There saw I first the dark imagining
Of Felony, and all the compassing;1
The cruel Ire-red as any glede ;2

The Pickpurse; and eke the palè Dread;
The Smiler with the knife under the cloak;
The shepen brennings with the blacke smoke;
The Treason of the murdering in the bed;
The open War with wounds all bebled ;+
Conteked with bloody knife, and sharp Menàce;
All full of chirking was that sorry? place !
The slayer of himself yet saw I there,
His hertès blood hath bathed all his hair;
The nail ydriven in the shode9 on height,10
The cold death-with mouth gaping upright.
Amiddes of the temple sat Mischance,
With discomfort and sorry countenance.
Yet saw I Woodness,11 laughing in his rage,
Armed Complaint, Outhies, 12 and fierce Outrage;
The carrion in the bush with throat ycorven ;13
A thousand slain, and not of qualm ystorven ;14
The tyrant with the prey by force yraft,15
The town destroyed-there was nothing left. 16

LYCURGUS OF THRACE.

THERE may'st thou see, coming with Palamon,
Lycurge himself, the great King of Thrace:
Black was his beard, and manly was his face;
The circles of his eyën in his head

They gloweden betwixten yellow and red;
And like a griffon17 lookèd he about;

1 Treacherous circumvention or contrivance. The medieval Latin word compassum, a pair of compasses, is said by Menage to be compounded of the prep. con, and passus, a step. From this word the verb in the modern languages signifies sometimes to distribute, or proportion; to measure; sometimes to enclose, to reach, to accomplish, to circumvent. "In Chaucer and others it seems equivalent to contrive."-(Tyrwhit.) From association with some of these ideas, the term may have been applied to the card and the magnetic needle.

2 A coal; gicid (Scotch), a small fire on the hearth; that which has glowed, from Ang.Sax. gleowan, to glow.

3 Sheep burning.

Be is often an intensive prefix.

$ Contention

Chirk, to chirp as a sparrow. It also signifies to crash, to creak, corresponding to the Latin stridere; (Ang.-Sax. cearcian.)

7 Sorry, woeful; compare, "This is a sorry sight."--Shakesp., Macbeth. Sorry and wretched are both used as implying contemptible qualities.

8 Heart.

• Bush of hair; the head. "Skinner thinks it may be from Ang -Sax. scade, a grove, i.e. nemus capillorum.” "Schede, line of division of the hair;" Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.

10 Above. 11 Madness, from Ang.-Sax. wedan, to be mad; (wud, mad; Scotch.) 12 Outcries. 13 Carved, cut.

14 Dead of sickness: qualm; Ang.-Sax. cwellan, to quell, to quail; ystorven, dead, starved; Ang.-Sax. steorfan; Germ. sterben, to die.

15 Reft.

16 This passage is an instance of the allegorical style of the age of Chaucer, so fully developed by the Italian poets." This group is the effort of a strong imagination unac quainted with the selection and arrangement of images."-Warton.

17 Griffin or gryphon, from Greek Tpv, gryps, a fabulous animal, having the form of a lion and an cagle: Esch. Prom. Vinct. 804; Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 943. The animal plays a conspicuous part in romances and heraldry; but the idea is not one derived from the

With kempéd1 herés on his browés stout,
His limmés great, his brawnes2 hard and strong,
His shoulders broad, his armés round and long.
And as the guise3 was in his countrée,
Full high upon a car of gold stood he;
With fouré white bullés in the trais.1
Instead of coat-armoùr,5 on his harnais,
With nailés yellow and bright as any gold,
He had a bear's skin, coal-black for old.
His long hair was kempt behind his back,
As any raven's feather it shone for black.
A wreath of gold arm-great," of huge weight,
Upon his head sat, full of stonés bright,
Of finé rubins, and of diamants.7
About his car there wenten white alauns,8
Twenty and mo', as great as any steer,
To hunten at the lion or the deer,

And followed him with muzzle fast ybounde,
Collar'd with gold, and torrets filédio round.
A hundred lordés had he in his route,11
Armed full well, with hertes stern and stout.

EMETRIUS, KING OF INDIA.

12

WITH Arcita, in stories as men find,1
The great Emetrius, the King of Inde,
Upon a stedé bay, trappéd13 in steel,

Covered with cloth of gold, diapred11 wele,

northern mythology. Gripe, in old English, an cagle-("as it were a gripe's eye," Gower)-is derived from'Ang.-Sax. gripan, to gripe, to clutch; gryps is from Youros, grypos, crooked.

1 Combed. "Chaucer uses it generally as equivalent to decked;" of uncertain etymo logy. Comb or coomb is also a hollow enclosed valley; hence applied to bee-hives. Both words have been by some connected with the Greek naμra, kampo, I bend.

2 Muscles. Baren or bawren was the ancient adjective; bar or bawr, a bear or boar. By the common transposition of the r, (vid. note, 7 p. 8,) it became brawen, brawn, so that the term means boar's (flesh), alluding to the large muscles of that animal. Tooke. Bran, in Scotch, is the calf of the leg.

Manner. Ang.-Sax. wise We retain this form in likewise, otherwise, coastwise, &c. Traces of the car. (Lat. Traho, I draw.)

5 "A coat worn over the armour, on which the armorial ensigns of the wearer were embroidered." Harness; military equipment.

See above, note 13, p. 8.

7 French forms.

A species of hound much esteemed in the middle ages.

More; from Ang.-Sax. mac; retained in Scotch, with the superl. maist. For an ac count of these words, see Tooke's Diversions of Purley; Richardson's English Dictionary; Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.

10 Polished rings (for fastening the collars.) Torrets "are often mentioned in the Inventory of furniture in the palaces of Henry VIII."-Warton. Probably from French, tort, twisted; Latin, torqueo, I twist; torques, a collar, a wreath.

A company. The word has various forms and applications in the modern languages. For its origin, etymologists are divided between the Latin ruptus, (burst), and rota, (a wheel). Except in its application to the line of a journey, we now throw away the final Rout, a fashionable assembly-a disorderly defeat-a riotous rabble. "Riot is undoubtedly the same word with rout."-Richardson. Row, a low word for an uproar. 12 For the origin of the fable of the "Knight's Tale," see Warton's History of English Poetry, Section 12.

e.

13 Clad, from French drap, cloth (?)—having generally the idea of ornament. "Trappors (trappings) of their steeds."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, Stanza 35.

14 Diversified with lines and flourishes. The Fleinish towns were the great seats of ma

Came riding like the God of Arms, Mars.
His coat-armoùr was of a cloth of Tars,1
Couchéd with pearls white, and round, and great;
His saddle was of brents gold, new ybete;1
A mantelets upon his shoulders hanging,
Bretfull of rubies red as fire sparkling;
His crispés hair like ringés was yronne,
And that was yellow, and glittered as the sun.
His nose was high, his eyen bright citrin,10

His lippés round, his colour was sanguine;
A fewé fraknes11 in his face ysprent,12

Betwixen yellow and black, some dele13 ymeint ;14
And as a lion he his looking cast.15

of five and twenty years his age I cast.16
His beard was well begunnen for to spring;
His voice was as a trumpet thundering.
Upon his head he weared, of laurer17 green,
A gerlond18 fresh and lusty19 for to sene.20

nufactures; hence this word has been derived from Ypres in Flanders, the original form being dipre. Other examples are, arras and cambric, from Arras and Cambray in France; worsted, from Worstead in Norfolk; calico, from Calicut. Instances of the same kind are very numerous.

1 Abbreviation for Tartarium.

"A broad banner

Of fine tartarium."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, Stanza 31.

"It is often mentioned in the wardrobe accounts for furnishing tournaments;-a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary. Du Cange. Gloss. Tartarium."-Warton.

2 Laid or trimmed, (Tyrwhitt). French, coucher; Ital. colcare, pro; Lat. collocare, to lay, to place; to couch a lance, to lay it in the rest.

Burnished, see notes 7 p. 8, and 2, p. 10. Brent also signifies high, straight, upright, (Jamieson); brent rocks, steep rocks. "It is perhaps be-rent, i. e. riven, torn," Richardson. Scar, a cliff, (as in Scarborough), rock, cliff, have the same idea.

Beaten, stamped, or imprinted.

$ Diminutive of mantle. Etymologists go back for this word to Mandyas, a Persian cloak. It exists in all the European languages. Mantelet is also a covering for the protection of miners and besiegers. Mantel (of a chimney), that which protects from smoke and dust; to mantle (applied to a hawk), to spread out the wings. The word is applied to trees-" the mantling vine;" and to fermented liquors, from the covering of froth"the mantling cup."

The second syllable should be here sunk as much as possible in pronunciation, as in French words ending in re.

7 Quite full. The sense is much clearer than the etymology.

From Lat. crispus, curled. 9 Run, close, twisted. 10 Citron, lemon-coloured. 11 Freckles. Conjectured etymologies are, Latin, fricare, to rub; German, fleck, a spot; Ang. Sax. fraetan, to eat: freaks or freckles, therefore, spots eaten into the skin. 12 Forms of the participles of the Saxon verbs corresponding to sprinkle and mingle. 13 Somedeal; somewhat. 14 See note 12. 15 Darted his glance.

16 I reckoned his age to be of, &c. from the phrase "to cast accounts;" alluding to the manner of reckoning with the abacus and calculi (counters). Shakspeare makes Iago call Cassio in derision a "counter-caster."-Othello, Act i. Sc. 1. The word cast has an immense number of applications of great beauty and interest. See the Dictionaries.

17 The medieval poets and painters are by no means scrupulous about chronology or locality in their grouping of the parts of a picture. An Indian king wears a Greek laurel; and the chivalry, nay the religion and philosophy of the 14th century A. D. luxuriate in Thebes and Athens in the age of Theseus, almost as many centuries B. C.

18 Garland; written girlond always in Spencer. Some connect it with Lat. corolla; Greek yugos, a circle; Ang. Sax. girdan, to gird.

19 Luxuriant. "How lush and lusty the grass looks; how green!"-Shakesp. Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 1.

"The sun hath

Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness."-Surrey.

The original idea of this word, will, has branched out in various languages into porter, pleasure, luxuriance, love, &c. (Greek, Law.)

20 Sec.

Upon his hand he bare for his deduit1

An eagle tame, as any lily white.

An hundred lordés had he with him there,
All armed, save their heads,2 in all their gear.
About this King there ran on every part

Full many a tame lion and leopart.3

ARCITA, DYING IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE WOUND RECEIVED IN THE
COMBAT WITH PALAMON, ADDRESSES PALAMON AND EMILIE.

"NOUGHT may the woeful spirit in my heart
Declare o point of all my sorrows smart
To you, my lady, that I love (the) most;
But I bequeath the service of my ghost?
To you aboven every creature,

Sing that my life ne may no longer dure.9

"Alas the wo! alas, the pains strong
That I for you have suffered, and so long!
Alas, the death!-alas, mine Emilie!
Alas, departing10 of our company!
Alas, mine herté's queen!-alas, my wife,
Mine herté's lady-ender of my life!

What is this world? What axen11 men to have?

Now with his 12 love-now in his colde grave-
Alone-withouten any company!

Farewell, my sweet! farewell, mine Emilie!
And softé take me in your armés twey,
For love of God, and hearkeneth18 what I say.
"I have here, with my cousin14 Palamon,
Had strife and rancour many a day agon
For love of you, and for my jealousy.
And Jupiter so wis15 my soul giele
To speaken of a servant17 properly,
With allé circumstances trewély-

1 Pleasure; (French, déduire; Lat. deducere, to lead from.) Deduit has the idea enjoyment, on the same principle that diversion and amusement have it.

2 For usages of chivalry illustrative of this, see Scott's "Ivanhoe."

Of the pictures of Lycurgus and Emetrius, Hazlitt says, "What a deal of terrible beauty there is contained in this description! The imagination of the poet brings such ob jects before us, as when we look at wild beasts in a menagerie; their claws are pared; their eyes glitter harmless lightning; but we gaze at them with a pleasing awe, clothed in beauty, and formidable in the sense of abstract power."

Completely, accurately. French, à point. 5 Only.
Spirit. 8 Since.

10 Separation of our society.

9 Last; we now write endure.
11 Ask.

6 A lover's attachment.

12 There is perhaps an intended beauty in the transition from the general reflection implied in the plural "axen men;" to the specialty of Arcita's own case implied in the singular "his.'

13 The imperative has often this form, especially in the plural.

14 Denoting friendly connection or relationship; alleged etymologies, Lat. cognatus, of same birth; consanguineus, of same blood;-"Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son."-Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2.

15 Certainly from Ang. Sax. wittan, to know.

18 Guide. So may Jupiter certainly guide my soul to speak, &c. This is a common use of so in oaths and vows: Comp. Horace, Odes i. 3. "Sic te diva," &c.

17 A lover: one of the terms of the worship chivalry paid to woman; applied to any knight who chose a lady, as the lady of his worship, without any idea of the character lover. Thus James IV. of Scotland made himself knight of the Queen of France; and, as bound by the laws of chivalry to obey his lady's request, he marched for her sake "three miles"

3

That is to sayn,-truth, honour, and knighthède,
Wisdom, humblesse,1 estate,2 and high kinrède,
Freedom, and all that 'longeth to that art--
So Jupiter have of my soul a part,1

As in this world right now ne know I none
So worthy to be loved as Palamon,

That serveth you, and wol done all his life;
And if that ever ye shall ben a wife,
Forget not Palamon, the gentle man.'

And with that word his speeché fail began;
For from his feet up to his breast was come
The cold of death, that had him over nome.8
And yet moreover in his armés two
The vital strength is lost and all ago.9
Only the intellect withouten more

That dwelled in his herté1o sike11 and sore,
Gan faillen when the herté felté death;
Dusked his eyen two, and fail'd his breath;
But on his lady yet cast he his eye;
His laste word was-"Mercy! Emilie!"12

PRAISE OF WOMEN.

FOR, this ye know well, tho' I wouldin lie,
In women is all truth and steadfastness;
For, in good faith, I never of them siels
But much worship, bounty, and gentleness,
Right coming, 14 fair, and full of meekéness;
Good, and glad, and lowly, I you ensure,
Is this goodly and àngelic creatùre.

and more on English ground, and lost his life by his devotion. For the use of the terin "servant" in this sense, see "The two Gentlemen of Verona," Act ii. Sc. 1 and Sc. 4.

1 Modesty. The termination esse in English now takes a before it.

2 Rank.

3 Kindred; alınost the only instance in which we retain this shape of the termination

is Godhead; but Chaucer and Spencer write knighthed, lustyhed, &c.

4 It must be remembered that some of the theology of the "Knight's Tale" is of the age of Theseus and Hippolyta.

5 Truly; this sense is retained in "right well; right trusty," &c.

Will do; done, i. e. doen, infinitive governed by col; wol, past tense wold (would.) Infinitive governed by shall.

Overtaken: German, nehmen, to take; part. genommen, taken.

Gone; the prefix a (on, to, or in,) is obsolete except in poetry ;

**Does Lord Eneas go afield to-day."-Shakesp. Troilus and Cressida.
"How jocund did they drive their team afield."--Gray.

and in the adverbs away, against, &c.; ago is applied only to time;" as some have long agone."-Bunyan. A was very often prefixed to the present participle, awanting, adying, a-fishing.

10 The heart, the liver, and the kidneys (reins) have been made the seat of passion and feeling, hence chicken-hearted, "lily-livered,"-(Shakesp.), "that searchest the heart and triest the reins."-Psalms. 11 Sick.

12 This whole picture is as truly pathetic as any to be found in the whole range of poetry. The fervour of his love represented as maintaining the principle of life in the vital seat, while death is creeping over the members of his body, is peculiarly affecting; and the supremacy of this feeling when all is dissolving, whendusked his eyen two, and failed his breath," is pictured in the most intense style of pathos.

13 Saw.

14 Demeanour; if the punctuation be altered, coming may be viewed as one of the predicates of the succeeding verb is.