IF Chaucer had not existed, the compositions of John Gower, the next poet in succession, would alone have been sufficient to rescue the reigns of Edward the third and Richard the second from the imputation of barbarism. His education was liberal and uncircumscribed, his course of reading extensive, and he tempered his severer studies with a knowledge of life. By a critical cultivation of his native language, he laboured to reform its irregularities, and to establish an English style ^a. In these respects he resembled his friend and cotemporary Chaucer ^b: but he participated no considerable portion of Chaucer's spirit, imagination, and [Page 2] elegance. His language is tolerably perspicuous, and his ver [...]i [...]ication often harmonious: but his poetry is of a grave and sententious turn. He has much good sense, solid re­flection, and useful observation. But he is serious and di­dactic on all occasions: he preserves the tone of the scholar and the moralist on the most lively topics. For this reason he seems to have been characterised by Chaucer with the appellation of the MORALL Gower ^c. But his talent is not confined to English verse only. He wrote also in Latin; and copi [...]d Ovid's elegiacs with some degree of purity, and with fewer false quantities and corrupt phrases, than any of our countrymen had yet exhibited since the twelfth century.

Gower's capital work, consisting of three parts, only the last of which properly furnishes matter for our present en­quiry, is entitled SPECULUM MEDITANTIS, VOX CLAMANTIS, CONFESSIO AMANTIS. It was finished, at least the third part, in the year 1393 ^d. The SPECULUM MEDITANTIS, or the Mirrour of Meditation, is written in French rhymes, in ten books ^e. This tract, which was never printed, displays the general nature of virtue and vice, enumerates the felicities of conjugal fidelity by examples selected from various authors, and describes the path which the reprobate ought to pursue for the recovery of the divine grace. The VOX CLAMANTIS, or the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, which was also never printed, contains seven books of Latin elegiacs. This work is chiefly historical, and is little more than a metrical chro­nicle of the insurrection of the commons in the reign of king Richard the second. The best and most beautiful ma­nuscript of it is in the library of All Souls college at Oxford; with a dedication in Latin verse, addressed by the author, [Page 3] when he was old and blind, to archbishop Arundel ^f. The CONFESSIO AMANTIS, or the Lover's Confession, is an English poem, in eight books, first printed by Caxton, in the year 1483. It was written at the command of Richard the second; who meeting our poet Gower rowing on the Thames near London, invited him into the royal barge, and after much conversation requested him to book some new thing ^g.

This tripartite work is represented by three volumes on Gower's curious tomb in the conventual church of Saint Mary Overee in Southwark, now remaining in its antient state; and this circumstance furnishes me with an obvious opportunity of adding an anecdote relating to our poet's munificence and piety, which ought not to be omitted. Al­though a poet, he largely contributed to rebuild that church in its present elegant form, and to render it a beautiful pattern of the lighter Gothic architecture: at the same time he founded, at his tomb, a perpetual chantry.

It is on the last of these pieces, the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, that Gower's character and reputation as a poet are almost entirely founded. This poem, which bears no immediate reference to the other two divisions, is a dialogue between a lover and his confessor, who is a priest of Venus, and, like the mystagogue in the PICTURE of Cebes, is called Genius. Here, as if it had been impossible for a lover not to be a good catholic, the ritual of religion is applied to the tender passion, and Ovid's Art of Love is blended with the breviary. In the course of the confession, every evil affection of the human heart, which may tend to impede the progress or counteract the success of love, is scientifically subdivided; and its fatal effects exemplifi [...]d by a variety of apposite stories, extracted [Page 4] from classics and chronicles. The poet often introduces or recapitulates his matter in a few couplets of Latin long and short verses. This was in imitation of Boethius.

This poem is strongly tinctured with those pedantic af­fectations concerning the passion of love, which the French and Italian poets of the fourteenth century borrowed from the troubadours of Provence, and which I have above exa­mined at large. But the writer's particular model appears more immediately to have been John of Meun's celebrated ROMAUNT DE LA ROSE. He has, however, seldom attempted to imitate the picturesque imageries, and expressive personifi­cations, of that exquisite allegory. His most striking pour­traits, which yet are conceived with no powers of creation, nor delineated with any fertility of fancy, are IDLENESS, AVA­RICE, MICHERIE or Thieving, and NEGLIGENCE, the [...]ecretary of SLOTH ^h. Instead of boldly cloathing these qualities with corporeal attributes, aptly and poetically imagined, he coldly yet sensibly describes their operations, and enumerates their properties. What Gower wanted in invention, he supplied from his common-place book; which appears to have been stored with an inexhaustible fund of instructive maxims, pleasant narrations, and philosophical definitions. It seems to have been his object to croud all his erudition into this elaborate performance. Yet there is often some degree of contrivance and art in his manner of introducing and adapting subjects of a very distant nature, and which are totally foreign to his general design.

In the fourth book, our confessor turns chemist; and dis­coursing at large on the Hermetic science, developes its principles, and exposes its abuses, with great penetration ⁱ. He delivers the doctrines concerning the vegetable, mineral, [Page 5] and animal stones, to which Falstaffe alludes in Shakespeare ^k, with amazing accuracy and perspicuity ^l; although this doctrine was adopted from systems then in vogue, as we shall see below. In another place he applies the Argo­nautic expedition in search of the golden fleece, which he relates at length, to the same visionary philosophy ^m. Gower very probably conducted his associate Chaucer into these pro­found mysteries, which had been just opened to our country­men by the books of Roger Bacon ⁿ.

In the seventh book, the whole circle of the Aristotelic philosophy is explained; which our lover is desirous to learn, supposing that the importance and variety of its speculations might conduce to sooth his anxieties by diverting and en­gaging his attention. Such a discussion was not very likely to afford him much consolation: especially, as hardly a single ornamental digression is admitted, to decorate a field na­turally so destitute of flowers. Almost the only one is the following description of the chariot and crown of the sun; in which the Arabian ideas concerning precious stones are interwoven with Ovid's fictions and the classical mythology.

Our author closes this course of the Aristotelic philosophy with a system of politics ^d: not taken from Aristotle's ge­nuine treatise on that subject, but from the first chapter of a spurious compilation entitled, SECRETUM SECRETORUM ARIS­TOTELIS ^e, addressed under the name of Aristotle to his pupil Alexander the Great, and printed at Bononia in the year 1516. A work, treated as genuine, and explained with a learned gloss, by Roger Bacon ^f: and of the highest reputation in Gower's age, as it was transcribed, and illustrated with a commentary, for the use of king Edward the third, by his chaplain Walter de Millemete, prebendary of the collegiate church of Glaseney in Cornwall ^g. Under this head, our au­thor takes an opportunity of giving advice to a weak yet amiable prince, his patron king Richard the second, on a subject of the most difficult and delicate nature, with much freedom and dignity. It might also be proved, that Gower, through this detail of the sciences, copied in many other articles the SECRETUM SECRETORUM; which is a sort of an abridgement of the Aristotelic philosophy, filled with many Arabian innovations and absurdities, and enriched with an appendix concerning the choice of wines, phlebotomy, justice, public notaries, tournaments, and physiognomy, rather than from the Latin translations of Aristotle. It is evident, that he copied from this work the doctrine of the three chemical [Page 8] stones, mentioned above ^h. That part of our author's astro­nomy, in which he speaks of the magician Nectabanus in­structing Alexander the Great, when a youth, in the know­ledge of the fifteen stars, and their respective plants and precious stones, appropriated to the operations of natural magic ⁱ, seems to be borrowed from Callisthenes, the fabulous writer of the life of Alexander ^k. Yet many wonderful in­ventions, which occur in this romance of Alexander, are also to be found in the SECRETUM SECRETORUM: particularly the fiction of Alexander's Stentorian horn, mentioned above, which was heard at the distance of sixty miles ^l, and of which Kircher has given a curious representation in his PHONURGIA, copied from an antient picture of this gigantic instrument, belonging to a manuscript of the SECRETUM SECRETORUM, preserved in the Vatican library ^m.

It is pretended by the mystic writers, that Aristotle in his old age reviewed his books, and digested his philosophy into one system or body, which he sent, in the form of an epistle, to Alexander. This is the supposititious tract of which I have been speaking; and it is thus described by Lydgate, who has translated a part of it.

Then follows a rubric ‘"How Aristotile declareth to kynge Alysandre of the stonys ^p."’ It was early translated into French prose ^q, and printed in English, ‘"The SECRET OF ARISTOTYLE, with the GOVERNALE OF PRINCES and every maner of estate, with rules for helth of body and soul, very gode to teche children to rede English, newly translated out of French, and emprented by Robert and William Copland, 1528 ^r."’ This work will occur again under Occleve and Lidgate. There is also another forgery conse­crated with the name of Aristotle, and often quoted by the astrologers, which Gower might have used: it is DE REGI­MINIBUS COELESTIBUS, which had been early translated from Arabic into Latin ^s.

Considered in a general view, the CONFESSIO AMANTI [...] may be pronounced to be no unpleasing miscellany of those shorter tales which delighted the readers of the middle age. Most of these are now forgotten, together with the volumi­nous chronicles in which they were recorded. The book which appears to have accommodated our author with the largest quantity of materials in this article, was probably a chronicle entitled PANTHEON, or MEMORIAE SECULORUM, [Page 10] compiled in Latin, partly in prose and partly in verse, by Godfrey of Viterbo, a chaplain and notary to three German emperours, who died in the year 1190 ^t. It commences, according to the established practice of the historians of this age, with the creation of the world, and is brought down to the year 1186. It was first printed at Basil, in the year 1569 ^u. The learned Muratori has not scrupled to insert the five last sections of this universal history in the seventh tome of his writers on Italy ^w. The subject of this work, to use the laborious compiler's own expressions, is the whole Old and New Testament; and all the emperours and kings, which have existed from the beginning of the world to his own times: of whom the origin, end, names, and atchievements, are commemorated ^x. The authors which our chronicler professes to have consulted for the gentile story, are only Josephus, Dion Cassius, Strabo, Orosius, Hegesippus ^y, Sue­tonius, Solinus, and Julius Africanus: among which, not one of the purer Roman historians occurs. Gower also seems to have used another chronicle written by the same Godfrey, never printed, called SPECULUM REGUM, or the MIRROUR OF KINGS, which is almost as multifarious as the last; contain­ing a genealogy of all the potentates, Trojan and German, from Noah's flood to the reign of the emperour Henry the sixth, according to the chronicles of the venerable Bede, Eusebius, and Ambrosius ^z. There are besides, two ancient [Page 11] collectors of marvellous and delectable occurrences to which our author is indebted, Cassiodorus and Isidorus. These are mentioned as two of the chroniclers which Caxton used in compiling his CRONICLES OF ENGLAND ^a. Cassiodorus ^b wrote, at the command of the Gothic king Theodoric, a work named CHRONICON BREVE, commencing with our first parents, and deduced to the year 519, chiefly deduced from Eusebius's ecclesiastic history, the chronicles of Prosper and Jerom, and Aurelius Victor's Origin of the Roman nation ^c. An Italian translation by Lodovico Dolce was printed in 1561 ^d. Isido­rus, called Hispalensis, cited by Davie and Chaucer ^e, in the seventh century, framed from the same author a CRONICON, from Adam to the time of the emperor Heraclius, first printed in the year 1477, and translated into Italian under the title of CRONICA D' ISIDORO, so soon after as the year 1480 ^f.

These comprehensive systems of all sacred and profane events, which in the middle ages multiplied to an excessive degree, superseded the use of the classics and other established authors, whose materials they gave in a commodious abridge­ment, and in whose place, by selecting those stories only which suited the taste of the times, they substituted a more agreeable kind of reading: nor was it by these means only, that they greatly contributed to retard the acquisition of those ornaments [Page 12] of style, and other arts of composition, which an attention to the genuine models would have afforded, but by being written without any ideas of elegance, and in the most barbarous phraseology. Yet productive as they were of these and other inconvenient consequences, they were not without their use in the rude periods of literature. By gradually weaning the minds of readers from monkish legends, they introduced a relish for real and rational history; and kindling an ardour of inquiring into the transactions of past ages, at length awakened a curiosity to obtain a more accurate and authentic knowledge of important events by searching the original authors. Nor are they to be entirely neglected in modern and more polished ages. For, besides that they contain curious pictures of the credulity and ignorance of our ancestors, they frequently preserve facts transcribed from books which have not descended to posterity. It is extremely probable, that the plan on which they are all constructed, that of deducing a perpetual history from the creation to the writer's age, was partly taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and partly from the Bible.

In the mean time there are three histories of a less general nature, which Gower seems more immediately to have fol­lowed in some of his tales. These are Colonna's Romance of Troy, the Romance of Sir Lancelot, and the GESTA ROMANORUM.

From Colonna's Romance, which he calls The Tale of Troie, The Boke of Troie ^g, and sometimes The Cronike ^h, he has taken [Page 13] all that relates to the Trojan and Grecian story, or, in Milton's language, THE TALE OF TROY DIVINE. This piece was first printed at Cologne in the year 1477 ⁱ. At Colonia an Italian translation appeared in the same year, and one at Venice in 1481. It was translated into Italian so early as 1324, by Philipp Ceffi a Florentine ^k. By some writers it is called the British as well as the Trojan story ^l; and there are manuscripts in which it is entitled the history of Medea and Jason ^m. In most of the Italian translations it is called LA STORIA DELLA GUERRA DI TROJA. This history is repeatedly called the TROIE BOKE by Lydgate, who translated it into English verse ⁿ.

As to the romance of sir Lancelot, our author, among others on the subject, refers to a volume of which he was the hero: perhaps that of Robert Borron, altered soon after­wards by Godefroy de Leigny, under the title of le ROMAN DE LA CHARETTE, and printed with additions at Paris by Antony Verard, in the year 1494.

He alludes to a story about sir Tristram, which he supposes to be universally known, related in this romance.

And again, in the assembly of lovers.

The oldest edition of the GESTA ROMANORUM, a manuscript of which I have seen in almost Saxon characters, I believe to be this. Incipiunt Hystorie NOTABILES, collecte ex GESTIS RO­MANORUM, et quibusdam aliis libris cum applicationibus eorundem ^s. [Page 15] It is without date or place, but supposed by the critics in typographical antiquities to have been printed before or about the year 1473. Then followed a second edition at Louvain by John de Westfalia, with this title: Ex GESTIS ROMANORUM HISTORIE NOTABILES de viciis virtutibusque trac­tantes cum applicationibus moralisatis et mysticis. At the end this colophon appears: GESTA ROMANORUM cum quibusdam aliis historiis eisdem annexis ad moralitates dilucide reducta hic finem habent. Quae diligenter, correctis aliorum viciis, impressit Joannes de Westfalia, alma in Univers. Louvaniensi ^t. This edition has twenty-nine chapters more than there are in the former: and the first of these additional chapters is the story of Antio­chus, related in our author. It is probably of the year 1473. Another followed soon afterwards, by GESTIS ROMANORUM HISTORIE NOTABILES moralizatae per Girardum Lieu. Goudae, 1480 ^u. The next ^w is at Louvain, GESTA ROMANORUM, cum applicationibus moralisatis ac mysticis.—At the end.— Ex GESTIS ROMANORUM cum pluribus applicatis HYSTORIIS de virtutibus et vitiis mistice ad intellectum transumptis recollectorii finis. Anno nostrae salutis 1494. In die sancti Adriani martyris ^x.

It was one of my reasons for giving these titles and colo­phons so much at large, that the reader might more fully comprehend the nature and design of a performance which operated so powerfully on the present state of our poetry. Servius says that the Eneis was sometimes called GESTA POPULI ROMANI ^y. Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote about the year 450, mentions a work called the GESTORUM VOLU­MEN, which according to custom, was solemnly recited to [Page 16] the emperour ^z. Here perhaps we may perceive the ground­work of the title.

In this mixture of moralisation and narrative, the GESTA ROMANORUM somewhat resembles the plan of Gower's poem. In the rubric of the story of Julius and the poor knight, our author alludes to this book in the expression, Hic secundum GESTA, &c ^a. When he speaks of the emperours of Rome paying reverence to a virgin, he says he found this custom mentioned, ‘"Of Rome among the GESTES olde ^b."’ Yet he adds, that the GESTES took it from Valerius Maximus. The story of Tarquin and his son Arrous is ushered in with this line, ‘"So as these olde GESTES seyne ^c."’ The tale of Antio­chus, as I have hinted, is in the GESTA ROMANORUM; al­though for some parts of it Gower was perhaps indebted to Godfrey's PANTHEON abovementioned ^d. The foundation of Shakespeare's story of the three casketts in the MERCHANT OF VENICE, is to be found in this favourite collection: this is likewise in our author, yet in a different form, who cites a Cronike ^e for his authority. I make no apology for giving the passage somewhat at large, as the source of this elegant little [Page 17] apologue, which seems to be of eastern invention, has lately so much employed the searches of the commentators on Shakespeare, and that the circumstances of the story, as it is told by Gower, may be compared with those with which it appears in other books.

The poet is speaking of a king whose officers and cour­tiers complained, that after a long attendance, they had not received adequate rewards, and preferments due to their ser­vices. The king, who was no stranger to their complaints, artfully contrives a scheme to prove whether this defect proceded from his own want of generosity, or their want of discernment.

[Page 18] The king assembles his courtiers, and shewing them the two chests, acquaints them, that one of these is filled with gold and jewels; that they should chuse which of the two they liked best, and that the contents should instantly be distri­buted among them all. A knight by common consent is appointed to chuse for them, who fixes upon the chest filled with straw and stones.

It must be confessed, that there is a much greater and a more beautiful variety of incidents in this story as it is related in the GESTA ROMANORUM, which Shakespeare has followed, than in Gower: and was it not demonstrable, that this com­pilation preceded our author's age by some centuries, one would be tempted to conclude, that Gower's story was the original fable in its simple unimproved state. Whatever was the case, it is almost certain that one story produced the other.

A translation into English of the GESTA ROMANORUM was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, without date. In the year 1577, one Richard Robinson published A Record of ancient Hystoryes, in Latin GESTA ROMANORUM, perused, corrected, and [Page 19] bettered, by R. Robinson, London, 1577 ^q. Of this translation there were six impressions before the year 1601 ^r. The later editions, both Latin and English, differ considerably from a manuscript belonging to the British Museum ^s, which contains not only the story of the CASKETTS in Shakespeare's MER­CHANT of VENICE, but that of the JEW'S BOND in the same play ^t. I cannot exactly ascertain the age of this piece, which has many fictitious and fabulous facts intermixed with true history; nor have I been able to discover the name of its compiler.

It appears to me to have been formed on the model of Valerius Maximus, the favourite classic of the monks. It is quoted and commended as a true history, among many historians [Page 20] of credit, such as Josephus, Orosius, Bede, and Euse­bius, by Herman Korner, a dominican friar of Lubec, who wrote a CHRONICA NOVELLA, or history of the world, in the year 1435 ^t.

In speaking of our author's sources, I must not omit a book translated by the unfortunate Antony Widville, first earl of Rivers, chiefly with a view of proving its early po­pularity. It is the Dictes or Sayings of Philosophres, which lord Rivers translated from the French of William de Thignon­ville, provost of the city of Paris about the year 1408, en­titled Les dictes moraux des philosophes, les dictes des sages et les secrets d' Aristote ^u. The English translation was printed by Caxton, in the year 1477. Gower refers to this tract, which first existed in Latin, more than once; and it is most pro­bable, that he consulted the Latin original ^w.

It is pleasant to observe the strange mistakes which Gower, a man of great learning, and the most general scholar of his age, has committed in this poem, concerning books which he never saw, his violent anachronisms, and misrepresentations of the most common facts and characters. He mentions the Greek poet Menander, as one of the first historians, or ‘"first enditours of the olde cronike,"’ together with Esdras, Solinus, Josephus, Claudius Salpicius, Termegis, Pandulfe, Frigidilles, Ephiloquorus, and Pandas. It is extraordinary that Moses should not here be mentioned, in preference to Esdras. Solinus is ranked so high, because he recorded nothing but wonders ^x; and Josephus, on account of his subject, had long been placed almost on a level with the bible. [Page 21] He is seated on the first pillar in Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME. His Jewish history, translated into Latin by Ru [...]inus in the fourth century, had given rise to many old poems and ro­mances ^y: and his MACCABAICS, or history of the seven Maccabees martyred with their father Eleazar under the per­secution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work, translated also by Rufinus, produced the JUDAS MACCABEE of Belle­perche in the year 1240, and at length enrolled the Macca­bees among the most illustrious heroes of romance ^z. On this account too, perhaps Esdras is here so respectably re­membered. I suppose Sulpicius is Sulpicius Severus, a petty annalist of the fifth century. Termegis is probably Trisme­gistus, the mystic philosopher, certainly not an historian, at least not an antient one. Pandulf seems to be Pandulph of Pisa, who wrote lives of the popes, and died in the year 1198 ^a. Frigidilles is perhaps Fregedaire, a Burgundian, who flourished about the year 641, and wrote a chronicon from Adam to his own times; often printed, and containing the best account of the Franks after Gregory of Tours ^b. Our author, who has partly suffered from ignorant transcribers and printers, by Ephiloquorus undoubtedly intended Eutro­pius. In the next paragraph indeed, he mentions Herodotus: [Page 22] yet not as an early historian, but as the first writer of a system of the metrical art, ‘"of metre, of ryme, and of cadence ^c."’ We smile, when Hector in Shakespeare quotes Aristotle: but Gower gravely informs his reader, that Ulysses was a clerke, accomplished with a knowledge of all the sciences, a great rhetorician and magician: that he learned rhetoric of Tully, magic of Zoroaster, astronomy of Ptolomy, philosophy of Plato, divination of the prophet Daniel, proverbial instruction of Solomon, botany of Macer, and medicine of Hippocrates ^d. And in the seventh book, Aristotle, or the philosophre, is introduced reciting to his scholar Alexander the great, a dis­putation between a Jew and a Pagan, who meet between Cairo and Babylon, concerning their respective religions: the end of the story is to shew the cunning, cruelty, and ingratitude of the Jew, which are at last deservedly pu­nished ^e. But I believe Gower's apology must be, that he took this narrative from some christian legend, which was feigned, for a religious purpose, at the expence of all proba­bility and propriety.

The only classic Roman writers which our author cites are Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Tully. Among the Italian poets, one is surprised he should not quote Petrarch: he mentions Dante only, who in the rubric is called ‘"a certain poet of Italy named Dante,"’ quidam po [...]ta Italiae qui DANTE vocabatur ^f. He appears to have been well acquainted with the Homelies of pope Gregory the great ^g, which were translated into Italian, and printed at Milan, so early as the year 1479. I can hardly decypher, and must therefore be excused from transcribing, the names of all the renowned authors which our author has quoted in alchemy, astrology, magic, pal­mistry, geomancy, and other branches of the occult philosophy. [Page 23] Among the astrological writers, he mentions Noah, Abraham, and Moses. But he is not sure that Abraham was an author, having never seen any of that patriarch's works: and he prefers Trismegistus to Moses ^h. Cabalistical tracts were however extant, not only under the names of Abraham, Noah, and Moses, but of Adam, Abel, and Enoch ⁱ. He mentions, with particular regard, Ptolomy's ALMAGEST; the grand source of all the superstitious notions propagated by the Arabian philosophers concerning the science of di­vination by the stars ^k, These infatuations seem to have completed their triumph over human credulity in Gower's age, who probably was an ingenious adept in the false and frivolous speculations of this admired species of study.

Gower, amidst his graver literature, appears to have been a great reader of romances. The lover, in speaking of the gratification which his passion receives from the sense of hearing, says, that to hear his lady speak is more delicious, than to feast on all the dainties that could be compounded by a cook of Lombardy. They are not so restorative

These are elegant verses. To hear her sing is paradise [...] Then he adds,

The romance of IDOYNE and AMADAS is recited as a fa­vourite history among others, in the prologue to a collection of legends called CURSOR MUNDI, translated from the French ^r. I have already observed our poet's references to Sir LANCELOT'S romance.

Our author's account of the progress of the Latin lan­guage is extremely curious. He supposes that it was invented by the old Tuscan prophetess Carmens; that it was reduced to method, to composition, pronunciation, and prosody, by the grammarians Aristarchus, Donatus, and Didymus: adorned with the flowers of eloquence and rhetoric by Tully: then enriched by translations from the Chaldee, Arabic, and Greek languages, more especially by the version of the Hebrew bible into Latin by saint Jerom, in the fourth century: and that at length, after the labours of many celebrated writers, it received its final consummation in Ovid, the poet of lovers. At the mention of Ovid's name, the poet, with the dexterity and address of a true master of [Page 25] transition, seizes the critical moment of bringing back the dialogue to its proper argument ^s.

The CONFESSIO AMANTIS was most probably written after Chaucer's TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. At the close of the poem, we are presented with an assemblage of the most illustrious lovers ^t. Together with the renowned heroes and heroines of love, mentioned either in romantic or classical history, we have David and Bathsheba, Sampson and Dalila, and Solomon with all [...]is concubines. Virgil, also, Socrates, Plato, and Ovid, are enumerated as lovers. Nor must we be surprised to find Aristotle honoured with a place in this gallant groupe: for whom, says the poet, the queen of Greece made such a syllogism as destroyed all his logic. But, among the rest, Troilus and Cressida are introduced; seem­ingly with an intention of paying a compliment to Chaucer's poem on their story, which had been submitted to Gower's correction ^u. Although this famous pair had been also re­cently celebrated in Boccacio's FILOSTRATO ^v. And in ano­ther place, speaking of his absolute devotion to his lady's will, he declares himself ready to acquiesce in her choice, whatsoever she shall command: whether, if when tired of dancing and caroling, she should chuse to play at chess, or read TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. This is certainly Chaucer's poem.

That this poem was written after Chaucer's FLOURE AND LEAFE, may be partly collected from the following passage, which appears to be an imitation of Chaucer, and is no bad specimen of Gower's most poetical manner. Rosiphele, a beautiful princess, but setting love at defiance, the daughter of Herupus king of Armenia, is taught obedience to the laws of Cupid by seeing a vision of Ladies.

At length she sees riding in the rear of this splendid troop, on a horse lean, galled, and lame, a beautiful lady in a tattered garment, her saddle mean and much worn, but her bridle richly studded with gold and jewels: and round her waist were more than an hundred halters. The princess asks the meaning of this strange procession; and is answered by the lady on the lean horse, that these are spectres of ladies, who, when living, were obedient and faithful votaries of love. ‘"As to myself, she adds, I am now receiving my annual penance for being a rebel to love."’

The princess then asks her, why she wore the rich bridle, so inconsistent with the rest of her furniture, her dress, and horse? The lady answers, that it was a badge and reward for having loved a knight faithfully for the last fortnight of her life.

My readers will easily conjecture the change which this spectacle must naturally produce in the obdurate heart of the princess of Armenia. There is a farther proof that the FLOURE AND LEAFE preceded the CONFESSIO AMANTIS. In the eighth book, our author's lovers are crowned with the Flower and Leaf.

I believe on the whole, that Chaucer had published most of his poems before this piece of Gower appeared. Chaucer had not however at this time written his TESTAMENT OF LOVE: for Gower, in a sort of Epilogue to the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, is addressed by Venus, who commands him to greet Chaucer as her favourite poet and disciple, as one who had employed his youth in composing songs and ditties to her honour. She adds at the close,

Chaucer at this time was sixty-five years of age. The Court of Love, one of the pedantries of French gallantry, occurs often. In an address to Venus, ‘"Madame, I am a man of thyne, that in thy COURTE hath served long ^r."’ The lover observes, that for want of patience, a man ought ‘"amonge the women alle, in LOVES COURTE, by judgement the name beare of paciant ^s."’ The confessor declares, that many persons are condemned for disclosing secrets, ‘"In LOVES COURTE, as it is said, that lette their tonges gone untide ^t."’ By Thy SHRIFTE, the author means his own poem now before us, the Lover's CONFESSION.

There are also many manifest evidences which lead us to conclude, that this poem preceded Chaucer's CANTERBURY'S TALES, undoubtedly some of that poet's latest compositions, and probably not begun till after the year 1382. The MAN OF LAWES TALE is circumstantially borrowed from Gower's CONSTANTIA ^u: and Chaucer, in that TALE, apparently censures Gower, for his manner of relating the stories of Canace and Apollonius in the third and eighth books of the CONFESSIO AMANTIS ^w. The WIFE OF BATHES TALE is founded [Page 31] on Gower's Florent, a knight of Rome, who delivers the king of Sicily's daughter from the incantations of her step­mother ^x. Although the GESTA ROMANORUM might have furnished both poets with this narrative. Chaucer, however, among other great improvements, has judiciously departed from the fable, in converting Sicily into the more popular court of king Arthur.

Perhaps, in estimating Gower's merit, I have pushed the notion too far, that because he shews so much learning he had no great share of natural abilities. But it should be considered, that when books began to grow fashionable, and the reputation of learning conferred the highest honour, poets became ambitious of being thought scholars; and sa­crificed their native powers of invention to the ostentation of displaying an extensive course of reading, an [...] to the pride of profound erudition. On this account, the minstrels of these times, who were totally uneducated, and poured forth spontaneous rhymes in obedience to the workings of nature, often exhibit more genuine strokes of passion and imagina­tion, than the professed poets. Chaucer is an exception to this observation: whose original feelings were too strong to be suppressed by books, and whose learning was overbalanced by genius.

This affectation of appearing learned, which yet was natural at the revival of literature, in our old poets, even in those who were altogether destitute of talents, has lost to posterity many a curious picture of manners, and many a romantic image. Some of our antient bards, however, aimed at no other merit, than that of being able to versify; and attempted nothing more, than to cloath in rhyme those sentiments, which would have appeared with equal propriety in prose.

ONE of the reasons which rendered the classic authors of the lower empire more popular than those of a purer age, was because they were christians. Among these, no Roman writer appears to have been more studied and esteemed, from the beginning to the close of the barbarous centuries, than Boethius. Yet it is certain, that his alle­gorical personifications and his visionary philosophy, founded on the abstractions of the Platonic school, greatly concurred to make him a favourite ^a. His CONSOLATION of PHILOSO­PHY was translated into the Saxon tongue by king Alfred, the father of learning and civility in the midst of a rude and intractable people; and illustrated with a commentary by Asser bishop of Saint David's, a prelate patronised by Alfred for his singular accomplishments in literature, about the year 890. Bishop Grosthead is said to have left annota­tions on this admired system of morality. There is a very ancient manuscript of it in the Laurentian library, with an inscription prefixed in Saxon characters ^b. There are few of those distinguished eccle [...]iastics, whose erudition illuminated the thickest gloom of ignorance and superstition with un­common lustre, but who either have cited this performance, [Page 33] or honoured it with a panegyric ^c. It has had many imita­tors. Eccard, a learned French Benedictine, wrote in imi­tation of this CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, a work in verse and prose containing five books, entitled the CONSOLATION OF THE MONKS, about the year 1120 ^d. John Gerson also, a doctor and chancellor of the university of Paris, wrote the CONSOLATION OF THEOLOGY in four books, about the year 1420 ^e. It was the model of Chaucer's TESTAMENT OF LOVE. It was translated into French ^f and English before the year 1350 ^g. Dante was an attentive reader of Boethius. In the PURGATORIO, Dante gives THEOLOGY the name of Bea­trix his mistress, the daughter of Fulco Portinari, who very gravely moralises in that character. Being ambitious of fol­lowing Virgil's steps in the descent of Eneas into hell, he introduces her, as a daughter of the empyreal heavens, bringing Virgil to guide him through that dark and dan­gerous region ^h. Leland, who lived when true literature began to be restored, says that the writings of Boethius still continued to retain that high estimation, which they had acquired in the most early periods. I had almost forgot to observe, that the CONSOLATION was translated into Greek by Maximus Planudes, the most learned and ingenious of the Constantinopolitan monks ⁱ.

[Page 34] I can assign only one poet to the reign of king Henry the fourth, and this a translator of Boethius ^k. He is called Johan­nes Capellanus, or John the Chaplain, and he translated into English verse the treatise DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE in the year 1410. His name is John Walton. He was canon of Oseney, and died subdean of York. It appears probable, that he was patronised by Thomas Chaundler, among other prefer­ments, dean of the king's chapel and of Hereford cathedral, chancellor of Wells, and successively warden of Wykeham's two colleges at Winchester and Oxford; characterised by Antony Wood as an able critic in polite literature, and by Leland as a rare example of a doctor in theology who graced scholastic disputation with the flowers of a pure latinity ^l. In the British Museum there is a correct manuscript on parch­ment of Walton's translation of Boethius: and the ma [...]gin is filled throughout with the Latin text, written by Chaund­ler above-mentioned ^m. There is another less elegant manu­script in the same collection. But at the end is this note; Explicit liber Boecij de Consolatione Philosophie de Latino in Angli­cum translatus A. D. 1410. per Capellanum Joannem ⁿ. This is the beginning of the prologue, ‘"In suffisaunce of cunnyng and witte."’ And of the translation, ‘"Alas I wretch that whilom was in welth."’ I have seen a third copy in the library of Lincoln cathedral ^o, and a fourth in Baliol college ^p. This is the translation of Boethius printed in the mo­nastery of Tavistoke, in the year 1525. ‘"The BOKE of COMFORT, called in Latin Boecius de Consolatione Philosophie. [Page 35] Emprented in the exempt monastery of Tavestock in Den­shyre, by me Dan Thomas Rychard monke of the sayd monastry. To the instant desyre of the right worshipfull esquyre magister Robert Langdon. Anno Domini, MDXXV. Deo gracias."’ In octave rhyme ^p. This translation was made at the request of Elisabeth Berkeley. I forbear to load these pages with specimens not original, and which appear to have contributed no degree of improvement to our poetry or our phraseology. Henry the fourth died in the year 1399.

The coronation of king Henry the fifth, was celebrated in Westminster-hall with a solemnity proportioned to the lustre of those great atchievements which afterwards distinguished the annals of that victorious monarch. By way of preserving order, and to add to the splendor of the spectacle, many of the nobility were ranged along the sides of the tables on large war-horses, at this stately festival; which, says my chronicle, was a second feast of Ahasuerus ^q. But I mention this ceremony, to introduce a circumstance very pertinent to our purpose; which is, that the number of harpers in the hall was innumerable ^r, who undoubtedly accompanied their instruments with heroic rhymes. The king, however, was no great encourager of the popular minstrelsy, which seems at this time to have flourished in the highest degree of per­fection. When he entered the city of London in triumph after the battle of Agincourt, the gates and streets were hung with tapestry, representing the histories of ancient heroes; and children were placed in artificial turrets, singing verses ^s. But Henry, disgusted at these secular vanities, com­manded by a formal edict, that for the future no songs [Page 36] should be recited by the harpers, or others, in praise of the recent victory ^s. This prohibition had no other effect than that of displaying Henry's humility, perhaps its principal and real design. Among many others, a minstrel-piece soon appeared, evidently adapted to the harp, on the SEYGE of HARFLETT and the BATTALLYE of AGYNKOURTE. It was written about the year 1417. These are some of the most spirited lines.

[Page 38] These verses are much less intelligible than some of Gower' [...] and Chaucer's pieces, which were written fifty years before. In the mean time we must not mistake provincial for national barbarisms. Every piece now written is by no means a proof of the actual state of style. The improved dialect, which y [...]t is the estimate of a language, was confined only to a few writers, who lived more in the world and in polite life: and it was long, before a general change in the public phrase­ology was effected. Nor must we expect among the minstrels, who were equally careless and illiterate, those refinements of diction, which mark the compositions of men who professedly studied to embellish the English idiom.

Thomas Occleve is the first poet that occurs in the reign of Henry the fifth. I place him about the year 1420. Oc­cleve is a feeble writer, considered as a poet: and his chief merit seems to be, that his writings contributed to propagate and establish those improvements in our language which were now beginning to take place. He was educated in the mu­nicipal law ^s, as were both Chaucer and Gower; and it re­flects no small degree of honour on that very liberal pro­fession, that its students were some of the first who attempted to polish and adorn the English tongue.

The titles of Occleve's pieces, very few of which have b [...]en ever printed, indicate a coldness of genius; and on the whole promise no gratification to those who seek for inven­tion and fancy. Such as, The tale of Jonathas and of a wicked woman ^t. Fable of a certain emperess ^u. A prologue of the nine lessons that is read over Allhalow-day ^w. The most profitable and h [...]lsomest craft that is to cunne ^x, to lerne to dye ^y. Consolation offered [Page 39] by an old man ^z. Pentasthicon to the king. Mercy as defined by Saint Austin. Dialogue to a friend ^a. Dialogue between Oc­cleef and a beggar ^b. The letter of Cupid ^c. Verses to an empty purse ^d. But Occleve's most considerable poem is a piece called a translation of Egidius DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM.

This is a sort of paraphrase of the first part of Aristotle's epistle to Alexander abovementioned, entitled SECRETUM SE­CRETORUM, of Egidius, and of Jacobus de Casulis, whom he calls Jacob de Cassolis. Egidius, a native of Ro [...]e, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas, eminent among the schoolmen by the name of Doctor Fundatissimus, and an archbishop, flourished about the year 1280. He wrote a Latin tract in three books DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM, or the ART OF GOVERNMENT, for the use of Philip le Hardi, son of Louis king of France, a work highly esteemed in the middle ages, and translated early into Hebrew, French ^e, and Italian. In those days eccle­siastics and schoolmen presumed to dictate to kings, and to give rules for administering states, drawn from the narrow circle of speculation, and conceived amid the pedantries of a cloister. It was probably recommended to Occleve's notice, by having been translated into English by John Trevisa, a celebrated translator about the year 1390 ^f. The original was printed at Rome in 1482, and at Venice 1498, and, [Page 40] I think, again at the same place in 1598 ^h. The Italian translation was printed at Seville, in folio, 1494, ‘"Tran­sladar de Latin en romance don Bernardo Obispo de Osma: impresso por Meynardo Ungut Alemano et Stanislao Polono Companeros."’ The printed copies of the Latin are very rare, but the manuscripts innumerable. A third part of the third book, which treats of De Re Militari Veterum, was printed by Hahnius in 1722 ⁱ. One of Egidius's books, a commentary on Aristotle DE ANIMA, is dedicated to our Edward the first ^k.

Jacobus de Casulis, or of Casali in Italy, another of the writers copied in this performance by our poet Occleve, a French Dominican friar, about the year 1290, wrote in four parts a Latin treatise on chess, or, as it is entitled in some manuscripts, De moribus hominum et de officiis nobilium super LUDO LATRUNCULORUM sive SCACCORUM. In a parchment manuscript of the Harleian library, neatly illuminated, it is thus entitled, LIBER MORALIS DE LUDO SCACCORUM, ad ho­norem et solacium Nobilium et maxime ludencium, per fratrem JACOBUM D [...] CASSULIS ordinis fratrum Praedicatorum. At the conclusion, this work appears to be a translation ^l. Pits carelessly gives it to Robert Holcot, a celebrated English the­ologist, perhaps for no other reason than because Holcot was likewise a Dominican. It was printed at Milan in 1479. I believe it was as great a favourite as Egidius on GOVERN­MENT, for it was translated into French by John Ferron, and John Du Vignay, a monk hospitalar of Saint James du [Page 41] Haut-pag ^m, under the patronage of Jeanne dutchess of Bour­gogne, Caxton's patroness, about the year 1360, with the title of LE JEU DES ECHECS moralise, or Le traite des Nobles et de gens du peuple selon le JEU DES ECHECS. This was after­wards translated by Caxton, in 1474, who did not know that the French was a translation from the Latin, and called the GAME OF THE CHESS. It was also translated into Ger­man, both prose and verse, by Conrade von Almenhusen ⁿ. Bale absurdly supposes that Occleve made a separate and regular translation of this work ^o.

Occleve's poem was never printed. This is a part of the Prologue.

[Page 43] In another part of the Prologue we have these pathetic lines, which seem to flow warm from the heart, to the memory of the immortal Chaucer, who I believe was rather Occleve's model than his master, or perhaps the patron and encourager of his studies.

Occleve seems to have written some of these verses imme­diately on Chaucer's death, and to have introduced them long afterwards into this Prologue.

It is in one of the royal manuscripts of this poem in the British Museum that Occleve has left a drawing of Chaucer ^f: [Page 44] according to which, Chaucer's portraiture was made on his monument, in the chapel of Saint Blase in Westminster­abbey, by the benefaction of Nicholas Brigham, in the year 1556 ^g. And from this drawing, in 1598, John Speed pro­cured the print of Chaucer prefixed to Speght's edition of his works; which has been since copied in a most finished engraving by Vertue ^h. Yet it must be remembered, that the same drawing occurs in an Harleian manuscript written about Occleve's age ⁱ, and in another of the Cottonian department ^k. Occleve himself mentions this drawing in his CONSOLATIO SERVILIS. It exactly resembles the curious picture on board of our venerable bard, preserved in the Bodleian gallery at Oxford. I have a very old picture of Chaucer on board, much like Occleve's, formerly kept in Chaucer's house, a quadrangular stone-mansion, at Woodstock in Oxfordshire; which commanded a prospect of the ancient magnificent royal palace, and of many beautiful scenes in the adjacent park: and whose last remains, chiefly consisting of what was called Chaucer's bed-chamber, with an old carved oaken roof, evidently original, were demolished about fifteen years ago. Among the ruins, they found an ancient gold coin of the city of Florence ^l. Before the grand rebellion, there was in the windows of the church of Woodstock, an escucheon in painted glass of the arms of sir Payne Rouet, a knight of Henault, whose daughter Chaucer married.

Occleve, in this poem, and in others, often celebrates Humphrey duke of Glocester ^m; who at the dawn of science [Page 45] was a singular promoter of literature, and, however unqua­lified for political intrigues, the common patron of the scholars of the times. A sketch of his character in that view, is therefore too closely connected with our subject to be censured as an unnecessary digression. About the year 1440, he gave to the university of Oxford a library containing six hundred volumes, only one hundred and twenty of which were valued at more than one thousand pounds. These books are called Novi Tractatus, or New Treatises, in the university­register ⁿ, and said to be admirandi apparatus ^o. They were the most splendid and costly copies that could be procured, finely written on vellum, and elegantly embellished with miniatures and illuminations. Among the rest was a trans­lation into French of Ovid's Metamorphoses ^p. Only a single specimen of these valuable volumes was suffered to remain: it is a beautiful manuscript in folio of Valerius Maximus, enriched with the most elegant decorations, and written in Duke Humphrey's age, evidently with a design of being placed in this sumptuous collection. All the rest of the books, which, like this, being highly ornamented, look­ed like missals, and conveyed ideas of popish superstition, were destroyed or removed by the pious visitors of the uni­versity in the reign of Edward the sixth, whose zeal was equalled only by their ignorance, or perhaps by their avarice. A great number of classics, in this grand work of reforma­tion, were condemned as antichristian ^q. In the library of Oriel college at Oxford, we find a manuscript Commentary on Gene [...]is, written by John Capgrave, a monk of saint Austin's monastery at Canterbury, a learned theologist of the four­teenth century. It is the author's autograph, and the work is dedicated to Humphrey duke of Glocester. In the superb [Page 46] initial letter of the dedicatory epistle is a curious illumina­tion of the author Capgrave, humbly presenting his book to his patron the duke, who is seated, and covered with a sort of hat. At the end is this entry, in the hand-writing of duke Humphrey. ‘"C' est livre est a moy Humfrey duc de Glou­cestre du don de frere Jehan Capgrave, quy le me fist presenter a mon manoyr de Pensherst le jour ... de l'an. MCCCXXXVIII. ^r."’ This is one of the books which Humphrey gave to his new library at Oxford, destroyed or dispersed by the active re­formers of the young Edward ^s. John Whethamstede, a learned abbot of saint Alban's, and a lover of scholars, but accused by his monks for neglecting their affairs, while he was too deeply engaged in studious employments and in pro­curing transcripts of useful books ^t, notwithstanding his un­wearied assiduity in beautifying and enriching their monas­tery ^u, was in high favour with this munificent prince ^x. The duke was fond of visiting this monastery, and employed [Page 47] abbot Whethamstede to collect valuable books for him ^y. Some of Whethamstede's tracts, manuscript copies of which often occur in our libraries, are dedicated to the duke ^z: who presented many of them, particularly a fine copy of Whethamstede's GRANARIUM ^a, an immense work, which Leland calls ingens volumen, to the new library ^b. The copy of Valerius Maximus, which I mentioned before, has a curious table or index made by Whethamstede ^c. Many other abbots paid their court to the duke by sending him presents of books, whose margins were adorned with the most exquisite paintings ^d. Gilbert Kymer, physician to king Henry the sixth, among other ecclesiastic promotions, dean of Salisbury, and chancellor of the university of Ox­ford ^e, inscribed to duke Humphrey his famous medical system Diaetarium de sanitatis custodia, in the year 1424 ^f. I do not mean to anticipate when I remark, that Lydgate, a poet mentioned hereafter, translated Boccacio's book de CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM at the recommendation and command, and under the protection and superintendence, of duke Hum­phrey: whose condescension in conversing with learned eccle­siastics, and diligence in study, the translator displays at large, and in the strongest expressions of panegyric. He compares the duke to Julius Cesar, who amidst the weightiest cares of state, was not ashamed to enter the rhetorical school of [Page 48] Cicero at Rome ^g. Nor was his patronage confined only to English scholars. His favour was solicited by the most cele­brated writers of France and Italy, many of whom he boun­tifully rewarded ^h. Leonard Aretine, one of the first re­storers of the Greek tongue in Italy, which he learned of Emanuel Chrysoloras, and of polite literature in general, dedicates to this universal patron his elegant Latin translation of Aristotle's POLITICS. The copy presented to the duke by the translator, most elegantly illuminated, is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford ⁱ. To the same noble encourager of learning, Petrus Candidus, the friend of Laurentius Valla, and secretary to the great Cosmo duke of Milan, in­scribed by the advice of the archbishop of Milan, a Latin version of Plato's REPUBLIC ^k. An illuminated manuscript of this translation is in the British museum, perhaps the copy presented, with two epistles prefixed, from the duke to Petrus Candidus ^l. Petrus de Monte, another learned Italian, of Venice, in the dedication of his treatise DE VIRTUTUM ET VITIORUM DIFFERENTIA to the duke of Glocester, mentions [Page 49] the latter's ardent attachment to books of all kinds, and the singular avidity with which he pursued every species of literature ^m. A tract, entitled COMPARATIO STUDIORUM ET REI MILITARIS, written by Lapus de Castellione, a Florentine civilian, and a great translator into Latin of the Greek classics, is also inscribed to the duke, at the desire of Zeno archbishop of Bayeux. I must not forget, that our illustrious duke invited into England the learned Italian, Tito Livio of Foro-Juli, whom he naturali [...]ed, and constituted his poet and orator ⁿ. Humphrey also retained learned foreigners in his service, for the purpose of transcribing, and of translat­ing from Greek into Latin. One of these was Antonio de Beccaria, a Veronese, a translator into Latin prose of the Greek poem of Dionysius Afer DE SITU ORBIS ^o: whom the duke employed to translate into Latin six tracts of Atha­nasius. This translation, inscribed to the duke, is now among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, and at the end, in his own hand-writing, is the following insertion: ‘"C'est livre est a moi Homphrey Duc le Gloucestre: le que [...] je fis translater de Grec en Latin par un de mes secretaires Antoyne de Beccara, nè de Verone ^p."’

An astronomical tract, entitled by Leland TABULAE DIREC­TIONUM, is falsely supposed to have been written by duke Humphrey ^q. But it was compiled at the duke's instance, and according to tables which himself had constructed, called by the anonymous author in his preface, Tabulas illustrissimi principis et nobilissimi domini mei Humfredi, &c ^r. In the library of Gre­sham college, however, there is a scheme of calculations in [Page 50] astronomy, which bear his name ^s. Astronomy was then a favourite science: nor is to be doubted, that he was inti­mately acquainted with the politer branches of knowledge, which now began to acquire estimation, and which his liberal and judicious attention greatly contributed to restore.

I close this section with an apology for Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve; who are supposed, by the severe [...] etymologists, to have corrupted the purity of the English language, by affecting to introduce so many foreign words and phrases. But if we attend only to the politics of the times, we shall find these poets, as also some of their successors, much less blameable in this respect, than the critics imagine. Our wars with France, which began in the reign of Edward the third, were of long continuance. The principal nobility of England, at this period, resided in France, with their fami­lies, for many years. John king of France kept his court in England; [...]o which, exclusive of these French lords who were his fellow-prisoners, or necessary attendants, the chief nobles of his kingdom must have occasionally resorted. Ed­ward the black prince made an expedition into Spain. John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, and his brother the duke of York, were matched with the daughters of Don Pedro king of Castile. All these circumstances must have concurred to produce a perceptible change in the language of the court. It is rational therefore, and it is equitable to suppose, that instead of coining new words, they only complied with the common and fashionable modes of speech. Would Chaucer's poems have been the delight of those courts in which he lived, had they been filled with unintelligible pedantries? The cotemporaries of these poets never complained of their obscurity. But whether defensible on these principles or not, they much improved the vernacular style by the use of this exotic phraseology. It was thus that our primitive diction was enlarged and enriched. The English language owes its copiousness, elegance, and harmony, to these innovations.

I Consider Chaucer as a genial day in an English spring. A brilliant sun enlivens the face of nature with an unusual lustre: the sudden appearance of cloudless skies, and the unexpected warmth of a tepid atmosphere, after the gloom and the inclemencies of a tedious winter, fill our hearts with the visionary prospect of a speedy summer: and we fondly anticipate a long continuance of gentle gales and vernal serenity. But winter returns with redoubled horrors: the clouds condense more formidably than before; and those tender buds, and early blossoms, which were called forth by the transient gleam of a temporary sun-shine, are nipped by frosts, and torn by tempests.

Most of the poets that immediately succeeded Chaucer, seem rather relapsing into barbarism, than availing them­selves of those striking ornaments which his judgment and imagination had disclosed. They appear to have been in­sensible to his vigour of versification, and his flights of fancy. It was not indeed likely that a poet should soon arise equal to Chaucer: and it must be remembered, that the na­tional distractions which ensued, had no small share in ob­structing the exercise of those studies which delight in peace and repose. His successors, however, approach him in no degree of proportion. Among these, John Lydgate is the poet who follows him at the shortest interval.

I have placed Lydgate in the reign of Henry the sixth, and he seems to have arrived at his highest point of emi­nence about the year 1430 ^t. Many of his poems, however, [Page 52] appeared before. He was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Bury in Suffolk, and an uncommon ornament of his pro­fession. Yet his genius was so lively, and his accomplish­ments so numerous, that I suspect the holy father saint Benedict would hardly have acknowledged him for a genuine disciple. After a short education at Oxford, he travelled into France and Italy ^u; and returned a complete master of the language and the literature of both countries. He chiefly studied the Italian and French poets, particularly Dante, Boccacio, and Alain Chartier; and became so distin­guished a proficient in polite learning, that he opened a school in his monastery, for teaching the sons of the nobility the arts of versification, and the elegancies of composition. Yet although philology was his object, he was not unfamiliar with the fashionable philosophy: he was not only a poet and a rhetorician, but a geometrician, an astronomer, a the­ologist, and a disputant. On the whole I am of opinion, that Lydgate made considerable additions to those amplifica­tions of our language, in which Chaucer, Gower, and Oc­cleve led the way: and that he is the first of our writers whose style is cloathed with that perspicuity, in which the English phraseology appears at this day to an English reader.

To enumerate Lydgate's pieces, would be to write the catalogue of a little library. No poet seems to have possessed a greater versatility of talents. He moves with equal ease in every mode of composition. His hymns, and his ballads, have the same degree of merit: and whether his subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of saint Austin or Guy earl of Warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a [Page 53] history or an allegory, he writes with facility. His transi­tions were rapid from works of the most serious and la­borious kind to sallies of levity and pieces of popular enter­tainment. His muse was of universal access; and he was not only the poet of his monastery, but of the world in general. If a disguising was intended by the company of goldsmiths, a mask before his majesty at Eltham, a may­game for the sheriffs and aldermen of London, a mumming before the lord mayor, a procession of pageants from the creation for the festival of Corpus Christi, or a carol for the coronation, Lydgate was consulted and gave the poetry ^x.

About the year 1430, Whethamstede the learned and liberal abbot of saint Albans, being desirous of familiarising the history of his patron saint to the monks of his convent, em­ployed Lydgate, as it should seem, then a monk of Bury, to translate the Latin legend of his life in English rhymes. The chronicler who records a part of this anecdote seems to consider Lydgate's translation, as a matter of mere manual mechanism; for he adds, that Whethamstede paid for the translation, the writing, and illuminations, one hundred shillings. It was placed before the altar of the saint, which Whethamstede afterwards adorned with much mag­nificence, in the abbey church ^y.

Our author's stanzas, called the DANCE OF DEATH, which he translated from the French, at the request of the chapter of saint Paul's, to be inscribed under the representation of DEATH leading all ranks of men about the cloister of their [Page 54] church in a curious series of paintings, are well known. But their history has not, I believe, yet appeared. These verses, founded on a sort of spiritual masquerade, anciently celebrated in churches ^z, were originally written by one Ma­caber in German rhymes, and were translated into Latin about the year 1460, by one who calls himself Petrus Desrey Orator. This Latin translation was published by Goldastus, at the end of the SPECULUM OMNIUM STATUUM TOTIUS ORBIS TERRARUM compiled by Rodericus Zamorensis, and printed at Hanau in the year 1613 ^b [...] But a French translation was made much earlier than the Latin, and written about the walls of saint Innocents cloister at Paris; from which Lyd­gate formed his English version ^c.

In the British Museum is a most splendid and elegant manuscript on vellum, undoubtedly a present to king Henry the sixth ^d. It contains a set of Lydgate's poems, in honour of saint Edmund the patron of his monastery at Bury. Be­sides the decoration of illuminated initials, and one hundred and twenty pictures of various sizes, representing the inci­dents related in the poetry, executed with the most delicate pencil, and exhibiting the habits, weapons, architecture, [Page 55] utensils, and many other curious particulars, belonging to the age of the ingenious illuminator, there are two exquisite portraits of the king, one of William Curteis abbot of Bury, and one of the poet Lydgate kneeling at saint Edmund's shrine ^e. In one of the king's pictures, he is represented on his throne, crowned, and receiving this volume from the abbot kneeling: in another he appears as a child prostrate on a carpet at saint Edmund's shrine, which is richly de­lineat [...]d, yet without any idea of perspective or proportion. The figures of a great number of monks, and attendants, are introduced. Among the rest, two noblemen, perhaps the king's uncles, with bonnets, or caps, of an uncommon shape. It appears that our pious monarch kept his Christmas at this magnificent monastery, and that he remained here, in a state of seclusion from the world, and of an exemption from public cares, till the following Easter: and that at his depar­ture he was created a brother of the chapter ^f. It is highly probable, that this sumptuous book, the poetry of which was undertaken by Lydgate at the command of abbot Cur­teis ^g, was previously prepared, and presented to his majesty during the royal visit, or very soon afterwards. The sub­stance of the whole work is the life or history of sain [...] Ed­mund, whom the poet calls the ‘"precious charbo [...] [...] martirs alle ^h."’ In some of the prefatory pictures, there is a [Page 56] description and a delineation of two banners, pretended to belong to saint Edmund ⁱ. One of these is most brilliantly displayed, and charged with Adam and Eve, the serpent with a human shape to the middle, the tree of life, the holy lamb, and a variety of symbolical ornaments. This banner our bard feigns to have been borne by his saint, who was a king of the east Angles, against the Danes: and he prophe­sies, that king Henry, with this ensign, would always return victorious ^k. The other banner, given also to saint Edmund, appears to be painted with the arms of our poet's monastery, and its blazoning is thus described.

A sort of office, or service to saint Edmund, consisting of an antiphone, versicle, response, and collect, is introduced with these verses.

This is our poet's l'envoye.

Lydgate's poem called the LYFE OF OUR LADY, printed by Caxton ^p, is opened with these harmonious and elegant lines, which do not seem to be destitute of that eloquence which the author wishes to share with Tully, Petrarch, and Chaucer ^q. He compares the holy Virgin to a star.

Lydgate's manner is naturally verbose and diffuse. This circumstance contributed in no small degree to give a clearness and a fluency to his phraseology. For the same reason he is often tedious and languid. His chief excellence is in de­scription, especially where the subject admits a flowery diction. He is seldom pathetic, or animated.

In another part of this poem, where he collects arguments to convince unbelievers that Christ might be born of a pure virgin, he thus speaks of God's omnipotence.

We are surprised to find verses of so modern a cast as the following at such an early period; which in this sagacious age we should judge to be a forgery, was not their genuine­ness authenticated, and their antiquity confirmed, by the venerable types of Caxton, and a multitude of unquestion­able manuscripts.

Our Saviour's crucifixion is expressed by this remarkable metaphor.

Our author, in the course of his panegyric on the Virgin Mary, affirms, that she exceeded Hester in meekness, and Judith in wisdom; and in beauty, Helen, Polyxena, Lucretia, Dido, [Page 60] Bathsheba, and Rachel ^f. It is amazing, that in an age of the most superstitious devotion so little discrimination should have been made between sacred and profane characters and incidents. But the common sense of mankind had not yet attained a just estimate of things. Lydgate, in another piece, has versified the rubrics of the missal, which he ap­plies to the god Cupid: and declares, with how much de­light he frequently meditated on the holy legend of those constant martyrs, who were not afraid to suffer death for the faith of that omnipotent divinity ^g. There are instances, in which religion was even made the instrument of love. Arnaud Daniel, a celebrated troubadour of the thirteenth century, in a fit of amorous despair, promises to found a multitude of annual masses, and to dedicate perpetual tapers to the shrines of saints, for the important purpose of obtaining the affections of an obdurate mistress.

BUT Lydgate's principal poems are the FALL OF PRINCES, the SIEGE OF THEBES, and the DESTRUCTION OF TROY. Of all these I shall speak distinctly.

About the year 1360, Boccacio wrote a Latin history in ten books, entitled DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ET FEMINARUM ILLUSTRIUM. Like other chronicles of the times, it com­mences with Adam, and is brought down to the author' [...] age. Its last grand event is John king of France taken pri­soner by the English at the battle of Poitiers, in the year 1359 ^a. This book of Boccacio was soon afterwards tran­slated into French, by one of whom little more seems to be known, than that he was named Laurence; yet so para­phrastically, and with so many considerable additions, a [...] almost to be rendered a new work ^b. Laurence's French [Page 62] translation, of which there is a copy in the British Museum ^c, and which was printed at Lyons in the year 1483 ^d, is the original of Lydgate's poem. This Laurence or Laurent, sometimes called Laurent de Premierfait, a village in the diocese of Troies, was an ecclesiastic, and a famous tran­slator. He also translated into French Boccacio's DECAME­RON, at the request of Jane queen of Navarre: Cicero DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE; and Aristotle's Oeconomics, dedicated to Louis de Bourbon, the king's uncle. These versions appeared in the year 1414 and 1416 ^e. Caxton's TULLIUS OF OLD AGE, or DE SENECTUTE, printed in 1481, is translated from Laurence's French version. Caxton, in the postscript, calls him Laurence de primo facto.

Lydgate's poem consists of nine books, and is thus en­titled in the earliest edition. ‘"The TRAGEDIES gathered by Jhon BOCHAS of all such princes as fell from theyr [...]states throughe the mutability of fortune since the CRE­ACION of ADAM until his time, &c. Translated into English by John Lidgate monke of Burye ^f."’ The best and most authentic manuscript of this piece is in the British Museum; probably written under the inspection of the author, and perhaps intended as a present to Humphrey duke of Glocester, at whose gracious command the poem, as I have before hinted, was undertaken. It contains among [Page 63] numerous miniatures illustrating the several histories, por­traits of Lydgate, and of another monk habited in black, perhaps an abbot of Bury, kneeling before a prince, who seems to be saint Edmund, seated on a throne under a canopy, and grasping an arrow ^g.

The work is not improperly styled a set of tragedies. It is not merely a narrative of men eminent for their rank and misfortunes. The plan is perfectly dramatic, and partly suggested by the pageants of the times. Every personage is supposed to appear before the poet, and to relate his re­spective sufferings: and the figures of these spectres are sometimes finely drawn. Hence a source is opened for moving compassion, and for a display of imagination. In some of the lives the author replies to the speaker, and a sort of dialogue is introduced for conducting the story. Brunchild, a queen of France, who murthered all her chil­dren, and was afterwards hewn in pieces, appears thus.

Yet in some of these interesting interviews, our poet ex­cites pity of another kind. When Adam appears, he fa­miliarly accosts the author with the salutation of Cosyn Bochas ⁱ.

Nor does our dramatist deal only in real characters and historical personages. Boccacio standing pensive in his library, is alarmed at the sudden entrance of the gigantic and monstrous [Page 64] image of FORTUNE, whose agency has so powerful and universal an influence in human affairs, and especially in effecting those vicissitudes which are the subject of this work. There is a Gothic greatness in her figure, with some touches of the grotesque. An attribute of the early poetry of all nations, before ideas of selection have taken place. I must add, that it was Boethius's admired allegory on the CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, which introduced personi­fication into the poetry of the middle ages.

Her hundred hands, her burning eyes, and disheveled tresses, are sublimely conceived. After a long silence, with a stern countenance she addresses Bochas, who is greatly terrified at her horrible appearance; and having made a long harangue on the revolutions and changes which it is her business to produce among men of the most prosperous condi­tion and the most elevated station, she calls up Caius Marius, and presents him to the poet.

She then teaches Bochas how to describe his life, and disappears.

In another place, Dante, ‘"of Florence the laureate poete, demure of loke fullfilled with patience,"’ appears to Bo­chas; and commands him to write the tale of Gualter duke of Florence, whose days for his tiranny, lechery, and covetyse, ended in mischefe. Dante then vanishes, and only duke Gualter is left alone with the poet ^q. Petrarch is also intro­duced for the same purpose ^r.

The following golden couplet, concerning the prodigies which preceded the civil wars between Cesar and Pompey, indica [...]e dawnings of that poetical colouring of expression, and of that facility of versification, which mark the poetry of the present times.

These verses, in which the poet describes the reign of S [...] ­turn, have much harmony, strength, and dignity.

Apollo, Diana, and Miner [...]a, joining the Roman army, when Rome was besieged by Bren [...]us, are poetically touched.

And the following lines are remarkable.

Lydgate, in this poem, quotes Seneca's tragedies ^x for the story of Oedipus, Tully, Virgil and his commentator Servius, Ovid, Livy, Lucan, Lactantius, Justin ^y or ‘"prudent Justinus an old croniclere,"’ Josephus, Valerius Maximus, saint Jerom's chronicle, Boethius ^z, Plato on the immor­tality of the soul ^a, and Fulgentius the mythologist ^b. He mentions ‘"noble Persius,"’ Prosper's epigrams, Vegetius's book on Tactics, which was highly esteemed, as its subject coincided with the chivalry of the times, and which had been just translated into French by John of Meun and Christina of Pisa, and into English by John Trevisa ^c, ‘"the grene [Page 68] chaplet of Esop and Juvenal ^d,"’ Euripides ‘"in his tyme a great tragician, because he wrote many tragedies,"’ and another called Clarke Demosthenes ^e. For a catalogue of Tully's works, he refers to the SPECULUM HISTORIALE ^f, or Myrrour Hystori [...]ll, of Vyncentius Bellovacensis; and says, that he wrote twelve books of Orations, and several morall ditti [...]s ^g. Aristotle is introduced as teaching Alexander and Callis­thenes philosophy ^h. With regard to Homer, he observes, that ‘"Grete Omerus, in Isidore ye may see, founde amonge Grekes the crafte of eloquence ⁱ."’ By Isidore he means the ORIGINES, or ETYMOLOGIES of Isidore Hispalensis, in twenty books; a system of universal information, the encyclopede of the dark ages, and printed in Italy before the year 1472 ^k. In another place, he censures the singular partiality of the book called Omere, which places Achilles above Hector ^l. Again, speaking of the Greek writers, he tells us, that Bo­chas mentions a scriveyn, or scribe, who in a small scroll o [...] paper wrote the destruction of Troy, following Homer: a history much esteemed among the Greeks, on account of its brevity ^m. This was Dictys Cre [...]ensis, or Dares Phrygius. [Page 69] But for perpetuating the atchievements of the knights of the round table, he supposes that a clerk was appointed, and that he compiled a register from the poursuivants and he­ralds who attended their tournaments; and that thence the histories of those invincible champions were framed, which, whether read or sung, have afforded so much delight ⁿ. For the stories of Constantine and Arthur he brings as his vouchers, the chronicle or romance called BRUT or BRUTUS, and Geoffrey of Monmouth ^o. He concludes the legend of Constantine by telling us, that an equestrian statue in brass is still to be seen at Constantinople of that emperor; in which he appears armed with a prodigious sword, menacing the Turks ^p. In describing the Pantheon at Rome, he gives us some circumstances highly romantic. He relates that this magnificent fane was full of gigantic idols, placed on lofty stages: these images were the gods of all the nations con­quered by the Romans, and each turned his countenance to that province over which he presided. Every image held in his hand a bell framed by magic; and when any kingdom belonging to the Roman jurisdiction was meditating rebellion against the imperial city, the idol of that country gave, by some secret principle, a solemn warning of the distant treason by striking his bell, which never sounded on any other occasion ^q. Our author, following Boccacio who wrote the THESEID, supposes that Theseus founded the order of knight­hood at Athens ^r. He introduces, much in the manner of Boethius, a disputation between Fortune and Poverty; sup­posed to have been written by ANDALUS the blake, a doctor of astronomy at Naples, who was one of Bochas's preceptors.

Lydgate appears to have been far advanced in years when he finished this poem: for at the beginning of the eighth book he complains of his trembling joints, and declares that age, having benumbed his faculties, has deprived him ‘"of all the subtylte of curious makyng in Englysshe to endyte ^u."’ Our author, in the structure and modulation of his style, seems to have been ambitious of rivalling Chaucer ^w: whose capital compositions he enumerates, and on whose poetry he bestows repeated encomiums.

I cannot quit this work without adding an observation re­lating to Boccacio, its original author, which perhaps may deserve attention. It is highly probable that Boccacio learn­ed many anecdotes of Grecian history and Grecian fable, not to be found in any Greek writer now extant, from his pre­ceptors Barlaam, Leontius, and others, who had lived at Constantinople while the Greek literature was yet flourish­ing. Some of these are perhaps scattered up and down in the composition before us, which contains a considerable part of the Grecian story; and especially in his treatise of the genealogies of the gods ^x. Boccacio himself calls his master Leontius an inexhaustible archive of Grecian tales and fables, although not equally conversant with those of [Page 71] the Latins ^y. He confesses that he took many things in his book of the genealogies of the gods from a vast work entitled COLLECTIVUM, now lost, written by his cotemporary Paulus Peru [...]inus, the materials of which had in great measure been furnished by Barlaam ^z. We are informed also, that Perusi­nus made use of some of these fugitive Greek scholars, es­pecially Barlaam, for collecting rare books in that language. Perusinus was librarian, about the year 1340, to Robert king of Jerusalem and Sicily: and was the most curious and inquisitive man of his age for searching after unknown or uncommon manuscripts, especially histories, and poetical compositions, and particularly such as were written in Greek. I will beg leave to cite the words of Boccacio, who records this anecdote. ‘"Et, si usquam CURIOSISSIMUS [...]uit homo in perquirendis, jussu etiam principis, PEREGRINIS undecunque libris, HISTORIIS et POETICIS operibus, iste fuit. Et ob id, singulari amicitiae Barlaae conjunctus, quae a Latinis habere non poterat EO MEDIO INNUMERA exhausit a GRAECIS ^a."’ By these HISTORIAE and POETICA OPERA, brought from Constantinople by Barlaam, undoubtedly works of entertainment, and perhaps chiefly of the romantic and fictitious species, I do not understand the classics. It is natural to suppose that Boccacio, both from his connections and his curiosity, was no stranger to these treasures: and that many of these pieces, thus imported into Italy by the dispersion of the Constantinopolitan exiles, are only known at present through the medium of his writings. It is cer­tain that many oriental fictions found their way into Europe by means of this communication.

Lydgate's STORIE OF THEBES was first printed by William Thinne, at the end of his edition of Chaucer's works, in [Page 72] 1561. The author introduces it as an additional Canterbury tale. After a severe sickness, having a design to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett at Canterbury, he arrives in that city while Chaucer's pilgrims were assembled there for the same purpose; and by mere accident, not suspecting to find so numerous and respectable a company, goes to their inn. There is some humour in our monk's travelling figure ^b.

He sees, standing in the hall of the inn, the convivial host of the tabard, full of his own importance; who without the least introduction or hesitation thus addresses our author, quite unprepared for such an abrupt salutation.

Our host then invites him to supper, and promises that he shall have, made according to his own directions, a large pudding, a round hagis, a French moile, or a phrase of eggs: adding, that he looked extremely lean for a monk, and must certainly have been sick, or else belong to a poor monastery: [Page 73] that some nut-brown ale after supper will be of service, and that a quantity of the seed of annis, cummin, or coriander, taken before going to bed, will remove flatulencies. But above all, says the host, chearful company will be your best physician. You shall not only sup with me and my companions this evening, but return with us to-morrow to London; yet on condition, that you will submit to one of the indispensable rules of our society, which is to tell an entertaining story while we are travelling.

Our monk, unable to withstand this profusion of kind­ness and festivity, accepts the host's invitation, and sups with the pilgrims. The next morning, as they are all riding from Canterbury to Ospringe, the host reminds his friend DAN JOHN of what he had mentioned in the evening, and without farther ceremony calls for a story. Lydgate obeys [Page 74] his commands, and recites the tragical destruction of the city of Thebes ^m. As the story is very long, a pause is made in descending a very steep hill near the Thrope ⁿ of Broug [...]ton on the Blee; when our author, who was not furnished with that accommodation for knowing the time of the day, which modern improvements in science have given to the traveller, discovers by an accurate examination of his calendar, I sup­pose some sort of graduated scale, in which the sun's horary progress along the equator was marked, that it is nine in the morning ^o.

It has been said, but without any authority or probability, that Chaucer first wrote this story in a Latin narrative, which Lydgate afterwards translated into English verse. Our author's originals are Guido Colonna, Statius, and Seneca the tragedian ^p. Nicholas Trevet, an Englishman, a Domi­nican friar of London, who flourished about the year 1330, has left a commentary on Seneca's tragedies ^q: and he was so favorite a poet as to have been illustrated by Thomas Aquinas ^r. He was printed at Venice so early as the year 1482. Lydgate in this poem often refers to myne auctor, who, I suppose, is either Statius, or Colonna ^s. He some­times cites Boccacio's Latin tracts: particularly the GENEA­LOGIAE DEORUM, a work which at the restoration of learning greatly contributed to familiarise the classical stories, DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, the ground-work of the FALL OF PRINCES just mentioned, and DE CLARIS MULI­ERIBUS, in which pope Joan is one of the heroines ^t. From the first, he has taken the story of Amphion building the [Page 75] walls of Thebes by the help of Mercury's harp, and the interpretation of that fable, together with the ^u [...]ictions about Lycurgus king of Thrace ^w. From the second, as I recollect, the accoutrements of Polymites ^x: and from the third, part of the tale of Isophile ^y. He also characterises Boccacio for a talent, by which he is not now so generally known, for his poetry; and styles him, ‘"among poetes in Itaile stalled ^z."’ But Boccacio's THESEID was yet in vogue. He says, that when Oedipus was married, none of the Muses were present, as they were at the wedding of SAPIENCE with ELOQUENCE, described by that poet whilom so sage, Matrician inamed de Capella. This is Marcianus Mineus Felix de Capella, who lived about the year 470, and whose Latin prosaico-metrical work, de Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, in two books, an introduction to his seven books, or system, of the SEVEN SCIENCES, I have mentioned before ^a: a writer highly extolled by Scotus Erigena ^b, Peter of Blois ^c, John of Salisbury, and other early authors in corrupt Latinity ^d; and of such eminent estimation in the dark centuries, as to be taught in the seminaries of philological education as a classic ^e. Among the royal manuscripts in the British mu­seum, a manuscript occurs written about the [...]venth cen­tury, which is a commentary on these nine books of Capella, [Page 76] compiled by Duncant an Irish bishop ^f, and given to his scholars in the monastery of saint Remigius ^g. They were early translated into Latin leonine rhymes, and are often imitated by Saxo Grammaticus ^h. Gregory of Tours has the vanity to hope, that no readers will think his Latinity barbarous: not even those, who have refined their taste, and enriched their understanding with a complete knowledge of every species of literature, by studying attentively this treatise of Marcianus ⁱ. Alexander Necham, a learned abbot of Ci­rencester, and a voluminous Latin writer about the year 1210, wrote annotations on Marcianus, which are yet pre­served ^k. He was first printed in the year 1499, and other editions appeared soon afterwards. This piece of Mar­cianus, dictated by the ideal philosophy of Plato, is supposed to have led the way to Boethius's celebrated CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY ^m.

The marriage of SAPIENCE and ELOQUENCE, or Mercury and Philology, as described by Marcianus, at which Clio and Calliope with all their sisters assisted, and from which [...]ISCORD and SEDITION, the great enemies of literature, we [...] excluded, is artfully introduced, and beautifully con­traste [...] w [...]h that of Oedipus and Jocasta, which was cele­brated by an assemblage of the most hideous beings.

[Page 78] The bare conception of the attendance of this allegorical groupe on these incestuous espousals, is highly poetical: and although some of the personifications are not presented with the addition of any picturesque attributes, yet others are marked with the powerful pencil of Chaucer.

This poem is the THEBAID of a troubadour. The old classical tale of Thebes is here cloathed with feudal manners, enlarged with new fictions of the Gothic species, and fur­nished with the descriptions, circumstances, and machineries, appropriated to a romance of chivalry. The Sphinx is a ter­rible dragon, placed by a necromancer to guard a mountain, and to murther all travellers passing by ^w. Tydeus being wounded sees a castle on a rock, whose high towers and crested pinnacles of polished stone glitter by the light of the moon: he gains admittance, is laid in a sumptuous bed of cloth of gold, and healed of his wounds by a king's daugh­ter ^x. Tydeus and Polymite tilt at midnight for a lodging, before the gate of the palace of king Adrastus; who is awakened with the din of the strokes of their weapons, which shake all the palace, and descends into the court with a long train by torch-light: he orders the two combatants to be disarmed, and cloathed in rich mantles studded with pearls; and they are conducted to repose by many a stair to a stately tower, after being served with a refection of hy­pocras from golden goblets. The next day they are both espoused to the king's two daughters, and entertained with tournaments, feasting, revels, and masques ^y. After­wards Tydeus, having a message to deliver to Eteocles king of Thebes, enters the hall of the royal palace, completely armed and on horseback, in the midst of a magnificent festival ^z. This palace, like a Norman fortress, or feudal castle, is [Page 79] guarded with barbicans, portcullisses, chains, and fosses ^a. Adrastus wishes to close his old age in the repose of rural diversions, of hawking and hunting ^b.

The situation of Polymite, benighted in a solitary wilder­ness, is thus forcibly described.

When Oedipus consults concerning his kindred the oracle of Apollo, whose image stood on a golden chariot with four wheels burned bright and sheen, animated with a fiend, the manner in which he receives his answer is touched with spirit and imagination.

In this poem, exclusive of that general one already men­tioned, there are some curious mixtures of manners, and of classics and scripture. The nativity of Oedipus at his birth is calculated by the most learned astronomers and physicians ^f. Eteocles defends the walls of Thebes with great guns ^g. And the priest ^h Amphiorax, or Amphiaraus, is styled a bishop ⁱ, whose wife is also mentioned. At a council held at Thebes, concerning the right of succession to the throne, Esdras and Solomon are cited: and the history of Nehemiah rebuild­ing the walls of Jerusalem is introduced ^k. The moral in­tended by this calamitous tale consists in shewing the per­nicious effects of war: the diabolical nature of which our author still further illustrates by observing, that discord received its origin in hell, and that the first battle ever fought was that of Lucifer and his legion of rebel angels ^l. But that the argument may have the fullest confirmation, Saint Luke is then quoted to prove, that avarice, ambition, and envy, are the primary sources of contention; and that Christ came into the world to destroy these malignant prin­ciples, and to propagate universal charity.

At the close of the poem, the mediation of the holy virgin is invoked, to procure peace in this life, and salvation in the next. Yet it should be remembered, that this piece is written by a monk, and addressed to pilgrims ^m.

THE third of Lydgate's poems which I proposed to consider, is the TROY BOKE, or the DESTRUCTION OF TROY. It was first printed at the command of king Henry the eighth, in the year 1513, by Richard Pinson, with this title, ‘" THE HYSTORY SEGE AND DESTRUCCION OF TROYE. The table or rubrisshe of the content of the chapitres, &c. Here after foloweth the TROYE BOKE, otherwise called the SEGE OF TROYE. Translated by JOHN LYDGATE monke of Bury, and emprynted at the commaundement of oure souveraygne lorde the kynge Henry the eighth, by Richarde Pinson, &c. the yere of our lorde god a M. CCCCC. and XIII ⁿ."’ Another, and a much more correct edition followed, by Thomas Marshe, under the care of one John Braham, in the year 1555 ^o. It was begun in the year 1414, the last year of the reign of king Henry the fourth. It was written at that prince's [Page 82] command, and is dedicated to his successor. It was finished in the year 1420. In the Bodleian library there is a manu­script of this poem elegantly illuminated, with the picture of a monk presenting a book to a king ^p. From the splen­dour of the decorations, it appears to be the copy which Lydgate gave to Henry the fifth.

This poem is professedly a translation or paraphrase of Guido de Colonna's romance, entitled HISTORIA TROJANA ^q. But whether from Colonna's original Latin, or from a French version ^r mentioned in Lygdate's Prologue, and which existed soon after the year 1300, I cannot ascertain ^s. I have before observed ^t, that Colonna formed his Trojan History from Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis ^u; who perpetually occur as authorities in Lydgate's translation. Homer is however referred to in this work; particularly in the cata­logue, or enumeration, of the ships which brought the [Page 83] several Grecian leaders with their forces to the Trojan coast. It begins thus, on the testimony of Colonna ^w.

And is closed with these lines.

In another place Homer, notwithstanding all his rhetoryke and sugred eloquence, his lusty songes and dytees swete, is blamed as a prejudiced writer, who favours the Greeks ^y: a censure, which flowed from the favorite and prevailing notion held by the western nations of their descent from the Trojans. Homer is also said to paint with colours of gold and azure ^z. A metaphor borrowed from the fashionable art of illumining. I do not however suppose, that Colonna, who flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century, had ever seen Homer's poems: he might have known these and many other par­ticulars, contained in the Iliad, from those factitious historian [...] [Page 84] whom he professes to follow. Yet it is not, in the mean time, impossible, that Lydgate might have seen the Iliad, at least in a Latin translation. Leontius Pilatus, already mentioned, one of the learned Constantinopolitan exiles, had translated the Iliad into Latin prose, with part of the Odyss [...]y, at the desire of Boccacio ^a, about the year 1360. This appears from Petrarch's Epistles to his friend Boccacio ^b: in which, among other curious circumstances, the former requests Boccacio to send him to Venice that part of Leon­tius's new Latin version of the Odyssey, in which Ulysses' [...] descent into hell, and the vestibule of Erebus, are described. He wishes also to see, how Homer, blind and an Asiatic, had described the lake of Averno and the mountain of Circe. In another part of these letters, he acknowledges the receipt of the Latin Homer; and mentions with how much satisfac­tion and joy the report of its arrival in the public library at Venice was received, by all the Greek and Latin scholars of that city ^c. The Iliad was also translated into French verse, by Jacques Milet, a licentiate of laws, about the year 1430 ^d. Yet I cannot believe that Lydgate had ever consulted these translations, although he had travelled in France and Italy. One may venture to pronounce peremptorily, that he did not understand, as he probably never had seen, the original. After the migration of the Roman emperors to Greece, Boc­cacio was the first European that could read Homer; nor was there perhaps a copy of either of Homer's poems exist­ing in Europe, till about the time the Greeks were driven [Page 85] by the Turks from Constantinople ^e. Long after Boccacio's time, the knowledge of the Greek tongue, and consequently of Homer, was confined only to a few scholars. Yet some ingenious French critics have insinuated, that Homer was familiar in France very early, and that Christina of Pisa, in a poem never printed, written in the year 1398, and entitled L'EPITRE D'OTHEA A HECTOR ^f, borrowed the word Othea, or WISDOM, from [...] in Homer, a formal appellation by which that poet often invocates Minerva ^g.

This poem is replete with descriptions of rural beauty, formed by a selection of very poetical and picturesque cir­cumstances, and cloathed in the most perspicuous and musical numbers. The colouring of our poet's ^h mornings is often remarkably rich and splendid.

Again, among more pictures of the same subject.

The spring is thus described, renewing the buds or blossoms of the groves, and the flowers of the meadows.

Frequently in these florid landscapes we find the same idea differently expressed. Yet this circumstance, while it wea­kened the description, taught a copiousness of diction, and a variety of poetical phraseology. There is great softness and facility in the following delineation of a delicious retreat.

The circumstance of the pebbles and gravel of a tran­sparent stream glittering against the sun, which is uncom­mon, has much of the brilliancy of the Italian poetry. It recalls to my memory a passage in Theocritus, which has been lately restored to its pristine beauty.

There is much elegance of sentiment and expression in the portrait of Creseide weeping when she parts with Troilus.

The following verses are worthy of attention in another style of writing, and have great strength and spirit. A knight brings a steed to Hector in the midst of the battle.

The strokes on the helmets are thus expressed, striking fire amid the plumes.

The touches of feudal manners, which our author affords, are innumerable: for the Trojan story, and with no great dif­ficulty, is here entirely accommodated to the ideas of romance. Hardly any adventure of the champions of the round table [Page 89] was more chimerical and unmeaning than this of our Grecian chiefs: and the cause of their expedition to Troy was quite in the spirit of chivalry, as it was occasioned by a lady. When Jason arrives at Cholcos, he is entertained by king Oetes in a Gothic castle. Amadis or Lancelot were never conducted to their fairy chambers with more ceremony and solemnity. He is led through many a hall and many a tower, by many a stair, to a sumptuous apartment, whose walls, richly painted with the histories of antient heroes, glit­tered with gold and azure.

The siege of Troy, the grand object of the poem, is not conducted according to the classical art of war. All the military machines, invented and used in the crusades, are assembled to demolish the bulwarks of that city, with the addition of great guns. Among other implements of de­struction borrowed from the holy war, the Greek fire, first discovered at Constantinople, with which the Saracens so greatly annoyed the Christian armies, is thrown from the walls of the besieged ^a.

[Page 90] Nor are we only presented in this piece with the habits of feudal life, and the practices of chivalry. The poem is en­riched with a multitude of oriental fictions, and Arabian traditions. Medea gives to Jason, when he is going to com­bat the brazen bulls, and to lull the dragon who guarded the golden fleece asleep, a marvellous ring; in which was a gem whose virtue could destroy the efficacy of poison, and render the wearer invisible. It was the same sort of pre­cious stone, adds our author, which Virgil celebrates, and which Venus sent her son Eneas that he might enter Car­thage unseen. Another of Medea's presents to Jason, to assist him in this perilous atchievement, is a silver image, or talisman, which defeated all the powers of incantation, and was framed according to principles of astronomy ^b. The hall of king Priam is illuminated at night by a prodigious carbuncle, placed among saphires, rubies, and pearls, on the crown of a golden statue of Jupiter, fifteen cubits high ^c. In the court of the palace, was a tree made by magic, whose trunk was twelve cubits high; the branches, which overshadowed distant plains, were alternately of solid gold and silver, blossomed with gems of various hues, which were renewed every day ^d. Most of these extravagancies, and a thousand more, are in Guido de Colonna, who lived when this mode of fabling was at its height. But in the fourth book, Dares ^e Phrigius is particularly cited for a description of Priam's palace, which seemed to be founded by FAYRIE, or enchantment; and was paved with crystal, built of dia­monds, saphires, and emeralds, and supported by ivory pillars, surmounted with golden images ^f. This is not, however, in Dares. The warriors who came to the assistance of the Trojans, afford an ample field for invention. One of them be [...]ongs to a region of forests; amid the gloom of which wander many monstrous beasts, not real, but appearances [Page 91] or illusive images, formed by the deceptions of necromancy, to terrify the traveller ^g. King Epistrophus brings from the land beyond the Amazons, a thousand knights; among which is a terrible archer, half man and half beast, who neighs like a horse, whose eyes sparkle like a furnace, and strike dead like lightening ^h. This is Shake­speare's DREADFUL SAGITTARY ⁱ. The Trojan horse, in the genuine spirit of Arabian philosophy, is formed of brass ^k [...] of such immense size, as to contain a thousand soldiers.

Colonna, I believe, gave the Trojan story its romantic additions. It had long before been falsified by Dictys and Dares; but those writers, misrepresenting or enlarging Homer, only invented plain and credible facts. They were the basis of Colonna: who first filled the faint outlines of their fabulous history with the colourings of eastern fancy, and adorned their scanty forgeries with the gorgeous trappings of Gothic chivalry. Or, as our author expresses himself in his Prologue, speaking of Colonna's improvements on his originals.

Cloathed with these new inventions, this favourite tale descended to later times. Yet it appears, not only with these, but with an infinite variety of other embellish­ments, not fabricated by the fertile genius of Colonna, but [Page 92] adopted from French enlargements of Colonna, and incorpo­rated from romances on other subjects, in the French RE­CUYEL OF TROY, written by a French ecclesiastic, Rauol le Feure, about the year 1464, and translated by Caxton ^l.

The description of the city of Troy, as newly built by king Priam, is extremely curious; not for the capricious incredibilities and absurd inconsistencies which it exhibits ^m, but because it conveys anecdotes of antient architecture, and especially of that florid and improved species, which began to grow fashionable in Lydgate's age. Although much of this is in Colonna. He avoids to describe it geometrically, having never read Euclid. He says that Priam procured,

That he sent for such as could ‘"grave, groupe, or carve, were sotyll in their fantasye, good devysours, marveylous of castinge, who could raise a wall with batayling and crestes marciall, every imageour in entayle ⁿ, and every portreyour who could paynt the work with fresh hewes, who could pullish alabaster, and make an ymage."’

The sides of every street were covered with freshe alures ^q of marble, or cloisters, crowned with rich and lofty pin­nacles, and fronted with tabernacular or open work ^r, vaulted like the dormitory of a monastery, and called deambulatories, for the accommodation of the citizens in all weathers.

And again, of Priam's palace.

[Page 94] With regard to the reality of the last circumstance, we are told, that in Studley castle in Shropshire, the windows, so late as the reign of Elizabeth, were of beryl ^t.

The account of the Trojan theatre must not be omitted, as it displays the imperfect ideas of the stage, at least of dramatic exhibition, which now prevailed; or rather, the absolute inexistence of this sort of spectacle. Our author supposes, that comedies and tragedies were first represented at Troy ^s. He defines a comedy to begin with complaint and to end with gladnesse: expressing the actions of those only who live in the lowest condition. But tragedy, he informs us, begins in prosperity, and ends in adversity: shewing the wonderful vicissitudes of fortune which have happened in the lives of kings and mighty conquerours. In the theatre of Troy, he adds, was a pulpit, in which stood a poet, who rehearsed the noble dedes that were historial of kynges, prynces, and worthy emperours; and, above all, related those fatal and sudden catastrophes, which they sometimes suffered by murther, poison, conspiracy, or other secret and unfore­seen machinations.

It is added, that these plays, or rytes of tragedyes old, were acted at Troy, and in the theatre halowed and yholde, when the months of April and May returned.

In this detail of the dramatic exhibition which prevailed in the ideal theatre of Troy, a poet, placed on the stage in a pulpit, and characteristically habited, is said to have recited a series of tragical adventures; whose pathetic narrative was afterwards expressed, by the dumb gesticulations of a set of masqued actors. Some perhaps may be inclined to think, that this imperfect species of theatric representation, was the rude drama of Lydgate's age. But surely Lydgate would not have described at all, much less in a long and laboured digression, a public shew, which from its nature was familiar and notorious. On the contrary, he describes it as a thing obsolete, and existing only in remote times. Had a more perfect and legitimate stage now subsisted, he would not have deviated from his subject, to communicate unnecessary in­formation, and to deliver such minute definitions of tragedy and comedy. On the whole, this formal history of a theatre, conveys nothing more than an affected display of Lydgate's learning; and is collected, yet with apparent inaccuracy and confusion of circumstances, from what the antient gram­marians have left concerning the origin of the Greek tragedy. [Page 96] Or perhaps it might be borrowed by our author from some French paraphrastic version of Colonna's Latin romance.

Among the antient authors, beside those already mentioned, cited in this poem, are Lollius for the history of Troy, Ovid for the tale of Medea and Jason, Ulysses and Polyphemus, the Myrmidons and other stories, Statius for Polynices and Eteocles, the venerable Bede, Fulgentius the mythologist, Justinian with whose institutes Colonna as a civilian must have been well acquainted, Pliny, and Jacobus de Vitriaco. The last is produced to prove, that Philometer, a famous philo­sopher, invented the game of chess, to divert a tyrant from his cruel purposes, in Chaldea; and that from thence it was im­ported into Greece. But Colonna, or rather Lydgate, is of a different opinion; and contends, in opposition to his authority, that this game, so sotyll and so marvaylous, was discovered by pru­dent clerkes during the siege of Troy, and first practiced in that city. ⁴⁶¹ Jacobus de Vitriaco was a canon regular at Paris, and, among other dignities in the church, bishop of Ptole­mais in Palestine, about the year 1230. This tradition of the invention of chess is mentioned by Jacobus de Vitriaco in his ORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL HISTORY ^z. The anec­dote of Philometer is, I think, in Egidius Romanus on this subject, above-mentioned. Chaucer calls Athalus, that is Attalus Philometer, the same person, and who is often men­tioned in Pliny, the invento [...] of chess ^a.

I must not pass over an instance of Lydgate's gallantry, as it is the gallantry of a monk. Colonna takes all oppor­tunities of satirising the fair sex; and Lydgate with great politeness declares himself absolutely unwilling to translate those passages of this severe moralist, which contain such unjust and illiberal misrepresentations of the female cha­racter. Instead of which, to obviate these injurious reflec­tions, our translator enters upon a formal vindication of [Page 97] the ladies; not by a panegyric on their beauty, nor encomiums on those amiable accomplishments, by which they refine our sensibilities, and give elegance to life; but by a display of that religious fortitude with which some women have suf­fered martyrdom; or of that inflexible chastity, by means of which others have been snatched up alive into heaven, in a state of genuine virginity. Among other striking examples which the calendar affords, he mentions the transcendent grace of the eleven thousand virgins who were martyred at Cologne in Germany. In the mean time, female saints, as I suspect, in the barbarous ages were regarded with a greater degree of respect, on account of those exaggerated ideas of gallantry which chivalry inspired: and it is not improbable that the distinguished honours paid to the virgin Mary might have partly proceeded from this principle.

Among the anachronistic improprieties which this poem contains, some of which have been pointed out, the most conspicuous is the fiction of Hector's sepulchre, or tomb: which also merits our attention for another reason, as it affords us an opportunity of adding some other notices of the modes of antient architecture to those already men­tioned. The poet from Colonna supposes, that Hector was buried in the principal church of Troy, near the high altar, within a magnificent oratory, erected for that purpose, exactly resembling the Gothic shrines of our cathedrals, yet charged with many romantic decorations.

[Page 98] The structure is supported by angels of gold. The steps are of crystall. Within, is not only an image of Hector in solid gold; but his body embalmed, and exhibited to view with the resemblance of real life, by means of a precious liquor circulating through every part in golden tubes arti­ficially disposed, and operating on the principles of vegeta­tion. This is from the chemistry of the times. Before the body were four inextinguishible lamps in golden sockets. To complete the work, Priam founds a regular chantry of priests, whom he accommodates with mansions near the church, and endows with revenues, to sing in this oratory for the soul of his son Hector ^c.

In the Bodleian library, there is a prodigious folio manu­script on vellum, a translation of Colonna's TROJAN HISTORY into verse ^d; which has been confounded with Lydgate's TROYE-BOKE now before us. But it is an entirely different work, and is written in the short minstrel-metre. I have given a specimen of the Prologue, above ^e. It appears to me to be Lydgate's TROYE-BOKE divested of the octave stanza, and reduced into a measure which might more commodiously be sung to the harp ^f. It is not likely that Lydgate is its [Page 99] author: that he should either thus transform his own com­position, or write a new piece on the subject. That it was a poem in some considerable estimation, appears from the size and splendour of the manuscript: and this circumstance [Page 100] induces me to believe, that it was at a very early period ascribed to Lydgate. On the other hand, it is extraordinary that the name of the writer of so prolix and laborious a work, respectable and conspicuous at least on account of its length, should have never transpired. The language accords with Lydgate's age, and is of the reign of Henry the sixth: and to the same age I refer the hand-writing, which is exe­cuted with remarkable elegance and beauty.

TWO more poets remain to be mentioned under the reign of Henry the sixth, if mere translation merit that appellation. These are Hugh Campeden and Thomas Chester.

The first was a great traveller, and translated into English verse the French romance of SIDRAC ^g. This translation, a book of uncommon rarity, was printed with the following title, at the expence of Robert Saltwood, a monk of saint Austin's convent at Canterbury, in the year 1510. ‘"The Historie of king Boccus and SYDRACKE how he confoundyd his lerned men, and in the sight of them dronke stronge venyme in the name of the trinite and dyd him no hurt. Al [...]o his divynite that he lerned of the boke of Noe. Also his profesyes that he had by revelation of the angel. Also his aunsweris to the questyons of wysdom both morall and naturall with muche wysdom contayned in [the] noumber CCCLXV. Translated by Hugo of Caum­peden out of French into Englishe, &c ^h.’ There is no sort of elegance in the diction, nor harmony in the versifi­cation. It is in the minstrel-metre ⁱ.

[Page 102] Thomas Chestre appears also to have been a writer for the minstrels. No anecdote of his life is preserved. He has left a poem entitled Sir LAUNFALE, one of Arthur's knights [...] who is celebrated with other champions in a set of French metrical tales or romances, written by some Armorican bard, under the name of LANVAL ^k. They are in the British Museum ^l.

[Page 103] I think I have seen some evidence to prove, that Chestre was also the author of the metrical romance called the ERLE OF THOLOUSE ^m. This is one of the romances called LAIS by the poets of Britany, or Armorica: as appears from these lines,

And that it is a translation, appears from the reference to an original, ‘"The Romans telleth so."’ I will however give the outlines of the story, which is not uninteresting, nor inartificially constructed.

Dioclesian, a powerful emperour in Germany, has a rupture with Barnard earl of Tholouse, concerning boun­daries of territory. Contrary to the repeated persuasions of the empress, who is extremely beautiful, and famous for her conjugal fidelity, he meets the earl, with a numerous army, in a pitched battle, to decide the quarrel. The earl is victorious, and carries home a great multitude of pri­soners, the most respectable of which is sir Tralabas of Turky, whom he treats as his companion. In the midst of their festivities they talk of the beauties of the empress; the earl's curiosity is inflamed to see so matchless a lady, and he promises liberty to sir Tralabas, if he can be conducted un­known to the emperour's court, and obtain a sight of her without discovery. They both set forward, the earl dis­guised like a hermit. When they arrive at the emperour's court, sir Tralabas proves false: treacherously imparts the secret to the empress that he has brought with him the earl [Page 104] of Tholouse in disguise, who is enamoured of her celebrated beauty; and proposes to take advantage of so fair an oppor­tunity of killing the emperour's great and avowed enemy. She rejects the proposal with indignation, injoyns the knight not to communicate the secret any farther, and desires to see the earl next day in the chapel at mass. The next day the earl in his hermit's weeds is conveniently placed at mass. At leav­ing the chapel, he asks an alms of the empress; and she gives him forty florins and a ring. He receives the present of the ring with the highest satisfaction, and although obliged to return home, in point of prudence, and to avoid detection, comforts himself with this reflection.

He then returns home. The emperour is called into some distant country; and leaves his consort in the custody of two knights, who attempting to gain her love without suc­cess, contrive a stratagem to defame her chastity. She is thrown into prison, and the emperour returns unexpectedly ^o, in consequence of a vision. The tale of the two treacherous knights is believed, and she is sentenced to the flames: yet under the restriction, that if a champion can be found who shall foil the two knights in battle, her honour shall be cleared, and her life saved. A challenge is published in all [Page 105] parts of the world; and the earl of Tholouse, notwithstand­ing the animosities which still subsist between him and the emperour, privately undertakes her quarrel. He appears at the emperour's court in the habit of a monk, and obtains permission to act as confessor to the empress, in her present critical situation. In the course of the confession, she pro­tests that she was always true to the emperour; yet owns that once she gave a ring to the earl of Tholouse. The supposed confessor pronounces her innocent of the charge brought against her; on which one of the traiterous knights affirms [...] that the monk was suborned to publish this confession, and that he deserved to be consumed in the same fire which was prepared for the lady. The monk pretending that the honour of his religion and character was affected by this insinuation, challenges both the knights to combat: they are conquered; and the empress, after this trial, is declared innocent. He then openly discovers himself to be the earl of Tholouse, the emperour's antient enemy. A solemn re­conciliation ensues. The earl is appointed seneschal of the emperour's domain. The emperour lives only three years, and the earl is married to the empress.

In the execution of this performance, our author was obliged to be concise, as the poem was intended to be sung to the harp. Yet, when he breaks through this restraint, in­stead of dwelling on some of the beautiful situations which [...]he story affords, he is diffuse in displaying trivial and un­important circumstances. These popular poets are never so happy, as when they are describing a battle or a feast.

It will not perhaps be deemed impertinent to observe, that about this period the minstrels were often more amply paid than the clergy. In this age, as in more enlightened times, the people loved better to be pleased than instructed. During many of the years of the reign of Henry the sixth, particularly in the year 1430, at the annual feast of the fraternity of the HOLIE CROSSE at Abingdon, a town in [Page 106] Berkshire, twelve priests each received four pence for sing­ing a dirge: and the same number of minstrels were re­warded each with two shillings and four pence, beside diet and horse-meat. Some of these minstrels came only from Maydenhithe, or Maidenhead, a town at no great distance in the same county ^p. In the year 1441, eight priests were hired from Coventry to assist in celebrating a yearly obit in the church of the neighbouring priory of Maxtoke; as were six minstrels, called MIMI, belonging to the family of [...]ord Clinton, who lived in the adjoining castle of Maxtoke, to sing, harp, and play, in the hall of the monastery, during the extraordinary refection allowed to the monks on that anniversary. Two shillings were given to the priests, and four to the minstrels ^q: and the latter are said to have supped in camera picta, or the painted chamber of the con­vent, with the subprior ^r, on which occasion the chamberlain furnished eight massy tapers of wax ^s. That the gratuities allowed to priests, even if learned, for their labours, in the same age of devotion, were extremely slender, may be col­lected from other expences of this priory ^t. In the same year, the prior gives only sixpence ^u for a sermon, to a DOCTOR PRAEDICANS, or an itinerant doctor in theology of one of the mendicant orders, who went about preaching to the religious houses.

We are now arrived at the reign of king Edward the fourth, who acceded to the throne in the year 1461 ^w. But [Page 107] before I proceed in my series, I will employ the remainder of this section in fixing the reader's attention on an im­portant circumstance, now operating in its full extent, and therefore purposely reserved for this period, which greatly contributed to the improvement of our literature, and con­sequently of our poetry: I mean the many translations of Latin books, especially classics, which the French had been making for about the two last centuries, and were still con­tinuing to make, into their own language. In order to do this more effectually, I will collect into one view the most distinguished of these versions: not solicitous about those notices on this subject which have before occurred inciden­tally; nor scrupulous about the charge of anticipation, which, to prepare the reader, I shall perhaps incur by lengthening this enquiry, for the sake of comprehension, beyond the limits of the period just assigned. In the mean time it may be pertinent to premise, that from the close communication which formerly subsisted between England and France, manuscript copies of many of these translations, elegantly written, and often embellished with the most splendid illu­minations and curious miniatures, were presented by the translators or their patrons to the kings of England; and that they accordingly appear at present among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum. Some of these, how­ever, were transcribed, if not translated, by command of our kings; and others brought into England, and placed in the royal library, by John duke of Bedford, regent of France.

It is not consistent with my design, to enumerate the Latin legends, rituals, monastic rules, chronicles, and historical parts of the bible, such as the BOOK OF KINGS and the MACCABEES, which were looked upon as stories of chivalry ^x, translated by the French before the year 1200. These soon [Page 108] became obsolete: and are, besides, too deeply tinctured with the deplorable superstition and barbarity of their age, to bear a recital ^y. I will therefore begin with the thirteenth cen­tury. In the year 1210, Peter Comestor's ^z HISTORIA SCHO­LASTICA, a sort of breviary of the old and new testament, accompanied with elaborate expositions from Josephus and many pagan writers, a work compiled at Paris about the year 1175, and so popular, as not only to be taught in schools, but even to be publicly read in the churches with its glosses, was translated into French by Guiart des Moulins, a canon of Aire ^a. About the same time, some of the old translations into French made in the eleventh century by Thibaud de Vernon, canon of Rouen, were retouched: and the Latin legends of many lives of saints, particularly of saint George, of Thomas a Beckett, and the martyrdom of saint Hugh, a child murthered in 1206 by a Jew at Lincoln ^b, were reduced into French verse. These pieces, to which I must add a metrical version of the bible from Genesis to He­zekiah, by being written in rhyme, and easy to be sung, soon became popular, and produced the desired impression on the minds of the people ^c. They were soon followed by the version of AEGIDIUS DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM ^d, by Henri de [Page 109] Gauchi. Dares Phrygius, The SEVEN SAGES OF ROME by Hebers ^e, Eutropius ^f, and Aristotle's SECRETUM SECRETORUM ^g, appeared about the same time in French. To say nothing of voluminous versions of PANDECTS and feudal COUTUMES ^h, Michael de Harnes translated Turpin's CHARLEMAGNE in the year 1207 ⁱ. It was into prose, in opposition to the prac­tice which had long prevailed of turning Latin prose into French rhymes. This piece, in compliance with an age ad­dicted to romantic fiction, our translator undoubtedly pre­ferred to the more rational and sober Latin historians of Charlemagne and of France, such as Gregory of Tours, Fre­degaire, and Eginhart. In the year 1245, the SPECULUM MUNDI, a system of theology, the seven sciences, geography, and natural philosophy ^k, was translated at the instance of the duke of Berry and Auvergne ^l. Among the royal manu­scripts, is a sort of system of pious tracts, partly of ritual offices, compiled in Latin by the confessors of Philip in 1279, tran­slated into French ^m; which translation queen Isabel ordered to be placed in the church of saint Innocents at Paris, for the use of the people.

The fourteenth century was much more fertile in French translation. The spirit of devotion, and indeed of this species of curiosity, raised by saint Louis, after a short in­termission, rekindled under king John and Charles the fifth. I pass over the prose and metrical translations of the Latin bible in the years 1343, and 1380, by Macè, and Raoul de [Page 110] Presles. Under those reigns, saint Austin, Cassianus, and Gregory the Great ⁿ, were translated into French; and they are the first of the fathers that appeared in a modern tongue. Saint Gregory's HOMELIES are by an anonymous translator ^o. His DIALOGUES were probably translated by an English ec­clesiastic ^p. Saint Austin's DE CIVITATE DEI was translated by Raoul de Presles, who acted professedly both as confessor and translator to Charles the fifth ^q, about the year 1374. During the work he received a yearly pension of six hundred livres from that liberal monarch, the first founder of a royal library in France, at whose command it was undertaken. It is accompanied with a prolix commentary, valuable only at present as preserving anecdotes of the opinions, manners, and literature, of the writer's age; and from which I am tempted to give the following specimen, as it strongly illus­trates the antient state of the French stage, and demonstrably proves that comedy and tragedy were now known only by name in France ^r. He observes, that Comedies are so denomi­nated from a room of entertainment, or from those places, in which banquets were accustomed to be closed with singing, called in Greek CONIAS: that they were like those jeux or plays, which the minstrel, le Chanteur, exhibits in halls or other public places, at a feast: and that they were properly styled INTERLUDIA, as being presented between the two courses. Tragedies, he adds, were spectacles, resembling those personages which at this day we see acting in the LIFE [Page 111] and PASSION of a matyr ^s. This shews that only the religious drama now subsisted in France. But to proceed, Cassianus's COLLATIONES PATRUM, or the CONFERENCES, was translated by John Goulain, a Carmelite monk, about 1363. Two translations of that theological romance Boethius's CON­SOLATION, one by the celebrated Jean de Meun, author of the ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, existed before the year 1340. Others of the early Latin christian writers were ordered to be turned into French by queen Jane, about 1332. But finding that the archbishop of Rouen, who was commissioned to execute this arduous task, did not understand Latin, she employed a mendicant friar. About the same period, and under the same patronage, the LEGENDA AUREA, written by James de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa, about the year 1260, that inexhaustible repository of religious fable ^t, was translated by Jehan de Vignay, a monk hospitalar ^u. The same translator gave also a version of a famous ritual en­titled SPECULUM ECCLESIAE, or the MIRROUR OF THE CHURCH, of CHESS MORALISED, written by Jacobus de Casulis ^w: and of Odoricus's VOYAGE INTO THE EAST ^x. Thomas Benoit, a prior of saint Genevieve gratified the religious with a tran­slation into a more intelligible language of some Latin liturgic pieces about the year 1330. But his chief per­formance was a translation into French verse of the RULE OF SAINT AUSTIN. This he undertook merely on a principle of affection and charity, for the edification of his pious brethren who did not understand Latin.

And in the preface he says, ‘"Or sçai-je que plusieurs de vous n' entendent pas bien LATIN auquel il fut chose necessaire de la rieule [regle] entendre."’ Benoit's successour in the priorate of saint Genevieve was not equally attentive to the discipline and piety of his monks. Instead of translating monkish Latin, and enforcing the salutary regulations of saint Austin, he wrote a system of rules for BALLAD-WRIT­ING, L'ART DE DICTIER BALLADE ET RONDELS, the first Art of poetry that ever appeared in France.

Among the moral books now translated, I must not omit the SPIRITUELLE AMITIE of John of Meun, from the Latin of Aldred an English monk ^y. In the same style of mystic piety was the treatise of CONSOLATION, written in Latin, by Vincent de Beauvais, and sent to saint Louis, translated in the year 1374. In the year 1340, Henri de Suson, a Ger­man dominican and a mystic doctor, wrote a most compre­hensive treatise called HOROLOGIUM SAPIENTIAE. This was translated into French by a monk of saint François ^z. Even the officers of the court of Charles the fifth were seized with the ardour of translating religious pieces, no less than the ecclesiastics. The most elegant tract of moral Latinity tran­slated into French, was the celebrated book of our country­man John of Salisbury, DE NUGIS CURIALIUM. This version was made by Denis Soulechart, a learned Cordelier, about the year 1360. Notwithstanding the EPISTLES of Abelard and Eloisa, not only from the celebrity of Abelard as a Parisian theologist, but on account of the interesting history of that unfortunate pair, must have been as commonly known, and as likely to be read in the original, as any Latin [Page 113] book in France, they were translated into French in this century, by John of Meun; who prostituted his abilities when he relinquished his own noble inventions, to interpret the pedantries of monks, schoolmen, and proscribed classics. I think he also translated Vegetius, who will occur again ^a. In the library of saint Genevieve, there is, in a sort of sys­tem of religion, a piece called JERARCHIE, translated from Latin into French at the command of our queen Elinor in the year 1297, by a French friar ^b. I must not however forget, that amidst this profusion of treatises of religion and instruction, civil history found a place. That immense chaos of events real and fictitious, the HISTORICAL MIRROUR of Vincent de Beauvais, was translated by Jehan de Vignay above mentioned ^c. One is not surprised that the translator of the GOLDEN LEGEND should make no better choice.

The desolation produced in France ^d by the victorious armies of the English, was instantly succeeded by a flourish­ing state of letters. King John, having indulged his de­votion, and satisfied his conscience, by procuring numerous versions of books written on sacred subjects, at length turn­ed his attention to the classics. His ignorance of Latin was a fortunate circumstance, as it produced a curiosity to know the treasures of Latin literature. He employed Peter Ber­cheur, prior of saint Eloi at Paris, an eminent theologist, to translate Livy into French ^e; notwithstanding that author [Page 114] had been anathematised by pope Gregory. But so judicious a choice was undoubtedly dictated by Petrarch, who regard­ed Livy with a degree of enthusiasm, who was now resident at the court of France, and who perhaps condescended to direct and superintend the translation. The translator in his Latin work called REPERTORIUM, a sort of general dictionary, in which all things are proved to be allegorical, and reduced to a moral meaning, under the word ROMA, records this great attempt in the following manner. ‘"TITUM LIVIUM, ad requisitionem domini Johannis inclyti Francorum regis, non sine labore et sudoribus, in linguam Gallicam transtuli ^f."’ To this translation we must join those of Sallust, Lucan, and Cesar: all which seem to have been finished before the year 1365. This revival of a taste for Roman history, most probably introduced and propagated by Petrarch during his short stay in the French court, immediately produced a Latin historical compilation called ROMULEON, by an anonymous gentleman of France; who soon found it necessary to tran­slate his work into the vernacular language. Valerius Maxi­mus could not remain long untranslated. A version of that favourite author, begun by Simon de Hesdin, a monk, in 1364, was finished by Nicolas de Gonesse, a master in the­ology, 1401 ^g. Under the last-mentioned reign, Ovid's Me­tamorphoses MORALISED ^h were translated by Guillaume de Nangis: and the same poem was translated into French verse, at the request of Jane de Bourbonne, afterwards the consort [Page 115] of Charles the fifth, by Philip de Vitri, bishop of Meaux, Petrarch's friend, who was living in 1361 ⁱ. A bishop would not have undertaken this work, had he not perceived much moral doctrine couched under the pagan stories. Jean le Fevre, by command of Charles the fifth, translated the poem DE VETULA, falsly ascribed to Ovid ^k. Cicero's RHE­TORICA appeared in French by master John de Antioche, at the request of one friar W [...]lliam, in the year 1383. About the same time, some of Aristotle's pieces were translated from Latin; his PROBLEMS by Evrard de Conti, physician to Charles the fifth: and his ETHICS and POLITICS by Nicholas d'Oresme, while canon of Rouen. This was the most learn­ed man in France, and tutor to Charles the fifth; who, in consequence of his instructions, obtained a competent skill in Latin, and in the rules of the grammar ^l. Other Greek classics, which now began to be known by being translated into Latin, became still more familiarised, especially to ge­neral readers, by being turned into French. Thus Poggius Florentinus's recent Latin version of Xenophon's CYROPEDIA was translated into French by Vasque de Lucerie, 1370 ^m. The TACTICS of Vegetius, an author who frequently con­founds the military practices of his own age with those of antiquity, appeared under [...] the title of LIVRES DES FAIS D'ARMES ET DE CHEVALLERIE, by Christina of Pisa ⁿ. Petrarch [Page 116] DE REMEDIIS UTRIUSQUE FORTUNAE, a set of Latin dialogues, was translated, not only by Nicholas d'Oresme, but by two of the officers of the royal houshold ^o, in com­pliment to Petrarch at his leaving France ^p. Many philo­sophical pieces, particularly in astrology, of which Charles the fifth was remarkably fond, were translated before the [...]nd of the fourteenth century. Among these, I must not pass over the QUADRIPARTITUM of Ptolemy, by Nicholas d'Oresme; the AGRICULTURE ^q, or LIBRI RURALIUM COMMO­DORUM, of Peter de Crescentiis, a physician of Bononia, about the year 1285, by a nameless friar preacher ^r; and the book DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM of Bartholomew Anglicus, the Pliny of the monks, by John Corbichon, an Augustine monk ^s. I have seen a French manuscript of Guido de Co­lonna's Trojan romance [...] the hand-writing of which belongs to this century ^t.

In the fifteenth century it became fashionable among the [Page 117] French, to polish and reform their old rude translations made two hundred years before; and to reduce many of their metrical versions into prose. At the same time, the rage of translating ecclesiastical tracts began to decrease. The latter circumstance was partly owing to the introduction of better books, and partly to the invention of printing. Instead of procuring laborious and expensive translations of the antient fathers, the printers, who multiplied greatly to­wards the close of this century, found their advantage in publishing new translations of more agreeable books, or in giving antient versions in a modern dress ^u. Yet in this century some of the more recent doctors of the church were translated. Not to mention the epistles of saint Jerom, which Antoine Dufour, a Dominican frier, presented in French to Anne de Bretagne, consort to king Charles the eighth, we find saint Anselm's CUR DEUS HOMO ^w, The LA­MENTATIONS OF SAINT BERNARD, The SUM OF THEOLOGY of Albertus Magnus, The PRICK OF DIVINE LOVE ^xof saint Bonaventure a seraphic doctor ^y, with other pieces of the [Page 118] kind, exhibited in the French language before the year 1480, at the petition and under the patronage of many devout duchesses. Yet in the mean time, the lives of saints and sacred history gave way to a species of narrative more enter­taining and not less fabulous. Little more than Josephus, and a few MARTYRDOMS, were now translated from the Latin into French.

The truth is, the French translators of this century were chiefly employed on profane authors. At its commence­ment, a French abridgement of the three first decads of Livy was produced by Henri Romain a canon of Tournay. In the year 1416, Jean de Courci, a knight of Normandy, gave a translation of some Latin chronicle, a HISTORY OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS, entitled BOUQUASSIERE. In 1403, Jean de Courteauisse, a doctor in theology at Paris, tran­slated Seneca on the FOUR CARDINAL VIRTUES ^z. Under the reign of king Charles the seventh, Jean Cossa translated the CHRONOLOGY of Mattheus Palmerius a learned Florentine, and a writer of Italian poetry in imitation of Dante. In the dedication to Jane the third, queen of Jerusalem, and among other titles countess of Provence, the translator apologises for supposing her highness to be ignorant of Latin; when at the same time he is fully convinced, that a lady endowed with so much natural grace, must be perfectly acquainted with that language. ‘"Mais pour ce que le vulgar Françoys est plus commun, j' ai pris peine y translater ladite oeuvre."’ Two other translations were offered to Charles the seventh in the year 1445. One, of the FIRST PUNIC war of Leonard of Arezzo, an anonymous writer, who does not chuse to pub­lish his name a cause de sa petitesse; and the STRATAGEMS of [Page 119] Frontinus, often cited by John of Salisbury, and mentioned in the Epistles of Peter of Blois ^a, by Jean de Rouroy, a Parisian theologist. Under Louis the eleventh, Sebastian Mamerot of Soissons, in the year 1466, attempted a new translation of the ROMULEON: and he professes, that he un­dertook it solely with a view of improving or decorating the French language ^b.

Many French versions of classics appeared in this century. A translation of Quintus Curtius is dedicated to Charles duke of Burgundy, in 1468 ^c. Six years afterwards, the same liberal patron commanded Cesar's COMMENTARIES to be translated by Jean du Chesne ^d. Terence was made French by Guillaume Rippe, the king's secretary, in the year 1466. The following year a new translation of Ovid's METAMOR­PHOSES was executed by an ecclesiastic of Normandy ^e. But much earlier in the century, Laurence Premierfait, men­tioned above, translated, I suppose from the Latin, the OECONOMICS of Aristotle, and Tully's DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE, before the year 1426 ^f. He is said also to have translated some pieces, perhaps the EPISTLES, of Seneca ^g. [Page 120] Encouraged by this example, Jean de Luxembourgh, Lau­rence's cotemporary, translated Tully's Oration against Verres. I must not forget, that Hippocrates and Galen were translated from Latin into French in the year 1429. The translator was Jean Tourtier, surgeon to the duke of Bed­ford, then regent of France; and he humbly supplicates Rauoul Palvin, confessor and physician to the duchess, and John Major, first physician to the duke, and graduate en l'estude d'Auxonford ^h, and master Roullan, physician and as­tronomer of the university of Paris, amicably to amend the faults of this translation, which is intended to place the science and practice of medicine on a new foundation. I presume it was from a Latin version that the ILIAD, about this period, was translated into French metre.

Among other pieces that might be enumerated in this century, in the year 1412, Guillaume de Tignonville, pro­vost of Paris, translated the DICTA PHILOSOPHORUM ⁱ: as did Jean Gallopes dean of the collegiate church of saint Louis, of Salsoye, in Normandy, the ITER VITAE HUMANAE of Guillaume prior of Chalis ^k. This version, entitled LE PE­LERINAGE DE LA VIE HUMAINE, is dedicated to Jean queen of Sicily, above mentioned; a duchess of Anjou and a coun­tess of Provence: who, without any sort of difficulty, could make a transition from the Life of sir Lancelot to that of saint Austin, and who sometimes quitted the tribunal of the COURT OF LOVE to confer with learned ecclesiastics, in an age when gallantry and religion were of equal importance. He also translated, from the same author, a composition of the same ideal and contemplative cast, called LE PELERIN DE L'AME, highly esteemed by those visionaries who preferred [Page 121] religious allegory to romance, which was dedicated to the duke of Bedford ^l. In Bennet college library at Cambridge, there is an elegant illuminated manuscript of Bonaventure's LIFE OF CHRIST, translated by Gallopes; containing a curious picture of the translator presenting his version to our Henry the fifth ^m. About the same time, but before 1427, Jean de Guerre translated a Latin compilation of all that was marvellous in Pliny, Solinus, and the OTIA IMPERIALIA, a book abounding in wonders, of our countryman Gervais of Tilbury ⁿ. The French romance, entitled L'ASSAILLANT, was now translated from the Latin chronicles of the kings of Cologne: and the Latin tract DE BONIS MORIBUS of Ja­cobus Magnus, confessor to Charles the seventh, about the year 1422, was made French ^o. Rather earlier, Jean de Pre­mierfait translated BOCCACIO DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUS­TRIUM ^p. Nor shall I be thought to deviate too far from my detail, which is confined to Latin originals, when I mention here a book, the translation of which into French conduced in an eminent degree to circulate materials for poetry: this is Boccacio's DECAMERON, which Premierfait also tran­slated, at the command of queen Jane of Navarre, who seem [...] to have made no kind of conditions about suppressing the li­centious stories, in the year 1414 ^q.

I am not exactly informed, when the ENEID of Virgil was translated into a sort of metrical romance or history of Eneas, [Page 122] under the title of LIVRE D' ENEIDOS COMPILE PAR VIRGILE, by Guillaume de Roy. But that translation was printed at Lyons in 1483, and appears to have been finished not many years before. Among the translator's historical additions, are the description of the first foundation of Troy by Priam, and the succession of Ascanius and his descendants after the death of Turnus. He introduces a digression upon Boccacio, for giving in his FALL OF PRINCES an account of the death of Dido, different from that in the fourth book of the Eneid. Among his omissions, he passes over Eneas's descent into hell, as a tale manifestly forged, and not to be believed by any rational reader: as if many other parts of the tran­slator's story were not equally fictitious and incredible ^r.

The conclusion intended to be drawn from this long di­gression is obvious. By means of these French translations, our countrymen, who understood French much better than Latin, became acquainted with many useful books which they would not otherwise have known. With such assis­tances, a commodious access to the classics was opened, and the knowledge of antient literature facilitated and famili­arised in England, at a much earlier period than is imagined; and at a time, when little more than the productions of spe­culative monks, and irrefragrable doctors, could be obtained or were studied. Very few Englishmen, I will venture to pronounce, had read Livy before the translation of Ber­cheur was imported by the regent duke of Bedford. It is certain that many of the Roman poets and historians were now read in England, in the original. But the Latin lan­guage was for the most part confined to a few ecclesiastics. When these authors, therefore, appeared in a language almost as intelligible as the English, they fell into the hands of illiterate and common readers, and contributed to sow the seeds of a national erudition, and to form a popular taste. [Page 123] Even the French versions of the religious, philosophical, historical, and allegorical compositions of those more en­lightened Latin writers who flourished in the middle ages, had their use, till better books came into vogue: pregnant as they were with absurdities, they communicated instruc­tion on various and new subjects, enlarged the field of in­formation, and promoted the love of reading, by gratifying that growing literary curiosity which now began to want materials for the exercise of its operations. How greatly our poets in general availed themselves of these treasures, we may collect from this circumstance only: even such writers as Chaucer and Lydgate, men of education and learning, when they translate a Latin author, appear to exe­cute their work through the medium of a French version. It is needless to pursue this history of French translation any farther. I have given my reason for introducing it at all. In the next age, a great and universal revolution in literature ensued; and the English themselves began to turn their thoughts to translation.

These French versions enabled Caxton, our first printer, to enrich the state of letters in this country with many valuable publications. He found it no difficult task, either by himself, or the help of his friends, to turn a considerable number of these pieces into English, which he printed. Antient learning had as yet made too little progress among us, to encourage this enterprising and industrious artist to publish the Roman autho [...]s in their original language ^s: and had not the French furnished him with these materials, it is not likely, that Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, and many other good [Page 124] writers, would by the means of his press have been circu­lated in the English tongue, so early as the close of the fifteenth century ^•.

THE first poet that occurs in the reign of king Edward the fourth is John Harding ^t. He was of northern [Page 126] extraction, and educated in the family of lord Henry Percy ^u: and, at twenty-five years of age, hazarded his fortunes as a volunteer at the decisive battle of Shrewsbury, fought against the Scots in the year 1403. He appears to have been inde­fatigable in [...]xamining original records, chiefly with a design of ascertaining the fealty due from the Scottish kings to the crown of England: and he carried many instruments from Scotland, for the elucidation of this important enquiry, at the hazard of his life, which he delivered at different times to the fifth and sixth Henry, and to Edward the fourth ^w. These investigations seem to have fixed his mind on the study of our national antiquities and history. At length he cloathed his researches in rhyme, which he dedi­cated under that form to king Edward the fourth, and with the title of The Chronicle of England unto the reigne of king Edward the fourth in verse ^x. The copy probably presented to the king, although it exhibits at the end the arms of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, most elegantly transcribed on vellum, and adorned with superb illuminations, is preserved [Page 127] among Selden's manuscripts in the Bodleian library ^y. Our author is concise and compendious in his narrative of events from Brutus to the reign of king Henry the fourth: he is much more minute and diffuse in relating those affairs of which, for more than the space of sixty years, he was a living witness, and which occurred from that period to the reign of Edward the fourth. The poem seems to have been completed about the year 1470. In his final chapter he ex­horts the king, to recall his rival king Henry the sixth, and to restore the partisans of that unhappy prince.

This work is almost beneath criticism, and fit only for the attention of an antiquary. Harding may be pronounced to be the most impotent of our metrical historians, especially when we recollect the great improvements which English poetry had now received. I will not even except Robert of Gloucester, who lived in the infancy of taste and versifica­tion. The chronicle of this authentic and laborious annalist has hardly those more modest graces, which could properly recommend and adorn a detail of the British story in prose. He has left some pieces in prose: and Winstanly says, ‘"as his prose was very usefull, so was his poetry as much de­lightfull."’ I am of opinion, that both his prose and poetry are equally useful and delightful. What can be more frigid and unanimated than these lines?

Fuller affirms our author to have ‘"drunk as deep a draught of Helicon as any of his age."’ An assertion partly true: it is certain, however, that the diction and imagery of our poetic composition would have remained in just the same state had Harding never wrote.

In this reign, the first mention of the king's poet, under the appellation of LAUREATE, occurs. John Kay was ap­pointed poet laureate to Edward the fourth. It is extra­ordinary, that he should have left no pieces of poetry to prove his pretensions in some degree to this office, with which he is said to have been invested by the king, at his return from Italy. The only composition he has transmitted to posterity is a prose English translation of a Latin history of the Siege of Rhodes ^a: in the dedication addressed to king Edward, or rather in the title, he styles himself hys humble poete lau­reate. Although this our laureate furnishes us with no ma­terials as a poet, yet his office, which here occurs for the first time under this denomination, must not pass unnoticed [Page 129] in the annals of English poetry, and will produce a short digression.

Great confusion has entered into this subject, on account of the degrees in grammar, which included rhetoric and ver­sification ^b, antiently taken in our universities, particularly at Oxford: on which occasion, a wreath of laurel was pre­sented to the new graduate, who was afterwards usually styled poeta laureatus ^c. These scholastic laureations, however, seem to have given rise to the appellation in question. I will give some instances at Oxford, which at the same time will explain the nature of the studies for which our acca­demical philologists received their rewards. About the year 1470, one John Watson, a student in grammar, obtained a concession to be graduated and laureated in that science; on condition that he composed one hundred Latin verses in praise of the university, and a Latin comedy ^d. Another grammarian was distinguished with the same badge, after having stipulated, that, at the next public Act, he would affix the same number of hexameters on the great gates of saint Mary's church, that they might be seen by the whole uni­versity. This was at that period the most convenient mode of publication ^e. About the same time, one Maurice Byrchensaw, [Page 130] a scholar in rhetoric, supplicated to be admitted to read lectures, that is, to take a degree, in that faculty; and his petition was granted, with a provision, that he should write one hundred verses on the glory of the univer­sity, and not suffer Ovid's ART OF LOVE, and the Elegies of Pamphilus ^f, to be studied in his auditory ^g. Not long after­wards, one John Bulman, another rhetorician, having com­plied with the terms imposed, of explaining the first book of Tully's OFFICES, and likewise the first of his EPISTLES, without any pecuniary emolument, was graduated in rhe­toric; and a crown of laurel was publicly placed on his head by the hands of the chancellour of the university ^h. About the year 1489 ⁱ, Skelton was laureated at Oxford, and in the year 1493, was permitted to wear his laurel at Cambridge ^k. Robert Whittington affords the last instance of a rhetorical degree at Oxford. He was a secular priest, and eminent for his various treatises in grammar, and for his facility in Latin poetry: having exercised his art many years, and submitting to the customary demand of an hundred verses, he was honoured with the laurel in the year 1512 ⁱ. This title is [Page 131] prefixed to one of his grammatical systems. ‘"ROBERTI WHITTINTONI, Lichfeldiensis, Grammatices Magistri, PRO­TOVATIS Angliae, in florentissima Oxoniensi Achademia LAU­REATI, DE OCTO PARTIBUS ORATIONIS ^m."’ In his PANE­GYRIC to cardinal Wolsey, he mentions his laurel,

With regard to the Poet laureate of the kings of England, an officer of the court remaining under that title to this day, he is undoubtedly the same that is styled the KING'S VER­SIFIER, and to whom one hundred shillings were paid as his annual stipend, in the year 1251 ^o. But when or how that title commenced, and whether this officer was ever solemnly crowned with laurel at his first investiture, I will not pre­tend to determine, after the [...]earches of the learned Selden on this question have proved unsuccessful. It seems most probable, that the barbarous and inglorious name of VER­SIFIER gradually gave way to an appellation of more ele­gance and dignity: or rather, that at length, those only were in general invited to this appointment, who had re­ceived accademical sanction, and had merited a crown of laurel in the universities for their abilities in Latin compo­sition, particularly Latin versification. Thus the king's Laureate was nothing more than ‘"a graduated rhetorician [Page 132] employed in the service of the king."’ That he originally wrote in Latin, appears from the antient title versificator: and may be moreover collected from the two Latin poems, which Baston and Gulielmus, who appear to have respectively acted in the capacity of royal poets to Richard the first and Ed­ward the second, officially composed on Richard's crusade, and Edward's [...]iege of Striveling castle ^p.

Andrew Bernard, successively poet laureate of Henry the seventh and the eighth, affords a still stronger proof that this officer was a Latin scholar. He was a native of Tho­louse, and an Augustine monk. He was not only the king's poet laureate ^q, as it is supposed, but his historiographer ^r, and preceptor in grammar to prince Arthur. He obtained many eccle [...]iastical preferments in England ^s. All the pieces now to be found, which he wrote in the character of poet laureate, are in Latin ^t. These are, an ADDRESS to Henry the [Page 133] eighth for the most auspicious beginning of the tenth year of his reign, with an EPITHALAMIUM on the marriage of Francis the Dauphin of France with the king's daughter ^u. A NEW YEAR'S­GIFT for the year 1515 ^w. And verses wishing prosperity to his majesty's thirteenth year ^x. He has left some Latin hymns ^y: and many of his Latin prose pieces, which he wrote in the quality of historiographer to both monarchs, are remaining ^z.

I am of opinion, that it was not customary for the royal laureate to write in English, till the reformation of religion had begun to diminish the veneration for the Latin language: or rather, till the love of novelty, and a better sense of things, had banished the narrow pedantries of monastic erudition, and taught us to cultivate our native tongue. In the mean time it is to be wished, that another change might at least be suffered to take place in the execution of this institution, which is confessedly Gothic, and unaccommodated to modern manners. I mean, that the more than annual return of a composition on a trite argument would be no longer re­quired. I am conscious I say this at a time, when the best of kings affords the most just and copious theme for pane­gyric: but I speak it at a time, when the department is honourably filled by a poet of taste and genius, which are idly wasted on the most splendid subjects, when imposed by constraint, and perpetually repeated.

To what is here incidentally collected on an article more [Page 134] curious than important, I add an observation, which shews that the practice of other nations in this respect altogether corresponded with that of our own. When we read of the laureated poets of Italy and Germany, we are to remember, that they most commonly received this honour from the state, or some university; seldom, at least not immediately, from the prince: and if we find any of these professedly em­ployed in the department of a court-poet, that they were not, in consequence of that peculiar situation, styled poets laureate. The distinction, at least in general, was previously conferred ^a.

John Scogan is commonly supposed to have been a co­temporary of Chaucer, but this is a mistake ^b. He was educated at Oriel college in Oxford: and being an excellent mimic, and of great pleasantry in conversation, became the favourite buffoon of the court of Edward the fourth, in which he passed the greatest part of his life. Bale inaccu­rately calls Scogan, the JOCULATOR of Edward the fourth: by which word he seems simply to understand the king's JOKER, for he certainly could not mean that Scogan was his majesty's MINSTREL ^c. Andrew Borde, a mad physician and [Page 135] a dull poet in the reign of Henry the eighth, published his JESTS, under the title of SCOGIN'S JESTS ^d, which are with­out humour or invention; and give us no very favourable idea of the delicacy of the king and courtiers, who could be exhilarated by the merriments of such a writer. A MORAL BALADE, printed in Chaucer's works, addressed to the dukes of Clarenc [...], Bedford, and Gloucester, and sent from a tavern in the Vintry at London, is attributed to Scogan ^e. But our jocular bard evidently mistakes his talents when he attempts to give advice. This piece is the dullest sermon that ever was written in the octave stanza. Bale mentions his CO­MEDIES ^f, which certainly mean nothing dramatic, and are perhaps only his JESTS above-mentioned. He seems to have flourished about the year 1480.

Two didactic poets on chemistry appeared in this reign, John Norton and George Ripley. Norton was a native of Bristol ^g, and the most skillful alchemist of his age ^h. His poem is called the ORDINAL, or a manual of the chemical art ⁱ. It was presented to Nevil archbishop of York, who was a great patron of the hermetic philosophers ^k; which were lately grown so numerous in England, as to occasion [Page 136] an act of parliament against the transmutation of metals. Norton's reason for treating his subject in English rhyme, was to circulate the principles of a science of the most con­summate utility among the unlearned ^l. This poem is totally void of every poetical elegance. The only wonder which it relates, belonging to an art, so fertile in striking inven­tions, and contributing to enrich the store-house of Arabian romance with so many magnificent imageries, is that of an alchemist, who projected a bridge of gold over the river Thames near London, crowned with pinnacles of gold, which being studded with carbuncles, diffused a blaze of light in the dark ^m. I will add a few lines only, as a specimen of his versification.

Norton's heroes in the occult sciences are Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Raymond Lully, to whose specious promises of supplying the coinage of England with inexhaustible mines of philosophical gold, king Edward the third became an illustrious dupe ^o.

George Ripley, Norton's cotemporary, was accomplished [Page 137] in many parts of erudition; and still maintains his reputa­tion as a learned chemist of the lower ages. He was a canon regular of the monastery of Bridlington in Yorkshire, a great traveller ^p, and studied both in France and Italy. At his return from abroad, pope Innocent the eighth absolved him from the observance of the rules of his order, that he might prosecute his studies with more convenience and freedom. But his convent not concurring with this very liberal indulgence, he turned Carmelite at saint Botolph's in Lincolnshire, and died an anachorite in that fraternity in th [...] year 1490 ^q. His chemical poems are nothing more than the doctrines of alchemy cloathed in plain language, and a very rugged versification. The capital performance is THE COMPOUND OF ALCHEMIE, written in the year 1471 ^r. It is in the octave metre, and dedicated to Edward the fourth ^s. Ripley has left a few other compositions on his favourite science, printed by Ashmole, who was an enthu­siast in this abused species of philosophy ^t. One of them, [Page 138] the MEDULLA, written in 1476, is dedicated to archbishop Nevil ^u. These pieces have no other merit, than that of serv­ing to develope the history of chemistry in England. They certainly contributed nothing to the state of our poetry ^w.

BUT a want of genius will be no longer imputed to this period of our poetical history, if the poems lately discovered at Bristol, and said to have been written by Thomas Rowlie, a secular priest of that place, about the year one thousand four hundred and seventy, are genuine.

It must be acknowledged, that there are some circumstances which incline us to suspect these pieces to be a modern forgery. On the other hand, as there is some degree of plausibility in the history of their discovery, as they possess considerable merit, and are held to be the real productions of Rowlie by many respectable critics; it is my duty to give them a place in this series of our poetry, if it was for no other reason than that the world might be furnished with an opportunity of examining their authenticity. By exhibiting therefore the most specious evidences, which I have been able to collect, concerning the manner in which they were brought to light ^a, and by producing such specimens, as in another re­spect cannot be deemed unacceptable; I will endeavour, not only to gratify the curiosity of the public on a subject that has long engaged the general attention, and has never yet been fairly or fully stated, but to supply the more inquisitive reader with every argument, both external and internal, for determining the merits of this interesting controversy. I shall take the liberty to add my own opinion, on a point at least doubtful: but with the greatest deference to decisions of much higher authority.

About the year 1470, William Cannynge, an opulent mer­chant and an alderman of Bristol, afterwards an ecclesiastic, [Page 140] and dean of Westbury college, erected the magnificent church of Saint Mary of Redcliffe, or Radcliff, near Bristol ^b. In a muniment-room over the northern portico of the church, the founder placed an iron chest, secured by six different locks ^c; which seems to have been principally intended to receive instruments relating to his new structure, and per­haps to his other charities ^d, inventories of vestments and ornaments ^e, accompts of church-wardens, and other paro­chial evidences. He is said to have directed, that this vene­rable chest should be annually visited and opened by the mayor and other chief magistrates of Bristol, attended by the vicar and church-wardens of the parish: and that a feast should be celebrated every year, on the day of visita­tion. But this order, that part at least which relates to the inspection of the chest, was soon neglected.

In the year 1768, when the present new bridge at Bristol was finished and opened for passengers, an account of the ceremonies observed on occasion of opening the old bridge, appeared in one of the Bristol Journals; taken, as it was declared, from an antient manuscript ^f. Curiosity was na­turally raised to know from whence it came. At length, after much enquiry concerning the person who sent this singular memoir to the news-paper, it was discovered that he [Page 141] was a youth about seventeen years old, whose name was Chatterton; and whose father had been sexton of Radcliffe church for many years, and also master of a writing-school in that parish, of which the church-wardens were trustees. The father however was now dead: and the son was at first unwilling to acknowledge, from whom, or by what means, he had procured so valuable an original. But after many pro­mises, and some threats, he confessed that he received a manuscript on parchment containing the narrative above­mentioned, together with many other manuscripts on parch­ment [...] from his father; who had found them in an iron chest, the same that I have mentioned, placed in a room situated over the northern entrance of the church.

It appears that the father became possessed of these manu­scripts in the year 1748. For in that year, he was permit­ted, by the church-wardens of Radcliffe-church, to take from this chest several written pieces of parchment, sup­posed to be illegible and useless, for the purpose of conver­ting them into covers for the writing-books of his scholars. It is impossible to ascertain, what, or how many, writings were destroyed, in consequence of this absurd and unwar­rantable indulgence. Our school-master, however, whose accomplishments were much above his station, and who was not totally destitute of a taste for poetry, found, as it is said, in this immense heap of obsolete manuscripts, many poems written by Thomas Rowlie abovementioned, priest of Saint John's church in Bristol, and the confessor of al­derman Cannynge, which he carefully preserved. These at his death, of course fell into the hands of his son.

Of the extraordinary talents of this young man more will be said hereafter. It will be sufficient to observe at pre­sent, that he saw the merit and value of these poems, which he diligently transcribed. In the year 1770, he went to Lon­don, carrying with him these transcripts, and many originals, in hopes of turning so in [...]stimable a treasure to his great [Page 142] advantage. But from these flattering expectations, falling into a dissipated course of life, which ill suited with his narrow circumstances, and finding that a writer of the most distin­guished taste and judgement, Mr. Walpole, had pronounced the poems to be suspicious, in a fit of despair, arising from distress and disappointment, he destroyed all his papers, and poisoned himself. Some of the poems however, both tran­scripts and originals, he had previously sold, either to Mr. Catcott, a merchant of Bristol, or to Mr. Barrett, an emi­nent surgeon of the same place, and an ingenious antiquary, with whom they now remain ^g. But it appears, that among these there were but very few of parchment: most of the poems which they purchased were copies in his own hand. He was always averse to give any distinct or satisfactory account of what he possessed: but from time to time, as his necessities required, he produced copies of his originals, which were bought by these gentlemen. The originals, one or two only excepted, he chose to retain in his own possession.

The chief of these poems are, The TRAGEDY of ELLA, The EXECUTION of sir CHARLES BAWDWIN, ODE to ELLA, The BATTLE of HASTINGS, The TOURNAMENT, one or two DIALOGUES, and a Description of CANNYNGE'S FEAST.

The TRAGEDY OF ELLA has six characters; one of which is a lady, named Birtha. It has a chorus consisting of minstrels, whose songs are often introduced. Ella was go­vernor of the castle of Bristol, and a puissant champion against the Danes, about the year 920. The story seems to be the poet's invention. The tragedy is opened with the following soliloquy.

The following beautiful descriptions of SPRING, AUTUM [...], and MORNING, are supposed to be sung in the tragedy, by the chorus of minstrels.

But the following ode, belonging to the same tragedy, has much more of the choral or lyric strain.

According to the date assigned to this tragedy, it is the first drama extant in our language. In an Epistle prefixed to his patron Cannynge, the author thus censures the MYS­TERIES, or religious interludes, which were the only plays then existing.

The ODE TO ELLA is said to have been sent by Rowlie in the year 1468, as a specimen of his poetical abilities, to his intimate friend and cotemporary Lydgate, who had chal­lenged him to write verses. The subject is a victory ob­tained by Ella over the Danes, at Watchett near Bristol ^k. I will give this piece at length.

The BATTLE OF HASTINGS is called a translation from the Saxon: and contains a minute description of the persons, arms, and characters of many of the chiefs, who fought in that important action. In this poem, Stonehenge is described as a Druidical temple.

The poem called the TOURNAMENT, is dramatically con­ducted, among others, by the characters of a herald, a knight, a minstrel, and a king, who are introduced speaking.

The following piece is a description of an alderman's feast at Bristol; or, as it is entitled, ACCOUNTE OF W. CANNYNGE'S FEAST.

But a dialogue between two ladies, whose knights, or husbands, served in the wars between York and Lancaster, and were now fighting at the battle of Saint Albans, will be more interesting to many readers. This battle happened in the reign of Edward the fifth, about the year 1471.

In a DIALOGUE, or ECLOGUE, spoken by two ladies, are these lines.

I am of opinion, that none of these pieces are genuine. The EXECUTION of SIR CHARLES BAUDWIN is now allowed to be modern, even by those who maintain all the other poems to be antient ^c. The ODE TO ELLA, and the EPIS­TLE to Lydgate, with his ANSWER, were written on one piece of parchment; and, as pretended, in Rowlie's own hand. This was shewn to an ingenious critic and intelli­gent antiquary of my acquaintance; who assure [...] me, that the writing was a gross and palpable forgery. It was not even skilfully counterfeited. The form of the letters, al­though artfully contrived to wear an antiquated appearance, differed very essentially from every one of our early alpha­bets. Nor were the characters uniform and consistent: part of the same manuscript exhibiting some letters shaped [Page 154] according to the present round hand, while others were traced in imitation of the antient court and text hands. The parchment was old; and that it might look still older, was stained on the outside with ochre, which was easily rubbed off with a linen cloth. Care had also been evidently taken to tincture the ink with a yellow cast. To communi­cate a stronger stamp of rude antiquity, the ODE was writ­ten like prose: no distinction, or termination, being made between the several verses. Lydgate's ANSWER, which makes a part of this manuscript, and is written by the same hand, I have already proved to be a manifest imposition. This parchment has since been unfortunately lost ^d. I have my­self carefully examined the original manuscript, as it is called, of the little piece entitled, ACCOUNTE OF W. CAN­NYNGE'S FEAST. It is likewise on parchment, and, I am sorry to say, that the writing betrays all the suspicious sig­natures which were observed in that of the ODE TO ELLA. I have repeatedly and diligently compared it with three or four authentic manuscripts of the time of Edward the fourth, to all which I have found it totally unlike. Among other smaller vestiges of forgery, which cannot be so easily described and explained here, at the bottom are added in ink two coats of arms, containing empalements of Cannynge and of his friends or relations, with family-names, appa­rently delineated by the same pen which wrote the verses. Even the style and drawing of the armorial bearings disco­ver the hand of a modern herald. This, I believe, is the only pretended original of the poetry of Rowlie, now remaining.

[Page 155] As to internal arguments, an unnatural affectation of antient spelling and of obsolete words, not belonging to the period assigned to the poems, strikes us at first sight. Of these old words combinations are frequently formed, which never yet existed in the unpolished state of the Eng­lish language: and sometimes the antiquated diction is most inartificially misapplied, by an improper contexture with the present modes of speech. The attentive reader will also discern, that our poet sometimes forgets his assumed cha­racter, and does not always act his part with consistency: for the chorus, or interlude, of the damsel who drowns herself, which I have cited at length from the TRAGEDY of ELLA, is much more intelligible, and free from uncouth expressions, than the general phraseology of these composi­tions. In the BATTLE OF HASTINGS, said to be translated from the Saxon, Stonehenge is called a Druidical temple. The battle of Hastings was fought in the year 1066. We will grant the Saxon original to have been written soon afterwards: about which time, no other notion prevailed concerning this miraculous monument, than the supposition which had been delivered down by long and constant tradi­tion, that it was erected in memory of Hengist's massacre. This was the established and uniform opinion of the Welsh and Armorican bards, who most probably received it from the Saxon minstrels: and that this was the popular belief at the time of the battle of Hastings, appears from the evidence of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote his history not more than eighty years after that memorable event. And in this doctrine Robert of Gloucester and all the mon­kish chroniclers agree. That the Druids constructed this stupendous pile for a place of worship, was a discovery re­served for the sagacity of a wiser age, and the laborious discussion of modern antiquaries. In the EPISTLE to Lyd­gate, prefixed to the TRAGEDY, our poet condemns the absurdity and impropriety of the religious dramas, and recommends [Page 156] SOME GREAT STORY OF HUMAN MANNERS, as most suitable for theatrical representation. But this idea is the result of that taste and discrimination, which could only belong to a more advanced period of society ^e.

But, above all, the cast of thought, the complexion of the sentiments, and the structure of the composition, evi­dently prove these pieces not antient. The ODE TO ELLA, for instance, has exactly the air of modern poetry; such, I mean, as is written at this day, only disguised with an­tique spelling and phraseology. That Rowlie was an ac­complished literary character, a scholar, an historian, and an antiquarian, if contended for, I will not deny ^f. Nor is it impossible that he might write English poetry. But that he is the writer of the poems which I have here cited, and [Page 157] which have been so confidently ascribed to him, I am not yet convinced.

On the whole, I am inclined to believe, that these poem [...] were composed by the son of the school-master before men­tioned; who inherited the inestimable treasures of Cannynge's chest in Radcliffe-church, as I have already related at large. This youth, who died at eighteen, was a prodigy of genius: and would have proved the first of English poets, had he reached a maturer age. From his childhood, he was fond of reading and writing verses: and some of his early com­positions, which he wrote without any design to deceive, have been judged to be most astonishing productions by the first critic of the present age. From his situation and con­nections, he became a skilful practitioner in various kinds of hand-writing. Availing himself therefore of his poetical talent, and his facility in the graphic art, to a miscellany of obscure and neglected parchments, which were commo­diously placed in his own possession, he was tempted to add others of a more interesting nature, and such as he was enabled to forge, under these circumstances, without the fear of detection. As to his knowledge of the old English literature, which is rarely the study of a young poet, a suf­ficient quantity of obsolete words and phrases were readily at­tainable from the glossary to Chaucer, and to Percy's Ballads. It is confessed, that this youth wrote the EXECUTION OF SIR CHARLES BAWDWIN: and he who could forge that poem, might easily forge all the rest.

In the mean time, we will allow, that some pieces of poetry written by Rowlie might have been preserved in Cannynge's chest: and that these were enlarged and improved by young Chatterton. But if this was the case, they were so much altered as to become entirely new compositions. The poem which bids the fairest to be one of these originals is CANNYNGE'S FEAST. But the parchment-manuscript of this little poem has already been proved to be a forgery. A circumstance [Page 158] which is perhaps alone sufficient to make us suspect that no originals ever existed.

It will be asked, for what end or purpose did he contrive such an imposture? I answer, from lucrative views; or perhaps from the pleasure of deceiving the world, a motive which, in many minds, operates more powerfully than the hopes of gain. He probably promised himself greater emo­luments from this indirect mode of exercising his abilities: or, he might have sacrificed even the vanity of appearing in the character of an applauded original author, to the private enjoyment of the success of his invention and dexterity.

I have observed above, that Cannynge ordered his iron chest in Radcliffe-church to be solemnly visited once in every year, and that an annual entertainment should be provided for the visitors. In the notices relating to this matter, which some of the chief patrons of Rowlie's poetry hav [...] lately sent me from Bristol, it is affirmed, that this order is contained in Cannynge's will: and that he specifies therein, that not only his manuscript evidences abovementioned, but that the POEMS of HIS CONFESSOR ROWLIE, which likewise he had deposited in the aforesaid iron chest, were also to be submitted to this annual inspection. This circumstance at first strongly inclined me to think favourably of the authen­ticity of these pieces. At least it proved, that Rowlie had left some performances in verse. But on examining Can­nynge's will, no such order appears. All his bequests re­lating to Radcliffe-church, of every kind, are the following. He leaves legacies to the vicar, and the three clerks, of the said church: to the two chantry-priests, or chaplains, of his foundation: to the keeper of the PYXIS OBLATIO­NUM, in the north-door: and to the fraternity Comme­moracionis martirum. Also vestments to the altars of saint Catharine, and saint George. He mentions his tomb built near the altar of saint Catharine, where his late wife is in­rerred. He gives augmentations to the endowment of his [Page 159] two chantries ^g, at the altars of saint Catharine and saint George, abovementioned. To the choir, he leaves two ser­vice-books, called Liggers, to be used there, on either side, by his two chantry-priests. He directs, that his funeral shall be celebrated in the said church with a month's mind, and the usual solemnities ^h.

Very few anecdotes of Rowlie's life have descended to posterity. The following MEMOIRS of his life are said to have been written by himself in the year 1460, and to have been discovered with his poetry: which perhaps to many readers will appear equally spurious.

It is with regret that I find myself obliged to pronounce Rowlie's poems to be spurious. Antient remains of English poetry, unexpectedly discovered, and fortunately rescued from a long oblivion, are contemplated with a degree of fond enthusiasm: exclusive of any real or intrinsic excellence, they afford those pleasures, arising from the idea of anti­quity, which deeply interest the imagination. With these pleasures we are unwilling to part. But there is a more solid satisfaction, resulting from the detection of artifice and imposture.

THE subsequent reigns of Richard the third, Edward the fifth, and Henry the seventh, abounded in obscure versifiers.

A mutilated poem which occurs among the Cotton ma­nuscripts in the British museum, and principally contains a satire on the nuns, who not less from the nature of their establishment, than from the usual degeneracy which attends all institutions, had at length lost their original purity, seems to belong to this period ^a. It is without wit, and almost without numbers. It was written by one Bertram Walton, whose name now first appears in the catalogue of English poets; and whose life I calmly resign to the researches of some more laborious and patient antiquary.

About the year 1480, or rather before, Benedict Burgh, a master of arts of Oxford, among other promotions in the church, archdeacon of Colchester, prebendary of saint Paul's, and canon of saint Stephen's chapel at Westminster ^b, tran­slated Cato's MORALS into the royal stanza, for the use of his pupil lord Bourchier son of the earl of Essex ^c. Encou­raged [Page 166] by the example and authority of so venerable an ec­clesiastic, and tempted probably by the convenient oppor­tunity of pilfering phraseology from a predecessor in the same arduous task, Caxton translated the same Latin work; but from the French version of a Latin paraphrase, and into English prose, which he printed in the year 1483. He calls, in his preface, the measure, used by Burgh, the BALAD ROYAL. Caxton's translation, which superseded Burgh's work, and with which it is confounded, is divided into four books, which comprehend seventy-two heads.

I do not mean to affront my readers, when I inform them, without any apology, that the Latin original of this piece was not written by Cato the censor, nor by Cato Uticensis ^d: al­though it is perfectly in the character of the former, and Aulus Gellius has quoted Cato's poem DE MORIBUS ^e. Nor have I the gravity of the learned Boxhornius, who in a prolix and elaborate dissertation has endeavoured to demon­strate, that these distichs are undoubtedly supposititious, and that they could not possibly be written by the very venerable Roman whose name they bear. The title is DISTICHA DE MORIBUS AD FILIUM, which are distributed into four books, under [...]he name of Dionysius Cato. But he is frequently called MAGNUS CATO.

This work has been absurdly attributed by some critics to [Page 167] Seneca, and by others to Ausonius ^f. It is, however, more antient than the time of the emperour Valentinian the third, who died in 455 ^g. On the other hand, it was written after the appearance of Lucan's PHARSALIA, as the author, at the beginning of the second book, commends Virgil, Macer ^h, Ovid, and Lucan. The name of Cato probably became pre­fixed to these distichs, in a lower age, by the officious ig­norance of transcribers, and from the acquiescence of readers equally ignorant, as Marcus Cato had written a set of moral distichs. Whoever was the author, this metrical system of ethics had attained the highest degree of estimation in the barbarous ages. Among Langbain's manuscripts bequeathed to the university of Oxford by Antony Wood, it is accompanied with a Saxon paraphrase ⁱ. John of Salisbury, in his POLY­CRATICON, mentions it as the favourite and established manual in the education of boys ^l. To enumerate no others, [Page 168] it is much applauded by Isidore the old etymologist ^m, Alcuine ⁿ, and Abelard ^o: and we must acknowledge, that the writer, [Page 169] exclusive of the utility of his precepts, possesses the merit of a nervous and elegant brevity. It is perpetually quoted by Chaucer. In the MILLER'S TALE, he reproaches the simple carpenter for having never read in Cato, that a man should marry his own likeness ^p: and in the MARCHAUNT'S TALE, having quoted Seneca to prove that no blessing is equal to an humble wife, he adds Cato's precept of prudently bearing a scolding wife with patience ^q. It was translated into Greek at Constantinople by Maximus Planudes, who has the merit of having familiarised to his countrymen many Latin classics of the lower empire, by metaphrastic versions ^r: and at the restoration of learning in Europe, illustrated with a com­mentary by Erasmus, which is much extolled by Luther ^s. There are two or three French translations ^t. That of Ma­thurine Corderoy is dedicated to Robert Stephens. In the British museum, there is a French translation by Helis de Guincestre, or Winchester; made, perhaps, at the time when our countrymen affected to write more in French than English ^u. Chaucer constantly calls this writer CATON or CATHON, which shews that he was more familiar in French than in Latin. Caxton in the preface to his aforesaid transla­tion affirms, that Poggius Florentinus, whose library was fur­nished with the most valuable authors, esteemed CATHON GLOSED, that is, Cato with notes, to be the best book in his collection ^w. The glossarist I take to be Philip de Pergamo, [Page 170] a prior at Padua; who wrote a most elaborate MORALISA­TION on Cato, under the title of SPECULUM REGIMINIS, so early as the year 1380 ^x. In the same preface, Caxton ob­serves, that it is the beste boke for to be taught to yonge children in scole. But he supposes the author to be Marcus Cato, whom he duly celebrates with the two Scipios and other noble Romaynes. A kind of supplement to this work, and often its companion, under the title of CATO PARVUS, or Facetus, or Urbanus, was written by Daniel Churche, or Ec­clesiensis, a domestic in the court of Henry the second, a learned prince and a patron of scholars, about the year 1180 ^y. This was also translated by Burghe; and in the British museum, both the CATOS of his version occur, as forming one and the same work, viz. Liber MINORIS Ca­tonis, et MAJORIS, translatus a Latino in Anglicum per Mag. Benet Borugh ^z. Burghe's performance is too jejune for [Page 171] transcription; and, I suspect, would not have afforded a single splendid extract, had even the Latin possessed any sparks of poetry. It is indeed true, that the only critical excellence of the original, which consists of a terse conciseness of sentences, although not always expressed in the purest latinity, will not easily bear to be transfused. Burghe, but without suf­ficient foundation, is said to have finished Lydgate's GO­VERNAUNCE OF PRINCIS ^a.

About the year 1481, Julian Barnes, more properly Ber­ners, sister of Richard lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sopewell, wrote three English tracts on Hawking, Hunting, and Armory, or Heraldry, which were soon afterwards printed in the neighbouring ^b monastery of saint Alban's ^c. [Page 172] From an abbess disposed to turn author, we might more reasonably have expected a manual of meditations for the closet, or select rules for making salves, or distilling strong waters. But the diversions of the field were not thought inconsistent with the character of a religious lady of this eminent rank, who resembled an abbot in respect of exer­cising an extensive manerial jurisdiction; and who hawked and hunted in common with other ladies of distinction ^d. This work, however, is here mentioned, because the second of these treatises is written in rhyme. It is spoken in her own person; in which, being otherwise a woman of au­thority, she assumes the title of dame. I suspect the whole to be a translation from the French and Latin ^e.

To this period I refer William of Nassyngton, a proctor or advocate in the ecclesiastical court at York. He tran­slated into English rhymes, as I conjecture, about the year 1480, a theological tract, entitled A treatise on the Trinity and Unity with a declaration of God's Works and of the Passion of Jesus Christ, written by John of Waldenby, an Augustine [Page 173] frier of Yorkshire, a student in the Augustine convent at Oxford, the provincial of his order in England, and a strenuous champion against the doctrines of Wiccliffe ^f. I once saw a manuscript of Nassyngton's translation in the library of Lincoln cathedral ^g; and was tempted to transcribe the few following lines from the prologue, as they convey an idea of our poet's character, record the titles of some old popular romances, and discover antient modes of public amusement.

Our translator in these verses formally declares his in­tention of giving his reader no entertainment; and disavows all concern with secular vanities, especially those unedifying tales of love and arms, which were the customary themes of other poets, and the delight of an idle age. The romances of OCTAVIAN, sir BEVIS, and sir GUY, have already been discussed at large. That of sir ISEMBRAS was familiar in the time of Chaucer, and occurs in the RIME of SIR THOPAS ^h. In Mr. Garrick's curious library of chivalry, which his friends share in common with himself, there is an edition [Page 174] by Copland, extremely different from the manuscript copies preserved at Cambridge ⁱ, and in the Cotton collection ^k. I believe it to be originally a French romance, yet not of very high antiquity. It is written in the stanza of Chaucer's sir THOPAS ^l. The incidents are for the most part those trite expedients, which almost constantly form the plan of these metrical narratives.

I take this opportunity of remarking, that the MIN­STRELS, who in this prologue of Nassyngton are named separately from the GESTOURS, or tale-tellers, were some­times distinguished from the harpers. In the year 1374, six Minstrels, accompanied with four Harpers, on the anni­versary of Alwyne the bishop, performed their minstrelsies, at dinner, in the hall of the convent of saint Swithin at Win­chester; and during supper, sung the same GEST, or tale, in the great arched chamber of the prior: on which solemn occasion, the said chamber was hung with the arras, or tapestry, of THE THREE KINGS OF COLOGNE ^m. These min­strels and harpers belonged, partly to the royal houshold in Winchester castle, and partly to the bishop of Winchester. [Page 175] There was an annual mass at the shrine or tomb of bishop Alwyne in the church, which was regularly followed by a feast in the convent. It is probable, that the GEST here specified was some poetical legend of the prelate, to whose memory this yearly festival was instituted, and who was a Saxon bishop of Winchester about the year 1040 ⁿ. Al­though songs of chivalry were equally common, and I be­lieve more welcome to the monks, at these solemnities. In an accompt-roll of the priory of Bicester, in Oxfordshire ^o, I find a parallel instance, under the year 1432. It is in this entry. ‘" Dat. sex Ministrallis de Bokyngham cantantibus in refectorio MARTYRIUM SEPTEM DORMIENTIUM in ffesto epiphanie, iv s."’ That is, the treasurer of the monastery gave four shillings to six minstrels from Buckingham, for singing in the refectory a legend called the MARTYRDOM OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS ^p, on the feast of the Epiphany. In the Cotton library, there is a Norman poem in Saxon characters on this subject ^q; which was probably translated afterwards into English rhyme. The original is a Greek legend ^r, never [Page 176] printed; but which, in the dark ages, went about in a bar­barous Latin translation, by one Syrus ^s; or in a narrative framed from thence by Gregory of Tours ^t.

Henry Bradshaw has rather larger pretensions to poeti­cal fame than William of Nassington, although scarcely deserving the name of an original writer in any respect. He was a native of Chester, educated at Gloucester college in Oxford, and at length a Benedictine monk of saint Wer­burgh's abbey in his native place ^u. Before the year 1500, he wrote the LIFE OF SAINT WERBURGH, a daughter of a king of the Mercians, in English verse ^w. This poem, beside the devout deeds and passion of the poet's patroness saint, [Page 177] comprehends a variety of other subjects; as a description of the kingdom of the Mercians ^x, the lives of saint Etheldred and saint Sexburgh ^y, the foundation of the city of Chester ^z, and a chronicle of our kings ^a. It is collected from Bede, Alfred of Beverly, Malmesbury, Girardus Cambrensis, Hig­den's Polychronicon, and the passionaries of the female saints, Werburgh, Etheldred, and Sexburgh, which were kept for [Page 178] public edification in the choir of the church of our poet's monastery ^b. Bradshaw is not so fond of relating visions and miracles as his argument seems to promise. Although concerned with three saints, he deals more in plain facts than in the fictions of religious romance; and, on the whole, his performance is rather historical than legendary. This is remarkable, in an age, when it was the fashion to turn history into legend ^c. His fabulous origin of Chester is not [Page 179] so much to be imputed to his own want of veracity, as to the authority of his voucher Ranulph Higden, a celebrated chronicler, his countryman, and a monk of his own abbey ^d. He supposes that Chester, called by the antient Britons CAIR [Page 180] LLEON, or the city of Legions, was founded by Leon Gaur, a giant, corrupted from LEON VAUR, or the great legion.

He adds, with an equal attention to etymology:

But a greater degree of credulity would perhaps have af­forded him a better claim to the character of a poet: and, at least, we should have conceived a more advantageous opi­nion of his imagination, had he been less frugal of those traditionary fables, in which ignorance and superstition had cloathed every part of his argument. This piece was first printed by Pinson in the year 1521. ‘"Here begynneth the holy lyfe of SAYNT WERBURGE, very frutefull for all cristen people to rede ^f."’ He traces the genealogy of saint Werburg with much historical accuracy ^g.

[Page 181] The most splendid passage of this poem, is the following description of the feast made by king Ulpher in the hall of the abbey of Ely, when his daughter Werburgh was admit­ted to the veil in that monastery. Among other curious anecdotes of antient manners, the subjects of the tapestry, with which the hall was hung, and of the songs sung by the minstrels, on this solemn occasion, are given at large ^h.

If there be any merit of imagination or invention, to which the poet has a claim in this description, it altogether consists in the application. The circumstances themselves are faithfully copied by Bradshaw, from what his own age actually presented. In this respect, I mean as a picture of antient life, the passage is interesting; and for no other reason. The versification is infinitely inferior to Lydgate's worst manner.

Bradshaw was buried in the cathedral church, to which his convent was annexed, in the year 1513 ^b. Bale, a violent reformer, observes, that our poet was a person remarkably pious for the times in which he flourished ^c. This is an in­ [...]irect satire on the monks, and on the period which pre­ceded the reformation. I believe it will readily be granted, [...] our author had more piety than poetry. His Pro­log [...] contains the following humble professions of his ina­bility [...]o treat lofty subjects, and to please light readers.

[Page 189] A great translator of the lives of the Saxon saints, from the Saxon, in which language only they were then extant, into Latin, was Goscelinus, a monk of Saint Austin's at Canterbury, who passed from France into England, with Herman, bishop of Salisbury, about the year 1058 ^e. As the Saxon language was at this time but little understood, these translations opened a new and ample treasure of religious history: nor were they acquisitions only to the religion, but to the literature, of that era. Among the rest, were the Lives of saint Werburgh ^f, saint Etheldred ^g, and saint Sex­burgh ^h, most probably the legends, which were Bradshaw's originals. Usher observes, that Goscelinus also translated into Latin the antient Catalogue of the Saxon saints buried in England ⁱ. In the register of Ely it is recorded, that he was the most eloquent writer of his age; and that he circu­lated all over England, the lives, miracles, and GESTS, of the saints of both sexes, which he reduced into prose-histories ^k. The words of the Latin deserve our attention. ‘"In historiis in prosa dictando mutavit."’ Hence we may perhaps infer [...] that they were not before in prose, and that he took the [...] from old metrical legends: this is a presumptive proof, that the lives of the saints were at first extant in verse. In the same light we are to understand the words which i [...] ­diately follow. ‘"Hic scripsit Prosam sanctae Etheld [...]ae ^l."’ Where the Prose of saint Etheldred is opposed to her poetical legend ^m. By mutavit dictando, we are to understand, that he [Page 190] translated, or reformed, or, in the most general sense, wrote anew in Latin, these antiquated lives. His principal objects were the more recent saints, especially those of this island. Malmesbury says, ‘"Innumeras SANCTORUM VITAS RECEN­TIUM stylo extulit, veterum vel amissas, vel informiter editas, comptius renovavit ⁿ."’ In this respect, the labours of Gos­celin partly resembled those of Symeon Metaphrastes, a cele­brated Constantinopolitan writer of the tenth century: who obtained the distinguishing appellation of the METAPHRAST, [Page 191] because, at the command, and under the auspices of Con­stantine Porphyrogenitus, he modernised the more antient narratives of the miracles and martyrdoms of the most emi­nent eastern and western saints, for the use of the Greek church: or rather digested, from detached, imperfect, or obsolete books on the subject, a new and more commodious body of the sacred biography.

Among the many striking contrasts between the manners and characters of antient and modern life, which these annals present, we must not be surprised to find a mercer, a sheriff, and an alderman of London, descending from his impor­tant occupations, to write verses. This is Robert Fabyan, who yet is generally better known as an historian, than as a poet. He was esteemed, not only the most facetious, but the most learned, of all the mercers, sheriffs, and aldermen, of his time: and no layman of that age is said to have been better skilled in the Latin language. He flourished about the year 1494. In his CHRONICLE, or Concordance of histories, from Brutus to the year 1485, it is his usual practice, at the division of the books, to insert metrical prologues, and other pieces in verse. The best of his metres is the COM­PLAINT of king Edward the second; who, like the per­sonages in Boccacio's FALL OF PRINCES, is very dramatically introduced, reciting his own misfortunes ^o. But th [...] soli­loquy is nothing more than a translation from a short and a very poor Latin poem attributed to that monarch, but probably written by William of Wyrcester, which is pre­served among the manuscripts of the college of arms, and entitled, Lamentatio gloriosi regis Edvardi de Karnarvon quam edidit tempore suae incarcerationis. Our author's transitions [Page 192] from prose to verse, in the course of a prolix narrative, seem to be made with much ease; and, when he begins to versify, the historian disappears only by the addition of rhyme and stanza. In the first edition of his CHRONICLE, by way of epilogues to his seven books, he has given us The seven joys of the Blessed Virgin in English Rime. And under the year 1325, there is a poem to the virgin; and another on one Badby, a Lollard, under the year 1409 ^p. These are suppressed in the later editions. He has likewise left a panegyric on the city of London; but despairs of doing justice to so noble a subject for verse, even if he had the eloquence of Tully, the morality of Seneca, and the harmony of that faire Lady Calliope ^q. The reader will thank me for citing only one stanza from king Edward's COMPLAINT.

[Page 193] As an historian, our author is the dullest of compilers. He is equally attentive to the succession of the mayors of London, and of the monarchs of England: and seems to have thought the dinners at guildhall, and the pageantries of the city-companies, more interesting transactions, than our victories in France, and our struggles for public liberty at home. One of Fabyan's historical anecdotes, under the important reign of Henry the fifth, is, that a new weather­cock was placed on the cross of Saint Paul's steeple. It is said, that cardinal Wolsey commanded many copies of this chronicle to be committed to the flames, because it made too ample a discovery of the excessive revenues of the clergy. The earlier chapters of these childish annals faithfully record all those fabulous traditions, which generally supply the place of historic monuments in describing the origin of a great nation.

Another poet of this period is John Watson, a priest. He wrote a Latin theological tract entitled SPECULUM CHRISTIANI, which is a sort of paraphrase on the decalogue and the creed ^r. But it is interspersed with a great number of wretched English rhymes: among which, is the follow­ing hymn to the virgin Mary ^s.

Caxton, the celebrated printer, was likewise a poet; and beside the rhyming introductions and epilogues with which he frequently decorates his books, has left a poem of con­siderable length, entitled the WORKE OF SAPIENCE ^w. It comprehends, not only an allegorical fiction concerning the two courts of the castle of Sapience, in which there is no imagination, but a system of natural philosophy, grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, theology, and other [Page 195] topics of the fashionable literature. Caxton appears to be the author, by the prologue: yet it is not improbable, that he might on this occasion employ some professed versifier, at least as an assistant, to prepare a new book of original poetry for his press. The writer's design, is to describe the effects of wisdom from the beginning of the world: and the work is a history of knowledge or learning. In a vision, he meets the goddess SAPIENCE in a delightful meadow; who conducts him to her castle, or mansion, and there displays all her miraculous operations. Caxton, in the poem, in­vokes the gylted goddess and moost facundyous lady Clio, apolo­gises to those makers who delight in termes gay, for the in­elegancies of language which as a foreigner he could not avoid, and modestly declares, that he neither means to rival or envy Gower and Chaucer.

Among the anonymous pieces of poetry belonging to this period, which are very numerous, the most conspicuous is the KALENDAR OF SHEPHERDS. It seems to have been trans­lated into English about the year 1480, from a French book entitled KALENDRIER DES BERGERS ^x. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in the year 1497 ^y. This piece was cal­culated for the purposes of a perpetual almanac; and seems to have been the universal magazine of every article of sa­lutary and useful knowledge. It is a medley of verse and prose; and contains, among many other curious particulars, the saints of the whole year, the moveable feasts, the signs of the zodiac, the properties of the twelve months, rules [Page 196] for blood-letting, a collection of proverbs, a system of ethics, politics, divinity, phisiognomy, medicine, astrology, and geography ^z. Among other authors, Cathon the great clarke ^a, Solomon, Ptolomeus the prince of astronomy, and Aristotle's Epistle to Alexander, are quoted ^b. Every month is intro­duced respectively speaking, in a stanza of balad royal, its own panegyric. This is the speech of May ^c.

In the theological part, the terrors and certainty of death are described, by the introduction of Death, seated on the pale horse of the Apocalypse, and speaking thus ^d.

In the eighth chapter of our KALENDER are described the seven visions, or the punishments in hell of the seven deadly sins, which Lazarus saw between his death and resurrection. These punishments are imagined with great strength of fancy, and accompanied with wooden cuts boldly touched, and which the printer Wynkyn de Worde probably procured from some German engraver at the infancy of the art ^e. The PROUD are bound by hooks of iron to vast wheels, like mills, placed between craggy precipices, which are in­cessantly whirling with the most violent impetuosity, and sound like thunder. The ENVIOUS are plunged in a lake half frozen, from which as they attempt to emerge for ease, their naked limbs are instantly smote with a blast of such intolerable keenness, that they are compelled to dive again into the lake. To the WRATHFULL is assigned a gloomy cavern, in which their bodies are butchered, and their limbs mangled [Page 198] by demons with various weapons. The SLOTHFULL are tormented in a horrible hall dark and tenebrous, swarming with innum [...]rable flying serpents of various shapes and sizes, which sting to the heart. This, I think, is the Hell of the Gothic EDDA. The COVETOUS are dipped in cauldrons filled with boiling metals. The GLUTTONOUS are placed in a vale near a loathsome pool, abounding with venomous creatures, on whose banks tables are spread, from which they are per­petually crammed with toads by devils. CONCUPISCENCE is punished in a field full of immense pits or wells, overflowing with fire and sulphur. This visionary scene of the infernal punishments seems to be borrowed from a legend related by Matthew Paris, under the reign of king John: in which the soul of one Thurkhill, a native of Tidstude in Essex is con­veyed by saint Julian from his body, when laid asleep, into hell and heaven. In hell he has a sight of the torments of the damned, which are presented under the form and name of the INFERNAL PAGEANTS, and greatly resemble the fictions I have just described. Among the tormented, is a knight, who had passed his life in shedding much innocent blood at tilts and tournaments. He is introduced, com­pleatly armed, on horseback; and couches his lance against the demon, who is commissioned to seize and to drag him to his eternal destiny. There is likewise a priest who never said mass, and a baron of the exchequer who took bribes. Tur­kill is then conducted into the mansions of the blessed, which are painted with strong oriental colouring: and in Paradise, a garden replenished with the most delicious fruits, and the most exquisite variety of trees, plants, and flowers, he sees Adam, a personage of gigantic proportion, but the most beautiful symmetry, reclined on the side of a fountain which sent forth four streams of different water and colour, and under the shade of a tree of immense size and height, laden with fruits of every kind, and breathing the richest odours. Afterwards saint Julian conveys the soul of Turkhill back to [Page 199] his body; and when awakened, he relates this vision to his parish-priest ^f. There is a story of a similar cast in Bede ^g, which I have mentioned before ^h.

As the ideas of magnificence and elegance were enlarged, the public pageants of this period were much improved: and beginning now to be celebrated with new splendour, received, among other advantages, the addition of SPEAKING PERSONAGES. These spectacles, thus furnished with speakers, characteristically habited, and accompanied with proper scenery, co-operated with the MYSTERIES, of whose nature they partook at first, in introducing the drama. It was customary to prepare these shews at the reception of a prince, or any other solemnity of a similar kind: and they were pre­sented on moveable theatres, or occasional stages, erected in the streets. The speeches were in verse; and as the pro­cession moved forward, the speakers, who constantly bore some allusion to the ceremony, either conversed together in the form of a dialogue, or addressed the noble person whose presence occasioned the celebrity. Speakers seem to have been admitted into our pageants about the reign of Henry the sixth.

[Page 200] In the year 1432, when Henry the sixth, after his coro­nation at Paris, made a triumphal entry into London, many stanzas, very probably written by Lydgate, were addressed to his majesty, amidst a series of the most splendid allegori­cal spectacles, by a giant representing religious fortitude, Enoch and Eli, the holy Trinity, two Judges and eight Ser­jeants of the coife, dame Clennesse, Mercy, Truth, and other personages of a like nature ⁱ.

In the year 1456, when Margaret wife of Henry the sixth, with her little son Edward, came to Coventy, on the feast of the exaltation of the holy cross, she was received with the [Page 201] presentation of pageants, in one of which king Edward the confessor, saint John the Evangelist, and saint Margaret, each speak to the queen and the prince in verse ^k. In the next reign in the year 1474, another prince Edward, son of Edward the fourth, visited Coventry, and was honoured with the same species of shew: he was first welcomed, in an octave stanza, by Edward the confessor; and afterwards addressed by saint George, completely armed: a king's daughter holding a lamb, and supplicating his assistance to protect her from a terrible dragon, the lady's father and mo­ther, standing in a tower above, the conduit on which the champion was placed, ‘"renning wine in four places, and minstralcy of organ playing ^l."’ Undoubtedly the Fran­ciscan friers of Coventry, whose sacred interludes, presented on Corpus Christi day, in that city, and at other places, make so conspicuous a figure in the history of the English drama ^m, were employed in the management of these devises: and that the Coventry men were famous for the arts of exhibition, appears from the share they took in the gallant entertainment of queen Elisabeth at Kenelworth-castle, be­fore whom they played their old storial show ⁿ.

At length, personages of another cast were added; and this species of spectacle, about the period with which we are [Page 202] concerned, was enlivened by the admission of new characters, drawn either from profane history, or from profane al­legory ^o, in the application of which, some degree of learn­ing and invention appeared.

I have observed in a former work, and it is a topic which will again be considered in its proper place, that the frequent and familiar use of allegoric personifications in the public pageants, I mean the general use of them, greatly contri­buted to form the school of Spenser ^p. But moreover from what is here said, it seems probable, that the PAGEAUNTS, which being shewn on civil occasions, derived great part of their decorations and actors from historical fact, and con­sequently made profane characters the subject of public ex­hibition, dictated ideas of a regular drama, much sooner than the MYSTERIES: which being confined to scripture stories, or rather the legendary miracles of sainted martyrs, and the no less ideal personifications of the christian virtues, were not calculated to make so quick and easy a transition to the representations of real life and rational action.

In the year 1501, when the princess Catharine of Spain came to London, to be married to prince Arthur, her pro­cession through the city was very magnificent. The pa­geants were numerous, and superbly furnished; in which the principal actors, or speakers, were not only God the father, saint Catharine, and saint Ursula, but king Alphonsus the astronomer and an ancestor of the princess, a Senator, an Angel, Job, Boethius, Nobility, and Virtue. These per­sonages sustained a sort of action, at least of dialogue. The [Page 203] lady was compared to Hesperus, and the prince to Arcturus; and Alphonsus, from his skill in the stars, was introduced to be the fortune-teller of the match ^q. These machineries were contrived and directed by an ecclesiastic of great eminence, bishop Fox; who, says Bacon, ‘"was not only a grave coun­sellor for war or peace, but also a good surveyor of works, and a good master of ceremonies, and any thing else that was fit for the active part, belonging to the service of court, or state of a great king."’ It is probable, that this prelate's dexterity and address in the conduct of a court­rareeshow procured him more interest, than the gravity of his counsels, and the depth of his political knowledge: at least his employment in this business presents a striking picture of the importance of those popular talents, which even in an age of blind devotion, and in the reign of a superstitious monarch, were instrumental in paving the way to the most opulent dignities of the church. ‘"Whosoever, adds the same pene­trating historian, had these toys in compiling, they were not altogether PEDANTICAL ^r."’ About the year 1487, Henry the seventh went a progress into the north; and at every place of distinction was received with a pageant; in which he was saluted, in a poetical oration, not always religious, as, at York by Ebranck, a British king and the founder of the city, as well as by the holy virgin, and king David: at Worcester by Henry the sixth his uncle: at Hereford by saint George, and king Ethelbert, at en­tering the cathedral there: at Bristol, by king Bremmius, Prudence, and Justice. The two latter characters were per­sonated by young girls ^s.

In the mean time it is to be granted, that profane cha­racters were personated in our pageants, before the close of the fourteenth century. Stowe relates, that in the year [Page 204] 1377, for the entertainment of the young prince Richard, son of Edward the black prince, one hundred and thirty citizens rode disguised from Newgate to Kennington where the court resided, attended with an innumerable multitude of waxen torches, and various instruments of music, in the evening of the Sunday preceding Candlemas-day. In the first rank were forty-eight, habited like esquires, with visors; and in the second the same number, in the character of knights. ‘"Then followed one richly arrayed like an EM­PEROR, and after him, at some distance, one stately-tyred like a POPE, whom followed twenty-four CARDINALLS, and after them eyght or tenne with blacke visors not amiable, as if they had been LEGATES from some forrain princes."’ But this parade was nothing more than a DUMB SHEW, unaccompanied with any kind of interlocution. This appears from what follows. For our chronicler adds, that when they entered the hall of the palace, they were met by the prince, the queen, and the lords; ‘"whom the said mum­mers did salute, shewing by a pair of dice their desire to play with the prince,"’ which they managed with so much com­plaisance and skill, that the prince won of them a bowl, a cup, and a ring of gold, and the queen and lords, each, a ring of gold. Afterwards, having been feasted with a sump­tuous banquet, they had the honour of dancing with the young prince and the nobility, and so the ceremony was concluded ^t. Matthew Paris informs us, that at the mag­nificent marriage of Henry the third with Eleanor of Pro­vence, in the year 1236, certain strange pageants, and won­derful devises, were displayed in the city of London; and that the number of HISTRIONES on this occasion was infinite ^u. [Page 205] But the word HISTRIO, in the Latin writers of the barbarous ages ^w, generally comprehends the numerous tribe [Page 206] of mimics, juglers, dancers, tumblers, musicians, minstrels, and the like public practitioners of the recreative arts, with which those ages abounded: nor do I recollect a single instance in which it precisely bears the restrained modern interpretation.

As our thoughts are here incidentally turned to the rudi­ments of the English stage ^x, I must not omit an anecdote, entirely new, with regard to the mode of playing the MYSTERIES at this period, which yet is perhaps of much higher antiquity. In the year 1487, while Henry the seventh kept his residence at the castle at Winchester, on occasion of the birth of prince Arthur, on a sunday, during the time of dinner, he was entertained with a religious drama called CHRISTI DESCENSUS AD INFEROS, or Christ's descent into hell ^y. It was represented by the PUERI ELEEMOSYNARII, or choir­boys, of Hyde abbey, and saint Swithin's priory, two large monasteries at Winchester. This is the only proof I have ever seen of choir-boys acting in the old MYSTERIES: nor [Page 207] do I recollect any other instance of a royal dinner, even on a festival, accompanied with this species of diversion ^z. The story of this interlude, in which the chief characters were Christ, Adam, Eve, Abraham, and John the Baptist, was not uncommon in the antient religious drama, and I believe made a part of what is called the LUDUS PASCHALIS, or Easter Play ^a. It occurs in the Coventry plays acted on Corpus Christi day ^b; and in the Whitsun-plays at Chester, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL ^c. The repre­sentation is Christ entering hell triumphantly, delivering our first parents, and the most sacred characters of the old and new testaments, from the dominion of Satan, and con­veying them into Paradise. There is an ancient poem, per­haps an interlude, on the same subject, among the Harleian manuscripts; containing our saviour's dialogues in hell with Sathanas, the Janitor, or porter of hell, Adam, Eve, Ha­braham, David, Johan Baptist, and Moyses. It begins,

[Page 208] The composers of the MYSTERIES did not think the plain and probable events of the new testament sufficiently marvellous for an audience who wanted only to be surprised. They frequent­ly selected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The subject of the MYSTERIES just-men­tioned was borrowed from the PSEUDO-EVANGELIUM, or the FABULOUS GOSPEL, ascribed to Nicodemus ^e: a book, which, together with the numerous apocryphal narratives, contain­ing infinite innovations of the evangelical history, and forged at Constantinople [...] the early writers of the Greek church, gave birth to an [...]ndless variety of legends concerning the life of Christ and his apostles ^f; and which, in the barbarous [Page 209] ages, was better esteemed than the genuine gospel, on ac­count of its improbabilities and absurdities.

But whatever was the source of these exhibitions, they were thought to contribute so much to the information and instruction of the people on the most important subjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who resorted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitsun week at Chester, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgment; and this indulgence was seconded by the bishop of the diocese, who granted forty days of pa [...]on: the pope at the same time denouncing the sentence of damnation on all those incorrigible sinners, who presumed to disturb or interrupt the due celebration of these pious sports ^f. It is certain that they had their use, not only in teaching the great truths of scripture to men who could not read the bible, but in abolish­ing the barbarous attachment to military games, and the bloody contentions of the tournament, which had so long prevailed as the sole species of popular amusement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they softened the manners of the people, by diverting the public attention to specta­cles in which the mind was concerned, and by creating a regard for other arts than those of bodily strength and savage valour.

THE only writer deserving the name of a poet in the reign of Henry the seventh, is Stephen Hawes. He was patronised by that monarch, who possessed some tinc­ture of literature, and is said by Bacon to have confuted a Lollard in a public disputation at Canterbury ^a.

Hawes flourished [...]out the close of the fifteenth century; and was a native of Suffolk ^b. After an academical education at Oxford, he travelled much in France; and became a com­plete master of the French and Italian poetry. His polite accomplishments quickly procured him an establishment in the houshold of the king; who struck with the liveliness of his conversation, and because he could repeat by memory most of the old English poets, especially Lydgate, made him groom of the privy chamber ^c. His facility in the French tongue was a qualification, which might strongly recommend him to the fa [...]our of Henry the seventh; who was fond of studying the best French books then in vogue ^d.

Hawes has left many poems, which are now but imper­fectly known, and scarcely remembered. These are, the TEMPLE OF GLASSE. The CONVERSION OF SWERERS ^e, in octave stanzas, with Latin lemmata, printed by de Worde in 1509 ^f. A JOYFULL MEDITATION OF ALL ENGLOND, OR [Page 211] THE CORONACYON TO OUR MOST NATURAL SOVEREIGN LORD KING HENRY THE EIGTH IN VERSE. By the same, and with­out date; but probably it was printed soon after the cere­mony which it celebrates. These coronation-carols were customary. There is one by Lydgate ^g. THE CONSOLATION OF LOVERS. THE EXEMPLAR OF VIRTUE. THE DELIGHT OF THE SOUL. OF THE PRINCE'S MARRIAGE. THE AL­PHABET OF BIRDS. Some of the five latter pieces, none of which I have seen, and which perhaps were never printed, are said by Wood to be written in Latin, and seem to be in prose.

The best of Hawes's poems, hitherto enumerated, is the TEMPLE OF GLASS ^h. On a comparison, it will be found to [Page 212] be a copy of the HOUSE OF FAME of CHAUCER, in which that poet sees in a vision a temple of glass, on the walls of which were engraved stories from Virgil's En [...]id and Ovid's Epistles. It also strongly resembles that part of Chaucer's ASSEMBLY OF FOULES, in which there is the fic­tion of a temple of brass, built on pillars of jasper, whose walls are painted with the stories of unfortunate lovers ⁱ. And in his ASSEMBLY of LADIES, in a chamber made of beryl and crystal, belonging to the sumptuous castle of Plea­saunt Regard, the walls are decorated with historical sculp­tures of the same kind ^k. The situation of Hawes's TEMPLE on a craggy rock of ice, is evidently taken from that of Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME. In Chaucer's DREAME, the poet is transported into an island, where wall and yate was all of glasse ^l. These structures of glass have their origin in the chemistry of the dark ages. This is Hawes's exordium.

The walls of this wonderful temple were richly pictured with the following historical portraitures; from Virgil, Ovid, king Arthur's romance, and Chaucer.

We must acknowledge, that all the picturesque invention which appears in this composition, entirely belongs to Chau­cer. Yet there was some merit in daring to depart from the dull taste of the times, and in chusing Chaucer for a model, after his sublime fancies had been so long forgotten, and had given place for almost a century, to legends, homilies, and chronicles in verse. In the mean time, there is reason to believe, that Chaucer himself copied these imageries from the romance of GUIGEMAR, one of the metrical TALES, or LAIS, of Bretagne ^u, translated from the Armorican original into French, by Marie, a French poetess, about the thir­teenth century: in which the walls of a chamber are painted with Venus, and the Art of love from Ovid ^v. Although, perhaps, Chaucer might not look further than the temples in Boccacio's THESEID for these ornaments. At the same time it is to be remembered, that the imagination of these old poets must have been assisted in this respect, from the mode which antiently prevailed, of entirely covering the walls of the more magnificent apartments, in castles and palaces, with stories from scripture, history, the classics, and romance. I have already given instances of this practice, and I will [Page 216] here add more ^w. In the year 1277, Otho, duke of Milan, having restored the peace of that city by a signal victory, built a noble castle, in which he ordered every particular circumstance of that victory to be painted. Paulus Jovius relates, that these paintings remained, in the great vaulted chamber of the castle, fresh and unimpaired, so late as the year 1547. ‘"Extantque adhuc in maximo testudinatoque con­clavi, incorruptae praeliorum cum veris ducum vultibus ima­gines, Latinis elegis singula rerum elogia indicantibus ^x."’ That the castles and palaces of England were thus orna­mented at a very early period, and in the most splendid style, appears from the following notices. Langton, bishop of Litchfield, commanded the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral, of his patron king Edward the first, to be painted in the great hall of his episcopal palace, which he had newly built ^y. This must have been about the year 1312. The following anecdote relating to the old royal palace at West­minster, never yet was published. In the year 1322, one Symeon, a friar minor, and a doctor in theology, wrote an ITINERARY, in which is this curious passage. He is speaking of Westminster Abbey. ‘"Eidem monasterio quasi immediate conjungitur illud famosissimum palatium re­gium Anglorum, in quo illa VULGATA CAMERA, in cujus parietibus sunt omnes HISTORIAE BELLICAE TOTIUS BIBLIAE ineffabiliter depictae, atque in Gallico completissime et per­fectissime constanter conscriptae, in non modica intuen­tium admiratione, et maxima regali magnificentia ^z."’— ‘ [Page 217] "Near this monastery stands the most famous royal palace of England; in which is that celebrated chamber, on whose walls all the warlike histories of the whole Bible are painted with inexpressible skill, and explained by a regular and complete series of texts, beautifully written in French over each battle, to the no small admiration of the beholder, and the increase of royal magnificence ^a."’ This ornament of a royal palace, while it conveys a curious history of the arts, admirably exemplifies the chivalry and the devotion of the times, united. That part of the Old Testament, indeed, which records the Jewish wars, was al­most regarded as a book of chivalry: and their chief he­roes, Joshua and David, the latter of whom killed a giant, are often recited among the champions of romance. In France, the battles of the kings of Israel with the Philistines and Assyrians, were wrought into a grand volume, under the title of ‘"Plusieurs Batailles des roys d'Israel en contre les Philistines et Assyriens ^b."’

[Page 218] With regard to the form of Hawes's poem, I am of opi­nion, that VISIONS, which are so common in the poetry of the middle ages, partly took their rise from Tully's SOM­NIUM SCIPIONIS. Had this composition descended to poste­rity among Tully's six books de REPUBLICA, to the last of which it originally belonged, perhaps it would have been overlooked and neglected ^c. But being preserved, and illus­trated with a prolix commentary, by Macrobius, it quickly attracted the attention of readers, who were fond of the marvellous, and with whom Macrobius was a more ad­mired classic than Tully. It was printed, subjoined to Tully's OFFICES, in the infancy of the typographic art ^d. It was translated into Greek by Maximus Planudes ^e; and is frequently quoted by Chaucer ^f. Particularly in the ASSEM­BLY OF FOULES, he supposes himself to fall asleep after reading the SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS, and that Scipio shewed him the beautiful vision which is the subject of that poem ^g. Nor is it improbable, that, not only the form, but the first [Page 219] idea of Dante's INFERNO, was suggested by this favourite apologue; which, in Chaucer's words, treats

Not to insist on Dante's subject, he uses the shade of Virgil for a mystagogue; as Tully supposes Scipio to have shewn the other world to his ancestor Africanus.

But Hawes's capital performance is a poem entitled, ‘"THE PASSETYME OF PLEASURE, or the HISTORIE OF GRAUNDE AMOURE and LA BAL PUCEL: contayning the knowledge of the seven sciences, and the course of man's lyfe in this worlde. Invented by Stephen Hawes, groome of kyng Henry the seventh hys chambre ⁱ."’ It is dedicated to the king, and was finished at the beginning of the year 1506.

If the poems of Rowlie are not genuine, the PASTIME OF PLEASURE is almost the only effort of imagination and invention which had yet appeared in our poetry since Chau­cer. This poem contains no common touches of romantic and allegoric fiction. The personifications are often happily sustained, and indicate the writer's familiarity with the Pro­vencial school. The model of his versification and phraseo­logy is that improved harmony of numbers, and facility of diction, with which his predecessor Lydgate adorned our octave stanza. But Hawes has added new graces to Lydgate's manner. Antony Wood, with the zeal of a true antiquary, laments, that ‘"such is the fate of poetry, that this book, which in the time of Henry the seventh and eighth was [Page 220] taken into the hands of all ingenious men, is now thought but worthy of a ballad-monger's stall!"’ The truth is, such is the good fortune of poetry, and such the improvement of taste, that much better books are become fashionable. It must indeed be acknowledged, that this poem has been unjustly neglected: and on that account, an apology will be less necessary for giving the reader a circum­stantial analysis of its substance and design.

GRAUNDE AMOURE, the hero of the poem, and who speaks in his own person ^k, is represented walking in a deli­cious meadow. Here he discovers a path which conducts him to a glorious image, both whose hands are stretched out and pointing to two highways; one of which is the path of CONTEMPLATION, the other of ACTIVE LIFE, leading to the Tower of Beauty. He chuses the last-mentioned path, yet is often tempted to turn aside into a variety of bye-paths, which seemed more pleasant: but proceeding directly for­ward, he sees afar off another image, on whose breast is written, ‘"This is the road to the Tower of DOCTRINE, he that would arrive there must avoid sloth, &c."’ The evening [Page 221] being far advanced, he sits down at the feet of the image, and falls into a profound sleep; when, towards the morning, he is suddenly awakened by the loud blast of a horn. He looks forward through a valley, and perceives a beautiful lady on a palfrey, swift as the wind, riding to­wards him, encircled with tongues of fire ^l. Her name was FAME, and with her ran two milk-white greyhounds, on whose golden collars were inscribed in diamond letters Grace and Governaunce ^m. Her palfrey is Pegasus; and the burn­ing tongues denote her office of consigning the names of [Page 222] illustrious personages to posterity; among which she men­tions a lady of matchless accomplishments, named LA BELL PUCELL, who lives within a tower seated in a delightful island; but which no person can enter, without surmount­ing many dangers. She then informs our hero, that before he engages in this enterprise, he must go to the Tower of DOCTRINE, in which he will see the Seven Sciences ⁿ; and that there, in the turret, or chamber, of Music, he will have the first sight of La Bell Pucell. FAME departs, but leaves with him her two greyhounds. Graunde Amoure now arrives at the Tower, or rather castle, of DOCTRINE, [Page 223] framed of fine copper, and situated on a craggy rock: it shone so bright, that he could distinctly discern the form of the building; till at length, the sky being covered with clouds, he more visibly perceives its walls deco­rated with figures of beasts in gold, and its lofty turrets crowned with golden images ^o. He is admitted by COUN­TENANCE the portress, who leads him into a court, where he drinks water of a most transcendent fragrance, from a magnificent fountain, whence flow four rivers, clearer than Nilus, Ganges, Tigris, or Euphrates ^p. He next enters the hall framed of jasper, its windows chrystal, and its roof overspread with a golden vine, whose grapes are represented by rubies ^q: the floor is paved with beryl, and the walls hung with rich tapestry, on which our hero's future expedition to the Tower of La Bell Pucell was gloriously wrought ^r. The [Page 224] marshall of this castle is REASON, the sewer OBSERVANCE, the cook TEMPERANCE, the high-steward LIBERALITY, &c. He then explains to DOCTRINE his name and intended adventure; and she entertains him at a solemn feast. He visits her seven daughters, who reside in the castle. First he is conducted to GRAMMAR, who delivers a learned ha­rangue on the utility of her science: next to LOGIC, who dismisses him with a grave exhortation: then to RHETORIC, who crowned with laurel, and seated in a stately chamber, strewed with flowers, and adorned with the clear mirrours of speculation, explains her five parts in a laboured oration. Graunde Amoure resolves to pursue their lessons with vigour; and animates himself, in this difficult task, with the ex­amples of Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate ^s, who are panegyrised [Page 225] with great propriety. He is afterwards admitted to ARITHMETIC, who wears a GOLDEN wede ^t: and, last of all, is led to the Tower of MUSIC ^u, which was composed of crystal, in eager expectation of obtaining a view of La Bell Pucell, according to FAME'S prediction. MUSIC was playing on an organ, before a solemn assembly; in the midst of which, at length he discovers La Bell Pucell, is instantly captivated with her beauty, and almost as soon tells her his name, and discloses his passion ^w. She is more beautiful than Helen, Proserpine, Cressida, queen Hyppolita, Medea, Dido, Polyxena, Alcmena, Menalippa, or even fair Rosamund. The solemnity being finished, MUSIC and La Bell Pucell go forth into a stately temple, whither they are followed by our hero. Here MUSIC seats herself amidst a concert of all kinds of in­struments ^x. She explains the principles of harmony. A [Page 226] dance is plaid ^y, and Graunde Amoure dances with La Bell Pucell. He retires, deeply in love. He is met by COUN­SELL, who consoles and conducts him to his repose in a stately chamber of the castle. In the morning, COUNSELL and our hero both together visit La Bell Pucell. At the gate of the garden of the castle they are informed by the portress CURTESY, that the lady was sitting alone in an ar­bour, weaving a garland of various flowers. The garden is described as very delicious, and they find the lady in the arbour near a stately fountain, among the floures of aro­matyke fume. After a long dialogue, in which for some time she seems to reject his suit, at last she resigns her heart; but withal acquaints her lover, that he has many monsters to encounter, and many dangers to conquer, before he can obtain her. He replies, that he is well acquainted with these difficulties; and declares, that, after having received instructions from ASTRONOMY, he will go to the Tower of CHIVALRY, in order to be more completely qualified to suc­ceed in this hazardous enterprise. They take leave with tears; and the lady is received into a ship, which is to carry her into the island where her Tower stood. COUNSELL con­soles Amoure ^z, and leaves him to attend other desponding [Page 227] lovers. Our hero bids adieu in pathetic terms to the Tower of MUSIC, where he first saw Pucell. Next he proceeds to the Tower of GEOMETRY, which is wonderfully built and adorned. From thence he seeks ASTRONOMY, who resides in a gorgeous pavilion pitched in a fragrant and flowery mea­dow: she delivers a prolix lecture on the several operations of the mind, and parts of the body ^a. He then, accom­panied with his greyhounds, enters an extensive plain over­spread with flowers; and looking forward, sees a flaming star over a tower. Going forward, he perceives that this tower stands on a rough precipice of steel, decorated with beasts of various figures. As he advances towards it, he comes to a mighty fortress, at the gate of which were hang­ing a shield and helmet, with a marvellous horn. He blows the horn with a blast that shook the tower, when a knight appears; who, asking his business, is answered, that his name is Graunde Amoure, and that he was just arrived from the tower of DOCTRINE. He is welcomed by the knight, and admitted. This is the castle of CHIVALRY. The next morning he is conducted by the porter STEDFAST­NESS into the base court, where stood a tower of prodigious height, made of jasper: on its summit were four images of armed knights on horses of steel, which, on moving a secret spring, could represent a turney. Near this tower was an antient temple of Mars: within it was his statue, or pic­ture, of gold, with the figure of FORTUNE on her wheel; and the walls were painted with the siege of Troy ^b. He [Page 228] supplicates Mars, that he may be enabled to subdue the monsters which obstruct his passage to the Tower of Pucell. Mars promises him assistance; but advises him first to in­voke Venus in her temple. FORTUNE reproves Mars for pre­suming to promise assistance; and declares, that all human glory is in the power of herself alone. Amoure is then led ^c by Minerva to king Melyzus ^d, the inventor of tilts and tournaments, who dubs him a knight. He leaves the castle of CHIVALRY, and on the road meets a person, habited like a Fool, named Godfrey Gobilive ^e, who enters into a long dis­course on the falsehood of women ^f. They both go together [Page 229] into the temple of Venus, who was now holding a solemn assembly, or court, for the redress of lovers. Here he meets with SAPIENCE, who draws up a supplication for him, which he presents to Venus. Venus, after having exhorted him to be constant, writes a letter to Pucell, which she sends by Cupid. After offering a turtle, he departs with Godfrey Gobilive, who is overtaken by a lady on a palfrey, with a knotted whip in her hand, which she frequently ex­ercises on Godfrey ^g. Amoure asks her name, which, she answers, is CORRECTION; that she lived in the Tower of CHASTITY, and that he who assumed the name of Godfrey Gobilive was FALSE REPORT, who had just escaped from her prison, and disguised himself in a fool's coat. She in­vites Amoure to her Tower, where they are admitted by Dame MEASURE; and led into a hall with a golden roof, in the midst of which was a carbuncle of a prodigious size, which illuminated the room ^h. They are next introduced to [Page 230] a fair chamber; where they are welcomed by many famous women of antiquity, Helen, quene Proserpine, the lady Me­duse, Penthesilea, &c. The next morning, CORRECTION shews our hero a marvellous dungeon, of which SHAMFAS [...] ­NESSE is the keeper; and here FALSE REPORT is severely punished. He now continues his expedition, and near a fountain observes a shield and a horn hanging. On the shield was a lion rampant of gold in a silver field, with an inscrip­tion, importing, that this was the way to La Bell Pucell's habitation, and that whoever blows the horn will be as­saulted by a most formidable giant. He sounds the horn: when instantly the giant appeared, twelve feet high, armed in brass, with three heads, on each of which was a streamer, with the inscriptions Falsehood, Imagination, Perjury. After an obstinate combat, he cuts off the giant's three heads with his sword Claraprudence. He next meets three fair ladies, VANITY, GOOD-OPERATION, FIDELITY. They conduct him to their castle with music; where, being admitted by the portress OBSERVANCE, he is healed of his wounds by them. He proceeds and meets PERSEVERANCE, who acquaints him, that Pucell continued still to love: that, after she had read Venus's letter, STRANGENESS and DISDAIN came to her, to dissuade her from loving him; but that soon after, PEACE and MERCY ⁱ arrived, who soon undid all that DISDAIN and STRANGENESS had said, advising her to send PERSEVERANCE [Page 231] to him with a shield. This shield PERSEVERANCE now pre­sents, and invites him to repose that night with her cousin COMFORT, who lived in a moated manor-place under the side of a neighbouring wood ^k. Here he is ushered into a [Page 232] chamber precious, per [...]umed with the richest odours. Next morning, guided by PERSEVERANCE and COMFORT, he goes forward, and sees a castle, nobly [...]ortified, and walled with jet. Before it was a giant with seven heads, and upon the trees about him were hanging many shields of knights, whom [...]e had conquered. On his seven heads were seven h [...]lmets crowned with seven streamers, on which were in­scribed Dissimulation, Delay, Discomfort, Variance, Envy, De­traction, Doubleness. After a bloody battle, he kills the giant, and is saluted by the five ladies STEDFASTNESS, AMOROUS PUR­VEYANCE, JOY AFTER SORROW, PLEASAUNCE, GOOD REPORT, AMIT [...]E, CONTINUANCE, all riding from the castle on white pal­fries. These ladies inform Amoure, that they had been exiled from La Bell Pucell by DISDAINE, and besieged in this castle, for one whole year, by the giant whom he had just slain. They attend him on his journey, and travel through a dreary wilderness, full of wild beasts: at length they discern, at a vast distance, a glorious region, where stood a stately palace beyond a tempestuous ocean. ‘"That, says PERSEVERANCE, is the palace of Pucelle."’ They then discover, in the island before them, an horrible fiend, roaring like thunder, and breathing flame, which my author strongly paints,

PERSEVERANCE tells our hero, that this monster was framed by the two witches STRANGENESS and DISDAINE, to punish La Bell Pucell for having banished them from her presence. His body was composed of the seven metals, and within it a demon was inclosed. They now enter a neighbouring temple of Pallas; who shews Amoure, in a trance, the secret formation of this monster, and gives him a box of wonderful ointment. They walk on the sea-shore, and espy two ladies rowing towards them; who land, and having told Amoure that they are sent by PATIENCE to enquire his [Page 233] name, receive him and his company into the ship PERFECT­NESS. They arrive in the island; and Amoure discovers the monster near a rock, whom he now examines more distinct­ly. The face of the monster resembled a virgin's, and was of gold; his neck of silver; his breast of steel; his fore­legs, armed with strong talons, of laten; his back of copper; his tail of lead, &c. Amoure, in imitation of Jason, anoints his sword and armour with the unguent of Pallas; which, at the first onset, preserves him from the voluminous tor­rent of fire and smoke issuing from the monster's mouth. At length he is killed; and from his body flew out a foule ethiope, or black spirit, accompanied with such a smoke that all the island was darkened, and loud thunder-claps ensued. When this spirit was entirely vanished, the air grew serene; and our hero now plainly beheld the magnificent castle of La Pucell, walled with silver, and many a story upon the wall enameled royally ^l. He rejoins his company; and entering the gate of the castle, is solemnly received by PEACE, MERCY, JUSTICE, REASON, GRACE, and MEMORY. He is then led by the portress COUNTENAUNCE into the base court; where, into a conduit of gold, dragons spouted water of the richest odour. The gravel of the court is like gold, and the hall and chambers are most superbly decorated. Amoure and La Pucell sit down and coverse together. Venus intervenes, attended by Cupid cloathed in a blue mantle embroidered with golden hearts pierced with arrows, which he throws [Page 234] about the lovers, declaring that they should soon be joined in marriage. A sudden transition is here made from the pagan to the christian theology. The next morning they are married, according to the catholic ritual, by LEX ECCLESIAE; and in the wooden print prefixed to this chapter, the lovers are represented as joining hands at the western portal of a great church, a part of the ceremonial of antient marriages ^m. A solemn feast is then held in honour of the nuptials ⁿ.

Here the poem should have ended. But the poet has thought it necessary to extend his allegory to the death and burial of his hero. Graund Amoure having lived in con­summate happiness with his amiable bride for many years, saw one morning an old man enter his chamber, carrying a staff, with which he strikes Amoure's breast, saying, Obey, &c. His name is OLD AGE. Not long after came POLICY or Cunning, and AVARICE. Amoure now begins to aban­don his triumphal shows and splendid carousals, and to be intent on amassing riches. At last arrived DEATH, who peremptorily denounces, that he must prepare to quit his wealth and the world. After this fatal admonition, came CONTRITION and CONSCIENCE, and he dies. His body is in­terred by MERCY and CHARITY; and while his epitaph is written by REMEMBRANCE, FAME appears; promising that [...]he will enroll his name with those of Hector, Joshua, [Page 235] Judas Maccabeus, king David ^o, Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, Arthur ^p, Charlemagne ^q, and Godfrey of Bulloign ^r. [Page 236] Aftewards TIME, and ETERNITIE clothed in a white vestment and crowned with a triple diadem of gold, enter the temple, and pronounce an exhortation. Last follows an epilogue, in which the poet apologises for his hardiness in attempting to feign and devise this fable.

The reader readily perceives, that this poetical apologue is intended to shadow the education of a complete gentle­man; or rather, to point out those accomplishments which constitute the character of true gallantry, and most justly deserve the reward of beauty. It is not pretended, that the personifications display that force of colouring, and dis­tinctness of delineation, which animate the ideal portraits of John of Meun. But we must acknowledge, that Hawes has shewn no inconsiderable share of imagination, if not in inventing romantic action, at least in applying and enrich­ing the general incidents of the Gothic fable. In the crea­tion of allegoric imagery he has exceeded Lydgate. That he is greatly superior to many of his immediate predecessors and cotemporaries, in harmonious versification, and clear expression, will appear from the following stanza.

To this poem a dedication of eight octave stanzas is pre­fixed, addressed to king Henry the seventh: in which our au­thor professes to follow the manner of his maister Lydgate.

In the course of the poem he complains, that since Lyd­gate, the most dulcet sprynge of famous rhetoryke, that species of poetry which deals in fiction and allegoric fable, had been entirely lost and neglected. He allows, that some of Lydgate's successors had been skilful versifiers in the balade royall or octave stanza, which Lydgate carried to such per­fection: but adds this remarkable restriction,

[Page 238] These lines, in a small compass, display the general state of poetry which now prevailed.

Coeval with Hawes was William Walter, a retainer to sir Henry Marney, chancellour of the duchy of Lancaster: an unknown and obscure writer whom I should not have named, but that he versified, in the octave stanza, Boccacio's story, so beautifully paraphrased by Dryden, of Sigismonda and Guiscard. This poem, I think, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and afterwards reprinted in the year 1597, under the title of THE STATELY TRAGEDY OF GUISCARD AND SI­GISMOND ^x. It is in two books. He also wrote a dialogue in verse, called the Spectacle of Lovers ^y, and the History of Titus and Gesippus, a translation from a Latin romance con­cerning the siege of Jerusalem.

About the year 1490, Henry Medwall, chaplain to Morton archbishop of Canterbury, composed an interlude, called NATURE, which was afterwards translated into Latin. It is not improbable, that it was played before the archbishop. It was the business of chaplains in great houses to compose in­terludes for the family. This piece was printed by Rastel, in 1538, and entitled, ‘"NATURE, a goodly interlude of na­ture, compylyd by mayster Henry Medwall, chaplayn to the right reverent father in God, Johan Morton, some­tyme cardynall, and archebyshop of Canterbury."’

In the year 1497, Laurence Wade, a Benedictine monk of Canterbury ^z, translated, into English rhymes, THE LIFE OF THOMAS A BECKETT, written about the year 1180, in [Page 239] Latin ^a, by Herbert Bosham ^b. The manuscript, which will not bear a citation, is preserved in Benet college in Cam­bridge ^c. The original had been translated into French verse by Peter Langtoft ^d. Bosham was Becket's secretary, and pre­sent at his martyrdom.

I Place Alexander Barklay within the year 1500, as his SHIP OF FOOLS appears to have been projected about that period. He was educated at Oriel college in Oxford ^d, ac­complished his academical studies by travelling, and was appointed one of the priests, or prebendaries, of the college of saint Mary Ottery in Devonshire ^e. Afterwards he became a Benedictine monk of Ely monastery ^f; and at length took the habit of the Franciscans at Canterbury ^g. He tempo­rised with the changes of religion; for he possessed some church-preferments in the reign of Edward the sixth ^h. He died, very old, at Croydon, in Surry ⁱ, in the year 1552.

[Page 241] Barklay's principal work is the SHIP OF FOOLES, above­mentioned. About the year 1494, Sebastian Brandt, a learned civilian of Basil, and an eminent philologist, pub­lished a satire in German with this title ⁱ. The design was to ridicule the reigning vices and follies of every rank and profession, under the allegory of a Ship freighted with Fools of all kinds, but without any variety of incident, or artifi­ciality of fable; yet although the poem is destitute of plot, and the voyage of adventures, a composition of such a nature be­came extremely popular. It was translated into French ^k; and, in the year 1497, into tolerable Latin verse, by James Locher, a German, and a scholar of the inventour Brandt ^l. From the original, and the two translations, Barklay formed a large English poem, in the balade or octave stanza, with considerable additions gleaned from the follies of his coun­trymen. It was printed by Pinson, in 1509, whose name occurs in the poem.

It was finished in the year 1508, and in the college of saint Mary Ottery, as appears by this rubric, ‘"The SHYP OF FOLYS, translated in the colege of saynt Mary Otery, in the counte of Devonshyre, oute of Laten, Frenche, and Doch, into Englishe tonge, by Alexander Barclay, preste and chaplen in the sayd colledge, M.CCCCC.VIII ⁿ. "’Our author's [Page 242] stanza is verbose, prosaic, and tedious: and for many pages together, his poetry is little better than a trite homily in verse. The title promises much character and pleasantry: but we shall be disappointed, if we expect to find the foibles of the crew of our ship touched by the hand of the author of the CANTERBURY TALES, or exposed in the rough ye [...] strong [...]atire of Pierce Plowman. He sometimes has a stroke of humour: as in the following stanza, where he wishes to take on board the eight secondaries, or minor canons, of his college. ‘"Alexander Barclay ad FATUOS, ut dent locum OCTO SECUNDARIIS beatae Mariae de Ottery, qui quidem prima bujus ratis transtra merentur ^o."’

The ignorance of the English clergy is one of the chief ob­jects of his animadversion. He says ^r [...]

These were rich benefices in the neighbourhood of saint Mary Ottery. He disclaims the profane and petty tales of the times.

The last line is a ridicule on his cotemporary Skelton, who wrote a LITLE BOKE OF PHILIP SPARROW, or a Dirge,

And in another place, he thus censures the fashionable read­ing of his age: much in the tone of his predecessor Hawes.

As a specimen of his general manner, I insert his character of the Student, or Bookworm: whom he supposes to be th [...] First Fool in the vessel.

In one part of the poem, Prodicus's apologue, of Hercules meeting VIRTUE and PLEASURE, is introduced. In the speech of PLEASURE, our author changes his metre; and breaks forth into a lyrical strain, not totally void of elegance and delicacy, and in a rhythmical arrangement adopted by Gray.

All antient satirical writings, even those of an inferior cast, have their merit, and deserve attention, as they transmit [Page 247] pictures of familiar manners, and preserve popular cus­toms. In this light; at least, Barklay's SHIP OF FOOLS, which is a general satire on the times, will be found enter­taining. Nor must it be denied, that his language is more cultivated than that of many of his cotemporaries, and that he contributed his share to the improvement of the English phraseology. His author, Sebastian Brandt, appears to have been a man of universal erudition; and his work, for the most part, is a tissue of citations from the ancient poets and historians.

Barklay's other pieces are the MIRROUR OF GOOD MANNERS, and five EGLOGES ^d.

The MIRROUR is a translation from a Latin [...]legiac poem, written in the year 1516, by Dominic Mancini DE QUATUOR VIRTUTIBUS. It is in the ballad-stanza ^e. Our translator, [Page 248] as appears by the address prefixed, had been requested by sir Giles Alyngton to abridge, or modernise, Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS. But the poet declined this undertaking, as un­suitable to his age, infirmities, and profession; and chose rather to oblige his patron with a grave system of ethics. It is certain that he made a prudent choice. The perfor­mance shews how little qualified he was to correct Gower.

Our author's EGLOGES, I believe, are the first that ap­peared in the English language ^f. They are, like Petrarch's and Mantuan's ^g, of the moral and satirical kind; and con­tain but few touches of rural description and bucolic image­ry. They seem to have been written about the year 1514 ^h. The three first are paraphrased, with very large additions, from the MISERIAE CURIALIUM of Eneas Sylvius ⁱ, and treat of the Miseryes of Courtiers and Courtes of all Princes in general. The fourth, in which is introduced a long poem in stanzas, called the Tower of Vertue and Honour ^k, of the behaviour of riche men agaynst poetes. The fifth, of the disputation of citizens and men of the country. These pastorals, if they deserve the name, contain many allusions to the times. The poet is [Page 249] prolix in his praises of Alcock bishop of Ely, and founder of Jesus college in Cambridge ^k.

Alcock, while living, erected a beautiful sepulchral chapel in his cathedral, still remaining, but miserably defaced. To which the shepherd alludes in the lines that follow:

In another place he thus represents the general lamentation for the death of this worthy prelate: and he rises above himself in describing the sympathy of the towers, arches, vaults, and images, of Ely monastery.

It should be remembered, that these pastorals were probably written while our poet was a monk of Ely: and although Alcock was then dead, yet the memory of his munificence and piety was recent in the mo [...]astery ^s.

Speaking of the dignity and antiquity of shepherds, and particularly of Christ at his birth being first seen by shep­herds, he seems to describe some large and splendid picture of the Nativity painted on the walls of Ely cathedral.

[Page 252] Virgil's poems are thus characterised, in some of the best turned lines we find in these pastorals:

He gives us the following idea of the sports, spectacles, and pleasures, of his age.

[Page 253] We have before seen, that our author and Skelton were rivals. He alludes to Skelton, who had been laureated at Oxford, in the following lines.

The TOWRE OF VERTUE AND HONOUR, introduced as a song of one of the shepherds into these pastorals, exhibits no very masterly strokes of a sublime and inventive fancy. It has much of the trite imagery usually applied in the fabrication of these ideal edifices. It, however, shews our author in a new walk of poetry. This magnificent tower, or castle, is built on inaccessible cliffs of flint: the walls are of gold, bright as the sun, and decorated with olde historyes and pictures manyfolde: the turrets are beautifully shaped. Among its heroic inhabitants are king Henry the eighth, Howard duke of Norfolk, and the earl of Shrewsbury. LABOUR is the porter at the gate, and VIRTUE governs the house. LABOUR is thus pictured, with some degree of spirit.

⁹⁶⁶The poet adds, that when the noble Howard had long boldly contended with this hideous monster, had broken the bars and doors of the castle, had bound the porter, and was now preparing to ascend the tower of Virtue and Honour, FORTUNE and DEATH appeared, and interrupted his progress ^f.

The first modern Latin Bucolics are those of Petrarch, in number twelve, written about the year 1350 ^g. The Eclo­gues of Mantuan, our author's model, appeared about the year 1400, and were followed by many others. Their number multiplied so soon, that a collection of thirty-eight modern bucolic poets in Latin was printed at Basil, in the year 1546 ^h. These writers judged this indirect and disguised mode of dialogue, consisting of simple characters which spoke freely and plainly, the most safe and convenient vehicle for abusing [Page 256] the corruptions of the church. Mantuan became so popular, as to acquire the estimation of a classic, and to be taught in schools. Nothing better proves the reputation in which this writer was held, than a speech of Shakespeare's pedant, the pedagogue Holofernes. ‘" Fauste, precor, gelida quando pecus omne sub ulmo ⁱ, and so forth. Ah, good old MANTUAN! I may speak of thee, as the traveller doth of Venice, Vi­negia, Vinegia, chi non te v [...]di, ei non te pregia. Old MAN­TUAN! Old MANTUAN! Who understandeth thee not, loveth thee not ^k."’ But although Barklay copies Mantuan, the recent and separate publication in England of Virgil's bu­colics, by Wynkyn de Worde ^l, might partly suggest the new idea of this kind of poetry.

With what avidity the Italian and French poets, in their respective languages, entered into this species of composition, when the rage of Latin versification had subsided, and for the purposes above-mentioned, is an inquiry reserved for a future period. I shall only add here, that before the close of the fifteenth century, Virgil's bucolics were translated into Italian ^m, by Bernardo Pulci, Fossa de Cremona, Beni­vieni, and Fiorini Buoninsegni.

IT is not the plan of this work to comprehend the Scotch poetry. But when I consider the close and national con­nection between England and Scotland in the progress of manners and literature, I am sensible I should be guilty of a partial and defective representation of the poetry of the former, was I to omit in my series a few Scotch writers, who have adorned the present period, with a degree of sentiment and spirit, a command of phraseology, and a fertility of imagination, not to be found in any English poet since Chaucer and Lydgate: more especially as they have left striking specimens of allegorical invention, a species of com­position which appears to have been for some time almost totally extinguished in England.

The first I shall mention is William Dunbar, a native of Salton in East Lothian, about the year 1470. His most ce­lebrated poems are The THISTLE AND THE ROSE, and THE GOLDEN TERGE.

The THISTLE AND THE ROSE was occasioned by the mar­riage of James the fourth, king of Scotland, with Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry the seventh, king of England: an event, in which the whole future political state of both nations was vitally interested, and which ultimately produced the union of the two crowns and kingdoms. It was finished on the ninth day of May in the year 1503, nearly three months before the arrival of the queen in Scot­land: whose progress from Richmond to Edinburgh was attended with a greater magnificence of parade, processions, and spectacles, than I ever remember to have seen on any similar occasion ^a. It may be pertinent to premise, that Margaret [Page 258] was a singular patroness of the Scotch poetry, now be­ginning to flourish. Her bounty is thus celebrated by Stewart of Lorne, in a Scotch poem, called LERGES OF THIS NEW YEIR DAY, written in the year 1527.

Dunbar's THISTLE AND ROSE is opened with the follow­ing stanzas, which are remarkable for their descriptive and picturesque beauties.

MAY then rebukes the poet, for not rising early, accord­ing to his annual custom, to celebrate the approach of the spring; especially as the lark has now announced the dawn of day, and his heart in former years had always,

The poet replies, that the spring of the present year was un­promising and ungenial; unattended with the usual song of birds, and serenity of sky: and that storms and showers, and the loud blasts of the horn of lord Eolus, had usurped her mild dominion, and hitherto prevented him from wandering at leisure under the vernal branches. MAY rejects his ex­cuse, and with a smile of majesty commands him to arise, and to perform his annual homage to the flowers, the birds, and the sun. They both enter a delicious garden, filled with the richest colours and odours. The sun suddenly appears in all his glory, and is thus described in the luminous lan­guage of Lydgate.

Immediately the birds, like the morning-stars, singing to­gether, hail the unusual appearance of the sun-shine.

NATURE is then introduced, issuing her interdict, that the progress of the spring should be no longer interupted, and that Neptune and Eolus should cease from disturbing the waters and air.

This preparation and suspence are judicious and ingenious; as they give dignity to the subject of the poem, awaken our curio [...]ity, and introduce many poetical circumstances. NA­TURE immediately commands every bird, beast, and flower, to appear in her presence; and, as they had been used to do every May-morning, to acknowledge her universal sove­reignty. She sends the roe to bring the beasts, the swallow to collect the birds, and the yarrow ^f to summon the flowers. They are assembled before her in an instant. The lion ad­vances first, whose figure is drawn with great force and expression.

This is an elegant and ingenious mode of blazoning the Scottish arms, which are a lion with a border, or tressure, adorned with flower de luces. We should remember, that heraldry was now a science of high importance and esteem. NATURE lifting up his cluvis cleir, or shining claws, and suffering him to rest on her knee, crowns him with a radiant diadem of precious stones, and creates him the king of beasts: at the same time she injoins him to exercise jus­tice with mercy, and not to suffer his subjects of the smallest size or degree, to be oppressed by those of superiour strength and dignity. This part of NATURE'S charge to the lion, is closed with the following beautiful stroke, which indicates the moral tenderness of the poet's heart.

She next crowns the eagle king of fowls; and sharpening his talons like darts of steel, orders him to govern great and small, the wren or the peacock, with an uniform and equal impartiality. I need not point out to my reader the politi­cal lessons couched under these commands. NATURE now calls the flowers; and observing the thistle to be surrounded [Page 263] with a bush of spears, and therefore qualified for war, gives him a crown of rubies, and says, ‘"In field go forth and fend the laif ⁿ.’ The poet continues elegantly to picture other parts of the royal arms; in ordering th [...] thistle, who is now king of vegetables, to prefer all herbs, or flowers, of rare virtue, and rich odour: nor ever to permit the nettle to associate with the flour de lys, nor any ignoble weed to be ranked in competition with the lily. In the next stanza, where NATURE directs the thistle to honour the rose above all other flowers, exclusive of the heraldic meaning, our author with much address insinuates to king James the fourth an exhortation to conjugal fidelity, drawn from the high birth, beauty, and amiable accomplishments, of the royal bride the princess Margaret ^o.

NATURE then addresses the rose, whom she calls, ‘"O lusty daughter most benyng,"’ and whose lineage she exalts above that of the lily. This was a preference of Tudor to Valois. [Page 264] She crowns the rose with clarefied gems, the lustre of which illumines all the land. The rose is hailed queen by the flowers. Last, her praises are sung by the universal chorus of birds, the sound of which awakens the poet from his de­lightful dream. The fairy scene is vanished, and he calls to the muse to perpetuate in verse the wonders of the splendid vision.

Although much fine invention and sublime fabling are displayed in the allegorical visions of our old poets, yet this mode of composition, by dealing only in imaginary per­sonages, and by excluding real characters and human actions, necessarily fails in that chief source of entertainment which we seek in antient poetry, the representation of antient manners.

Another general observation, immediately resulting from the subject of this poem, may be here added, which illus­trates the present and future state of the Scotch poetry. The marriage of a princess of England with a king of Scotland, from the new communication and intercourse opened between the two courts and kingdoms by such a connection, must have greatly contributed to polish the rude manners, and to improve the language, literature, and arts, of Scotland.

The design of Dunbar's GOLDEN TERGE, is to shew the gradual and imperceptible influence of love, when too far indulged, over reason. The discerning reader will observe, that the cast of this poem is tinctured with the morality and imagery of the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, and the FLOURE AND LEAFE, of Chaucer.

The poet walks forth at the dawn of a bright day. The effects of the rising sun on a vernal landscape, with its ac­companiments, are thus delineated in the manner of Lyd­gate, yet with more strength, distinctness, and exuberance of ornament.

[Page 267] Our author, lulled by the music of the birds, and the murmuring of the water, falls asleep on the flowers, which he calls Flora's mantill. In a vision, he sees a ship approach, whose sails are like the blossom upon the spray, and whose masts are of gold bright as the star of day ^o. She glides swiftly through a christal bay; and lands in the blooming meadows, among the green rushes and reeds, an hundred ladies clad in rich but loose attire. They are cloathed in green kirtles; their golden tresses, tied only with gl [...]ttering threads, flow to the ground; and their snowy bosoms are unveiled.

In this brilliant assembly, the poet sees NATURE, dam [...] Venus quene, the fr [...]sche AURORA, May, lady Flora schene, Juno, Latona, Proserpine, Diana goddess of the chase and woodis grene, lady Clio, Minerva, Fortune, and Lucina. These michty quenes are crowned with diadems, glittering like the morning-star. They enter a garden. May, the queen of mirthful months, is supported between her sisters April and [Page 268] June: as she walks up and down the garden, the birds begin to sing, and NATURE gives her a gorgeous robe adorned with every colour under heaven.

The vegetable tribes then do their obeisance to NATURE, in these polished and elegant verses.

Immediately another court, or groupe, appears. Here Cupid the king presides:

These are attended with other pagan divinities, Janus, Pria­pus, Eolus, Bacchus the glader of the table, and Pluto. They are all arrayed in green; and singing amorous ditties to the [Page 269] harp and lute, invite the ladies to dance. The poet quits his ambush under the trees, and pressing forward to gain a more perfect view of this tempting spectacle, is espied by Venus. She bids her keen archers arrest the intruder. Her attendants, a groupe of fair ladies, instantly drop their green mantles, and each discovers a huge bow. They form them­selves in battle-array, and advance against the poet.

BEAUTY is assisted by tender YOUTH with her virgins ying, GREEN INNOCENCE, MODESTY, and OBEDIENCE: but their resistance was but feeble against the golden target of REASON. WOMANHOOD then leads on PATIENCE, DISCRETION, STED­FASTNESS, BENIGNE LOOK, MYLDE CHEIR, and HONEST BUSINESS.

The attack is renewed by DIGNITY, RENOWN, RICHES, NO­BILITY, and HONOUR. These, after displaying their high banner, and shooting a cloud of arrows, are soon obliged to [Page 270] retreat. Venus, perceiving the rout, orders DISSEMBLANCE to make an attempt to pierce the Golden Shield. DISSEM­BLANCE, or DISSIMULATION, chuses for her archers, PRE­SENCE, FAIR CALLING, and CHERISHING. These bring back BEAUTY to the charge. A new and obstinate conflict ensues.

At length PRESENCE, by whom the poet understands that irresistible incentive accruing to the passion of love by society, by being often admitted to the company of the beloved object, throws a magical powder into the eyes of REASON; who is suddenly deprived of all his powers, and reels like a drunken man. Immediately the poet receives a deadly wound, and is taken prisoner by BEAUTY; who now assumes a more engaging air, as the clear eye of REASON is growing dim by intoxication. DISSIMULATION then tries all her arts on the poet: FAIR CALLING smiles upon him: CHERISHING sooths him with soft speeches: NEW ACQUAINTANCE embraces him awhile, but soon takes her leave, and is never seen afterwards. At last DANGER delivers him to the custody of GRIEF.

By this time, ‘"God Eolus his bugle blew."’ The leaves are torn with the blast: in a moment the pageant disap­pears, and nothing remains but the forest, the birds, the banks, and the brook ⁿ. In the twinkling of an eye they return to the ship; and unfurling the sails, and stemming the sea with a rapid course, celebrate their triumph with a discharge of ordinance. This was now a new topic for poetical de­scription. The smoke rises to the firmament, and the roar is re [...]echoed by the rocks, with a sound as if the rain-bow had been broken.

Our author then breaks out into a laboured encomium on Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate. This I chuse to recite at large, as it shews the peculiar distinction antiently paid to those fathers of verse; and the high ideas which now pre­vailed, even in Scotland, of the improvements introduced by their writings into the British poetry, language, and literature ^r [...]

This panegyric, and the poem, is closed with an apology, couched in elegant metaphors, for his own comparative hu­mility of style. He addresses the poem, which he calls a litill quair.

Dunbar's DAUNCE has very great merit in the comic style of painting. It exhibits a groupe of figures touched with the capricious but spirited pencil of Callot. On the eve of Lent, a general day of confession, the poet in a dream sees a display of heaven and hell. Mahomet ⁱ, or the devil, com­mands a dance to be performed by a select party of fiends; particularly by those, who in the other world had never [Page 273] made confession to the priest, and had consequently never received absolution. Immediately the SEVEN DEADLY SINS appear; and present a mask, or mummery, with the newest gambols just imported from France ^k. The first is PRIDE, who properly takes place of all the rest, as by that SIN fell the angels. He is described in the fashionable and gallant dress of those times: in a bonnet and gown, his hair thrown back, his cap awry, and [...]his gown affectedly flowing to his feet in large folds.

Several holy harlots follow, attended by monks, who make great sport for the devils ^w.

Black-belly and Bawsy-brown are the names of popular spirits in Scotland. The latter is perhaps our ROBIN GOOD­FELLOW, known in Scotland by the name of BROWNIE.

ANGER is drawn with great force, and his accompaniments are boldly feigned. His hand is always upon his knife, and he is followed, in pairs, by boasters, threateners, and quar­relsome persons, all armed for battle, and perpetually wound­ing one another ^d.

ENVY is equal to the rest. Under this SIN our author takes occasion to lament, with an honest indignation, that the courts of princes should still give admittance and encou­ragement to the whisperers of idle and injurious reports ⁿ.

AVARICE is ushered in by a troop of extortioners, and other miscreants, patronised by the magician Warloch, or the demon of the covetous; who vomit on each other tor­rents of melted gold, blazing like wild-fire: and as they are emptied at every discharge, the devils replenish their throats with fresh supplies of the same liquefied metal ^y.

[Page 276] SLOTH does not join the dance till he is called twice: and his companions are so slow of motion, that they cannot keep up with the rest, unless they are roused from their lethargy by being sometimes warmed with a glimpse of hell-fire ^z.

LUST enters, neighing like a horse ^k, and is led by IDLE­NESS. When his associates mingle in the dance, their visages burn red like the turkis-stone ^l. The remainder of the stanza, although highly characteristical, is too obscene to be transcribed. But this gave no offence. Their manners were too indelicate to be shocked at any indecency. I do not mean that these manners had lost their delicacy, but that they had not yet acquired the sensibility arising from civili­sation. In one of the Scotch interludes of this age, written by a fashionable court-poet, among other ridiculous ob­scenities, the trying on of a Spanish padlock in public makes a part of theatrical representation.

[Page 277] GLUTTONY brings up the rear; whose insatiable rout are incessantly calling out for meat and drink, and although they are drenched by the devils with draughts of melted lead, they still ask for more.

At this infernal dance no minstrels plaid. No GLEEMAN, or minstrel, ever went to hell; except one who committed murder, and was admitted to an inheritance in hell by brief of richt, that is, per breve de recto ^w. This circumstance seems an allusion to some real fact.

The concluding stanza is entirely a satire on the high­landers. Dunbar, as I have already observed, was born in Lothian, a county of the Saxons. The mutual antipathy between the Scottish Saxons and the Highlanders was exces­sive, and is not yet quite eradicated. Mahoun, or Mahomet, having a desire to see a highland pageant, a fiend is com­missioned to fetch Macfadyan; an unmeaning name, chosen for its harshness. As soon as the infernal messenger begins [Page 278] to publish his summons, he gathers about him a prodigious crowd of Ersche men; who soon took up great room in hell. These loquacious termagants began to chatter like rooks and ravens, in their own barbarous language: and the devil is so stunned with their horrid yell, that he throws them down to his deepest abyss, and smothers them with smoke.

I have been prolix in my citations and explanations of [...]his poem, because I am of opinion, that the imagination of [Page 279] Dunbar is not less suited to satirical than to sublime allegory: and that he is the first poet who has appeared with any de­gree of spirit in this way of writing since Pierce Plowman. His THISTLE AND ROSE, and GOLDEN TERGE, are generally and justly mentioned as his capital works: but the natural complexion of his genius is of the moral and didactic cast. The measure of this poem is partly that of Sir THOPAS in Chaucer: and hence we may gather by the way, that Sir THOPAS was antiently viewed in the light of a ludicrous composition. It is certain that the pageants and interludes of Dunbar's age must have quickened his invention to form those grotesque groupes. The exhibition of MORALITIES was now in high vogue among the Scotch. A Morality was played at the marriage of James the fourth and the princess Margaret ^d. Mummeries, which they call GYSARTS, com­posed of moral personifications, are still known in Scotland: and even till the beginning of this century, especially among the festivities of Christmas, itinerant maskers were admitted into the houses of the Scotch nobility.

ANother of the distinguished luminaries, that marked the restoration of letters in Scotland at the commence­ment of the sixteenth century, not only by a general emi­nence in elegant erudition, but by a cultivation of the ver­nacular poetry of his country, is Gawen Douglass. He was descended from a noble family, and born in the year 1475 ^e. According to the practice of that age, especially in Scotland, his education perhaps commenced in a grammar-school of one of the monasteries: there is undoubted proof, that it was finished at the university of Paris. It is probable, as he was intended for the sacred function, that he was sent to Paris for the purpose of studying the canon law: in consequence of a decree promulged by James the first, which tended in some degree to reform the illiteracy of the clergy, as it in­joined, that no ecclesiastic of Scotland should be preferred to a prebend of any value without a competent skill in that science ^f. Among other high promotions in the church, which his very singular accomplishments obtained, he was provost of the collegiate church of saint Giles at Edinburgh, abbot of the opulent convent of Abberbrothrock, and bi­shop of Dunkeld. He appears also to have been nominated by the queen regent to the archbishoprick, either of Glas­gow, or of saint Andrew's: but the appointment was re­pudiated by the pope ^g. In the year 1513, to avoid the per­secutions of the duke of Albany, he fled from Scotland into England, and was most graciously received by king Henry the eighth; who, in consideration of his literary merit, allowed [Page 281] him a liberal pension ^h. In England he contracted a friendship with Polydore Virgil, one of the classical scholars of Henry's court ⁱ. He died of the plague in London, and was buried in the Savoy church, in the year 1521 ^k.

In his early years he translated Ovid's ART OF LOVE, the favorite Latin system of the science of gallantry, into Scot­tish metre, which is now lost ^l. In the year 1513, and in the space of sixteen months ^m, he translated into Scotch heroics the Eneid of Virgil, with the additional thirteenth book by Mapheus Vegius, at the request of his noble patron Henry earl of Sinclair ⁿ. But it was projected [...]o early as the year 1501. For in one of his poems written that year ^o [...] he promises to Venus a translation of Virgil, in attonement for a ballad he had published against her court: and when the wo [...]k was finished, he tells Lord Sinclair, that he had now made his peace with Venus, by translating the poem which celebrated the actions of her son Eneas ^p. No me­trical version of a classic had yet appeared in English; except of Boethius, who scarcely deserves that appellation. Virgil was hitherto commonly known, only by Caxton's romance on the subject of the Eneid; which, our author says, no more resembles Virgil, than the devil is like saint Austin ^q.

This translation is executed with equal spirit and fidelity: and is a proof, that the lowland Scotch and English lan­guages were now nearly the same. I mean the style of composition [...] [Page 282] more especially in the glaring affectation of anglicising Latin words. The several books are introduced with metrical prologues, which are often highly poetical; and shew that Douglas's proper walk was original poetry. In the prologue to the sixth book, he wishes for the Sybill's golden bough, to [...]nable him to follow his master Virgil through the dark and dangerous labyrinth of the infernal regions ^r. But the most conspicuous of these prologues is a d [...]scription of May. The greater part of which I will insert ^s.

The poetical beauties of this specimen will be relished by every reader who is fond of lively touches of fancy, and rural imagery. But the verses will have another merit with those critics who love to contemplate the progress of com­position, and to mark the original workings of genuine na­ture; as they are the effusion of a mind not overlaid by the descriptions of other poets, but operating, by its own force and bias, in the delineation of a vernal landscape, on such objects as really occurred. On this account, they deserve to be better understood: and I have therefore translated them into plain modern English prose. In the mean time, this experiment will serve to prove their native excellence. Di­vested of poetic numbers and expression, they still retain their poetry; and, to use the comparison of an elegant writer on a like occasion, appear like Ulysses, still a king and conqueror, although disguised like a peasant, and lodged in the cottage of the herdsman Eumaeus.

This Landscape may be finely contrasted with a description of WINTER, from the Prologue to the seventh book ^h, a part of which I will give in literal prose.

Bale, whose titles of English books are often obscured by being put into Latin, recites among Gawin Douglass's po­etical works, his Narration [...]s aureae, and Comoediae aliquot sa [...]rae ⁱ Of his NARRATIONES AUREAE, our author seems to speak in the EPILOGUE to VIRGIL, addressed to his patron lord Sinclair ^k.

[Page 294] Perhaps these tales were the fictions of antient mythology. Whether the COMOEDIAE were sacred interludes, or MYSTE­RIES, for the stage, or only sacred narratives, I cannot de­termine. Another of his original poems is the PALICE OF HONOUR, a moral vision, written in the year 1501, planned on the design of the TABLET of Cebes, and imitated in the elegant Latin dialogue De Tranquillitate Animi of his country­man Florence Wilson, or Florentius Volusenus ^l. It was first printed at London, in 1553 ^m. The object of this alle­gory, is to shew the instability and insufficiency of worldly pomp; and to prove, that a constant and undeviating habit of virtue is the only way to true Honour and Happiness, who reside in a magnificent palace, situated on the summit of a high and inaccessible mountain. The allegory is illustrated by a variety of examples of illustrious personages; not only of those, who by a regular perseverance in honourable deeds gained admittance into this splendid habitation, but of those, who were excluded from it, by debasing the dignity of their eminent stations with a vicious and unmanly behaviour. It is addressed, as an apologue for the conduct of a king, to James the fourth; is adorned with many pleasing incidents and adventures, and abounds with genius and learning.

WITH Dunbar and Douglass I join Sir David Lyndesay, although perhaps in strictness he should not be placed so early as the close of the fifteenth century. He appears to have been employed in several offices about the person of James the fifth, from the infancy of that monarch, by whom be was much beloved; and at length, on account of his singular skill in heraldry, a science then in high estimation and among the most polite accomplishments, he was knight­ed and appointed Lion king of arms of the kingdom of Scotland. Notwithstanding these situations, he was an ex­cellent scholar ⁿ.

Lyndesay's principal performances are The DREME, and The MONARCHIE. In the address to James the fifth, prefixed to the DREME, he thus, with much tenderness and elegance, speaks of the attention he paid to his majesty when a child.

He adds, that he often entertained the young prince with various dances and gesticulations, and by dressing himself in [...]igned characters, as in an interlude ^q. A new proof that theatrical diversions were now common in Scotland.

In the PROLOGUE to the DREME, our author discovers strong talents for high description and rich imagery. In a [Page 297] morning of the month of January, the poet quits the copse and the bank, now destitute of verdure and flowers, and walks towards the sea-beach. The dawn of day is express­ed by a beautiful and brilliant metaphor.

In his walk, musing on the desolations of the winter, and the distance of spring, he meets Flora disguised in a sable robe ^w.

The birds are then represented, [...]locking round NATURE, complaining of the severity of the season, and calling for the genial warmth of summer. The expostulation of the lark with Aurora, the sun, and the months, is conceived and conducted in the true spirit of poetry.

The poet ascends the cliffs on the sea-shore, and entering a cavern, high in the crags, sits down to register in rhyme some mery mater of antiquitie. He compares the fluctuation of the sea with the instability of human affairs; and at length, be­ing comfortably shrouded from the falling sleet by the close­ness of his cavern, is lulled asleep by the whistling of the winds among the rocks, and the beating of the tide. He then has the following vision.

He sees a lady of great beauty, and benignity of aspect; who says, she comes to sooth his melancholy by shewing him some new spectacles. Her name is REMEMBRANCE. Instantaneously she carries him into the center of the earth. Hell is here laid open ^b; which is filled with popes, cardinals, abbots, archbishops in their pontifical attire, and ecclesiastics of every degree. In explaining the causes of their punish­ments, a long satire on the clergy ensues. With these are joined bishop Caiphas, bishop Annas, the traitor Judas, Ma­homet, Chorah, Dathan, and Abiram. Among the tyrants, or unjust kings, are Nero, Pharaoh, and Herod. Pontius Pilate is hung up by the heels. He sees also many duchesses and countesses, who suffer for pride and adultery. She then gives the poet a view of purgatory ^c.

After some theological reasonings on the absurdity of this intermediate state, and having viewed the dungeon of un­baptized babes, and the limbus of the souls of men who died before Christ, which is placed in a vault above the region of torment, they reascend through the bowels of the earth. In passing, they survey the secret riches of the earth, mines of gold, silver, and precious stones. They mount, through the ocean, which is supposed to environ the earth: then travel through the air, and next through the fire. Having passed the three elements, they bend towards heaven, but first visit the seven planets ^f. They enter the sphere of the moon, who is elegantly styled,

The sun is then described, with great force.

They now arrive at that part of heaven which is called the CHRYSTALLINE ⁱ, and are admitted to the Empyreal, or heaven of heavens. Here they view the throne of God, sur­rounded by the nine orders of angels, singing with ineffable harmony ^k. Next the throne is the Virgin Mary, the queen of [Page 301] queens, ‘"well cumpanyit with ladyis of delyte."’ An ex­terior circle is formed by patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, apostles, conquerors in the three battles of the world, of the flesh, and of the devil, martyrs, confessors, and doctours in di­vinitie, under the command of saint Peter, who is repre­sented as their lieutenant-general ^l.

Milton, who feigns the same visionary route with very different ideas, has these admirable verses, written in his nineteenth year, yet marked with that characteristical great manner, which distinguishes the poetry of his maturer age. He is addressing his native language.

REMEMBRANCE and the poet, leaving heaven, now con­template the earth, which is divided into three parts. To have mentioned America, recently discovered, would have been heresy in the science of cosmography; as that quarter of the globe did not occur in Pliny and Ptolemy ⁿ. The most famous cities are here enumerated. The poet next desires a view of Paradise; that glorious garth, or garden, of every flower. It is represented as elevated in the middle region of the air, in a climate of perpetual serenity ^o. From a fair fountain, springing in the midst of this ambrosial garden, descend four rivers, which water all the east. It is inclosed with walls of fire, and guarded by an angel.