AN ACCOUNT OF SOME VALUABLE MANUSCRIPTS, WHICH I HAVE EXAMINED, OF GOWER AND CHAUCER. 1. Gower's French Balades, and Smaller Poems, Or this curious and valuable Manuscript, I have thought it incumbent upon me, as a proper mark of attention to the readers of the History of English Poetry, to give, with considerable additions and some corrections, the account which the author of that elaborate and elegant Work has printed in the Appendix to his second volume. The additions and corrections are made in consequence of having been indulged, as the late Mr. Warton was, with the use of this Manuscript. In the present Marquis of Stafford's library at Trentham*, there is a thin oblong Manuscript on yellum, containing some of Gower's poems in * See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. App, sign. g. b. Latin, French, and English. By an entry in the first leaf, in the hand-writing and under the signature of Thomas lord Fairfax, Cromwell's general, an antiquary, and a lover and collector of curious manuscripts, it appears that this book was presented by the poet Gower, about the year 1400, to Henry the fourth; and that it was given by lord Fairfax to his friend and kinsman Sir Thomas Gower, knight and baronet, in the year 1656. By another entry, lord Fairfax acknowledges to have received it, in the same year, as a present, from that learned gentleman Charles Gedde esquire, of saint Andrews in Scotland: and at the end are five or six Latin anagrams on Gedde, written and signed by lord Fairfax, with this title, "In nomen venerandi et annosi amici sui Caroli Geddei." By king Henry the fourth it seems to have been placed in the royal library: it appears at least to have been in the hands of king Henry the seventh, while earl of Richmond, from the name Rychemond inserted in another of the blank leaves at the beginning, and explained by this note, "Liber Henrici septimi, tunc Comitis Richmond, propria manu script." This manuscript is neatly written, with miniated and illuminated initials; and contains the following pieces. i. An English panegyrick in stanzas, with a Latin prologue or rubrick in seven hexameters, on king Henry the fourth. This poem, commonly called Carmen de pacis commendatione in laudem Henrici quarti, is printed in Urry's edition of Chaucer's Works. ii. A short Latin poem in elegiacks, which Mr. Warton asserts to be on the same subject. The minute title of it, however, is at the close of the English poem, and does not exactly accord with Mr. Warton's assertion. *Explicit carmen de pacis commendacione quod ad laudem et memoriam serenissimi principis domini Regis henrici quarti suus humilis orator Johannes Gower composuit. Et nunc sequitur EPISTOLA IN QUA IDEM JOHANNES PRO STATU ET SALUTE DICTI DOMINI SUI APUD ALTISSIMUM DEVOCIUS EXORAT. It begins, + Rex celi deus et dominus, qui tempora solus This is followed by ten other very short pieces, both in French and Latin, in praise and commemoration of king Henry. iii. Cinkante Balades, or Fifty Sonnets in French. The title, and part of the first Sonnet, are mutilated. They are closed with the following epilogue and colophon: O gentile Engleterre a toi iescrits, *MS. fol. 6. b. As in MSS. Cott. Otho, D. i. 4. Mr. Warton says, French and English. But not one of the pieces is i English. The first three are in French, the fourth in Latin, perfect, fol. 7. h. The remainder, fol. 8. a, 8. b, French and Latin, mutilated. § Mr. Warton merely says, "part of the first is illegible” MS. fol. 29. |