter was an entertainment of dancing called
Les Sa
ltes,
and thence corrupted into
Soties
or
Sotise.
See Mem. Acad. Inscript. xvii. 225. 226. See also Probat. Hist. Antissiodor. p. 310. Again, the
Feast of Fools
seems to be pointed at in Statut. S
nonens. A. D. 1445. Instr. tom. xii. Gall. Christian. Coll. 96.
"Tempore divini servitii larvatos et monstruosos vultus def
re
do, cum vestibus mulierum, aut lenonum, aut histrionum, choreas in ecclesia
t choro ejus ducendo, &c."
With the most immod
st spectacles. The nuns of some French convents are said to have had
Ludibr
a
on saint Mary Magdal
ne's and other f
stivals, when they wore the habits of seculars, and dan
ed with them. Carpent. ubi supr. V. KALENDAE. There was the office of
Rex Stultorum
in Beverley church, prohibited 1391. Dugd. Mon. iii. Append. 7.
churches to celebrate at Christmas the FEAST of FOOLS in their churches, where the
lergy danced in masques and antic dresses, and exhibited
plusieurs
mocqueries spectacles publics, de leur corps deguisements, farces, rigmeries,
with various enormities shocking to decency. In France as well as England it was customary to celebrate the feast of the boy-bishop. In all the collegiate churches of both nations, about the feast of Saint Nicholas, or the Holy Innocents, one of the children of the choir completely apparelled in the episcopal vestments, with a mitre and crosier, bore the title and state of a bishop, and exacted ceremonial obedience from his fellows, who were dressed like priests. They took possession of the church, and performed all the ceremonies and offices
In the statutes of Eton-college, given 1441, the EPISCOPUS PUERORUM is ordered to perform divine service on saint Nicholas's day. Rubr. xxxi. In the statutes of Winchester-college, given 1380, PUERI, that is, the boy-bishop and his fellows, are permitted on Innocent's-day to execute all the sacred offices in the chapel, according to the use of the church of Sarum. Rubr. xxix. This strange piece of religious mockery flourished greatly in Salisbury cathedral. In the old statutes of that church there is a chapter DE EPISCOPO CHORISTARUM: and their
Processionale
gives a long and minute account of the whole ceremony. edit. Rothom. 1555.
, the mass excepted, which might have been celebrated by the bishop and his prebendaries
This ceremony was abolished by a proclamation, no later than 33 Hen. viii. Brit. Mus. MSS. Cott. TIT. B. 1. f. 208. In the inventory of the treasury of York cathedral, taken in 1530, we have
"Item una mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum, &c."
Dudgd. Monast. iii. 169. 170. See also 313. 314. 177. 279. See also Dugd. Hist. S. Paul's, p. 205. 206. Where he is called EPISCOPUS PARVULORUM. See also Anstis Ord. Gart. ii. 309. Where, instead of
Nihilensis,
read
Nicolensis,
or NICOLATENSIS.
. In the statutes of the archiepiscopal cathedral of Tulles, given in the year 1497, it is said, that during the celebration of the festival of the boy-bishop,
"MORALITIES were presented, and shews of MIRACLES, with farces and other sports, but compatible with decorum.—After dinner they exhibited, without their masks, but in proper dresses, such farces as they were masters of, in different parts of the city
Statut. Eccles. Tullens. apud Carpent. Suppl. Lat. Gl. Du Cang. V. KALENDAE.
."
It is probable that the same entertainments attended the solemnisation of this ridiculous festival in England
It appears that in England, the boybishop with his companions went about to different parts of the town; at least visited the other religious houses. As in Rot. Comp. Coll. Winton. A. D. 1461.
"In Dat. episcopo Nicolatensi."
This I suppose, was one of the children of the choir of the neighbouring cathedral. In the statutes of the collegiate church of S. Mary Ottery, founded by bishop Grandison in 1337, there is this passage.
"Item statuimus, quod nullus canonicus, vicarius, vel secundarius, pueros choristas in festo sanctorum Innocentium extra Parochiam de Otery trahant, aut eis licentiam vagandi concedant."
cap. 50. MS. Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin. Winton. quat. 9.
In the wardrobe-rolls of Edward iii. an. 12. we have this entry, which shews that our mock-bishop and his chapter sometimes exceeded their adopted clerical commission, and exercised the arts of secular entertainment.
"EPISCOPO PUERORUM ecclesiae de Andeworp cantanti coram domino rege in camera sua in festo sanctorum Innocentium, de dono ipsius dom. regis. xiii
s.
vi
d.
"
: and from this supposition some critics may be inclined to deduce the practice of our plays being acted by the choir-boys of St. Paul's church, and the chapel royal, which continued, as I before observed, till Cromwell's usurpation. The English and French stages mutually throw light on each other's history. But perhaps it will be thought, that in some of these instances I have exemplified in nothing more than farcical and gesticulatory representations. Yet even these traces should be attended to. In the mean time we may observe upon the whole, that the modern drama had its foundation in our religion, and that it was raised and supported by the clergy. The truth is, the members of the ecclesiastical societies were almost the only persons who could read, and their numbers easily furnished performers: they abounded in leisure, and their very relaxations were religious.
I did not mean to touch upon the Italian stage. But as so able a judge as Riccoboni seems to allow, that Italy derived her theatre from those of France and England, by way of an additional illustration of the antiquity of the two last, I will here produce one or two MIRACLE-PLAYS, acted much earlier in Italy than any piece mentioned by that ingenious writer, or by Crescimbeni. In the year 1298, on
"the feast of Pentecost, and the two following holidays, the representation of the PLAY OF CHRIST, that is of his passion, resurrection, ascension, judgment, and the mission of the holy ghost, was performed by the clergy of Civita Vecchia,
in
uria domini patriarchae Austriae civitatis honorifice et laudabiliter
Chron. Forojul. in Append. ad Monum. Eccl. Aquilej. pag. 30. col. 1.
."
And again,
"In 1304, the chapter of Civita Vecchia exhibited a Play of the creation of our first parents, the annunciation of the virgin Mary, the birth of Christ, and other passages of sacred scripture
Ibid. pag. 30. col. 1. It is extraordinary, that the Miracle-plays, even in the churches, should not cease in Italy till the year 1660.
."
In the mean time, those critics who contend for the high antiquity of the Italian stage, may adopt these instances as new proofs in defence of that hypothesis.
In this transient view of the origin and progress of our drama, which was incidentally suggested by the mention of Baston's supposed Comedies, I have trespassed upon future periods. But I have chiefly done this for the sake of connection, and to prepare the mind of the reader for other anecdotes of the history of our stage, which will occur in the course of our researches, and are reserved for their respective places. I could have enlarged what is here loosely thrown together, with many other remarks and illustrations: but I was unwilling to transcribe from the colle
ions of those who have already treated this subject with great comprehension and penetration, and especially from the author of the Supplement to the Translator's Preface of Jarvis's Don Quixote
See also Doctor Percy's very ingenious ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE, &c.
. I claim no other merit from this digression, than that of having collected some new anecdotes relating to the early state of the English and French stages, the original of both which is intimately connected, from books and manuscripts not easily found, nor often examined. These hints may perhaps prove of some service to those who have leisure and inclination to examine the subject with more precision.
SECT. VII.
EDWARD the third was an illustrious example and patron of chivalry. His court was the theatre of romantic elegance. I have examined the annual rolls of his wardrobe, which record various articles of costly stuffs delivered occasionally for the celebration of his tournaments; such as standards, pennons, tunics, caparisons, with other splendid furniture of the same sort: and it appears that he commanded these solemnities to be kept, with a magnificence superior to that of former ages, at Litchfield, Bury, Guildford, Eltham, Canterbury, and twice at Windsor, in little more than the space of one year
Comp. J. Cooke, Provisoris Magn. Garderob. ab ann. 21. Edw. iii. ad ann. 23. supr. citat. I will give, as a specimen, this officer's accompt for the tournament at Canterbury.
"Et ad faciendum diversos apparatus pro corpore regis et suorum pro hastiludio Cantuariensi, an. reg. xxii. ubi Rex dedit octo hernesia de syndone ynde facta, et vapulata de armis dom. Stephani de Cosyngton militis, dominis principibus comiti Lancastriae, comiti Suffolciae, Johanni de Gray, Joh. de Beauchamp, Roberto Maule, Joh. Chandos, et dom. Rogero de Beauchamp. Et ad faciendum unum harnesium de bokeram albo pro rege, extencellato cum argento, viz. tunicam et scutum operata cum dictamine Regis,
"Hay Hay the wythe swan
"By Godes soule I am thy man."
Et croparium, pectorale, testarium, et arcenarium extencellata cum argento. Et ad parandum i. tunicam Regis, et i. clocam et capuciam cum c. garteriis paratis cum boucles, barris, et pendentibus de argento. Et ad faciendum unum dublettum pro Rege de tela linea habente, circa manicas et
imbriam, unam borduram de panno longo viridi operatam cum nebulis et vineis de auro, et cum dictamine Regis.
It is as it is.
"
Membr. xi. [A. D. 1349.]
. At his triumphant return from Scotland, he was met by two hundred and thirty knights at Dunstable, who received their victorious monarch with a grand exhibition of these martial exercises. He established in the castle of Windsor a fraternity of twentyfour knights, for whom he erected a round table, with a round chamber still remaining, according to a similar institution of king Arthur
Walsing, p. 117.
. Anstis treats the notion, that Edward in this establishment had any retrospect to king Arthur, as an idle and legendary tradition
Ord. Gart. ii. 92.
. But the fame of Arthur was still kept alive, and continued to be an object of veneration long afterwards: and however idle and ridiculous the fables of the round table may appear at present, they were then not only universally known, but firmly believed. Nothing could be more natural to such a romantic monarch, in such an age, than the renovation of this most antient and revered institution of chivalry. It was a prelude to the renowned order of the garter, which he soon afterwards founded at Windsor, during the ceremonies of a magnificent feast, which had been proclaimed by his heralds in Germany, France, Scotland, Burgundy, Heynault, and Brabant, and lasted fifteen days
Barnes, i. ch. 22. p. 292. Froissart, c. 100. Anstis, ut supr.
. We must not try the modes and notions of other ages, even if they have arrived to some degree of refinement, by those of our own. Nothing is more probable, than that this latter foundation of Edward the third, took its rise from the exploded story of the garter of the countess of Salisbury
Ashmole proves, that the orders of the
Annunciada, and of the Toison d'Or,
had the like origin. Ord. Gart. p. 180. 181. Even in the ensigns of the order of the Holy Ghost, founded so late as 1578, some lovemysteri
s and emblems were concealed under
yphers introduced into the blasonrie. See L
Labourer, Contin. des Mem. de Castelnau, p. 895.
"Il y eut plus de myssteres d'amourettes que de religion, &c."
But I cannot in this place help observing, that the fantastic humour of unriddling emblematical mysteries, supposed to be concealed under all ensigns and arms, was at length carried to such an extravagance, at least in England, as to be checked by the legislature. By a statute of queen Elisabeth, a severe penalty is laid,
"on all fond phantastical prophecies upon or by the occasion of any arms, fields, beastes, badges, or the like things accustomed in arms, cognisaunces, or signetts, &c."
Statut. v. Eliz. ch. 15. A. D. 1564.
. Such an origin is interwoven with the manners and ideas of the times. Their attention to the fair sex entered into every thing. It is by no means unreasonable to suppose, that the fantastic collar of Esses, worn by the knights of this Order, was an allusion to her name. Froissart, an eye-witness, and well acquainted with the intrigues of the court, relates at large the king's affection for the countess; and particularly describes a grand carousal which he gave in consequence of that attachment
Ubi supr.
. The first festival of this order was not only adorned by the bravest champions of christendom, but by the presence of queen Philippa, Edward's consort, accompanied with three hundred ladies of noble families
They soon afterwards regularly received robes, with the knights companions, for this ceremony, powdered with garters. Ashmol. Ord. Gart. 217. 594. And Anstis, ii. 123.
. The tournaments of this stately reign were constantly crouded with ladies of the first distinction; who sometimes attended them on horseback, armed with daggers, and dressed in a succinct soldier-like habit or uniform prepared for the purpose
Knyghton, Dec. Script. p. 2597.
. In a tournament exhibited at London, sixty ladies on palfries appeared, each leading a knight with a gold chain. In this manner they paraded from the tower to Smithfield
Froissart apud Stowe's Surv. Lond. p. 718. edit. 1616. At an earlier period, the growing gallantry of the times appears in a public instrument. It is in the reign of Edward the first. Twelve jurymen depose upon oath the state of the king's lordship at Woodstock: and among other things it is solemnly recited, that Henry the second often resided at Woodstock,
"pro amore cujusdam mulieris nomine Rosamunda."
Hearne's Avesbury, Append. p. 331.
. Even Philippa, a queen of singular elegance of manners
And of distinguished beauty. Hearne says, that the statuaries of those days used to make queen Philippa a model for their images of the Virgin Mary. Gloss. Rob. Brun. p. 349. He adds, that the holy virgin, in a representation of her assumption was constantly figured young and beautiful; and that the artists before the Reformation generally
"had the most beautiful women of the greatest quality in their view, when they made statues and figures of her."
ibid. p. 550.
, partook so much of the heroic spirit which was universally diffused, that just before an engagement with the king of Scotland, she rode round the ranks of the English army encouraging the soldiers, and was with some difficulty persuaded or compelled to relinquish the field
Froissart. i. c. 138.
. The countess of Montfort is another eminent instance of female heroism in this age. When the strong town of Hennebond, near Rennes, was besieged by the French, this redoubted amazon rode in complete armour from street to street, on a large courser, animating the garison
Froissart says, that when the English proved victorious, the countess came out of the castle, and in the street kissed Sir Walter Manny the English general, and his captains, one after another, twice or thrice,
omme noble et valliant dame.
On another like occasion, the same historian relates, that she went out to meet the officers, whom she kissed and sumptuously entertained in her castle. i. c. 86. At many magnificent tournaments in France, the ladies determined the prize. See Mem. anc. Cheval. i. p. 175. seq. p. 223. seq. An English squire, on the side of the French, captain of the castle of Beaufort, called himself
le Poursuivant d'amour,
in 1369. Froissart, l. i. c. 64. In the midst of grand engagements between the French and English armies, when perhaps the interests of both nations are vitally concerned, Froissart gives many instance
of officers entering into separate and personal combat to dispute the beauty of their respective mistresses. Hist. l. ii. ch. 33. 43. On this occasion an ingenious French writer observes, that Homer's heroes of antient Greece are just as extravagant, who in the heat of the sight, often stop on a sudden, to give an account of the genealogy of themselves or of their horses. Mem. anc. Cheval. ubi supr. Sir Walter Manny, in 1343, in attacking the castle of Guigard exclaims,
"let me never be beloved of my mistress, if I refuse this attack, &c."
Froissart, i. 81.
. Finding from a high tower that the whole French army was engaged in the assault, she issued, thus completely accoutred, through a convenient postern at the head of three hundred chosen soldiers, and set fire to the French camp
Froissart, i. c. 80. Du Chesne, p. 656. Mezeray, ii. 3. p. 19. seq.
. In the mean time riches and plenty, the effects of conquest, peace, and prosperity, were spread on every side; and new luxuries were imported in great abundance from the conquered countries. There were few families, even of a moderate condition, but had in their possession precious articles of dress or furniture; such as silks, fur, tapestry, embroidered beds, cups of gold, silver, porcelain, and crystal, bracelets, chains, and necklaces, brought from Caen, Calais, and other opulent foreign cities
Walsing. Ypodigm. 121. Hist. 159.
. The encrease of rich furniture appears in a foregoing reign. In an act of Parliament of Edward the first
A. D. 1300. Edw. i. an. 28. cap. xx.
, are many regulations, directed to goldsmiths, not only in London, but in other towns, concerning the sterling allay of vessels and jewels of gold and silver, &c. And it is said,
"Gravers or cutters of stones and seals shall give every one their just weight of silver and gold."
It should be remembered, that about this period Europe had opened a new commercial intercourse with the ports of India
Anderson, Hist. Comm. i. p. 141.
. No less than eight sumptuary laws, which had the usual effect of not being observed, were enacted in one session of parliament during this reign
Ann. 37. Edw. iii. cap. viii. seq.
. Amid these growing elegancies and superfluities, foreign manners, especially of the French, were perpetually encreasing; and the native simplicity of the English people was perceptibly corrupted and effaced. It is not quite uncertain that masques had their beginning in this reign
See supr. p. 338.
. These shews, in which the greatest personages of the court often bore a part, and which arrived at their height in the reign of Henry the eighth, encouraged the arts of address and decorum,
nd are
ym
t
ms of the rise of polished manners
This spirit of splendor and gallantry was continued in the reign of his successor. See the genius of that reign admirably charact
rised, and by the hand of a master, in bishop Lowth's LIFE OF WYKEHAM, pag. 222. See also Hollingsh. Chron. sub ann. 1399. p. 508. col. 1.
.
In a reign like this, we shall not be surprised to fi
d such a poet as Chaucer: with whom a new era in English poetry begins, and on whose account many of th
se circumstances are mentioned, as they serve to prepare the reader for his character, on which they throw no inconsider
ble light.
But before we enter on so ample a field, it will be perhaps less embarrassing, at least more consistent with our prescribed method, if we previously display the merits of two or three poets, who appeared in the former part of the reign of Edward the third, with other incidental matters.
The first of these is Richard Hampole, an eremite of the order of saint Augustine. He was a doctor of divi
ity, and lived a solitary life near the nuns of Hampole, four miles from Doncaster in Yorkshire. The neighbourhood of this female society could not withdraw our recluse from his devotions and his studies. He flourished in the year 1349
Wharton, App. ad Cave, p. 75. Saecul. Wickley.
. His Latin theological tracts, both in prose and ve
se, are numerous; in which Leland justly thinks he has di
played more erudition than eloquence. His principal pieces of English rhyme are a Paraphrase of part of the book of Job, of the lord's prayer, of the seven penitential psalms, and the PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE. But our hermit's poetry, which indeed from these titles promises but little entertainment, has no tincture of sentiment, imagination, or elegance. The following verses are extracted from the PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE, one of the most common manuscripts in our libraries, and I prophesy that I am its last transcriber. But I must observe first, that this piece is divided into seven parts. I. Of man's nature. II. Of the world. III. Of death. IV. Of purgatory. V. Of the day of judgment. VI. Of the torments of hell. VII. Of the joys of heaven
STIMULUS CONSCIENTIAE
thys boke ys namyd.
MS. Ashmol. fol. No . 41. There is much transposition in this copy. In MS. Digb. Bibl. Bodl. 87. it is called THE KEY OF KNOWING. Princ.
The migt of the fader almiti
The wisdom of the sone al witti.
.
Monkynde is to godus wille
And alle his biddyngus to fulfille
Ffor of al his makyng more and les
Man most principal creature es
All that he made for man hit was done
As ye schal here aftir lone
God to monkynde had gret love
When he ordeyned to monnes behove
This world and heven hym to glade
There in myddulerd mon last he made
To his likenes in feire stature
To be most worthy creature
Beforen all creatures of kynde
He yef hym wit skile and mynde
Ffor too knowe bothe good and ille
And als he yaf him a fre wille
Fforto chese and forto holde
Good or yvel whedur he wolde
And as he ordeyned mon to dwelle
To lyve in erthe in flessch and fell
To knowe his workus and hym worshepe
And his comaundement to kepe
And yif he be to god buxome
To endeles blis aftir to come
And yif he wrongly here wende
To peyne of helle withouten ende
God made to his owne likenes
Eche mon lyving here more and les
To whom he hath gyven wit and skil
Ffor to knowe bothe good and il
And wille to these as they vouchsave
Good or evil whether thei wole have
He that his wille to good wole bowe
God wole hym with gret mede allowe
He that wukudnes wole and wo
Gret peyne shall he have also
That mon therfore holde is for wood
That chesuth the evel and leveth the good
God made mon of most dignite
Of all creatures most fre
And namely to his owne liknes
As bifore tolde hit es
And most hath gyven and yit gyveth
Than to any creature that lyveth
And more hath het hym yit therto
Hevene blis yif he wel do
And yit when he had don amys
And hadde lost that ilke blis
God tok monkynde for his sake
And for his love deth wolde take
And with his blod boughte hem ayene
To his blisse fro endeles peyne.
PRIMA PARS DE MISERIA HUMANAE CONDITIONIS.
Thus gret love god to man kidde
And mony goode dedus to hym didde
Therefore eche mon lernd and lewed
Schulde thynke on love that he hem schewed
And these gode dedus holde in mynde
That he thus dide to monkynde
And love and thanke hym as he con
And ellus he is unkynde mon
Bot he serve hym day and nyght
And his yiftes usen hem right
To spende his wit in godus servyse
Certainly ellus he is not wise
Bot he knowe kyndely what god es
And what mon is that is les
Thou febul mon is soule and body
Thou strong god is and myghty
Thou mon greveth god that doth not welle
What mon is worthi therefore to fele
Thou mercyfull and gracious god is
And thou full of alle goodness
Thou right wis and thou sothfaste
What he hath done and shal atte laste
And eche day doth to monkynde
This schulde eche mon have in mynde
Ffor the rihte waye to that blis
That leduth mon thidur that is this
The waye of mekenes principally
To love and drede god almighty
This is the waye into wisdome
Into whuche waye non may come
Withouten knowing of god here
His myghtus and his workes sere
But ar he to that knowyng wynne
Hymself he mot knowe withynne
Ellus knowyng may not be
To wisdom way non entre
Some han wit to undurstonde
And yit thei are ful unknowonde
And some thing hath no knowyng
That myght them sture to good lyving
Tho men had nede to lerne eche day
Of men that con more then thay
That myhte to knowynge hem lede
In mekenes to love god and drede
Which is waye and goode wissyng
That may to heven blis men brynge
In gret pil [peril] of sowle is that mon
That hath wit mynde and no good con
And wole not lerne for to knawe
The workus of god and his lawe
He nyle do afturmest no lest
Bot lyveth lyke an unskilfull best
That nouther hath skil wit nor mynde
That mon lyveth ayeyn his kynde
Yit excuseth not his unknowyng
That his wit useth not in leryng
Namely in that him oweth to knowe
To meke his herte and make it lowe
The unknowyng schulde have wille
To lerne to know good and ille
He that ought con schulde lere more
To knowe al that nedeful wore
For the unknowyng by lerning
May brought be to understondyng
Of mony thyngus to knowe and se
That hath bin is and shal be
And so to mekenes sture his wille
To love and drede god and leve al ille
Mony ben glad triful to here
And vanitees woll gladly lere
Bisy they bin in word and thought
To lerne that soul helputh nought
Bot that that n
deful were to knowe
To here they are wondur-slowe
Therefore con thei nothing se
The pereles thei schulde drede and fle
And what weye thei schulde take
And whiche weye thei schulde forsake
No wondur is though thei go wronge
In derknes of unknowyng they gonge
Without light of undurstondynge
Of that that falluth to right knowynge
Therefore eche cristen mon and wommon
That wit and wisdom any con
That tou the righte weye not sen
Nor flie the periles that wise flen
Schulde buxom be and bisy
To heren and leren of hem namely
That undurstonden and knowen stil
Wheche weye is good and wheche is il
He that wole right weye of lyving loke
Shall thus bigynne seith the boke
To know first what hymself is
So may he come to mekenys
That ground of all virtues is last
On whiche all virtues may be stedefast
He that knoweth well and con se
What he is was and schal be
A wisere man may be told
Whethur he be young or old
Then he that con al other thing
And of hymself hath no knowyng
He may no good knowe ny fele
Bot he furst knowe hym selven wele
Therfore a m
n schulde furst lere
To knowe hymself propurly here
Ffor yif he knewe hymself kyndely
Then may he knowe god almighty
And on endyng thinke schulde he
And on the last day that schal be
Knowe schulde he what this worlde es
Full of pompe and lecherousnes
And lerne to knowe and thynke with alle
What schal aftir this lyf bifalle
Knowyng of this schulde hym lede
To mete with mekenes and with drede
So may he come to good lyvyng
And atte last to good endyng
And when he of this worlde schal wende
Be brought to blis withouten ende
The bigynnyng of this proces
Right knowyng of a mon hymself hit es
Bot somme mon han gret lettynge
That thei may have no right knowynge
Of hemselfe that thei schulde first knawe
That first to mekenes schulde hem draw
Ther of some thyngus I fynde
That monnes wit makuth ofte blynde
And knowyng of hymself hit lettuth
Wherefore he hymself foryetuth
To this witnes Bernard answers
And tho four are written in thes vers
Compare Tanner, Bibl. p. 375. col. 1. And p. 374. col. 1. Notes. And GROSTHEAD. And MSS. Ashm. 52. pergamen. 4to .
, &c.
In the Bodleian library I find three copies of the PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE very different from that which I have just cited. In these this poem is given to Robert Grosthead bishop of Lincoln, above mentioned
Laud. K. 65. pergamen. And G. 21. And MSS. Digb. 14. Princ.
"The migt of the fader of hevene
"The wit of his son with his giftes sevene."
. With what probability, I will not stay to enquire; but hasten to give a specimen. I will only premise, that the language and hand-writing are of considerable antiquity, and that the lines are here much longer. The poet is describing the future rewards and punishments of mankind.
The goode soule schal have in his herynge
Gret joye in hevene and grete lykynge:
Ffor hi schulleth yhere the aungeles song,
And with hem hi schulleth
Shall.
synge ever among,
With delitable voys and swythe clere,
And also with that hi schullen have ire
Ever, always.
All other maner of ech a melodye,
Off well lykyng noyse and menstralsye,
And of al maner tenes
Tunes.
of musike,
The whuche to mannes beorte migte like,
Withoute eni maner of travayle,
The whuche schal never cesse ne fayle:
And so
Shrill.
schil schal that noyse bi, and so swete
And so delitable to smale and to grete,
That al the melodye of this worlde heer
That ever was yhuryd ferre or neer
Were therto
But.
bote as sorwe
Sorrow.
and care
To the blisse that is in hevene well ȝare
Prepared.
.
Of the contrarie of that blisse.
Wel grete sorwe schal the synfolke
Sinners.
bytyde,
Ffor he schullen yhere in ech a syde
Either side.
,
Well gret noyse that the feondes
Devils.
willen make,
As thei al the worlde scholde alto schake;
And alle the men lyvynge that migte hit yhure,
Scholde here wit
Senses.
loose, and no lengere alyve
Remain.
dure.
Thanne hi
They.
schulleth for sorwe here hondes wringe,
And ever weilaway hi schullethe be cryinge, &c.
The gode men schullethe have worschipes grete,
And eche of them schal be yset in a riche sete,
And ther as kynges be ycrownid fayre,
And digte with riche perrie
Precious stones.
and so ysetun
Seated.
in a chayre,
And with stones of vertu and preciouse of choyse,
As David thy said to god with a mylde voyce,
Posuisti, domine, super caput eorum, &c.
"Lorde, he seyth, on his heved thou settest wel arigt
"A coronne of a pretious ston richeliche ydigt."
And so fayre a coronne nas never non ysene,
In this worlde on kynges hevede
Head.
, ne on quene;
Ffor this coronnc is the coronne of blisse,
And the ston is joye whereof hi schilleth never misse, &c.
The synfolke schulleth, as I have afore ytold,
fele outrageous hete, and afterwards to muche colde;
Ffor nowe he schullethe freose, and now brenne
This is the Hell of the monks, which Milton has adopted.
,
And so be ypyned that non schal other kenne
Know.
,
And also be ybyte with dragonnes felle and kene,
The whuche schulleth hem destrye outrigte and clene,
And with other vermyn and bestes felle,
The whiche beothe nougt but fendes of helle, &c.
We have then this description of the New Jerusalem.
This citie is yset on an hei hille,
That no synful man may therto tille
Come.
:
The whuche ich likne to beril clene,
And so fayr berel may non be ysene.
Thulke hyl is nougt elles to understondynge
Bote holi thugt, and desyr brennynge,
The whuche holi men hadde heer to that place,
Whiles hi hadde on eorthe here lyves space;
And i likne, as ymay ymagene in my thougt,
The walles of hevene, to walles that were ywrougt
Of all maner preciouse stones yset yfere
Together.
,
And ysemented with gold brigt and clere;
Bot so brigt gold, ne non so clene,
Was in this worlde never ysene, &c.
The wardes of the cite of hevene brigt
I likne to wardes that wel were ydygt,
And clenly ywrougt and sotely enteyled,
And on silver and gold clenly avamayled
Aumayled.
, &c.
The torettes
Turretts.
of hevene grete and smale
I likne to the torrettes of clene cristale, &c.
I am not, in the mean time, quite convinced that any manuscript of the PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE in English belongs to Hampole. That this piece is a translation from the Latin appears from these verses.
Therefore this boke is in Englis drawe
Of fele
Many.
matters that bene unknawe
To lewed men that are unkonande
Ignorant.
That con no latyn undirstonde
MSS. Digb. ut supr. 87. ad princip.
.
The Latin original in prose, entitled, STIMULUS CONSCIENT
AE
In the Cambridge manuscript of Hampole's PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER, above-mentioned, containing a prolix description of human virtues and vices, at the end, this remark appears.
"Explicit quidam tractatus super Pater noster
secundum
Ric. Hampole qui obiit A. D. MCCCLXXXIV."
[But the true date of his death is in another place, viz. 1348.] MSS. More, 215. Princ.
"Almighty God in trinite
"In whom is only personnes thre."
The PARAPHRASE ON THE BOOK OF JOB, mentioned also before, seems to have existed first in Latin prose under the title of PARVUM JOB. The English begins thus:
"Lieff lord my soul thou spare."
In Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud. F. 77. 5, &c. &c.
It is a paraphrase of some Excerpta from the book of Job. THE SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS begin thus:
"To goddis worschippe that d
re us bougt."
MSS. Bodl. Digb. 18.
Hampole's EXPOSITIO IN PSALTERIUM is not uncommon in English. It has a preface in English rhymes in some copies, in praise of the author and his work. Pr.
"This blessyd boke that hire."
MSS. Laud. F. 14, &c.
Hampole was a very popular writ
r. Most of his many theological pieces seem to have been translated into English soon after they appeared: and those pieces abound among our manuscripts. Two of his tracts were translated by Richard Misyn, prior of the Carmelites at Lincoln, about the year 1435. The INCENDIUM AMORIS, at the request of Margaret Hellingdon a reclus
. Princ.
"To the askynge of thi desire."
And DE EMENDATIONE VITAE.
"Tarry thou not to oure."
They are in the translator's own hand-writing in the library of C. C. C. Oxon. MSS. 237. I find other antient translations of both these pieces. Particularly,
The
PRICKE OF LOVE
after Richard Hampol treting of the thre
d
grees of love.
MSS. Bodl. Arch. B. 65. f. 109. As a proof of the confusions and uncertainties attending the works of our author, I must add, that we have a translation of his tract DE EMENDATIONE under this title.
The
orm of p
r
yt living, which
oly Richard the hermit wrote
o a recluse named Margaret
.
MS. Vernon. But Margarete is evidently the recluse, at whose request Richard Misyn, many years after Ha
pole's death, translated the INCENDIUM AMORIS. These observations, to which others might be added, are suf
ici
nt to conf
rm the suspicions insinuated in the text. Many of Hampole's Latin th
ologi
al trac
s were printed very early at Pa
is and Cologne.
, was most probably writtten by Hampole: and it is not very likely that he should translate his own work. The author and translator were easily confounded. As to the copy of the English poem given to bishop Grosthead, he could not be the translator, to say nothing more, if Hampole wrote the Latin original. On the whole, whoever was the author of the two translations, at least we may pronounce with some certainty, that they belong to the reign of Edward the third.
SECT. VIII.
THE next poet in succession is one who deserves more attention on various accounts. This is Robert Longlande, author of the poem called the VISION OF PIERCE PLOWMAN, a s
cular priest, and a fellow of Oriel college, in Oxford. He flourished about the year 1350
I have here followed a date commonly received. But it may be observed, that there is in this poem an allusion to the fall of Edward the second. The si
ge of Calais is also mentioned as a recent fact; and
Bribery
accuses
Conscience
of obstructing the conquest of France. See more in Observations on the Fairy Queen, ii. §. xi. p. 281.
. This poem contains a series of distinct visions, which the author imagines himself to have seen, while he was sleeping, after a long ramble on Malverne-hills in Worcestershire. It is a satire on the vices of almost every profession: but particularly on the corruptions of the clergy, and the absurdities of superstition. These are ridiculed with much humour and spirit, couched under a strong vein of allegorical invention. But instead of availing himself of the rising and rapid improvements of the English language, Longland prefers and adopts the style of the Anglo-Saxon poets. Nor did he make these writers the models of his language only: he likewise imitates their alliterative versification, which consisted in using an aggregate of words beginning with the same letter. He has therefore rejected rhyme, in the place of which he thinks it sufficient to substitute a perpetual alliteration. But this imposed constraint of seeking identical initials, and the affectation of obsolete English, by demanding a constant and necessary departure from the natural and obvious forms of expression, while it circumscribed the powers of our author's genius, contributed also to render his manner extremely perplexed, and to disgust the reader with obscurities. The satire is conducted by the agency of several allegorical personages, such as Avarice, Bribery, Simony, Theology, Conscience, &c. There is much imagination in the following picture, which is intended to represent human life, and its various occupations.
Then gan I to meten a mervelouse sweven,
That I was in wildernes, I wyst never where:
As I beheld into theast, on highe to the sunne
I saw a tower on a loft, rychlych ymaked,
A depe dale beneth, a dungeon therein,
With depe diches and darcke, and dreadfull of syght:
A fayre felde ful of folke found I ther betwene,
Of all maner men, the meane and the riche,
Working and wandring, as the world asketh;
Some put hem to the plough
, pleiden full selde,
In setting and sowing swonken full harde:
And some put hem to pryd
Fol. i. a. edit. 1550. By Roberte Crowley. 4to . He printed three editions in this one year. Another was printed [with Pierce Plowman's CREDE annexed] by Owen Rogers, 1561
4to . See Strype, Ann. Re
ormat. i. 135. And Ames, Hist. Print. p. 270.
, &c.
The following extracts are not only striking specimens of our author's allegorical satire, but contain much sense and observation of life, with some strokes of poetry
F. 39. seq. Pass. viii. seq. edit. 1550.
.
Thus robed in russet, I romed aboute
All a somer season, for to seke
Do-well.
DOWEL
And freyned
Enquired.
full oft, of folke that I mette
If any wight wist, wher DOWEL
Lived.
was at inne,
And what man he might be, of many man I asked,
Was never wight as I went, that me wysh
Inform me.
could
Where this ladde lenged
Lived.
, lesse or more,
Tyll it befell on a Fryday, two fryers I mette
Maisters of the minours
The friers minors.
, men of greate wytte
I halsed hem hendelye
Saluted them civilly.
, as I had learned
And prayed hem for charitie, or they passed furthur
If they knewe any courte or countrye as they went
Where that DOWELL dwelleth, do me to wytte
Know.
For they be men on this mould, that most wide walke
And knowe contries and courts, and many kinnes
Sorts of.
places
Both princes palaces, and pore menes cotes
And DOWEL and DOEVIL, where they dwell both,
Amongest us quoth the minours, that man is dwellinge
And ever hath as I hope, and ever shall hereafter,
Contra quod I, as a clarke, and cumsed to disputen
And sayde hym sothelye, Septies in die cadit justus,
Seven
Times.
sythes sayeth the boke, synneth the rightfull,
And who so synneth I say, doth evel as me thinketh,
And DOWEL and DOEVYL may not dwel togither,
Ergo he is not alway among you fryers
He is other whyle els where, to wyshen the people.
I shal say the my sonne, sayde the frier than
Howe seven sithes the sadde
Sober. Good.
man on a day synneth,
By a forvisne
Similitude.
quod the fryer, I shal the faire shewe
Let bryng a man in a bote, amyd the brode water
The winde and the water, and the bote waggyng
Make a man many time, to fall and to stande
For stand he never so stiffe, he stumbleth if he move
And yet is he safe and sounde, and so hym behoveth,
For if he ne arise the rather, and raght to the stere,
The wind would with the water the boote overthrow.
And than were his life lost through latches
Laziness.
of himself.
And thus it falleth quod the frier, bi folk here on erth
The water is likned to the world, that waneth and wexeth
The goods of this world ar likened to the gret waves
That as winds and wethers, walken a bout.
The boote is likende to our body, that brytil is of kynd
That through the fleshe, and the frayle worlde
Synneth the sadde man, a day seven tymes
And deadly synne doeth he not, for DOWEL him kepeth
And that is CHARITIE the chapion, chiefe helpe agayne sinne,
For he strengtheth man to stand, and stirreth mans soule
And thoughe thy bodi bowe, as bote doth in water,
Aye is thy soule safe, but if thou wylt thy self
Do a deadlye sinne, and drenche so thy soule
God wyll suffer wel thy slouth, if thy selfe lyketh
For he gafe the two yeresgifts, to teme wel thy selfe
And that is witte and frewil, to every wight a portion
To flyinge fowles, to fishes, and to beastes
And man hath moste therof, and most is to blame
But if he worch wel therwith, as DOWEL hym teacheth.
I have no kind knowyng quoth I, to coceive all your wordes
And if I may live and loke, I shal go learne better
I bikenne the Christ, that on the crosse dyed
And I said the same, save you from mischaunce
And give you grace on this ground good me to worth.
And thus I went wide wher, walking mine one
By a wyde weldernes, and by a woddes syde,
Blisse of the birdes, brought me on slepe,
And under a lynde
Lime tree.
on a land, lened I a stounde
A while.
To lyth the layes
Listen.
, tho lovely fowles made,
Myrthe of her mouthes made me there to slepe
The marvelousest metelles, mette
Dreamed.
me than
That ever dremed wyght, in world as I wente.
A much man as me thought, and like to my selfe,
Came and called me, by my kinde
Own.
name
What art thou quod I tho, thou that my name knoweste
That thou wottest wel quod he, and no wight better
Wot I what thou art? THOUGHT sayd he than,
I have sued
Sought.
the this seven yeres, se ye me no rather?
Art thou THOUGHT quoth I tho, thou couldest me wysshe
Wher that DOWEL dwelleth, and do me that to knowe
DOWEL and DOBETTER, and DOBEST the thirde quod he
Are thre fayre vertues, and be not farre to finde,
Who so is true of hys tonge, and of hys two handes
And through his labor or his lod, his livelod wineth
Getts.
And is trusty of hys taylyng
Dealing. Reckoning.
, taketh but his owne
And is no drunklewe
Drunkard.
ne dedigious, DOWEL him followeth
DOBET doth ryght thus, and he doth much more
He is as lowe as a lamb, and lovely of speache
And helpeth al men, after that hem nedeth
The bagges and the bigirdles, he hath to brok
Broke to pieces.
hem al,
That the erle avarous helde and hys heyres
And thus to mamons mony he hath made him frendes
And is runne to religion, and hath rendred
Translated.
the bible
And preached to the people, saynte Paules werdes.
Libenter suffertis insipientes cum sitis ipsi sapientes.
And suffereth the unwyse, wyth you for to lyve
And with glad wil doth he good, for so god you hoteth
DOBEST is above boeth, and beareth a bishops crosse
Is hoked on that one ende to halye
Draw.
men from hell
A pyke is on the potent
Staff.
to pull downe the wyked
That wayten anye wykednes, DOWELL to tene
And DOWELL and DOBET, amongest hem have ordeyned
To crowne one to be kynge, to rule hem boeth
That if DOWELL and DOBET, arne
Are.
agaynste DOBESTE
Then shall the kynge com, and cast hem in yrons
And but if DOBEST byd for hem, they be there for ever
Thus DOWELL and DOBET, and DOBESTE the thyrd
Crouned one to be king, to kepen hem al
And to rule the realme, by her
Their.
thre wyttes
And none other wise, but as they thre assentyd.
I thanked THOUGHT tho, that he me thus taught
And yet savoreth me not thy suging, I covet to lerne,
How DOWEL DOBEST, and DOBETTER, done among the people
But WYT can wish the
Thee.
quoth THOUGHT, wer tho
They.
iii dwell
Els wot I none that can tell, that nowe is alyve.
THOUGHT and I thus, thre dayes we yeden
Went.
Disputynge upon DOWELL, daye after other.
And ere we were ware, with WYT gan we mete
He was longe and leane, lyke to none other
Was no pryde on hys apparell, nor poverty nether
Sadde of hys semblaunce, and of soft chere
I durste not move no matter, to make hym to laughe,
But as I bade THOUGHT tho be meane betwene
And put forth some purpose, to prevent his wyts
What was DOWELL fro DOBET, and DOBEST fro hem both.
Than THOUGHT in that tyme, sayd these wordes
Whether DOWELL DOBET, and DOBEST ben in land
Here is wyl wold wyt, if WIT could teach him
And whether he be man or woman, this man fain wold espy
And worch as they thre wold, this is his enten,
Here DOWELL dwelleth quod WIT, not a day hence
In a castel that kind
Nature
made, of four kins things
Of earth and ayre is it made, mingled togithers
With wind and with water, witterly
Cunningly.
enjoyned
KYNDE hath closed therin, craftely withall
A Lemman
Paramour.
that he loveth, like to him selfe
ANIMA she hyght, and Envye her hateth
A proude pricke
of Fraunce, princeps hujus mundi
And woulde wynne her away with wiles and h
myghte
And KIND knoweth thys well, and kepeth he the better.
And dothe her with sir DOWELL is duke of thys marches
DOBET is her damosell, sir DOWEL'S daughter
To serve this lady lelly
Fair lady.
, both late and rathe
Early.
.
DOBEST is above both a byshops pere,
That he byd moote be doo
Must be done.
he ruleth them all
ANIMA that lady, is led by his lerning,
And the constable of the castell, that kepeth al the watche,
Is a wyse knight withall, sir Inwit he hight
And hath fyve fayre sonnes by his fyrst wyfe
Syr Seewel and Saywel, and Hearwell the end
Syr Worchwel with thy hand, a wight man of strength
And Syr Godfray Gowel, great lordes forsoth
These fyve bene set, to save this lady Anima
Tyl KIND com or send, to save her for ever
What kins thing is KIND quod I, canst thou me telle
Kynd quod Witte is a creator, of al kinnis thinges
Father and former of all, that ever was makyd
And that is the great god that ginning had never
Lord of lyfe and of light, of blys and of payne
Angels and al thing arne at his wyl,
And man is him most like, of marke
Fashion. Similitude.
and of shape,
For through the word that he spake, wexen forth bestes
And made Adam, likest to him selfe one
And Eve of his ribbe bone, without any meane
For he was singuler him selfe, and sayde faciamus
As who say more must hereto, then my worde one
My might must helpe now with my speche,
Even as a lord shuld make leters, and he lacked perchment
Though he could write never so wel, if he had no pen
The letters for al his lordship, I leve wer never imaked
And so it semeth by him, as the bible telleth,
There he sayde, Dixit et facta sunt.
He must worch with hys word, and his wit shewe
And in this maner was man made, by might of God almighty
With his word and his workmaship, and with life to last
And thus God gave him a goste
Spirit.
, of the godhed of heven
And of his great grace, graunted him blysse
And that is life that aye shal last, to al our linage after
And that is the castel that KINDE made, Caro it hight
And is as much to meane, as man with a soule
And that he wrought with work, and with word both
Through might of the majesty, man was imaked
Inwyt and Alwyts, closed bene therin
For love of the ladie Anima, that life is nempned
Named.
Over al in mans body, she walketh and wandreth
And in the herte is hir home, and hir most
Greatest.
rest
And Inwit is in the head, and to the herte loketh
What Anima is leef or loth
Willing.
, he leadith hyr at his wil.—
Than had WIT a wife, was hote dame STUDY,
That leve was of lere, and of liche boeth.
She was wonderli wroght, Wit me so teched
And al staryng dame Study, sternely sayde.
Wel art you wise quoth she to Wyt, any wysdomes to tell
To flatterers or to foles, that frentyke be of wyttes
And blamed him and banned
Cursed.
him, and bade him be styl
Wyth such wyse wordes, to wysh any sottes
And sayde, Noli mittere man, Margarite Pearles
Amonge hogges, that have hawes at wyll.
They do but drivel theron,
See Dra
esack. Chauc. Urr. p. 33. v. 1098.
drafe were hem lever
Rather.
,
Than al precious pearles that in paradice waxeth
Grow.
.
I say it by such, quod she, that shew it by her works,
That hem were lever land
They had rather.
, and lordshyp on earth,
Or ryches or rentes, and rest at her wyll,
Than al the soth sawes, that Salomon sayde ever.
Wysedome and wytte, nowe is not worth a kerse
Not worth a straw.
But if it be carded with covetis
Covetousness.
, as clothers kemb her woule
Whoso can contryve deceites, and conspyre wrongs
And lead forth a love daye
Lady.
, to let wyth truth
He that such craftes can, is oft cleped to counsell,
They lead lords with leasinges, and belieth truth
Job the gentel in his gestes, greatly wytnesseth
That wicked men welden the wealth of this world
The psalter sayeth the same, by such as done evyl
Ecce ipsi peccatores habundantes in seculo obtinuerunt divitias.
Lo sayth holy lecture, which lords be these shrewes?
Thilke that god geveth most, lest good they dealeth
And most unkind be to that comen, that most catel weldeth
Commands.
.
Que perfecisti destruxerunt, justus autem &c.
Harlots for her harlotrye, maye have of her goodes
And japers and judgelers
Jugglers.
, and jangelers of jestes
And he that hath holy wryte, aye in his mouth
And can tell of Tobie, and of the twelve apostles
Or preache of the penauce, that Pilate falsely wrought
To Jesu the gentle, that Jewes to drawe:
Lyttle is he loved, that suche a lesson sheweth
Or daunten or drawe forth, I do it on god him selfe
But tho
They.
that faine hem foles, and with fayting
Deceiving.
liveth
Againe the lawe of our lorde, and lien on hem selfe
Spitten and spuen, and speake foule wordes
Drynken and drivelen, and do men for to gape
Lyken men, and lye on hem, and leneth hem no giftes
They can
Know.
no more minstrelsy ne musyke men to glad
Than Mundie the milner, of multa fecit deus.
Ne were hir vyle harlotry, have god my trouth
Shoulde never kynge ne knyght, ne canon of Poules
Gyve hem to her yeres gyfte, ne gyft of a grote,
And myrth and minstrelsy amongest men is nought
Lechery, losenchery
Lying.
, and losels tales,
Glotony and greate othes, this mirthe they loveth,
And if thei carpen
Speak.
of Christ, these clerkes and these lewed.
And they meet in her mirth, whan mynstrels ben styll
Whan telleth they of the trinitie, a tale or twaine
And bringeth forth a blade reason, and take Bernard
S. Bernard.
to witnes
And put forth a presumption to preve the soth
Thus they dreveil at her dayse
Their table.
the deitie to scorn
And gnawen God to hyr gorge
Throat.
whan hyr guts fallen
And the carfull
Poor.
may crye, and carpen at the gate
Both a fyngerd and a furste, and for chel
Cold.
quake
Is none to nymen hem nere, his noye
Trouble.
to amend
But hunten hym as a hounde, and hoten hym go hence,
Litle loveth he that lorde that lent hym all that blisse,
That thus parteth withe pore, a percel whan him nedeth
Ne were mercy in mean men, more than in rich
Mendynauntes meatles
Beggars supperless.
, myght go to bedde.
God is much in the gorge of these greate maisters,
And amonges meane men, his mercy and hys worckes
And so sayeth the psalter, I have sene it oft.
Clarkes and other kinnes men, carpen of god fast
And have him much in the mouth, and meane men in hert
Friers and fayters, have founden such questions
To plese wyth the proud men, sith the pestilence time
And preachen at S. Paules, for pure envi of clarks
That folke is not firmed in the faythe, ne fre of her goodes
Ne sory for her synnes, so is pryde waxen,
In religion, and in al the realme, amongest rich and pore
That prayers have no pore, the pestilence to lette
And yet the wretches of this worlde, are none ware by other
Ne for dreade of the death, withdraw not her prid
Ne ben plentuous to the pore, as pure charitie wold
But in gaines and in glotony, forglote goods hem selfe
And breketh not to the begger, as the boke teacheth.
And the more he wynneth, and wexeth welthy in riches
And lordeth in landes, the lesse good he dealeth
Tobie telleth ye not so, takehede ye ryche
Howe the byble boke of hym beareth wytnes,
Who so hath much spend manly, so meaneth Tobit
And who so lytle weldeth, rule hym thereafter,
For we have no letter of our life, how long it shal endure
Suche lessons lordes, shoulde love to heare
And how he myght most meyny, manlych fynde
Not to fare as a fideler, or a frier to seke feastes,
Homely at other mens houses, and haten her owne.
Elenge
Strange, deserted. Henry the eighth in a letter to Anne Bullen, speaks of his
Ellengness
since her departure. Hearne's Avesb. p. 260.
is the hal every day in the weke
There the lorde ne the lady lyketh not to sytte
Nowe hath eche ryche a rule
Custom.
, to eaten by hem selfe
In a privie parler, for poore mens sake
Or in chambre wyth a chymney, and leave the chiefe hal
That was made for meales, men to eate in.—
And whan that Wytte was ware, what dame Studie told
He became so confuse he cunneth not loke
And as dombe as death, and drew him arere
Back.
And for no carping I cold after, ne kneling to therth
I myght get no grayne, of his grete wyttis
But al laughynge he louted, and loked upon Study
In sygne that I shulde, besechen hyr of grace
And when I was war of his wil, to his wife I loutid
And sayde mercie madame, your man shal I worth
As longe as I live both late and earlie
For to worchen your wil, the whyle mi life endureth
With this that ye ken me kindlye, to know to what is DOWEL
For thi mekenes man quod she, and for thi milde spech
I shal ken the to my cosen, that Clergye is hoten
Named.
He hath weddyd a wyfe, within these syx moneths
Is syb
Mother.
to the seven artes, Scripture is hyr name
They two as I hope, after my teachinge
Shal wishen the Dowel, I dare under take.
Than was I as fayne
Chearful.
, as foule
Bird.
of fayr morow
And glader then the gleman
Harper.
that gold
hath to gyfte
And asked hir the high way where that Clergie
Learning.
dwelt
And tellme some token quod I, for tyme is that I wend
Aske the hygh waye quod she, hence to suffer
Both wel and woo, if that thou wylt learne
And ryde forthe by riches, and rest thou not therin,
For if thou couplest ye therwith to clergie comest thou never,
And also the licores lande that lechery hight
Leav
it on thy left half, a large mile and more,
Tyll thou come to a courte, kepe well thy tonge
Fro leasinges and lyther speach
Wanton.
, and licorous drinckes
Than shalt thou se Sobrietie, and Simplicitie of speche
That ech might be in his wyll, hys wytte to shewe
And thus shalt ye come to Cleargye that can mani thinges
Saye hym thys signe, I sette him to schole
And that I grete wel his wife, for I wrot her many bokes
And set hir to Sapience, and to the psalter glose
Logike I learned her, and manye other lawes,
And all the unisons to musike, I made hir to know,
Plato the poete, I put hem firste to boke,
Aristotle and other moe, to argue I taught
Grammer for gyrles, I garde firste to wryte
And beat hem with a bales, but if they would learne
Of all kinnes craftes, I contrived tooles
Of carpentre of carvers, and compassed masons
And learned hem level and line, though I loke dimme
And Theologie hath tened me, seven score times,
The more I muse therin, the mistier it semeth
And the deper I devine, the darker me it thynketh.
The artifices and persuasions of the monks to procure donations to their convents, are thus humorously ridiculed, in a strain which seems to have given rise to Chaucer's SOMPNOUR'S TALE.
Than he assoyled her sone, and sithen he sayde:
We have a windowe in working, wil set us ful high,
Woudst thou glase the gable, and grave therin thy name,
Scher shoulde thy soule be heven to have
fol. xii. a. b. These, and the following lines, are plainly copied by Chaucer, viz.
And I shall cover your kyrke, and your cloisture do maken.
Chaucer, Sompn. T. p. 93. v. 835. edit. Urr.
But with new strokes of humour.
Yeve me then of thy golde to make our cloyster,
Quod he, for many a muscle and many an oyster,
Whan othir men have been full well at ease,
Have ben our fode our cloyster for to reyse.
And yet, god wote, unnethe the fundament
Parfourmid is, ne of our pavement
Thar is not yet a tile within our wones,
Bigod, we owe fourtie pound for stones.
So also in the PLOUGHMAN'S CREDE, hereafter mentioned. Sign. B. iii. A friar says,
So that thou mow amende our house with money other els
With som catal, other corn or cuppes of sylvere.
And again, Sign. A. iii. ibid.
And mightest on amenden as with money of thine own,
Thou sholdest knely bifore Christ in compas of gold,
In the wide wyndowe westward, wel nigh in the midel.
That is,
"your figure shall be painted in glass, in the middle of the west window, &c."
But of this passage hereafter.
, &c.
COVETISE or Covetousness, is thus drawn in the true colours of satirical painting.
And then came COVETIS, can I him no discrive,
So hungerly and hollowe, so sternely he loked,
He was bittle-browed and baberlypped also;
Wyth two blered eyen as a blinde hagge,
And as a lethren purse lolled his chekes,
Well syder than his chyn they shevered for colde:
And as a bound man of his bacon his berd was bidrauled,
With a hode on his heade, and a lousy hatte above.
And in a tawny taberde
Tabard. A coat.
, of twelve winter age,
Alle torne and baudye, and full of lyce creepinge;
But that yf a louse could have lepen the better,
She had not walked on the welte, so was it thredbare.
I have been Covetise, quoth this catife,
For sometime I servid Symme at style,
And was hys prentice plight, his profyt to wate.
Fyrst I lernid to lye, a leef other twayne
Wychedly to way, was my first lesson:
To Wy and to Winchester
Antiently, before many flourishing towns were established, and the necessaries or ornaments of life, from the convenience of communication and the encrease of provincial civility, could be procured in various places, goods and commodities of every kind, were chiefly sold at fairs; to which, as to one universal mart, the people resorted periodically, and supplied most of their wants for the ensuing year. The display of merchandise, and the conflux of customers, at these principal and almost only emporia of domestic commerce, was prodigious: and they were therefore often held on open and extensive plains. One of the chief of them seems to have been that of St. Giles's hill or down near Winchester, to which our poet here refers. It was instituted and given as a kind of revenue to the bishop of Winchester, by William the conqueror; who by his charter permitted it to continue for three days. But in consequence of new royal grants, Henry the third prolonged its continuance to sixteen days. Its jurisdiction extended seven miles round, and comprehended even Southampton, then a capital trading town: and all merchants who sold wares within that circuit, forfeited them to the bishop. Officers were placed at a considerable distance, at bridges and other avenues of access to the fair, to exact toll of all merchandise passing that way. In the mean time, all shops in the city of Winchester were shut. In the fair was a court called the pavilion, at which the bishop's justiciaries and other officers assisted, with power to try causes of v
rious sorts for seven miles round: nor among other singular claims could any lord of a manor hold a court-baron within the said circuit, without licence from the pavilion. During this time, the bishop was empowered to take toll of
very load or parcel of goods passing through the gates of the city. On Saint Giles's eve, the mayor, bailiffs, and citizens of the city of Winchester, delivered the keys of the four city gates to the bishop's officers; who, during the said sixteen days, appointed a mayor and bailiff of their own to govern the city, and also a coroner to act within the said city. Tenants of the bishop, who held lands by doing service at the pavilion, attended the same with horses and armour, not only to do suit at the court there, but to be ready to assist the bishop's officers in the execution of writs and other services. But I cannot here enumerate the many extraordinary privileges granted to the bishop on this occasion; all tending to obstruct trade, and to oppress the people. Numerous foreign merchants frequented this fair: and it appears, that the justiciaries of the pavilion, and the treasurer of the bishop's palace of Wolvesey, received annually for a fee, according to antient custom, four basons and ewers, of those foreign merchants who sold brasen vessels in the fair, and were called
mercat
res diaunteres.
In the fair several streets were formed, assigned to the sale of different commodities; and called the
Drap
ry,
the
Pottery,
the
Spicery,
&c. Many monasteries, in and about Winchester, had shops, or houses, in these streets, used only at the fair, which they held under the bishop, and often lett by lease for a term of years. One place in the fair was called
Speciarium San
i
wythini,
or
the Spicery of Saint Swithin's monastery.
In the revenue-rolls of the antient bishops of Winchester, this fair makes a grand and separate article of reception, under this title. FERIA.
Computus
iae sancti Egidii.
But in the revenue-roll of bishop Will. of Waynflet
, [an. 1471.] it appears to have greatly decayed: in which, among other proofs, I find mention made of a district in the fair being unoccupied,
"Ubi homines Cornubiae stare solebant."
From whence it likewise appears that different counties had their different stations. The whole reception to the bishop this year from the fair, amoun
ed only to 45
l.
18
s.
5
d.
Yet this sum, small as it may seem, was worth upwards of 400
l.
Edward the first sent a precept to the sheriff of Hampshire, to restore to the bishop this fair; which his escheator Malcolm de Harlegh had seized into the king's hands, without command of the treasurer and barons of the exchequer, in the year 1292. Registr. Joh. de Pontissara, Episc. Wint. fol. 195. After the charter of Henry the third, many kings by charter confirmed this fair, with all its privileges, to the bishops of Winchester. The last charter was of Henry the eighth to bishop Richard Fox and his successors, in the year 1511. But it was followed by the usual confirmation-charter of Charles the second. In the year 1144, when Brian Fitz-count, lord of Wallingford in Berkshire, maintained Walling
ord castle, one of the strongest garrisons belonging to Maud the empress, and consequently sent out numerous parties for contributions and provisions, Henry de Blois bishop of Winchester enjoined him not to molest any passengers that were coming to his fair at Winchester, under pain of excommunication.
Omnibus ad
FERIAM MEAM
ve
entibus,
&c. MSS. Dodsworth. vol. 89. f. 76. Bibl. Bodl. This was in king Stephen's reign. In that of Richard the first, in the year 1194, the king grants to Portsmouth a fair lasting for
fteen days, with all the privileges of Saint Giles's fair at Winchester. Anders. Hist. Com. i. 197. In the year 1234, the eighteenth of Henry the second, the fermier of the city of Winchester paid twenty pounds to Ailward chamberlain of Winchester castle, to buy a robe at this fair for the king's son, and divers silver implements for a chapel in the castle. Madox, Exch. p. 251. It appears from a curious record now remaining, containing
The Estab
ishment and Expences of the houshold
of Henry Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, in the year 1512, and printed by doctor Percy, that the stores of his lordship's house at Wresille, for the whole year, were laid in from fairs.
"He that standes charged with my lordes house for the houll yeir, if he may possible,
shall be at all
FAIRES where the groice emptions shall be boughte for the house for the houlle yeire, as wine, wax, beiffes, multons, wheite, and maltie."
p. 407. This last quotation is a proof, that fairs still continued to be the principal marts for purchasing necessaries in large quantities, which now are supplied by frequent trading towns: and the mention of
beiffes
and
ultons,
which were salted oxen and sheep, shews that at so late a period they knew but little of breeding cattle. Their ignorance of so important an article of husbandry, is also an evidence, that in the reign of Henry the eighth the state of population was much lower among us than we may imagine.
In the statutes of Saint Mary Ottery's college in Devonshire, given by bishop Grandison the founder, the stewards and sacrist are ordered to purch
se annually two hundred pounds of wax for the choir of the college, at this fair.
"Cap. lxvii.—Pro luminaribus vero omnibus supradictis inveniendis, etiam statuimus, quod senescalli scaccarii per visum et auxilium sacriste, omni anno, in NUNDINIS WYNTON, vel alibi apud Toryngton et in partibus Barnstepol, ceram sufficientem, quam ad ducentas libras aestimamus pro uno anno ad minus, faciant provideri."
These statutes were granted in the year 1338. MS. apud Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin. Winton. In Archiv. Wolves. In the accompts of the Priories of Maxtoke in Warwickshire, and of Bicester in Oxfordshire, under the reign of Henry the sixth, the monks appear to have laid in yearly stores of various yet common necessaries, at the fair of Sturbridge in Cambridgeshire, at least one hundred miles distant from either monastery. It may seem surprising, that their own neighbourhood, including the cities of Oxford and Coventry, could not supply them with commodities neither rare nor costly, which they thus fetched at a considerable expence of carriage. It is a rubric in some o
the monastic rules,
De Euntibus ad Nundinas.
See Dugd. Mon. Angl. ii. p. 746. It is hoped the reader will excuse this tedious note, which at least developes antient manners and customs.
I went to the fayre
With mani manner merchandise, as mi master me hight.—
Than drave I me among drapers my donet
Lesson. Properly a
Grammar,
from
Aelius Donatus
the grammarian. Chaucer, Testam. L. p. 504. b. edit. Urr.
"No passe
to vertues of this Margarite, but therin al my
donet
can I lerne."
In the statutes of Winchester-college, [written about 1386,] grammar is called
"Antiquus donatus,"
i. e. the
old donat,
or the name of a system of grammar at that time in vogue, and long before. The French have a book entitled
"
LE DONNET,
traité de grammaire, baillé a feu roi Charles
viii.
"
Among Rawlinson's manuscripts at Oxford, I have seen
Donatus optimus noviter compilatus,
a manuscript on vellom, given to Saint Alban's, by John Stoke, abbot, in 1450. In the introduction, or
lytell Proheme,
to Dean Colet's GRAMMATICES RUDIMENTA, we find mention made of
"certayne introducyons into latyn speche called
Donates,
&c."
Among the books written by bishop Pecock, there is the DONAT
into christian religion,
and the
Folower to the
DONAT. Lewis's PECOCK, p. 317. I think I have before observed, that John of Basing, who flourished in the year 1240, calls his Greek Grammar DONATUS GRAECORUM. Pegge's WESEHAM, p. 51. Wynkyn de Worde printed DONATUS
ad Anglicanarum scholarum usum.
Cotgrave (in V.) quotes an old French proverb,
"
Les diables estoient encores
a leur
DONAT,
The devils were but yet in their grammar."
to lerne.
To drawe the lyfer along, the longer it semed
Among the rich rayes, &c
fol. xxiii. a. b.
.
Our author, who probably could not get preferment, thus inveighs against the luxury and diversions of the prelates of his age.
And now is religion a rider, a romer by the streete,
A leader of lovedayes
Levadies. Ladies.
and a loude
Lewd.
b
ggar,
A prick
r on a palfrey from maner to maner,
An heape of hound
s at his arse as he a lord were
Walter de Suffield, bishop of Norwich, bequeathes by will his pack of hounds to the king, in 1256. Blome
ield's Norf. ii. 347. See Chauc
r's Monke, Prol. v. 165. This was a common topic of satire. It occurs again, fol. xxvii. a. See Chaucer's TESTAMENT OF LOVE, p. 492. col. ii. Urr. The archd
acon o
Ri
hmond, on his visitation, com
s to the pricr
of Bridlington in Yorkshire, in 1216, with nin
tys
ven horses, twenty-on
dogs, and three hawks, Dugd. Mon. ii. 65.
.
And yf but his knave knele, that shall hys cope bryng,
He loured on hym, and asked who taught hym curtesye
Fol. l. a. The following prediction, although a probable conclusion, concerning a king, who after a time would suppress the rel
gious houses, is remarkable. I imagined it was foisted into the copies, in the reign of king Henry the eighth. But it is in manuscripts of this poem older than the year 1400. fol. l. a. b.
And THER SHALL COME A KING, and confesse your religions,
And bete you as the bible telleth, for breking of your rule:
And amende moniales, monkes and chanoines.—
And then
ri
rs in her freytor shall fynd a key
Of Constantynes coffers, in which is the catal
That Gregories godchyldren had it dispended.
And than shall the abot of Abingdon, a
d all his issue for ever,
HAVE a KNOCKE of a KING, and INCURABLE THE WOUND.
Again, fol. lxxxv. a. Where he alludes to the knights-templers, lately suppressed.
—Men of holie kirke
Shall turne as templars did,
the tyme approcheth nere.
This, I suppose, was a favourite doctrine in Wickliffe's discourses. I cannot help taking notice of a passage in Piers Plowman, which shews how the reigning passion for chivalry infected the ideas and expressions of the writers of this period. The poet is describing the crucifixion, and speaking of the person who pierced our Saviour's side with a spear. This person our author calls
a knight,
and says that he came forth,
"with his spere in hand, and j
sted with Jesus."
Afterwards for doing so base an act as that of wounding a dead body, he is pronounced a disgrace to
knighthood:
and our
"Champion chevaler c
se knyght"
is ordered to
yield
himself
recreant.
fol. lxxxviii. b. This knight's name is Longis, and he is blind: but receives his sight from the blood which springs from our Saviour's side. This miracle is recorded in the GOLDEN LEGENDE. He is called Longias,
"A blinde knight men ycallid Longias,"
in
Chaucer,
Lam. Mar. Magd.
v. 177.
.
There is great picturesque humour in the following lines.
HUNGER in hest tho hent wastour by the maw,
And wrong him so by the wombe that both his eies watered:
He buffeted the breton about the chekes
That he loked lyke a lanterne al his life after
fol. xxiii. b.
.
And in the following, where the Vices are represented as converted and coming to confession, among which is the figure of Envy.
Of a freres froke were the fore sleves,
And as a l
ke that hath lied long in the sunne
So looked he with leane chekes, lowering foule
l. xlii. a.
.
It would be tedious to transcribe other strokes of humour with which this poem abounds. Before one of the Visions the poet falls asleep while he is bidding his beads.
n another he describes Antichrist, whose banner is borne by Pride, as welcomed into a monastery with ringing of bells, and a solemn congratulatory procession of all the monks marching out to meet and receive him
f
l. cxii. a.
.
These images of mercy and truth are in a different strain.
Out of the west cost, a wenche as me thought,
Come walking in the way, to hevnward she loked;
Mercy hight that mayde, a meke thyng withall,
A full benigne byrde, and buxome of speech;
Hyr syster, as yt seemed, came worthily walking,
Even out of theste, and westward she loked,
A ful comely creature, Truth she hyght,
For the vertue that her folowed afered was she never.
When these maydens mette, Mercy and Truth,
Eyther asked other of this gret marvel,
Of the din and of the darknes, &c
fol. lxxxviii. b.
.
The imagery of Nature, or KINDE, sending forth his diseases from the planets, at the command of CONSCIENCE, and of his attendants AGE and DEATH, is conceived with sublimity.
KYNDE CONSCIENCE then heard, and came out of the planetts,
And sent forth his forriours Fevers, and Fluxes,
Coughes, and Cardiacles, Crampes, and Toth-aches,
Reumes, and Radgondes, and raynous Scalles,
Byles, and Botches, and burnynge Agues,
Freneses and foule Evill, foragers of KYNDE!
Ther was "Harowe! and Helpe! here cometh KYNDE!
"With Death that is dreadfull, to undo us all!"
The lord that lyveth after lust tho aloud cried.—
Age the hoore, he was in the vaw-ward,
And bare the banner before Death: by ryght he it claimed.
KYNDE came after, with many kene sores,
As Pockes and Pestilences, and much people shent.
So KYNDE through corruptions, kylled full many:
DEATH came dryvyng after, and all to dust pashed
Kyngs and Kaysers, knightes and popes.
Many a lovely lady, and lemman of knightes,
Swoned and swelted for sorowe of DEATH'S dyntes.
CONSCIENCE, of his curtesye, to KYNDE he besoght
To cease and sufire, and se where they wolde
Leave Pride prively, and be perfite christen,
And KYNDE ceased tho, to see the people amende
fol. cxiii. a.
.
These lines at least put us in mind of Milton's Lazarhouse
Par. L. ii. 475.
.
..... Immediately a place
Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark:
A lazar-house it seem'd, wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseas'd: all maladies
Of gastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms
Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestine stone, and ulcer, cholic pangs,
Demoniac phrenzy, moping melancholy,
And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy,
Marasmus, and wide-wasting Pestilence:
Dropsies and asthma, and joint-racking rheum.
Dire was the Tossing! Deep the groans! DESPAIR
Tended the sick, busy from couch to couch;
And over them triumphant DEATH his dart
Shook, but delay'd to strike, &c.
At length FORTUNE or PRIDE sends forth a numerous army led by LUST, to attack CONSCIENCE.
And gadered a greate hoste, all agayne CONSCIENCE:
This LECHERY led on, with a laughyng chere,
And with a privye speeche, and paynted wordes,
And armed him in idleness and in high bearyng.
He bare a bowe in his hand, and many bloudy arrowes,
Were fethered with faire behest, and many a false truth
Ibid.
.
Afterwards CONSCIENCE is besieged by Antichrist, and seven great giants, who are the seven capital or deadly sins: and the assault is made by SLOTH, who conducts an army of more than a thousand prelates.
It is not improbable, that Longland here had his eye on the old French ROMAN D' ANTECHRIST, a poem written by Huon de Meri, about the year 1228. The author of this piece supposes that Antichrist is on earth, that he visits every profession and order of life, and finds numerous partisans. The VICES arrange themselves under the banner of ANTECHRIST, and the VIRTUES under that of CHRIST. These two armies at length come to an engagement, and the battle ends to the honour of the Virtues, and th
total defeat of the Vices. The BANNER OF ANTICHRIST has before occurred in our quotations from Longland. The title of Huon de Meri's poem deserves notice. It is TURNOYEMENT DE L' ANTECHRIST. These are the concluding lines.
Par son droit nom a peau cet livre
Qui tresbien s' avorde a l' escrit
Le
Tournoiement de l' Antechrist.
The author appears to have been a monk of St. Germain des Pres, near Paris. This allegory is much like that which we find in the old dramatic MORALITIES. The theology of the middle ages abounded with conjectures and controversies concerning Antichrist, who at a very early period was commonly believed to be the Roman pontiff
See this topic discussed with singular penetration and perspicuity, by doctor Hurd, in TWELVE SERMONS INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY OF THE PROPHECIES. Lond. 1772. p. 206. seq.
.
SECT. IX.
TO the VISION OF PIERCE PLOWMAN has been commonly annexed a poem called PIERCE THE PLOWMAN'S CREDE, and which may properly be considered as its appendage
The first edition is by R. Wolfe, London, 1553. 4to . In four sheets. It was reprinted, and added to Rogers's, or the fourth edition of the
Vision,
1561. It was evidently written after the year 1384. Wickliffe died in that year, and he is mentioned as no longer living in Signat. C. ii. edit. 1561. Walter Britte or Brit
e, a follower of Wickliffe, is also mentioned, Signat. C. iii. Britte is placed by Bale in 1390. Cent. vi. 94. See also Fuller's Worth. p. 8.
Wales.
The reader will pardon this small anticipation for the sake of connection.
. It is professedly written in imitation of our VISION, but by a different hand. The author, in the character of a plain uninformed person, pretends to be ignorant of his creed; to be instructed in the articles of which, he applies by turns to the four orders of mendicant friers. This circumstance affords an obvious occasion of exposing in lively colours the tricks of those societies. After so unexpected a disappointment, he meets one Pierce, or Peter, a plowman, who resolves his doubts, and teaches him the principles of true religion. In a copy of the CREDE lately presented to me by the bishop of Gloucester, and once belonging to Mr. Pope, the latter in his own hand has inserted the following abstract of its plan.
"An ignorant plain man having learned his Pater-noster and Ave-mary, wants to learn his creed. He asks several religious men of the several orders to teach it him. First of a friar Minor, who bids him beware of the Carmelites, and assures him they can teach him nothing, describing their faults, &c. But that the friars Minors shall save him, whether he learns his creed or not. He goes next to the friars Preachers, whose magnificent monastery he describes: there he meets a fat friar, who declaims against the Augustines. He is shocked at his pride, and goes to the Augustines. They rail at the Minorites. He goes to the Carmes; they abuse the Dominicans, but promise him salvation, without the creed, for money. He leaves them with indignation, and finds an honest poor PLOWMAN in the field, and tells him how he was disappointed by the four orders. The plowman answers with a long invective against them."
The language of the CREDE is less embarrassed and obscure than that of the VISION. But before I proceed to a specimen, it may not be perhaps improper to prepare the reader, by giving an outline of the constitution and character of the four orders of mendicant friars, the object of our poet's satire: an enquiry in many respects connected with the general purport of this history, and which, in this place at least, cannot be deemed a digression, as it will illustrate the main subject, and explain many particular passages, of the PLOWMAN'S CREDE
And of some perhaps quoted above from the VISION.
.
Long before the thirteenth century, the monastic orders, as we have partly seen in the preceding poem, in consequence of their ample revenues, had degenerated from their primitive austerity, and were totally given up to luxury and indolence. Hence they became both unwilling and unable to execute the purposes of their establishment: to instruct the people, to check the growth of heresies, or to promote in any respect the true interests of the church. They forsook all their religious obligations, despised the authority of their superiors, and were abandoned without shame or remorse to every species of dissipation and licentiousness. About the beginning therefore of the thirteenth century, the condition and circumstances of the church rendered it absolutely necessary to remedy these evils, by introducing a new order of religious, who being destitute of fixed possessions, by the severity of their manners, a professed contempt of riches, and an unwearied perseverance in the duties of preaching and prayer, might restore respect to the monastic institution, and recover the honours of the church. These were the four orders of mendicant or begging friars, commonly denominated the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, and the Augustines
The Franciscans were often styled friars-minors, or minorites, and greyfriars: the Dominicans, friars-preachers, and sometimes black-friars: The Carmelites white-friars; and the Austins greyfriars. The first establishment of the Dominicans in England was at Oxford in 1221. Of the Franciscans at Canterbury. These two were the most eminent of the four orders. The Dominican friary at Oxford stood in an island on the south of the city, south-west of the Franciscan friary, the site of which is hereafter described.
.
These societies soon surpassed all the rest, not only in the purity of their lives, but in the number of their privileges, and the multitude of their members. Not to mention the success which attends all novelties, their reputation arose quickly to an amazing height. The popes, among other uncommon immunities, allowed them the liberty of travelling wherever they pleased, of conversing with persons of all ranks, of instructing the youth and the people in general, and of hearing confessions, without reserve or restriction: and as on these occasions, which gave them opportunities of appearing in public and conspicuous situations, they exhibited more striking marks of gravity and sanctity than were observable in the deportment and conduct of the members of other monasteries, they were regarded with the highest esteem and veneration throughout all the countries of Europe.
In the mean time they gained still greater respect, by cultivating the literature then in vogue, with the greatest assiduity and success. Gianoni says, that most of the theological professors in the university of Naples, newly founded in the year 1220, were chosen from the mendicants
Hist. Nap. xvi. 3.
. They were the principal teachers of theology at Paris, the school where this science had received its origin
See Boul. Hist. Academ. Paris. iii. p. 138. 240. 244. 248, &c.
. At Oxford and Cambridge respectively, all the four orders had flourishing monasteries. The most learned scholars in the university of Oxford, at the close of the thirteenth century, were Franciscan friars: and long after this period, the Franciscans appear to have been the sole support and ornament of that university
This circumstance in some degree roused the monks from their indolence, and induced the greater monasteries to procure the foundation of small colleges in the universities for the education of their novices. At Oxford the monks had also schools which bore the name of their respective orders: and there were schools in that university which were appropriated to particular monasteries. Kennet's Paroch. Ant. p. 214. Wood, Hist. Ant. Univ. Oxon. i. 119. Leland says, that even in his time,
t Stamford, a temporary university, the names of halls inhabited by the novices of Peterborough, Sempringham, and Vauldrey abbies, were remaining. Itin. vi. p. 21. And it appears, that the greater part of the proceeders in theology at Oxford and Cambridge, just before the reformation, were monks. But we do not find, that in consequence of all these efforts, the monks made a much greater figure in literature.
In this rivalry which subsisted between the mendicants and the monks, the latter sometimes availed themselves of their riches: and with a view to attract popularity, and to eclipse the growing lustre of the former, proceeded to their degrees in the universities with prodigious parade. In the year 1298, William de Brooke, a Benedictine of Saint Peter's abbey at Gloucester, took the degree of doctor in divinity at Oxford. He was attended on this important occasion by the abbot and whole convent of Gloucester, the abbots of Westminster, Reading, Abingdon, Evesham, and Malmesbury, with one hundred noblemen and esquires, on horses richly caparisoned. These were entertained at a sumptuous feast in the refectory of Gloucester college. But it should be observed, that he was the first of the Benedictine order that attained this dignity. Wood, Hist. Ant. Univ. Oxon. i. 25. col. 1. See also Stevens, Mon. 1. 70.
. Hence it was that bishop Hugh de Balsham, founder of Peter-house at Cambridge, orders in his statutes given about the year 1280, that some of his scholars should annually repair to Oxford for improvement in the sciences
"De scholaribus emittendis ad universitatem Oxonie pro doctrina."
Cap. xviii.
. That is, to study under the Franciscan readers. Such was the eminence of the Franciscan friary at Oxford, that the learned bishop Grosthead, in the year 1253, bequeathed all his books to that celebrated seminary
Leland. Script. Brit. p. 283. This house stood just without the city walls, near Little-gate. The garden called
Paradise
was their grove or orchard.
. This was the house in which the renowned Roger Bacon was educated; who revived, in the midst of barbarism, and brought to a considerable degree of perfection the knowledge of mathematics in England, and greatly facilitated many modern discoveries in experimental philosophy
It is probable, that the treatises of many of Bacon's scholars and followers, collected by Thomas Allen in the reign of James the first, still remain among the manuscripts of Sir Kenelm Digby in the Bodleian library.
. The same fraternity is likewise said to have stored their valuable library with a multitude of Hebrew manuscrips, which they purchased of the Jews on their banishment from England
Wood, ubi supr. 1. 77. col. 2.
. Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, author of PHILOBIBLON, and the founder of a library at Oxford, is prolix in his praises of the mendicants for their extraordinary diligence in collecting books
Philobibl. cap. v. This book was written, 1344.
. Indeed it became difficult in the beginning of the fourteenth century to find any treatise in the arts, theology, or canon law, commonly exposed to sale: they were all universally bought up by the friars
Yet I find a decree made at Oxford, where these orders of friars flourished so greatly, in the year 1373, to check the
excessive multitude
of persons selling books in the university without licence. Vet. Stat. Univ. Oxon. D. fol. 75. Archiv. Bodl.
. This is mentioned by Richard Fitzralph, archbishop of Armagh, in his discourse before the pope at Avignon in 1357, their bitter and professed antagonist; who adds, without any intention of paying them a compliment, that all the mendicant convents were furnished with a
"grandis et nobilis libraria
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Propositio coram papa, &c. And MSS. C. C. C. Oxon. 182. Propositio coram, &c. S
e a translation of this Sermon by Trevisa, MSS. Harl. 1900. fol. Pergam. 2. See f. 11. See also Browne's append. Fascic. Rer. expetend. fugiend. ii. p. 466. I believe this discourse has been printed twice or thrice at Paris. In which, says the archbishop, there were thirty thousand scholars at Oxford in my youth, but now (1357,) scarce six thousand. At Bennet in Cambridge, there is a curious manuscript of one of Fitzrauf's Sermons, in the first leaf of which there is a drawing of four devils, hugging four mendi
ant friars, one of each of the four orders, with great familiarity and aff
ction. MSS. L. 16. This book belonged to Adam Eston, a very learned Benedictine of Norwich, and a witness against Wickliffe at Rome, where he lived the greatest part of his life, in 1370.
."
Sir Richard Whittington built the library of the Grey Friars in London, which was one hundred and twenty-nine feet long, and twelve broad, with twenty-eight desks
Stowe's Surv. Lond. p. 255. edit. 1599.
. About the year 1430, one hundred marks were paid for transcribing the profound Nicholas de Lyra, in two volumes, to be chained in this library
Stowe, ibid. p. 256. Stevens, Monast. i. 112.
. Leland relates, that John Wallden, a learned Carmelite, bequeathed to the same library as many manuscripts of approved authors, written in capital roman characters, as were then estimated at more than two thousand pieces of gold
Aurei.
. He adds, that this library, even in his time, exceeded all others in London for multitude of books and antiquity of copies
Script. Brit. p. 441. And Collectan. iii. p. 52.
. Among many other instances which might be given of the learning of the mendicants, there is one which greatly contributed to establish their literary character. In the eleventh century, Aristotle's philosophy had been condemned in the university of Paris as heretical. About a hundred years afterwards, these prejudices began to subside; and new translations of Aristotle's writings were published in Latin by our countryman Michael Scotus, and others, with more attention to the original Greek, at least without the pompous and perplexed circumlocutions which appeared in the Arabic versions hitherto used. In the mean time the mendicant orders sprung up: who happily availing themselves of these new translations, and making them the constant subject of their scholastic lectures, were the first who revived the doctrines of this philosopher, and acquired the merit of having opened a new system of science
See Joann. Laun. de varia Aristotel. Fortun. in Acad. Paris. p. 78. edit. Paris. 1662.
. The Dominicans of Spain were accomplished adepts in the learning and language of the Arabians; and were employed by the kings of Spain in the instruction and conversion of the numerous Jews and Saracens who resided in their dominions
R. Simon's Lett. Choif. tom. iii. p. 112. They studied the arts of popular entertainment. The mendi
ants, I believe, were the only religious in England who acted pl
ys. The CREATION OF THE WORLD, annually performed by the Grey sriars at Coventry, is still extant. See supr. p. 92. 243. And they seem to have been famous abroad for these exhibitions. Gualva
ei de la Flamma, who flourished about the year 1340, has the following curious passage in his chronicle of the VICECOMITES of Milan, publi
hed by Muratori. In the year 1336, says he, on the feast of Epiph
ny, the first feast of the three kings was celebrated at Milan, by the convent of the friars preachers. The three kings appeared crowned on three great horses, r
chly habited, surrounded by pages, body-guards, and an innumerable retinue. A golden star was exhibited in the sky, going before them. They proceeded to the pillars of S. Lawrence, where king H
rod was represented with his s
ribes and wise-men. The three kings ask Herod where Christ should be born: and his wisemen having consulted their books, answer him at Bethlehem. On which, the three kings with their golden crowns, having in their hands golden cups filled with frankincense, myrrh, and gold, the star still going before, marched to the church of S. Eustorgius, with all their attendants; preceeded by trumpets and horns, apes, baboons, and a great variety of animals. In the church, on one side of the high altar, there was a manger with an ox and an ass, and in it the infant Christ in the arms of his mother. Here the three kings offer their gifts, &c. The concourse of the people, of knights, ladi
s, and ec
l
iastics, was such as never before was beheld, &c. Rer. Italic. S
riptor. tom. xii. col. 1017. D. fol. Mediolan. 1728. Compare p. 249. supr. This feast in the ritual is called
he feast of the Star.
Joann. Episcop. Abrin
. de Offic. Eccl. p. 30.
.
The buildings of the mendicant monasteries, especially in England, were remarkably magnificent, and commonly much exceeded those of the endowed convents of the second magnitude. As these fraternities were professedly poor, and could not from their original institution receive estates, the munificence of their benefactors was employed in adorning their houses with stately refectories and churches: and for these and other purposes they did nor want address to procure multitudes of patrons, which was facilitated by the notion of their superior sanctity. It was fashionable for persons of the highest rank to bequeath their bodies to be buried in the friary churches, which were consequently filled with sumptuous shrines and superb monuments
Their churches were esteemed more sacred than others.
. In the noble church of the Grey friars in London, finished in the year 1325, but long since destroyed, four queens, besides upwards of six hundred persons of quality, were buried, whose beautiful tombs remained till the dissolution
Weav. Fun. Mon. p. 388.
. These interments imported considerable sums of money into the mendicant societies. It is probable that they derived more benefit from casual charity, than they would have gained from a regular endowment. The Franciscans indeed enjoyed from the popes the privilege of distributing indulgences, a valuable indemnification for their voluntary poverty
See Baluz. Miscellan. tom. iv. 490. vii. 392.
.
On the whole, two of these mendicant institutions, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, for the space of near three centuries, appear to have governed the European church and state with an absolute and universal sway: they filled, during that period, the most eminent ecclesiastical and civil stations, taught in the universities with an authority which silenced all opposition, and maintained the disputed prerogative of the Roman pontiff against the united influence of prelates and kings, with a vigour only to be paralleled by its success. The Dominicans and Franciscans were, before the Reformation, exactly what the Jesuits have been since. They disregarded their monastic character and profession, and were employed, not only in spiritual matters, but in temporal affairs of the greatest consequence; in composing the differences of princes, concluding treaties of peace, and concerting alliances: they presided in cabinet councils, levied national subsidies, influenced courts, and managed the machines of every important operation and event, both in the religious and political world.
From what has been here said it is natural to suppose, that the mendicants at length became universally odious. The high esteem in which they were held, and the transcendent degree of authority which they had assumed, only served to render them obnoxious to the clergy of every rank, to the monasteries of other orders, and to the universities. It was not from ignorance, but from a knowledge of mankind, that they were active in propagating superstitious notions, which they knew were calculated to captivate the multitude, and to strengthen the papal interest; yet at the same time, from the vanity of displaying an uncommon sagacity of thought, and a superior skill in theology, they affected novelties in doctrine, which introduced dangerous errors, and tended to shake the pillars of orthodoxy. Their ambition was unbounded, and their arrogance intolerable. Their encreasing numbers became, in many states, an enormous and unweildy burthen to the commonwealth. They had abused the powers and privileges which had been entrusted to them; and the common sense of mankind could not long be blinded or deluded by the palpable frauds and artifices, which these rapacious zealots so notoriously practised for enriching their convents. In England, the university of Oxford resolutely resisted the perpetual encroachments of the Dominicans
Wood, ut supr. i. 150. 154. 196.
; and many of our theologists attacked all the four orders with great vehemence and severity. Exclusive of the jealousies and animosities which naturally subsisted between four rival institutions, their visionary refinements, and love of disputation, introduced among them the most violent dissensions. The Dominicans aimed at popularity, by an obstinate denial of the immaculate conception. Their pretended sanctity became at length a term of reproach, and their learning fell into discredit. As polite letters and general knowledge encreased, their speculative and pedantic divinity gave way to a more liberal turn of thinking, and a more perspicuous mode of writing. Bale, who was himself a Carmelite friar, says, that his order, which was eminently distinguished for scholastic erudition, began to lose their estimation about the year 1460. Some of them were imprudent enough to engage openly in political controversy; and the Augustines destroyed all their repute and authority in England by seditious sermons, in which they laboured
o supplant the progeny of Edward the fourth, and to establish the title of the usurper Richard
Newcourt, Repert. i. 289.
. About the year 1530, Leland visited the Franciscan friary at Oxford, big with the hopes of finding, in their celebrated library, if not many valuable books, at least those which had been bequeathed by the learned bishop Grosthead. The delays and difficulties with which he procured admittance into this venerable repository, heightened his curiosity and expectations. At length, after much ceremony, being permitted to enter, instead of an inestimable treasure, he saw little more than empty shelves covered with cobwebs and dust
Leland describes this adventure with some humour.
"Contigit ut copiam peterem videndi bibliothecam Franciscanorum, ad quod obstreperunt asini aliquot, rudentes nulli prorsus mortalium tam sanctos aditus et recessus adire, nisi Gardiano
et sacris sui collegii baccalariis. Sed ego urgebam, et principis diplomate munitus, tantum non coegi ut sacraria illa aperirent. Tum unus e majoribus asinis multa subrudens tandem fores aegre reseravit. Summe Jupiter quid ego illic inveni? Pulverem autem inveni, telas aranearum, tineas, blattas, situm denique et squallorem. Inveni etiam et libros, sed quos tribus obolis non emerem."
Script. Brit. p. 286.
.
After so prolix an introduction, I cannot but give a large quotation from our CREDE, the humour and tendency of which will now be easily understood: and especially as this poem is not only extremely scarce, and has almost the rarity of a manuscript, but as it is so curious and lively a picture of an order of men who once made so conspicuous a figure in the world.
For first I frayned
Asked.
the freres, and they me full tolden,
That al the fruyt of the fayth, was in her foure orders,
And the cofres of christendom, and the keie bothen
And the lock of byleve
Belief.
, lyeth locken in her hondes
Then wennede
Thought.
, I to wytte, and with a whight I mette
A Minoure in amorwetide, and to this man I saide,
Sir for greate godes love, the graith
Truth.
thou me tell,
Of what myddel erde man myght I best lerne
My crede, for I can it nought, my care is the more,
And therfore for Christes love, thy counseyl I preie,
A Carme
Carmelite.
me hath ycovenant, ye nede me to teche.
But for thou knowest Carmes wel, thy counsaile I aske.
This Minour loked on me, and laughyng he sayde
Leve christen man, I leve
Believe.
that thou madde.
Whough shuld thei teche the God, that con non hemselve?
They ben but jugulers, and japers of kynde,
Lorels and lechures, and lemans holden,
Neyther in order ne out but unneth lybbeth
Deceiveth.
,
And byjapeth the folk with gestes
Legends.
of Rome.
It is but a faynt folke, yfounded up on japes,
They maketh hem Maries men
The Carmelites, sometimes called the brethren of the Blessed Virgin, were fond of boasting their familiar intercourse with the Virgin Mary. Among other things, they pretended that the Virgin assumed the Carmelite habit and profession: and that she appeared to Simon Sturckius, general of their order, in the thirteenth century, and gave him a solemn promise, that the souls of those christians who died with the Carmelite scapulary upon their shoulders should infallibly escape damnation.
, and so thei men tellen.
And leieth on our lady many a long tale.
And that wicked folk wymmen betraieth,
And begileth hem of her good with glavering wordes.
And ther
Their.
with holden her hous in harlotes warkes.
And so save me God I hold it great synne,
To gyven hem any good, swiche glotones to fynde
To maintaine swiche maner men the michel good destruieth
Yet
Say.
seyn they in her sutiltie, to sottes in townes
Thei comen out of Carmeli, Christ for to folwen.
And feyneth hem with holynesse, the yvele hem bisemeth.
Thei lyven more in lecherie, and lieth in her tales,
Than suen
Follow.
any good liif, but lurken in her selles,
But wynnen werdliche
Wordly.
good, and wasten it in synne,
And gif
If.
thei couthen
Knew.
her crede other on Christ leveden
Thei weren nought so hardy, swyche harlotri usen,
Sikerli I can nought fynden who hem first founded,
But the foles foundeden hem self freres of the pye,
And maken hem mendyans, and marre the pule.
But what glut of the gomes may any good kachen,
He wil kepen it hem selfe, and cofrene it faste.
And thoigh his felawes fayle good, for bi he mai sterve
Her monei mai bi quest, and testament maken
And none obedience here, but don as hym luste.
And right as Robartes men raken aboute
At feyres and at full ales, and fyllen the cuppe
I suppose the FRIARS ROBERTINES, instituted by Robert Flower, hermit of Knaresburgh, in the reign of king John, a branch of the Trinitarians, who were a branch of the Franciscans. See Dugd. Mon. ii. 833. And Leland. Itin. i. 82. The poet cannot mean the Cistercians, founded by Robert, abbot of Molesme in Burgundy.
And precheth al of pardon, to plesen the puple,
But patience is al pased, and put out to ferme
And pride is in her povertie, that litell is to preisen
And at the lullyng of our lady
The Carmelites pretended that their order was originally founded on Mount Carmel where Elias lived: and that their first convent was placed there, within an antient church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in the year 1121.
, the wymmen to lyken
And miracles of mydwyves, and maken wymmen to wenen
That the lace of our lady smok lighteth hem of children.
Thei ne prechen nought of Powel
St. Paul.
, ne penaunce for synne,
But al of merci and mensk
Mercy.
, that Marie may helpen.
With sterne staves and stronge, thei overlond straketh,
Thider as here lemans liggeth, and lurketh in townes.
Grey grete heded quenes, with gold by the eighe
,
And seyne that her sustern thei ben that sojurneth about
,
And thus abouten the gon and godes folke betrayeth,
It is the puple that Powel preched of in his tyme.
He seyde of swiche folke that so aboute wente
Wepyng, I warne you of walkers aboute,
It beth enemyes of the cros that Christ upon tholede.
Swiche slomreers
Slumberers.
in slepe slaughte
Sloth.
is her end.
And glotonye is her god, with glopping of drink
And gladnesse in glees, and grete joye ymaked
In the shending
Destr
ying.
of swiche shal mychel folk lauwghe.
Therfore frend for thy feith fond to don beter,
Leve nought on tho losels, but let hem forth pasen,
For thei ben fals in her faith, and feele mo other.
Alas frere, quath I tho, my purpos is yfailed,
Now is my comfort a cast, canst ou no bote,
Wher I might meten with a man that might me wyssen
For to conne my crede, Christ for to folwen.
Certeyn felawe, quath the frere, withouten any fayle
Of al men upon mold
Earth.
we Minorites most sheweth
The pure aposteles leif, with penance on erthe,
And suen
Follow.
hem in sanctite, and sufferen wel harde.
We haunten not tavernes, ne hobelen
Skip. Run.
abouten
At marketes and miracles we medeley us never
See supr. p. 236.
.
We houlden
Collect. Hide. Possess. Hoard.
no moneye, but moneliche faren
Live like m
nks, like men dedicated to religion. Or rather, moneyless poor.
And haven hunger at the mete, at ich a mel ones.
We haven forsaken the world, and in wo libbeth
Live.
In penaunce and poverte, and prechethe the puple
People.
By ensample of our liif, soules to helpen
And in poverte preien, for al oure part
neres
That gyveth us any good, God to honouren
Other bel other book, or bred to our foode,
Other catel other cloth, to coveren with oure bones
Either bells, or books, or bread, or cattel, &c.
:
Money, other money worth, here mede is in hevene
For we buildeth a burugh
A house.
, a brod and a large,
A chirch and a chapitle
A chapter-house.
Capitulum.
"May. Might."
, with chaumbers a lofte.
With wide wyndowes ywrought, and walles wel heye
That mote ben portreid, and paint and pulched ful clene
Painted and beautifully adorned.
.
With gay glitering glas, glowing as the sunne,
And
If you would help us with your money.
mightestou amenden us with money of thyne owen,
Thou shouldest knely before Christ in compas of gold,
In the wyde windowe westward wel neigh in the middell
Your figure kneeling to C
rist shall be painted in the great west window. This was the way of representing benefactors in painted glass. See supr. p. 278.
,
And saint Franceis him self, shal folde the in his cope,
And present the to the trinite, and praye for thy synnes,
Thy name shal noblich be wryte and wrought for the nones
And in remembraunce of the, praid therfor ever
Your name shall be written in our table of benefactors for whose souls we pray. This was usually hung up in the church. Or else he means, Written in the windows, in which manner benefactors were frequently recorded.
,
And brother be thou nought aferd, bythenkin thyne hert
Though thou cone
Know.
nought thy crede, care thou no more
I shal asoilen
Absolve.
the syr, and setten it on my soule.
And thou may maken this good, thenke thou non other.
Sir (I sayde) in certaine I shal gon and asaye,
And he set on me his hond, and asoiled me clene,
And there I parted him fro, withouten any peyne,
In covenant that I come agayn, Christ he me be taught.
Than saide I to myself, here semeth litel treuthe,
First to blame his brother, and bakbyten hym foule,
Ther
as curteis Christ clerliche sayde:
Whow might thou in thy brothers eighe a bare mote loke
And in thyne owen eighe nought a beme toten,
See first on thy self, and sithen on a nother,
And clense clene thy sight, and kepe wel thyne eighe,
And for another mannes eighe, ordeyne after
And also I see coveitise, catel to fongen
Take. Receive.
,
That Christ hath clerliche forboden
Forbidden.
, and clenliche destruede
And sayde to his sueres
Followers.
, for sothe on this wyse:
Nought thy neighbors good coveyte in no tyme.
But charite and chastite, ben chased out clene,
But Christ seide by her fruit, men shal hem ful knowen.
Thannesaide I, certeine syr, thou demest ful trewe.
Than thought I to frayne
To ask.
the first of this foure ordres.
And presed to the Prechoures
I hastened to the friars preachers.
, to proven her wille.
Ich highed
I went to their monastery.
to her house, to herken of more,
And when I came to that court, I gaped about,
Swich a bild bold ybuld upon erthe heighte,
Say I nought in certeyn syththe a long tyme
It is long since I have seen so fine a building.
.
I
Gazed.
semed upon that hous, and yerne
Earnestly.
theron loked,
Whow the pileres weren ypaint and pulchud
Polished.
ful clene,
And queyntly ycorven, with curious knottes,
With wyndowes wel ywrought, wyde up alofte,
And than I entred in, and even forthe wente,
And all was walled that wone
House Habitation.
, though it wiid were
With posternes in privite to passen when hem liste.
Orcheyardes, and erberes
Arbour
.
euesed well clene,
And a curious cros, craftly entayled
Carved. See Spenser, ii. 3. 27. 6. 29.
,
With tabernacles ytight to toten
To look.
al abouten.
The pris of a ploughlond, of penies so round
,
To aparaile that pyler, were pure litel
The price of a carucate of land would not raise such another building.
,
Than I munte me
Went.
forth, the mynstere
Church.
to knowen,
And
I saw one.
awayted woon, wonderly wel ybild,
With arches on everich half, and bellyche
Beautifully.
yeorven
With crochetes on corneres, with knottes of gold.
Wyde wyndowes ywrought ywriten ful thikke
With texts, or names.
Shynen
That is, coats of arms of benefactors painted in the glass. So in an antient roll in verse, exhibiting the descent of the family of the lords of Clare in Suffolk, pres
rved in the Austin friary at Clare, and written in the year 1356.
Dame Mault, a lady full honorable,
Borne of the Ulsters, as sheweth ry
e
Hir
armes of glasse
in the eastern gable.—
—So conjoyned be
Ulstris armes and Glocestris thurgh and thurgh,
As shewith our
Wyndowes
in houses thre,
Dortur, chapiter-house, and fraitour, which she
Made out the grounde both plancher and wall.
Dugdale cites this roll, Mon. Angl. i. p. 535. As does Weaver, who dates it in 1460. Fun. Mon. p. 734. But I could prove this fashion to have been of much higher antiquity.
with shapen sheldes, to shewen aboute,
With
Imagery brought from foreign countries.
Marke
is used for image in Chaucer, Frank. T. v. 2426. Urr.
Sin mankinde is so faire parte of thy worke.
That thou it madist like to thine owne
merke.
And Prol. W. B. v. 696. See P. Plowm. Vis. f. 42. a. edit. 1550. These were
ymedel
d
between, that is, intermixed, interspersed.
merkes of merchauntes, ymedeled betwene,
Mo than twentie and two, twyse ynoumbbred;
Ther is non heraud that hath half swich a rolle
Such a roll.
Right as a rageman hath rekned hem newe
Tombes upon tabernacles, tylde upon lofte
Set up on high.
,
Housed
Surrounded with iron rails.
Horns
seems to be
irons.
in hornes, harde set abouten
Placed very close or thick about the church.
Of armede alabaustre, clad for the nones,
Maad opon marbel in many manner wyse
Knyghtes in ther conisante
In their proper habiliments. In their
cognisances,
or surcoats of arms. So again, Signat. C. ii. b.
For though a man in her minstre a masse wolde heren,
His sight shall also byset on sondrye workes,
The pennons, and the poinells, and pointe
of sheldes
Withdrawen his devotion and dusken his harte.
That is, the banners, atchievements, and other armorial ornaments, hanging over the tombs.
clad for the nones
Alle it semed seyntes, ysacred opon erthe,
And lovely ladies ywrought, leyen by her sydes
In many gay garnemens, that weren gold beten,
Though the tax often yere were trewely gadered,
Nolde it nought maken that hous, half as I trowe.
Than cam I to that cloystre, and gaped abouten,
Whough it was pilered and peynt, and portreyd well clene
Alhyled
Covered.
with leed, lowe to the stones,
And ypaved, with poynttyl
Point en point
is a French phrase for
in order,
exactly. This explains the latter part of the line. Or
poyntill
may mean tiles in squares or dies, in chequer-work. See Skinner in POINT, and Du Fresne in PUNCTURA. And then
ich
POINT
after other
will be
one
SQUARE
after another.
So late as the reign of Henry the eighth, so magnificent a structure as the refectory of Christchurch at Oxford was, at its first building, paved with green and yellow tiles. The whole number was two thousand six hundred, and each hundred cost three shillings and six-pence. MSS. Br. Twyne, Archiv. Oxon. 8 p. 352. Wolsey's great hall at Hampton Court, evidently built in every respect on the model of this at Christchurch, was very probably paved in the same manner. See OBSERVAT. on SPENS. vol. ii. §. p. 232.
, ich point after other
With cundites of clene tyn closed al aboute
Spouts. Or channels for conveying the water into the Lavatory, which was usually placed in the cloyster.
,
With lavoures of lattin
Laten, a metal so called.
, loveliche ygreithed
Prepared. Adorned.
I trowe the gaynage of the ground, in a gret shyre
Nold aparaile that place, oo poynt tyl other ende
From one end to the other.
.
Thane was the chapitre house wrought as a greet chirch
Corven and covered, ant queytelyche entayled
The chapter-house was magnificently constructed in the style of church-architecture, finely vaulted, and richly carved.
With semliche selure yseet on lofte
A seemly cieling, or roof, very lofty.
As a parlement hous ypeynted aboute
That they painted the walls of rooms, before tapestry became fashionable, I have before given instances, OBSERVAT. SPENS. vol. ii. §. p. 232. I will here add other proofs. In an old French romance on the MIRACLES OF THE VIRGIN, liv. i. Carpent. Suppl. Lat. Gl. Du Cang. V. LAMBROISSARE.
Lors moustiers tiennent ors et sals,
Et lor cambres, et lor grans sales,
Font lambroissier,
paindre,
et
pourtraire.
Gervasius Dorobernensis, in his account of the burning of Canterbury Cathedral in the year 1174, says, that not only the beam-work was destroyed, but the cieling underneath it, or concameration called coelum, being of wood beautifully painted, was also consumed.
"Coelum inferius
gregie depictum,
&c."
p. 1289. Dec. Script. Lond. 1652.
And Stubbes,
Actus Pontif. Eborac
nsium,
says, that arch bishop Aldred, about 1060, built the whole church of York from the Presbytery to the Tower, and
"superius
opere pictorio
quod Coelum vocant
auro multi
ormiter intermixto,
mirabili arte construxit."
p. 1704. Dec. Script. ut supr.
There are many instances in the pipe-rolls, not yet printed. The roof of the church of Cassino in Italy is ordered to be painted in 1349, like that of St. John Lateran at Rome. Hist. Cassin. tom. ii. p. 545. col. 1. Dugdale has printed an antient French record, by which it appears that there was a hall in the castle of Dover called
Arthur's hall,
and a chamber called
Geneura's chamber.
Monast. ii. 2. I suppose, because the walls of these apartments were respectively adorned with paintings of each. Geneura is Arthur's queen. In the pipe-rolls of Henry the third we have this notice, A. D. 1259.
"Infra portam castri et birbecanam, etc. ab exitu CAMERAE ROSAMUNDAE usque capellam sancti Thomae in Castro Wynton."
Rot. Pip. Henr. iii. an. 43. This I once supposed to be a chamber in Winchester castle, so called because it was painted with the figure or some history of fair Rosamond. But a ROSAMUND-CHAMBER was a common apartment in the royal castles, perhaps in imitation of her BOWER at Woodstock, literally nothing more than a
chamber,
which yet was curiously constructed and decorated, at least in memory of it. The old prose paraphrast of the Chronicle of Robert of Glocester says,
"BOURES hadde the Rosamonde a bout in Engelonde, which this kynge [Hen. ii.] for hir sake made: atte Waltham bishope's, in the castelle of Wynchester, atte park of Fremantel, atte Marteleston, atte Woodestoke, and other fele [many] places."
Chron. edit. Hearne, 479. This passage indeed seems to imply, that Henry the second himself provided for his fair concubine a BOWER, or chamber of peculiar construction, not only at Woodstock, but in all the royal palaces; which, as may be concluded from the pipe-roll just cited, was called by her name. Leland says, that in the stately castle of Pickering in Yorkshire,
"in the first court be a
oure Toures, of the which one is caullid
R
samundes Toure.
"
Itin. fol. 71. Probably because it contained one of these bowers or chambers. Or, perhaps we should read ROSAMUNDES BOURE. Compare Walpole's Ane
d. Paint. i. p. 10. 11.
.
Thanne ferd I into fraytoure
Fratry.
, and fond there a nother,
An halle for an hygh kynge, an houshold to holden,
With brod bordes abouten, ybenched wel clene,
With wyndowes of glass, wrought as a chirche
A series of stately Gothic windows.
.
Than walkede I ferrer
Further.
, and went al abouten
And seigh
Saw.
halles ful heygh, and houses ful noble,
Chambres with chymneys, and chapels gaye,
And kychenes for an high kynge, in castels to holden,
And her dortoure
Dormitory.
ydight, with dores ful stronge
Fermerye and fraitur
Infirmary, &c.
, with fele mo houses
Many other apartments.
And al strong ston wal sterne opon heithe
With gaye garites, and grete, and iche hole glased.
And other houses ynowe, to hereberwe the queene
To lodge the qu
en.
,
And yet these bilderes wiln beggen a bagge ful of whete
Of a pure pore man, that may onethe paye
Scarcely.
Half his rent in a yere, and half ben byhynde.
Than turned I apen whan I hadde al ytoted
Observed.
And fond in a freitoure a frere on a benche,
A greet chorl and a grym, growen as a tonne,
With a face so fat, as a ful bleddere
Bladder.
,
Blowen bretful of breth, and as a bagge honged.
On bothen his chekes, and his chyn, with a chol lollede
So greet a gos ey, growen al of grece.
That al wagged his fleish, as a quick mire
Quag-mire.
,
His cope
Covered.
that biclypped him, wel clene was it folden
Of double worstede ydyght, doun to the hele.
His kyrtel of clene whiit, clenlyche ysewed
Hit was good ynow of ground, greyn for to baren.
I haylsede that thirdman, and hendliche I sayde,
Gode sire for godes love, canst on me graith tellen,
To any worthely wiight, that wissen me couthe,
Whom I shuld conne my crede, Christ for to folwe,
That lenede lelliche
Truly.
hym selfe, and lyved ther after,
That feynede no falshede, but fully Christ suwede,
Forsith a certeyn man syker wold I trosten
That he wold tell me the trewth, and turn to none other.
And an Austyn this ender day, egged
Moved.
me faste
That he wold techen me wel, he plyght me his treuthe
And seyde me certeyn, sighten Christ deyed
Oure ordre was evels, and erst yfounde.
First felaw
quath he, fy on his pylthe
He is but abortiif, eked with cloutes.
He holdeth his ordinaunce with hores and theves,
And purchaseth hem privileges, with penyes so rounde.
It is a pure pardoners craft, prove and asay
For have they thy money, a moneth therafter
Certes theigh thou come agen, he wil ye nought knowen.
But felawe oure foundement was first of the other
And we ben founded fulliche, withouten fayntise
And we ben clerkes renowen, cunning in schole
Proued in procession by processe of lawe.
Of oure order ther beth bichopes wel manye,
Seyntes on sundry stedes, that suffreden harde
And we ben proved the priis of popes at Rome
And of grettest degre, as gospelles telleth.
I must not quit our Ploughman without observing, that some other satirical pieces anterior to the Reformation, bear the adopted name of PIERS THE PLOWMAN. Under the character of a plowman the religious are likewise lashed, in a poem written in apparent imitation of Longland's VISION, and attributed to Chaucer. I mean the PLOWMAN'S TALE
Perhaps falsely. Unless Chaucer wrote the
Crede,
which I cannot believe. For in Chaucer's PLOWMAN'S TALE this Crede is alluded to. v. 3005.
And of
Freris
I have
before
Told in a making of a
Cr
de;
And yet I could tell worse and more.
This passage at least brings the PLOWMAN'S TALE below the CREDE in time. But some have thought, very improbably, that this Crede is
Jack Upland.
. The measure is different, and it is in rhyme. But it has Longland's alliteration of initials: as if his example had, as it were, appropriated that mode of versification to the subject, and the supposed character which supports the satire
It is extraordinary that we should find in this poem one of the absurd arguments of the puritans against ecclesiastical establishments. v. 2253. Urr. edit.
For Christ made no cathedralls,
Ne with him was no Cardinalls.
But see what follows, concerning Wickliffe.
. All these poems were, for the most part, founded on the doctrines newly broached by Wickliffe
It is remarkable, that they touch on the very topics which Wickliffe had just published in his OBJECTIONS OF FRERES charging them with
fifty heresi
s.
As in the following.
"Also Freres buildin many great churches, and costy wast houses and cloisteres, as it wern castels, and that wit
uten nede, &c."
Lewis's WICKLIFF, p. 22. I will here add a passage from Wickliffe's tract entitled WHY POOR PRIESTS HAVE NO BENEFICES. Lewis
App. Num. xix. p. 289.
"And yet they [lords] wolen not present a clerk able of kunning of god's law, but a kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or
wise in buil
ing castle
,
or worldly doing, though he kunne not reade well his sauter, &c."
Here is a manifest piece of satire on Wykeham, bishop of Winche
er, Wickliffe's cotemporary; who is supposed to have recommended himself to Edward the third by rebuilding the castle of Windsor. This was a recent and notorious instance. But in this appointment the king probably paid a compliment to that prelate's singular talents for business, his activity, circumspection, and management, rather than to any scientific and professed skill in architecture which he might have possessed. It seems to me that he was only a supervisor or comptroller on this occasion. It was common to depute churchmen to this department, from an idea of their superior prudence and probity. Thus John, the prior of St. Swithin's at Winchester in 1280, is commissioned by brief from the king, to supervise large repairs done by the sheriff in the castle of Winchester, and the royal manor of Wolmer. MS. Registr. Priorat. Quat. 19. fol. 3. The bishop of S. David's was master of the works at building King's College. Hearne's Elmh. p. 353. Alcock, bishop of Ely, was comptroller of the royal buildings under Henry the seventh. Parker Hist. Cambr. p. 119. He, like Wykeham, was a great builder, but not therefore an architect. Richard Williams, dean of Litchfield and chaplain to Henry the eighth, bore the same office. MSS. Wood, Litchfield. D. 7. Ashmol. Nicholas Townley clerk, was master of the works at Cardinal College. MS. Twyne, 8. f. 351. Se
also Walpole, i. Anecd. Paint. p. 40.
: who maintained, among other things, that the clergy should not possess estates, that the ecclesiastical ceremonies obstructed true devotion, and that mendicant friars, the particular object of our Plowman's CREDE, were a public and insupportable grievance. But Wickliffe, whom Mr. Hume pronounces to have been an enthusiast, like many other reformers, carried his ideas of purity too far; and, as at least it appears from the two first of these opinions, under the design of destroying superstition, his undistinguishing zeal attacked even the necessary aids of religion. It was certainly a lucky circumstance, that Wickliffe quarrelled with the pope. His attacks on superstition at first probably proceeded from resentment. Wickliffe, who was professor of divinity at Oxford, finding on many occasions not only his own province invaded, but even the privileges of the university frequently violated by the pretensions of the mendicants, gratified his warmth of temper by throwing out some slight censures against all the four orders, and the popes their principal patrons and abettors. Soon afterwards he was deprived of the wardenship of Canterbury hall, by the archbishop of Canterbury, who substituted a monk in his place. Upon this he appealed to the pope, who confirmed the archiepiscopal sentence, by way of rebuke for the freedom with which he had treated the monastic profession. Wickliffe, highly exasperated at this usage, immediately gave a loose to his indignation, and without restraint or distinction attacked in numerous sermons and treatises, not only the scandalous enormities of the whole body of monks, but even the usurpations of the pontifical power itself, with other ecclesiastical corruptions. Having exposed these palpable abuses with a just abhorrence, he ventured still farther, and proceeded to examine and refute with great learning and penetration the absurd doctrines which prevailed in the religious system of his age: he not only exhorted the laity to study the scriptures, but translated the bible into English for general use and popular inspection. Whatever were his motives, it is certain t
at these efforts enlarged the notions of mankind, and sowed those seeds of a revolution in religion, which were quickened at length and brought to maturity by a favourable coincidence of circumstances, in an age when the encreasing growth of literature and curiosity naturally led the way to innovation and improvement. But a visible diminution of the authority of the ecclesiastics, in England at least, had been long growing from other causes. The disgust which the laity had contracted from the numerous and arbitrary encroachments both of the court of Rome, and of their own clergy, had greatly weaned the kingdom from superstition; and conspicuous symptoms had appeared, on various occasions, of a general desire to shake off the intolerable bondage of papal oppression.
SECT. X.
LONGLAND'S peculiarity of style and versification, seems to have had many cotemporary imitators. One of these is a nameless author on the fashionable history of Alexander the Great: and his poem on this subject is inserted at the end of the beautiful Bodleian copy of the French ROMAN D'ALEXANDRE, before mentioned, with this reference
See above, p. 240. It is in a different hand yet with Saxon characters. See ad calc. cod. f. 209. It has miniatures in water colours.
.
"Here fayleth a prossesse of this romaunce of Alixaunder the whiche prossesse that fayleth ye schulle fynde at the ende of thys boke ywrete in Engeliche ryme."
It is imperfect, and begins and proceeds thus
There is a poem in the Ashmolean museum, complete in the former part, which I believe is the same. MSS. Ashm. 44. It has twenty-seven passus, and begins thus:
Whener folk fastid and fed, fayne wolde thei her
Some farand thing, &c.
.
How Alexander partyd thennys
At the end are these rubrics, with void spaces, intended to be filled.
"How Alexandre remewid to a flood that is called Phison."
"How king Duidimus sente lettres to king Alexandre."
"How Duidimus enditid to Alexaundre of here levyng."
"How he spareth not Alexandre to telle hym of hys governance."
"How he telleth Alexandre of his maumetrie."
"How Alexandre sente aunswere to Duidimus by lettres."
"How Duidimus sendyd an answere to Alexandre by lettre."
"How Alexandre sente Duidimus another lettre."
"How Alexandre pight a pelyr of marbyl ther."
.
When this weith at his wil wedinge
Hadde, fful rathe rommede he rydinge
Thedince so ondrace with his ost
Alixandre wendeth there wilde contre
Was wist and wonderfull peple
That weren proved ful proude, and prys of hevi helde
Of bodi went thei thare withoute any wede
And had grave on the ground many grete cavys
There here wonnynge was wyntur
s and somerus
No syte nor no sur stede sothli thei ne hadde
But holus holwe in the grounde to hide hem inne
Now is that name to mene the nakid wise
Wan the kiddeste of the cavus that was kinge holde
Hurde tydinge telle and loknynge wiste
That Alixaundre with his ost at lede thidince
To beholden of hom hure hieȝest prynce
Than waies of worshipe wittie and quainte
With his lettres he let to the lud sende
Thanne southte thei sone the foresaide prynce
And to the schamlese schalk schewen hur lettres
Than rathe let the .... reden the sonde
That newe tythinge is tolde in this wise
The gentil
Gymnosophists.
Geneosophistians that gode were of witte
To the emperour Alixandre here aunsweris wreten
This is worschip of word worthi to have
And in conquerer kid in contres manie
Us is sertefyed seg as we soth heren
That thou hast ment with the man among us ferre
But yf thou kyng to us come with caere to figte
Of us getist thou no good gome we the warne
For what richesse ... us might you us bi reve
Whan no wordliche wele is with us founde
We ben sengle of us silfe and semen ful bare
Nouht welde we nowe but naked we wende
And that we happili her haven of kynde
May no man but god make us fine
Thei thou fonde with thi folke to fighte us alle
We schulle us kepe on caugt our cavns withinne
Nevere werred we with wigth upon erthe
For we ben hid in oure holis or we harme laache hadde
Thus saide sothli the loude that thi sente
And al so cof as the king kende the sawe
New lettres he let the .... bi take
And with his sawes of soth he hem alle
That he wolde faire with his folke in a faire wise
To bi holden here home and non harme wurke
So heth the king with hem sente and sithen with his peple
..... cosli til hem to kenne of hure fare
But whan thai sieu the seg with so manye ryde
Thei war a grison of his grym and wende gref tholie
Ffast heiede thei to holis and hidden there
And in the cavus hem kept from the king sterne, &c.
Another piece, written in Longland's manner, is entitled, THE WARRES OF THE JEWES. This was a favourite subject, as I have before observed, drawn from the Latin historical romance, which passes under the name of HEGESIPPUS DE EXCIDIO HIERUSALEM.
In Tyberyus tyme the trewe emperour
Syr Sesar hym suls saysed in Rome
Whyle Pylot was provost under that prynce ryche
And sewen justice also in Judeus londis
Herodes under his empire as heritage wolde
King of Galile was ycallid whan that Crist deyad
They Sesar sakles wer that oft syn hatide
Throw Pilet pyned he was and put on the rode
A pyler pygt was don upon the playne erthe
His body bouden therto beten with scourgis
Whippes of quyrbole by went his white sides
Til he al on rede blode ran as rayn on the strete
Such stockyd hym an a stole with styf menes hondis
Blyndfelled hym as a be and boffetis hym ragte
Ȝif you be a prophete of pris prophecie they sayde
Which man her aboute bolled the laste
A thrange thorn crown was thraste on his hed
... casten hym with a cry and on a cros slowen
Ffor al the harme that he had hasted he nogt
On hym the vyleny to venge that hys venys brosten
Bot ay taried on the tyme gif they tone wolde
Gaf he space that him spilede they he speede lyte
Yf aynt was as yfynde and no fewer
Laud... 22. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Ad calc.
"Hic tractatur bellum Judaicum apud Jerusalem."
f. 19. b. It is also in Brit. Mu
. Cott. MSS. CALIG. A. 1. fol. 109.—123. Gyraldus Cambrensis says, that the Welsh and English use alliteration,
"in omni sermone exquisito."
Descript. Cambr. cap. xi. p. 889. O'Flaherty also says of the
rish,
"Non parvae est apud nos in oratione elegantiae schema, quod Paromaeon, i. e.
Assimile,
dicitur: quoties multae dictiones, ab eadem litera incipientes, ex ordine collocantur."
Ogyg. part. iii. 30. p. 242.
See also Dr. Percy's judicious Essay on the METRE OF PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISIONS.
, &c.
Notwithstanding what has been supposed above, it is not quite certain, that Longland was the first who led the way in this singular species of versification. His VISION was written on a popular subject, and is the only poem, composed in this capricious sort of metre, which has been printed. It is easy to conceive how these circumstances contributed to give him the merit of an inventor on this occasion.
The ingenious doctor Percy has exhibited specimens of two or three other poems belonging to this class
Essay on the Metr. of P. P. Vis. p. 8. seq.
. One of these is entitled DEATH AND LIFE: it consists of two hundred and twenty-nine lines, and is divided into two parts or
Fitts.
It begins thus:
Christ christen king that on the cross tholed,
Hadde paines and passyons to defend our soules;
Give us grace on the ground the greatlye to serve
For that royall red blood that rann from thy side.
The subject of this piece is a VISION, containing a contest for superiority between
Our lady Dame
LIFE, and the
ugly fiend
Dame
DEATH: who with their several attributes and concomitants are personified in a beautiful vein of allegorical painting.
Dame
LIFE is thus forcibly described.
Shee was brighter of her blee than was the bright sonn:
Her rud redder than the rose that on the rise hangeth:
Meekely smiling with her mouth, and merry in her lookes;
Ever laughing for love, as shee like would:
And as she came by the bankes the boughes eche one
They lowted to that ladye and layd forth their branches;
Blossomes and burgens breathed full sweete,
Flowers flourished in the frith where she forth stepped,
And the grasse that was gray grened belive.
The figure of DEATH follows, which is equally bold and expressive. Another piece of this kind, also quoted by doctor Percy, is entitled CHEVELERE ASSIGNE, or DE CIGNE, that is the
Knight of the Swan.
This is a romance which is extant in a prose translation from the French, among Mr. Garrick's noble collection of old plays
K. vol. 10.
"Imprinted at London by me Wylliam Copland."
There is an edition on parchment by W. de Worde, 1512.
"Newly translated out of Frenshe into Englyshe at thinstigacion of the puyssaunt prynce lorde Edward duke of Buckynghame."
Here I understand French prose.
. We must not forget, that among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, there is a French metrical romance on this subject, entitled L'YSTOIRE DU CHEVALIER AU SIGNE
15 E. vi. 9. fol. And in the Royal library at Paris, MS. 7192.
"Le Roman du Chevalier au Cigne en vers."
Montf. Cat. MSS. ii. p. 789.
. Our English poem begins thus
See MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. i. f. 109. 123.
:
All-weldynge god, whence it is his wyll
,
Wele he wereth his werke with his owene honde,
For ofte harmes were hente that help wene mygte
Nere the hygnes of hem that lengeth in hevene
For this, &c.
This alliterative measure, unaccompanied with rhyme, and including many peculiar Saxon idioms appropriated to poetry, remained in use so low as the sixteenth century. In doctor Percy's
Antient Ballads,
there is one of this class called THE SCOTTISH FEILDE, containing a very circumstantial narrative of the battle of Flodden fought in the year 1513.
In some of the earliest of our specimens of old English poetry
See Sect. i.
, we have long ago seen that alliteration was esteemed a fashionable and favourite ornament of verse. For the sake of throwing the subject into one view, and further illustrating what has been here said concerning it, I chuse to cite in this place a very antient hymn to the Virgin Mary, never printed, where this affectation professedly predominates
Among the Cotton manuscripts there is a Norman Saxon alliterative hymn to the Virgin Mary. NER. A. xiv. f. 240. cod. membran. 8vo .
"On god ureisun to ure lesdi."
That is,
A good prayer to our lady.
Cristes milde moder seynte Marie
Mines hues leonie, mi leoue lesdi.
.
I.
Hail beo yow
See some pageant-poetry, full of alliteration, written in the reign of Henry the seventh, Leland. Coll. iii. App. 180. edit. 1770.
Marie, moodur and may,
Mylde, and meke, and merciable;
Heyl folliche fruit of sothfast fay,
Agayn vche stryf studefast and stable!
Heil sothfast soul in vche a say,
Undur the son is non so able.
Heil logge that vr lord in lay,
The formast that never was founden in fable,
Heil trewe, trouthfull, and tretable,
Heil cheef i chosen of chastite,
Heil homely, hende, and amyable
To preye for us to thi sone so fre!
AVE.
II.
Heil stern, that never stinteth liht;
Heil bush, brennyng that never was brent;
Heil rihtful rulere of everi riht,
Schadewe to schilde that scholde be schent.
Heil, blessed be yowe blosme briht,
To trouthe and trust was thine entent;
Heil mayden and modur, most of miht,
Of all mischeves and amendement;
Heil spice sprong that never was spent,
Heil trone of the trinitie;
Heil soiene
F. Seyen.
S
yon.
that god us sone to sent
Yowe preye for us thi sone fre!
AVE.
III.
Heyl hertely in holinesse.
Heyl hope of help to heighe and lowe,
Heyl strength and stel of stabylnesse,
Heyl wyndowe of hevene wowe,
Heyl reson of rihtwysnesse,
To vche a caityf comfort to knowe,
Heyl innocent of angernesse,
Vr takel, vr tol, that we on trowe,
Heyl
end to all that beoth fortth flowe
Heyl liht of love, and of bewte,
Heyl brihter th
n the blod on snowe,
Yow preye for us thi sone so fre!
AVE.
IV.
Heyl mayden, heyl modur, heyl martir trowe,
Heyl kyndly i knowe confessour,
Heyl evenere of old lawe and newe,
Heyl buildor bold of cristes bour,
Heyl rose higest of hyde and hewe,
Of all
ruytes feirest fflour,
Heyl turtell trustiest and trewe,
Of all trou
he thou art tresour,
Heyl puyred princesse of paramour,
Heyl blosme of brere brihtest of ble,
Heyl owner of eorthly honour,
Yowe preye for us thi sone so fre!
AVE,
&c.
V.
Heyl hende, heyl holy emperesse,
Heyle queene corteois, comely, and kynde,
Heyl distruyere of everi strisse,
Heyl mender of everi monnes mynde,
Heil bodi that we ouht to blesse,
So feythful frend may never mon fynde,
Heil levere and lovere of largenesse
Swete and swetest that never may swynde,
Heil botenere of everie bodi blynde,
Heil borgun brihtes of all bounte,
Heyl trewore then the wode bynde,
Yow preye for us thi sone so fre!
AVE.
VI.
Heyl modur, heyl mayden, heyl hevene quene,
Heyl gatus of paradys,
Heyl sterre of the se that ever is sene,
Heyl riche, royall, and ryhtwys,
Heyl burde i blessed mote yowe bene,
Heyl perle of al perey the pris,
Heyl schadewe in vche a schour schene,
Heyl fairer thae that flour de lys,
Heyl cher chosen that never nas chis
Heyl chef chamber of charite
Heyl in wo that ever was wis
Yowe preye for us thi sone so fre!
AVE,
&c. &c.
MS. Vernon. f. 122. In this manuscript are several other pieces of this sort.
.
These rude stanzas remind us of the Greek hymns ascribed to Orpheus, which entirely consist of a cluster of the appellations appropriated to each divinity.
SECT. XI.
ALTHOUGH this work is professedly confined to England, yet I cannot pass over two Scotch poets of this period, who have adorned the English language by a strain of versification, expression, and poetical imagery, far superior to their age; and who consequently deserve to be mentioned in a general review of the progress of our national poetry. They have written two heroic poems. One of them is John Barbour, archdeacon of Aberdeen. He was educated at Oxford; and Rymer has printed an instrument for his safe passage into England, in order to prosecute his studies in that university, in the years 1357 and 1365
Fo
d. vi. 31. 478.
. David Bruc
, king of Scotland, gave him a pension for life, as a reward for his poem called the HISTORY OF ROBERT BRUCE, KING OF THE SCOTS
Tanner, Bibl. p. 73.
. It was printed at Glasgow in the year 1671
12mo .
. A battle
ought by lord Douglas is thus described.
When that thus thir two batttles were
Assembled, as I said you air,
The Stewart Walter that then was,
And the good lord als of Dowglas,
In a battle when that they saw
The earl, foroutten dread or aw,
Assemble with his company
On all that folk so sturdily,
For to help him they held their way,
And their battle with good array,
Beside the earl a little by,
They sembled all so hardily,
That their foes felt ther coming well;
For with weapons stallwort of steel,
They dang on them with all their might,
Their foes received well, I heght,
With swords and spears, and als with mass,
The battle there so fellon was,
And so right great spilling of blood,
That on the erd the slouces stood.
The Scottishmen so well them bare,
And so great slaughter made they there,
And fra so feil the lives they reav'd,
That all the field was bloody leav'd.
That time that thir three battles were
All side by side fighting well near,
There might men hear many a dint,
And weapons upon arms stint,
And might see tumble knights and steeds,
And many rich and royal weeds
Foully defiled under feet.
Some held on loft, some tint the suet.
A long while fighting thus they were,
That men in no wise might hear there.
Men might hear nought but groans and dints
That flew, as men strike fire on flints.
They fought ilk ane so eagerly,
That they made neither noise nor cry,
But dang on other at their might,
With weapons that were burnisht bright.
The arrows also thick there flaw,
(That they well might say, that them saw)
That they a hideous shower can ma;
For where they fe
l, I underta,
They left after them tokening,
That shall need, as I trow, leeching.
The English archers shot so fast,
That might their shot have any last,
It had been hard to Scottishmen.
But king Robert, that well can ken,
That their archers were perillous,
And their shot right hard and grievous,
Ordain'd forouth the assembly,
His marshal, with a great menȝie,
Five hundred armed into steel,
That on light horse were horsed well,
For to prick amongst the archers,
And to assail them with their spears,
That they no leisure have to shoot.
This marshal that I hereof mute,
Sir Robert of Keith he was call'd,
And I before here have you tould.
When that he saw the battles so
Assemble, and together go,
And saw the archers shoot stoutly,
With all them of his company,
In hy upon them can he ride,
And overtake them at a side,
And rush'd among them so rudely,
Sticking them so despiteously,
And in lik fusion bearing down,
And slaying them forout ransoun,
That they them skailed e'erilkane;
And, fra that time forth, ther
was nan
That assembled, shot for to ma.
When Scots archers saw that they sa
Reboted were, they wax'd hardy,
And with their might shot eagerly
Among the horfemen that there rade,
And wounds wide to them they made,
And slew of them a full great deal.
They bore them hardily and well;
For fra tbat their foes archers were
Skailed, as I said to you air,
They more than they were b
great thing,
So that they dread not their shooting.
They wax'd so hardy, that them thought,
They should set all their foes at nought
p. 262.
.
The following is a specimen of our author's talent at rural description. The verses are extremely soft.
This was in midst of month of May,
When birds sing in ilka spray,
Melland their notes with seemly soun,
For softness of the sweet seasoun,
And leaves of the branches spreeds,
And blooms bright beside them breeds,
And fields strawed are with flowers
Well savouring of seir colours,
And all thing worthis, blyth and gay
p. 326.
.
The other wrote a poem on the exploits of Sir William Wallace. It was first printed in 1601. And very lately reprinted at Edinburgh in quarto, with the following title,
"The acts and deeds of the most famous and valiant champion Sir William Wallace, knight, of Ellerslie. Written by BLIND HARRY in the year 1361. Together with ARNALDI BLAIR RELATIONES. Edinburgh, 1758."
No circumstances of the life of our blind bard appear in Dempster
See Dempst. viii. 349. 662.
. This poem, which consists of twelve books, is translated from the Latin of Robert Blare, or Blair, chaplain to Sir William Wallace
Tit. GESTA WILLELMI WALLAS. See Dempst. ii. 148. He
lourished in 1300. He has left another Latin poem, DE LIBERATA TYRANNIDE SCOTIA. Arnald Blair, mentioned in the title page in the text, probably Robert's brother, if not the same, was also
haplain to Wallace, and monk of Dumferling about the year 1327. Relat.
t supr. p. 1. B
t see p. 9, 10. In the fifth book of the Scotch poem we have this passage, p. 94. v. 533.
Maister JOHN BLAIR was oft in that message,
A worthy clerk, both wise and als right sage,
Levyt he was before in PARYS town, &c.
He was the man that principell undertook,
That first compild in dyte the Latin book,
Of WALLACE life, right famous in rensown,
And THOMAS GRAY parsoun of LI
ERTOUN,
With him they were and put in story all
Oft one or both mickle of his travell, &c.
. The following is a description of the morning, and of Wallace arming himself in his tent
P. 229. B. viii. v. 65. The editor seems to have modernised the spelling.
.
Into a vale by a small river fair,
On either side where wild deer made repair,
Set watches out that wisely could them keep,
To supper went, and timeously they sleep,
Of meat and sleep they cease with suffisaunce,
The night was mirk, overdrave the darksom chance,
The merry day sprang from the orient,
With beams bright illuminate occident,
After Titan Phebus upriseth fair,
High in the sphere, the signs he made declare.
Zephyrus then began his morning course,
The sweet vapour thus from the ground resourse;
The humble bregth down from the heaven avail
In every mead, both frith, forest and dale.
The clear rede among the rockis rang
Through grene branches where the byrds blythly sang,
With joyous voice in heavenly harmony,
When Wallace thought it was no time to ly:
He crossyd him, syn suddenly arose,
To take the air out of his pallion goes
Maister John Blair was ready to revess,
In goode intent syne bouned to the mass.
When it was done, Wallace can him array,
In his armore, which goodly was and gay;
His shining shoes that birnisht was ful been,
His leg-harness he clapped on so clean,
Pullane grees he braced on full fast,
A close birnie with many siker clasp,
Breast-plate, brasars, that worthy were in wear:
Beside him forth Jop could his basnet bear;
His glittering gloves that graven on either side,
He seemed well in battell to abide.
His good girdle, and syne his buirly brand,
A staffe of steel he gripped in his hand.
The host him blest, &c.
Adam Wallaice and Boyd forth with him yeed
By a river, throughout a florisht mead
And as they walk attour the fields so green,
Out of the south they saw when that the queen
Toward the host came riding soberly,
And fi
ty ladies in her company, &c.
The four following lines on the spring are uncommonly terse and elegant.
Gentle Jupiter, with his mild ordinance,
Both herb and tree reverts into pleasance;
And fresh Flora her flowery mantle spread,
In every dale both hop, hight, hill, and mead
Lib. ix. v. 22. ch. i. p. 250.
.
A different season of the year is here strongly painted.
The dark region appearing wonder fast,
In November when October was past,
The day failed through right course worthit short,
To banisht man that is no great comfort:
With their power in paths worthis gang,
Heavy they think when that the night is lang.
Thus good Wallace saw the night's messenger;
Phebus had lost his fiery beams so clear:
Out of the wood thei durst not turn that side
For adversours that in their way would hide
L. v. ch. 1. p. 78. v. 1.
.
The battle of Black-Ernside shews our author a master in another style of painting.
Kerlie beheld unto the bold heroun,
Upon Fawdoun as he was looking down,
A subtil stroke upward him took that tide
Under the cheeks the grounden sword gart glide,
By the mail good, both halse and his craig-bane
In sunder strake; thus ended that chiftain,
To ground he fell, feil folk about him throng,
Treason, they cry'd, traitors are us among.
Kerlie, with that, fled out soon at a side,
His fellow Steven then thought no time to bide.
The fray was great, and fast away they yeed,
Both toward Ern; thus scaped they that dread.
Butler for wo of weeping might not stint.
Thus raklesly this good knight hav
they tint.
They deemed all that it was Wallace men,
Or else himself, though they could not him ken;
He is right near, we shall him have but fail,
This feeble wood may little him avail.
Forty there past again to Saint Johnstoun,
With this dead corps, to burying made it bown.
Parted their men, syne divers ways they rode,
A great power at Doplin still there bode.
To Dalwryeth the Butler past but let,
At sundry fords the gate they unbeset,
To keep the wood while it wa, day they thought.
As Wallace thus in the thick forest sought,
For his two men in mind he had great pain,
He wist not well, if they were tane or slain,
Or scaped haill by any jeopardy.
Thirteen were left with him, no more had he;
In the Gask-hall their lodging have they tane.
Fire got they soon, but meat then had they nane;
Two sheep they took beside them of a fold,
Ordain'd to sup into that seemly hold:
Graithed in haste some food for them to dight:
So heard they blow rude horns upon hight.
Two sent he forth to look what it might be;
They bode right long, and no tidings heard he,
But bousteous noise so bryvely blowing fast;
So other two into the wood forth past.
None came again, but bousteously can blaw,
Into great ire he sent them forth on raw.
When that alone Wallace was leaved there,
The awful blast abounded meikle mare;
Then trow'd he well they had his lodging seen;
His sword he drew of noble metal keen,
Syne forth he went where at he heard the horn.
Without the door Fawdoun was him beforn,
As to his sight, his own head in his hand;
A cross he made when he saw him so stand.
At Wallace in the head he swakked there,
And he in haste soon hint it by the hair,
Syne out again at him he could it cast,
Into his heart he greatly was agast.
Right well he trow'd that was do sprit of man,
It was some devil, that sic malice began.
He wist uo wale there longer for to bide.
Up through the hail thus wight Wallace can glide,
To a close stair, the boards they rave in twin,
Fifteen foot large he lap out of that inn.
Up the water he suddenly could fare,
Again he blink'd what pearance he saw there,
He thought he saw Fawdoun, that ugly
ire,
That haiil hall he had set into a fire;
A great rafter he had into his hand.
Wallace as then no longer would he stand.
Of his good men full great marvel had he,
How they were tint through his feil fantasie.
Trust right well that all this was sooth indeed,
Suppose that it no point be of the creed.
Power they had with Lucifer that fell,
The time when he parted from heaven to hell.
By sik mischief if his men might be lost,
Drowned or slain among the English host;
Or what it was in likeness of Fawdoun.
Which brought his men to sudden confusion;
Or if the man ended in ill intent,
Some wicked sprit again for him present.
I cannot speak of sik divinity,
To clerks I will let all sic matters be:
But of Wallace, now forth I will you tell.
When he was won out of that peril fell,
Right glad was he that he had scaped sa,
But for his men great mourning can he ma.
Flait by himself to the Maker above
Why he suffer'd he should sik paining prove.
He wist not well if that it was God
s will;
Right or wrong his fortune to fulfil,
Had he pleas'd God, he trow'd it might not be
He should him thole in sik perplexitie.
But great courage in his mind ever drawe,
Of Englishmen thinking amends to have.
As he was thus walking by him alone
Upon Ern side, making a piteous moan,
Sir John Butler, to watch the fords right,
Out from his men of Wallace had a sight;
The mist again to the mountains was gone,
To him he rode, where that he made his mone.
On loud he speir'd, What art thou walks that gate?
A true man, Sir, though my voyage be late;
Erands I pass from Down unto my lord,
Sir John Stewart, the right for to record,
In Down is now, newly come from the king.
Then Butler said, this is a selcouth thing,
You lied all out, you have been with Wallace,
I shall thee know, ere you come off this place,
To him he start the courser wonder wight,
Drew out a sword, so made him for to light.
Above the knee good Wallace has him tane,
Through thigh and brawn in sunder strake the bane.
Derfly to dead the knight fell on the land.
Wallace the horse soon seized in his hand,
An ackward stroke syne took him in that stead,
His craig in two; thus was the Butler dead.
An Englishman saw their chiftain was slain,
A spear in rest he cast with all his main,
On Wallace drave, from the horse him to bear;
Warily he wrought, as worthy man in wear.
The spear he wan withouten more abode,
On horse he lap, and through a great rout rode;
To Dalwryeth he knew the ford full well:
Before him came feil stuffed in fine steel.
He strake the first, but bade, on the blasoun,
While horse and man both fleet the water down.
Another soon down from his horse he bare,
Stamped to ground, and drown'd withouten mare.
The third he hit in his harness of steel,
Throughout the cost, the spear it brake some deal.
The great power then
fter him can ride.
He saw no waill there longer for to bide.
His burnisht brand braithly in hand he bare,
Whom he hit right they followed him na mare.
To stuff the chase feil freiks followed fast,
But Wallace made the gayest ay agast.
The muir he took, and through their power yeed,
The horse was good, but yet he had great dread
For failing ere he wan unto a strength,
The chase was great, skail'd over breadth and length,
Through strong danger they had him ay in sight.
At the Blackford there Wallace down can light,
His horse stuffed, for way was deep and lang,
A large great mile wightly on foot could gang.
Ere he was hors'd riders about him cast,
He saw full well long so he might not last.
Sad men indeed upon him can renew,
With returning that night twenty he slew,
The fiercest ay rudely rebuted he,
Keeped his horse, and right wisely can flee,
While that he came the mickest muir amang.
His horse gave over, and would no further gang
p. 82.
.
I will close these specimens with an instance of our author's allegorical invention.
In that slumber coming him thought he saw,
An aged man fast toward him could draw,
Soon by the hand he hint him hastily,
I am, he said, in voyage charg'd with thee.
A sword him gave of basely burnisht steel,
Good son, he said, this wand you shall bruik well.
Of topaz stone him thought the plummet was,
Both hilt and hand all glittering like the glass.
Dear son, he said, we tarry here too long,
Thou shalt go see where wrought is meikle wrong;
Then he him led to a mountain on hight,
The world him thought he might see at a sight.
He left him there, syne soon from him he went,
Thereof Wallace studied in his intent,
To see him more he had still great desire,
Therewith he saw begin a fellon fire,
Which braithly burnt in breadth through all the land,
Scotland all over, from Ross to Solway-sand.
Then soon to him there descended a queen,
Illuminate, light, shining full bright and sheen
In her presence appeared so meikle light,
That all the fire she put out of his sight,
Gave him a wand of colour red and green,
With a sapphire saved his face and eyn,
Welcome, she said, I choose thee for my love
Thou art granted by the great God above,
To help people that suffer meikle wrong,
With thee as now I may not tarry long,
Thou shalt return to thy own use again,
Thy dearest kin are here in meikle pain;
This right region you must redeem it all,
Thy last reward in earth shall be but small;
Let not therefore, take redress of t
is miss,
To thy reward thou shalt have lasting bliss.
Of her right hand she beraught him a book,
And humbly thus her leave full soon she took,
Unto the cloud ascended off his sight.
Wallace brake up the book in all his might.
Into three parts the book well written was,
The fir
t writing was gross letters of brass,
The second gold, the third was silver sheen.
Wallace marvell'd what this writing should mean;
To read the book he busied him so fast,
His spirit again to waking mind is past,
And up he ro
e, syne
oundly forth he went.
This clerk he found, and told him his intent
Of his vision, as I have said before,
Completely through, what needs any words more.
Dear son, he said, my wit unable is
To ransack sik, for dread I say amiss;
Yet I shall deem, though my cunning be small,
God grant no charge after my words may fall.
Saint Andrew was gave thee that sword in hand,
Of saints he is the vower of Scotland;
That mountain is, where he had thee on hight,
Knowledge to have of wrong that thou must right;
The fire shall be fell tidings, ere ye part,
Which shall be told in many sundry airt.
I cannot well wit what queen that should be,
Whether Fortune, or our Lady so free,
Likely it is, by the brightness she brought,
Mother of him that all the world has wrought.
The pretty wand, I trow, by mine intent,
Assigns to you rule and cruel judgment;
The red colour, who graithly understood,
Betokens all to great battle and blood;
The green, courage, that thou art now among,
In trouble and war thou shalt continue long;
The sapphire stone she blessed thee withal,
Is lasting grace, will God, shall to thee fall;
The threefold book is but this broken land,
Thou must redeem by worthiness of hand;
The brass letters betokens but to this,
The great oppress of war and meikle miss,
The which you shall bring to the right again,
But you therefore must suffer meikle pain;
The gold betokens honour and worthiness,
Victory in arms, that thou shalt have by grace;
The silver shews clean life and heaven's bliss,
To thy reward that mirth thou shalt not miss,
Dread not therefore, be out of all despair.
Further as now hereof I can na mare.
About the present period, historical romances of recent events seem to have commenced. Many of these appear to have been written by heralds
See Le Pere Mene
rier, Cheval. Ancien. c. v. p. 225. Par. 12mo .
. In the library of Worcester college at Oxford, there is a poem in French, reciting the atchievements of Edward the Black Prince, who died in the year 1376. It is in the short verse of romance, and was written by the prince's herald, who attended close by his person in all his battles, according to the established mode of those times. This was John Chandois-herald, frequently mentioned in Froissart. In this piece, which is of considerable length, the names of the Englishmen are properly spelled, the chronology exact, and the epitaph
It is a fair and beautiful manuscript on vellum. It is an oblong octavo, and formerly belonged to Sir William Le Neve Clarencieux herald.
, forming a sort of peroration to the narrative, the same as was ordered by the prince in his will
The hero's epitaph is frequent in romances. In the French romance of SAINTRE, written about this time, hi
epitaph is introduced.
. This poem, indeed, may seem to claim no place here, because it happens to be written in the French language: yet, exclusive of its subject, a circumstance I have mentioned, that it was composed by a herald, deserves particular attention, and throws no small illustration on the poetry of this era. There are several proofs which indicate that many romances of the fourteenth century, if not in verse, at least those written
n p. 150.
in prose, were the work of heralds. As it was their duty to attend their masters in battle, they were enabled to record the most important transactions of the field with fidelity. It was customary to appoint none to this office but persons of discernment, address, experience, and some degree of education
Le Pere Menestrier Cheval. Ancien.
t supr. p. 225. ch. v.
"Que l'on croyoit avoir
l'Esprit,
&c."
Feron says, that they gave this attendance in order to make a true report. L'Instit. des Roys et Herauds, p. 44. a. See also Favin. p. 57. See a curious description in Froissart, of an interview between the Chandois herald, mentioned above, and a marshal of France, where they enter into a warm and very ser
ous disput
concerning the
devices d'amour
borne by each army. Liv. i. ch. 161.
. At solemn tournaments they made an essential part of the ceremony. Here they had an opportunity of observing acoutrements, armorial distinctions, the number and appearance of the spectators, together with the various events of the turney, to the best advantage: and they were afterwards obliged to compile an ample register of this strange mixture of foppery and ferocity
"L'un des principaux fonctions des Herautes d'armes etoit se trouver au jousts, &c. ou ils gardoient les ecus pendans, recevoient les noms et les blasons des chevaliers, en tenoient REGISTRE, et en composoient recueils, &c."
Menes
r. Orig. des Armoir. p. 180.
See also p. 119. These registers are mentioned in Perceforest, xi. 68. 77.
. They were necessarily connected with the minstrells at public festivals, and thence acquired a facility of reciting adventures. A learned French antiquary is of opinion, that antiently the French heralds, called
Hiraux,
were the same as the minstrells, and that they sung metrical tales at festivals
Carpentier, Suppl. Du-Cang. Gloss. Lat. p. 750. tom. ii.
. They frequently received fees or largesse in common with the minstrells
Thus at St. George's feast at Windsor we have,
"Diversis heraldis et ministrallis, &c."
Ann. 21. Ric. ii. 9 Hen. vi. Apud Anstis, Ord. Gart. i. 56. 108.
And again,
Exit. Pell. M. ann. 22. Edw. iii.
"Magistro Andreae Roy Norreys, [a
herald,]
Lybekin
le Piper,
et Hanakino filio suo, et sex aliis
menes
rallis regis
in denariis eis liberatis de dono regis, in subsidium expensarum suarum, lv.
s.
iv.
d.
"
—
Exit. Pell. P. ann. 33. Edw. ii.
"Willielmo Volaunt
regi heraldorum
et
ministrallis
existentibus apud Smithfield in ultimo hastiludio de dono regis, x.l."
I could give many other proofs.
. They travelled into different countries, and saw the fashions of foreign courts, and foreign tournaments. They not only committed to writing the process of the lists, but it was also their business, at magnificent feasts, to describe the number and parade of the dishes, the quality of the guests, the brilliant dresses of the ladies, the courtesy of the knights, the revels, disguisings, banquets, and every other occurrence most observable in the course of the solemnity. Spenser alludes expressly to these heraldic details, where he mentions the splendor of Florimel's wedding.
To tell the glory of the feast that day
The goodly servyse, the devisefull sights,
The bridegrome's state, the bride's most rich array
The pride of ladies, and the worth of knights,
The royall banquettes, and the rare delights,
Were work fit for an HERALD, not for me
. Q. v. iii.
.
.
I suspect that Chaucer, not perhaps without ridicul
, glances at some of these descriptions, with which his age abounded; and which he probably regarded with less reverence, and read with less edification, than did the generality of his cotemporary readers.
Why shulde I tellen of the rialte
Of that wedding? or which course goth beforn?
Who blowith in a trumpe, or in a horn
Man of Lawe's T. v. 704.
?
Again, in describing Cambuscan's feast.
Of which shall I tell all the array,
Then would it occupie a sommer's day:
And eke it nedeth not to devise,
At everie course the order of servise:
I will not tellen as now of her strange sewes,
Ne of her swans, ne of her heronsewes
Squire
T. v. 83
.
And at the feast of Theseus, in the KNIGHT'S TALE
V. 2199. p. 17. Urr.
.
The minstralcie, the service at the feste,
The grete geftes also to the most and leste,
The riche array of Theseus palleis,
Ne who sat first or last upon the deis,
What ladies feyrist ben, or best daunsing,
Or which of them can best dauncin or sing,
Ne who most felingly spekith of love,
Ne what haukes sittin on perchis above,
Ne what houndes liggen on the floure adoun,
Of all this now I make no mentioun.
In the FLOURE and the LEAF, the same poet has described, in eleven long stanzas, the procession to a splendid tournament, with all the prolixity and exactness of a herald
From v. 204. to v. 287.
. The same affectation, derived from the same sources, occurs often in Ariosto.
It were easy to illustrate this doctrine by various examples. The famous French romance of SAINTRE was evidently the performance of a herald. John De Saintre, the knight of the piece, was a real person, and, according to Froissart, was taken prisoner at the battle of Poitiers, in the year 1356
Froissart
Hist. i. p. 178.
. But the compiler confounds chronology, and ascribes to his hero many pieces of true history belonging to others. This was a common practice in these books. Some authors have supposed that this romance appeared before the year 1380
Bysshe, Not. in Upton. Milit. Offic. p. 56. Menestrier, Orig. Arm. p. 23.
. But there are reasons to prove, that it was written by Antony de la Sale, a Burgundian, author of a book of CEREMONIES, from his name very quaintly entitled LA SALLADE, and frequently cited by our learned antiquary Selden
Tit. Hon. p. 413, &c.
. This Antony came into England to see the solemnity of the queen's coronation in the year 1445
Anst. Ord. Gart. ii. 321.
. I have not seen any French romance which has preserved the practices of chivalry more copiously than this of SAINTRE. It must have been an absolute master-piece for the rules of tilting, martial customs, and public ceremonies prevailing in its author's age. In the library of the Office of Arms, there remains a very accurate description of a feast of Saint George, celebrated at Windsor in 1471
MSS. O
ic. Arm. M. 15. fol. 12. 13.
. It appears to have been written by the herald Blue-mantle Poursuivant. Menestrier says, that Guillaume Rucher, herald of Henault, has left a large treatise, describing the tournaments annually celebrated at Lisle in Flanders
"Guillaume Rucher, heraut d'armes du titre de Heynaut, a fait
un gros volume
des rois de l'Epinette a Lisle
n Flanders; c'est une ceremonie, ou un feste, dont il a decrit les jouites, tournois, noms, armoiries, livrees, et equipages de divers seign
urs, qui se rendoient de divers endroits, avec le catalogues de rois de cette feste."
Menestr. l'Orig. des Armoir. p. 64.
. In the reign of Edward the Fourth, John Smarte, a Norman, garter king at arms, described in French the tournament held at Bruges, for nine days, in honour of the marriage of the duke of Burgundy with Margaret the king's daughter
See many other instances in MSS. Harl. 69. fol. entit. THE BOOKE OF CERTAIN
TRIUMPHES. See also APPENDIX to the new edition of Leland's COLLECTANEA.
. There is a French poem, entitled,
Les noms et les armes des seigneurs, &c. a l'assiege de Karleverch en Escoce,
1300
MSS. Cott. Brit. Mus.
. This was undoubtedly written by a herald. The author thus describes the banner of John duke of Bretaigne.
Baniere avoit cointee et paree
De or et de asur eschequeree
Au rouge ourle o jaunes lupars
Determinee estoit la quarte pars
The bishop of Glocester has most obligingly condescended to point out to me another source, to which many of the romances of the fourteenth century owed their existence. Montfaucon, in his MONUMENS DE LA MONARCHIE FRANÇOISE, has printed the
Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint Esprit au droit desir ou du No
ud etabli par Louis d'Anjou roi de Jerusalem et Sicile en
1352-3-4. tom. ii. p. 329. This was an annual celebration
au Chastel de l'Euf enchanti du merveilleux peril.
The castle, as appears by the monuments which accompany these statutes, was built
at the foot of the obscure grot of the
ENCHANTMENTS of Virgil. The statutes are as extraordinary as if they had been drawn up by Don Quixote himself, or his assessors the curate and the barber. From the seventh chapter we learn, that the knights who came to this yearly festival at the
chat
l de l'euf,
were obliged to deliver in writing to the clerks of the chapel of the castle their yearly adventures. Such of these histories as were thought worthy to be recorded, the clerks are ordered to transcribe in a book, which was called
Le livre des av
n
ments aux chevaliers,
&c.
Et demerra le dit livre toujours en la dicte chapelle.
This sacred register certainly furnished from time to time ample materials to the romance-writers. And this circumstance gives a new explanation to a reference which we so frequently find in romances: I mean, that appeal which they so constantly make to some authentic record.
.
The pompous circumstances of which these heraldic narratives consisted, and the minute prolixity with which they were displayed, seem to have infected the professed historians of this age. Of this there are various instances in Froissart, who had no other design than to compile a chronicle of real facts. I will give one example out of many. At a treaty of marriage between our Richard the second and Isabel daughter of Charles the fifth king of France, the two monarchs, attended with a noble retinue, met and formed several encampments in a spacious plain, near the castle of Guynes. Froissart expends many pages in relating at large the costly furniture of the pavilions, the riches of the side-boards, the profusion and variety of sumptuous liquors, spices, and dishes, with their order of service, the number of the attendants, with their address and exact discharge of duty in their respective offices, the presents of gold and precious stones made on both sides, and a thousand other particulars of equal importance, relating to the parade of this royal interview
See Froissart's CRONYCLE, translated by Lord Berners. Pinson, 1523. vol. ii. f. 242.
. On this account, Caxton, in his exhortation to the knights of his age, ranks Froissart's history, as a book of chivalry, with the romances of Lancelot and Percival; and recommends it to their attention, as a manual equally calculated to inculcate the knightly virtues of courage and courtesy
Boke of the Ordre of Chevalrye or Knighthood: translated out of the Frenshe and imprinted by Wylliam Caxton.
S. D. Perhaps 1484. 4to .
. This indeed was in an age when not only the courts of princes, but the castles of barons, vied with one another in the lustre of their shews: when tournaments, coronations, royal interviews, and solemn festivals, were the grand objects of mankind. Froissart was an eye-witness of many of the ceremonies which he describes. His passion seems to have been that of seeing magnificent spectacles, and of hearing reports concerning them
His father was a painter of armories. This might give him an early turn for shews. See M. de la Curne de S. Palaye, Mem. Lit. tom. x. p. 664. edit. 4to .
. Although a canon of two churches, he passed his life in travelling from court to court, and from castle to castle
He was originally a clerk of the chamber to Philippa, queen of Edward the third. He was afterwards canon and treasurer of Chimay in Henault, and of Lisle in Flanders: and chaplain to Guy Earl of Castellon. Labor. Introd. a l'Hist de Charle
vi. p. 69. Compare also Froissart's Chron. ii. f. 29. 305. 319. And Bullart, Academ. des Arts et des Scienc. i. p. 125. 126.
. He thus, either from his own observation, or the credible informations of others, easily procured suitable materials for a history, which professed only to deal in sensible objects, and those of the most splendid and conspicuous kind. He was familiarly known to two kings of England, and one of Scotland
Cron. ii. f. 158. 161.
. But the court which he most admired was that of Gaston earl of Foix, at Orlaix in Bearn; for, as he himself acquaints us, it was not only the most brilliant in Europe, but the grand center for tidings of martial adventures
Cron. ii. f. 30. This was in 1381.
. It was crouded with knights of England and Arragon. In the mean time it must not be forgot, that Froissart, who from his childhood was
trongly attached to carousals, the music of minstrells, and the sports of hawking and hunting
See Mem. Lit. ut supr. p. 665.
, cultivated the poetry of the troubadours, and was a writer of romances
Speaking of the death of king Richard, Froissart quotes a prediction from the old French prose romance of BRUT, which he says was fulfilled in that catastrophe.
v. iv. c. 119. Froissart will be mentioned again as a poet.
. This turn, it must be confessed, might have some share in communicating that romantic cast to his history which I have mentioned. During his abode at the court of the earl of Foix, where he was entertained for twelve weeks, he presented to the earl his collection of the poems of the duke of Luxemburgh, consisting of sonnets, balades, and virelays. Among these was included a romance, composed by himself, called, MELIADER, or THE KNIGHT OF THE SUN OF GOLD. Gaston's chief amusement was to hear Froissart read this romance
I t
ke this opportunity of remarking, that romantic tales or histories appear at a very early period to have been RE AD as well as SUNG at feasts. So Wace in the
Roman
du ROU, in the British Museum, above-mentioned.
Doit l'en les vers et les reges
es,
Et les estoires LIRE as festes.
every evening after supper
Froissart brought with him for a present to Gaston Earl of Foix four greyhounds, which were called by the romantic names of
Tristram, He
tor, Brut,
and
Roland.
Gaston was so
nd of hunting, that he kept upwards of six hundred dogs in his castle. M. de la Curne, ut supr. p. 676. 678. He wrote a treatise on hunting, printed 1520. See Verdier, Art. GASTON
Comte de Foix.
In illustration of the former part of this note, Crescimbeni says,
"Che in molte nobilissime famiglie Italiane, ha 400 a più anni, passarono' i nomi de'
Lancillotti,
de'
Tristani,
de
Galvani,
di
Gal
otti,
delle
Isotte,
[Isoulde] delle
Genevre,
e d'altri cavalieri, à dame in esse TAVOLA RITONDA operanti, &c."
Istor. Volg. Poes. vol. i. lib. v. p. 327. Venez. 4to .
. At his introduction to Richard the second, he presented that brilliant monarch with a book beautifully illuminated, engrossed with his own hand, bound in crimson velvet, and embellished with silver bosses, clasps, and golden roses, comprehending all the matters of AMOURS and MORALITIES, which in the course of twenty-four years he had composed
I should think that this was his romance of MELIADER. Froissart says, that the king at receiving it, asked him what the book treated of. He answered
d' Amour.
The king, adds our historian, seemed much pleased at this; and examined the book in many places, for he was fond of reading as well as speaking French. He then ordered Richard Crendon, the chevalier in waiting, to carry it into his privy chamber,
dont il me
it bo
e ch
re.
He gave copies of the several parts of his chronicle
as they were finished, to his different patrons. Le La
oureur says, that Froissart sent fifty-six quires of his ROMAN AU CRONIQUES to Guillaume de Bailly an illuminator; which, when illuminated, were intended as a present to the king of England. Hist. ch. vi. En la vie de Louis duc d'Anjou. p. 67. seq. See also Cron. i. iv. c. 1.—iii. 26. There are two or three fine illuminated copies of Froissart now remaining among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum. Among the stores of Henry the eighth at his manor of Bedington in Surry, I
ind the fashionable reading of the times exempli
ed in the following books, viz.
"
Item,
a great book of parchmente written and lymned with gold of graver's work
De Confessione Amantis,
with xviii other bookes, Le premier volume de Lancelot, FROISSART, Le grant voiage de Jerusalem, Enguerain de Monstrellot, &c."
MSS. Harl. 1419. f. 382.
Froissart was here properly classed.
. This was in the year 1396. When he left England the same year
Froissart says, that he accompanied the king to various palaces,
"A Elten, a Ledos, a Kinkestove, a Cenes, a Certesée et a Windsor."
That is, Eltham, Leeds, Kingston, Chertsey, &c. Cron. liv. iv. c. 119. p. 348. The French are not much improved at this day in spelling English places and names.
, the king sent him a massy goblet of silver, filled with one hundred nobles
Cron. f. 251. 252. 255. 319. 348. Bayle, who has an article on Froissart, had no idea of searching for anecdotes of Froissart's life in his CHRONICLE. Instead of which, he swells his notes on this article with the contradictory accounts of Mor
ri, Vossius, and others: whose disputes might have been all easily settled by recurring to Froissart himself, who has interspersed in his history many curious particulars relating to his own life and works.
.
As we are approaching to Chaucer, let us here stand still, and take a retrospect of the general manners. The tournaments and carousals of our antient princes, by forming splendid assemblies of both sexes, while they inculcated the most liberal sentiments of honour and heroism, undoubtedly contributed to introduce ideas of courtesy, and to encourage decorum. Yet the national manners still retained a great degree of ferocity, and the ceremonies of the most refined courts in Europe had often a mixture of barbarism, which rendered them ridiculous. This absurdity will always appear at periods when men are so far civilised as to have lost their native simplicity, and yet have not attained just ideas of politeness and propriety. Their luxury was inelegant, their pleasures indelicate, their pomp cumbersome and unwieldy. In the mean time it may seem surprising, that the many schools of philosophy which flourished in the middle ages, should not have corrected and polished the times. But as their religion was corrupted by superstition, so their philosophy degenerated into sophistry. Nor is it science alone, even if founded on truth, that will polish nations. For this purpose, the powers of imagination must be awakened and exerted, to teach elegant feelings, and to heighten our natural sensibilities. It is not the head only that must be informed, but the heart must also be moved. Many classic authors were known in the thirteenth century, but the scholars of that period wanted taste to read and admire them. The pathetic or sublime strokes of Virgil would be but little relished by theologists and metaphysicians.
SECT. XII.
THE most illustrious ornament of the reign of Edward the third, and of his successor Richard the second, was Jeffrey Chaucer; a poet with whom the history of our poetry is by many supposed to have commenced; and who has been pronounced, by a critic of unquestionable taste and discernment, to be the first English versifier who wrote poetically
Johnson's DICTION. Pref. p. 1.
. He was born in the year 1328, and educated at Oxford, where he made a rapid progress in the scholastic sciences as they were then taught: but the liveliness of his parts, and the native gaiety of his disposition, soon recommended him to the patronage of a magnificent monarch, and rendered him a very popular and acceptable character in the brilliant court which I have above described. In the mean time, he added to his accomplishments by frequent tours into France and Italy, which he sometimes visited under the advantages of a public character. Hitherto our poets had been persons of a private and circumscribed education, and the art of versifying, like every other kind of composition, had been confined to recluse scholars. But Chaucer was a man of the world: and from this circumstance we are to account, in great measure, for the many new embellishments which he conferred on our language and our poetry. The descriptions of splendid processions and gallant carousals, with which his works abound, are a proof that he was conversant with the practices and diversions of polite life. Familiarity with a variety of things and objects, opportunities of acquiring the fashionable and courtly modes of speech, connections with the great at home, and a personal acquaintance with the vernacular poets of foreign countries, opened his mind and furnished him with new lights
The earl of Salisbury, beheaded by Henry the fourth, could not but patronise Chaucer. I do not mean for political reasons. The earl was a writer of verses, and very fond of poetry. On this account, his acquaintance was much cultivated by the famous Christina of Pisa; whose works, both in prose and verse, compose so considerable a part of the old French literature. She used to call him,
"Gracieux chevalier, aimant dictiez, et lui-meme gracieux dicteur."
See M. Boivin, Mem. Lit. tom. ii. p. 767. seq. 4to . I have seen none of this earl's
Ditties.
Otherwise he would have been here considered in form, as an English poet.
. In Italy he was introduced to Petrarch, at the wedding of Violante, daughter of Galeazzo duke of Milan, with the duke of Clarence: and it is not improbable that Boccacio was of the party
Froissart was also present. VIE DE PETRARQUE. iii. 772. Amst. 1766. 4to . I believe Paulus Jovius is the first who me
tions this anecdote. Vit. Galeas. ii. p. 152.
. Although Chaucer had undoubtedly studied the works of these celebrated writers, and particularly of Dante, before this fortunate interview; yet it seems likely, that these excursions gave him a new relish for their compositions, and enlarged his knowledge of the Italian fables. His travels likewise enabled him to cultivate the Italian and Provencial languages with the greatest success; and induced him to polish the asperity, and enrich the sterility of his native versification, with softer cadences, and a more copious and variegated phraseology. In this attempt, which was authorised by the recent and popular examples of Petrarch in Italy and Alain Chartier in France
Leland Script. Brit. 421.
, he was countenanced and assisted by his friend John Gower, the early guide and encourager of his studies
Gower, Confess. Amant. l. v. fol. 190. b. Barthel. 1554.
And grete wel Chaucer, when ye mete,
As my dis
ple and my poete:
For in the flowers of his youth,
In sundrie wise as he well couth,
Of dites and of songes glade
The which he for my sake made,
etc.
. The revival of learning in most countries appears to have first owed its rise to translation. At rude periods the modes of original thinking are unknown, and the arts of original composition have not yet been studied. The writers therefore of such periods are chiefly and very usefully employed in importing the ideas of other languages into their own. They do not venture to think for themselves, nor aim at the merit of inventors, but they are laying the foundations of literature: and while they are naturalising the knowledge of more learned ages and countries by translation, they are imperceptibly improving the national language. This has been remarkably the case, not only in England, but in France and Italy. In the year 1387, John Trevisa canon of Westbury in Wiltshire, and a great traveller, not only finished a translation of the Old and New Testaments, at the command of his munificent patron Thomas lord Berkley
See H. Wharton, Append. Cav. p. 49.
, but also translated Higden's POLYCHRONICON, and other Latin pieces
Such as Bartholomew Hantwille De
Propri
ta
ibus Rerum,
lib. xix. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1494. fol. And Vegetius
De Arte Militari.
MSS. Digb. 233. Bibl. Bodl. In the same manuscript is Aegidius Romanus
De R
gimine Principum,
a translation probably by Trevisa. He also translated some pieces of Richard Fitzralph, archbishop of Armagh. See supr. p. 291. He wrote a tract, prefixed to his version of the POLYCHRONICON, on the utility of translations.
De Utilitate Translationum, Dialogus int
r Clericum et Patronum.
See more of his translations in MSS. Harl. 1900. I do not find his ENGLISH BIBLE in any of our libraries, nor do I believe that any copy of it now remains. Caxton mentions it in the preface to his edition of the English POLYCHRONICON.
. But these translations would have been alone insufficient to have produced or sustained any considerable revolution in our language: the great work was reserved for Gower and Chaucer. Wickliffe had also translated the bible
It is observable, that he made his translation from the vulgate Latin version of Jerom. It was finished 1383. See MS. Cod. Bibl. Coll. Eman. Cant. 102.
: and in other respects his attempts to bring about a reformation in religion at this time proved beneficial to English literature. The orthodox divines of this period generally wrote in Latin: but Wickliffe, that his arguments might be familiarised to common readers and the bulk of the people, was obliged to compose in English his numerous theological treatises against the papal corruptions. Edward the third, while he perhaps intended only to banish a badge of conquest, greatly contributed to establish the national diaiect, by abolishing the use of the Norman tongue in the public acts and judicial proceedings, as we have before observed, and by substituting the natural language of the country. But Chaucer manifestly first taught his countrymen to write English; and formed a style by naturalising words from the Provencial, at that time the most polished dialect of any in Europe, and the best adapted to the purposes of poetical expression.
It is certain that Chaucer abounds in classical allusions: but his poetry is not formed on the antient models. He appears to have been an universal reader, and his learning is sometimes mistaken for genius: but his chief sources were the French and Italian poets. From these originals two of his capital poems, the KNIGHT'S TALE
Chaucer alludes to some book from whence this tale was taken, more than once, viz. v. 1.
"Whilom, as
olde stories
tellin us."
v. 1465.
"
As
olde bookes
to us saine, that
all this storie telleth more plain."
v. 2814.
"Of soulis fynd I nought in this
registre.
"
That is, this History, or narrative. See also v. 2297. In the
Legende of good women,
where Chau
r's works are mentioned, is this passage, which I do not well understand. v. 420.
And al the love of Palamon and Arcite
Of Thebis,
though the storie is known lite.
, and the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, are imitations or translations. The first of these is taken from Boccacio.
Boccacio was the disciple of Petrarch: and although principally known and deservedly celebrated as a writer or inventor of tales, he was by his cotemporaries usually placed in the third rank after Dante and Petrarch. But Boccacio having seen the Platonic sonnets of his master Petrarch, in a fit of despair committed all his poetry to the flames
Goujet, Bibl. Fr. Tom. vii. p. 328. But we must except, that besides the poem mentioned below, Boccacio's AMAZONIDA, E FORZE D'ERCOLE, are both now extant: and were printed at Ferrara in, or about, the year 1475. fol.
, except a single poem, of which his own good taste had long taught him to entertain a more favourable opinion. This piece, thus happily rescued from destruction, is at present so scarce and so little known, even in Italy, as to have left its author but a slender proportion of that eminent degree of poetical reputation, which he might have justly claimed from so extraordinary a performance. It is an heroic poem, in twelve books, entitled LE TESEIDE, and written in the octave stanza, called by the Italians
ottava rima,
which Boccacio adopted from the old French chansons, and here first introduced among his countrymen
See Crescimben. I
tor. Volgar. Poes. vol. i. L. i. p. 65. Ven. 1731. 4to .
. It was printed at Ferrara, but with some deviations from the original, and even misrepresentations of the story, in the year 1475
Poema della TESEIDE del Boccacio chiosato, e dichia
ato du Andrea de Bassi in Ferrara, 1475. fol.
. Afterwards, I think, in 1488. And for the third and last time at Venice, in the year 1528
4to .
. But the corruptions have been suffered to remain through every edition.
Whether Boccacio was the inventor of the story of this poem is a curious enquiry. It is certain that Theseus was an early hero of romance
In Lydgate's TEMPLE OF GLAS, never printed, among the lovers painted on the wall is The
eus killing the Mino
aure. I suppose from Ovid. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Fair
ax, 16. Or from Chaucer,
Legende Ar
adne.
. He was taken from that grand repository of the Grecian heroes, the History of Troy, written by Guido de Colonna
See
p. 126. supr. And foregoing not
.
. In the royal library at Paris, there is a manuscript entitled, The ROMAN DE THESEUS ET DE GADIFER
MSS. Bibl. [Reg. Paris.] Tom. ii. 974. E.
. Probably this is the printed French romance, under the title,
"Histoire du Chevalier THESEUS de Coulogne, par sa proüesse empereur de Rome, et aussi de son fils Gadifer empereur du Greece, et de trois enfans du dit Gadifer, traduite de vieille rime Picarde en prose Francoise. Paris, 1534
Fol. tom. ii. Again
ibid. 4to . Bl. Lett. See Lenglet, Bibl. Rom. p. 191.
."
Gadifer, with whom Theseus is joined in this antient tale, written probably by a troubadour of Picardy, is a champion in the oldest French romances
The chevaliers of the courts of Charles the fifth and sixth adopted names from the old romances, such as Lancelot, Gadifer, Carados, &c. Mem. anc. Cheval. i. p. 340.
. He is mentioned frequently in the French romance of Alexander
See p. 141. supr.
. In the romance of PERCEFORREST, he is called king of Scotland, and said to be crowned by Alexander the Great
See Historie du Perce
orrest roy de la Gr. Bretagne, et Gadiffer roy d'Escosse, &c. 6 tom. Paris, 1531. fol.
. But whether or no this prose HISTOIRE DU CHEVALIER THESEUS is the story of Theseus in question, or whether this is the same Theseus, I cannot ascertain. There is likewise in the same royal library a manuscript, called by Montfaucon, HISTORIA THESEI IN LINGUA VULGARI, in ten books
Bibl. MSS. ut supr. p. 773.
. The Abbe Goujet observes, that there is in some libraries of France an old French translation of Boccacio's THESEID, from which Anna de Graville formed the French poem of PALAMON and ARCITE, at the command of queen Claude, wife of Francis the first, about the year 1487
Ut supr. p. 329.
. Either the translation used by Anna de Graville, or her poem, is perhaps the second of the manuscripts mentioned by Montfaucon. Boccacio's THESEID has also been translated into Italian prose, by Nicolas Granuci, and printed at Lucca in 1579
4to . There is a French prose translation with it. The THESEID has also been translated into French prose by D. C. C. 1597. 12mo . Paris.
"La THESEIDE de Jean Boccace, contenant les chastes amours de deux chevaliers Thebans, Arcite et Polemon, &c."
Jane de la Fontaine also translated into French verse this poem. She died 1536. Her translation was never printed. It is applauded by Joannes Secundus, Eleg. xv.
. Boccacio himself mentions the story of Palamon and Arcite. This may seem to imply that the story existed before his time: unless he artfully intended to recommend his own poem on the subject by such an allusion. It is where he introduces two lovers singing a portion of this tale.
"Dioneo e Fiametta gran pezza canterona insieme d'ARCITE e di PALAMONE
Giorn. vii. Nov. 10. pag. 348. edit. Vineg. 1548. 4to . Chaucer himself alludes to this story, B
. Kn. v. 369. Perhaps on the same principle.
."
By Dioneo, Boccacio represents himself; and by Fiametta, his mistress, Mary of Arragon, a natural daughter of Robert king of Naples.
I confess I am of opinion, that Boccacio's THESEID is an original composition. But there is a Greco-barbarous poem extant on this subject, which, if it could be proved to be antecedent in point of time to the Italian poem, would degrade Boccacio to a mere translator on this occasion. It is a matter that deserves to be examined at large, and to be traced with accuracy.
This Greek poem is as little known and as scarce as Boccacio's THESEID. It is entitled,
. It was printed in quarto at Venice in the year 1529.
Stampata in Vinegia per Giovanantonio et fratelli da Sabbio a requisitione de M. Damiano de Santa Maria de Spici
M. D. XXIX.
del Mese de Decembrio
A manuscript of it is in the Royal library at Paris, Cod. 2569. Du Cange, Ind. Auct. Gloss. Gr. Barb. ii. p. 65. col. 1.
. It is not mentioned by Crusius or Fabricius; but is often cited by Du Cange in his Greek glossary, under the title, DE NUPTIIS THESEI ET AEMILIAE. The heads of the chapters are adorned with rude wooden cuts of the story. I once suspected that Boccacio, having received this poem from some of his learned friends among the Grecian exiles, who being driven from Constantinople took refuge in Italy about the fourteenth century, translated it into Italian. Under this supposition, I was indeed surprised to find the ideas of chivalry, and the ceremonies of a tournament minutely described, in a poem which appeared to have been written at Constantinople. But this difficulty was soon removed, when I recollected that the Franks, Venetians, and Germans had been in possession of that city for more than one hundred years; and that Baldwin earl of Flanders was elected emperor of Constantinople in the year 1204, and was succeeded by four Latin or Frankish emperors, down to the year 1261
About which period it is probable that the anonymous Greek poem, called the
Loves of Lybister and Rhodamna,
was written. This appears by the German name Frederic, which often occurs in it, and is grecised, with many other German words. In a manuscript of this poem which Crusius saw, were many paintings and illuminations; where, in the representation of a battle, he observed no guns, but javelins, and bows and arrows. He adds,
"et musicae testudines."
It is written in the iambic measure mentioned below. It is a series of wandering adventures with little art or invention. Lybister, the son of a Latin king, and a Christian, sets forward accompanied with an hundred attendants in search of Rhodamna, whom he had lost by the stratagems of a certain old woman skilled in magic. He meets Clitophon son of a king of Armenia. They undergo various dangers in different countries. Lybister relates his dream concerning a partridge and an eagle; and how from that dream he fell in love with Rhodamna daughter of Chyses a pagan king, and communicated his passion by sending an arrow, to which his name was affixed, into a tower, or castle, called Argyrocastre, &c. See Crusii Turco-Graecia, p. 974. But we find a certain specie
of erotic romances, some in verse and some in prose, exi
ting in the Greek empire, the remains and the dregs of Heliodorus, Achilles Tatius, Xenophon the Ephesian, Charito, Eustathius or Eumathius, and others, about or rather before the year 1200. Such are the Loves of
Rhodan
e and Dosicles
of Theodorus Prodromus, who wrote about the year 1130. This piece was imitated by Nicetas Eugenianus in the
Loves of Charicell and Drosilla.
See Labb. Bibl. Nov. Manu
cript. p. 220. Whether or no
The Loves of Cal
imac
us and
hrysorrhoe, The Erot
c history of Hemperius, The history of the Loves of Florius and Platzaflora,
with some others, all by anonymous authors, and in Greco-barbarous iambics, were written at Constantinople; or whether they were the compositions of the learned Greeks after their dispersion, of whom more will be
aid hereafter, I am not able to determine. See Nessell. i. p. 342. 343. Meurs. Gloss. Gr. Barb. V.
. And Lambecc. v. p. 262. 264.
. Add to this, that the word,
, a TOURNAMENT, occurs in the Byzantine historians
As also
,
Ha
tiludium.
Fr.
Tour
oi.
And
,
hastiludio co
tendere.
John Cantacuzenus relates, that when Anne of Savoy, daughter of Amadeus, the fourth earl of the Allobroges, was married to the emperor Andronicus, junior, the Frankish and Savoya
d nobles, who accompanied the princess, held tilts and tournaments before the court at Constantinople; which, he adds, the Greeks learned o
the Franks. This was in the year 1326. Hist. Byzant.
. i. cap. 42. But Nicetas says, that when the emperor Manuel made some stay at Antioch, the Greeks held a solemn tournament against the Franks. This was about the year 1160. Hist. Byzant. l. iii. cap. 3. Cinnamus observes, that the same emperor Manuel altered the shape of the
hields and lances of the Greeks to those of the Franks. Hist. Byzant. lib. iii. Nicephorus
regoras, who wrote about the year 1340
affirms, that the Greeks learned this practice from the Franks. Hist. Byzant. l. x. p. 339. edit. fol. Genev. 1615. The word
, Knights,
Ch
valiers,
occurs often in
he Byzantine histo
ians, even as early as Anna Commena, who wrote about 1140. Alexiad. lib. xiii. p. 411. And we have in J. Cantacuzenus,
"
,"
He conferred the honour of
Knighthood. This indeed is said of the Franks. Hist. ut supr. l. iii. cap. 25. And in the Greek poem now under consideration one of the titles is,
"
."
How
Theseus
dubbed
the two Thebans
Knights. lib. vii. Signatur.
. fol. vers.
. From the same communication likewise, I mean the Greek exiles, I fancied Boccacio might have procured the stories of several of his tales in the DECAMERON: as, for instance, that of CYMON and IPHIGENIA, where the names are entirely Grecian, and the scene laid in Rhodes, Cyprus, Crete, and other parts of Greece belonging to the imperial territory
Giorn. v. Nov. 1.
. But, to say no more of this, I have at present no sort of doubt of what I before asserted, that Boccacio is the writer and inventor of this piece. Our Greek poem is in fact a literal translation from the Italian THESEID. It consists of twelve books, and is written in Boccacio's octave stanza, the two last lines of every stanza rhyming together. The verses are of the iambic kind, and something like the VERSUS POLITICI, which were common among the Greek scholars a little before and long after Constantinople was taken by the Turks, in the year 1443. It will readily be allowed, that the circumstance of the stanzas and rhymes is very singular in a poem composed in the Greek language, and is alone sufficient to prove this piece to be a translation from Boccacio. I must not forget to observe, that the Greek is extremely barbarous, and of the lowest period of that language.
It was a common practice of the learned and indigent Greeks, who frequented Italy and the neighbouring states about the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to translate the popular pieces of Italian poetry, and the romances or tales most in vogue, into these Greco-barbarous iambics
That is
versus politici
abovementioned, a sort of loose iambic. See Langii PHILOLOGIA GRAECO-BARBARA. Tzetes's Chiliads are written in this versification. See Du Cange, Gl. Gr. ii. col. 1. 96.
. PASTOR FIDO was thus translated. The romance of AL
XANDER THE GREAT was also translated in the same manner by Demetrius Zenus, who flourished in 1530, under the title of
, and printed at Venice in the year 1529
Crus. ut supr. p. 373. 399. See supr. p. 129.
. In the very year, and at the same place, when and where our Greek poem on Theseus, or Palamon and Arcite, was printed. APOLLONIUS OF TYRE, another famous romance of the middle ages, was translated in the same manner, and entitled
That is, Rhythmically, Poetically. Gr. Barb.
Du Cange mentions,
"
."
Ind. Auct. Gloss. Gr. Barb. ii. p. 36. col. b. Compare Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vi. 821. I believe it was first printed at Venice, 1563. viz.
"Historia Apollonii Tyanaei, [Tyrensis] Ven. 1563. Liber Eroticus, Gr. barb. lingua exaratus ad modum rythmorum nostrorum, rarissimus audit, &c."
Vogt. Catal. libr. rarior. p. 345. edit. 1753. I think it was reprinted at Venice, 1696. apud Nicol. Glycem. 8vo. In the works of Velserus, there is
Narratio Eorum quae Apolloni
regi acciderunt,
&c. He says it was first written by some Greek author. Velseri Op. p. 697. edit. 1682. fol. The L
tin is in Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud, 39.—Bodl. F. 7. 7. And F. 11. 45. In the preface, Velserus, who died 1614, says, that he believes the original in Greek still remains at Constantinople, in the library of Manuel Eugenicus. Montsaucon mentions a noble copy of this romance, written in the thirteenth century, in the royal library at Paris. Bibl. MSS. p. 753. Compare MSS. Langb. Bibl. Bodl. vi. p. 15.
G
sta Apollonii,
&c. There is a manuscript in Saxon of the romance of APOLLONIUS OF TYRE. Wanley's Catal. apud Hickes, ii. 146. See Martin. Crusii Turco-Graec. p. 209. edit. 1594 Gower recites many stories of this romance in his CONFESSIO AMANTIS. He calls Apollonius
"a yonge, a freshe, a lustie knight."
See Lib. viii. fol. 175. b.—185. a. But he refers to Godfrey of Viterbo's PANTH
ON, or universal Chronicle, called also
Memoriae Saeculorum,
partly in prose, partly verse, from the Creation of the world, to the year 1186. The author died in 1190.
—A Croni
e in daies gone
The which is cleped Panteone, &c.
fol. 175. a. The play called PERICLE
PRINCE OF TYRE, attributed to Shakespeare, is taken from this story of Apollonius as told by Gower, who speaks the Prologue. It existed in Latin before the year 900. See Barth. Adversar. lviii. cap. i. Chaucer calls him
"of Tyre Apolloneus."
PROL.
Man. L.
TALE. v. 81. p. 50. Urr. edit. And quotes from this romance,
How that the cursid king Antiochus
Biraste his daughter of hir maidinhede,
That is so horrible a tale to rede,
When he her drewe upon the pavement.
In the royal library there is
"Histoire d'Apollin roy de Thir."
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 20 C. ii. 2. With regard to the French editions of this romance, the oldest I have seen is,
"Plaisante et agreable Histoire d' Apollonius prince de Thyr en Affrique et Toy d' Antioch, tradulte par Gilles Corozet, Paris, 1530. 8vo."
And there is an old black-letter edition, printed in quarto at Geneva, entitled,
"La Chronique d' Appollin roy de Thir."
the story appeared in a modern dress by M. le Brun, under the title of
"Avantures d'Apollonius de Thyr,"
printed in twelves at Paris and Roterdam, in 1710. And again at Paris the following year.
. The story of king Arthur they also reduced into the same language. The learned Martinus Crusius, who introduced the Greco-barbarous language and literature into the German universities, relates, that his friends who studied at Padua sent him in the year 1564
together with Homer's Iliad,
REGIS ARTHURI, ALEXANDER above-mentioned, and other fictitious histories or story-books of a similar cast
So I translate
"alios id genus minores libellos."
Crus. ibid. p. 489. Crusius was born in 1526, and died 1607.
. The French history or romance of BERTRAND DU GUESCELIN, printed at Abbeville in 1487
At the end of Le Triumphe des NEUF PREUX, &c. fol. That is, The NINE WORTHIES.
, and that of BELISAIRE, or Be
isarius, they rendered in the same language and metre, with the titles
See du Cange, Gl. Gr. Barb. ii. Ind. Auctor. p. 36. col. b. This history contains Beltrand's, or Bertrand's amours with
,
Chrysatsa,
the king of Antioch's daughter.
, and
, &c
See Lambecc. Bibl. Caesar. Lib v. p. 264. It is remarkable, that the story of
Date obolum Belis
rio
is not in Procopius, but in this romance. Probably Vandyck got this story from a modernised edition of it, called B
LLISAIRE
ou le Conquerant,
Paris. 1643. 8vo. Which, however, is said in the title-page to be taken from Procopius. It was written by the sieur de Grenailles.
. Boccacio himself, in the DECAMERON
They sometimes applied their Greek iambics to the works of the antient Greek poets. Demetrius Zenus, above-mentioned, translated Homer's
: and Nicolaus Lucanus, the Iliad. The first was printed at Venice, and afterwards reprinted by Crusius, Turco-Graec. p. 373. The latter was also printed at Venice, 1526. apud Steph. Sabium. This Demetrius Zenus is said to be the author of the
, or BATTLE OF THE CATS AND MICE. See Crus. ubi supr. 396. And Fabric. Bibl. Gr. i. 264. 223. On account of the Greco-barbarous books which began to grow common, chiefly in Italy, about the year 1520, Stephen a Sabio, or Sabius, above-mentioned, the printer of many of them, published a Greco-barbarous lexicon at Venice, 1527, entitled,
"CORONA PRETIOSA,
."
It is a mixture of modern and antient Greek words, Latin and Italian. It was reprinted at Venice by Petrus Burana, 1546.
, mentions the story of Troilus and Cressida in Greek verse: which I suppose had been translated by some of the fugitive Greeks with whom he was connected, from a romance on that subject; many antient copies of which now remain in the libraries of France
See Lenglet's Bibl. Rom. p. 253.
"Le Roman de Troylus."
And Montfaucon, Bibl. MSS. p. 792. 793. &c. &c. There is,
"L'Amore di Troleo et Griseida que si tratta in buone parte la Guerra di Troja, d'Angelo Leonico, Ven. 1553."
in octave rhyme. 8vo. More will be said of this hereafter, p. 384.
. The story of FLORIUS AND PLATZFLORA, a romance which Ludovicus Vives with great gravity condemns under the name of
Florian and Blanca-Flor,
as one of the pernicious and unclassical popular histories current in Flanders about the year 1523
Lud. Viv. de Christiana Femina. lib. i. cap. cui tit.
Qui non legendi Scriptores,
&c. He lived at Bruges. He mentions other romances common in Flanders, LEONELA AND CANAMOR, CURIAS AND F
ORELA, and PYRAMUS AND THISBE.
, of which there are old editions in French, Spanish
FLORES y BLANCAFLOR.
En Alcala,
1512. 4to.—Histoire Amoreuse de FLORES et de BLANCHEFLEUR, traduite de l'Espagnol par Jacques Vincent. Paris, 1554. 8vo.—FLORIMONT ET PASSEROZE, traduite de l'Espagnol en prose Françoise, Lyon, 15... 8vo. There is a French edition at Lyons, 1571. It was perhaps originally Spanish.
, and perhaps Italian, is likewise extant very early in Greek iambics, most probably as a translation into that language
See supr. p. 348. In the Notes. Where, for want of further information, I left this point doubtful.
. I could give many others; but I hasten to lay before my readers some specimens both of the Italian and the Greek PALAMON AND ARCITE
For the use of the Greek THESEID I am obliged to the politeness of Mr. Stanley, who condescends to patronise and assist the studies he so well understands. I believe there is but one more copy in England, belonging to Mr. Ramsay the painter. Yet I have been told that Dr. George, provost of King's, had a copy. The first edition of the Italian book, no less valuable a curiosity, is in the excellent library of the very learned and communicative Dr. Askew. This is the only copy in England. See BIBL. SMITH. Addend. fol. xl. Venet. 1755. 4to.
. Only premising, that both have about a thousand verses in each of the twelve books, and that the two first books are introductory: the first containing the war of Theseus with the Amazons, and the second that of Thebes, in which Palamon and Arcite are taken prisoners. Boccacio thus describes the Temple of Mars.
N e icampi Tracii sotto icieli hyberni
D a tempesta continua agitati
D oue schieré di nimbi sempiterni
D auenti or qua e or la trasmutati
I n uarii loghi ne iguazosi uerni
E de aqua globi per fredo agropati
G itati sono eneue tutta uia
C he in giazo amano aman se induria
E una selua sterile de robusti
C erri doue eran folti e alti molto
N odosi aspri rigidi e uetusti
C be de ombra eterna ricopreno il uolto
D el tristo suolo enfra li antichi fusti
D i ben mille furor sempre rauolto
V i si sentia grandissimo romore
N e uera bestia anchora ne pastore
I n questa nide la cha delo idio
A rmipotente qu
sta edificata
T utta de azzaio splendido e pulio
D alquale era del sol riuerberata
L aluce che aboreua il logho rio
T utta differro era la stretta entrata
E le porte eran de eterno admante
F errato dogni parte tutte quante
E le le colone di ferro custei
V ide ch
lo edificio sosteneano
L i imp
ti de menti parue alei
V eder ch
fieri dela porta usiano
E il ciecho pechàre e ogne omei
S imilemente quiui si uedeano
V idiue le ire rosse come focho
E la paura palida in quel locho
E con gli occulti ferri itradimenti
V ide ele insidie con uista apparenza
L i discordia sedea esanguinenti
F erri auea in mano eogni differenza
E tutti iloghi pareano strepenti
D aspre minaze edi crudel intenza
E n mezo illocho la uertu tristissima
S edea di degne laude pouerissima
V ideui ancora lo alegro furore
E oltre acio con uolto sanguinoso
L a morte armata uide elo stupore
E ogni altare qui uera copioso
D i sangue sol ne le bataglie fore
D i corpi human cacciato eluminoso
E ra ciaschun di focho tolto aterre
A rse ediffate per le triste guerre
E t era il tempio tutto historiato
Thus,
means paintings, properly history-paintings, and
, and
, is to
paint,
in barbarous Greek. There are various examples in the Byzantine writers. In middle Latinity
Historicgraphus
signifies literally a
Painter.
Perhaps our HISTORIOGRAPHER ROYAL was originally the king's
Illuminator.
occurs in an Inscription published by Du Cange, Dissertat. Joinv. xxvii. p. 319. Where
implies an artist who painted in mosaic work called
, or
,
Musivum.
In the Greek poem before us
is used for a Painter, lib. ii.
.
In the middle Latin writers we have
deping
HISTORIALITER,
To paint with histories or figures,
viz.
"Forinsecus dealbavit illud [delubrum,] intrinsecus autem
depinxit historialiter.
"
Dudo de Act. Norman. l. iii. p. 153. Dante uses the Italian word before us in the same sense. Dante, Purgat. Cant. x.
Quivi era HISTORIATA l' alta gloria
Del Roman Prince.—
frequently occurs, simply for picture or representation in colours. Nilus Monach. lib. iv. Epist. 61.
.
"PICTURES of birds, serpents, and plants."
And in a thousand other instances.
D i socil mano e disopra edintorno
E cio che pria ui uide designato
E ran le prede de nocte edi giorno
T olto ale terre equalunque sforzato
F u era qui in habito musorno
V ideanuissi le gente incatenate
P orti di ferro e forteze spezate
V edeui ancor le naue bellatrici
I n uoti carri eli uolti guastati
E i miseri pianti & infelici
E t ogni forza con li aspecti e lati
O gni ferita ancor si vedea lici
E sangue con le terre mescolati
E ogni logo con aspecto fi
ro
S i uedea Marte turbido e altiero, &c.
L. vii.
The Temple of Venus has these imageries.
P oi presso ase uidde passar belleza
S enza ornamento alchun se riguardando
E gir con lei uidde piaceuolleza
E luna laltra secho comendano
P oi con lor uidde istarsi gioueneza
D estra e adorna molto festegiando
E daltra parte uidde el fole ardire
L usinge e ruffiania in sieme gire
I n mezo el locho in su alte colone
D i rame uidde un tempio al qual dintorno
D anzando giouenette uidde e done
Q ual da se belle: e qual de habito adorno
D iscinte e schalze in giube e in gone
E in cio sol dispendeano il giorno
P oi sopra el tempio uidde uolitare
P assere molte e columbi rugiare
E alentrata del tempio uicina
V idde che si sedeua piana mente
M adona pace: e in mano una cortina
N anzi la porta tenea lieue mente
A presso lei in uista assai tapina
P acientia sedea discreta mente
P allida ne lo aspecto: e dogni parte
E intorno alei uidde promesse e carte
P oi dentro al tempio entrata di sospiri
V i senti un tumulto che giraua
F ochoso tutto di caldi desiri
Q uesto glialtri tutti aluminaua
D i noue
iame nate di martiri
D i qua ciaschun di lagrime grondaua
M osse da una dona cruda e ria
C he uidde li chiamata gilosia, &c.
Some of these stanzas are thus expressed in the Grecobarbarous translation
From which it was thought proper to give on larger specimen, as the language is intelligible only to a very few curious scholars.
.
L. vii. Sign. μ g.
.
In passing through Chaucer's hands, this poem has received many new beauties. Not only those capital fictions and desc
iptions, the temples of Mars, Venus, and Diana, with their allegorical paintings, and the figures of Lycurgus and Emetrius with their retinue, are so much heightened by the bold and spiri
ed manner of the British bard, as to strike us with an air of originality. In the mean time it is to be remarked, that as Chaucer in some places has thrown in strokes of his own, so in others he has contracted the uninteresting and tedious prolixity of narrative, which he found in the Italian poet. And that he might avoid a servile imitation, and indulge himself as he pleased in an arbitrary departure from the original, it appears that he neglected the embarrassment of Boccacio's stanza, and preferred the English heroic couplet, of which this poem affords the first conspicuous example extant in our language.
The situation and structure of the temple of Mars are thus described.
—A forrest
In which there wonneth nether man ne best:
With knotty knarry barrein treys old,
Of stubbys shape, and hideous to behold,
In which ther was a rombyll and a swough
Sound.
As though a storm shulde burstein every bough.
And downward from a hill, under a bent
Precipice.
,
There stode the temple' of Mars armipotent,
Wrought all of burnyd
Burnished.
stele: of which th' entr
Was long, and streight, and gastly for to se:
And therout came such a rage and avyse
Noise.
That it made al the gatys for to ryse
"It strained the doors: Almost forced them from their hinges."
.
The northern light in at the doris shone,
For window on the wall ne was ther none,
Throgh which men mightin any light dissern.
The dore was al of adamant eterne,
Yclenchid overthwart and endelong,
With iron tough, for to makin it strong.
Every pillar the tempyl to sustene
Was tonnè grete
A
great tun.
A tun-weight.
of yren bright and shene.
The gloomy sanctuary of this tremendous fane, was adorned with these characteristical imageries.
There saw I first the dark Ymagining
Of Felony, and all the compassing:
The cruell Irè, redde as any glede
Coal.
.
The Pikpurse also, and eke the pale Drede
Fear.
;
The Smyter with the knife undir the cloke
Dryden has converted this image into clerical hypocrisy, under which he takes an opportunity of gratifying his spleen against the clergy.
Knight's Tale, B. ii. p. 56. edit. 1713.
Next stood Hypocrisy with
holy
leer,
Soft-smiling and demurely looking down,
But hid the dagger underneath the
gown.
:
The shepin brenning with the blakè smoke
Perhaps, for
shepyn
we should read
chepyn,
or
cheping,
i. e. a town, a place of trade. This line is therefore to represent, A City on fire. In Wickliffe's bible we have,
"It is lyk to children sittynge in CHEPYNGE."
Matt. xi. 16.
;
The Treason of the murdering in the bedde
Dryden has lowered this image,
Th' assassinating wife.—
,
The opin Warre with woundis all bebledde;
Conteke
Strife.
with bloodie knyves
This image is likewise entirely misrepresented by Dryden, and turned to a satire on the church.
Contest with sharpen'd knives in
cloysters
drawn,
And all with blood bespread the
holy lawn.
, and sharpe Menace,
All full of chirkin
Any disagreeable noise, or hollow murmur. Properly, the jarring of a door upon the hinges. See also Chaucer's Boeth. p. 364. b. Urr. edit.
"When the felde
chirkinge
agrisethe of the colde, by the fellnesse of the wind Aquilon."
The original is,
"Vento Campus inhorruit."
was that sory place!
The slear of himselfe yet sawe I there,
His hertè blode hath bathid all his here,
The naile ydryvyn in the shode
Head.
anyght
In the night.
,
With the cold deth the mouth gapyng upryght
This couplet refers to the suicide in the preceding one: who is supposed to kill himself by driving a nail into his head in the night, and to be found dead and cold in his bed, with his
"mouth gapyng upryght."
This is properly the meaning of his
"hair being bathed in blood."
Shode,
in the text, is literally
a bush of hair.
Dryden has finely paraphrased this passage.
.
Amiddis of the temple sate Mischaunce,
With discomfort, and sory countenance.
Yet sawe I Wodeness
Madness.
laughing in his rage.
Armid complaint of Theft, and fers Corage;
The carrein in the bush with throte ycorve
Throat cut.
,
A thousand sleyne and not of qualme ystorve
"Slain, not destroyed by sickness or dying a natural death."
.
The tyrant with the prey by force yreft,
The town destroyid ther was nothing left.
Yet saw I brent the ships upon steris,
The hunter straunglid with the wild boris.
The sow fretting
Devouring.
the chyld right in the cradel,
The coke scaldid for all his longè ladel.
Nought was forgott the infortune of Mart;
The cartir
Charioteer.
overriddin by his cart
Chariot.
,
Under the whele he lay full low adowne.
There were also of Marts divisioune,
The Barbour, and the Butcher, and the Smith
That forgith sharpè swerdis on the stith
Anvil.
.
And all above, depeintid in a towr,
Saw I Conquest sitting in grete honour,
With the sharpe swerdè right ovir his hed,
Hanging but by a subtill-twined thred
v. 1998. p. 16. Urr.
.
This groupe is the effort of a strong imagination, unacquainted with selection and arrangement of images. It is rudely thrown on the canvas without order or art. In the Italian poets, who describe every thing, and who cannot, even in the most serious representations, easily suppress their natural predilection for burlesque and familiar imagery, nothing is more common than this mixture of sublime and comic ideas
There are many other instances of this mixture. v. 1179.
"We strive as did the houndis for the bone."
v. 1264.
"We fare as he that dronk is as a mouse, &c."
v. 2762.
"Farewel physick! Go bere the corse to church."
v. 2521.
"Some said he lokid grim and he wolde
ight, &c."
. The form of Mars follows, touched with the impetuous dashes of a savage and spirited pencil.
The statue
Form, or figure. Statuary is not implied here. Thus he mentions the
statue
of Mars on a banner, supr. v. 977. I cannot forbear adding in this place these fine verses of Mars arming himself in haste, from our author's
Complaint of Mars and Venus,
v. 99.
He throwith on his helme of hugè weight;
And girt him with his sworde, and in his hond
His mighty spere, as he was wont to feight,
He shekith so, that it al
ost to wende.
Here we see the force of description without a profusion of idle epithets. These verses are all sinew: they have nothing but verbs and substantives.
of Mars upon a cart
Chariot.
stode,
Armid, and lokid grym as he were wode
Mad.
.
A wolfe ther stod before him at his fete
With eyin red, and of a man he ete.
With sotill pensil paintid was the storie,
In
Recording.
redouting Mars and of his glorie
v. 2043.
.
But the ground-work of this whole description is in the Thebaid of Statius. I will make no apology for transcribing the passage at large, that the reader may judge of the resemblance. Mercury visits the temple of Mars, situated in the frozen and tempestuous regions of Thrace
Chaucer points out this very temple in the introductory lines, v. 1981.
Like to the estries of the grisly place
That hight the
grete temple of Mars in Thrace.
In thilke cold and frosty region,
Ther as Mars has his sovran mansion.
.
Hic steriles delubra notat Mavortia sylvas,
Horrescitque tuens: ubi mille furoribus illi
Cingitur, adverso domus immansueta sub Aemo.
Ferrea compago laterum, ferro arcta teruntur
Limina, ferratis incumbunt tecta columnis.
Laeditur adversum Phoebi jubar, ipsaque sedem
Lux timet, et dirus contristat sydera fulgor.
Digna loco statio. Primis subit impetus amens
E foribus, caecumque Nefas, Iraeque rubentes,
Exanguesque Metus; occultisque ensibus astant
Insidiae, geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum.
Innumeris strepit aula minis. Tristissima Virtus
Stat medio, laetusque Furor, vultuque cruento
Mors armata sedet. Bellorum solus in aris
Sanguis, et incensis qui raptus ab urbibus ignis.
Terrarum exuviae circum, et fastigia templi
Captae insignibant gentes, coelataque ferro
Fragmina portarum, bellatricesque carinae,
Et vacui currus, protritaque curribus ora
Stat. Theb. vii. 40. And below we have Chaucer's
Doors of adamant eterne,
viz. v. 68.
—Clausaeque adamante perenni
Dissiluere fores.—
Statius also calls Mars,
Armipotens.
v. 78. A sacrifice is copied from Statius, where says Chaucer, v. 2296.
And did her thingis as men might behold
In
Stace of Thebes.—
I think Statius is copied in a simile, v. 1640. The introduction of this poem is also taken from the Thebaid, xii. 545. 481. 797. Compare Chaucer's lines, v. 870. seq. v. 917. seq. v. 996. seq. The funeral pyre of Arcite is also translated from Theb. vi. 195. seq. See Ch. v. 2940. seq. I likewise take this opportunity of observing, that Lucretius and Plato are imitated in this poem. Together with many passages from Ovid and Virgil.
.
Statius was a favourite writer with the poets of the middle ages. His bloated magnificence of description, gigantic images, and pompous diction, suited their taste, and were somewhat of a piece with the romances they so much admired. They neglected the gentler and genuine graces of Virgil, which they could not relish. His pictures were too correctly and chastly drawn to take their fancies: and truth of design, elegance of expression, and the arts of composition, were not their objects
In Troilus and Cresside
he has translated the arguments of the twelve books of the Thebaid of Statius. See B. v. p. 1479. seq.
. In the mean time we must observe, that in Chaucer's Temple of Mars many personages are added: and that those which existed before in Statius have been retouched, enlarged, and rendered more distinct and picturesque by Boccacio and Chaucer. Arcite's address to Mars, at entering the temple, has great dignity, and is not copied from Statius.
O strongè god, that in the reignis cold
Of Thrace honourid art, and God yhold!
And hast in everie reign, and everie lond,
Of armis al the bridil in thy hond;
And them fortunist, as they lest devise,
Accept of me my pitous sacrifice
v. 2375.
.
The following portrait of Lycurgus, an imaginary king of Thrace, is highly charged, and very great in the gothic style of painting.
Ther mayst 'ou
You.
see, commyng with Palamon,
Lycurgus himself, the grete king of Thrace;
Blake was his berde, and manly was his face:
The circles of his eyin in his hede
They glowdin betwixtè yalowe and rede:
And like a lyon lokid he about,
With kempid heris on his browis stout:
His limis grete, his brawnis herd and strong,
His shulderes brode, his armis round and long.
And as the guise ywas in his contrè
Full high upon a char of gold stode he:
With four grete white bullis in the tracis.
Instead of court cote armur, on his harneis
With yalowe nailes, and bright as any gold,
He hath a beris
A bear's.
skinn cole-blak for old.
His long here was kemped behind his bak,
As any raven's fether't shone for blak.
A wrethe of golde armgrete
As big as your arm.
, of hugè weight,
Upon his hed, sett ful of stonis bright,
Of fine rubies, and clere diamondes.
About his char ther wentin white alandes
Greyhounds. A favourite species of dogs in the middle ages. In the antient pipe-rolls, payments are frequently made in greyhounds. Rot. Pip. an. 4. Reg. Johann. [A. D. 1203.]
"Rog. Constabul. Cestrie debet D. Marcas, et X. palfridos et X.
laissas Leporariorum
pro habenda terra Vidonis de Loverell de quibus debet reddere per ann.
C. M.
"
Ten leashes of greyhounds.
Rot. Pip. an. 9. Reg. Johann. [A. D. 1208.]
"SUTHANT. Johan. Teingre debet
C. M.
et X.
leporarios magnos, pulchros, et bonos,
de redemtione sua, &c."
Rot. Pip. an. 11. Reg. Johan. [A. D. 1210.]
"EVERVEYCSIRE. Rog. de Mallvell redd. comp. de I. palefrido velociter currente, et II.
Laisiis leporariorum
pro habendis literis deprecatoriis ad Matildam de M."
I could give a thousand other instances of the sort.
,
Twentie and more, as grete as any stere,
To huntin at the lyon or wild bere;
And folowid him with mosil
Muzzle.
fast ybound,
Coleres of gold
In Hawes's PASTIME OF PLEASURE, [written temp. Hen. vii.] Fame is attended with two greyhounds; on whose golden collars Grace and
Governaunce,
are inscribed in diamond letters. See next note.
and torretes
Rings. The fastening of dogs collars. They are often mentioned in the INVENTORY of furniture, in the royal palaces of Henry the eighth, above cited. MSS. Harl. 1419. In the
Castle of Windsor.
Article COLLARS. f. 409.
"Two greyhoundes collars of crimsun velvett and cloth of gold, lacking
torrettes.
" — "Two other collars with the kings armes, and at the ende portcullis and rose." — "Item, a collar embrawdered with pomegranates and roses with
turrets
of silver and gilt." — "A collar garnished with stoleworke with one shallop shelle of silver and gilte, with
torrettes
and pendauntes of silver and guilte." — "A collar of white velvette, embrawdered with perles, the swivels of silver."
filid
Filed. Highly polished.
round.
A hundrid lordis had he irr his rout,
Armid ful wele, with hertis stern and stout
v. 2129.
.
The figure of Emetrius king of India, who comes to the aid of Arcite, is not inferior in the same style, with a mixture of grace.
With Arcitè, in storys as men find,
The grete Emetrius, the king of Ind,
Upon a stedè bay, trappid in stele,
Coverid with clothe of gold diaprid
See this word expl
ined above, p. 176.
wel,
Cam riding like the god of armis Mars:
His cote armure was of the clothes of Tars
Not of Tarsus in Cilicia. It is rather an abbreviation for
Tartarin,
or
Tartarium.
See Chaucer's
Flowre and Leafe,
v. 212.
On every trumpe hanging a brode bannere
Of fine
Tartarium
full richely bete.
That it was a costly stuff appears from hence.
"Et ad faciendum unum Jupoun de
Tartaryn
blu pouderat. cum garterii
blu paratis cum boucles et pendants de argento deaurato."
Comp. J. Coke Provisoris Magn. Garderob. temp. Edw. iii. ut supr. It often occurs in the wardrob
accounts for furnishing to
naments. Du Cange says, that this was a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary. Glo
.
Tartarium.
But Skinner in V. derives it from Torto
a in the Milanese. He cites Stat. 4. Hen. viii. c. vi.
,
Couchid with perles white and round and grete;
His sadill was of brent
Burnt. Burnished.
gold new ybete,
A mantlet upon his shuldères hanging,
Bretfull
Quite full.
of rubies redde as fire sparkling.
His crispè here like ringes
Rings.
was yronne,
And yt was yalowe, glittering as the sonne.
His nose was high, his eyin bright citryn
Lemon-colour. Lat.
Citrinus.
Ruddy his lippes, his colour was sangyn.
And a fewe frekles in his face yspreint
Sprinkled.
,
Betwixt yalowe and somedele blak ymeint
"A mixture of black and yellow."
.
And as a lyon he his eyis kest
Cast. Darted.
.
Of five and twenty yere his age I ghest.
His berde was well begonning for to spring,
His throte was as a trompet thondiring.
Upon his hede he wered, of laurer grene
A garlond freshe, and lustie for to sene.
Upon his honde he bore for his delite
An egle tame, as ony lilie white
See supr. p. 166.
.
An hundrid lordis had he with them there,
All armid, saaf their heddis, in their gere
Armour.
.
About this king ther ran on every part
Full many a tamè lyon, and libart
Libbard. v. 2157.
.
The banner of Mars displayed by Theseus, is sublimely conceived.
The red statue of Mars, with spere and targe,
So shineth in his white banner large
That al the feldis glittrin up and down
v. 977.
.
This poem has many strokes of pathetic description, of which these specimens may be selected.
Upon that other side when Palamon
Wist that his cosin Arcite was ygon,
Such sorowe makith he, that the grete tour
Resoundid of his yelling and clamour:
The fetteris upon his shinnis grete
Werin of his bitter salt teris wete
v. 1277.
.
Arcite is thus described, after his return to Thebes, where he despairs of seeing Emilia again.
His slepe, his mete, his drink, is hym byrest;
That lene he waxith, and drie as a sheft:
His eyin hollow, grislie to behold
His hew sallowe, and pale as ashin
Ashes.
cold:
Solitary he was, evir alone,
And wayling all the night making his mone.
And if he herdè song or instrument,
Than would he wepin, he might not be stent
Stayed.
.
So febyll were his spirits and so low,
And chaungid so that no man might him know
V. 1363.
.
Palamon is thus introduced in the procession of his rival Arcite's funeral.
Tho gan this wofull Theban Palamon
With slotery
Squallid.
berde, and ruggy ashey heres,
In clothis blak bedropped all with teres,
And, passing ovir weping Emily,
Was rufullist of all the company
V. 2884.
.
To which may be added the surprise of Palamon, concealed in the forest, at hearing the disguised Arcite, whom he supposes to be the squire of Theseus, discover himself at the mention of the name of Emilia.
—Through his herte
He felt a cold swerde suddenly to glide:
For ire he quoke, no longer wold he bide,
And whan that he had heard Arcitis tale,
As he were wode, wyth face al dede and pale,
He sterte him up out of the bushis thick, &c.
V. 1576.
A description of the morning must not be omitted; which vies, both in sentiment and expression, with the most finished modern poetical landscape, and finely displays our author's talent at delineating the beauties of nature.
The mery lark, messengere of the day,
Salewith
Saluteth.
in her song the morowe gray;
And firie Phebus rysith up so bright,
That all the orient laugith at the sight
In the Greek,
. iii. Signat. ε e iiii.
, &c. See Dante, Purgat. c. 1. p. 234.
:
And with his stremis dryeth in the greves
Groves. Bushes.
The silvir dropis hanging in the leves
1493.
.
Nor must the figure of the blooming Emilia, the most beautiful object of this vernal picture, pass unnoticed.
—Emilie, that fairir was to sene
Than is the lillie upon the stalk grene;
And freshir than the May with flouris newe,
For with the rosy colour strofe hir hewe
V. 1037.
.
In other parts of his works he has painted morning scenes
con amore:
and his imagination seems to have been peculiarly struck with the charms of a rural prospect at sun-rising.
We are surprised to find, in a poet of such antiquity, numbers so nervous and flowing: a circumstance which greatly contributed to render Dryden's paraphrase of this poem the most animated and harmonious piece of versification in the English language. I cannot leave the KNIGHT'S TALE without remarking, that the inventor of this poem, appears to have possessed considerable talents for the artificial construction of a story. It exhibits unexpected and striking turns of fortune; and abounds in those incidents which are calculated to strike the fancy by opening resources to sublime description, or interest the heart by pathetic situations. On this account, even without considering the poetical and exterior ornaments of the piece, we are hardly disgusted with the mixture of manners, the confusion of times, and the like violations of propriety, which this poem, in common with all others of its age, presents in almost every page. The action is supposed to have happened soon after the marriage of Theseus with Hippolita, and the death of Creon in the siege of Thebes: but we are soon transported into more recent periods. Sunday, the celebration of matins, judicial astrology, heraldry, tilts and tournaments, knights of England, and targets of Prussia
The knights of the Teutonic order were settled in Prussia, before 1300. See also Ch. Prol. v. 53. Where tournaments in Prussia are mentioned. Arcite quotes a fable from Aesop, v. 1179.
, occur in the city of Athens under the reign of Theseus.
SECT. XIII.
CHAUCER'S ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE is translated from a French poem entitled, LE ROMAN DE LA ROSE. It was begun by William of Lorris, a student in jurisprudence, who died about the year 1260
Fauchet, p. 198.
. Being left unfinished, it was completed by John of Meun, a native of a little town of that name, situated on the river Loire near Orleans, who seems to have flourished about the year 1310
Id. ibid. p. 200. He also translated Boethius
De Consolatione,
and
Abelard's Letters,
and wrote
Answers of the Sybills,
&c.
. This poem is esteemed by the French the most valuable piece of their old poetry. It is far beyond the rude efforts of all their preceding romancers: and they have nothing equal to it before the reign of Francis the first, who died in the year 1547. But there is a considerable difference in the merit of the two authors. William of Lorris, who wrote not one quarter of the poem, is remarkable for his elegance and luxuriance of description, and is a beautiful painter of allegorical personages. John of Meun is a writer of another cast. He possesses but little of his predecessor's inventive and poetical vein; and in that respect was not properly qualified to finish a poem begun by William of Lorris. But he has strong satire, and great liveliness
The poem consists of 22734 verses. William of Lorris's part ends with v. 4149. viz.
"A peu que je ne m'en desespoir."
. He was one of the wits of the court of Charles le Bel.
The difficulties and dangers of a lover, in pursuing and obtaining the object of his desires, are the literal argument of this poem. This design is couched under the allegory of a Rose, which our lover after frequent obstacles gathers in a delicious garden. He traverses vast ditches, scales lofty walls, and forces the gates of adamantine and almost impregnable castles. These enchanted fortresses are all inhabited by various divinities; some of which assist, and some oppose, the lover's progress
In the preface of the edition printed in the year 1538, all this allegory is turned to religion. The Rose is proved to be a state of grace, or divine wisdom, or eternal beatitude, or the Holy Virgin to which heretics cannot gain access. It is the white Rose of Jericho,
Quasi plantatio Ros
in Jericho,
&c. &c. The chemists, in the mean time, made it a search for the Philosopher's Stone: and other professions, with laboured commentaries, explained it into their own respective sciences.
.
Chaucer has luckily translated all that was written by William of Lorris
See Occleve's
Letter of Cupide,
written 1402. Urry's
Chaucer,
p. 536. v. 283. Who calls John of Moon the author of the
Romaunt of the Rose.
: he gives only part of the continuation of John of Meun
Chaucer's poem consists of 7699 verses: and ends with this verse of the original, viz. v. 13105.
"Vous aurez absolution."
But Chaucer has made several omissions in John of Meun's part, before he comes to this period. He has translated all William of Lorris's part, as I have observed; and his translation of that part ends with v. 4432. viz.
"Than shuldin I fallin in wanhope."
Chaucer's cotemporaries called his
Romant of the Rose,
a translation. Lydgate says that Chaucer
—Notably did his businesse
By grete avyse his wittes to dispose,
To
translate
the ROMANS OF THE ROSE.
Prol. Boch. st. vi. It is manifest that Chaucer took no pains to disguise his translation. He literally follows the French, in saying, that a river was
"lesse than
Saine.
"
i. e. the Seine at Paris. v. 118.
"No wight in all Paris."
v. 7157. A grove has more birds
"than ben in all the relme of
Fraunce,
v. 495. He calls a pine,
"A tree in
France
men call a pine."
v. 1457. He says of roses,
"so faire werin nevir in
Rone.
"
v. 1674.
"That for Paris ne for Pavie."
v. 1654. He has sometimes reference to French ideas, or words, not in the original. As
"Men clepin hem Sereins in France."
v. 684.
"From Jerusalem to Burgoine."
v. 554.
"Grein de Paris."
v. 1369. Where Skinner says,
Paris
is contracted for
Paradise.
In mentioning minstrells and juglers, he says, that some of them
"Songin songes of Loraine."
v. 776. He adds,
For in Loraine there notis be
Full swetir than
in this contre.
There is not a syllable of these songs, and singers, of Loraine, in the French. By the way, I suspect that Chaucer translated this poem while he was at Paris. There are also many allusions to English affairs, which I suspected to be Chaucer's; but they are all in the French original. Such as,
"Hornpipis of Cornevaile."
v. 4250. These are called in the original,
"Chalemeaux de Cornouaille."
v. 3991. A knight is introduced, allied to king
"Arthour of Bretaigne."
v. 1199. Who is called,
"Bon roy Artus de Bretaigne."
Orig. v. 1187. Sir Gawin, and Sir Kay, two of Arthur's knights, are characterised, v. 2206. seq. See Orig. v. 2124. Where the word
Keulx
is corrupt for Keie. But there is one passage, in which he mentions a
Bachelere
as fair as
"The Lordis sonne of Windisore."
v. 1250. This is added by Chaucer, and intended as a compliment to some of his patrons. In the
Legende of good Women,
Cupid says to Chaucer, v. 329.
For in plain text, withoutin nede of glose,
Thou hast
translatid
the
Romaunt of the Rose.
. How far he has improved on the French original, the reader shall judge. I will exhibit passages selected from both poems; respectively placing the French under the English, for the convenience of comparison. The renovation of nature in the month of May is thus described.
That it was May, thus dremed me,
Qu'on joli moys de May songeoye,
Ou temps amoreux plein de joye,
Qu
toute chose si s'
sgaye,
Si qu'il n'y a buissons ne haye
Qui en May parer ne se vueille,
Et couvrir de nouvelle fueille:
Les boys recouvrent leur verdure,
Qui sont sces tant qui l'hiver dure;
La terre mesmes s'en orgouille
Pour la rougée qui ta mouille,
En oublian la povretè
Où elle a tout l'hiver estè;
Lors devient la terre si gobe,
Qu'elle veult avoir neusve robe;
Si sçet si cointe robe faire,
Que de couleurs y a cent paire,
D'herbes, de
leures Indes and Perses:
Et de maintes couleurs diverses
Est la robe que je devise
Parquoy la terre mieulx se prise.
Les oiseaulx qui tant se sont teuz
Pour l'hiver qu'ils ont tous sentuz,
Et pour le froit et divers temps,
Sont en May, et par la printemps,
Si liez, &c.
v. 51.
,
In time of love and jollite,
That all thing ginnith waxin gay,
For ther is neither bushe nor hay
Bush, or hedge-row. Sometimes Wood. Rot. Pip. an 17. Henr. iii.
"Et Heremitae sancti Edwardi in
haga
de Birchenwude, xl. sol."
In May that it n'ill shroudid bene,
And it with newe levis wrene
Hide. From
wrie,
or
wrey,
to
cover.
:
These wooddis eke recoverin grene,
That drie in winter ben to sene;
And the erth waxith proude withall
For sote dewis that on it fall,
And the povir estate forgette
In whiche that winter had it sette:
And than becometh the grounde so proude,
That it will have a newè shroud;
And make so quaynt his robe and fayre,
That it had hewes an hundred payre,
Of grasse and flowris Inde and Pers:
And many hewis ful divers
That is the robe I mene iwis,
Through which the ground to praisin is,
The birdis, that han lefte thir songe
While they han suffrid cold ful stronge,
In wethers grille
Cold.
and darke to sight,
Ben in May, for the sunnè bright
So glad, &c
v. 51.
.
In the description of a grove, within the garden of Mirth, are many natural and picturesque circumstances, which are not yet got into the storehouse of modern poetry.
These trees were sett as I devise
Mais sachiès que les arbres furent
Si loing a loing comme estre durent
L'ung fut de l'autre loing assis
De cinque toises voyre de six,
Mais moult furent
ueilluz et haulx
Pour gardir de l'este le chaulx
Et si espis par dessus furent
Que chaleurs percer ne lis peuvent
Ne ne povoient bas descendre
Ne faire mal a l'erbe tendre.
Au vergier eut dains & chevreleux,
Et aussi beaucoup d'escureux,
Qui par dessus arbres sailloyent;
Conuins y avoit qui yssoient
Bien souvent hors de leurs tanieres,
En moult de diverses manieres.
v. 1368.
,
One from another in a toise,
Five fadom or sixe, I trowe so,
But they were hie and gret also;
And for to kepe out wel the sunne,
The croppis were so thik yrunne
"The tops, or boughs, were so thickly twisted together."
,
And everie branch in othir knitte
And ful of grene levis sitte
Set.
,
That sunnè might ther none discende
Lest the tendir grassis shende
Be hurt.
.
Ther might men does and roes ise
See.
,
And of squirels ful grete plente,
From bow to bow alwaie lepinge;
Connis
Conies.
ther were also playing
Chaucer imitates this passage in the
Assemble of Foules.
v. 190. seq. Other passages of that poem are imitated from
Roman de la Rose.
.
That comin out of ther clapers
Burroughs.
,
Of sondrie colors and maners;
And madin many a turneying
Upon the freshe grasse springing
v. 1391.
.
Near this grove were shaded fountains without frogs, running into murmuring rivulets, bordered with the softest grass enamelled with various flowers.
In placis sawe I wellis there
Par lieux y eut cleres fontaines,
Sans barbelotes
A sp
cies of insect o
ten found in stagnant water.
and sans raines,
Qui des arbres estoient umbrez,
Par moy ne vous seront nombrez,
Et petit ruisseaulx, que Deduit
Avoit la trouvés par conduit;
L'eaue alloit aval faisant
Son melodieux et plaisant.
Aux bortz des ruisseaulx et des rives
Des fontaines cleres et vives
Poignoit l'erbe dru et plaisant
Grant soulas et plaisir faisant.
Amy povoit avec sa mye
Soy deporter ne'r doubtez mye.—
Violette y fut moult belle
Et aussi parvenche nouvelle;
Fleurs y eut blanches et vermeilles,
Ou ne pourroit trouver pareilles,
De toutes diverses couleurs,
De haulx pris et de grans valeurs,
Si estoit soef flairans
Et reflagrans et odorans.
v. 1348.
In whichè ther no froggis were,
And faire in shadow was eche wel;
But I ne can the nombre tel
Of stremis smale, that by devise
Mirth had don com thorough condise
Conduits.
,
Of which the watir in renning,
Gan makin a noise ful liking.
About the brinkis of these wellis,
And by the stremes ovir at ellis
Sprange up the grasse as thick isett
And soft eke as any velvett.
On which man might his leman ley
As softe as fetherbed to pley.—
There sprange the violet all newe,
And fresh perwinke
Periwinkle.
riche of hewe;
And flouris yalowe white and rede,
Such plenti grew ther ner in mede:
Full gaie was al the grounde and queint
And poudrid, as men had it peint,
With many a fresh and sondry floure
That castin up ful gode savoùre
v. 1411.
.
But I hasten to display the peculiar powers of William de Lorris in delineating allegorical personages; none of which have suffered in Chaucer's translation. The poet suppo
es, that the garden of Mirth, or rather Love, in which grew the Rose, the object of the lover's wishes and labours, was enclosed with embatlled walls, richly painted with various figures, such as Hatred, Avarice, Envy, Sorrow, Old Age, and Hypocrisy. Sorrow is thus represented.
SORROWE was paintid next ENVIE
De les ENVIE etoit TRISTESS
Painte aussi et garny
d'angoisse.
Et bien paroit à sa couleur
Qu'elle avoit a cueur grant douleur:
Et sembloit avoir la jaunice,
La n'y faisoit riens AVARICE,
Le paliss
ur ne de maigresse
Car le travaile et la destresse, &c.
Moult sembloit bien que fust dolente;
Car el n'avoit pas este lente
D'esgratignier toute sa chiere;
Sa robe ne luy estoit chiere
En mains lieux l'avoit dessirée,
Comme culle qui fut yrée.
Ses cheveulx dérompus estoient,
Qu'autour de son col pendoient,
Presque les avoit tous desroux
De maltalent et de corroux.
v. 300.
Upon that wal of masonrie.
But wel was seen in her colour,
That she had livid in languour;
Her seemid to have the jaundice,
Not half so pale was AVARICE,
Ne nothing alike of lenenesse
For sorowe, thought, and grete distresse.
A s'rowful thing wel semid she;
Nor she had nothing slow ybe
For to bescrachin of hir face,
And for to rent in many place
Hir clothes, and for to tere her swire
Neck.
,
As she that was fulfilled of ire:
And al to torn lay eke hir here
About hir shoulders, here and there;
As she that had it all to rent
For angre and for male talent
v. 300.
.
Nor are the images of HATRED and AVARICE inferior.
Amiddis sawe I HATE ystonde
Au milieu de mur je vy HA
NE.
Si n'estoit pas bien atournée,
Ains sembloit estre forcence
Rechignée estoit et fron
é
Avoit le nez et rebo
rse.
Moult hydeuse estoit et souilleè
Et fut sa teste entortilleè
Tres ordement d'un touaille,
Qui moult estoit d'horrible taille.
143.
.—
And she was nothing wel araide
But like a wode woman afraide:
Yfrowncid foule was hir visage,
And grinning for dispiteous rag
,
Her nose ysnortid up for tene
Anger.
Full hideous was she forti sene,
Full foul and rustey was sh
this,
Her hed iwrithin was iwis,
Full grimly with a grete towaile, &c
v. 147.
.
The design of this work will not permit me to give the portrait of Idleness, the portress of the garden of Mirth, and of others, which form the groupe of dancers in the garden: but I cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing those of Beauty, Franchise, and Richesse, three capital figures in this genial assembly.
The God of love, jolife and light
Le Dieu d'amours si s'estoit pris
A une dame de hault pris,
Pres se tenoit de son costé
Celle dame eut nom BEAULTE.
Ainsi comme une des cinque flesches
En ille aut toutes bonnes taiches:
Point ne fut obscur, ne brun,
Mais fut clere comme la lune.—
Tendre eut la chair comme rousée,
Simple fut comme une espousée.
Et blanch comme fleur de lis,
Visage eut bel doulx et alis,
Elle estoit gresle et alignée
N'estoit fardi
ne pignée,
Car elle n'avoit pas mestier
De soy farder et affaictier.
Les cheveulx ent blons et si longs
Qu' ils batoient aux talons.
v. 1004.
,
Ladde on his honde a ladie bright,
Of high prise, and of gret degre,
Thi ladie called was BEAUTIE.
And an arowe, of which I told,
Full well ythewid
Having good qualities. See supr. v. 939. seq.
was she holde:
Ne was she darke ne browne, but bright,
And clere as is the monè light.—
Her fleshe was tendre as dewe of floure,
Her chere was simple as birde in boure:
As white as lilie, or rose in rise
On the bush. Or, In perfection. Or, A budding rose.
,
Her face was gentil and tretise
Well proportioned.
;
Fetis
F
tious.
Handsome.
she was, and smal to se,
No wintrid
Contracted.
browis heddè she;
No popped
Affectedly dressed. Properly, dressed up like a
puppet.
here, for't neded nought
To windir
To trim. To adorn.
her or to peint ought.
Her tresses yalowe and long straughten
Stretch
d.
Spread abroad.
Unto her helis down the
Reached.
raughten
v. 1003.
.
Nothing can be more sumptuous and superb than the robe, and other ornaments, of RICHESSE, or Wealth. They are imagined with great strength of fancy. But it should be remembered, that this was the age of magnificence and shew; when a profusion of the most splendid and costly materials were lavished on dress, generally with little taste and propriety, but often with much art and invention.
RICHESSE a robe of purpre on had
De pourpre fut le vestement
A RICHESSE, si noblement,
Qu'en tout le monde n'eust plus bel,
Mieulx fait, ne aussi plus nouvel:
Pourtraictes y furent d'orfroys
Hystoryes d'empereurs et roys.
Et encores y avoit-il
Un ouvrage noble et sobtil;
A noyaulx d'or au col fermoit,
Et a bendes d'azur tenoit:
Noblement cut le chief parè
De riches pierres decorè
Qui gettoient moult grant clartè,
Tout y estoit bien assortè.
Puis eut une riche sainture
Sainte par dessus sa vesture:
Le boucle d'une pierre fu,
Grosse et de moult grant vertu
Celluy qui sur soy le protoit
De tous venins garde estoit.—
D'autre pierre fut le mordans
Qui guerissoit du mal des dens.
Cest pierre portoit bon cur,
Qui l'avoit pouvoit estre asseur
De sa santè et de sa vei,
Quant à jeun il l'avoit vei:
Les cloux furent d'or epurè,
Par dessus le tissu doré,
Qui estoient grans et pesans,
En chascun avoit deux besans.
Si eut avecques a Richesse
Uns cadre d'or mis sur la tresse,
Si riche, si plaisant, et si bel,
Qu'onques ou ne veit le pareil:
De pierres estoit fort garny,
Precieuses et aplany,
Qui bien en vouldroit deviser,
On ne les pouvroit pas priser
Rubis, y eut saphirs, jagonces,
Esmerandes plus de cent onces:
Mais devant eut par grant maistrise,
Un escarboucle bien assise
Et le pierre si clere estoit
Que cil qui devant la mettoit
Si en povoit veoir au besoing
A soy conduire une lieue loing,
Telle clartè si en yssoit
Que Richesse en resplandissoit
Par tout le corps et par sa face
Aussi d'autour d'elle la place.
v. 1066.
,
Ne trow no
that I lie or mad
"That I lie, or am mad."
,
For in this world is none it liche
Like.
,
Ne by a thousand dele
Parts.
so riche,
Ne none so faire: For it full wele
With orfraies
Embroidery in gold.
laid was everie dele,
And purtraied in the ribaninges
Laces laid on robes. Embroideries.
Of dukis stories and of kinges;
And with a bend
Band.
Knott.
of gold tassiled,
And knoppis
Knobbs.
Buttons.
fine of gold amiled
Enameled.
Enameling, and perhaps pictures in enamel, were common in the middle ages. From the Testament of Joh. de Foxle, knight, Dat. apud Bramshill Co. Southampt. Nov. 5. 1378.
"Item lego domino abbati de Waltham unum annulum auri grossi, cum una saphiro infixa, et nominibus trium regum [of Cologne] sculptis in eodem annulo. Item lego Margarite sorori mee unam tabulam argenti deaurati et
amelitam,
minorem de duabus quas habeo, cum diversis ymaginibus sculptis in eadem.—Item lego Margerie uxori Johannis de Wilton unum monile auri, cum S. litera sculpta et
amelita
in eodem."
Registr. Wykeham, Episc. Winton. P. ii. fol. 24.
See also Dugd. Bar. i. 234. a.
.
About her neck, of gentle' entaile
Of good workmanship, or carving
From
Intagliare.
Ital.
,
Was set the richè chevesaile
Necklace.
;
In which ther was ful grete plente
Of stonis clere and faire to se.
RICHESE a girdle had upon
The bokill
Buckle.
of it was of ston
Of vertu grete and mokill
Muck
l.
Great.
might,
For who so bare the ston so bright
Of venim durst him nothing doubt
While he the ston had him about.—
The mordaunt
Tongue of a buckle.
Mordeo.
Lat.
wrought in noble guise
Was of a ston ful precious,
That was so fin and vertuous
That whole a man it couth ymake
Of palsie, and of the tothe ake:
And yet the ston had soche a grace
That he was sikre
Certain.
in evvrie place
All thilkè daie not blinde to bene
That fasting might that ston sene.
The barris
I cannot give the precise meaning of
Barris,
nor of
Cloux
in the French. It seems to be part of a buckle. In the wardrobe-roll, quoted above, are mentioned,
"
One hundred garters
cum boucles,
barris,
et pendentibus de argento."
For which were delivered,
"ccc barrs argenti."
An. 21. Edw. iii.
were of gold full fine
Upon a tissue of sattin,
Full hevie, grete, and nothing light,
In everiche was a besaunt wight
"The weight of a besant."
A byzant was a species of gold-coin, stamped at
Byza
tium.
A wedge of gold.
.
Upon the tressis of RICHESSE
Was sett a circle of noblesse,
Of brende
Burnished.
gold, that full light yshone,
So faire, trowe I, was nevir none.
But he were konning for the nones
"Well-skilled in these things."
That could devisin all the stones,
That in the circle shewin
lere,
It is a wonder thing to here:
For no man could or praise
Appraise.
Value.
, or gesse,
Of
hem the value or richesse:
Rubies ther were, saphirs, ragounces
The gem called a
Jacinth.
We should read, in Chaucer's text,
Jagonces
instead of
Ragounces,
a word which never existed; and which Speght, who never consulted the French
Roman de la Rose,
interprets merely from the sense of the context, to be
"A kind of precious stone."
Gloss. Ch. in V. The knowledge of precious stones was a grand article in the natural philosophy of this age: and the medical virtue of gems, alluded to above, was a doctrine much inculcated by the Arabian naturalists. Chaucer refers to a treatise on gems, called the LAPID
RY, famous in that time.
House of Fame,
L. ii. v. 260.
And thei were sett as thicke of ouchis
Fine, of the finist stonis faire
That
en
r
di
in the LAPIDAIRE.
Montfaucon, in the royal library at Paris, recites,
"Le LAPIDAIRE, de la vertu des pierres."
Catal. MSS. p. 794.
This I take to be the book here referred to by Chaucer. Henry of Huntingdon wrote a book
D
Gemmis.
He flourished about 1145. Tann. Bibl. p. 395. See a Greek Treatise, Du Cange, Gloss. Gr. Barb. ii.
d. Auctor, p. 37. col. 1. In the Cotton library is a Saxon Treatise on precious stones. TIBER. A. 3. liii. fol. 98. The writing is more antient than the conquest. See supr. p. 10. SECT. i. Pelloutier mentions a Latin poem of the eleventh century on Precious Stones, written by Marbode bishop of Rennes, and soon afterwards translated into French verse. Mem. Lang. Celt. part. i. vol. i. ch. xiii. p. 26. The translation begins,
Evax fut un mult riche reis
Lu reigne tint d' Arabeis.
It was printed in OEUVRES de Hildebert Eveque du Mons, edit. Ant. Beaugendre, col. 1638. This may be reckoned one of the oldest pieces of French versification. A manuscript
De Speciebus Lapidum,
occurs twice in the Bodleian library,
alsely attributed to one Adam Nidzarde, Cod. Digb. 28. f. 169.—Cod. Laud. C. 3.
Prin
.
"Evax rex Arabum legitur scripsisse."
But it is, I think, Marbode's book abovementioned. Evax is a fabulous Arabian king, said to have written on this subject. Of this Marbode, or Marbodaeus, see Ol. Borrich. Diss. Acad. de Poet. pag. 87. §. 78. edit. Francof. 1683. 4to . His poem was published, with notes, by Lampridius Alardus. The eastern writers pretend, that king Solomon, among a variety of physiological pieces, wrote a book on Gems: one chapter of which treated of those precious stones, which resist or repel evil Genii. They suppose that Aristotle stole all his philosophy from Solomon's books. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiii. 387. seq. And i. p. 71. Compare Herbelot, Bibl. Oriental. p. 962. b. Artic.
ETAB
alahgiar.
seq.
,
And emeraudes more than two ounces:
But all before full subtilly
A fine carboncle set sawe I:
The stone so clere was and so bright,
That al so sone as it was night,
Men mightin se to go for nede,
A mile or two, in length or brede;
Soche light ysprang out of the stone
That RICHESSE wondir bright yshone
Both on her hedde and all hir face
And eke about her all the place
v. 1071.
.
The attributes of the portrait of MIRTH are very expressive
Of berde unnethe had he nothing
Et si n'avoit barbe a menton
Si non petit poil follaton;
Il etoit jeune damoysaulx;
Son bauldrier fut portrait d'oiseaulx
Qui tout etoit è or batu,
Tres richement estoit vestu
D'un' robe moult desgysée,
Qui fut en maint lieu inci
ée,
Et decouppeè par quointise,
Et fut chaus
par mignotise
D'un
ouliers decouppés à las
Par joyeusete et soulas
Et sa neye luy
i
t chapeau
De roses gracieux et beau.
v. 832.
,
For it was in the
irstè spring:
Ful young he was and merie' of thought,
And in samette
Samit
.
Sattin. Explained above.
with birdis wrought,
And with golde bete ful fetously,
His bodie was clad full richely;
Wrought was his robe in straunge gise,
And all to slittered
Cut and slashed.
for queintise,
In many a place lowe and hie,
And
hod he was, with grete maistrie,
With shone decopid
Cut or marked with figures. From
Decouper,
Fr. To
cut.
Thus the parish clerk Absolon, in the
Miller's Tale,
v. 210. p. 26. Urr.
With Poulis windowes carven on his shose.
I suppose
Poulis windows
was a cant phrase for a fine device or ornament.
and with lace,
By drurie
Modesty.
and eke by solace;
His lefe
Mistress.
a rosin chapelet
Had made and on his hedde it set
v. 833.
.
FRANCHISE is a no less attractive portrait, and sketched with equal grace and delicacy.
And next him daunsid dame FRANCHISE
Apres tous ceulx estoit FRANCHISE,
Qui ne
ut ne brune ne bise;
Ains
ut comme la neige blanche
Courtoise estoit, joyeuse et franche,
Le nez avoit long et tretis
Yeulx vers rins, soureils saitis,
Les cheveulx eut tres-blons et longs,
Simple feut comme les coulons.
Le cueur eut doulx et debonnaire.
v. 1190.
,
Arayid in ful noble guise.
She n'as not broune ne dunne of hewe,
But white as snowe ifallin newe,
Her nose was wrought at point devise
With the utmost exactness.
,
For it was gentill and tretise;
With eyin glad and browis bent,
Her hare down to her helis went
All the females of this poem have grey eyes and yellow hair. One of them is said to have
"Her eyen graie as is a faucon."
v. 546. Where the original word, translated
graie,
is
vers.
v. 546. We have this colour again, Orig. v. 822.
"Les yeulx eut
vers.
"
This too Chaucer translates,
"Her eyin graie."
862. The same word occurs in the French text before us, v. 1195. This comparison was natural and beautiful, as drawn from a very familiar and favourite object in the age of the poet. Perhaps Chaucer means
"grey as a falcon's
eyes."
:
Simple she was as dove on tre,
Ful debonaire of hart was she
v. 1211.
.
The personage of DANGER is of a bolder cast, and may serve as a contrast to some of the preceding. He is supposed suddenly to start from an ambuscade; and to prevent Bialcoil, or
Kind Reception,
from permitting the lover to gather the rose of beauty.
With that anon out start DANGERE
A tant saillit villain DANGERE,
De là on il estoit mueè;
Grant fut, noir et tout hericè
S'ot, les yeulx rouges comme feux,
Le vis froncè, le nez hydeux
Et scerie tout forcenez.
v. 2959.
,
Out of the place where he was hidde;
His malice in his chere was kidde
"Was discovered by his behaviour, or countenance."
Perhaps we should read cheke, for
chere.
;
Full grete he was, and blacke of hewe,
Sturdie and hideous whoso him knewe;
Like sharpe urchons
e
Urchins.
Hedge-hogs.
his heere was grow,
His eyes red sparcling as fire glow,
His nose frouncid
Contracted.
full kirkid
Cr
ok
.
Turned upwards.
stoode,
He come criande
"Crying as if he was mad."
as he were woode
v. 3130.
.
Chaucer has enriched this figure. The circumstance of DANGER'S hair standing erect like the prickles on the urchin or hedge-hog, is his own, and finely imagined.
Hitherto specimens have been given from that part of this poem which was written by William de Lorris, its first inventor. Here Chaucer was in his own walk. One of the most striking pictures in the style of allegorical personification, which occurs in Chaucer's translation of the additional part, is much heightened by Chaucer, and indeed owes all its merit to the translator; whose g
nius was much better adapted to this species of painting than that of John of Meun, the continuator of the poem.
With her, Labour and eke Travaile
Travaile et douleur la hebergent,
Mais ill le lient et la chargent,
Que mort prochaine luy presentent,
Et talent de seq repentir;
Tant luy sont de fleaux sentir;
Adonc luy vient en remembraunce,
En cest tardifve presence,
Quant et se voit foible et chenue.
v. 4733.
,
Lodgid bene, with sorowe and wo,
That nevir out of her court go.
Pain and Distresse, Sicknesse and Ire,
And Melanc'ly that angry
ire,
Ben of her palais
Palace.
senators;
Groning and Grutching her herbegeors
Chamberlains.
;
The day and night her to tourment,
With cruill deth thei her present,
And tellin her erliche
Early.
and late,
That DETH stondith armid at her gate.
Then bring they to remembraunce,
The foly dedes of hir enfance
v. 4994.
.
The fiction that Sickness, Melancholy, and other beings of the like sort, were counsellors in the palace of OLD AGE, and employed in telling her day and night, that
"DEATH stood
armed
at her gate,"
was far beyond the sentimental and satirical vein of John of Meun, and is conceived with great vigour of imagination.
Chaucer appears to have been early struck with this French poem. In his DREME, written long before he begun this translation, he supposes, that the chamber in which he slept was richly painted with the story of the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE
v. 322. Chaucer alludes to this poem in The MARCHAUNT'S TALE, v. 1548. p. 72. Urr.
. It is natural to imagine, that such a poem must have been a favorite with Chaucer. No poet, before William of Lorris, either Italian or French, had delineated allegorical personages in so distinct and enlarged a style, and with such a fullness of characteristical attributes: nor had descriptive poetry selected such a variety of circumstances, and disclosed such an exuberance of embellishment, in forming agreeable representations of nature. On this account, we are surprised that Boileau should mention Villon as the first poet of France who drew form and order from the chaos of the old French romancers.
Villon sçeut le PREMIER, dans ces siecles grossiers
Debroüiller l'ART CONFUS de nos vieux ROMANCIERS
Art. Poet. ch. i. He died about the year 1456.
.
But the poetry of William of Lorris was not the poetry of Boileau.
That this poem should not please Boileau, I can easily conceive. It is more surprising that it should have been censured as a contemptible performance by Petrarch, who lived in the age of fancy. Petrarch being desired by his friend Guy de Gonzague to send him some new piece, sent the ROMAN DE LA ROSE. With the poem, instead of an encomium, he returned a severe criticism; in which he treats it as a cold, inartificial, and extravagant composition: as a proof, how much France, who valued this poem as her chief work, was surpassed by Italy in eloquence and the arts of writing
See Petrarch. Carm. L. i. Ep. 30.
. In this opinion we must attribute something to jealousy. But the truth is, Petrarch's genius was too cultivated to relish these wild excursions of imagination: his favorite classics, whom he revived, and studied with so much attention, ran in his head. Especially Ovid's ART OF LOVE, a poem of another species, and evidently formed on another plan; but which Petrarch had been taught to venerate, as the model and criterion of a didactic poem on the passion of love reduced to a system. We may add, that although the poem before us was founded on the visionary doctrines and refinements concerning love invented by the Provencial poets, and consequently less unlikely to be favourably received by Petrarch, yet his ideas on that delicate subject were much more Platonic and metaphysical.
SECT. XIV.
CHAUCER'S poem of TROILUS and CRESSEIDE is said to be formed on an old history, written by Lollius, a native of Urbino in Italy
Petrus Lambeccius enumerates Lollius Urbicus among the
Historici Latini profani
of the third century. Prodrom. p. 246. Hamb. 1659. See also Voss. Historic. Latin. ii. 2. p. 163. edit. Ludg. Bat. But this could not be Chaucer's Lollius. Chaucer places Lollius among the historians of Troy, in his House of Fame, iii. 380. It is extraordinary, that Du Fresne, in the
Iudex Auct
rum,
used by him for his Latin glossary, should mention this Lollius Urbicus of the third century. Tom. i. p. 141. edit. i. As I apprehend, none of his works remain. A proof that Chaucer translated from some Italian original is, that in a manuscript which I have seen of this poem, I find,
M
nesteo
for
Menestes, Rupheo
for
Ruphes, Phebuseo
for
Phebuses,
lib. iv. 50. seq. Where, by the way, Xantippe, a Trojan chief, was perhaps corruptly written for Xantippo, i. e. Xantippus. As Joseph. Iscan. iv. 10. In Lydgate's Troy,
Zantiphus,
iii. 26. All corrupted from Antiphus, Dict. Cret. p. 105. In the printed copies we have
Ascalapho
for Ascalaphus. lib. v. 319.
. Lydgate says, that Chaucer, in this poem,
—made a translacion
Of a boke which called is TROPHE
In Lumbarde tongue, &c.
Prol. Boch. st. iii.
.
It is certain that Chaucer, in this piece, frequently refers to
"MYNE AUCTOR LOLLIUS
See lib. i. v. 395.
."
But he hints, at the same time, that Lollius wrote in Latin
Lib. ii. v. 10.
. I have never seen this history, either in the Lombard or the Latin language. I have before observed, that it is mentioned in Boccacio's Decameron, and that a translation of it, was made into Greek verse by some of the Greek fugitives in the fourteenth century. Du Fresne, if I mistake not, somewhere mentions it in Italian. In the royal library at Paris it occurs often as an antient French romance.
"Cod. 7546. Roman de Troilus."— "Cod. 7564. Roman de Troilus et de Briseida ou Criseida."
—Again, as an original work of Boccacio.
"Cod. 7757. Philostrato dell' amorose fatiche de Troilo per GIOVANNI BOCCACIO."
"Les suivans (adds Montfaucon
Bibl. p. 793. col. 2. Compare Lengl. Bibl. Rom. ii. p. 253.
) contiennent
les autres oeuvres
de Boccace."
Much fabulous history concerning Troilus, is related in Guido de Columna's Destruction of Troy. Whatever were Chaucer's materials, he has on this subject constructed a poem of considerable merit, in which the vicissitudes of love are depicted in a strain of true poetry, with much pathos and simplicity of sentiment
Chaucer however claims no merit of invention in this poem. He invokes Clio to favour him with rhymes only; and adds,
—To everie lover I me' excuse
That of no
sentiment
I this endite
But
out of latin in my tonge it write.
L. ii. v. 10. seq. But Sir Francis Kinaston who translated TROILUS AND CRESSEIDE [1635.] into Latin rhymes, says, that Chaucer in this poem
"has taken the liberty of his own inventions."
In the mean time, Chaucer, by his own references, seems to have been studious of seldom departing from Lollius. In one place, he pays him a compliment, as an author whose excellencies he could not reach. L. iii. v. 1330.
Bot sothe is, though I can not tellen all,
As can mine author
of his excellence.
See also L. iii. 576. 1823.
. He calls it,
"a litill tragedie
L. ult. v. 1785.
."
Troilus is supposed to have seen Cresside in a temple; and retiring to his chamber, is thus naturally described, in the critical situation of a lover examining his own mind after the first impression of love.
And whan that he in chambre was alone,
He down upon his beddis fete him sette,
And first he gan to sihe
Sigh.
, and then to grone,
And thought aie on her so withoutin lette:
That as he satte and woke, his spirit mette
Thought. Imagined.
That he her saugh, and temple, and all the wise
Manner.
Right of her loke, and gan it newe avise
L. i. v. 359.
.
There is not so much nature in the sonnet to Love, which follows. It is translated from Petrarch; and had Chaucer followed his own genius, he would not have disgusted us with the affected gallantry and exaggerated compliments which it extends through five tedious stanzas. The doubts and delicacies of a young girl disclosing her heart to her lover, are exquisitely touched in this comparison.
And as the n
we abashid nightingale
That stintith
Stops.
first, when she beginith sing,
When that she herith any herdis
Herdsman.
A Shepherd.
tale,
Or in the hedgis anie wight stirring,
And after sikir
With confidence.
doth her voice outring;
Right so Cresseidè when that her drede stent
Her fears ceased.
Op
ned her herte and told him her intent
L. iii. v. 1239.
.
The following pathetic scene may be selected from many others. Troilus seeing Cresside in a swoon, imagines her to be dead. H
unsheaths his sword with an intent to kill himself, and utters these exclamations.
And thou, cite, in which I live in wo,
And thou Priam, and brethren al ifere
Together.
,
And thou, my mother, farwel, for I go:
And, Atropos, make ready thou my bere:
And thou Creseidè, O sweet hertè dere,
Receive thou now my spirit, would he say,
With swerd at hert all redy for to dey.
But as god would, of swough
Swoon.
she tho abraide
Then awaked.
,
And gan to sighe, and TROILUS she cride:
And he answerid, Lady mine Creseide,
Livin ye yet? And let his sword doune glide,
Yes, hertè mine, that thankid be Cupide,
Quoth she: and therwithall she sorè sight
Sighed.
And he began to glad her as he might.
Toke her in armis two, and kist her oft,
And her to glad he did all his entent:
For which her ghost, that flickered aie alo
Into her woefull breast aien it went:
But at the last, as that her eyin glent
Glanced.
Aside, anon she gan his swerde aspie,
As it lay bere, and gan for fere to crie:
And askid him why he had it outdrawe?
And Troilus anon the cause hir tolde,
And how therwith himself he would have slawe:
For which Creseide upon him gan behold,
And gan him in her armis fast to fold;
And said, O mercy, God, to whiche a dede
Alas! how nere we werin bothè dede
L. iv. v. 1205.
!
Pathetic description is one of Chaucer's peculiar excellencies.
In this poem are various imitations from Ovid, which are of too particular and minute a nature to be pointed out here, and belong to the province of a professed and formal commentator on the piece. The Platonic notion in the third book
v. 1750.
about universal love, and the doctrine that this principle acts with equal and uniform influence both in the natural and moral world, are a translation from Boethius
Consolat. Philosoph. L. ii. Met. ult. iii. Met. 2. Spenser is full of the same doctrine. See Fairy Queen, i. ix. 1. iv. x. 34. 35, &c. &c. I could point out many other imitations from Boethius in this poem.
. And in the KNIGHT'S TALE he mentions, from the same favorite system of philosophy, the FAIRE CHAINE OF LOVE
v. 2990. Urr.
. It is worth observing, that the reader is referred to Dar
s Phrygius, instead of Homer, for a display of the atchievements of Troilus.
His worthi dedis who so list him here,
Rede DARES, he can tel hem all ifere
L. iv. v. 1770.
.
Our author, from his excessive fondness for Statius, has been guilty of a very diverting and what may be called a double anachronism. He represents Cresside, with two of her female companions, sitting in a
pavid parlour,
and reading the THEBAID of Statius
L. ii. v. 81.
, which is called
the Geste of the Siege of Thebes
L. ii. v. 84.
, and
the Romance of Thebis
L. ii. v. 100.
Bishop Amphiorax
is mentioned, ib. v. 104. Pandarus says v. 106.
—All this I know my selve,
And all the assiege of Thebes, and all the care;
For herof ben ther makid
bokis twelve.
In his
Dreme,
Chaucer, to pass the night away, rather than play at chess, calls for a
Romaunce;
in which
"were writtin fables of quenis livis and of kings, and many othir thingis smale."
This proves to be Ovid. v. 52. seq. See Man. of L. T. v. 54. Urr. There was an old French Romance called PARTONEPEX, often cited by Du Cange and Carpentier. Gl. Lat. This is Parthenopeus, a hero of the Theban story. It was translated into English, and called PERTONAPE. See p. 123. supr.
. In another place, Cassandra translates the Arguments of the twelve books of the THEBAID
L. v. v. 1490. I will add here, that Cresside proposes the trial of the Ordeal to Troilus. L. iii. v. 1048. Troilus, during the times of truce, amuses himself with hawking. L. iii. v. 1785.
. In the fourth book of this poem, Pandarus endeavours to comfort Troilus with arguments concerning the doctrine of predestination, taken from Brawardine, a learned archbishop and theologist, and nearly Chaucer's cotemporary
In his book DE CAUSA DEI, published by Sir Henry Savile, 1617. He touches on this controversy, Nonne's Pr. T. v. 1349. Urr. See also Tr. Cr. L. iv. v. 961. seq.
.
This poem, although almost as long as the Eneid, was intended to be sung to the harp, as well as read.
And redde where so thou be, or ellis
songe
L. ult. v. 1796.
.
It is dedicated to the
morall
Gower, and to the
philosophical
Strode. Gower will occur as a poet hereafter. Strode was eminent for his scholastic knowledge, and tutor to Chaucer's son Lewis at Merton college in Oxford.
Whether the HOUSE OF FAME is Chaucer's invention, or suggested by any French or Italian poet, I cannot determine. But I am apt to think it was originally a Provencial composition, among other proofs, from this passage.
And ther came out so gret a noise,
That had it standin upon OYSE,
Men might have herd it esily,
I trow, to ROME sikerly
L. ii. v. 838.
.
The Oyse is a river in Picardy, which falls into the river Seine, not many leagues from Paris. An Englishman would not have expressed distance by such an unfamiliar illustration. Unless we reconcile the matter, by supposing that Chaucer wrote this poem during his travels. There is another passage where the ideas are those of a foreign romance. To the trumpeters of renown the poet adds,
—All that usid clarion
In Casteloigne or Arragon
B. iii. v. 157.
.
Casteloigne is Catalonia in Spain
See MARCHAUNT'S TALE, v. 1231. p. 70. Urr. He mentions a rock higher than any in Spain. B. ii. v. 27. But this I believe was an English proverb.
. The martial musicians of English tournaments, so celebrated in story, were a more natural and obvious allusion for an English poet
He mentions a plate of gold,
"As fine as
duckett
in
Venise.
"
B. iii. v. 258. But he says, that the Galaxy is called
Watlyngstrete.
B. ii. v. 431. He swears by Thomas a Beckett, B. iii. v. 41. In one place he is addressed by the name of GEOFFREY. B. ii. v. 221. But in two others by that of PETER. B. i. v. 526. B. iii. v. 909. Among the musicians, he mentions
"Pipirs of all the Duche tong."
B. iii. v. 144.
.
This poem contains great strokes of Gothic imagination, yet bordering often on the most ideal and capricious extravagance. The poet, in a vision, sees a temple of glass,
In which were more images
Of gold stondinge in sundrie stages,
Sette in more riche tabernacles,
And with perre
Jewels.
more pinnacles,
And more curious pourtraituris,
And quaint manir of figuris,
Of golde work than I sawe evir
B. i. v. 120.
.
On the walls of this temple were engraved stories from Virgil's Eneid
Where he mentions Virgil's hell, he likewise refers to Claudian
De Raptu Proserpinae,
and Dante's
Inferno.
v. 450. There is a translation of a few lines from Dante, whom he calls
"the wise poet of Florence,"
in the WIFE OF BATH'S TALE, v. 1125. p. 84. Urr. The story of Hugolin of Pisa, a subject which Sir Joshua Reynolds has lately painted in a capital style, is translated from Dante,
"the grete poete of Italie that hight Dante,"
in the MONKES TALE, v. 877. A sentence from Dante is cited in the LEGENDE OF GOOD WOMEN, v. 360. In the FREERE'S TALE, Dante is compared with Virgil, v. 256.
, and Ovid's Epistles
It was not only in the fairy palaces of the poets and romance-writers of the middle ages, that Ovid's stories adorned the walls. In one of the courts of the palace of Nonesuch, all Ovid's Metamorphoses were cut in stone under the windows. Hearne, Coll. MSS. 55. p. 64. But the Epistles seem to have been the favorite work, the subject of which coincided with the gallantry of the times.
. Leaving this temple, he sees an eagle with golden wings soaring near the sun.
—Faste by the sonne on hie,
As kennyng myght I with mine eie,
Methought I sawe an egle sore;
But that it semid mochil more
Greater.
,
Then I had any egle sene
The eagle says to the poet, that this house stands
"Right so as
thine ane boke
tellith."
B. ii. v. 204.
That is, Ovid's Metamorphoses. See Met. L. xii. v. 40, &c.
.—
It was af gold, and shone so bright,
That nevir man sawe suche a sight
B. i. v. 496. seq.
, &c.
The eagle descends, seizes the poet in his talons, and mounting again, conveys him to the House of Fame; which is situated, like that of Ovid, between earth and sea. In their passage thither, they fly above the stars; which our author leaves, with clouds, tempests, hail, and snow, far beneath him. This aerial journey is partly copied from Ovid's Phaeton in the chariot of the sun. But the poet apologises for this extravagant fiction, and explains his meaning, by alledging the authority of Boethius; who says, that Contemplation may soar on the wings of Philosophy above every element. He likewise recollects, in the midst of his course, the description of the heavens, given by Marcianus Capella in his book
De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii
See The MARCHAUNT'S TALE, v. 1248. p. 70. Urr. And Lidg. Stor. Theb. fol. 357.
, and Alanus in his
Anticlaudian
A famous book in the middle ages. There is an old French translation of it. Bibl. Reg. Paris. MSS. Cod. 7632.
. At his arrival in the confines of the House of Fame, he is alarmed with confused murmurs issuing from thence, like distant thunders or billows. This circumstance is also borrowed from Ovid's temple
See Met. xii. 39. And Virg. Aen. iv. 173. Val. Flacc. ii. 117. Lucan. i. 469.
. He is left b
the eagle near the house, which is built of materials bright as polished glass, and stands on a rock of ice of excessive height, and almost inaccessible. All the southern side of this rock was covered with engravings of the names of famous men, which were perpetually melting away by the heat of the sun. The northern side of the rock was alike covered with names; but being here shaded from the warmth of the sun, the characters remained unmelted and uneffaced. The structure of the house is thus imagined.
—Me thoughtin by sainct Gile,
That all was of stone of berille,
Both the castle and the toure,
And eke the hall and everie boure
Chamber.
:
Without pecis or joynynges,
And many subtill compassyngs,
As barbicans
Turrets.
and pinnacles,
Imageries and tabernacles
I sawe, and full eke of windowis
As flakis fallin in grete snowis.
In these lines, and in some others which occur hereafter
B. ii. v. 211.
, the poet perhaps alludes to the many new decorations in architecture, which began to prevail about his time, and gave rise to the florid Gothic style. There are instances of this in his other poems. In his DREAME, printed 1597
v. 81. p. 572. Urr.
.
And of a sute were al the touris,
Subtily carven aftir flouris.—
With many a smal turret hie.
And in the description of the palace of PLEASAUNT REGARDE, in the ASSEMBLIE OF LADIES
V. 158.
.
Fairir is none, though it were for a king,
Devisid wel and that in every thing;
The towris hie, ful plesante shal ye finde,
With fannis fresh, turning with everie winde.
The chambris, and the palirs of a sorte,
With bay windows, goodlie as may be thought:
As for daunsing or othir wise disporte,
The galeries be al right wel ywrought.
In Chaucer's Life by Anthony Hall, it is not mentioned that he was appointed clerk of the king's works, in the palace of Westminster, in the royal manors of Shene, Kenington, Byfleet, and Clapton, and in the Mews at Charing
Claus. 8. Ric. ii.
. Again in 1380, of the works of St. George's chapel at Windsor, then ruinous
Pat. 14. Ric. ii. Apud Tanner, Bibl. p. 166. Not. e.
. But to return.
Within the niches formed in the pinnacles stood all round the castle,
—All manir of minstrelis,
And jestours
This word is above explained.
that tellyn tales
Both of weping and eke of game.
That is, those who sung or recited adventures either tragic or comic, which excited either compassion or laughter. They were accompanied with the most renowned harpers, among which were Orpheus, Arion, Chiron, and the Briton Glaskerion
Concerning this harper, see Percy's Ballads.
. Behind these were placed,
"by many a thousand time twelve,"
players on various instruments of music. Among the trumpeters are named Joab, Virgil's Misenus, and Theodamas
See also The MARCHAUNT'S TALE, v. 1236. seq. p. 70. Urr.
. About these pinnacles were also marshalled the most famous magicians, juglers, witches, prophetesses, sorceresses, and professors of natural magic,
See the FRANKELEIN'S TALE, where several
eats are described, as exhibited at a feast done by natural magic, a favorite science of the Arabians. Chaucer there calls it
"An art which sotill tragetoris plaie."
v. 2696. p. 110. Urr. Of this more will be said hereafter.
which ever existed in antient or modern times: such as Medea, Circe, Calliope, Hermes
None of the works of the first Hermes Trismegistus now remain. See Cornel. Agrip. Van. Scient. cap. xlviii. The astrological and other philosophical pieces under that name are supposititious. See Fabr. Biblioth. Gr. xii. 708. And Chan. Y
M. TALE, v. 1455. p. 126. Urr. Some of these pieces were published under the fictitious names of Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Solomon, Saint Paul, and of many of the patriarchs and fathers. Cornel. Agripp. De Van. Scient. cap. xlv. Who adds, that these
ri
ies
were followed by Alphonsus king of Castile, Robert Grosthead, Bacon, and Apponus. He mentio
s Zabulus and Barnabas of Cyprus as famous writers in magic. See also Gower's Confess. Amant. p. 134. b. 149. b. Edit. 1554. fol. per Berthelette. In speaking of antient authors, who were known or celebrated in the middle ages, it may be remarked, that Macrobius was one. He is mentioned by William de Lorris in the ROMAN DE LA ROSE, v. 9.
"Ung aucteur qui ot nom
Macrobe.
"
A line literally translated by Chaucer,
"An author that hight
Macrobes.
"
v. 7. Chaucer quotes him in his DREME, v. 284. In the NONNES PRIEST'S TALE, v. 1238. p. 171. Urr. In the ASSEMBLIE OF FOWLES, v. 111. see also ibid. v. 31. He wrote a comment on Tully's SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS, and in these passages he is referred to on account of that piece. Petrarch, in a letter to Nicolas Sigeros, a learned Greek of Constantinople, quotes Macrobius, as a Latin author of all others the most familiar to Nicolas. It is to prove that Homer is the fountain of all invention. This is in 1354. Famil. Let. ix. 2. There is a manuscript of the first, and part of the second book of Macrobius,
legantly written, as it seems, in France, about the year 800. MSS. Cotton. VITELL. C. iii. Cod. Membr. fol. viii. fol. 138. M. Planudes, a Constantinopolitan monk of the fourteenth century, is said to have translated Macrobius into Greek. But see Fabric. Bibl. Gr. x. 534. It is remarkable, that in the above letter, Petrarch apologises for calling Plato the Prince of Philosophers, after Cicero, Seneca, Apuleius, Plotinus, Saint Ambrose, and Saint Austin.
, Limotheus, and Simon Magus
Among these he mentions
Juglers,
that is, in the present sense of the word, those who practised Legerdemain: a popular science in Chaucer's time. Thus in Squ. T. v. 239. Urr.
As jugelours playin at these festis grete.
It was an appendage of the occult sciences studied and introduced into Europe by the Arabians.
. At entering the hall he sees an infinite multitude of heralds, on the surcoats of whom were richly embroidered the armorial ensigns of the most redoubted champions that ever tourneyed in Africa, Europe, or Asia. The floor and roof of the hall were covered with thick plates of gold, studded with the costliest gems. At the upper end, on a lofty shrine made of carbuncle, sate Fame. Her figure is like those in Virgil and Ovid. Above her, as if sustained on her shoulders, sate Alexander and Hercules. From the throne to the gates of the hall, ran a range of pillars with respective inscriptions. On the first pillar made of lead and iron
In the composition of these pillars, Chaucer displays his chemical knowledge.
, stood Josephus, the Jewish historian,
"That of the Jewis gestis told,"
with seven other writers on the same subject. On the second pillar, made of iron, and painted all over with the blood of tigers, stood Statius. On another higher than the rest stood Homer, Dares Phrygius, Livy
Dares Phrygius and Livy are both cited in Chaucer's DREME, v. 1070. 1084. Chaucer is fond of quoting Livy. He was also much admired by Petrarch; who, while at Paris, assisted in translating him into French. This circumstance might make Livy a favorite with Chaucer. See Vie de Petrarque, iii. p. 547.
, Lollius, Guido of Columna, and Geoffry of Monmouth, writers of the Trojan story. On a pillar of
"tinnid iron clere,"
stood Virgil: and next him, on a pillar of copper, appeared Ovid. The figure of Lucan was placed on a pillar of iron
wroght full sternly,
accompanied with many Roman historians
Was not this intended to characterise Lucan? Quintilian says of Lucan,
"
Oratoribus
magis quam
poetis
annumerandus."
Instit. Orat. L. x. c. i.
. On a pillar of sulphur stood Claudian, so symbolised, because he wrote of Pluto and Proserpine.
That bare up all the fame of hell;
Of Pluto and of Proserpine
That queen is of the darkè pine
B. iii. v. 419. Chaucer alludes to this poem of Claudian in the MARCHAUNT'S TALE, where he calls Pluto, the king of
"fayrie."
v. 1744. p. 73. Urr.
.
The hall was filled with the writers of antient tales and romances, whose subjects and names were too numerous to be recounted. In the mean time crouds from every nation and of every condition filled the hall, and each presented his claim to the queen. A messenger is dispatched to summon Eolus from his cave in Thrace; who is ordered to bring his two clarions called SLANDER and PRAISE, and his trumpeter Triton. The praises of each petitioner are then resounded, according to the partial or capricious appointment of Fame; and equal merits obtain very different success. There is much satire and humour in these requests and rewards, and in the disgraces and honours which are indiscriminately distributed by the queen, without discernment and by chance. The poet then enters the house or labyrinth of RUMOUR. It was built of
allow twigs, like a cage, and therefore admitted every sound. Its doors were also more numerous than leaves on the trees, and always stood open. These are romantic exaggerations of Ovid's inventions on the same subject. It was moreover sixty miles in length, and perpetually turning round. From this house, says the poet, issued tidings of every kind, like fountains and rivers from the sea. Its inhabitants, who were eternally employed in hearing or telling news, together with the rise of reports, and the formation of lies are then humourously described: the company is chiefly composed of sailors, pilgrims, and pardoners. At length our author is awakened at seeing a venerable personage of great authority: and thus the Vision abruptly concludes.
Pope has imitated this piece, with his usual elegance of diction and harmony of versification. But in the mean time, he has not only misrepresented the story, but marred the character of the poem. He has endeavoured to correct it's extravagancies, by new refinements and additions of another cast: but he did not consider, that extravagancies are essential to a poem of such a structure, and even constitute it's beauties. An attempt to unite order and exactness of imagery with a subject formed on principles so professedly romantic and anomalous, is like giving Corinthian pillars to a Gothic palace. When I read Pope's elegant imitation of this piece, I think I am walking among the modern monuments unsuitably placed in Westminster-abbey.
SECT. XV.
NOTHING can be more ingeniously contrived than the occasion on which Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES are supposed to be recited. A company of pilgrims, on their journey to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett at Canterbury, lodge at the Tabarde-inn in Southwark. Although strangers to each other, they are assembled in one room at supper, as was then the custom; and agree, not only to travel together the next morning, but to relieve the fatigue of the journey by telling each a story
There is an inn at Burford in Oxfordshire, which accommodated pilgrims on their road to Saint Edward's shrine in the abbey of Gloucester. A long room, with a series of Gothic windows, still remains, which was their refectory. Leland mentions such another, Itin. ii. 70.
. Chaucer undoubtedly intended to imitate Boccacio, whose DECAMERON was then the most popular of books, in writing a set of tales. But the circumstance invented by Boccacio, as the cause which gave rise to his DECAMERON, or the relation of his hundred stories
It is remarkable, that Boccacio chose a Greek title, that is,
, for his Tales. He has also given Gre
k names to the ladies and gentlemen who recite the tales. His Eclogues are full of Greek words. This was natural at the revival of the Greek language.
, is by no means so happily conceived as that of Chaucer for a similar purpose. Boccacio supposes, that when the plague began to abate at Florence, ten young persons of both sexes retired to a country house, two miles from the city, with a design of enjoying fresh air, and passing ten days agreeably. Their principal and established amusement, instead of playing at chess after dinner, was for each to tell a tale. One superiority which, among others, Chaucer's plan afforded above that of Boccacio, was the opportunity of displaying a variety of striking and dramatic characters, which would not have easily met but on such an expedition. A circumstance which also contributed to give a variety to the stories. And for a number of persons in their situation, so natural, so practicable, so pleasant, I add so rational, a mode of entertainment could not have been imagined.
The CANTERBURY TALES are unequal, and of various merit. Few, if any, of the stories are perhaps the invention of Cha
cer. I have already spoken at large of the KNIGHT'S TALE, one of our author's noblest compositions
The reader will excuse my irregularity in not considering it under the CANTERBURY TALES. I have here given the reason, which is my apology, in the text.
. That of the CANTERBURY TALES, which deserves the next place, as written in the higher strain of poetry, and the poem by which Milton describes and characterises Chaucer, is the SQUIER'S TALE. The imagination of this story consists in Arabian fiction engrafted on Gothic chivalry. Nor is this Arabian fiction purely the sport of arbitrary fancy: it is in great measure founded on Arabian learning. Cambuscan, a king of Tartary, celebrates his birth-day festival in the hall of his palace at Sarra, with the most royal magnificence. In the midst of the solemnity, the guests are alarmed with a miraculous and unexpected spectacle: the minstrells cease on a sudden, and all the assembly is hushed in silence, surprise, and suspence.
While that the king sate thus in his noblay,
H
rkining his minstrelis ther thingis play,
Beforn him at his bord deliciously:
In at the hallè dore, ful sodeinly,
There came a knight upon a stede of brass;
And in his honde a brode mirroùr of glass:
Upon his thombe he had of gold a ring,
And by his side a nakid sword hanging.
And up he rideth to the hiè bord:
In all the hall ne was there spoke a word,
For marveile of this knight him to behold
v. 96. S
e a fine romantic story of a Count de Macon: who, while revelling in his hall with many knights, is suddenly alarmed by the entrance of a gigantic figure of a black man, mounted on a black steed. This terrible stranger, without receiving any obstruction from guards or gates, rides directly forward to the high table; and, with an imperious tone, orders the count to follow him, &c. Nic. Gillos, chron. ann. 1120. See also O
S. FAIR. QU. §. v. p. 146.
.
These presents were sent by the king of Araby and Inde to Cambuscan in honour of his feast. The Horse of brass, on the skillful movement and management of certain secret springs, transported his rider into the most distant region of the world in the space of twenty-four hours; for, as the rider chose, he could fly in the air with the swiftness of an eagle: and again, as occasion required, he could stand motionless in opposition to the strongest force, vanish on a sudden at command, and return at his master's call. The Mirrour of glass was endued with the power of shewing any future disasters which might happen to Cambuscan's kingdom, and discovered the most hidden machinations of treason. The Naked Sword could pierce armour deemed impenetrable,
"Were it as thik as is a branchid ok
."
And he who was wounded with it could never be healed, unless its possessor could be entreated to stroke the wound with its edge. The Ring was intended for Canace, Cambuscan's daughter; and, while she bore it in her purse, or wore it on her thumb,
nabled her to understand the language of every species of birds, and the virtues of every plant.
And whan this knight hath first his tale ytold,
He ridd out of the hall and down he light:
His Stede, which that shone as the sunnè bright,
Stant in the court as still as any stone.
The knight is to his chamber lad anon,
He is unarmed and to the mete ysette:
And all these presents full riche bene yfette,
That is to saine, the Sword and the Mirroùr,
All born anon was unto the high tour,
With certayn officers ordayned therefore:
And unto Canace the Ring is bore
Solemnly ther as she sate at the table
v. 188.
.
I have mentioned, in another place, the favorite philosophical studies of the Arabians
Diss. i. ii.
. In this poem the nature of those studies is displayed, and their operations exemplified: and this consideration, added to the circumstances of Tartary being the scene of action, and Arabia the country from which these extraordinary presents are brought, induces me to believe this story to be one of the many fables which the Arabians imported into Europe. At least it is formed on their principles. Their sciences were tinctured with the warmth of their imaginations; and consisted in wonderful discoveries and mysterious inventions.
This idea of a horse of brass took it's rise from their chemical knowledge and experiments in metals. The treatise of Jeber a famous Arab chemist of the middle ages, called LAPIS PHILOSOPHORUM, contains many curious and useful processes concerning the nature of metals, their fusion, purification, and malleability, which still maintain a place in modern systems of that science
The Arabians call chemistry, as treating of minerals and metals, SIMIA. From SIM, a word signifying the veins of gold and silver in the mines. Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 810. b. Hither, among many other things, we might refer Merlin's two dragons of gold finished with most exquisite workmanship, in Geoffrey of Monmouth, l. viii. c. 17. See also ibid. vii. c. 3. Where Merlin prophesies that a brazen man on a brazen horse shall guard the gates of London.
. The poets of romance, who deal in Arabian ideas, describe the Trojan horse as made of brass
See Lydgate's TROYE BOKE, B. iv. c. 35. And Gower's CONF. AMANT. B. i. f. 13. b. edit. 1554.
"A horse of brasse thei lette do forge."
. These sages pretended the power of giving life or speech to some of their compositions in metal. Bishop Grosthead's speaking brazen head, sometimes attributed to Bacon, has its foundation in Arabian philosophy
Gower, Confes. Amant. ut supr. L. iv. fol. lxiiii. a. edit. 1554.
For of the greate clerke Groostest
I red, how redy that he was
Upon clergy a HEAD of BRASSE
To make, and forge it for
to telle.
Of such things
as befell, &c.
. In the romance of VALENTINE and ORSON, a brazen head fabricated by a necromancer in a magnificent chamber of the castle of Clerimond, declares to those two princes their royal parentage
Ch. xxviii. seq.
. We are told by William of Malmesbury, that Pope Sylvester the
econd, a profound mathematician who lived in the eleventh century, made a brazen head, which would speak when spoken to, and oracularly resolved many difficult questions
De Gest. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 10. Compare Majer. Symbolor
Aure
e Me
ae, lib. x. p. 453.
. Albertus Magnus, who was also a profound adept in those sciences which were taught by the Arabian schools, is said to have framed a man of brass; which not only answered questions readily and truly, but was so loquacious, that Thomas Aquinas while a pupil of Albertus Magnus, afterwards a seraphic doctor, knocked it in pieces as the disturber of his abstruse speculations. This was about the year 1240
Delrio, Disquis. Magic. lib. i. cap. 4
. Much in the same manner, the notion of our knight's horse being moved by means of a concealed engine, corresponds with their pretences of producing preternatural effects, and their love of surprising by geometrical powers. Exactly in this notion, Rocail, a giant in fome of the Arabian romances, is said to have built a palace, together with his own sepulchre, of most magnificent architecture, and with singular artifice: in both of these he placed a great number of gigantic statues, or images, figured of different metals by talismanic skill, which, in consequence of some occult machinery, performed actions of real life, and looked like living men
H
rb
lot, Bibl. Orient. V. ROCAIL. p. 717.
.
. We must add, that astronomy, which the Arabian philosophers studied with a singular enthusiasm, had no small share in the composition of this miraculous steed. For, says the poet,
He that it wrought couth many a gin,
He waitid many a constellation
Ere he had don this operation
v. 149. I do not precisely understand the line immediately following.
And knew ful many sele and many a bond.
Sele, i. e.
S
al,
may mean a talismanic sigil used in astrology. Or the Hermetic seal used in chemistry. Or, connected with
B
nd,
may signify contracts made with spirits in chemical operations. But all these belong to the Arabian philosophy, and are alike to our purpose. In the Arabian books now extant, are the alphabets out of which they formed Talismans to draw down spirits or angels. The Arabian work KIMIA, not only signifies chemistry, but a magical and superstitious science, by which they bound spirits to their will and drew from them the information required. See Herbelot, Dict. Orient. p. 810. 1005. The curious and more inquisitive reader may consult Cornelius Agrippa, De Vanit. Scient. cap. xliv. xlv. xlvi.
.
Thus the buckler of the Arabian giant Ben Gian, as famous among the orientals as that of Achilles among the Greeks, was fabricated by the powers of astronomy
Many mysteries were concealed in the composition of this shield. It destroyed all the charms and enchantments which either demons or giants could make by
g
etic
or magic art. Herbelot ubi supr. V. GIAN. p. 396. a.
. And Pope Sylvester's brazen head, just mentioned, was prepared under the influence of certain constellations.
Natural magic, improperly so called, was likewise a favorite pursuit of the Arabians, by which they imposed false appearances on the spectator. This was blended with their astrology. Our author's FRANK
LEIN'S TALE is entirely founded on the miracles of this art.
For I am siker
Sure.
ther be sciences,
By which men maken divers appearances,
Soche as these sotill tragetories
Juglers.
plaie:
For oft at festis, I have herdè saie,
That tragetors, within a hallè large,
Have made to comin watir in a barge,
And in the hallè rowin up and down:
Sometime hath semid come a grim liown,
And sometime flouris spring as in a maede;
Sometimes a vine, and grapis white and rede;
Sometimes a castill, &c
v. 2700. Urr.
.
Afterwards a magician in the same poem shews various specimens of his art in raising such illusions: and by way of diverting king Aurelius before supper, presents before him parks and forests filled with deer of vast proportion, some of which are killed with hounds and others with arrows. He then shews the king a beautiful lady in a dance. At the clapping of the magician's hands all these deceptions disappear
But his most capital performance is to remove an immense chain of rocks from the sea-shore: this is done in such a manner, that for the space of one week,
"it semid all the rockis were away."
ibid. 2849. By the way, this tale appears to be a translation. He says,
"As the boke doth me remember."
v. 2799. And
"From Garumne to the mouth of Seine."
v. 2778. The Garonne and Seine are rivers in France.
. These feats are said to be performed by consultation of the stars
See Frankel. T. v. 2820. p. 111. Urr. The Christians called this one of the diabolical arts of the Saracens or Arabians. And many of their own philosophers, who afterwards wrote on the subject or performed experiments on it's principles, were said to deal with the devil. Witness our Bacon, &c. From Sir John Maundeville's Travels it appear
, that these sciences were in high request in the court of the Cham of Tartary about the year 1340. He says, that, at a great festival, on one side of the Emperor's table, he saw placed many philosophers skilled in various sciences, such as astronomy, necromancy, geometry, and pyromancy: that some of these had before them astrolabes of gold and precious stones, others had horologes richly furnished, with many other mathematical instruments, &c. chap. lxxi. Sir John Maundeville began his travels into the East in 1322, and finished his book in 1364. chap. cix. See Joa
nnes Sarisb. Polycrat. L. i. cap. xi. fol. 10. b.
. We frequently read in romances of illusive appearances framed by magicians
See what is said of Spenser's FALSE FLORIMEL, OBS. SPENS. §. xi. p. 123.
, which by the same powers are made suddenly to vanish. To trace the matter home to it's true source, these fictions have their origin in a science which professedly made a considerable part of the Arabian learning
Herbelot mentions many oriental pieces,
"Qui traittent de cette art pernicieux et defendu."
Dict. Orient. V. SCHR. Compare Agrippa, ubi supr. cap. xlii. seq.
. In the twelfth century the number of magical and astrological Arabic books translated into Latin was prodigious
"Irrepsit hac aetate etiam turba astrologorum et Magorum, ejus farinae libris una cum aliis de Arabico in Latinum conversis.
Conring. Script. Comment. Saec. xiii. cap. 3. p. 125. See also
Bibl. Orient. V. KETAB. passim.
. Chaucer, in the fiction before us, supposes that some of the guests in Cambuscan's hall believed the Trojan horse to be a temporary illusion, effected by the power of magic
John of Salisbury says, that magicians are those who, among other deceptions,
"Rebus adimunt species suas."
Polycrat. i. 10. fol. 10. b. Agrippa mentions one Pasetes a jugler, who
"was wont to shewe to strangers a very sumptuouse banket, and when it pleased him, to cause it vanishe awaye, al they which sate at the table being disapointed both of meate and drinke, &c."
Van. Scient. cap. xlviii. p. 62. b. Engl. Transl. ut infr.
Du Halde mentions a Chinese en
hanter, who, when the Emperour was inconsolable for the loss of his deceased queen, caused her image to appear before him. Hist. Chin. iii. §. iv. See the deceptions of Hakem an Arabian jugler in Herbelot, in. V. p. 412. See supr. p. 393. 394.
.
An appearaunce ymade by some magike,
As jogleurs playin at these festis grete
v. 238.
.
In speaking of the metallurgy of the Arabians, I must not omit the sublime imagination of Spenser, or rather some British bard, who feigns that the magician Merlin intended to build a wall of brass about Cairmardin, or Carmarthen; but that being hastily called away by the Lady of the Lake, and slain by her perfidy, he has left his fiends still at work on this mighty structure round their brazen cauldrons, under a rock among the neighbouring woody cliffs of Dynevaur, who dare not desist till their master returns. At this day, says the poet, if you listen at a chink or cleft of the rock,
—Such gastly noyse of yron chaines
And brasen cauldrons thou shalt rombling heare,
Which thousand sprights with long enduring paines
Do tosse, that it will stunn thy feeble braines.
And oftentimes great grones and grievous stowndes
When too huge toile and labour them constraines,
And oftentimes loud strokes and ringing sowndes
From under that deepe rocke most horribly reboundes.
X.
The cause some say is this: a little while
Before that Merlin dyde, he dyd intend
A BRASEN WALL in compasse to compyle
About Cairmardin, and did it commend
Unto those sprights to bring to perfect end:
During which work the Lady of the Lake,
Whom long he lovd for him in haste did send,
Who therby forst his workemen to forsake,
Them bounde, till his returne, their labour not to slake.
XI.
In the mean time, through that false ladies traine,
He was surprized, and buried under beare,
Ne ever to his work returnd againe:
Nathlesse those feends may not their worke forbeare,
So greately his commandement they feare,
But there do toyle and travayle night and day,
Until that BRASEN WALL they up do reare
Fairy Queen, iii. 3. 9 seq.
.
This story Spenser borrowed from Giraldus Cambrensis, who during his progress through Wales, in the twelfth century, picked it up among other romantic traditions propagated by the British bards
See Girald. Cambrens. Itin. Cambr. i. c. 6. Hollingsh. Hist. i. 129. And Camden's Brit. p. 734. Drayton has this fiction, which he relates somewhat differently. Polyolb. lib. iv. p. 62. edit. 1613. Hence Bacon's wall of brass about England.
. I have before pointed out the source from which the British bards received most of their extravagant fictions.
Optics were likewise a branch of study which suited the natural genius of the Arabian philosophers, and which they pursued with incredible delight. This science was a part of the Aristotelic philosophy; which, as I have before observed, they refined and filled with a thousand extravagancies. Hence our strange knight's MIRROR OF GLASS, prepared on the most profound principles of art, and endued with preternatural qualities.
And some of them wondrin on the mirrour,
That born was up into the master tour:
How men mightin in it such thingis se.
And othir seid, certis it wel might be
Naturally by compositiouns
Of angles, and of sly reflectiouns:
And saide, that at Rome was soche an one,
Thei spak of Alcen and Vitellion,
And Aristote, that writith in their lives
Of queint MIRROURIS, and of PERSPECTIVES
v. 244.
.
And again.
The mirrour eke which I have in my hand,
Hath such a might, that men may in it se
When there shall fall any adversite
Unto your reigne, &c.
v. 153.
.
Alcen, or Alhazen, mentioned in these lines, an Arabic philosopher, wrote seven books of perspective, and flourished about the eleventh century. Vitellio, formed on the same school, was likewise an eminent mathematician of the middle ages, and wrote ten books of Perspective. The Roman mirrour here mentioned by Chaucer, as similar to this of the strange knight, is thus described by Gower.
When Rome stoode in noble plite
Virgile, which was the par
ite,
A mirrour made of his clergie
Learning. Philosophy.
And sette it in the townes eie
Of marbre on a pillar without,
That thei be thyrte mile aboute
By daie and eke also bi night
In that mirrour behold might
Her enemies if any were, &c.
Con
ess. Amant. l. v.
ol. xciv. 6. edit. Berth. 1554. ut supr.
.
The oriental writers relate, that Giamschid, one of their kings, the Solomon of the Persians and their Alexander the Great, possessed, among his inestimable treasures, cups, globes, and mirrours, of metal, glass, and crystal, by means of which, he and his people knew all natural as well as supernatural things. A title of an Arabian book, translated from the Persian, is,
"The Mirrour which reflects the World."
There is this passage in an antient Turkish poet,
"When I am purified by the light of heaven my soul will become the
mirrour of the world,
in which I shall discern all
abstruse secrets.
"
Monsieur l'Herbelot is of opinion, that the orientals took these notions from the patriarch Joseph's cup of divination, and Nestor's cup in Homer, on which all nature was symbolically represented
Herbelot. Dict. Oriental. V. GIAM. p. 392. col. 2. John of Salisbury mentions a species of diviners called SPECULARII, who predicted future events, and told various secrets, by consulting mirrours, and the surfaces of other polished reflecting substances. Polycrat. i. 12. pag. 32. edit. 1595.
. Our great countryman Roger Bacon, in his OPUS MAJUS, a work entirely formed on the Aristotelic and Arabian philosophy, describes a variety of Specula, and explains their construction and uses
Edit. Jebb. p. 253. Bacon, in one of his manus
ripts, complains, that no person read lectures in Oxford DE PERSPECTIVA, before the year 1267. He adds, that in the university of Paris, this science was quite unknown. In Epist. ad OPUS MINUS. Clementi iv. Etibid. OP. MIN. iii. cap. ii. MSS. Bibl. Coll. Univ. Oxon. c. 20. In another he affirms, that Julius C
sar, before he invaded Britain, viewed our harbours and shores with a telescope from the British coast. MSS. lib. DE PERSPECTIVIS. He accurately describes reading glasses or
spectacles,
Op. Maj. p. 236. And the Camera Obscura, I believe, is one of his discoveries.
. This is the most curious and extraordinary part of Bacon's book, which was written about the year 1270. Bacon's optic tube, with which he pretended to see
future events,
was famous in his age, and long afterwards, and chiefly contributed to give him the name of a magician
Wood, Hist. Antiquit. Univ. Oxon. i. 122.
. This art, with others of the experimental kind, the philosophers of those times were fond of adapting to the purposes of thaumaturgy; and there is much occult and chimerical speculation in the discoveries which Bacon affects to have made from optical experiments. He asserts, and I am obliged to cite the passage in his own mysterious expressions,
"Omnia sciri per Perspectivam, quoniam omnes actiones rerum fiunt secundum specierum et virtutum multiplicationem ab agentibus hujus mundi in materias patientes, &c.
Op. Min. MSS. ut supr.
."
Spenser feigns, that the magician Merlin made a
glassie globe,
and presented it to king Ry
nc
, which shewed the approach of enemies, and discovered treasons
Fairy Queen, iii. ii. 21.
. This fiction, which exactly corresponds with Chaucer's Mirrour, Spenser borrowed from some romance, perhaps of king Arthur, fraught with oriental fancy. From the same sources came a like fiction of Camo
ns, in the Lusiad
Can t. x.
, where a globe is shewn to Vasco de Gama, representing the universal fabric or system of the world, in which he sees future kingdoms and future events. The Spanish historians report an American tradition, but more probably invented by themselves, and built on the Saracen fables, in which they were so conversant. They pretend that some years before the Spaniards entered Mexico, the inhabitants caught a monstrous fowl, of unusual magnitude and shape, on the lake of Mexico. In the crown of the head of this wonderful bird, there was a mirrour or plate of glass, in which the Mexicans saw their future invaders the Spaniards, and all the disasters which afterwards happened to their kingdom. These superstitions remained, even in the doctrines of philosophers, long after the darker ages. Cornelius Agrippa, a learned physician of Cologne, about the year 1520, author of a famous book on the Vanity of the Sciences, mentions a species of mirrour which exhibited the form of persons absent, at command
It is diverting in this book to observe the infancy of experimental philosophy, and their want of knowing how to use or apply the mechanical arts which they were even actually possessed of. Agrippa calls the inventor of magnifying glasses,
"without doubte the beginner of all dishonestie."
He mentions various sorts of diminishing, burning, reflecting, and multiplying glasses, with some others. At length this profound thinker closes the chapter with this sage reflection,
"All these thinges are vaine and superfluous, and invented to no other end but for pomp
and idle pleasure!"
Chap. xxvi. p. 36.
A translation by James Sandford, Lond. 1569. 4to. Bl. Let.
. In one of these he is said to have shewn to the poetical earl of Surry, the image of his mistress, the beautiful Geraldine, sick and reposing on a couch
Drayton's Heroical Epist. p. 87. b. edit. 1598.
. Nearly allied to this, was the infatuation of
seeing things
in a beryl, which was very popular in the reign of James the first, and is alluded to by Shakespeare. The Arabians were also famous for other machineries of glass, in which their chemistry was more immediately concerned. The philosophers of their school invented a story of a magical steel-glass, placed by Ptolemy on the summit of a lofty pillar near the city of Alexandria, for burning ships at a distance. The Arabians called this pillar
He madeslaeor,
or the pillar of the Arabians
The same fablers have adapted a similar fiction to Hercules: that he erected pillars at Cape Finest
rre, on which he raised magical looking-glasses. In an eastern romance, called the SEVEN WISE MASTERS, of which more will be said hereafter, at the siege of Hur in Persia, certain philosophers terrified the enemy by a device of placing a habit (says an old English translation)
"of a giant-like proportion, on a tower, and covering it with burningglasses, lookingglasses of cristall, and other glasses of several colours, wrought together in a marvellous order, &c."
ch. xvii. p. 182. edit. 1674.
The Constantinopolitan Greeks possessed these arts in common with the Arabians. See Morisotus, ii. 3. Who says, that in the year 751, they set fire to the Saracen fleet before Constantinople by means of burning glasses.
. I think it is mentioned by Sandys. Roger Bacon has left a manuscript tract on the formation of burning-glasses
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Digb. 183. And Arch. A. 149. But I think it was printed at Francfort, 1614. 4to .
: and he relates that the first burningglass which he constructed cost him sixty pounds of Parisian money
Twenty pounds sterling. Compend. Stud. Theol. c. i. p. 5. MS.
. Ptolemy, who seems to have been confounded with Ptolemy the Egyptian astrologer and geographer, was famous among the eastern writers and their followers for his skill in operations of glass. Spenser mentions a miraculous tower of glass built by Ptolemy, which concealed his mistress the Egyptian Phao, while the invisible inhabitant viewed all the world from every part of it.
Great Ptolomee it for his leman's sake
Ybuilded
all of glass
by magicke power,
And also it impregnable did make
Fairy Queen, iii. ii. 20.
.
But this magical fortress, although impregnable, was easily broken in pieces at one stroke by the builder, when his mistress ceased to love. One of Boyardo's extravagancies is a prodigious wall of glass built by some magician in Africa, which obviously betrays its foundation in Arabian fable and Arabian philosophy
Hither we might also refer Chaucer's House of Fame, which is built of glass, and Lydgate's TEMPLE OF GLASS. It is said in some romances written about the time of the Crusades, that the city of Damascus was walled with glass. See Hall's VIRGIDEM. or Satyres, &c. B. iv. S. 6. written in 1597.
Or of Damascus magicke wall of glasse,
Or Solomon his swea
ing piles of brasse, &c.
.
The Naked Sword, another of the gifts presented by the strange knight to Cambuscan, endued with medical virtues, and so hard as to pierce the most solid armour, is likewise an Arabian idea. It was suggested by their skill in medicine, by which they affected to communicate healing qualities to various substances
The notion, mentioned before, that every stone of Stone-henge was washed with juices of herbs in Africa, and tinctured with healing powers, is a piece of the same philosophy.
, and from their knowledge of tempering iron and hardening all kinds of metal
Montfaucon cites a Greek chemist of the dark ages,
"CHRISTIANI LABYRINTHUS SALOMONIS, de temperando ferro, conficiendo crystallo, et de aliis naturae arcanis."
Palaeogr. Gr. p. 375.
. It is the classical spear of Peleus, perhaps originally fabricated in the same regions of fancy.
And othir folk han wondrid on the Sworde,
That wold so percin thorow everie thing;
And fell in speche of Telephus the king,
And of Achilles for his quyntè spere
For he couth with it bothè hele and dere
Hurt. Wound.
Right in soche wise as men may by that sworde,
Of which right now you have your selfis harde.
Thei spake of sundri harding of metall
And spake of medicinis ther withall,
And how and when it sholdin hardin be, &c
v. 256.
.
The sword which Berni in the ORLANDO INNAMORATO, gives to the hero Ruggiero, is tempered by much the same sort of magic.
Quel brando con tal tempra fabbricato,
Che taglia incanto ad ogni fatatura
Orl. Innam. ii. 17. st. 13.
.
So also his continuator Ariosto,
Non vale incanto, ov'elle mette il taglio
Orl. Fur. xii. 83.
.
And the notion that this weapon could resist all incantations, is like the fiction above-mentioned of the buckler of the Arabian giant Ben Gian, which baffled the force of charms and enchantments made by giants or demons
Amadis de Gaul has such a sword. See Don Quixote, B. iii. Ch. iv.
. Spenser has a sword endued with the same efficacy, the metal of which the magician Merlin mixed with the juice of meadow-wort, that it might be proof against enchantment; and afterwards, having forged the blade in the flames of Etna, he gave it hidden virtue by dipping it seven times in the bitter waters of Styx
Fairy Queen, ii. viii. 20. See also Ariost. xix. 84.
. From the same origin is also the golden lance of Berni, which Galafron king of Cathaia, father of the beautiful Angelica and the invincible champion Argalia, procured for his son by the help of a magician. This lance was of such irresistible power, that it unhorsed a knight the instant he was touched with its point.
—Una lancia d'oro,
Fatto con arte, e con sottil lavoro.
E quella lancia di natura tale,
Che resister non puossi alla sua spinta;
Forza, o destrezza contra lei non vale,
Convien che l'una, e l'altra resti vinta:
Incanto, a cui non è nel mondo eguale,
L'ha di tanta possanza intorno cin
a,
Che nè il conte di Brava, nèi Rinaldo,
Nè il mondo al colpo suo star
bbe saldo
Orl. Innam. i. i. st. 43. See also, i. ii. st. 20, &c. And Ariosto, viii. 17. xviii. 118. xxiii. 15.
.
Britormart in Spenser is armed with the same enchanted spear, which was made by Bladud an antient British king skilled in magic
Fairy Queen, iii. 3. 60. iv. 6. 6. iii. 1. 4.
.
The Ring, a gift to the king's daughter Canace, which taught the language of birds, is also quite in the style of some others of the occult sciences of these inventive philosophers
Rings are a frequent implement in romantic enchantment. Among a thousand instances, see Orland. Inn
m. 1. 14. Where the palace and gardens of Dragontina vanish at Angelica's ring of virtue.
: and it is the fashion of the oriental fabulists to give language to brutes in general. But to understand the language of birds, was peculiarly one of the boasted sciences of the Arabians; who pretend that many of their countrymen have been skilled in the knowledge of the language of birds, ever since the time of king Solomon. Their writers relate, that Balkis the queen of Sheba, or Saba, had a bird called
Hudhud,
that is, a lapwing, which she dispatched to king Solomon on various occasions; and that this trusty bird was the messenger of their amours. We are told, that Solomon having been secretly informed by this winged confident, that Balkis intended to honour him with a grand embassy, enclosed a spacious square with a wall of gold and silver bricks, in which he ranged his numerous troops and attendants in order to receive the embassadors, who were astonished at the suddenness of these splendid and unexpected preparations
Herbelot, Dict. Oriental. V. BALKIS, p. 182.
. Monsieur l'Herbelot tells a curious story of an Arab feeding his camels in a solitary wilderness, who was accosted for a draught of water by Alhejaj a famous Arabian commander, and who had been separated from his retinue in hunting. While they were talking together, a bird flew over their heads, making at the same time an unusual sort of noise; which the camel-feeder hearing, looked stedfastly on Alhejaj, and demanded who he was. Alhejaj, not choosing to return him a direct answer, desired to know the reason of that question.
"Because, replied the camel-feeder, this bird assured me, that a company of people is coming this way, and that you are the chief of them."
While he was speaking, Alheja
's attendants arrived
See Herbel
ubi supr. V. HEGIAGE
BN YUSEF AL THAKEFI. p. 442. This Arabian commander was of the eighth cent
ry. In the SEVEN WISE MASTERS, one of the tales is founded on the language of bird
.
. xvi.
.
This wonderful ring also imparted to the wearer a knowledge of the qualities of plants, which formed an important part of the Arabian philosophy
See what is said of this in the DISSERTATIONS.
.
The vertues of this ring if ye woll here
Are these, that if she list it for to were,
Upon her thomb, or in her purse it bere,
There is no fowle that fleith undir heven
That she ne shal wele understond his steven
Language.
,
And know his mening opinly and plain,
And answere him in his language againe.
And everie grasse that growith upon rote,
She shal wele knowe, and whom it woll do bote:
All be his woundis never so depe and wide
v. 166.
.
Every reader of taste and imagination must regret, that instead of our author's tedious detail of the quaint effects of Canace's ring, in which a falcon relates her amours, and talks familiarly of Troilus, Paris, and Jason, the notable atchievements we may suppose to have been performed by the assistance of the horse of brass, are either lost, or that this part of the story, by far the most interesting, was never written. After the strange knight has explained to Cambuscan the management of this magical courser, he vanishes on a sudden, and we hear no more of him.
And aftir suppir goth this nobil king
To sene this Horse of Brass, with all his rout
Of lordis and of ladies him about:
Soch wondering was ther on this Horse of Brass
Cervantes mentions a horse of wood, which, like this of Chaucer, on turning a pin in his forehead, carried his rider through the air. This horse, Cervantes adds, was made by Merlin for Peter of Provence; with which that valorous knight carried off the fair Magalona. From what romance Cervantes took this I do not recollect: but the reader sees its correspondence with the fiction of Chaucer's horse, and will refe
it to the same original. See Don Quixote, B. iii. ch. 8. We have the same thing in VALENTINE AND ORSON, ch. xxxi.
,
That sithin the grete siege of Troyè was,
Ther as men wondrid on an horse also,
Ne was ther soch a wondering as was tho
Then.
.
But finally the king askith the knight
The vertue of this coursere and the might;
And prayid him to tell his governaunce
The hors anon gan forth to trip and daunce,
When that the knight laid hold upon his reine.—
Enfourmid when the king was of the knight,
And hath conceivid in his wit aright,
The mannir and the form of all the thing,
Full glad and blyth, this nobil doubty king
Repairith to his revell as beforne:
The brydil is into the Toure yborn,
And kept among his jewels
Jocalia.
Precious things.
lefe and dere:
The horse vanishith: I'not in what manere
v. 322. seq. 355. seq.
.
By such inventions we are willing to be deceived. These are the triumphs of deception over truth.
Magnanima mensogna, hor quando è al vero
Si bello, che si possa à te preporre?
The CLERKE OF OXENFORDES TALE, or the story of Patient Grisilde, is the next of Chaucer's Tales in the serious style which deserves mention. The Clerke declares in his Prologue, that he learned this tale of Petrarch at Padua. But it was the invention of Boccacio, and is the last in his DECAMERON
Giorn. x. Nov. 10. Dryden, in the superficial but liv
ly Preface to his Fables, says,
"The Tale of Grisilde was the invention of Petrarch: by him sent to Boccace, from whom it came to Chaucer."
. Petrarch, although most intimately connected with Boccacio for near thirty years, never had seen the Decameron till just before his death. It accidentally fell into his hands, while he resided at Arque between Venice and Padua, in the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-four. The tale of Grisilde struck him the most of any: so much, that he got it by heart to relate it to his friends at Padua. Finding that it was the most popular of all Boccacio's tales, for the benefit of those who did not understand Italian, and to spread its circulation, he translated it into Latin with some alterations. Petrarch relates this in a letter to Boccacio: and adds, that on shewing the translation to one of his Paduan friends, the latter, touched with the tenderness of the story, burst into such frequent and violent fits of tears, that he could not read to the end. In the same letter he says, that a Veronese having heard of the Paduan's exquisiteness of feeling on this occasion, resolved to try the experiment. He read the whole aloud from the beginning to the end, without the least change of voice or countenance; but on returning the book to Petrarch, confessed that it was an affecting story:
"I should have wept, added he, like the Paduan, had I thought the story true. But the whole is a manifest fiction. There never was, nor ever will be, such a wife as Grisilde
Vie de Petrarch, iii. 797.
."
Chaucer, as our Clerke's declaration in the Prologue seems to imply, received this tale from Petrarch, and not from Boccacio: and I am inclined to think, that he did not take it from Petrarch's Latin translation, but that he was one of those friends to whom Petrarch used to relate it at Padua. This too seems sufficiently pointed out in the words of the Prologue.
I wolle you telle a talè which that I
Lernid at Padow of a worthie clerke:—
Frauncis Petrarke, the laureate poete,
Hightin this clerke, whose rhetorike so swete
Enluminid Italie of poetrie
v. 1057. p. 96. Urr. Afterwards Petrarch is mentioned as dead. He died of an apoplexy, Jul. 18. 1374. See v. 2168.
.
Chaucer's tale is also much longer, and more circumstantial, than Boccacio's. Petrarch's Latin translation from Boccacio was never printed. It is in the royal library at Paris, and in that of Magdalene college at Oxford
Viz.
"Vita Grisildis per Fr. Petrarcham de vulgari in Latinam linguam traducta."
But Rawlinson cites,
"Epistola Francisci Petrarchae de insigni obedientia et
ide uxoria Griseldis in Waltherum Ulme, impress."
per me R.... A. D. 1
3. MS. Not. in Mattairii Typogr. Hist. i. i. p. 104. In Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. Among the royal manuscripts, in the British Museum, there is,
"Fr. Petrarchae super Historiam Walterii Marchionis et Griseldis uxoris ejus."
8. B. vi. 17.
.
The story soon became so popular in France, that the comedians of Paris represented a Mystery in French verse entitled LE MYSTERE DE GRISEILDIS MARQUIS DE SALUCES, in the year 1393
It was many years afterwards printed at Paris, by Jean Bonnefons. The writers of the French stage do not mention this piece. See p. 246. Their first theatre is that of Saint Maur, and it's commencement is placed five years later, in the year 1398. Afterwards Apostolo Zeno wrote a theatrical piece on this subject in Italy. I need not mention that it is to this day represented in England, on a stage of the lowest species, and of the highest antiquity: I mean at a puppet-show. The French have this story in their PAREMENT DES DAMES, see Mem. Lit. Tom. ii
p. 743. 4to .
. Lydgate, almost Chaucer's cotemporary, in his manuscript poem entitled the TEMPLE OF GLASS
And in a
Balade,
translated by Lydgate from the Latin,
"Grisilde's humble patience"
is recorded. Urr. Ch. p. 550. v. 108.
, among the celebrated lovers painted on the walls of the temple
There is a more curious mixture in
Chaucer's Balade to king
Henry iv. Where Alexander, Hector, Julius Cesar, Judas Maccabeus, David, Joshua, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bulloign, and king Arthur, are all thrown together as antient heroes. v. 281. seq. But it is to be observed, that the French had a metrical romance called
Jud
s Macchabé
,
begun by Gualtier de Belleperche, before 1240. It was finished a few years afterwards by Pierros du Rie
. Fauch. p. 197. S
e also Lydgate, Urr. Chauc. p
550. v. 89. M. de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, has given us an extract of an old Provencial poem, in which, among heroes of love and gallantry, are enumerated Paris, Sir Tris
ram, Ivaine the inventor of gloves and other articles of elegance in dress, Apollonius of Tyre, and king Arthur. Mem. Chev. Extr. de Poes. Prov. ii. p. 154. In a French romance,
Le livre de cu
r a' amour espris,
written 1457, the author introduces the blasoning of the arms of several celebrated lovers: among which are king David, Nero, Mark Antony, Theseus, Hercules, Eneas, Sir Lancelot, Sir Tristram, Arthur duke of Bretagne, Gaston du Foix, many French dukes, &c. Mem. Lit.
iii. p. 592. edit. 4to. The chevalier Bayard, who died about the year 1524, is compared to Scipio, Hannibal, Theseus, king David, Samson, Judas Maccabeus, Orlando, Godfrey of Bulloign, and monsieur de Palisse, marshal of France. LA VIE ET LES GESTES DU PREUX CHEVALIER BAYARD, &c. Printed 1525.
, mentions Dido, Medea and Jason, Penelope, Alcestis, PATIENT GRISILDE, Bel Isoulde and Sir Tristram
From MORTE ARTHUR. They are mentioned in Chaucer's ASSEMBLIE OF FOWLES, v. 290. See also Compl. Bl. Kn. v. 367.
, Pyramus and Thisbe, Theseus, Lucretia, Canace, Palamon and Emilia
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Fairfax. 16.
.
The pathos of this poem, which is indeed exquisite, chiefly consists in invention of incidents, and the contrivance of the story, which cannot conveniently be developed in this place: and it will be impossible to give any idea of it's essential excellence by exhibiting detached parts. The versification is equal to the rest of our author's poetry.
SECT. XVI.
THE TALE of the NONNES PRIEST is perhaps a story of English growth. The figment of Dan Burnell's Ass is taken from a Latin poem entitled SPECULUM STULTORUM
v. 1427. p. 172. Urr.
, written by Nigellus de Wireker, monk and precentor of Canterbury cathedral, a profound theologist, who flourished about the year 1200
Or John of Salisbury. Printed at Cologn in 1449.
. The narrative of the two pilgrims is borrowed from Valerius Maximus
v. 1100.
. It is also related by Cicero, a less known and a less favorite author
See Val. Max. i. 7. And Cic. de Divinat. i. 27.
. There is much humour in the description of the prodigious confusion which happened in the farm-yard after the fox had conveyed away the cock.
—Aftir him they ran,
And eke with stavis many anothir man.
Ran Coll our dogge, Talbot, and eke Garlond
Names of dogs.
,
And Malkin with her distaffe in her hond.
Ran cowe and calfe, and eke the very hogges.—
The duckis cryed as men would hem quell
Kill.
,
The geese for fere flewin ovir the trees,
Out of the hivis came the swarme of bees
V. 1496.
.
Even Jack Strawe's insurrection, a recent transaction, was not attended with so much noise and disturbance.
So hidious was the noise,
ah Benedicite!
Certes ne Jacke Strawe, ne all his meine,
Ne madin nevir shoutis half so shrill
&c
v. 1509. This is a proof that the CANTERBURY TALES were not written till after the year 1381.
.
The importance and affectation of sagacity with which dame Partlett communicates her medical advice, and displays her knowledge in physic, is a ridicule on the state of medicine and its professors
v. 1070.
.
In another strain, the cock is thus beautifully described, and not without some striking and picturesque allusions to the manners of the times.
—A cocke hight chaunticlere,
In al the land of crowing nas his pere.
His voice was merier than the merie orgon
On masse-daiès that in the churchis gon.
Wel sikerer
Clearer.
was his crowing in his loge
Pen. Yard.
Than is a clock, or abbey horologe.—
His comb was reddir than the fine corall,
And battelled
Embattelled.
as it were a castill wall,
His bake was blacke as any get it shone,
Like asure were his leggis, and his tone
Toes.
:
His nailis whiter than the lillie floure,
And like the burnid golde was his colore
v. 962.
.
In this poem the fox is compared to the three arch-traitors Judas Iscariot, Virgil's Sinon, and Ganilion who betrayed the Christian army under Charlemagne to the Saracens, and is mentioned by archbishop Turpin
v. 1341. See also Monk. T. v. 806.
. Here also are cited, as writers of high note or authority, Cato, Physiologus or Pliny the elder, Boethius on music, the author of the legend
Organ.
of the life of saint Kenelme, Josephus, the historian of Sir Lancelot du Lake, Saint Austin, bishop Brawardine, Jeffrey Vinesauf who wrote a monody in Latin verse on the death of king Richard the first, Ecclesiastes, Virgil, and Macrobius.
Our author's JANUARY and MAY, or the MARCHAUNT'S TALE, seems to be an old Lombard story. But many passages in it are evidently taken from the POLYCRATICON of John of Salisbury.
De molestiis et oneribus conjugiorum secundum Hieronymum et alios philosophos. Et de pernicie libidinis. Et de mulieris Ephesinae et similium fide
L. viii. c. 11. fol. 193. b. edit. 1513.
. And by the way, about forty verses belonging to this argument are translated from the same chapter of the POLYCRATICON, in the WIFE OF BATH'S Prologue
Mention is made in this Prologue of St. Jerom and Theophrast, on that subject, v. 671. 674. The author of the Polycraticon quotes Th
ophrastus from Jerom, viz.
"Fertur auctore
Hieronimo
aurcolus
Theophrasti
libellus de non ducenda uxore."
fol. 194. a. Chaucer likewise, on this occasion, cites
Val
rie,
v. 671. This is not the favorite historian of the middle ages, Valerius Maximus. It is book written by Walter Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford, under the assumed name of Valerius, entitled,
Valerius ad Ru
inum de non ducenda uxore.
This piece is in the Bodleian library with a large Gloss. MSS. Dibg. 166. ii. 147. Mapes perhaps adopted this name, because one Valerius had written a treatise on the same subject, inserted in St. Jerom's works. Some copies of this Prologue, instead of
"Valeric and
Theophrast,"
read
Paraphrast.
If that be the true reading, which I do not believe, Chaucer alludes to the gloss abovementioned.
Helowis,
cited just afterwards, is the celebrated Eloisa. Trottula is mentioned, v. 677. Among the manuscripts of Merton College in Oxford, is,
"Trottula Mulier Salernitana de passionibus mulicrum."
There is also extant,
"Trottula, seu potius Erotis medici muliebrium liber."
Basil. 1586, 4to. See also Montfauc. Catal. MSS. p. 385. And Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiii. p. 439.
. In the mean time it is not improbable, that this tale might have originally been oriental. A Persian tale is just published which it extremely resembles
By Mr. Dow, ch. xv. p. 252.
; and it has much of the allegory of an eastern apologue.
The following description of the wedding-feast of January and May is conceived and expressed with a distinguished degree of poetical elegance.
Thus ben thei weddid with solempnite,
And at the feste sittith both he and she,
With othir worthy folk upon the deis
I have explained this word, p. 40. But will here add some new illustrations of it. Undoubtedly the high table in a public refectory, as appears from thes
words in Matthew Paris,
"Priore prandente ad MAGNAM MENSAM quam DAIS vulgo appellamus."
In Vit. Abbat. S. Albani, p. 92. And again the same writer says, that a cup, with a foot, or stand, was not permitted in the hall of the monastery,
"Nisi tantum in MAJORI MENSA quam DAIS appellamus."
Additam. p. 148. There is an old French word, DAIS, which signifies a throne, or canopy, usually placed over the head of the principal person at a magnificent feast. Hence it was transferred to the
table
at which he sate. In the antient French
Roman de Garin;
Au plus haut DAIS sist roy Anseis.
Either at the first table, or, which is much the same thing, under the highest canopy.
:
All ful of joye and bliss is the paleis,
And ful of instruments and of vitaile,
And the most dayntyist of al Itaile.
Before him stode soche instruments of soune,
That Orpheus, ne of Thebis Amphioune
Ne madin nevir soche a melodie;
At everie cours cam the loud minstr
lcie,
That never Joab trompid
Such as Joab never, &c.
, for to here,
Neither Theodamas yet half so clere,
At Thebis, when the cite was in dout
Danger.
.
Bacchus the wine them skinkith
Fill, pour.
al about,
And Venus laugith blithe on everie wight,
For January was become her knight,
And wold in both assayin his corage
In liberty and eke in marriage,
And with her firebronde in her hond aboute
Dauncith before the bride and al the route.
And certeinly I dare say wel right this,
Hymeneus that god of wedding is
Saw never so mery a wedded man.
Hold thou thy p
ace, thou poet Marcian
See supr, p, 391.
,
That writist us that ilk wedding merry
Of Philology and of Mercury,
And of the songis that the Muses song;
Too small is both thy pen, and eke thy tong,
For to descrivin of his marriage,
When tendir Youth has married stooping Age.—
MAY that sittin with so benign a chere
That her to behold it semed a feirie
A phantasy, enchantment.
:
Quene Hester lokid ner with soch an eye
On Assuere, so meke a loke hath she:
I may you not devis al her bewte,
But thus much of her bewte tel I may
That she was like the bright morowe of May,
Fulfilled of all bewte and plesaunce.
Tho JANUARY is ravished in a trance
At everie time he lokid in her face,
But in his hert he gan her to menace, &c
v. 1225. Urr.
.
Dryden and Pope have modernised the two last mentioned poems. Dryden the tale of the NONNES PRIEST, and Pope that of JANUARY and MAY: intending perhaps to give patterns of the best of Chaucer's Tales in the comic species. But I am of opinion that the MILLER'S TALE has more true humour than either. Not that I mean to palliate the levity of the story, which was most probably chosen by Chaucer in compliance with the prevailing manners of an unpolished age, and agreeable to ideas of festivity not always the most delicate and refined. Chaucer abounds in liberties of this kind, and this must be his apology. So does Boccacio, and perhaps much more, but from a different cause. The licentiousness of Boccacio's tales, which he composed
per cacciar le malincolia delle femine,
to amuse the ladies, is to be vindicated, at least accounted for, on other principles: it was not so much the consequence of popular incivility, as it was owing to a particular event of the writer's age. Just before Boccacio wrote, the plague at Florence had totally changed the customs and manners of the people. Only a few of the women had survived this fatal malady; who having lost their husbands, parents, or friends, gradually grew regardless of those constraints and customary formalities which before of course influenced their behaviour. For want of female attendants, they were obliged often to take men only into their service: and this circumstance greatly contributed to destroy their habits of delicacy, and gave an opening to various freedoms and indecencies unsuitable to the sex, and frequently productive of very serious consequences. As to the monasteries, it is not surprising that Boccacio should have made them the scenes of his most libertine stories. The plague had thrown open their gates. The monks and nuns wandered abroad, and partaking of the common liberties of life, and the levities of the world, forgot the rigour of their institutions, and the severity of their ecclesiastical characters. At the ceasing of the plague, when the religious were compelled to return to their cloisters, they could not forsake their attachment to these secular indulgences; they continued to practice the same free course of life, and would not submit to the disagreeable and unsocial injunctions of their respective orders. Cotemporary historians give a shocking representation of the unbounded debaucheries of the Florentines on this occasion: and ecclesiastical writers mention this period as the grand epoch of the relaxation of monastic discipline
Boccacio did not escape the censure of the church for these compositions. His conversion was a point much laboured; and in expiation of his follies, he was almost persuaded to renounce poetry and the heathen authors, and to turn Carthusian. But, to say the truth, Boccacio's life was almost as loose as his writings; till he was in great measure reclaimed by the powerful remonstrances of his master Petrarch, who talked much more to the purpose than his confessor. This Boccacio himself acknowledges in the fifth of his eclogues, which like those of Petrarch are enigmatical and obscure, entitled PHILOSOTROPHOS.
But to return to the MILLER'S TALE. The character of the Clerke of Oxford, who studied astrology, a science then in high repute, but under the specious appearance of decorum, and the mask of the serious philosopher, carried on intrigues, is painted with these lively circumstances.
This clerke yclepid was hend Nicholas
The g
ntle Nicholas.
,
Of dernè
S
cret.
love he couth and of solas:
And th
rto was he slie, and right prive,
And like unto a maidin for to se.
A chambre had he in that hostelrie
H
spitium,
one of the old hostels at Oxford, which were very numerous before the foundation of the colleges. This is one of the citizens houses: a circumstance which gave rise to the story.
Alone, withoutin any company,
Ful fetously ydight with herbis sote
Sweet.
;
And he himself as swete as in the rote
Root.
Of licoris, or any seduwall
The herb Valerian.
.
His almagist
A book of astronomy written by Ptolemy. It was in thirteen books. He wrote also four books of judicial astrology. He was an Egyptian astrologist, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus. He is mentioned in the
Sompnour's Tale,
v. 1025, and the
Wife of Bath's Prologue,
v. 324.
, and bokis grate and small,
His asterlagour
Asterlabore. An astrolabe.
longing for his art,
His augrim stonis
Stones for computation. Augri m is
Algorithm,
the sum of the principal rules of common arithmetic. Chaucer was hims
lf an adept in this sort of knowledge. Th
learned Seld
n is of opinion, that his
Astrolabe
was compiled from the Arabian as
ronomers and mathematicians. See his Pref. to Notes on Drayt. Polyolb. p. 4
where the word
Dulcarnon,
(Troil.
r. iii. 933, 935.) is explained to be an Arabic term for a root in calculation. His CHANON YEMAN'S TALE, proves his intimate acquaintance with the Hermetic philosophy, then much in vogue. There is a statute of Henry the fifth, against the transmutation of metals, in Statut. an. 4 Hen. V. cap. iv. viz. A. D. 1416. Chaucer, in the
Astrolab
,
refers to two famous mathematicians and astronomers of his time, John Some, and Nicholas Lynne, both Carmelite friars of Oxford, and perhaps his friends, whom he calls
"reverent clerkes."
Astrolabe,
p. 440. col. i. Urr. They both wrote calendars, which, like Chaucer's Astrolabe, were constructed for the meridian of Oxford. Chaucer mentions Alcabucius, an astronomer, that is, Abdilazi Alchabitius, whose I
agoge in astrologiam was printed at Venice, 1485, 4to . Ib. fol. 440. col. ii. Compare Herbelot. Bibl. Oriental. p. 963. b. V. KETAB.
Al
st
orlab.
p. 141. a. Nicholas Lynne abovementioned is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward the third. Perhaps to Iceland, and the coasts of Norway, for astronomical observations. These charts are lost. Haklu
t apud Anderson. Hist. Com. i. p. 191. sub. ann. 1360. (See Hakl. Voy. i. 121. seq.
d. 1598.)
lying feire apart,
On shelvis, al couchid at his beddis hede;
His presse
Press.
ycoverid with a folding rede:
And all above there lay a gay sautrie
Psaltery. An instrument like a harp.
,
On which he made on nightis melodie
So swetely that al the chamber rung,
And
Angelus ad Virginem
he sung
v. 91. p. 24. Urr.
.
In the description of the young wife of our philosopher's host, there is great elegance with a mixture of burlesque allusions. Not to mention the curiosity of a female portrait, drawn with so much exactness at such a distance of time.
Faire was this yongè wife, and therwithall
As a wesill
Weasle.
her bodie gent and small.
A seint she werid, barrid all with silk
"A girdle edged with silk."
But we have no exact idea of what is here meant by
barrid.
See supr. p. 377. The DOCTOR OF PHISICKE is
"girt with a
seint
of silk with
barris
smale."
Prol. v. 138.
I once conjectured
barded.
See Hollingsh. Chron. iii. 84. col. ii. 850. col. 1. &c. &c.
,
A barmecloth
Apron.
eke, as white as morrow milk,
Upon her lendis, full of many a gore
Plait. Fold.
.
White was her smok, embroudid all bifore
Edged. Adorned.
,
And eke behind, on her colere about,
Of coleblak silk, within, and eke without.
The tapis
Tapes. Strings.
of her whitè volipere
Head-dress.
Were of the samè sute of her colere
Collar.
.
Her fillit
Knot. Top-knot.
brode of silke, and set ful hie,
And sikerly
Certainly.
she had a licorous eie.
Full small ypullid
"Made small or narrow, by plucking."
were her browis two,
And tho
They.
were bent
Arched.
and blak as any slo.
And she was moche more blisfull for to se
Than is the newè perienet
A young pear-tree. Fr.
Poir jeunet.
tre;
And softer than the wool is of a wether:
And by her girdil hong a purse of lether,
Tassid
Tasseled. Fringed.
with silke, and parlid
I would read purfild.
with latoun
Latoun, or chekelaton, is cloth of gold.
.
In all this world to sekin up and down,
There nis no man so wise that couthè thence
So gay a popelete
"So pretty a puppet."
or so gay a wench.
Full brightir was the shining of her hewe
Than in the Towre the noble
A piece of money.
forgid newe.
But of her song she was so loud and yerne
Shrill.
,
As any swallow sitting on a berne.
Therto she couthe skip, and make a game,
As any kid or calfe foll'wing her dame.
Hir mouth was swete as brackit
Bragget. A drink made of honey, spices. &c.
or the methe,
Or hord of applis layd in hay or heth.
Winsing she was as is a jolly colt,
Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt
"Straight as an arrow."
.
A broche
A jewel.
she bare upon her low collere
As brode as is the bosse of a bokelere
Buckler.
.
Her shoes were lacid on her leggis hie, &c
v. 125. Urr.
.
Nicholas, as we may suppose, was not proof against the charms of his blooming hostess. He has frequent opportunities of conversing with her: for her husband is the carpenter of Oseney Abbey near Oxford, and often absent in the woods belonging to the monastery
See v. 557.
—I trow that he bewent
For timber, there our abbot hath him sent:
For he is wont for timber for to go,
And dwellin at the grange a day or two.
. His rival is Absalom, a parish-clerk, the gaiest of his calling, who being amorously inclined, very naturally avails himself of a circumstance belonging to his profession: on holidays it was his business to carry the censer about the church, and he takes this opportunity of casting unlawful glances on the handsomest dames of the parish. His gallantry, agility, affectation of dress and p
rsonal elegance, skill in shaving and surgery, smattering in the law, taste for music, and many other accomplishments, are thus inimitably represented by Chaucer, who must have much relished so ridiculous a character.
Now was ther of the chirch a parish clerke,
The which that was yclepid Absalon,
Crull was his heere, and as the gold it shone,
And stroutid as a fannè longe and brode,
Ful straight and even lay his jolly shode
Hair.
.
His rude
Complexion.
was redde, his eyin gray as gose,
With Poulis windows carvin on his shose
See p. 379. supr.
.
In hosin r
d he went ful fetously:
Yclad he was ful smale and propirly
Al in a kirtil
Jacket.
of a light watchet,
Ful fayre, and thickè be the pointis set:
And thereuppon he hadde a gaie surplice
As white as is the blosome on the rice
Hawthorn.
.
A merie child he was, so god me save,
Well couth he lettin blode, and clip, and shave.
Or make a chartre of land or acquittaunce;
In twentie manir couth he trip and daunce,
After the schole of Oxenfordi tho,
And with his leggis castin to and fro.
And pleyin songis on a smale ribible
v. 224. A species of guittar. Lydgate, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Fairf. 16. In a poem never printed, called
Reason and Sensuallite, compyled by Jhon Lydgate.
Lutys, rubibis, (l. ribibles) and geternes,
More for estatys than tavernes.
,
Therto he sometimes soud a long quinible
Treble.
.
His manner of making love must not be omitted. He serenades her with his guittar.
He wakith al the night, and al the day,
He kembith his lockes brode, and made him gay.
He woith her by menis and brocage
By offering money: or a settlement.
,
And swore that he would ben her ownè page.
He singith broking
Quavering.
as a nightingale.
He sent her piment
Explained above, p. 178.
, methe, and spicid ale,
And wafirs piping hot out of the glede
The coals. The oven.
,
And, for she was of town, he proffred mede
See RIME OF SIR THOPAS, v. 3357. p. 146. Urr. Mr. Walpole has mentioned some curious particulars concerning the liquors which antiently prevailed in England. Anecd. Paint. i. p. 11. I will add, that cyder was very early a common liquor among our ancestors. In the year 1295, an. 23 Edw. I. the king orders the sher
ff of Southamptonshire to provide with all speed four hundred quarters of wheat, to be collected in parts of his bailiwick nearest the sea, and to convey the same, being well winnowed, in good ships from Portsinouth to Win
helsea. Also to put on board the said ships, at the same time, two hundred tons of cyder. Test. R. apud Canterbury. The cost to be paid immediately from the king's wardrobe. This precept is in old French. Registr. Joh. Ponti
s
r. Episc. Winton. fol. 172. It is remarkable that Wickliffe translates, Luc. i. 21.
"He schal not drinke wyn ne
sydyr.
"
This translation was made about A. D. 1380. At a visitation of St. Swithin's priory at Winchester, by the said bishop, it appears that the monks claimed to have, among other articles of luxury, on many festivals,
"Vinum, tam a
bum quam rubeum, claretum, medonem, burgarastrum, &c."
This was so early as the year 1285. Registr Priorat. S. Swith. Winton. MS. supr. citat. quatern. 5. It appears also, that the
Horda
i
s
and
Cam
rarius
claimed every year of the prior ten
dolia vini,
or twenty pounds in money, A. D. 1337. Ibid. quatern. 5. A bene
actor grants to the said convent on the day of his anniversary,
"unam pipam vini pret. xx.
s."
for their r
f
ction, A. D. 1286 Ibid. quatern. 10. Before the year 1200,
"Vina et medones"
are mentioned as not uncommon in the abbey of Evesham in Worcestershire. Stevens Monast. Append. p. 138. The use of mead,
medo,
seems to have been very antient in England. See Mon. Angl. i. 26. Thorne, Chron. sub. ann. 1114. Compare DISSERTAT. i.
.—
Sometimes to shew his lightness and maistry
He playith heraudes
Speght explains this
"feats of activity, furious parts in a play."
Gloss. Ch. Urr. Perhaps the character of HEROD in a MYSTERY.
on a scaffold hie.
Again,
When that the firstè cok hath crow anon,
Uprist this jolly lovir Absolon;
And him arayith gay at point devise.
But first he chewith greyns
Greyns, or grains, of Paris, or Paradise, occurs in the ROMANT OF THE ROSE. v. 1369. A rent of herring pies is an old payment from the city of Norwich to the king, seasoned among other spices with half an ounce of grains of Paradise. Blomf. Norf. ii. 264.
and licorice,
To smellin sote, ere he had kempt his here.
Under his tongue a true love knot he bare,
For therby wend he to be graciouse;
Then romith to the carpenteris house
v. 579. It is to be remarked, that in this tale the carpenter swears, with great propriety, by the patroness saint of Oxford, saint Frideswide, v. 340.
This carpenter to blissin him began,
And seide now help in us saint Frideswide.
.
In the mean time the scholar, intent on accomplishing his intrigue, locks himself up in his chamber for the space of two days. The carpenter, alarmed at this long seclusion, and supposing that his guest might be sick or dead, tries to gain admittance, but in vain. He peeps through a crevice of the door, and at length discovers the scholar, who is conscious that he was seen, in an affected trance of abstracted meditation. On this our carpenter, reflecting on the danger of being wise, and exulting in the security of his own ignorance, exclaims,
A man wott littil what shall him betide!
This man is fallen with his astronomy
In some wodeness, or in some agony.
I thoughtin ay wele how it shuldè be:
Men shuldè not know
"Pry into the secrets of nature."
of gods privite.
Yea blessid be alway the lewdè-man
Unlearned.
,
That nought but only his belefe can
"Who knows only what he believes."
Or, his Creed.
.
So farde another clerke with astronomy;
He walkid in the feldis for to pry
Upon the starres to wate what shuld bifall
Tyll he was in a marlèpit yfall;
He saw not that. But yet, by seint Thomas,
Me ruith sore on hendè Nicholas:
He shall be ratid for his studying.
But the scholar has ample gratification for this ridicule. The carpenter is at length admitted; and the scholar continuing the farce, gravely acquaints the former that he has been all this while making a most important discovery by means of astrological calculations. He is soon persuaded to believe the prediction: and in the sequel, which cannot be repeated here, this humourous contrivance crowns the scholar's schemes with success, and proves the cause of the carpenter's disgrace. In this piece the reader observes that the humour of the characters is made subservient to the plot.
I have before hinted, that Chaucer's obscenity is in great measure to be imputed to his age. We are apt to form romantic and exaggerated notions about the moral innocence of our ancestors. Ages of ignorance and simplicity are thought to be ages of purity. The direct contrary, I believe, is the case. Rude periods have that grossness of manners which is not less friendly to virtue than luxury itself. In the middle ages, not only the most flagrant violations of modesty were frequently practised and permitted, but the most infamous vices. Men are less ashamed as they are le
s polished. Great refinement multiplies criminal pleasures, but at the same time prevents the actual commission of many enormities: at least it preserves public decency, and suppresses public licentiousness.
The REVES TALE, or the MILLER of TROMPINGTON, is much in the same style, but with less humour
See also THE SHIPMAN'S TAL
, which was originally taken from some comic Fren
h trobadour. But Chaucer had it
rom Boccacio. The story of Zenobia, in the MONKES TALE, i
from Boccacio's Cas. Vir. Illustr. (See Lydg. Boch. viii. 7.) That of Hugolin of Pisa in the same Tale, from Dante. That of Pedro of Spain, from archbishop Turpin, ibid. Of Julius Cesar, from Lucan, Suetonius, and Valerius Maximus, ibid. The idea of this TALE was suggested by Boccacio's book on the same subjec
.
. This story was enlarged by Chaucer from Boccacio
Decamer. Giom. ix. Nov. 6.
. There is an old English poem on the same plan, entitled,
A ryght pleasant and mery
history of the Myln
r of A
ington, with his Wife and faire Daught
r, and
wo poore Scholars of Cambridge
A manifest mistake for Oxford, unless we read Trumpington for Abingdon, or retaining Abingdon we might rea
Oxford for Cambridge. Imprint. at London by Rycharde Jones, 4to. Bl. Let. It is in Bibl. Bodl. Selden, C. 39. 4to. This book was probably given to that library, with many other petty black l
tter histories, in prose and verse, of a similar cast, by Robert Burton, author of the ANATOMY of MELANCHOLY, who was a great collector of such pieces. One of his books now in the Bodleian is the HISTORY OF TOM THUMB; whom a learned antiquary, while he lam
nts that antient history ha
been much disguised by romantic narratives, pronounces to have been no less important a personage than king Edgar's dwarf.
. It begins with these lines.
"Faire lordinges, if you list to heere
"A mery jest
Story.
your minds to cheere."
This piece is supposed by Wood to have been written by Andrew Borde, a physician, a wit, and a poet, in the reign of Henry the eighth
See Wood's Athen. Oxon. BORDE. And Hearne'
Bened. Abb. i. Prae
at. p. xl. lv. I am of opinion that Solere-Hall, in Cambridge, mentioned in this poem, was Aula Solarii. The hall, with the upper story, at that time a sufficient circumstance to distinguish and de
ominate one of the academical hospitia. Although Chaucer calls it,
"a grete college,"
v. 88. Thus in Oxford we had Chimney-hall, Aula cum Camino, an almost parallel proof of the simplicity of their antient houses of learning. Twyne also mentions Solerehall, at Oxford. Also Aula Selarii, which I doubt not is properly Solarii. Compare Wood. Ant. Oxon. ii. 11. col. i. 13. col. i. 12. col. 2. Caius will have it to be Clarehall. Hist. Acad. p. 57. Those who read Scholars-hall (of Edw. iii.) may consult Wacht. V. SOLLER
In the mean time for the reasons assigned, one of th
se two hal
s or colleg
s at Cambridge, might at first have been commonly called Soler-hall. A hall near Brazen-nose coll
ge, Oxford, was called Glazen-hall, having glass windows, antiently not common. See Twyn
Miscel. quaedam, &c. ad calc. Apol. Antiq. Aca
Oxon.
. It was at least evidently written after the time of Chaucer. It is the work of some tasteless imitator, who has sufficiently disguised his original, by retaining none of its spirit. I mention these circumstances, lest it should be thought that this frigid abridgment was the ground-work of Chaucer's poem on the same subject. In the class of
umourous or satirical tales, the SOMPNOUR'S TALE, which exposes the tricks and extortions of the mendicant friars, has also distinguished merit. This piece has incidentally been mentioned above with the PLOWMAN'S TALE, and Pierce Plowman.
Genuine humour, the concomitant of true taste, consists in discerning improprieties in books as well as characters. We therefore must remark under this class another tale of Chaucer, which till lately has been looked upon as a grave heroic narrative. I mean the RIME OF SIR THOPAS. Chaucer, at a period which almost realised the manners of romantic chivalry, discerned the leading absurdities of the old romances: and in this poem, which may be justly called a prelude to Don Quixote, has burlesqued them with exquisite ridicule. That this was the poet's aim, appears from many passages. But, to put the matter beyond a doubt, take the words of an ingenious critic.
"We are to observe, says he, that this was Chaucer's own Tale: and that, when in the progress of it, the good sense of the host is made to break in upon him, and interrupt him, Chaucer approves his disgust, and changing his note, tells the simple instructive Tale of MELIBOEUS,
a moral tale vertuous,
as he terms it; to shew what sort of fictions were most expressive of real life, and most proper to be put into the hands of the people. It is further to be noted, that the
Boke of Th
Giant Olyphant, and Chylde Thop
s,
was not a fiction of his own, but a story of antique fame, and very celebrated in the days of chivalry: so that nothing could better suit the poet's design of discrediting the old romances, than the choice of this venerable legend for the vehicle of his ridicule upon them
See Dr. Hurd's LETTERS ON CHIVALRY AND ROMANCE. Dialogues, &c. iii. 218. edit. 1765.
.
But it is to be remembered, that Chaucer's design was intended to ridicule the frivolous descriptions, and other tedious impertinencies, so common in the volumes of chivalry with which his age was overwhelmed, not to degrade in general or expose a mode of fabling, whose sublime extravagancies constitute the marvellous graces of his own CAMBUSCAN; a composition which at the same time abundantly demonstrates, that the manners of romance are better calculated to answer the purposes of pure poetry, to captivate the imagination, and to produce surprise, than the fictions of classical antiquity.
SECT. XVII.
BUT Chaucer's vein of humour, although conspicuous in the CANTERBURY TALES, is chiefly displayed in the Characters with which they are introduced. In these his knowledge of the world availed him in a peculiar degree, and enabled him to give such an accurate pic
ure of antient manners, as no cotemporary nation has transmitted to post
rity. It is here that we view the pursuits and employments, the customs and diversions, of our ancestors, copied from the life, and represented with equal truth and spirit, by a judge of mankind, whose penetration qualified him to discern their foibles or discriminating peculiarities; and by an artist, who understood that proper selection of circumstances, and those predominant characteristics, which form a finished portrait. We are surprised to find, in so gross and ignorant an age, such talents for satire, and for observation on lif
; qualities which usually exert themselves at more civilised periods, when the improved state of society, by subtilising our speculations, and establishing uniform modes of b
haviour, disposes mankind to study themselves, and renders deviations of conduct, and singularities of character, more immediately and necessarily the obj
cts of censure and ridicule. These curious and valuable remains are specimens of Chaucer's native genius, unassisted and unalloyed. The figures are all British, and bear no suspicious signatures of classical, Italian, or French imitation. The characters of Theophrastus are not so lively, particular, and appropriated. A few traites from this celebrated part of our author, yet too little tasted and understood, may be sufficient to prove and illustrate what is here advanced.
The character of the PRIORESSE is chiefly distinguished by an excess of delicacy and decorum, and an affectation of courtly accomplishments. But we are informed, that she was educated at the school of Stratford at Bow near London, perhaps a fashionable seminary for breeding nuns.
There was also a nonne a Prioresse
That of her smiling was simble and coy;
Her gretist othe was but by saint Eloye
Seyntè Loy,
i. e. Saint Lewis. The same
ath occurs in the FR
ERE'
TALE, v. 300. p. 88. Urr.
.
And French she spake full fayre and fetisly,
Aftir the schole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For French of Paris was to her unknowe.
At metè
Dinner.
was she well ytaught withall;
She let no morsell from her lippis fall,
Ne wet her fingris in the saucè depe;
Well couth she carry a morsel, and well kepe,
That no dropè ne fell upon her brest;
In curtesie was sett ful much her lest
Pleasure. Desire.
.
Her ovirlippè wipid she so clene,
That in her cup ther was no ferthing sene
Of grecè, when she dronkin had hir draught,
Full semily aftir hir mete she raught
Literally,
Stretched.
.—
And painid hir to counterfetè chere
Of court, and to ben stately of manere
Prol. v. 124.
.
She has even the false pity and sentimentality of many modern ladies.
She was so charitable and so pitous,
She wouldè wepe if that she saw a mous
Caught in a trapp, if it were ded or bled.
Of smalè houndis had she that she fed
With rostid flesh, or milk, or wastell bred
Bread of a
iner sort.
:
But sore wept she if any of them were ded,
Or if men smote them with a yardè
Stick.
smert:
And all was conscience and tendir hert
v. 143.
.
The WIFE OF BATH is more amiable for her plain and useful qualifications. She is a respectable dame, and her chief pride consists in being a conspicuous and significant character at church on a Sunday.
Of clothmaking
It is to be observed, that she lived in the neighbourhood of Bath; a country famous for clothing to this day.
she haddè such a haunt
She passid them of Ipre and of Gaunt
See above, p. 177.
.
In all the parish, wife ne was there none
That to the offryng was bifore her gone;
And if ther did, certain so wroth was she,
That she was outin of all charite.
Her coverchefes
Head dress.
were large and fine of ground,
I durst to swere that thei weyid three pound,
That on a sonday were upon hir hedde:
Her hosin werin of fine scarlett redde,
Full strait istreynid, and hir shoos ful newe:
Bold was hir face, and fayr and redde hir hewe.
She was a worthy woman all her live:
At the southern entrance of Norwich cathedral, a representation of the ESPOU
ALS, or sacrament of marriage, is carved in stone; for here the hands of the couple were joined by the priest, and great part of the service performed. Here also the bride was endowed with what was called
Dos ad ostium ecclesiae.
This ceremony is exhibited in a curious old picture engraved by Mr. Walpole, where king Henry the seventh is married to his queen, standing at the facade or western portal of a magnificent Gothic church. Anecd. Paint. i. 31. Compare Marten. Rit. Eccl. Anecdot. ii. p. 630. And Hearne's Antiquit. Glastonb. Append. p. 310.
Husbandes at the chirche dore had she had five
v. 449.
.
The FRANKELEIN is a country gentleman, whose estate consisted in free land, and was not subject to feudal services or payments. He is ambitious of shewing his riches by the plenty of his table: but his hospitality, a virtue much more practicable among our ancestors than at present, often degenerates into luxurious excess. His impatience if his sauces were not sufficiently poignant, and every article of his dinner in due form and readiness, is touched with the hand of Pope or Boileau. He had been a president at the sessions, knight of the shire, a sheriff, and a coroner
An office antiently executed by gentlemen of the greatest respect and property.
.
An housholder, and that a gret, was he:
Saint Julian he was in his countre
Simon the leper, at whose house our Saviour lodged in Pethany, is called, in the
egends,
Julian the good
rborow,
and bishop of Bethpage. In the TALE OF BIRYN, St. Julian is invoked to revenge a traveller who had been traiterously used in his lodgings. See Urr. Ch. p. 599. v. 625.
.
His brede, his ale, was alway aftir one;
A bettir viendid
Better vianded.
men was no wher none.
Withoutin bake mete never was his house
Of fish and fleshe, and that so plenteouse,
It fnewid
Snowed.
in his house of mete and drink,
And of all dainties that men couth of think.
Aftir the sondrie seasons of the yere,
So chaungid he his mete
Dinner.
, and his supp
re.
Many a fat partriche had he in mewe,
And many a breme, and many a luce
Pike.
, in stewe.
Woe was his cooke, but that his saucis were
Poinant and sharpe, and redy all his gere!
His table dormaunt
Never removed.
in the hall
alway,
Stode redy coverid, all the longè day
v. 356.
.
The character of the Doctor of PHISICKE preserves to us the state of medical knowledge, and the course of medical erudition then in fashion. He treats his patients according to rules of astronomy: a science which the Arabians engrafted on medicine.
For he was groundid in astronomie:
He kept his pacients a full gret dele
In houris by his magike natural
v. 416.
.
Petrarch leaves a legacy to his physician John de Dondi, of Padua, who was likewise a great astronomer, in the year 1370
See Acad. Inscript. xx. 443.
. It was a long time before the medical profession was purged from these superstitions. Hugo de Evesham, born in Worcestershire, one of the most famous physicians in Europe about the year 1280, educated in both the universities of England, and at others in France and Italy, was eminently skilled in mathematics and astronomy
Pits. p. 370. Bale, iv. 50. xiii. 86.
. Pierre d'Apono, a celebrated professor of medicine and astronomy at Padua, wrote commentaries on the problems of Aristotle, in the year 1310. Roger Bacon says,
"astronomiae pars melior medicina
Bacon, Op. Maj. edit. Jebb, p. 158. See also p. 240. 247.
."
In the statutes of New-College at Oxford, given in the year 1387, medicine and astronomy are mentioned as one and the same science. Charles the fifth king of France, who was governed entir
ly by astrologers, and who commanded all the Latin treatises which could be found relating to the stars, to be translated into French, established a college in the university of Paris for the study of medicine and astrology
Montfaucon, Bibl. Manusc
pt. tom. ii. p. 791. b.
. There is a scarce and very curious book, entitled,
"Nova medicinae methodus curandi morbos ex mathematica scientia deprompta, nunc denuo revisa, &c. Joanne Hasfurto Virdungo, medico et astrologo doctissimo, auctore, Haganoae excus. 1518
In quarto.
."
Hence magic made a part of medicine. In the MARCHAUNTS second tale, or HISTORY OF BERYN, falsely ascribed to Chaucer, a chirurgical operation of changing eyes is partly performed by the assistance of the occult sciences.
—The whole science of all surgery,
Was undyd or the chaunge was made of both eye,
With many sotill enchantours, and eke nygrymauncers,
That sent wer for the nonis, maistris, and scoleris
v. 2989. Urr. Ch.
.
Leland mentions one William Glatisaunt, an astrologer and physician, a fellow of Merton college in Oxford, who wrote a medical tract, which, says he,
"nescio quid MAGIAE spirabat
Lel. apud Tann. Bibl. p. 262. And Lel. Script. Brit. p. 400.
."
I could add many other proofs
See Ames's Hist. Print. p. 147.
.
The books which our physician studied are then enumerated.
Well knew he the old Esculapius,
And Dioscorides, and eke Rufus,
Old Hippocrates, Haly, and Galen,
Serapion, Rasis, and Avicen,
Averrois, Damascene, Constantine,
Bernard, and Gattisden, and Gilbertin.
Rufus, a physician of Ephesus, wrote in Greek, about the time of Trajan. Some fragments of his works still remain
Conring. Script. Com. Saec. i. cap. 4. p. 66. 67. The Arabians have translations of him. Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 972. b. 977. b.
. Haly was a famous Arabic astronomer, and a commentator on Galen, in the eleventh century, which produced so many famous Arabian physicians
Id. ibid. Saec. xi. cap. 5. p. 114. Haly, called Abbas, was likewise an eminent physician of this period. He was called,
"Simia Galeni."
Id. ibid.
. John Serapion, of the same age and country, wrote on the practice of physic
Id. ibid. p. 113, 114.
. Avicen, the most eminent physician of the Arabian school, flourished in the same century
Id. ibid. See Pard. T. v. 2407. Urr. p. 136.
. Rhasis, an Asiatic physician, practiced at Cordoua in Spain, where he died in the tenth century
Conring. ut supr. Saec. x cap. 4. p. 110. He wrote a large and famous work, called
Continens.
Rhasis and Almasor, (f. Albuma
ar, a great Arabian astrologer,) occur in the library of Peterborough Abby, Matric. Libr. Monast. Burgi S. Petri. Gunton, Peterb. p. 187. See Hearne, Ben. Abb. Praef. lix.
. Averroes, as the Asiatic schools decayed by the indolence of the Caliphs, was one of those philosophers who adorned the Moorish schools erected in Africa and Spain. He was a professor in the university of Morocco. He wrote a commentary on all Aristotle's works, and died about the year 1160. He was styled the most
Peripatic
of all the Arabian writers. He was born at Cordoua of an antient Arabic family
Conring. ut supr. Saec. xii. cap. 2. p. 118.
. John Damascene, secretary to one of the Caliphs, wrote in various sciences, before the Arabians had entered Europe, and had seen the Grecian philosophers
Voss Hist. Gr. L. iii. c. 24.
. Constantinus Afer, a monk of Cassino in Italy was one of the Saracen physicians who brought medicine into Europe, and formed the Salernitan school, chiefly by translating various Arabian and Grecian medical books into Latin
Petr. Diacon. de Vir. illustr. Monast
Cassin. cap. xxiii. See the DISSERTATIONS. He is again mentioned by our author in the MARCHAUNT'S TALE, v. 1326. p. 71. Urr.
And lectuaries had he there full fine,
Soche as the cursid monk
Dan Constantine
Hath written in his boke de Coitu.
The title of this book is,
"DE COITU, quibus pro
it aut obsit, quibus medicaminibus et alimentis acuatur impediaturve."
Inter Op. Bas
l. 1536. fol.
. He was born at Carthage: and learned grammar, logic, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and natural philosophy, of the Chaldees, Arabians, Persians, Saracens, Egyptians, and Indians, in the schools of Bagdat. Being thus completely accomplished in these sciences, after thirty-nine years study, he returned into Africa. where an attempt was formed against his life. Constantine, having fortunately discovered this design, privately took ship and came to Salerno in Italy, where he lurked some time in disguise. But he was recognised by the Caliph's brother then at Salerno, who recommended him as a scholar universally skilled in the learning of all nations, to the notice of Robert duke of Normandy. Robert entertained him with the highest marks of respect: and Constantine, by the advice of his patron, retired to the monastery of Cassino, where being kindly received by the abbot Desiderius, he translated in that learned society the books above-mentioned, most of which he first imported into Europe. These versions are said to be still extant. He flourished about the year 1086
See Leo Ostiensis, or P. Diac. Auctar.
d Leon. Chron. Mon. Cassin. lib. iii. c. 35. p. 445. Scriptor. Italic. tom. iv. Murator. In his book DE INCANTATIONI
US, one of his enquiries is,
An invenerim i
libris
GR
ECORUM
c qualiter in
INDORUM
lib
is est invenire,
&c. Op. tom. i. ut supr.
. Bernard, or Bernardus Gordonius, appears to have been Chaucer's cotemporary. He was a professor of medicine at Montpelier, and wrote many treatises in that faculty
Petr. Lambec. Prodrom. Sa
c. xiv. p. 274. edit. ut supr.
. John Gatisden was a fellow of Merton college, where Chaucer was educated, about the year 1320
It has been before observed, that at the introduction of philosophy into Europe by the Saracens, the clergy only studied and pr
cticed the medical art. This fashion prevailed a long while afterwards. The Prior and Convent of S. Swithin's at Winchester granted to Thomas of Shaftesbury, clerk, a corrody, consisting of two dishes daily from the Prior's kitchen, bread, drink, robes, and a competent chamber in the monastery, for the term of his life. In consideration of all which concessions, the said Thomas paid them fifty marcs: and moreover is obliged,
"deservire nobis
in Art
medicin
.
Dat. in dom. Capitul. Feb. 15. A. D. 1319."
Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin. Winton. MS. supr. citat. The most l
arn
d and accurate Fabricius has a separate article on THEOLOGI MEDICI
Bibl. Gr. xii. 739. seq. See also Gianon. Istor. Neapol. l. x. ch. xi. §. 491. In the romance of SIR GUY, a monk heals the knight's wounds
Signat. G. iiii.
There was a
monk
beheld him well
That could of
l
ach cra
te
some d
ll.
In G. of Monmouth, who wrote in 1128, Eopa intending to poison Ambrosius, introduces himself as a physician. But in order to sustain this character with due propri
ty, he first shaves his head, and assumes the habit of a monk. lib. viii. c. 14. John Arundale, afterwards bishop of Chich
ster, was chaplain and first physician to H
nry the sixth, in 1458. Wharton, Angl. sacr. i. 777. Faricius abbot of Abingdon, about 1110, was eminent for his skill in medicine; and a great cure p
rformed by him is recorded in the r
gist
r of th
abbey. Hearne's Bened. Abb. Pr
f. xlvii. King John, while sick at N
wark, mad
use of William de Wod
stoke, ab
ot of the neighbouring monastery of Croxton, as his physician. B
v
r, Chron. MSS. Harl. ap
d Hearne, P
a
f
ut supr. p. xlix M
ny ot
nstances may be added. The physic
n
of the university of Paris were not allowed to marry till the year 1452. Menagian
p. 333. In the same university, antiently at the admission to the degree of doctor in phys
c, they took an oath that they were not married. MSS. Br. Twyne, 8. p. 249.
. Pitts says, that he was professor of physic in Oxford
p. 414.
. He was the most celebrated physician of his age in England; and his principal work is entitled, ROSA MEDICA, divided into five books, which was printed at Paris in the year 1492
Tanner, Bibl. p. 312. Leland styles this work,
"opus lu
ulentum juxta ac eruditum."
Script. Brit. p. 355.
. Gilbertine, I suppose is Gilbertus Anglicus, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and wrote a popular compendium of the medical art
Conring. ut supr. S
ec. xiii. cap. 4. p. 127. And Leland. Script. Brit. p. 291. Who says, that Gilbert's
Practica
t C
mpendium M
dicinae
was most carefully studied by many
"ad quoes
um properantes
"
H
adds, that it was common, about this time, for foreign writers to assume the surname
Anglicus,
as a plausible recommendation.
. About the same time, not many years before Chaucer wrote, the works of the most famous Arabian authors, and among the rest those of Avicenne, Averroes, Serapion, and Rhasis, above-mentioned, were translated into Latin
Conring. ut supr. Saec. xiii. cap. 4. p. 126. About the same time, the works of Galen and Hippocrates were first tran
lated from Greek into Latin: but in a most barbarous style. Id. ibid. p. 127.
. These were our physician's library. But having mentioned his books, Chaucer could not forbear to add a stroke of satire so naturally introduced.
His studie was but litill in the
bible
v. 440.
.
The following anecdotes and obs
rvations may serve to throw general light on the learning of the authors who compose this curious library. The Aristotelic or Arabian philosophy continued to be communicated from Spain and Africa to the rest of Europe chiesly by means of the Jews: particularly to France and Italy, which were over-run with Jews about the tenth and eleventh centuries. About these p
riods, not only the courts of the Mahometan princes, but even that of the pope himself, were filled with Jews. Here they principally gained an establishment by the profession of physic; an art then but imperfectly known and practiced in most parts of Europe. Being well versed in the Arabic tongue, from their commerce with Africa and Egypt, they had studied the Arabic translations of Galen and Hippocrates; which had become still more familiar to the great numbers of their brethren who resided in Spain. From this source al
o the Jews learned philosophy; and Hebrew versions made about this period from the Arabic, of Aristotle and the Greek physicians and mathematicians, are stil
extant in some libraries
Euseb. Renaudot. apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xii. 254.
. Here was a beneficial effect of the dispersion and vagabond condition of the Jews: I mean the diffusion of knowledge. One of the most eminent of these learned Jews was Moses Maimonides, a physician, philosopher, astrologer, and theologist, educated at Cordoua in Spain under Averroes. He died about the year 1208. Averroes being accused of heretical opinions, was sentenced to
live with the Jews in the street of the Jews
at Cordoua. Some of these learned Jews began to flourish in the Arabian schools in Spain, as early as the beginning of the ninth century. Many of the treatises of Averroes were translated by the Spanish Jews into Hebrew: and the Latin pieces of Averroes now extant were translated into Latin from these Hebrew versions. I have already mentioned the school or university of Cordoua. Leo Africanus speaks of
"Platea bibliothecariorum Cordouae."
This, from what follows, appears to be a street of booksellers. It was in the time of Averroes, and about the year 1220. One of our Jew philosophers having fallen in love, turned poet, and his verses were publicly sold in this street
Leo African. de Med. et Philosoph. Hebr. c. xxviii. xxix.
. My author says, that renouncing the dignity of the Jewish doctor, he took to writing verses
Leo ibid.
"Amore capitur,
t DIGNITATE DOCTORUM POSTHABITA coepit edere carmina."
See also Simon. in Suppl. ad Leon. Mutinens. de Ritib. Hebr. p. 104.
.
The SOMPNOUR, whose office it was to summon uncanonical offend
rs into the archdeacon's court, where they were very rigorously punished, is humourously drawn as counteracting his profession by his example: he is libidinous and voluptuous, and his rosy countenance belies his occupation. This is an indirect satire o
the ecclesiastical proceedings of those times. His affectation of Latin terms, which he had picked up from the decrees and pleadings of the court, must have formed a character highly ridiculous.
And when that he well dronkin had the wine,
Then would he spekè no word but Latine.
A few schole termis couth he two or thr
,
That he had lernid out of some decre.
No wonder is, he herd it all the day:
And ye well knowin eke, how that a jay
Can clepè wult as well as can the pope:
But whoso couth in other things him grope
Examine.
,
Then had he spent al his philosophie,
A
questio quid juris
Read
"Aye,
questio,
&c."
would he crie
v. 639.
.
He is with great propriety made the friend and companion of the PARDONERE, or dispenser of indulgences, who is just arrived from the pope,
"brimful of pardons come from Rome al hote:"
and who carries in his wall
t, among other holy curiosities, the virgin Mary's veil, and part of the sail of Saint Peter's ship
v. 670. s
q.
.
The MONKE is represented as more attentive to horses and hounds than to the rigorous and obsolete ordinances of Saint Benedict. Such are his ideas of secular pomp and pleasure, that he is even qualified to be an abbot
There is great humour in the circumstances which qualify our monk
o be an abbot. Some time in the thirteenth century, the prior and convent of Saint Swithin's at Winche
ter, appear to have recommended one of their brethren to the convent of Hyde as a proper person to be preferred to the abbacy of that convent, then vacant. These are his merits.
"Est eni
con
rater ille noster in glosanda
acra pagina bene callens, in scriptura [transcribing] peritus, in capitalibus literis appingendis bonus artifex, in regula S. Benedicti instructissimus, psallendi doctissimus, &c."
MS. Regi
tr. ut supr. quat. . . These were the ostensible qualities of the master of a capital monastery. But Chaucer, in the verses before us, seems to have told the real truth, and to have given the real character as it actually existed in life. I believe, that our indu
rious
confrere,
with all his knowledge of glossing, writing, illuminating, chanting
and Benedict's rules, would in fact have been less likely to succeed to a vacant abbey, than one of the g
nial complexion and popular accomplishments here inimitably described.
.
An outrider that lovid venery
Hunting.
,
A manly mon, to ben an abbot able:
Many a dainty horse he had in stable.—
This ilkè
Same.
monke let old thingis to pace,
And heldin aftir the new world to trace.
He gave not of the text a pullid hen
"He did not care a straw for the text, &c."
That saith, that hunters be not holy men
v. 176. seq.
.
He is ambitious of appearing a conspicuous and stately figure on horseback. A circumstance represented with great elegance.
And when he rode, men might his bridle here
Gingiling in a whistling wind, as clere
And eke as loud, as doth the chapel bell
See supr. p. 164.
.
The gallantry of his riding-dress, and his genial aspect, is painted in lively colours.
I see his sleves purfilid
Fringed.
at the hande,
With grys
Fur.
, and that the finist in the lande.
And to sustene his hode undir his chin
He had of gold wrought a ful curious pin,
A love-knot in the greter end ther was.
His hed was bald, and shone as any glas,
And eke his
ace as he had been anoint:
He was a lorde ful fat, and in gode point.
His eyin stepe, and rolling in his hed,
That stemith as a furneis of led.
His bootes souple, his hors in great estate,
Now certeinly he was a fayr prelate!
He was not pale as a forpynid ghost;
A fat swan lovde he best of any rost.
His palfry was as brown as is the berry
v. 193.
.
The FRERE, or friar, is equally fond of diversion and good living; but the poverty of his establishment obliges him to travel about the country, and to practice various artifices to provide money for his convent, under the sacred character of a confessor
A friar that had a particular grant for begging or hearing confessions within certain limits. See supr. p. 288. seq.
.
A frere there was, a wanton and a merry;
A limitour
Of mendicants.
, and a ful solempne man:
In all the orders four
In Urry's Glossary this expression,
on a Rote,
is explained,
by Rote.
But a rote is a musical instrument. Lydgate, MSS. Fairfax, Bibl. Bodl. 16.
For ther was Rotys of Almayne,
And eke of Arragon and Spayne.
Again, in the same manuscript,
Harpys,
itheles, and eke
rotys,
Wel acording to ther notys.
Where
fitheles
is
fiddles,
as in the Prol. Cl. Oxenf. v. 590. So in the
Roman d' Alexandre,
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. ut supr. fol. i. b. col. 2.
Rote,
harpe, viole, et gigne, et siphonie.
I cannot help mentioning in this place, a pleasant mistake of bishop Morgan, in his translation of the New Testament into Welch, printed 1567. He translates the VIALS of
wrath,
in the Revelations, by
Crythan
i. e.
Crouds
or Fiddles, Rev. v. 8. The greek is
. Now it is probable that the bishop translated only from the English, where he found VIALS, which he took for VIOLS.
is none that can
So much of daliaunce, and of faire langage.—
Ful swetely herde he their confessioune:
Ful plesant was his absolutioune.
His tippit was aye farfid ful of knives
And pinnis for to givin to faire wives.
And certainly he had a merry note:
Wele couthe he sing and playin on a rote
In Urry's Glossary this expression,
on a Rote,
is explained,
by Rote.
But a rote is a musical instrument. Lydgate, MSS. Fairfax, Bibl. Bodl. 16.
For ther was Rotys of Almayne,
And eke of Arragon and Spayne.
Again, in the same manuscript,
Harpys,
itheles, and eke
rotys,
Wel acording to ther notys.
Where
fitheles
is
fiddles,
as in the Prol. Cl. Oxenf. v. 590. So in the
Roman d' Alexandre,
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. ut supr. fol. i. b. col. 2.
Rote,
harpe, viole, et gigne, et siphonie.
I cannot help mentioning in this place, a pleasant mistake of bishop Morgan, in his translation of the New Testament into Welch, printed 1567. He translates the VIALS of
wrath,
in the Revelations, by
Crythan
i. e.
Crouds
or Fiddles, Rev. v. 8. The greek is
. Now it is probable that the bishop translated only from the English, where he found VIALS, which he took for VIOLS.
.
Of yedding
Yelding, i. e. dalliance.
he bare utterly the price.
Ther n'as no man no where so vertuouse;
He was the best beggare in all his house
Convent.
.
Somewhat he lipsid for his wantonnesse,
To make his English swete upon his tonge;
And in his harping, when that he had songe,
His eyi
twinkelid in his hede aright
As donn the starris in a frostie night
v. 208.
.
With these unhallowed and untrue sons of the church is contrasted the PARSOUNE, or parish-priest: in describing whose sanctity, simplicity, sincerity, patience, industry, courage, and conscientious impartiality, Chaucer shews his good sense and good heart. Dryden imitated this character of the GOOD PARSON, and is said to have applied it to bishop Ken.
The character of the SQUIRE teaches us the education and requisite accomplishments of young gentlemen in the gallant reign of Edward the third. But it is to be remembered, that our squire is the son of a knight, who has performed feats of chivalry in every part of the world; which the poet thus enumerates with great dignity and simplicity.
At Alissandre' he was whan it was won,
Full oft timis had he the bourd begon
See this phrase explained above, p. 172. I will here add a similar expression from Gower, Conf. Amant. lib. viii. fol. 177, b. edit. B
rthel. 1554.
—Bad his marshall of his hall
To setten him in such degre,
That he upon him myght se.
The kyng was soone sette and served:
And he which had his prise deserved,
After the kyngis own worde,
Was made
b
gyn
a myddle
borde.
That is,
"he was seated in the middle of the table, a place of distinction and dignity."
,
Abovin allè naciouns in Pruce
Prussia.
.
In Lettow
Lithuania.
had he riddin and in Luce
Livonia.
:
No cristen man so oft of his degree
In Granada, and in the sege had he be
Of Algezir
A city of Spain. Perhaps Gibraltar.
, and ridd in Belmary
Speght supposes it to be that country in Barbary which is called Benamarin. It is mentioned again in the KNIGHT'S TALE, v. 2632. p. 20. Urr.
Ne in
Balmarie
ther is no lion,
That huntid is, &c.
By which at least we may conjecture it to be some country in Africa. Perhaps a corruption for Barbarie.
.
At Leyis
Some suppose it to be Lavissa, a city on the continent, near Rhodes. Others Lybissa, a city of Bithynia.
was he, and at Sataly
A city in Anatolia, called Atalia. Many of these places are mentioned in the history of the crusades.
,
When they were won: and in the gretè sea:
At many a noble army had he be:
At mortal battailes had he ben fiftene,
And foughtin for our faith at Tramisene
"In the holy war at Thrasimene, a city in Barbary.
In lystis thrys, and alway slein his fo.
This ilkè worthy Knight had ben also
Sometimis with the lord of Palathy
Palathia, a city in Anatolia. See Froissart, iii. 40.
:
Ayens
Against.
another hethen in Turky.
And evirmore he had a sovrane prize,
And thoug that he was worthy he was wise
v. 51.
.
The poet in some of these lines implies, that after the Christians were driven out of Palestine, the English knights of his days joined the knights of Livonia and Prussia, and attacked the pagans of Lithuania, and its adjacent territories. Lithuania was not converted to christianity till towards the close of the fourteenth century. Prussian targets are mentioned, as we have before seen, in the KN
GHT'S TALE. Thomas duke of Gloucester, youngest son of king Edward the third, and Henry earl of Derby, afterwards king Henry the fourth, travelled into Prussia: and in conjunction with the grand Masters and Knights of Prussia and Livonia, fought the infidels of Lithuania. Lord Derby was greatly instrumental in taking Vilna, the capital of that county, in the year 1390
See Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 122. seq. edit. 1598. See also Hakluyt's account of the conquest of Prussia by the Dutch Knights Hospitalaries of Jerusalem, ibid.
. Here is a seeming compliment to some of these expeditions. This invincible and accomplished champion afterwards tells the heroic tale of PALAMON and ARCITE. His son the SQUIER, a youth of twenty years, is thus delineated.
And he had been sometime in chivauchie
i Chivalry, riding, exercises of horsemanship, Compl. M
r. Ven. v. 144.
Ciclinius riding in his
chi vauhcie
From Venus.—
In Flandris, in Artois, and Picardie:
And born him wele, as of so littill space,
In hope to standin in his ladies grace.
Embroudid was he as it were a mede
All ful of fresh flouris both white and rede.
Singing he w
s and floityng al the day,
He was as fresh as in the month of May.
Schort was his gown with slevis long and wide,
Wel couth he sit an hors, and faire yride.
And songis couth he make, and wel endite,
Just, and eke daunce, and wel portraie, and write
v. 85.
.
To this young man the poet, with great observance of decorum gives the tale of Cambuscan, the next in knightly dignity to that of Palamon
nd Arcite. He is attended by a y
oman, whose figure revives the ideas of the forest laws.
And he was clad in cote and hode of grene:
A shaft of pecocke arrows bright and kene
Comp. Gul. Waynflete, episc. Winton. an. 1471. (supr. citat.) Among the stores of the bishop's castle of Farnham.
"
um
h
rdi
.
Et red. comp. de xxiv. a
cubus cum xxiv. chordis de remanent
a.—
Sagittae
gnae.
Et de cxliv. sagitt
s magnis barbatis cum pennis pavonum."
In a
Computus
of bishop Gervays,
pisc. Winton. an. 1266. (supr. citat.) among the stores of the bi
hop's castle of Taunton, one of the heads or styles is,
Caudae p
von
m,
which I suppose were used for
eathering arrows. In the articles of
Arma,
which are part of the episcopal stores of the said castl
, I find enumerated one thousand four hundre
and twenty-one great arrows for cross bows, remaining over and above three hundred and seventy-one delivered to the bishop's vassals
empore gu
rr
.
Under the same title occur cross-bows made of horn. Arrows with feathers of the peacock o
cur in Lydgate's Chronicle of Troy, B. iii. cap. 2
. sign. O iii.
dit. 1555. fol.
—Many good archers
Of Boeme, which with their arrows kene.
And with fethirs of peco
ke fr
sh
and shene, &c.
.
Undir his belt he bare ful thriftily:
Wel couth he dress his tackle yomanly:
His arrows droupid not with featheris low;
And in his hand he bare a mighty bow.
Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer
Armour for the arm
.
,
And by his side a sword and bokeler.—
A Christopher
A saint who presided over the weather. The patron of field sports.
on his brest of silver shene:
A horn he bare, the baudrick was of grene
v. 1
3.
,
The character of the REEVE, an officer of much greater trust and authority during the feudal constitution than at present, is happily pictured. His attention to the care and custody of the manors, the produce of which was then kept in hand for furnishing his lord's table, perpetually employs his time, preys upon his thoughts, and makes him le
n and choleric. He is the terror of baili
s and hinds: and is rem
rkable for his circumspection, vigil
nc
, and s
btlety. He is n
v
r in arrears, and no auditor is able to ov
r-reach or detect him in his accounts: yet he makes more commodious purch
ses for himself than for his master, without forf
iting the good will or bounty of th
latter. Amidst th
se strokes of
atire, Chaucer's genius for descriptive painting breaks forth in this simple and beautiful description of th
REEVE'S rural habitation.
His wonning
Dwelling.
was ful fayre upon a heth,
With grene trees yshadowed was his place
v. 608.
.
In the CLERKE OF OXENFORDE our author glances at the inattention paid
o literature, and the unprofitableness of philosophy. He is emaciated with study, clad in a threadbare cloak, and rides a steed lean as a rake.
For he had gotten him no benefice,
Ne was so worldly for to have office:
For him had lever
Rather.
han at his bedshed
Twentie bokis, yclad in with black or red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,
Th
n robis rich, fithell
Fiddle. See supr. p. 147.
, or gay sautrie:
But albe that he was a philosopher,
Yet had he but little gold in his coffer
v. 293. Or it may be explained,
"Yet he could not find the philosopher'
stone."
.
His unwearied attention to logic had tinctured his conversation with much pedantic formality, and taught him to speak on all subjects in a precise and sententious style. Yet his conversation was instructive: and he was no less willing to submit than to communicate his opinion to others.
Sowning in moral virtue was his speche,
And gladly would he learn, and gladly teche
v. 300.
.
The perpetual importance of the SERJEANT OF LAWE, who by habit or by affectation has the faculty of appearing busy when he has nothing to do, is sketched with the spirit and conciseness of Horace.
No where so busy'a man as he ther n'as,
And yet he semid busier than he was
v. 323. He is said to have
"oftin yben at the
parvise.
"
v. 312. It is not my design to enter into the disputes concerning the meaning or etymology of
parvis:
from which
parvisia,
the name for the public schools in Oxford, is derived. But I will observe, that
parvis
is mentioned as a court or portico before the church of Notre Dame at Paris, in John de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose, v. 12529.
A Paris n'eust hommes ne femme
Au
parvis
devant Nostre Dame.
The passage is thus translated by Chaucer Rom. R. v. 7157.
Ther n'as no wight in all Paris
Before our Ladie at
Parvis.
The word is supposed to be contracted from Paradise. This perhaps signified an ambulatory. Many of our old religious house
had a place called Paradise. In the year 1300, children were taught to read and sing in the
Pa
vis
of St. Martin's church at Norwich. Blomf. Norf. ii. 748. Our Serjeant is afterwards said to have received many
f
es and robes,
v. 319. The serjeants and all the officers of the superior courts of law, antiently received winter and summer robes from the king's wardrobe. He is likewise said to cite cases and decisions,
"that from the time of king William were full,"
v. 326. For this line see the very learned and ingenious Mr. Barrington's Observations on the antient Statutes.
.
There is some humour in making our lawyer introduce the language of his pleadings into common conversation. He addresses the hoste,
Hoste, quoth he,
de pardeux jeo assent
v. 309.
.
The affectation of talking French was indeed general, but it is here appropriated and in character.
Among the rest, the character of the HOSTE, or master of the Tabarde inn where the pilgrims are assembled, is conspicuous. He has much good sense, and discovers great talents for managing and regulating a large company; and to him we are indebted for the happy proposal of obliging every pilgrim to tell a story during their journey to Canterbury. His interpositions between the tales are very useful and enlivening; and he is something like the chorus on the Grecian stage. He is of great service in encouraging each person to begin his part, in conducting the scheme with spirit, in making proper observations on the merit or tendency of the several stories, in settling disputes which must naturally arise in the course of such an entertainment, and in connecting all the narratives into one continued system. His love of good cheer, experience in marshalling guests, address, authoritative deportment, and facetious disposition, are thus expressively displayed by Chaucer.
Grete chere our Hostè made us everichone,
And to the suppere set he us anone;
And servid us with vitailes of the best:
Strong was his wine, and wele to drink us lest
"We liked."
.
A semely man our Hostè was withal
To bene a marshall in a lordis hal.
A largè man was he, with eyin stepe,
A fayrer burgeis is there none in Chepe
Cheapside.
.
Bold of his speche, and wise, and well ytaught,
And of manhodè lakid him right nought.
And eke therto he was a merry man, &c
Prol. v. 749.
.
Chaucer's scheme of the CANTERBURY TALES was evidently left unfinished. It was intended by our author, that every pilgrim should likewise tell a Tale on their return from Canterbury
Or rather, two on their way thither, and two on their return. Only Chaucer himself tells two tales. The poet says, that there were twenty-nine pilgrims in company: but in the CHARACTERS he describes more. Among the TALES which remain, there are none of the Prioresse's Chaplains, the Haberdasher, Carpynter, Webbe, Dyer, Tapicer, and Hoste. The Chanon Yeman has a TALE, but no CHARACTER. The Plowman's Tale is cert
inly supposititious. See supr. p. 3
6. And Obs. Sp
ns. ii. 217. It is omitted in the best manuscript of the CANTERBURY TALES, MSS. Harl. 1758. fol. membran. These TALES were supposed to be
spoken,
not
written.
But we have in the Plowman's,
"For my WRITING me allow."
v. 3309. Urr. And in other places.
"For my WRITING if I have blame."
—
"Of my WRITING have me excus'd."
etc. See a NOTE at the beginning of the CANT. TALES, MSS. Laud. K. 50. Bibl. Bodl. written by John Barcham. But the discussion of these points properly belongs to an editor of Chaucer.
. A poet who lived soon after the CANTERBURY TALES made their appearance, seems to have designed a supplement to this deficiency, and with this view to have written a Tale called the MARCHAUNT'S SECOND TALE, or the HISTORY OF BERYN. It was first printed by Urry, who supposed it to be Chaucer's
Urr. Chauc. p. 595.
. In the Prologue which is of considerable length, there is some humour and contrivance: in which the author, happily enough, continues to characterise the pilgrims, by imagining what each did, and how each behaved, when they all arrived at Canterbury. After dinner was ordered at their inn, they all proceed to the cathedral. At entering the church one of the monks sprinkles them with holy water. The Knight with the better sort of the company goes in great order to the shrine of Thomas a Beckett. The Miller and his companions run staring about the church: they pretend to blazon the arms painted in the glass windows, and enter into a dispute in heraldry: but the Hoste of the Tabarde reproves them for their improper behaviour and impertinent discourse, and directs them to the martyr's shrine. When all had finished their devotions, they return to the inn. In the way thither they purchase toys for which that city was famous, called
Canterbury brochis:
and here much facetiousness passes betwixt the Frere and the Sompnour, in which the latter vows revenge on the former, for telling a Tale so palpably levelled at his profession, and protests he will retaliate on their return by a more severe story. When dinner is ended, the Hoste of the Tabarde thanks all the company in form for their several Tales. The party then separate till supper-time by agreement. The Knight goes to survey the walls and bulwarks of the city, and explains to his son the Squier the nature and strength of them. Mention is here made of great guns. The Wife of Bath is too weary to walk far; she proposes to the Prioresse to divert themselves in the garden, which abounds with herbs proper for making salves. Others wander about the streets. The Pardoner has a low adventure, which ends much to his disgrace. The next morning they proceed on their return to Southwark: and our genial master of the Tabarde, just as they leave Canterbury, by way of putting the company into good humour, begins a panegyric on the morning and the month of April, some lines of which I shall quote, as a specimen of our author's abilities in poetical description
There is a good description of a magical palace, v. 1973—2076.
.
Lo! how the seson of the yere, and Averell
April.
shouris,
Doith
Make.
the busshis burgyn
Shoot.
out blossomes and flouris.
Lo! the prymerosys of the yere, how fresh they bene to sene,
And many othir flouris among the grassis grene.
Lo! how they springe and sprede, and of divers hue,
Beholdith and seith, both white, red, and blue.
That lusty bin a
d comfortabyll for mannis sight,
For I say for mys
lf it makith my hert to light
v. 690.
.
On casting lots, it falls to the Marchaunt to tell the first tale, which then follows. I cannot allow that this Prologue and Tale were written by Chaucer. Yet I believe them to be nearly coeval.
SECT. XVIII.
IT is not my intention to dedicate a volume to Chaucer, how much soever he may deserve it; nor can it be expected, that, in a work of this general nature, I should enter into a critical examination of all Chaucer's pieces. Enough has been said to prove, that in elevation, and elegance, in harmony and perspicuity of versification, he surpasses his predecessors in an infinite proportion: that his genius was universal, and adapted to themes of unbounded variety: that his merit was not less in painting familiar manners with humour and propriety, than in moving the passions, and in representing the beautiful or the grand objects of nature with grace and sublimity. In a word, that he appeared with all the lustre and dignity of a true poet, in an age which compelled him to struggle with a barbarous language, and a national want of taste; and when to write verses at all, was regarded as a singular qualification. It is true indeed, that he lived at a time when the French and Italians had made considerable advances and improvements in poetry: and although proofs have already been occasionally given of his imitations from these sources, I shall close my account of him with a distinct and comprehensive view of the nature of the poetry which subsisted in France and Italy when he wrote: pointing out in the mean time, how far and in what manner the popular models of those nations contributed to form his taste, and influence his genius.
I have already mentioned the troubadours of Provence, and have observed that they were fond of moral and allegorical fables
See supr. p. 148.
. A taste for this sort of composition they partly acquired by reading Boethius, and the PSYCHOMACHIA of Prudentius, two favorite classics of the dark ages; and partly from the Saracens their neighbours in Spain, who were great inventors of apologues. The French have a very early metrical romance DE FORTUNE ET DE FELICITE, a translation from Boethius's book DE CONSOLATIONE, by Reynault de Louens a Dominican friar
See Mem. Lit. tom. xviii. p. 74
. 4to . And tom. vii. 293. 294. I have before mentioned John of Meun's translation of Boethius. It is in verse. John de Langres is said to have made a translation in prose, about 1336. It is highly probable that Chaucer translated Boethius from some of the French translations. In the Bodleian library there is an EXPLANATIO of Boethius's CONSOLATION by our countryman Nicholas Trivett, who died before 1329.
. From this source, among many others of the Provencial poems, came the Tournament of ANTICHRIST above-mentioned, which contains a combat of the Virtues and Vices
See supr. p. 285.
: the Romaunt of Richard de Lisle, in which MODESTY fighting with LUST
PUTERIE. Properly Bawdry, Obscenity. MODESTY is drowned in the river, which gives occasion to this conclusion,
"Dont vien que plus n'y a HONTE dans Paris."
The author lived about the year 1300.
is thrown into the river Seine at Paris: and, above all, the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, translated by Chaucer, and already mentioned at large in its proper place. Visions were a branch of this species of poetry, which admitted the most licentious excursions of fancy in forming personifications, and in feigning imaginary b
ings and ideal habitations. Under these we may rank Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME, which I have before hinted to have been probably the p
oduction of Provence.
But the principal subject of their poems, dictated in great measure by the spirit of chivalry, was love: especially among the troubadours of rank and distinction, whose castles being crowded with ladies, presented perpetual scenes of the most splendid gallantry. This passion they spiritualised into various metaphysical refinements, and filled it with abstracted notions of visionary perfection and felicity. Here too they were perhaps influenced by their neighbours the Saracens, whose philosophy chiefly consisted of fantastic abstractions. It is manifest, however, that nothing can exceed the profound pedantry with which they treated this favorite argument. They defined the essence and characteristics of true love with all the parade of a Scotist in his professorial chair: and bewildered their imaginations in speculative questions concerning the most desperate or the most happy situations of a sincere and sentimental heart
In the mean time the greatest libertie
and indecencies were practiced and encouraged. These doctrines did not in
luence the manners of the times. In an old French tale, a countess in the absence of her lord having received a knight into her castle, and conducted him in great state to his repose, will not suffer him to sle
p alone: with in
inite politeness she orders one of her damsels,
la plus cortoise et la plus b
l
,
into his bed-chamb
r,
av
e ch
valier g
sir.
Mem. Cheval. ut supr. tom. ii. p. 70. Not. 17.
. But it would be endless, and indeed ridiculous, to describe at length the systematical solemnity with which they cloathed this passion
This infatuation continued among the French down to modern times.
"Les gens de qualitè, says the ingenious M. de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, conservoient encore ce goût que leurs pères avoient pris dans nos anciennes cours: ce fut sans doute pour complaire a son fondateur, que l'Academie Françoise traita, dans ses premiers séances, plusieurs sujets qui concernoient l'AMOUR; et l'on vit encore dans l'hotel du Longueville les personnes les plus qualifées et le plus spiritualles du siecle de Louis xiv. se disputer a qui commenteroit et et ra
n
roit le mieux sur la delicatesse du coeur et des sentimens, a qui
eroit, sur ce chapitre, les distinctions le plus subtiles."
Mem. Cheval.
t supr. tom. ii. P. v. pag. 17.
. The ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE which I have just alledged as a proof of their all
gorising turn, is not less an instance of their affectation in writing on this subject: in which the poet, under the
gency of allegorical personages, displays the gradual approach
s and impediments to fruition, and introduces a regular disputation conducted with much formality between Reason and a lover. Chaucer's TESTAMENT OF LOVE is also formed on this philosophy of gallantry. It is a lover's parody of Boethius's book DE CONSOLATIONE mentioned above. His poem called LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY
Translated or imitated from a French poem of Alain Chartier, v. 11.
Which Maistir Alayne made of remembrance
Chief secretary to the king of France.
He was secretary to Charles the sixth and seventh. But he is chiefly famous for his prose.
, and his ASSEMBLE OF LADIES, are from the same school
So is Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS, a
we shall see hereafter.
. Chaucer's PRIORESSE and MONKE, whose lives were devoted to religious reflection and the most serious engagements, and while they are actually travelling on a pilgrimage to visit the shrine of a sainted martyr, openly avow the universal influence of love. They exhibit, on their apparel, badges entirely inconsistent with their profession, but easily accountable for from these principles. The Prioresse wears a bracelet on which is inscribed, with a crowned A,
Amor vincit omnia
v. 162.
. The Monke ties his hood with a true-lover's knot
v. 197.
. The early poets of P
ovence, as I before hinted, formed a society called the COURT OF LOVE, which gave rise to others in Gascony, Languedoc, Poictou, and Dauphiny: and Picardy, the constant rival of Provence, had a similar institution called
Plaids et Gieux sous l'Ormel.
These establishments consisted of ladies and gentlemen of the highest rank, exercised and approved in courtesy, who tried with the most consummate ceremony, and decided with supreme authority, cases in love brought before their tribunal. Martial d'Avergne, an old French poet, for the diversion and at the request of the countess of Beaujeu, wrote a poem entitled ARRESTA AMORUM, or the Decrees of Love, which is a humourous description of the
Plaids
of Picardy. Fontenelle has recited one of their processes, which conveys an idea of all the rest
Hist. Theat. Franc. p. 15. tom. iii. Oe
vr. Paris, 1742.
. A queen of France was appealed to from an unjust sentence pronounced in the love-pleas, where the countess of Champagne presided. The queen did not chuse to interpose in a matter of so much consequence, nor to reverse the decrees of a court whose decision was absolute and final. She answered,
"God forbid, that I should presume to contradict the sentence of the countess of Champagne!"
This was about the year 1206. Chaucer has a poem called the COURT OF LOVE, which is nothing more than the love-court of Provence
See also Chaucer's TEN COMMANDMENTS O
LOVE, p. 554. Urr.
: it contains the twenty statutes which that court prescribed to be universally observed under the severest penalties
Vie de Petrarque, tom. ii. Not. xix. p. 60. Probably
the Cour d'Amour
was the origin of that called
La C
ur Amorcuse,
established under the gallant reign of Charles the sixth, in the year 1410. The latter had the most considerable families of France for its members, and a parade of grand officers, like those in the royal houshold and courts of law. See Hist. Acad. Inscript. Tom. vii. p. 287. seq. 4to . See also Hist. Langued. tom. iii. p. 25. seq.
The most uniform and unembarrassed view of the establishment and usages of this COURT, which I can at present recollect, is thrown together from scattered and scarce materials by the ingenious author of VIE DE PETRAQUE, tom. ii. p. 45. seq. Not. xix. But for a complete account of these institutions, and other curious particular
relating to the anti
nt manners and antient poetry of the French, the public waits with impatience for the history of the Provencial poets writte
by Mons. de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, who has copied most of their manuscripts with great care and expence.
. Not long afterwards, on the same principle, a society was established in Languedoc, called the
Fraternity of the Penitents of Love.
Enthusiasm was here carried to as high a pitch of extravagance as ever it was in religion. It was a contention of ladies and gentlemen, who should best sustain the honour of their amorous fanaticism. Their object was to prove the excess of their love, by shewing with an invincible fortitude and consistency of conduct, with no less obstinacy of opinion, that they could bear extremes of heat and cold. Accordingly the resolute knights and esquires, the dames and damsels, who had the hardiness to embrace this severe institution, dressed themselves during the heat of summer in the thickest mantles lined with the warmest fur
In this they demonstrated, according to the antient poets, that love works the most wonderful and extraordinary changes. In winter, their love again perverted the nature of the seasons: they then cloathed themselves in the lightest and thinnest stuffs which could be procured. It was a crime to wear fur on a day of the most piercing cold; or to appear with a hood, cloak, gloves, or muff. The flame of love kept them sufficiently warm. Fires, all the winter, were utterly banished from their houses; and they dressed their apartments with evergreens. In the most intense frost their beds were covered only with a piece of canvass. It must be remembered, that in the mean time they passed the greater part of the day abroad, in wandering about from castle to castle; insomuch, that many of these devotees, during so desperate a pilgrimage, perished by the inclemency of
the weather, and died martyrs to their profession
See D. Vaisette, Hist. du Languedoc,
om. iv. p. 184. seq. Compare p. 145. Note, y .
.
The early universality of the French language greatly contributed to facilitate the circulation of the poetry of the troubadours in other countries. The Frankish language was familiar even at Constantinople and its dependent provinces in the eleventh century, and long afterwards. Raymond Montaniero, an historian of Catalonia, who wrote about the year 1300, says, that the French tongue was as well known in the Morea and at Athens as at Paris.
"E parlavan axi belle Francis com dins en Paris
Hist. Arragon. c. 261.
."
The oldest Italian poetry seems to be founded on that of Provence. The word SONNET was adopted from the French into the Italian versification. It occurs in the ROMAN DE LA ROSE,
"Lais d'amour et SONNETS courtois
v. 720.
."
Boccacio copied many of his best Tales from the troubadours
Particularly from Rutebeuf and Hebers. Rutebeuf was living in the year 1310. He wrote tales and stories of entertainment in verse. It is certain that Boccacio took, from this old French minstrel, Nov. x. Giorn. ix. And perhaps two or three others. Hebers lived about the year 1200. He wrote a French romance, in verse, called the
Sev
n Sag
s of Greece, or Dol
pathos.
He translated it from the Latin of Dom Johans, a monk of the abbey of Haute-selve. It has great variety, and contains several agreeable stories, pleasant adve
tures,
mblems, a
d proverbs. Boccacio has taken from it four Tal
s, viz. Nov. ii. Giorn. iii. Nov. iv. Gior
. vii. Nov. viii. Giorn. viii. And the Tal
of the Boy who had never seen a woman, since finely touched by Fo
taine. An Italian book called Erastus is compiled from this
Roman
f the Seven Sag
s.
It is said to have been first composed by Sandaber the Indian, a writer of proverbs: that it afterwards appeared successively in Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Greek; was at length translated i
to Latin by the monk abovementioned, and from thence into French by Hebers. It is very probable that the monk translated it from some Greek manuscript of the dark ages, which Huet says was to be found in some libraries. Three hundred years after the
Roman
of Hebers, it was translated into Dutch, and again from the Dutch into Latin. There is an English abridgement of it, which is a story-book for children. See Mem. Lit. Tom. ii. p. 731. 4to . Fauchett, p. 106. 160. Huet, Orig. Fab. Rom. 136. Fabric. Bibl. Gr. x. 339. Massieu, Poes. Fr. p. 137. Crescimben. V
lg. Poes. Vol. i. L. v. p. 332. Many of the old French minstrels deal much in Tales and novels of humour and amusement, like those of Boccacio's Decameron. They call them
Fabliaux.
. Several of Dante's fictions are derived from the same fountain. Dante has honoured some of them with a s
at in his Paradise
See
p. 117. supr. Compare Crescim
en. Volg. Poes. L. i. c. xiv. p. 162.
: and in his tract DE VULGARI ELOQUENTIA, has mentioned Thiebault king of Navarre as a pattern for writing poetry
See p. 43. 45. And Commed. Infern. cant. xxii.
. With regard to Dante's capital work the INFERNO, Raoul de Houdane, a Provencial bard about the year 1180, wrote a poem entitled, LE VOYE OU LE SONGE D'ENFER
Fauch. Rec. p. 96.
. Both Boccacio and Dante studied at Paris, where they much improved their taste by reading the songs of Thiebauld king of Navarre, Gaces Brules, Chatelain de Coucy, and other antient French fabulists
See Fauchett, Rec. p. 47. 116. And Huet, Rom. p. 121. 108.
. Petrarch's refined ideas of love are chiefly drawn from those amorous reveries of the Provencials which I have above described; heightened perhaps by the Platonic system, and exaggerated by the subtilising spirit of Italian fancy. Varchi and Pignatelli have written professed treatises on the nature of Petrarch's love. But neither they, nor the rest of the Italians who, to this day, continue to debate a point of so much consequence, consider how powerfully Petrarch must have been influenced to talk of love in so peculiar a strain by studying the poets of Provence. His TRIUMFO DI AMORE has much imagery copied from Anselm Fayditt, one of the most celebrated of these bards. He has likewise many imitations from the works of Arnaud Daniel, who is called the most eloquent of the troubadours
See p. 117. supr. He lived about 1189. Recherch. Par Beauchamps, p. 5. Nostradamus asserts, that Petrarch stole many things from a troubadour called Richard seigneur de Barbezeiuz, who is placed under 1383. Petrarch however was de
d at that time.
. Petrarch, in one of his sonnets, represents his mistress Laura sailing on the river Rhone, in company with twelve Provencial ladies, who at that time presided over the COURT OF LOVE
Sonnet. clxxxviii. Dodici Donne, &c. The academicians della Crusca, in their Dictionary, quote a manuscript entitled, LIBRO D'AMORE of the year 1408. It is also referred to by Crescimbeni in his Lives of the Provencial poets. It contains verdicts or determinations in the
Court of Love.
.
Pasquier observes, that the Italian poetry arose as the Provencial declined
Pasq. Les Recherch. de la France. vii. 5. p. 609. 611. edit. 1633.
ol.
. It is a proof of the decay of invention among the French in the beginning of the fourteenth century, that about that period they began to translate into prose their old metrical romances: such as the fables of king Arthur, of Charlemagne, of Oddegir the Dane, of Renaud of Montauban, and other illustrious champions, whom their early writers had celebrated in rhyme
These translations, in which the originals were much enlarged, produced an infinite number of other romances in prose: and the old metrical romances soon became unfashionable and neglec
ed. The romance of PERCEFORREST, one of the largest of the French romances of chivalry, was written in verse about 1220. It was not
ill many years afterwards translated into pros
. M. Falconet, an ingenious enquirer into the early literature of France, is of opinion, that the most antient romances, such as that of the ROUND TABLE, were first written in Latin prose: it being well known that Turpin's CHARLEMAGNE, as it is now extant, was originally composed in that language. He thinks they were translated into French rhymes, and at last into French prose,
tels que nous les avons aujourduy.
See Hist. Acad. Inscript. vii. 293. But part of this doctrine may be justly doubted.
. At length, about the year 1380, in the place of the Provencial a new species of poetry succeeded in France, consisting of Chants Royaux
With regard to the
Chaunt royal,
Pasquier describes it to be a song in honour of God, the holy Virgin, or any other argument of dignity, especially if joined with distress. It was written in heroic stanzas, and closed with a
l'Envoy,
or stanza containing a recapitulation, dedication, or the like. Chaucer calls the
Chant royal
abovementioned, a
Kyngis Note.
Mill. T. v. 111. p. 25. His
Complaintof Venus, Cuckow and Nightingal
,
and
La belle Damesans Mercy,
Have all a
l'Envoy,
and belong to this species of French verse. His
l'Envoy
to the
Complaint of Venus,
or
Mars and Venus,
ends with these lines, v. 79.
And eke to me it is a grete penaunce,
Sith rime in English hath soche scarcite,
To follow word by word the curiosite
Of gransonflour of them that
make
in Fraunce.
Make
signifies to
write
poetry; and here we see that this poem was translated from the French. See also
Chaucer's Dreame,
v. 2204. Petrarch has the
Envoi.
I am inclined to think, that Chaucer's
Assemble of Fowles
was partly planned in imitation of a French poem written by Gace de la Vigne, Chaucer's cotemporary, entitled,
Roman d'Oiseaux,
which treats of the nature, properties, and management of all birds
de chass
.
But this is merely a conjecture, for I have never seen the French poem. At least there is an evident similitude of subject.
, Balades, Rondeaux, and Pastorales
About this time, a Prior of S. Genevieve at Paris wrote a small treatise entitled,
L'Art de Dictier
BALLADES, ET RONDELLES. See Mons. Beauchamps Rech. Theatr. p. 88. M. Massieu says this is the first ART OF POETRY printed in France. Hist. Poes. Fr. p. 222. See L'ART POETIQUE du Jaques Pelloutier du Mons. Lyon, 555. 8vo. Liv. 11. ch. i. Du
'ODE.
. This was distinguished by the appellation of the NEW POETRY: and Froissart, who has been mentioned above chiefly in the character of an historian, cultivated it with so much success, that he has been called its author. The titles of Froissart's poetical pieces will alone serve to illustrate the nature of this NEW POETRY: but they prove, at the same time, that the Provencial cast of composition still continued to prevail. They are,
The Paradise of Love, A Panegyric on the Month of May, The Temple of Honour, The Flower of the Daisy, Amorous Lays, Pastorals, The Amorous Prison, Royal Ballads in honour of our Lady, The Ditty of the Amourous Spinett, Virelais, Rondeaus, and The Plea of the Rose and Violet
Pasquier, ubi supr. p. 612. Who calls such pieces MIGNARDISES.
. Whoever examines Chaucer's smaller pieces will perceive that they are altogether formed on this plan, and often compounded of these ideas. Chaucer himself declares, that he wrote
—Many an hymne for your holidaies
Here is an elleipsis. He means,
A
d poems.
That hightin balades, rondils, virelaies
Prol. Leg. G. W. v. 422. He mentions this sort of poetry in the
Frankelein's Tale,
v. 2493. p. 109. Urr.
Of which matere [love] madin he many layes,
Songis, Complaintis, Roundils, Virelayes.
Compare Chaucer's DREME, v. 973. In the FLOURE AND LEAFE we have th
words of a French Roundeau, v. 177.
.
But above all, Chaucer's FLOURE AND THE LEAFE, in which an air of rural description predominates, and where the allegory is principally conducted by mysterious allusions to the virtues or beauties of the vegetable world, to flowers and plants, exclusive of its general romantic and allegoric vein, bears a strong resemblance to some of these subjects. The poet is happily placed in a delicious arbour, interwoven with eglantine. Imaginary troops of knights and ladies advance: some of the ladies are crowned with flowers, and other
with chaplets of agnus castus, and these are respectively subject to
a Lady of the Flower, and a Lady of the Leaf
In a decision of the COURT OF LOVE cited by Fontenelle, the judge is called
Le Marquis d
s
l
ures et violettes.
Font. ubi supr. p. 15.
. Some are cloathed in green, and others in white. Many of the knights are distinguished in much the same manner. But others are crowned with leaves of oak or of other trees: others carry branches of oak, laurel, hawthorn, and woodbine
v. 270.
. Besides this profusion of vernal ornaments, the whole procession glitters with gold, pearls, rubies, and other costly decorations. They are preceded by minstrels cloathed in green and crowned with flowers. One of the ladies sings a bargaret, or pastoral, in praise of the daisy.
A
Rather
B
rg
rett
.
A song
du Berger,
of a
shepherd.
bargaret in praising the daisie,
For as methought among her notis swete
She said
si douce est le margaruite
v. 350. A panegyric on this flower is again introduced in the Prologue to the
Leg. of G. Wom.
v. 180.
The long dai
I shope me for to abide
For nothing ellis, and I shall not lie
But for to lokin upon the
daisie,
That wel by reason men it callè maie
The
D
isie,
or els the
eye of the daie:
The emprise, and the floure, of flouris al, &c.
All this while he means to pay a compliment to Lady
Margaret,
countess of Pembroke, king Edward's daughter, one of his patronesses. See the
Balade
beginning
I
Fevrere,
&c. p. 556. Urr. v. 688. Froissart's song in
praise of the daisy
might have the same tendency: for he was patronised both by Edward and Philipp
.
Margarui
e
is French for
Daisy.
Chaucer perhaps intends the same compliment by the
"
Margari
e
perle,"
Test. Love,
p. 483. col. i. &c. Urr. See also
Prol. L
g. G. Wom.
v. 218. 224. That Prologue has many images like those in the
Flower and the L
afe.
It was evidently written after that poem.
.
This might have been Froissart's song: at least this is one of his subjects. In the mean time a nightingale, seated in a laurel-tr
e, whose shade would cover an hundred persons, sings the whole service,
"longing to May."
Some of the knights and ladies do obeysance to the leaf, and some to the flower of the daisy. Others are represented as worshipping a bed of flowers. Flora is introduced
"of these flouris goddesse."
The lady of the leaf invites the lady of the flower to a banquet. Under these symbols is much morality couched. The leaf signifies perseverance and virtue: the flower denotes indolence and pleasure. Among those who are crowned with the leaf, are the knights of king Arthur's round table, and Charlemagne's Twelve Peers; together with the knights of the order of the garter now just established by Edward the third
v. 516. 517. 519.
.
But these fancies seem more immediately to have taken their rise from the FLORAL GAMES instituted in France in the year 1324
Mem. Lit. tom. vii. p. 422. 4to .
, which filled the French poetry with images of this sort
Hence Froissart in the EPINETTE AMOUREUSE, describing his romantic amusements, says he was delighted with
Violettes en leur saisons
Et roses blanches et vermeilles, &c.
See Mem. Lit. tom. x. p. 665. 287. 4to .
. They were founded by Clementina Isaure countess of Tholouse, and annually celebrated in the month of May. She published an edict, which assembled all the poets of France in artificial arbours dressed with flowers: and he that produced the best poem was rewarded with a violet of gold. There were likewise inferior prizes of flowers made in silver. In the mean time the conquerors were crowned with natural chaplets of their own respective flowers. During the ceremony, degrees were also conferred. He who had won a prize three times was created a doctor
en gaye Science,
the name of the poetry of the Provencial troubadours. The instrument of creation was in verse
Recherches sur les poetes couronnez, Mem. Lit. tom. x. p. 567. 4to .
. This institution, however fantastic, soon became common through the whole kingdom of France: and these romantic rewards, distributed with the most impartial attention to merit, at least infused an useful emulation, and in some measure revived the languishing genius of the French poetry.
The French and Italian poets, whom Chaucer imitates, abound in allegorical personages: and it is remarkable, that the early poets of Greece and Rome were fond of these creations. Homer has given us, STRIFE, CONTENT
ON, FEAR, TERROR, TUMULT, DESIRE, PERSUASION, and BENEVOLENCE. We have in Hesiod, DARKNESS, and many others, if the Shield of Hercules be of his hand. COMUS occurs in the Agamemnon of Eschylus; and in the Promet heus of the same poet, STRENGTH and FORCE are two persons of the drama, and perform the capital parts. The fragments of Ennius indicate, that his poetry consisted much of personifications. He says, that in one of the Carthaginian wars, the gigantic image of SORROW appeared in every place:
"Omnibus endo locis ingens apparet imago TRISTITIAS."
Lucretius has drawn the great and terrible figure of SUPERSTITION,
"Quae caput e coeli regionibus ostendebat."
He also mentions, in a beautiful procession of the Seasons, CALOR ARIDUS, HYEMS, and ALGUS. He introduces MEDICINE
muttering with silent fear,
in the midst of the deadly pestilence at Athens. It seems to have escaped the many critics who have written on Milton's noble but romantic allegory of SIN and DEATH, that he took the person of Death from the Alcestis of his favorite tragedian Euripides, where ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ is a principal agent in the drama. As knowledge and learning encrease, poetry begins to deal less in imagination: and these fantastic beings give way to real manners and living characters.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
AN INDEX TO THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY 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 LACKINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO.
TEMPLE OF THE MUSES,
FINSBURY SQUARE. 1806.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE Index to WARTON'S HISTORY of ENGLISH POETRY, which is here presented to the world, was not originally intended for publication. The great inconvenience arising from the want of its assistance, must have been severely felt by all who have, in the course of their literary pursuits, had occasion to refer to this noble treasure of poetical knowledge. To obviate the disadvantage, as it related exclusively to himself, the compiler, at a period of leisure, drew out the present Index. The experience of its utility suggested the idea of multiplying the copies, by which it is trusted that a commendable service has been rendered to literature. Though none can with reason think these pages wholly useless, some may not find it needful to their studies to possess them; therefore, it has been thought fit to suffer the impression of them to fall far short of that of the History. It does not exceed one-fourth of the number.
Whether an entire Index of the three volumes together would not have been a plan more desirable than that which has been pursued, is a question not now to be examined. It has been considered, and this is the reply: The HISTORY of ENGLISH POETRY is an unfinished work. The learned and elegant historian was "gathered to his fathers" almost in the midst of his instructive and entertaining labours. Much yet remains to be done; and as it is the reverse of improbable that some other foot (we
faintly
hope,
"passibus aequis,")
will traverse the ground, which he has left untrodden, it cannot be denied, that with regard to uniformity, a separate table to each volume was the preferable mode to adopt.
If an Index be copious and correct, it possesses the first qualities belonging to the nature of such an undertaking. This merit, as far as human diligence could succeed, the compiler claims, with, in his opinion, the no mean praise of having been useful.
INDEX TO THE FIRST VOLUME OF WARTON'S History of English Poetry.
ABELARD'S Letters,
translated,
368
Adam de Orleton, Bishop of Winchester, 89
Adenez, a French Poet, 135
Aegidius Romanus, 343
Aeneae Gesta post Destructionem Trojae, 88
Aeneas,
Romance of,
134
Aeneas,
Story of, on tapestry,
211
Aser Constantinus, 441, 442
Agrippa, Cornelius, 402, 404, 409
Alanus, Anticlaudian of, 391
Alardus Lampridius, 378
Alban, Saint, Martyrdom of,
a Poem,
98
Albertus Magnus, 401
Albion's England, by Warner, 12
Albumasar, an Arabian Astrologer, 441
Alcabutius or Alchabitius, Abdilazi, Isagoge in Astrologiam, by, 426
Alcen, or Alhazen, an Arabic Philosopher, 406
Alcestis,
Romance of,
428
Alchabitius, 426
Age and Youth, Comparison between,
a Poem,
32
Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 307
Aldred, Archbishop, 303
Alexander Magnus, Aristoteli praeceptori suo salutem dicit, 101
Alexander,
Romance of,
123, 124, 128, 131, 133. By Adam Davie, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 309, 310, 311, 346, 349, 350
Alexander,
Life and Actions of, translated from the Persian, into Greek,
by Simeon Seth, 129
Alexander de Paris, 139
Alexander,
Roman de,
136, 309
Alexandre, la Vengeaunce du Graunt, 139
Αλεξανδρευς ὁ Μακεδων, translated by Demetrius Zenus, 132, 349
Alexius, Saint,
Legend of,
by Adam Davie, 218
Alfred's Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical Hist. 1
Allen, Thomas, 291
Almasor, or Albumasar, and Rhasis, 441
Alphonsus, King of Castile, 393
Amadis de Gaul,
Romance of,
149
Amazonida, by Boccacio, 344
Ambrose of Milan,
Paraphrase of the Siege of Jerusalem, by,
217
Ambrose, Saint, 394
Amille,
a French Morality,
88
Amorous Prison,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Amorous Lays,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Amoris Incendium, by Hampole, 265
Amys and Amilion,
Romance of,
88, 21
Anciseno Dominicho Falugi,
an Italian Poem, on Alexander, by,
139
Amour Espris, le Livre de Cuer d', 417
Anderson's
History of Commerce, 176
Anglicus Gilbertus, 443
Anna Commena, 50, 157, 348
Anna de Graville, 346
Anno, Archbishop of Cologn,
Metrical Life of,
8
Annunciada,
Order of the,
252
Answers of the Sybills, 368
Antechrist, the Banner of, 286
Antechrist, Tournoyement de l',
Roman de,
par H
on de Meri, 285, 458
Anthony de la Sale, 334
Anticlaudian, by Alanus, 391
Antiochiae Liber de Captione, 88
Antiochiae Gesta et Regum aliorum, &c. 114
Anuar Sohaili, 131. See Pilpay's Fables
Apponus, 393
Apolonius of Tyre,
Romance of,
349, 350
Apolonii Tyanaei Historia, 350
Appolin Roy de Thir, la Cronique d', 350
Apono Pierre, Commentaries on the Problems of Aristotle, by, 439
Apuleius, 394
Aquinas, Thomas, 401
Argenteus Codex, 1
Argonauticon,
by
Valerius Flaccus, 126
Arios
o, 133, 146, 334, 411
Aristotle, 292, 378, 432, 441, 444
Art de Dictier, Ballades et Rondelles, 465
Art de Kalender, par Raus, 74
Arres
a Amorum, or the Decrees of Love, a Poem, 460
Arthur, King,
Rom. of,
110, 117, 121, 123, 124, 134, 139, 140, 146, 205, 206, 207, 211, 252, 350, 408, 418, 464, 467
Arthur, King,
Rites of, re
ored by
Roger, Earl of
Mortimer,
117
Artois, Count d',
Ballad on the Defeat of the
57
A
mole, Elias, 252
Asheldown, Joly Chepert, of,
a Romance, by
John Lawerne, 76
Askew, Dr. 352
Assemblie of Foules, by Chaucer, 372, 394
Assemblie of Ladies, by Chaucer, 459
Asses, Feast of,
Mystery of the,
7
Astyages and Cyrus,
History of, on
apestry,
211
Athanasius, Creed of,
versified,
23
Athelstan, King,
a Poem on,
93
Athys and Prophylias,
a French Metrical Rom.
139, 146, 334, 411
Averroes, an Asiatic Philosopher, 441, 443, 444
Avicen, or Avicenne, an Arabian Physician, 441
Avranches, Henry d', or Henry the Veri
er, 47
Austin, Saint, 394, 421
B
Babyon, Peter, 233
Babione de
et Croceo domino Babionis, et Viola filiastra Babionis, quam croceus duxit invito Babione, et Pecula Uxore Babionis, et Fodio suo, 233
Bacon, Roger, 101, 291, 403, 408, 410, 439
Bale, John, 87, 126, 232, 235, 295
Ballades et Rondelles,
l' Art de Dictier,
465
Balsham, Hugh de, 290
Ba
astre, or Banester, William, 75. Gilbert, 75
Bartholinus, or Bartholine, 127, 213
Barbour, John, 318, 319, 320, 321
Barcham, John, 454
Barnabas of Cyprus, 393
Barrington's Observations on the Ancient Statutes, 46, 453
Baston, R
bert, 232, 251
Batrachomyomachia of Homer,
translated
by Demetrius Zenus, 351
Battayle of Troye, by Guido de Colum
a, 127
Battell of Jerusalem,
a Poem,
by Adam Davie, 217
Bayard, La Vie, et les Ges
es du Preux Chevalier, 418
Beauvais, Vincent de. See Vincent de Beauvais, 14, 16
Becket, Saint Thomas of,
L
g
nd of,
18
Bede, 128
Beauchamp, Lord, 145
Belisaire, or Belisarius,
Romance of,
351
Belle Dame sans Mercy, by Chaucer, 459
Bellisaire, ou le Conquerant, 351
Bellovacensis Vincentius, 125, 133
Bellum contra Runcivallum, 88
Beltrand or Bertrand's Amours with Chrysatsa, 351
Benedictus, Alexander, 133, 158
Benjamin, a Jew Traveller, 101
Benoit de Sainct More, 136
Beowulf,
a Danis
Saxon Poem, celebrating the Wars of,
2
Beral, las complanchas de, a Poem, by Fouquett, 118
Bercy, Hugues de, 37
Berlin,
Romance of,
135
Berlington, John, 76
Berni, 133, 411, 412
Berners, Lord, Translation of Froissart's Chronicle, by, 336
Bertrand du Guescelin,
French Romance of,
351
Beryn, Tale of, or Marchant's Second Tale, 144, 438, 440, 455
Beuves de Hanton,
Romance of,
by Pere Labbe. See Sir Beavis
Bevis of Southampton. See Sir Beavis
Bible, a Satire, by Hugues de Bercy, 37
Bidpai's Pilpay's Fables. See Pilpay's Fables
Biorner, M. 12
Blair, or Blare, Robert, 321, 322
Blair Arnaldi Relationes, by Blind Harry, 321
Blandamoure, Sir, Romance of, 145, 208
Blaunpayne, Michael, 47, 48
Blesensis, Archdeacon of London, 133
Blind Harry, 321, 322, 324, 325, 326,
27, 328, 329, 330, 331
Blondell de Nesle, Minstrel to Rich. I
113, 117
Boccacio Giovanni, 138, 190, 342, 344, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 357, 362, 384, 385, 397, 416, 417, 423, 424, 432, 462.
Boe
hius, 368, 387, 458, 459
B
illeau, 382
Bokenham, Osberne, 14
Bonaventure de caena et passione Domini, et Poenis S. Mariae Virginis,
translated into English Rymes,
by Rob. de Brunne, 77
Bonner, Bishop of London, 241
Booke of Certaine Triumphs, 335
Borde, Andrew, 432
Borron, Roberts, Translation of the Romance of Lancelot du Lac, by, 114, 115
Boscam, Herbert,
Life of
Thomas of Becket, by, 85
Bourdour,
Account of the,
173
Boy, Bishop,
Ceremony of the,
248
Boyardo, 133, 410
Brawardine, Archbishop, 388, 421
Bridlington, or Berlington, John, 76
Brithnorth, Offa's Ealdorman,
Ode in praise of,
2
Brit
e, or Brithe, Walter, 287
Brooke, William de, 290
Bruce, Robert, King of Scots,
Poem on,
by John Barbour, 232, 318, 319, 320, 321
Bruit le Petit, by Rause de Boun, 62
Brun, Mons. Le, Avantures d' Apolonius de Thyr, par, 350
Brunne, Robert de. See Robert de Brunne
Brus, or Bru
, Robert,
Poem on,
232. See Bruce
Brut,
a French Romance,
62, 337
Bru
d' Angleterre, by Eustace, 62
Bruto, Liber de, et de gestis Anglorum,
me
rificatus,
63
Burgh, Thomas, 14
Burton, Robert, 62, 432
C
Caedmon, 1, 2
Calaileg and Damnag, 130. See Pilpay's Fables
Callinicus,
Inventor of the Grecian Fire,
157
Callimachus and Chrysorrhoe,
the Loves of, a Rom.
348
Callistines, 124, 129, 131
Cambrensis Gyraldus, 103, 131, 312, 405, 406
Camden, Hugh, Translation of the Romance of Sidrac, by, 208
Camera Obscura discovered by Roger Bacon, 438
Camoens, 408
Cantacuzenus, John, 348
Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer
Chanon Yeman's Tale, 169, 425
Fra
kelein's Tale, 302, 393, 402, 405 to 415, 438
Freere's Tale, 390
Clerk of Oxenford's Tale, 415, 416, 417, 418
Knight's Tale, 173, 222, 334, 344, 358, 367, 387
Man of Lawe's Tale, 333, 350
Marchant's Tale, 389, 391, 393, 395, 421, 422, 423
Miller's Tale, 379, 423, 425, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431
Monke's Tale, 234, 235, 282, 432
Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer
Nonnes Priest's Tale, 215, 393, 419, 423
Wife of Bath's Tale, 390, 437
Prologue to the Wi
e of Bath's Tale, 236, 421, 425
Reve's Tale, 422
Sompnour'
Tale, 278, 425, 433, 445
Shipman's Tale, 432
Squier's Tale, 173, 333, 398
Cantilenae, or Poetical Chronicles, 93
Canute, King, 1
Capella Marcianus de Nuptiis Philogiae, et Mercurii, 391
Carew, Sir George, 85, 87
Carmina Vatacinalia, by John Bridlington, 76
Caroli Gesta Secundum Turpinum, 88
Carpentier's Supplement to Du Cange, 177, 189, 210, 246, 388
Cassianus, Joannes, 14
Castle of Love, by Bishop Grosthead, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84
Catharine, Saint,
Play of,
236
Causa Dei, by B
awardine, 388
Caxton, 14, 62, 127, 138, 336
Ce
io, Philip, or Christopher, 126
Certaine Triumphes, Bo
ke of, 335
Certamen inter Johannem et Barones,
versifice,
88
Cervantes, 111, 132, 415
Chant, Royal, 464
Charette, La,
Roman,
par Chrestien, 135
Charicell and Drosilla,
Loves of, a Romance,
348
Charite, William, 88
Charito,
Romance of,
348
Charlemagne,
Romance of,
88, 110, 124, 135, 137, 146, 210, 211, 464, 467
Chartier, Alain, 342
Chateau d'Amour of Robert Gros
head,
by Robert de Brunne, 78, 85
Chatelain de Courcy, 463
C
aucer, 38, 68, 74, 126, 127, 128, 142, 143, 144, 148, 164, 165, 169, 172, 173, 175, 197, 208, 215, 220, 222, 224, 234, 235, 236, 255, 278, 282, 302, 306, 334, 339, 341, 342, 343, 350, 357, 358, 359, 360, 362, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370 to 384, to the end
Chester Mysteries, Acc. of the, 243
Chevalier au Signe, l'Ystoire du,
a Romance,
348
Chevalrye, or Knighthood, Booke of the Order of,
translated out of French,
337
Chevelere Assigne, or De Cigne, or the Knight of the Swan,
Romance of,
313
Chelde Ippomedone,
Romance of,
138
Chrestien of Troys, Roman du Graal et Roman de Perceval le Galois, by, 134, 135
Christi Passionis et Resurrectionis Gesta, 74
Christopher, Saint, Life of, 16
Christ's Passion, &c.
lay of, 249
Christ's Resurrection, a Poem on, 237
Chris
ana of Pisa, 342
Chronicae Regnorum, 93, 10
Chronicon Trojae, 88
Chronicum Brittannorum, 127
Chronicum Magnum Libris, 127
Cicero, 394, 419
Cinnamus, 348
Citharistae, Account of the, 90
Citie of Ladies, French Romance of the, 310
Claudian, 390, 395
Cleomades,
Romance of,
135
Clergy,
Satirical Balad on the,
36
Codex Argenteus, 1
Colbrond,
Song of,
89
Collet, Dean, his
rammaticus Rudimenta, 281
Commedia de Geta, 234
Commena, Anna, the Alexiad of, 50, 157, 348
Con
essio Amantis, 339
Conquest of Jerusalem by Godsrey of Bulloigne,
Theatrical R
presentation of,
245
Co
stantine, Emperor, 210
Constantinopolis Christiana, by Du Cange, 158
Continens, by R
asis, an Asiatic Physician, 441
Cooper, Mrs. 107
Copia S
edulae valvis domini regis existentis in Parliamento, suo tento apud Westmonasterium, mense marcii anno Reg
Henerici Sexti vicessimo octavo,
a Satirical Balad, stuck on the Gates of the Royal Palace,
58
Cornwaile, John, 6
Coventry Mysteries, Acc. of, 92, 243
Co
nubyence, Girard, or Cornubiensis Giraldus, 87
Corona Preciosa, by Stephen, a Sabio, 351
Cors, Lambert li, 139
Cotgrave, 68
Court of Love, Tribunal of the, 148, 460, 466
Court of Love,
a Poem,
by Chaucer, 466
Creation of the World,
Miracle Play of
237, 293
Creed of Saint Athanasius,
versified,
23
Crescimbini, 139, 249, 464
Crucifixion,
Poem on the,
24, 33
Crusius Martinus, 350
Curias and Florela,
Romance of,
352
Cursor Mundi,
a B
k
of Stories,
123
Curtius, Quintus, 133
Cyder, an early drink,
Acc. of
429
Cymon and
phigenia, by Boccacio, 348
D
Damascene, John, 441
Dan Burnell's As
, 419
Dance-Maccabre,
Acc
of,
210
Daniel Arnaud, 463
Daniel, the Prophet, Book of,
paraphrased
by Caedman, 2
Dante, 117, 147, 148, 234, 342, 344, 354, 390, 432, 462, 463
Dares, Phrygius, 125, 126, 136, 388, 394
David, King,
History of,
210, 418
D'Avranches, Henry, or Henry the Ver
isier, 47
Davy, or Davie, Adam, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232
Death and Life,
Poem of,
312
De Brooke, William, 290
Decameron of Boccacio, 348, 351, 384, 397, 416, 417
De Graville, Ann
, 346
De Grise, Jehan, 140
De Gulvorde, John, 25
De Hales, Thomas, 78
De Lyra, Nicholas, 292
De Meun, John. See John de Meun.
De Mont
ort, Simon,
Balad on,
43
De Orlton, Adam, Bishop of Winchester, 89
Dermod, King, Poem on his Expulsion from his Kingdom of Ireland, 69, 85
Destruction of Troy. See Troy.
Degore, Sir, or Syr Dyare, Romance of, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184
Destruction of Jerusalem, Romance of. See Jerusalem.
Dictys Cretensis, 125, 126, 136
Dido, Romance of, 418
Digby, 7
Dissolution of the World,
a Po
m on the,
127
Ditty of the Amorous Spinett,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Dolopathos, or Seven Sages of Greece,
Romance of,
462
Dom Johans, 462
Domesdie Book, 12, 167
Donatus Aelius, 281
Donnet, 281
Dorman, Saint, 18
Dorohernensis Gervasus,
03
Dow, Mr. 421
Drayton, Michael, 12, 117, 142, 406, 409, 425
Dryden, John, 358, 359, 367, 416, 4
3, 448
Du Carell's Anglo-Norman Antiquities, 64
Du Cange, 136, 137, 146, 157, 158, 159, 164, 165, 167, 168, 173, 177, 210, 244, 347, 349, 350, 351, 354, 364, 378, 388
Du Fres
e, 384
Du Halde, 404
Du Mons, Jaques Pelloutier,
'Art Poetique du, 465
Du Ri
, Pierros,
Romance of,
Judas Macchabee, by, 417
Duclos, Mons. 244
D
gdale, 177, 302, 303
Dunbar, La Counte
e de, demanda a Thomas Essendoune quant la guere d'Escoce prendret syn, 76
E
Ecclesiae de Corrupto Statu, 47
Edward I. King,
Elegy on,
103
Edward the Black Princ
, the Achievements of,
a P
em in Fr
nch,
331
Egill's Ransom,
a Poe
,
22
Eglamoure, Sir, of Artoys, Romance of, 146, 170, 173
Eight Kings, The,
History of,
on tapestry, 210
Emathiu
, or Eus
athius,
a Romance,
348
Emendatio Vitae,
a Poem,
by R. Hampole, 265
Emma Queen, delivered from the Ploughshares, Tale of, 89
Eneas,
Romance of,
134
England, History of,
in Verse,
by Robert of Gloucester. See Robert of Gloucester, 48
Ennius, 468
Episcopus Puerorum,
Ceremony of the,
248
Erastus,
Romance of,
462
Erceldoune,
Romance of,
75
Erceldoune, or Ashelington, Thomas, 75, 76
Erkenwald, King,
History of, on tape
ry, 210
Eschylus, 468
Ester and Ahasuerus, 210
Eston, Adam, 292
Evesham,
Poem on the Battle of,
46
Eugenianus Nicetas, 348
Euripides, 468
Eustace, or Eustache, Wistice, or Huistace, Poem of, Br
t d' Angleterre, by, 62, 64
Eustathius, Commentary on Homer, by, 125
Eustathius, or Eumathius,
Rom. of,
348
Exodus, Book of,
Poetical Biblical History, extracted from,
21
Expositio in Psalterium, by Hampole, 265
F
Fabliaux, 463
Fabricius, 442
Fabyan, 156
Fair Rosamond,
Hist. of,
304
Falconet, Mr. 464
Fa
ol
e, or Falstaff, Sir John, 234
Fauchet, 109, 112, 113, 134, 135, 136, 139, 190, 212
Fayditt, Anselm, 36, 117, 11
, 235, 463
Feast of Asses,
Mystery of the,
247
Feast of Fools,
Mystery of the,
247
Ferrabrach, Guillaume, 190
Festival, or Festiall, 14
Fifteen Tokenes be
ore the Day of Judgement,
a Poem,
by Adam Davie, 219
Fitzralph, Richard, Archbishop o
Armaugh, 291, 343
Fitzrauf. See Fitzralph.
Fitzstephen, William, 236
Five Joys of the Blessed Virgin,
a Song,
30
Flacius, Matthias, 47
Flamma Gualvanei de la, Chronicle of the Vicecomites of Milan, by, 293
Fleetwood, Bishop, 13
Flodde
, Battle of,
a Ballad on the,
314
Floral Games,
Account of the,
467
Flores et de Blanchefleur, Histoire Amoreuse de, traduite de l'Espagnol par Jaques Vincent, 352
Flores y Blanca
or,
Romance of,
352
Florian and Blanca-Flor,
Romance of,
351, 352
Florimont et Passeroze,
Romance of, translated into French Prose,
352
Florius and Platzaflora,
History of,
348, 351
Flowre and the Leaf, by Chaucer, 334, 364, 365, 466, 467
Flower of the Daisy,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Flower, Robert, 298
Fontaine, Jane de la, 346
Fontenelle, 148, 235, 460, 466
Fools, Feast of,
Mystery of the,
247
Fordun, 232
Fortune et de Felicité,
Roman de,
458
Forze d' Ercole, by Boccacio, 344
Fouquett of Marseilles, 117, 118
Fraternity of the Penitents of Love,
Society of the,
461
Friars, Outline of the Con
itution of the Four Orders of Mendicant, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296
Froissart, 69, 178, 252, 253, 331, 332, 336, 337, 338
Acc. of his Poems,
465, 466
Fructus Temporum, 62
Fyre Greky
, or Grecian Fire,
Ac
. of,
157
G
Galen,
translated
into Latin, 443, 444
Garin,
Rom
n de,
69, 422
Garter,
Account of the Order of the,
252
Gatisden, John, 442
Gaulmin, Gilbert, Translation of Pilpay's Fables into French, by, 130
Gawain, Romance of, 208
Genesis, Book of,
paraphrased
by Caedmon, 2
Genesis, Book of,
Poetical Biblical History, extracted from,
21
Geoffry of Monmouth, 48, 49, 50, 51, 62, 63, 124, 128, 394, 400, 442
George, Saint. See Saint George
Gervays, Bishop of Winchester, 451
Gesta Alexandri Regis, 88
Gesta Aeneae post destructionem Trojae, 88
Gesta A
tiochaeiae, et Regum aliorum &c. 113
Gesta Caroli secundum Turpinum, 88
Gesta Osuelis, 88
Gesta Passionis et Resurrectionis Christi, 74
Gesta Ricardi Regis, 88
Geste of King Horn. See Horn.
Giamschid, King,
Acc. of,
407
Gianoni, 289
Giant, Oliphant and Chylde, Thopas, 433, 434
Gilbertine, or Gilbertus Anglicus, 443
Gildas, 128
Gilote and Johanne,
Adventures of,
Poem, in French,
86
Girard de Vienne,
Le Roman d
,
par Bertrand le Clere, 146
Giraldi Cinthio, 149
Glaskerion, the Briton, 393
Glatesaunt, William, an Astrologer, 440
Godfrey de Leigni, 134
od ureisun to ure Lesdi, a Saxon Poem, 314
Godfrey of Bulloign's Conquest of
erusalem,
a Play,
245
Godfrey of Bullogne,
Romance of,
110, 210, 211
Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon, 350
God's Promises,
Mystery of,
by Bale, 23
Golden Legende, 14, 282
Gonzaque, Guy de, 383
Gordionus Bernardus, 442
Gorionides, Joseph, or P
eudo-Gorionides, his translation of the Li
e and Actions of Al
xander the Great into Hebrew, 131
Gouget, Abbé, 346
Gower, John, 223, 233, 342, 343, 350, 388, 393, 401, 407, 448, 460
Graal, Saint, 211
Grandison, Bishop, 281
Granuci, Nicholas, translation of the Theseid of Boccacio into Italian Prose, by, 346
Graville, Anna de, 346
Graunt, Kaan,
Histoire de,
et des Merveilles du-Monde, 101
Gray, Thoma
, 75. John, 75
Grecian Fire,
Acc. of the,
157
Gregora
Nicephorus, 348
Grenailles, 351
Greseildis, Marquis de Sa
u
es,
Le Myster
de,
417
Gresieldis Vita, per Fr. P
trarcham, de Vulgare in Latinam Linguam traduct
, 417
Gri
dal, Archbishop, 241
Grosthead, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, 59, 60, 61, 62, 78, 79, 85, 262, 265, 290, 296, 393, 401
Gualo, a Latin Poet, 47
Gualtier de Belleperche,
Romance of
Judas-Macchabee, by, 417
Gualtier de Chatillon, 128
Gualvanci de la Flamma, Chronicle o
the Vicecomites of Milan, by, 293
Guido de Colona, or Columna, 119, 124, 126, 138, 345, 385, 394
Guillaume le Briton, Philippeis,
a Latin Poem, by,
158
Guldevorde, John de, 25
Guy, Romance of. See Sir Guy
Guy, Earl of Warwick,
Romance of,
87, 89, 142, 145, 211
Guy de Warwick, Chevalier d' Angleterre, et la belle
ille Felix samie, 143
Guy and Colbrand, a Poem on, 87
Guy de Burgoyne, 88
Guy de Warwick,
le livre de, et de
Harold d' Ardenne, a Romance, 143
Guy of Warwyk, here gynneth the Liff of, out of Latyn, made by the Chronycler called of old Girard Cornubyence, 87
Gyrart de Vianne,
Histoire de, et de ses Freres,
146
H
Hakem, an Arabian Juggler, 404
Hakluyt, 101, 426, 430
Hales, Thomas de, 78
Hall, Anthony, 39
Hall, Joseph, Bishop, 410
Haly, a
amou
Arabic Astronomer, 440
Hampole, Richard, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265
Hannibal, 211
Hantwille, Bartholomew, 342
Harmony of the
our Gospels, 1, 2
Harper, Account of the King's, 48
Harri
's Hibernia, 85
Hawes, Stephen, Pastime of Pleasure, by, 213, 363
Heaven, Death, Judgment, &c. alliterative Ode on, 33
Hearne, 6, 13, 48, 62, 87, 88, 92, 93, 126, 131, 173, 193, 307, 390
Hebers,
Romance of the
Seven Sages of Greece,
translated by,
462
Hegesippi de Bello Judaico, et Excidio Urbis-Hierosolymitanae Libri quinque, 217
Hegesippus de Excidio Hierusalem, 311
Heliodorus, 348
Hemperius, the Erotic,
History of,
348
Henricus Verificator Magnus, 47
Henry de Avranches, or Henry the Versi
ier, 47
Henry of Huntingd
n, 47, 128, 378
Henry, King, the First,
Elegy on,
107
Herbelot, Mons. 402, 404, 407, 412, 413
Herbert, a Minstrel, 89
Hercules,
French Romance of,
138
Hercules,
History of,
on tapestry, 210, 211, 212
Herculis and Jason,
Romance of,
138
Heregia del Preyres, or Heresy of the Fathers,
a Satirical Drama,
by Fayditt, 36
Hermes Trismegistus, 393
Herod,
Pageant of, represented,
293
Herolt Dardenne,
Le Romant de,
143
Hesiod, 468
Hibernia
by Harris, 85
Hic
es's Thesaurus, 2, 7, 8, 13, 36
Higden, Ralph, Polychronicon, by, 5, 80, 343
Hildebert, Eveque du Mons.
Otuvres de,
378
Hippocrates,
translated into Latin,
443, 444
Histoire d' Angleterre, en Vers, par Maistre Wase, 63
Historia de Bello Trojano, 126
Holbein, Hans, 211
Holcot, Robert, 5
Hollingshead, 232, 237, 238, 406
Holofernes,
Histor
of, on
ape
ry,
211
Holy Ghost,
Order of the,
252
Homer, 42, 124, 184, 388, 394, 468
Horn, Geste of King, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Horn Childe and Maiden Rinivel,
a Poem,
42
Houdane, Raoul de, a Provençal, 463
Hoveden, John, 85
House of Fame, by Chaucer, 74, 128, 378, 389
Hu
, or Hue. See Lucas, 115
Huet, 112
Hugh de Balsham, Founder o
Pe
r House, Cambridge, 290
Hugo, Prior de Montacuto, his Planctus de Excidio Trojae, 48
Hugo de Evesham, 439
Hugolin of Pisa,
Story of,
390
Hugues de Bercy, 37
Humagoun Nameh, (i. e. the Royall Book). See Pilpay's Fables, 130
Hume, Mr. 307
Huon de Meri, Roman d' Antechrist, par, 285
286
Hurd, Dr. 286, 434
J
Jacobus de Voragine, 14
Jack Snacker of Witney, 240
Jack Strawe, 420
Jack Upland, 306
Jason,
Romanc
of,
138, 146
Jason and the Golden Fleece,
History of, on tapestry,
212
Javidian Chrad, i. e. Ae
erna Sapientia, 131
Ici commence la Passyun Jhu Christ, en Engleys, 25
Jean d' Orronville, 167
Jeber, an Arabian Chemist, Lapis I hilosophorum, by, 400
Jeffrey the Harper, 92
Jehan du Chesne, 133
Jehan de Grise, 140
Jehan de Nivelois, 139
Jehan de Vignay, French Translation of the Legenda Aurea, by, 14
Jerome, Saint, French Psalter, by,
translated,
23
Jerusalem, the Destruction of,
a
rose Romance,
217
Jerusalem, Battell of,
a Poem,
by Adam Davie, 214, 217, 218
Jerusalem, le Roman de la Prise de, par Titus, 217
Jeu de Personages, 246
Illyrius (Illyricus) Flacius, 8
Incendium Amoris, by Richard Hampole, 265
Indiae de Situ et Mirabilibu
, 101
Job, Book of,
parapbrased
by Richard Hampole, 265
Jocatores,
Account of the,
90
Joculator, or Bard,
Account of,
12, 90
Joel, Rabbi, his Translation of Pilpay's Fables into Hebrew, 130
Johanni de Wallis, 48
Johannes of Capua, Translation of P
lpay's Fables into Latin, by, 130
John Chandois Herald, Poem on Edward the Black Prince, by, 331
John of Basing, 281
John de Dondi, 439
John de Guldevorde, 25
John de Langres, Transla
ion of Boethius, by, 458
John de Meun, 88, 148, 368, 369, 38
, 453, 458
John of Hoveden, 47
John of Salisbury, 47, 133, 238, 244, 403, 404, 421
John, Prior of Saint Swithin's, Winchester, 307
Jo
nson (Johns
on), N. 62
Joinville, 159, 167, 168, 173
Joly Chepert of Askeldown,
a Romance,
by Lawern, 76
Jordan, William, 237
Josaphas, Saint, Life of, 14
Joseph of Arimathea,
History of,
134
Josephus, Flavius, 217, 394, 421
Ipomedon,
Romance of,
198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205
Ippo
is, Sir,
Romance of,
208
Isagoge in Astrologiam, by Alchabitius, 426
Isame, Fi
th King of the Indians, the supposed Author of Pilpay's Fables, 131. See Pilpay
Isaure, Clementina, Countess of Tholouse, 467
Isodorus Hispalen
s, 230
Judas Macchabee,
French metrical Romance of,
417
Juglers, Account of, 225, 394
Juliane, S
inte,
Legend of,
13
Julius Valerius, 131
Jupiter and Juno,
Hist. of, on tapestry,
210
K
Kaan, Histoire de Graunt, et des Merveilles du monde, 101
Kalila ve Damma, 130. See Pilpay's Fables
Karlewerch en Escoce, les Noms et les Armes des Seigneurs
à l' Assize de, 335
Katherine, Saint,
Life of,
14
Keigwin, John, 237
Kendale,
Romance of,
75
Kenelme, Saint, Life of, 421
Kennet, Bishop, 90
Killingworth Castle,
Entertainment at,
91
Kinaston, or Kynaston, Sir Francis, 385
King Arthur,
Romance of
See Arthur
King Horn,
Geste of,
38
King of Tars, and the Soudan of Dammias,
Tale of the,
190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197
Kirther, 110
Knight of Courtèsy and Lady of Faguel,
Romance of the,
212
Knight of the Swan,
Romance of th
,
313
Kolson, an Ancient Northern Chief, 50
L
Labbe Pere, Romance of Beuves de Hanton, by, 142
Lady of Faguel and Knight of Courtèsy,
Romance of the,
212
Lambarde, 240
Lambeccius Petrus, 384
Lamentation of Souls,
a Poem,
by Adam Davi
, 219
La Morte d' Arthur. See Arthur
Lancelot du Lac,
Romance of,
114, 115, 134, 206, 336, 421
Lancelot du Lac, mis en Francois par Robert de Borron, du Commandement d' Henri Roi d' Angleterre,
av
c figures,
114
Laneham, 91
La
gto
t's Chronicle, 62, 66, 71, 85, 95, 97, 120, 121, 168
Lapidary,
a Treatise on G
ms,
378
Lapidum de Speciebus, 378
Lascaris, Constantius, 125
Lattini, 147
Lannoy, 3
Lawern, John, 76
Lawyers,
Satiricall Balad on the,
36
Lazamon, 63
Le Brun, Monsieur, Avantures d' Apolonius de Thyr, par, 350
Legenda Aurea, 14
Legende of Good Women, 344, 370, 390, 466
Leirmouth, or Rymer, Thomas, 76
Leland, 75, 102, 290, 291, 296, 314, 397, 440, 443
Leonela and Canamor,
Romance of,
352
Leonico, Angelo, l' Amore de Troleo et Greseida, que si Tratta in buone parte la Guerra di Troja, di, 351
Letter of Cupide, by Occleve, 369
Libeaux, Sir,
Ro
ance of,
197, 208
Libro d' Amore, 464
Lidgate, 119, 120, 127, 173, 178, 210, 235, 345, 384, 401, 410, 417, 429, 451
Lives of the Saints, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 94, 123
Livre de cuer d' Amour espris,
a French Romance,
417
Livy, 394
Lobeyra, Vasco,
Romance of
Amadis de Gaul, by, 149
Lollius, 384, 385, 394
Longland, Robert, the Author of Pierce Plowman's Vision, &c. 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 309, 311, 312
Lord's Prayer, homily, or exhortation,
in Ver
e,
20
Lord's Prayer,
paraphrased by
Rich. Hampole, 265
Lorris, William de. See William de Lorris
Love and Gallantry,
a Poem on,
34
Love Song, the earliest, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
Loves of Rhodante and Dosicles,
Romance of the,
348
Louis, Duke of Bourbon,
Life of,
by Jean Orronville, 167
Louis, Saint, Romance of, by Joinville, 167
Lowth's Life of William of Wykham, 255
Lucan, 395, 432
Lucanus Nicholaus, 351
Lucas, Chevalier, Sieur du Chastel du Gast, pres de Salisberi,
le Roman de
Tristram et Iseult, traduit de Latin en François par, 115
Lucretius, 361
Ludus, Filiorum Israelis, 237
Ludus Resurrectionis Domini, 247
Lusores, Account of the, 90, 91
Lwyhd, Edward, 25, 237
Lybis
er and Rhodamna,
a Greek Poem,
347, 348
Lydgate. See Lidgate.
Lynne, Nicholas, 425, 426
Lyra, Nicholas de, 292
Lyttleton, Lord, 64, 85, 122
M
Mabillon, 3, 4, 125
Macchabee, Judas,
French Metrical Romance of,
417
Maccabre, Dance of, on tapestry, 210
Maccabus,
Romance of,
217
Macon, Count de,
Romantic History of
399
Macrobius, 393, 394
Madox, 146
Maimonides, Moses, 444
Mandeule, John, Parson of Burnham Thorpe, 63
Mandeville, Sir John, 101, 102, 403
Mannyng, Robert. See Robert d
Brunne
Manual of Sins, by Robert de Brunne, 73
Manuel Peche, or Manuel de Peche,
translated by
Robert de Brunne, 59, 73, 85
Mapes, Walter, 63, 421
Mappa Mundi, by Sir John Mandeville, 102
Marbode, Bishop of Rennes, Latin Poem on Precious Stones,
translated into French Verse, by,
378
Marchaunt's Second Tale, 144, 440, 455
Margaret, Saint,
Life of,
12, 13, 14
Marian, Mayd, 245
Marian and Robin,
Play of,
245
Marine, Saint,
Life of,
18
Martial d' Avergne, a French Poet, 460
Martin, Mr. 121
Massacre of the Holy Innocents,
Mystery of the,
242
Massieu, Mon
. 465
Masques,
Account of,
255
Mauleon, Savarie de, 113
Maurus Rhabanus, 8
Maximus, Valerius, 419, 421, 432
Medea and Jason, 418
Medeae et Jasonis, Historia, à Guidone de Columna, 138
Medytaciuns of the Soper of our Lorde Jhesu, and also of his Passyun, and eke of the Peynes of his sweet Modyr, Mayden Marye, the which made yn Latin, Bonaventure, Cardynall, by Robert de Brunne, 77
Meliader, or the Knight of the Sun of Gold,
Romance of,
338
Meliboeus, Tale of, by Chaucer, 433
Memoriae Saeculorum, by Godfrey o
Viterbo, 350
Menesier, 134
Meri, Huon de, 285, 286
Merlin, Ambrose, 88, 401, 404, 408, 412
Merlini Prophetiae,
versifice,
88
Merveilles du Mo
de, Histoire des, et de Graunt Kaan, 101
Meun, John de. See John de Meun.
Meurvin, preux fils d' Ogier le Danoi
, l'Histoire de, 136
Mezeray, 111
Mille
, Jaques, 136
Milton, John, 129, 468
Mimi,
Acc. of the,
90, 237, 238, 240
Mimici,
Account of the,
237, 238
Minstrels,
Account of the,
74, 90, 91, 116, 238
Mirabilia Hi
erniae, Angliae, et Orientalis, 103
Mirabilia Mundi, 100, 101, 102
Mirabilia Terrae Sanctae, 102
Miracles, or Miracle Plays,
Account of the,
235, 236, 237
Miracles of the Virgin,
French Romance of the,
303
Mirrour for Magistrates, 235
Mirrour which reflects the World, 407
Misyn, Richard, 265
Moller, Har
lieb,
translation
of Pilpay's Fables into German, by, 131
Mon
chus, Johannes, 131
Montaniero Raymond, 462
Montfaucon, 136, 143, 335, 350, 351, 378, 411
Montfort, Simon de,
Ballad on,
43
Montfort, Countess of,
Acc. of the,
253
Moralities,
Acc. of,
241, 243, 245, 248,
86
Morgan, Bishop,
translation of the New Testament into Welch,
by, 447
Morisotus, 410
Mort d' Arthur. See Arthur.
Mortimer, Roger Earl, restored, the Rites of the Round Table, 117
Mousques, Philipes, 137
Murray, Mr. 93
Muses Library, 107
Mylner of Abington, with his Wi
e and Faire Daughter, and two Poore Scolars of Cambridge, History of the,
a Poem,
432
Mystere de Gresildis, Marquise de Saluce, 246
Mys
eries, Acc. of, 24
, 243, 245, 246, 247, 248
N
Nasrallah, a Translator of Pilpay's Fables, 130
Nennius, 128
Nepos, Cornelius, 101, 125
Nesle, Blondell de, 113, 117
Neuf Preux, le Graunt Tappis de,
on tape
ry,
211
Neuf Preux, le Triumphe des,
a French Romance,
351
New Years Gi
t,
an Ancient Scots Poem,
by Alexander Scott, 76
Nicene Creed,
ver
i
ied,
23
Nicholas de Lyra, 292
Nidzarde, Adam, 378
Nigellus de Wireker, 419
Nightingale, a Book in French Rymes, 85
Nivelois, Jehan le, 139
Nostradamus, 113, 118, 463
Nyne Worthys, 211
O
O'Flaherty, 312
Occleve, 369
Octavian,
Romance of,
207
Odoeporicon Ricardi Regis,
a Latin Poem,
by Peregrinus, 232
Odorick, a Friar, 101
Oger, or Ogier, or Oddegir the Dane,
R
mance of,
135, 136, 464
Old and New Testament,
Mystery of the,
243, 245,
Old and New Testament,
trans
ated into Verse,
19, 20
Opus Majus, by Roger Bacon, 408
Ordre de Bel Eyse,
umorous Panageric on the,
37
Orientis de Regi
nibus, 101
Orleton, Adam de, Bishop of Winchester, 89
Orronville, Jean d', 167
Ot
rid, Monk of Weissenburgh, 7, 8
Otheniem, Empereur de Rome,
Ro
unce de,
208
Otuel,
Romance of,
88
Ovid, 134, 361, 383, 388, 390, 391, 394, 395
Oure Saviour's Descent into Hell,
a Poem,
18
Our Saviour's Crusifixon,
Elegy on,
33
Owl and the Nightingale, Contest between,
a Poem,
25
P
Pageant representing the Birth of our Saviour, 237
Pageants,
Account of,
239
Palamon and Arcite, 344, 346, 349, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356. By Chaucer, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 366, 367, 450, 45
Palamon and Emilia, 418
Palaye, M. de la Curne de Sainte, 74, 142, 149, 337, 417, 459, 461
Palermo, Roger de, 144
Panegyric on the Month of May,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Paradise of Love,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Parement des Dames, 417
Parasols, Cinque belles Tragedies des Gestes d
Je
nne Reine de Naples, par, 235
Paris, History of,
Romance of the,
146
Paris, Alexander de, 139
Paris, Matthew, 168, 236
Partonepex,
French Romance, 388
Parvum Job, or the Book of Job
par
phrased,
265
Pa
etes, a Jugler,
Account of,
404
Pasquier, 464, 465
Pa
ion of Christ,
acted at A
jou,
246
Pas
ion and Death of our Saviour,
a Poem,
34
Passy
n a Jhus Crist, en Englys, 25
Pastime of Pleasure, by Hawes, 213, 363
Pa
or Fido,
translated into Greek,
349
astorals, by Froissart, 465
Patient Gri
ilde,
Story of,
246, 415, 416, 418
Patrick, Saint, Life of, 17
Patrum Vitae, 14
Peacham, Henry, 176
Peckward, 63
Pencriche, Richard, 6
Penelope,
Romance of,
418
Percaval le Galois, par Messenier, 134
Perceforest,
Romance of,
346, 464
Percival, Sir,
Romance of,
134
Percy, Dr. Bishop of Dromore, 59, 208, 250, 280, 312, 393
Percy, Henry, Fifth Earl of Northumberland, Household Establishment of, 280
Pere, l'Abbe, 142
Peregrinus Gulielmus, 232
Pericles, Prince of Tyre,
Play of,
350
Perizon, 125
rtonape and Ipomedon, 138
P
rtonape,
Romance of, translated from the French,
388
Peter de Saint Clost, 139
Petrarch, 118, 147, 342, 344, 383, 385, 394, 415, 416, 417, 4
4, 425, 439, 461, 463
Philippa, Queen of Edward the Third,
Account of,
253
Phillippeis,
a Latin Poem,
by Guillaume le Breton, 158
Philobiblion, by Richard de Bury, 291
Philosotrophos of Boccacio
Pierce Plowman's Vision, 60, 74, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 288, 312, 433
Pierce the Plowman's Cre
de, 236, 287, 288, 296, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307
Pignatelli, 463
ilpay's Fables,
translated into various Languages,
129, 130, 131
Piteaux, or Pitoux, i. e. Religious Mysteries, 246
Plaids et Gieux sous l'Ormel, 460
Plato, 125, 361, 394
Plays, Account of, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245
Plays prohibited by Bishop Bonner, 241
Plea of the Rose and the Violet,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Plowman, Pierce. See Pierce Plowman
Plowman's Tale, 306, 433
Poetical Bi
lical History, 21
Policraticon. See John of Salisbury
Polo Marco, de Regionibus O
ientis, by, 101
Polychronicon, by Higden, 5, 80
343,
Polyhistor of Julius Solinus, 103
Pope, Mr. 396, 423
Poul, Saint, Visions o
, won he-was rapt in Paradys, 19
Powell's Cambria, 92, 116
Precious Stone
,
Saxon T
eatise on,
378
Prester, John, 102
Pricke of Cons
ience, by Richard Hampole, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 265
Pricke of Love, treating on the three Degrees of Love, a
ter Hampole, 265
Prickynge of Love, by Bonaventure
77
Procopius, 157, 351
Prodigal Son,
Story of, on tape
ry,
210
Prodromus Theodorus, 348
Prophecies of Banister of England, 75
Proserpinae de Raptu, by Claudian, 390
Psalms, Book of,
translated,
23
P
olemy, Account of, 410. Book of Astronomy, by, 425
Purchas, 101
Pylgrymages of the Holi Land, 214
Pyramus and This
e,
Romance of,
352,
Q
Quilichinus Aretinus, 132
Quintus Curtius, 133
R
Ramsay, Mr. 352
Randal of Ches
er, 89
Randolph's Muses Looking Glas
, 210
Raoul de Houdane, a Provencial Bard, le Voye ou le Songe d' Enfer, par, 463
Raoul le Feure, 138
Ravalerie l' Eveque de la, Revolution de Langue Francoise, à la Suite des Poesies du Roi de Navarre, 112
Rauf, Art de Kalender, par, 74
Rau
e de Boun, le Petit Bruit, pa
62
Rauol de Biavais, 134
Reason and Sens
alitie,
a Poem,
by Lidgate, 429
Regis
rum Librorum Omnium et Jocali
m i
Monas
erio S. Mariae de Pratis prope Leyces
riam, 88
Renaud of Montauban,
Romance of,
464
R
surrectionis Domini Ludus, 247
Reynault de Lou
ns,
French Me
rical Romance,
de Fortune et de Fclicite, par, 458
Reynholds, Sir Joshua, 390
Reyne d' Ireland,
Hist. of, on tapestry,
211
Rex Stultorum,
Office of,
247
Rhasis, an Asiatic Physician, 441, 443
Rhees ap Gryffyth, 115, 116,
Rhodante and Dosicle
, the Loves of,
a Romance,
348
Riccomboni, 249
Richard, a Poet, 34
Richard the First, a Poet,
Account of,
213
Richard Cuer de Lyon, 69, 74, 87, 119, 141, 144, 150, 151, 152, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 1
, 198,
07
Richard Roi d'Angleterre, et de Maquemore d' Irelande,
Histoire de, en Rim
,
121
Richard of Alemaigne, King of the Romans,
Satirical Ballad on,
43, 44, 45, 46
Richard de Lisle,
Romance of,
458
Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, 291
Richard, Seigneur de Barbezeiuz, 463
Robert de Brun
e, 40, 44, 59, 62, 64, 66, 72, 77, 78, 95, 97, 105, 115, 116, 120, 121, 156, 158, 161, 166, 173, 193, 214, 225, 253
Robert of Gloucester, 5, 44, 48, 49, 62, 66, 72, 95, 115, 119, 120, 193, 304
Robert of Sicily,
Romance of,
184, 185
186, 187, 188, 189
Robert le Diabl
,
Rom
n de,
189
Robin and Marian,
Play of,
245
Roger de Palermo, translation of Sidra
by, 144
Rois d' Angleterre,
Roman de,
62
Rollo, the Story of,
a Romance,
62
Roman le Rou, et les Vies des D
cs de Normandie, 63, 338
Roman de Rois d' Angleterre, 62
Roman du Graal, or the Adv
ntures of Sangral, by Chre
tien of Troys, 134
Roman de Tiebes, qui
ut Racine de Troye la Grande, 126
Roman de la Rose, 68, 88, 177, 368, 372, 378, 383, 393, 462
Romanus, Aegidius, Book de Regimine Principum, by, 343
Romaunt of the Rose, by Chaucer, 68, 88, 173, 177, 344, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 430, 453, 458, 459
Romulus and Remus,
Story of,
n tapestry,
211
Rondeaus, by Froissart, 465
Rosa Medica
by John Gatisde
, 44
Rosamund, Fair,
History of,
304
Rosamund's Chamber, 304
Rosarium de Nativitate, Passione, Ascensione Jhesu Christi, or the Nightingale,
a Book in French Rymes,
85
Roudeki, a celebrated Persian Poet, 130
Round Table of Arthur revived by Roger, Earl of Mortimer, 117, and by King Edward the Third, 251
Rouse, John, 145
Rowland and Olyvere,
Romance of,
122
Roy Marc,
Romance of,
134
Royal Ballads in Honour of Our Lady, by Froissart, 465
Rubruquis, William de, 101
Rucher, Guillaume, 335
Rudell, Jeffrey, 118
Ru
us, a Physician of Ephesus, 440
Runcivallum Bellum contra, 88
Rutebeu
a Troubadour, 462
Rymer, 113, 318
S
Sabio, or Sabiu
, Stephen, his Grecobarbarous Lexicon, 351
Saint Alban, Martyrdom of,
a Poem,
98
Saint Alexius the Confessor, Son of Euphemius,
L
gend of,
by Adam Davie, 218
Saint Ambrose, 394
Saint Athanasius, Creed of,
versified,
23
Saint Austin, 394, 421
Saint Catharine,
Play of,
236
Saint Clost, Peter de,
39
Saint Dorman, 18
Saint George, Feast of, celebrated at Windsor,
Description of,
330.
History of, on tapestry,
210
Saint Graal, 211
Saint Jerome, 14,
his French Psalter, translated,
23
Saint Josaphas,
Life of,
18
Saint Kenelme,
Life of,
421
Saint Katherine,
Life of,
14
Saint Louis,
Romance of,
by Joinville, 167
Saint Margaret,
Life of, a Poem,
12, 13, 14
Saint Marine,
Life of,
18
Saint Theseu
, le Tappis de la Vie d
, 211
Saint Thomas of Becket,
Legend of,
1
, 18
Sainte Palaye, Mons. de la Curne d
. See Palaye
Saint Wini
red,
Life and Miracles of,
13
Saintre,
French Romance of,
331, 334, 335
Saintre, John, 334
Salade, la,
a Booke of Ceremonies,
by Anthony de la Sale, 334
Saladin, Sultan,
Life of the,
122
Sale, Anthony de la, 334
Salisbury, Earl of, a Poet, 342
Salamonis Christiani L
byrinthus, 411
Sanctorum Loca, &c. 102
Salus Anime, or Sowle Hele,
a Poem,
14, 19
Sandaber, an Indian Writer of Proverbs, first Composer of the Romance of the Seven Sages of Greece, 462
Sandford, James, translation of the Vanity of Sciences of Cornelius Agrippa, by, 409
Sandys, 409
Sangral, Adventure
of,
Ro
ance,
134
Satire on the Monastic Pro
ession,
Poem
9, 10, 11, 12
Savile, Sir Henry, 388
Saxon Homilies, 5
Scalds,
Account of th
,
112, 128
Scalae Chronicon,
an Ancient French Chr
nicle of England,
75
Schilterus, Johannis, 8
Scotch Prophecies, 75
Scott, Alexander, 76
Scott, Johan, 80
Scottish Field,
a Poem,
314
Scotu
, Michael, 29
Scripture Histories, by Adam Davie, 218
Seinte Juliane,
L
g
nd of,
13
Selden, 116, 425, 432
S
ptimus,
Parap
ras
of
Dictys Cretensis, by, 125
Serapion, John, 440, 443
Seth, Simeon, 129, 133, 139, 141, 220
Seven Deadly Sins,
Story of, on tap
stry,
210, 211
Seven Penet
ntial Psalms, by Hampole, 265
Seven Sages of Greece, or Dolopathos,
Romance of, translated into various Langu
ge
,
462
Seven Wise Masters,
Romance of th
,
410, 414
Shakespeare, 127, 160, 206, 350, 409
Sheldon, Ralph, 13
Sidrac,
Romance of,
143, 144, 208
Sigeros, Nicholas, 394
Simon, Alexander
lebrated by,
39
Sir Beavis of Southampton,
Roma
c
of,
87, 141, 145, 170, 177, 192, 206, 208, 211
Sir Blandamoure,
Romanc
of,
145, 208
Sir Degore, or Syr Dyare, 180, 181, 182, 183
184
Sir Eglamoure of Artoys, 146, 170, 173
Sir Gawaine,
Romance of,
208
Sir G
y,
Romance of,
169, 170
171, 172, 173, 174, 175
211, 442
Sir Ippotis,
Romance of,
208
Sir Ipomedon,
Romance of,
198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205
Sir Lance
ot
du Lak,
Romance of,
4, 115, 134, 206, 336, 42
Sir Libeaux, or L
bius Disconius,
Romance of,
197, 208
Sir Percival,
Romanc
of,
134
Sir Topas,
Rime of,
by Chaucer,
8, 143, 175, 197, 208, 224, 429, 433
Sir Triamoure,
Roma
ce of,
145
Sir Tristram,
Romance of,
74, 88, 115, 134, 224, 418
Smarte, John, 335
Solinus,
lius, Polyhistor of, 103
Solomon, King, Book on Gems, by, 378
Some, John, 425
Sowle Hele, or Salus Anime,
a Poem,
14, 19
Spectacula, or Dramatic Spectacles,
Account of,
240
Speculum Stultorum,
a Latin Poem,
419
Speight, 378, 449
Spenser, Edmund, 116, 176, 200, 301, 333
387, 404, 405, 408, 412
Squire of Lowe Degree, 89, 169, 175, 224
Stanley, Mr. 352
Statius, 126
360, 361, 362, 388, 394
Steevens Monasticon, 92
Stem of Jesse,
Story of the, on tapestry,
210
Στεφανιτης και Ιχνηλατης, 129
Stimulus Conscientiae, by R. Hampole, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 265
Stonehenge,
Account of,
by Geoffry of Monmouth, 51, 52, 53
Stowe, John, 126, 236, 245, 253
Stricker, 8
Strode, 388
Suetonius, 432
Surrey, Lord, 409
Susanuah,
Story of, on tape
,
211
Swithin, Saint,
Li
of,
15
Sylvester,
op
, the Second,
01, 402
T
Tanc
ed and Sigi
m
nda, by Boccacio, 190
Tapestry,
Acco
n
of var
us Romances up
,
209, 210,
11
Tape
try of the Norman Conquest, 64
Tars, King of, and the Soudan of Dammias,
Romanc
of,
190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197
Tasso, 68, 149, 160, 184
Tatius Achilles, 348
Taylor, Silas, 14
Temple of Glass, by Lidgate, 345, 410, 417
Temple of Honour,
a Poem,
by Froissart, 465
Ten Commandments of Love, by Chaucer, 461
Ten Kings of France,
History of, on tapestry,
210
Teseide, Le, by Boccacio, 345
Tesoro, by Brunetto Latini, 147
Testament, the Old and New,
translated into Verse,
19, 20
Testament of Love, by Chaucer, 282, 459, 466
Thake
i Hegiage, Ebn Yuself al, 414
Thebaid of Statius, 388
Thebes, Geste of, 388
Thebis,
Romance of,
388
Theophilus,
Miracl
Play of,
246
Theophrastus, 421, 435
Θησεος και γαμȣ της Εμηλιας, 347
Thesei in Lingua v
lgari Historia, 246
Thesei et Aemiliae, de N
ptiis, 347
Theseid of Boccacio, 346, 347, 351
Theseus et de Gade
ir,
Roman de,
345
Theseus, Histoire du Chevalier, 345
346
Theseus, Saint, le Tap
i
de la Vie de, 211
Thiebault, King of Navarre, 463
Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies,
41
Thomas, the Author of the Romance of Syr Tristram, 74
Thoma
de Hales, 78
Thomas the Rymer, Prophecy of, 77
Thomas of Sha
tesbury, 442
Thomas Plenus Amoris, 140
Tiebes qui
ut ra
ine de Troy la Grande,
le Roman d
,
126
Tirante il Blanco, or Tirante the White
Romance of,
143
Titus and Vespasian,
Romance of,
217
Tobiah,
Me
rical Life of, in French,
85
Toison d' Or,
Order of the,
252
Tom Thumb,
History of,
432
Topas, Sir, Rime of, by Chaucer, 38, 143, 175, 197, 208, 224, 429, 433
Tractatus quidam in Anglico,
a Religious or M
ral Ode,
7
Trayl-baston,
Libel on the Commission of,
58
Trebizonde,
History of, on tapestry,
110
Trevisa, John, 5, 80, 291, 343
Triamoure, Sir,
Romance of,
145
Trionso Magno,
a Poem,
by Dominich
Falugi Anciseno, 139
Tristram, Sir,
Romance of,
74, 88, 115, 134, 224, 418
Tristran et Iseult,
Le Roman de, traduit de Latin en Franç
is
par Lucas, 115
Trivett, Nicholas, 458
Triumphes, Booke of certaine, 335
Triumpho di Amore of Petrarch, 117
Trojae Chronicon, 88
Trojae Liber de Excidio, 88
Trojano de Bello Historia, 126
Troilus,
le Roman de,
351, 384
Troilus and Cressida,
Play of,
127
Troilus a
d Cressida,
Story of, in Gr
ek Verse,
351
Troilus and Cre
eide, Poem by Chaucer, 220, 362, 384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389
Trojomanna Saga, 138
Troleo et Griseida l'Amore di que
i tratta in buone parte la Guerra di Troja, 351
Troubadours,
Account of the,
110, 111, 118, 147, 457, 462
Troy, the Destruction of,
a Romance,
88, 124, 136, 137, 146, 210, 345, 385
Troy, Recuel of the Histories of,
translated
by Caxton, 127
Tully's Somnium Scipionis, 394
Turke and Gawaine,
Romanc
of the,
203
Turnoyement de l'Antechrist, par Huon de Mere, 285, 286
Turpin, 88, 124, 132, 135, 137, 146, 420, 432
Twyne, 432
Tyrensis, Wilhelmu
, 68
Tz
tes's Chiliads, 349
V
Vaez, Hussien,
translation of P
pay's Fables,
by, 130
Valentine and Orson,
Romance of,
401, 415
Valerius ad Ru
num de non ducendâ Uxore, by Wal
er Mapes, 421
Valeriu
Flaccus, 126
Valerius Julius, 131
Vandyke, 351
Varchi, 463
Velserius, 350
Vengeance of Goddes Death,
a Poem,
by Adam Davie. See Davy
Vernon, Edward, 14
Versus de Ludo Scaccorum, 88
Versus Politici, 349
Versus Vaticinales, by John Bridlington, 76
Vertue the Engraver, 140
Vignay, Jehan de, Translation of the Legenda Aurea, by, 14
Villani Giovanni, 147
Villon, 382
Vincent de Beauvais, 137, 164
Vincent, Jaques, 352
Vinesaus, Jeffrey, 421
Virdungus, Hassurtus Joannes, 440
Virelais, by Froissart, 465
Virgidemarium, by Hall, 410
Virgil, 184, 340, 361, 390, 394
Virgin, Five Joy
on the Blessed,
a Song
30
Virgin, Miracles of the,
a French Romanc
,
303
Virgin Mary,
an Antient Hymn to the,
314
Virtue and Vice Fighting,
Story of, on
ap
s
ry,
211
Visions, by Adam Davie, 214, 215, 216,
Visions of Saint Poul won he was rapt in Paradys, 19
Visions of Pierce Plowman. See Pierce Plowman
Visions d' Ogeir le Danois au Royaume de Faerie,
en Vers François,
1
6
Vitae Patrum, 14
Vitellio, 407
Vives Ludovicus, 351
Voragine, Jacobus de, 14
Voye ou le Songe d' Enser, by Raoul d
Houdane, 463
Ury,
Romance of,
208
Uselt le Blonde,
Romance of,
134
Vyenne,
History of,
146
W
Wace, or Gasse, Maister, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 338
Wallace, Sir William,
Acts and Deeds of,
by Blind Harry, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331
Wallden, John, 292
Walo,
versificator,
47
Walpole, Mr. 85, 113
Walter of Exeter, Author of the Romance of Guy, Earl of Warwick, 87
Wanley, 155, 206
Warburton, Bishop of Glocester, 287, 335
Warres of the Jewes,
a Romance,
311
Warwick, Guy, Earl of,
a Romance.
See Guy.
Watson, Edward, 234, 292
Waynflete, William, Bishop of Winchester, 450
Whittington, Sir Richard, 291
Why Poor Priests have no Benefices, by Wicliffe, 306
Wicliffe, 164, 282, 287, 306, 307, 308, 343, 358
William de Brooke, 290
William de Rubruqui
, 101
Wil
iam of Lorris, 368, 369, 373, 374, 381 393
William of Malmsbury, 401
William of Wykeham, 92, 240, 255, 306
William, Prior of Kenilworth, 85
William the First, King, Precept in Saxon to the Sheriff of Somers
tshire, from, 3
Williams, Richard, Dean of Lichfield 307
Wini
red, Saint,
Life and Mir
cles of,
13
Wireker, Nigellus, 419
Wolstan, Bishop of Worces
er, 4. Saint, 15
Z
Zabulus, 393
Zeno Apostolo,
an Italian D
amatt
Writer,
417
Zenophon, th
Ephesian,
Romanc
of
348
Zenus Demetrius, 349, 351
INDEX TO THE TWO DISSERTATIONS Prefixed to the First Volume of WARTON'S History of English Poetry.
ABELARD, cxlix
Abdella, King of Persia; account of a Clock presented to Charlemagne by, xcviii
Abotika, or Aristotle's Poetics,
translated
into Arabic by Abou Muscha Metta, xc
Acca, Bishop of Hexham, xcv
Adrian, Abbot of Saint Austin'
Canterbury, xciv, ci
Aelssin, c
Aenigmata, by Aldhelm, xcix
Aeneid of Virgil, x, cxx
A
er Leo, li
Alanus de Insulis, cxliii,
Alaric, lxxiv
Alban, Saint, Latin Poem on the Life of, by Robert Duns
able, cxxiii
Albert, Abbot of Gemblour
, lxxvii
Albin, Abbot of Saint Austins, xcviii
Alcuine, lxxxix, xcvi, xcvii, c, ci, cii, cxxiv
Aldhelm, Bishop of Shirburn, xcvii, xcviii, xcix, c, cii, cvi, cx
Aldrid, c
Aldwin, Abbot of Ramsey, cxxiv
Alefleck, Sagan of, lviii
Alexander the Great, xiv
Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, cxxv
Alexandreid, by Philip Gualtier de Chatillon, cxli, cxlii, cxliii, cxliv
Alexandri Ges
a, cxix
Alfred's, King, Saxon Translation of the Mercian Law, xi. His Account of the Northern Seas, xxvii—xliv, xcvii, xcviii, cxi
Alfred of Beverly, ix
Allard, Monsieur, xx
Al—Manum Caliph, Account of the, lxxxviii
Andrew, a Jew, cxlvi
A
e
i
, a Welch Bard, lxi
Angantyr, Scaldic Dialogue at the Tomb of, xl.
Translated
by Gray, xl
Anlaff, a Danish King, xliv
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, cxiv, cxxvii, cxlix
An
eclaudian, by Alanus, cxliii
Antiocheis, by Joseph of Exeter, cxxxvi, cxxxix
Antiochenus, Johannes, cxx
Antonius, Nicholas, cxix
Apuleius, cx
Arator, lxxvi
Architrenius, by John Hanvill, cxxviii
Ariosto, xx
Aristotle, lxxxvii, lxxxix, xc, c, cxlvii, cxlix
Aristotle's Logic,
translated
into Latin by S. Austin, lxxxix. Poetic
translated
into Arabic by Abou Muscha Metta, xc. His Works
translated,
xc
Arthur, King, vii, viii, xi, xii, xv, xvii, xxi, lviii, lxxii, cxi
Asamal (or Asiatic Verses) Account of the, xxix
Athelard, a Monk of Bath, the Arabic Euclid
translated
into Latin by, xc
Athelstan, King,
Ode on,
xxxvii, xxxviii, xxxix, xl—xliv, xlv
Attila, Verses in Praise of, liv
Aventinus, Johannes, liv
Averroes, lxxxvii, xc
Augustodunus, Honorius, cxxxi
Aungerville, Richard. See Richard of Bury
Aurelianus, Coelius, cxi
Ausonius, lxxvi
Austin, Saint, lxxxv, lxxxix, xcviii
B
Bacon, Roger, cxlvi, cxlvii, cxlix
Bale, John, xciv, civ
Banier, xxvi
Barbarossa, Frederick, Latin Poem on the Wars of, by Gunther, cxliv, cxlv
Bards, Irish,
Account of the,
xlvi. Welch,
Account of the,
xlvii, xlviii, xlix. Celtic,
Account of the,
liv
Barthius, cxli
Basingstoke, John of. See John
Batthall, an Arabian Warrior, Life of, &c. xii, xiii
Bathoniensis, Adelardus, Quintilian's Declamations, abridged by, lxxvii
Beauclerc, Henry, cxvi
Beccatelli, Antonio, cxx
Becket, St. Thomas of, cxxv
Bede, xi, lxxxv, xciv, xcv, xcvii, civ, cv, cxxiii, cxxvii
Belle-perche, Gaultier Arbalestrier de, cxxiv
Benedict, Abbot of Peterborough, cxix, cxxvii
Bernard's Homilies on the Canticles, lxxxii
Bever's Manuscript Chronicle, lxxxv
Bevi
, Romance of. See Sir Bevis
Bible, lxxix. History of the, by Leoninus, cxxiii
Bible Hystoriaus la, ou les Histoires Escolastres, lxxxv
Bilfrid, c
Birinus, Saint, History of, represented on the Ancient Font in Winchester Cathedral, &c. lxxxv. Account of, xcii. Life of, cxlv
Biscop, Benedict, xciv, civ
Blaunpayne, Michael, cxliv
Blois, Peter de, cxxvi, cxxxi, cxxxiv. William de, cxxvi, cxxvii
Blondus Flavius, cxx
Boerhaave, lxxxvii
Boethius, lxxiv, lxxxiii, lxxxix, xcviii, ciii, cxviii
Borlase's History of Cornwall, xxxvi
Boston, cxxxvi
Boun o Hamtun Ystori, xxxvii
Boy and the Mantle, or le Court Mantel, Story of, vi
Boyardo, xx
Bretomanna Saga, lviii
Breton, Guillaume, le, cxli, cxliv
Britannus Eremita, xii
Brut-y-Brenhined, or Hist. of the Kings of Britain,
translated
into Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi, xvii
Bulloign, Godfrey of. See Godfrey
Bury's Philobiblion, lxxxiv
Bury, Richard of. See Richard
C
Caesar, xxvi
Caedmon, xxv
Calixtus the Second, xix
Calliopius, cxix
Calligraphy, Account of the Speci
ens of, c, ci
Cambrensis Gyraldus, cxxxii,
xxxiii, cxxxiv
Camden, cxl
Canute, History of, xlvi,
xix
Carpe
tier, cxliii
Cassiodorus, lxxiv, ciii
Catharine, Saint, Play of, by Geo
rey Abbot o
Dunstable, cxv
Cedrenu
, lxxxviii
Cel
us Apuleius, cxi
Ceol
rid, xcvii, ciii, civ
Chardin, xxv
Charlemagne, xi, xvii, xviii, xxi, lvii, lix, lx, lxxii, lxxviii, xci, xcvii, xcix,
i, cii
Charle
the Fi
th, Account of his Collection of Books, lxxxiv
Charle
the Bald, xci
Chaucer, vi, cxviii, cxxxi
Chilperic, King, Two Books of Latin Verses by, cx
Chiron, cxi
Christopher, Saint, Legend of, cxix
Chrysostom, Saint, xciii
Cicero, lxxvii, lxxxiii, xcii, cxx
Claudian, lxxv, cxviii, cxix, cxx, cxxiv
Columella, lxxvii
Comestor, Peter, Scholastic History of, lxxxii.
Translated
into French, lxxxv
Commediae et Tragediae, by William of Blois, cxxvii
Conrade, Emperor, Latin Poem on the Expedition o
, against the Saracens, by Gunther, cxlv
Constantius, lxxv
Constantinople, Prose History of the Siege of, by Gunther, cxlv
Cor et Oculum, Disputa
io inter, cxxxv, cxxxvi
Court Mantel le, or the Boy and the Mantle, Story of, vi
Cujentos de Viejas, xx
Curtius, Quintus, xxxii
cxli
Cyveilog, Owain, Prince of Powi
,
a Po
by,
D
Damascenu
,
translated
into Latin by Robert Grosthead, cxlvi
Danois, Mademoiselle, xx
Dares, Phrygius, de Bello Trojano, cxxxvii.
Translated
into French Rymes by God
rey of Water
ord, xxi
Dead Man's Song, a
Ballad,
cv
Desiderius, xcii
De Vinesauf, Geoffrey, cxlv
Dha Hoel, Welch Laws by, xlix
Die Judicii Meditatio de, by Bede,
translated
into Saxon Verse, cvi
Dionysi
s the Areopagite, 4 Treati
es of,
translated
into Latin by John Erigena, cviii. By Robert Gro
thead, cxlvi
Dioscorides, Ancient Mss. of, cxi
Dodford, Robert, cxlviii
Domitian, lxvi
Donatus, xcii
Dubricius, xi
Du Cange, ii
Dugdale, cvii
Dunstable, Robert, cxxiii
Dunstan, Saint, c, ci
E
Eadsrid Bishop of Durham, Book of the Gospel Written by, c
Eadmer, cxxvi, cxxvii
Eadwin, cxi
Ecbert Bishop of York, xcvi, ci
Edda, the, xxvi, xxxii, lxiv, lxv
Edda, a Monk of Ca
terbury, c
Edessenus, Theophilus, Homer,
translated
into Syriac by, lxxxvi
Eginhart, curious Account of a Clock by, xcviii
Egill, an Islandic Poet, xliv, xlv
Eiddin, My
nydaw,
a Poem celebrating the Battles of,
lxi
Elfleda, Daughter of Alfred, Poetical Epi
tle to, by Henry of Huntingdon, cxxv
Elsric, a Saxon Abbot of Malmsbury, ci
Eliduc, Tale of, iii
Engelbert, Abbot of Trevoux
Englyn, Milur, or the Warrior's Song, xlviii
E
INIKION, Rythmo Teutonico Ludovico Regi ac
lamatum cum Northmannos, Anno
ccccxxxiii vicissit, lv
Eremita Britannus, xii
Eric Widsorla,
Sagan af
lviii
Erigena, John,
Translation
of Four Treatises of Dionysius the Areopagite into Latin by, cviii, cix
Ervene, ci
Espagne, Relation du Voyage d', xx
Esseby, Alexander, cxliv
Ethelwold, Bishop of Durham, c
Etheldryde, Panegyrical Hymn on the Miraculous Virginity of, by Bede, cx
Evans' Di
ertatio de Bardis, lxii
Euclid, c
Exeter, Joseph of. See Iscanus Josephus
Eyvynd, Elogium of Hacon, King of Norway, by, xliii
F
Fabian, xl, xli
Fabricius, cxx
Farabi, xc
Farice
cxvi
Faries,
Arabian Account of
he,
lxii, lxiii
Faryn, Li
e of S. cxxiii
Felix, cx
Flaherty, xxxiii
Flaura and Marcus, a Latin Tragic Poem, by William of Blois, cxxvii
Flodoard of Rheims, xix
Florentinus. See Poggius
Florus, xcii
Fortunatus, lxxvi
Francus Hunnibaldus, Latin History of France by, x
Franeth, Nicholas, cxix
Fresne, Tale of, iii
Fridegode, cvii
Froissart, lxix
Frontinus, xcii
G
Galen, lxxxvii
Ganna, a Prophetic Virgin, Account of, lxvi
Genesis. Poetical Paraphrase of, by Junius, xxxv, xxxviii
Geoffrey of Monmouth, vii, viii
ix, xiii, xiv
xv. xvi
xvii, xxxvi
xl, xli, lvii, lxiv
lxxii, cvii, cxxv, cxxviii, cxliii
Geoffrey
Abbot of Dunstable, Play of St. Catharine, by, cxv
Geoffrey de Vi
esau
, cxlv
Gerveys. John, Bishop of Winchester, cxxi
Gesta Alexandri, cxix
Gla
onbury, John of. See John
Gleemen, Account of, xl
Glouce
er, Robert of. See Robert
God
re
of Bulloign, Latin Poem on, by Gunther
cxlv
Godfrey of Water
ord
Translation of Dares P
ryg
us into French Rymes,
by, xxi
Godfrey, Prior of St. Swithin's, Winchester, cxv
Gododin, a Poem, by Aneurin, lxi
Gog and Magog, Account of, xiii, xiv
Golius, lxxxvii
Grammaticus, Johanne
, cxxii
Gray, xl
Gregory, Saint, his Pastoral Care, cxix
Gregory of Huntingdon, cxlviii
Gregory of Tours, xlviii, cx
Grosthead, Robert, cxlvi, cxlvii
Grymbald, cxvi
Guallensis, Johannes, cxxii
Gualter, Archdeacon of Oxford, vii, cxxv
Gualtier, Philip de Chatillon, cxli, cxliii, cxliv
Guigemar,
Tale of,
iii
Guillaume le Breton, cxli, cxliv
Gunther, cxliv
Guthlac, Saint,
Miracles
in Latin and Saxon, cx
Guttyn, Owen, a Welsh Bard, vii
Guy, Sir,
Romance of,
lxxxviii
Gyraldus Cambrensis, cxxxii, cxxxiii, cxxxiv
H
Hacon, Elogium of, xliii
Hanvill, John, cxxviii, cxxix, cxxx, cxxxi
Haral
the Valliant, lxix
Hardraade, Harold, King of Norway, a Poet, xxxi
Harnes, Michel de, xxi
Harpers,
Account of,
xl
Hearne, ix
Hen
y, a Monk of Hyde Abbey, cxviii
Henry of Gaunt, Archdeacon of Tournay, cxlii
Henry, a Benedictine Monk, cxviii
Henry of Huntingdon, viii, xxxviii, cxxiv
Henry the Second, King,
Latin C
ronicle of,
by Benedict, Abbot of Peterborough, cxix.
Latin Poem on,
by Henry of Huntingdon, cxxv
Herbelot, M. D. xii
Herbert de Losinga, cxvi
Herculides, cxi
Herman, Bishop of Salisbury, ci, cxiv
Heroes, Book of, a Poetical History, lv
Hervarer Saga, liii, lvi
Hialmar, History of, a Runic Romance, lxvii
Hialmter oc Oliver,
Sagan af,
an old Scandic Romance, lvii
Hickes, xxviii, xxxv, liii, c
Hippocrates, lxxxviii
Hirla
,
a Poem,
by Cyveilog Prince of Powis,
Historia Brittonum, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, ix
Historical Rymes of King Arthur, &c. lviii
Hoel Dha's Wel
h Laws, xlix
Holbech, Laurence, cxlviii
Holcott, Robert, cxxi
Homer, lxxiv, lxxxvi, xciii, c, cvii, cxliii
Homer's Iliad and Ody
ey, written on a Dragon's Gut, lxxiv
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey,
translated
into Syriac, by Theophilus Edessenus, lxxxvi
Honain, Aristotle's Morals,
translated
by, xc
Horace, lxi, xcii, cxxx, cxlv
Hoveden, Roger, cxxvii, cxli
Hugh, Master, cxxi
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, lxxxiii
Hunnibaldus, Francus, x
Huntingdon, Gregory of. See Gregory. Henry of. See Henry
J
Jagiouge and Magiouge, or Gog and Magog,
Account of,
xiii, xiv, xv
Jeber, an Arabic Chemist, lxxxvii
Jerom of Padua, cxix
Jerome, Saint, lxxviii, cxx
Illuminated Mss. among the Saxons, Account of, c, ci
Ingulphus, cxviii
Insula, Roger d', lxxxii
Jocelin, cvii
John of Basingstoke, c
lvi
John of Glastonbury, ci
John of Salisbury, lxxvii, cxix, cxxvi, cxxxi, cxliii
Jornande
, xcii
Joseph of Exeter. See Iscanus, Josephus
Josephus, xcii, xciii
Jovius, Paulus, xxv, c
x
Iscanus
Josephus, cxxxvi, cxxxvii, cxxxviii, cxxxix, cxl, cxliii, cxliv
Judiciary Combats, Account of, xxiii
Judith, Anglo-Saxon Poem on, xxxvii, xxxviii
Ivent, Sagan af, lviii
Julianus
Duke, Son of S. Giles,
History of,
l
x
Juni
s, Poetical Paraphrase of Ge
esis, by, xxxv
Juvenal, cxxxi
Juvencus, lxxiv
K
Karlamagnuse of Hoppum Hans,
Sagan af,
lix
Karlotis,
a Po
m,
cxli
Keating's History o
Ireland
xlvii
Kenneth, King of Scotland, xlvii
K
ytlinga-Saga
or History of Canute, by Harald the Valiant. x
vi, lxix
Kyrie E
eison, or Mil
tary Choru
, Account of, lv
L
Lambeccius, cxi
Lan
ranc. Archbishop of Canterbury, lxxviii, lxxix, cxiv, cxvii, cxlix
Lapis Philosophorum, by Jeber, lxxxvii
Largus Scribonius, cx
Lasse, Martin, de Orespe, cxliii
Launval or Launsal, Tale of, by Thomas Chestre, iii
Lebeuf, L'Abbé, v
Leland, lxxxiii, cxxii, cxxiv, cxxv, cxxxvi
Leo, lxxxvi
Leoninus, cxxiii
Lhuyd, vii
Ligurinus, a Latin Poem by Gunther, cxliv
Livy, lxxxiv, xcii, cxx
Llanidan in the Isle of Anglesy, Account of a Druid's Mansion at, xlvii
Lloyd, Bishop, ix
Llwellyn, Ode to, by Llyzad Gwr, vii
Llygad Gwr, a Welsh Bard, vii
Llywarchen• , a Welsh Bard, iv
Lobineau, iii
Lodbrog, Regner, Epicedium of, xxxi, xxxii, lvii, lx, lxviii
Lostunga, a Scald, xlvi
Lombard, Peter, Archbishop of Paris, lxxx
, cxlix
Losinga, Herbert de, cxvi
Lucan, lxxxiii.
Translated,
cxliii
Lucius, Saint, Acts of, xi
Lucretius, lxxvii
Luernius, a Celtic Chief,
Account of,
by Posidonius, liv
Lupus, Abbot of Ferrieres, lxxvii
Lyra, Nicholas de, lxxxv
Lyttleton, Lord, cxxvii
M
Maban, a celebrated Chantor, xcv
Maccabeus, Judas,
Romance of,
by Gualtier Arbalestrier de Belle-perche, cxxiv
Machaon, cxi
Macpherson, lvi
Maidu
ph, xcix
Mailros, John, cii
Mallet, Monsieur, xxii
Maniliu
, lxxvii
Map
s, Walter, cxxxv,
xxxvi
Mara, or Night Mare,
Account of,
xxxv
Marcellu
, cx
Mart
al, cxix
Marville, M. de Vigneul, cv
Maundev
lle, Sir John, li
Mauranus, Rabanus, ci, cii, cxviii
cxlv
Maximus, a Roman General,
Account of,
iii, iv
Maximu
, Saint, cix
Mayan
D
n Gregorio, Life of Cervantes, by, xxi
Mead, a Favorite Liquor of the Goths,
Account
f,
xlviii
Menologe, or Saxon Poctic Calendar, xxxvii
Mensa Rotunda de, et Strenuis Equitibu
xii
Mergian Peri, or Mergian the Fairy,
Account of,
lx
i
Merlac, Daniel, cxiv
Mer in's Prophecies, viii, xv, xvi
Merlin,
Po
m on,
by Geoff
ey of Monmouth, cxxv
Metamorph
sis of Ovid
Explanation of, by Johannes Grammaticus, cxxii
Metta Abou Mu
ar, Aristotle's P
etics,
translated
into Arabic by, xc
Meun, John de, lxxxv
Michel de Harnes,
translation
of Turpin's Charlemagne, by, xxi
Milton, John, iv
cv, cxxviii
Mimus or Mimic,
Account of,
lix
Mis
etoe, Divine Virtue attributed to the, xxvi
Mogiah-edir Scirat al, xiii
Monk's Tale, by Chaucer, cxviii
Monmou
h, Geo
rey of. See Geoffrey
Montague, W. Earl of Salis
ury, lxxxv
Montague, Mrs. Essay on Shakespeare, by, lvi
Monte, Robert de, ix
Mon
aucon, cxxvi
Montichelli, Cardinal, cxliii
Morris, Mr. of Penryn, viii
Mulso de,
eu Hyd
omeli, or, Mead and Methlegin, a panegyrical Ode on, xlvii, xlviii
Mut
us, cxxiii
N
Naiton, a P
ctish King, ciii
Nazianzen, Gregory
cix
Necham, Alex. cxx, cxxxiv, cxxxv
Nennius, xi, cx
Nepo
, Cornelius, cxxxvi
Neville, Archbishop of York, cxxxii
Nicholas de Lyra, lxxxv
Nicholas de Ely, lxxix
Nigel, cxviii
Niger, cxi
O
Odin or Woden,
Account of,
xxiv, xxv, xxvi
xxvii, xxviii, xxxvi, xliii
Oell, Earl
xix
Ohther, xxvii
Offa, King, xxxvii
Oienhart, xx
Oilly, R
bert d', cxvi
Olave, King of Norway, xliii
Olaus, Magnus, lix
Orosiu
,
istory of the Pagans, by, xcviii
Ossian's Poem
, xxvi, lii,
iii, lvi, lxi
O
ald, Ar
hbishop of York, cxii
Oswa
d, Saint, Li
e and Miracles of, cxliii
Ovid
iii, lxxxiii, xcii, cx, cxxii, cxxxvii
Ovid's Art of Love, First Book of, in Sax
n
haracters, cx
Ovid'
Metamorph
ses, Explanati
n of, by Joannes Grammaticus, cxxii
Owen, Guttyn, a celebrated Welsh Bard, vii
P
Pagans,
History of the,
by Orosius, xcviii
Pamphilus, cxi
Paris, Matthew, lxxxi, cxlvi
Parker, Archbishop, cvii
Pastoral Care, by Saint Gregory, cxix
Paulin, Abbot, cxvii
Paulinus, lxxvi
Peckham, Archbishop, ix
Pedianus, Asconius, lxxvii
Pelloutier, iv
Percy, Dr. xxii, xxxii
Pergaus, Appolonius, lxxxviii
Periphismerismus, by John Erigena, cviii
Persius, cxx, cxxx
Peter de Rupibu
, cxliv
Peter of Blois, cxxvi, cxxxi, cxxxiv
Petrarch, cxxi
Petronius, cxxvi
Philippid, by Guillaume le Breton, cxli, cxliv
Philobiblion, by Richard of B
ry. lxxxiv
cxx, cxxi
Philoponus, Johannes, cxxii
Philosophorum Lapis, by Jeber, lxxxvii
Phrygius, Dares, Poem on the Trojan War by, cxxxvii.
Translat
d
i
to French Rymes by God
rey of Waterford, xxi
Pindar, lxxxvi, c
Pithou, cxli
Plato,
translated
into Arabic, lxxxvii
Pl
utu
, xcii
Pliny, cxi
Poggius, lxxvii, lxxviii, xcii, cxx
Policraticon, John of Salisbury, cxxvi
Pon
issara, John de, Bishop of Winches
er, lxxix
Posidonius, liv
Powel's History of Wales, iv
Priscus, cxi
Prophets, Extracts from the Books of, in Greek and Latin, cvii
Prosper, lxxvi
Pruda, Asbiom, xxxi
Prudentius, cix
Psalter, illuminated with Letters of Gold, by Eadwin, ci
Psalter, Account of an Ancient MS. of the, in Hebrew, cii
Psycomachia
cix
Pulice & Musca de, by William of Blois, cxxvii
Q
Quintilian's Institutes, lxxvii, cxx
R
Rabanu
, Mauru
, ci, cii, cxviii, cxlv
Reginald, Abbot of Ramsey, cxxiv
Regner, Lodbrog, Ode of. See Lodbrog
Reinesius, lxxxvi, lxxxvii
Repingdon, Bishop of Lincoln, lxxx
Revel
tion
of St. John, lxv
Richard of Bury, cxx, cxxi
Richard the First
om
nc
of,
xix, cxl
Robert de Monte, ix
Robert d'Oilly, cxvi
Robert of Gloucester, cxxvii
Rodburn, Thomas, cxliii
Roger de Insula, lxxxii
Roger de Wescham, cxlvi
Rogwald, Lord of Orcades, xlii
Rollo, a Norman Leader,
Account of,
lx
Romae de Mirabilibus, cxxxvii
Romaunt of the Rose, by Chaucer, vi
Rosamund and Earl William, lix
Rose, Roman de la, by John de Meun, lxxxv, cxxvi
Rosso Philippo, lxxviii
Rudbeckius, Olaus, xxv
Runes, or Letters,
Account of the,
xxv, xxvi, xxvii
Rupibus, Peter de, cxliv
Russell, John, Bishop of Lincoln, lxxxi
S
Saint Austin, lxxxv, lxxxix, xcviii
Saint Birinus,
History of,
represented on the Antient Font in Winchester Cathedral, &c. lxxxv
Saint Catharine,
Play of,
cxv
Saint Chrysostom, xciii
Saint Christopher,
Legend of,
cxix
Saint Dunstan, c
Saint Gregory's Pastoral Care, xcviii
Saint Jerom, lxxviii
Saint Lucius,
Acts of,
xi
Saint Oswald, Life and Miracles of, cxliii
Saint Ursula,
Legend of,
xi
Saint, Lives of the, i
Latin Verse, by Alexander Esseby, cxliv
Salisbury, John of. See Joh
Sallust, lxxvii, cxx
Sanchem, Graal, by Eremita Britannus, xii
Sanctamund, Bishop of Maestricht, lxxvii
Saxo Grammaticus, xxxii
Scalds,
Account of the,
xxxii, xxxiv, xxxvi, 1
Schilters, Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutonicarum, lv
Schola Salernitana, by Giovanni di Milano, lxxxvii, cxxiii
Scotus, Michael, cxlvi
Sedulius, lxxvi. Hymns of, cix
Selling, William, cxx
Seneca, xcii, cxix, cxx
Shakespeare, William, lvi
Sidelas, Marcellus, a Physician, cxi
Sidonius, Appolinaris, lxxv, lxxvi
Sig
usson, Soem
nd, the First Edda,
compiled
by, lxv
Simeon of Durham, cxxvii
Siod, Sagan af, or History of Siod, lvii
Sir Bevis,
Romance of,
xxxvii
Sir Guy,
Romance of,
xxxvii
Snorro Sturleston, Second Edda,
compiled
by, lxv
Solymarium, or a Latin Poem on the Expedition of the Emperor Conrade against the Saracens, by Gunther, cxlv
Somner, cx
Spenser, Edmund, xv, xxxvi, lvii
Statius, xcii, cxx, cxxxvii
Stephen, King,
Latin Poem on,
&c. by Henry of Huntingdon, cxxv
Stephen of Tournay, cxxxvii
Stonehenge, Ancient Fictions relating to, xvi, xvii
Sturleson, Snorro, the Second Edda,
compiled
by, lxv
Suetonius, cxviii
Suidas, Lexicon of,
translated
by Robert Grosthead, cxlvi
Summaripa, Georgio, cxxxi
Symposius, xcix
T
Tacitus, lxvi, xcii
Tale-tellers, or Poetical Historians,
Account of,
xlvi, xlvii, lxi
Taliessin, Ode in Praise of Mead, by, xlix, lxi
Tasso, lxi, cxxxvii
Terence, xcii, cxviii, cxix, cxx
Tertullian, lxxvii
Thamyris, xxiv
Thebaid of Statius, cxx
Theocritus, xcii
Theodoric the Second, King of the Ostrogoths, lxxiv, lxxv
Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, xciii, xcviii, ci
Theodosius the Younger, lxxiv
Thetide de, et de Lyaeo, cxxxv
Tor
aeus, xxxiv
Tours, Gregory of. See Gr
gory
Tristram a Wales,
Tale of,
iii
Trithemi
s, lv
T
ivet, Nicholas, cxix
Troilus and Cresseide, by Chaucer, cxxxi
Tully. See Cicero
Turpin's History of Charlemagne, xvii, xviii, xxi, lvii, lix, lxxii
Tyssilio,
History of Britain,
by, vii
V
Valens, lxxiv
Valeriu
, lxxvii
Vellida, a German Prophetess,
Account of,
lxvi
Victorinus, Marius, cxxiv
Vincent of Beauvais, lxxvii
Vinesauf, Geoffrey de, cxlv
Virgil, x, xcii, cxx, cxliii
Voltaire, xviii, cxxxvii
Ursula, Saint,
Legend of,
xi
W
Wallingford, Abbot of St. Alban's, cxx
Walter, Prior of Saint Swithin's, lxxxiv
Walter or Gualter, Archdeacon of Oxford, vii, cxxv
Wareham, Archbishop, cxxxiii
Wassenback, Ernest Cassimer, lvi
Waterford, Godfrey of. See Godfrey
Wescham, Roger de, cxlvi
Wil
rid, Saint, Archbishop of Canterbury, Life of, by Fridegode, cvii
William the Bastard,
History of,
lviii, cxiv
cxlvii
William Ru
us, History of the Destruction of the Monastri
s, by, lviii
William of Blois, cxxv
, cxxvii
William of Bretagne. See Guillaume l
Breton
William of Chester, cxxvii
William of Malmsbury, viii, xcv, cvii, cxxvii
Willibold, xcii
Woden or Odin,
Account of,
xxiv, xxv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, xxxvi, xliii
Wolstan, a Monk of Winchester, c
Wonnius, Olaus, xxvii, xxxiii, xxxiv, liii, lvi
Woton, xlix
Writing on the Rocks, Account of the Ancient Custom of, xxv
X
Xenocrates, cxi
Z
Zeno, xxvi
Zonares, lxxiv
Zaid, Mahomet's Secretary, lxxxv