1 Dispute.

She saw beastes in their kind,

The buck, the doe, the hart, the hind,
The males go with the female:
And so began there a quarell1
Between love and her owné heart,
From which she couthé not astart.2
And as she cast her eye about,
She saw, clad in one suit, a ront3
Of ladies, where they comen ride1
Along under the wood side;

On fair ambulend5 horse they set,
That were all whité, fair, and great;
And everiche one rid on side.

The saddles were of such a pride,
So rich saw she never none

With pearls and gold so well begone ;6
In kirtels and in copés rich
They were all clothed all alich,
Departed1o even of white and blue;
With all lustes11 that she knew
They were embroidered over all ;12
Their bodies weren long and small.
The beauty of their fair face

There may no earthly thing deface:13
Corownés on their heads they bare
As each of them a queen were;
That all the gold of Croesus' hall
The least coronal of all

Might not have bought, after the worth:
Thus comen they ridend forth.

Start from; she could not free herself from the thought. Rosiphele is a maiden, brought only by the power of circumstances to acknowledge the dominion of love. 3 See note 11, p. 10.

The infinitive in our older writers is made to do duty not only for gerunds and participles; but for parts of speech in no way connected with the verb.

5 Ambling, (Lat. Ambulare.)

Furnished. Gower frequently uses the word in this sense:

-he was wel! begone

With fair daughters many one.-Confessio Amantis, Book V.

Gowns; probably connected with the verb gird.

Upper cloaks. Čope is a part of the sacerdotal dress;-also a head-dress;-the upper tier of masonry; hence cope-stone. Cop or cope is used as the top of anything.

Upon the cop right of his nose he had

A wart.-Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales. (Latin, caput)-cope; to rival, to contend with, has various origins assigned it.-See the Dictionaries.

• Alike.

10 Variegated with.

Lists, colours. The term Du Cange derives from licia, (Lat.) threads, strings; the barriers of camps or cities being in medieval Latin termed licia from this word. The Ang. Sax. list is a border or hem of cloth; hence any bounding line; the boundary within which combatants fought:-applied to the party colours adopted by combatants; or to colours generally.

We write now all over. 13 Deface here seems to mean to spoil by outvying.

BARBOUR.

(1316 ?-1396.)

JOHN BARBOUR, the first of the Scottish poets who has descended to us, was Archdeacon of Aberdeen. He belongs to the class of the Rhyming Chroniclers. He was a man of intense thirst for knowledge, and eagerly availed himself of the English universities. He is a writer of vigour and even sweetness. His poem "the Bruce" is ranked as authentic history. He executed the work at the request of David II., Bruce's son.

FREEDOM.

Ан, Freedom is a noble thing!
Freedom makes men to have liking;
Freedom all solace to man gives:
He lives at ease that freely lives.
A noble heart may have none ease,
Na elsé nought that may him please,
If freedom faileth; for free liking
Is yearned oure1 all other thing.
Na he that aye has lived free
May not know well the property,2
The anger, na the wretched doom
That is coupléd to foul thyrldom.3
But if he had assayed it,

Then all perquer1 he should it wyt ;5
And should think freedom more to prize
Than all the gold in world that is.

CHARACTER OF SIR JAMES OF DOUGLAS.6

ALL men loved him for his bounty,
For he was of full fair effeir,7

Wise, courteous, and debonair.8

9

Large, and luffand10 als11 was he,
And oure all things loved lawté.12

1 Desired above.

2 Evil condition.

Thirl, thrill; a slave; a thrall. The eastern ceremony of enslaving was boring the ears. Exod. xxi. 6., Ps. xl. 6. "A custom retained by our forefathers and executed by them at the church doors."-Ellis. Thirl, therefore, is one bored: Ang. Sax. therlean, to pierce.) Thirl in Scotland was the feudal jurisdiction attached to a mill; thirlage, its legal exactions; put for thraldom in general. The idea bore or hole appears in the words nostril, drill, &c.

4 Perfectly. Blame, condemn :-it may mean also know. Called the Good Lord James: See Scott's Lord of the Isles; and Tales of a Grandfather. 7 Demeanour. French, de bon air, of a good disposition.

Liberal: largesse, the gratuity distributed to the heralds and poursuivants at tourna10 Loving. 12 Loyalty. (French, loyauté.)

ments.

Also.

THE BATTLE OF BYLAND'S PATH.

THUS were they fechtand' in the pass,
And when the king Robert, that was
Wiss in his deid,8 and anerly,9
Saw his men sae10 right doughtily
The path upon their fayis ta' ;11
And saw his fayis defend them sae;
Then gart12 he all the Irishry18
That were intill his company,
Of Argyle and the Isles alsua,14
Speed them in great hy 15 to the brae.
And bade them leave the path haly
And climb up in the crags hy;

1 Loyal, faithful.

And speed them fast the height to ta':16
Then might men see them stoutly gae,17
And climb all gate18 up the height,
And leave not for19 their fayis might.
Maugre their fayis, they bare them sae
That they are gotten abune the brae.
Then might men see them fight felly;20
And rusche21 their fayis sturdily.

? Disdained; the double negative in the early language has been noticed above. 3 He contained himself-demeaned himself.

Banes (Scotch); bones.

One of the characteristics of a perfect knight was to be "a lambkin in peace and a lion in war."

Byland Abbey is near Malton in Yorkshire; this battle was fought in 1322. See Tytler's Scotland. 7 Fighting.

Cognizant of his death; viz. of the death of the English leader.

9 Or allenarly-alone, from ane, one. 13 The Highlanders of Argyle and the Isles language, indicates this. 14 Also.

le Take.

17 Go.

19 Cease not on account of.

10 So.

11 Foes,-take.

12 Caused. were of Irish origin; Earse, the name of their 15 Haste, (English verb, hic.)

18 In every way.

20 Actively; also cruelly.

21 Drive.

And they that till the pass were gane,
Maugrel their fayis, the height has tane;
Then laid they on with all their might;
There might men see them felly fight.

JOHN LYDGATE.

LYDGATE belongs in the period of his reputation to the reign of Henry VI. The years of his birth and death are unknown. He was an ecclesiastic of Bury. His genius, though not of the highest order, was plastic and versatile. He is ranked by Warton among those who contributed to amplify and improve the phraseology of the English language. Ritson, Percy, and Ellis abuse Lydgate; "Lydgate has been oftener abused than read," Turner's Hist. of England. He was much esteemed by Gray, "no light authority:" and Coleridge vindicates the merits of Lydgate. He was popular in his own age, and long afterwards. "To enumerate his pieces," says Warton, "would be to write the catalogue of a little library." His chief poems, "The Fall of Princes ;"" The Siege of Troy ;""The Siege of Thebes," written at the request of the knightly and the noble, may be found too prolix and tedious for modern taste. His minor pieces are humorous and graphic, as representations of the society of the period. The following two short extracts are from Warton.

THE GOLDEN AGE.

Fortitude then stood steadfast in his might;
Defended widows; cherished chastity;
Knighthood in prowess gave so clear a light,
Girt with his sword of truth and equity.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE.

God hath a thousand handés to chastise;
A thousand dartés of punicion;2

A thousand bowés made in divers wise;
A thousand arlblasts bent in his dongèon.*

6

FROM "THE LONDON LICKPENNY."
Within the hall, neither rich nor yet poor
Would do for me aught, altho' I should die,

1 Notwithstanding, (French, malgré.)

Punishment (French.)

3 Or arblast, arbalist, arcubalist; from Lat. arcus, a bow; and balista, the Roman instrument for the discharge of arrows. Arblast is a crossbow.

Dun, or dune, a hill; donjon, a castle built on a hill; applied to the principal or most defensive part of a fortress, called by eminence "the keep," or "donjon-keep." Being the usual place of confinement for prisoners, the word dungeon has retained only this meaning. See Scott's "Kenilworth," and "Marmion."

"Some call London a lick-penny (as Paris is called by some a pick-purse), because of occasions of expense and allurements." Mr Halliwell suggests "lackpenny" as more appropriate to the character assumed by the poet.

6 Westminster. "Lydgate supposes himself to have come to town in search of legal redress for some wrong, and to have visited successively" the different courts.

Which seeing I gat me out of the door,
Where Flemings1 began on me for to cry,
"Master what will you kopen or buy?
Fine felt hats, or spectacles to read?

Lay down your silver and here may you speed."

Then to Westminster gate I presently went,
When the sun it was at high prime:2
And cooks to me they took good intent,
And proffered me bread, with ale and wine,
Ribs of beef, both fat and full fine,

A fair cloth they 'gan for to spread.
But, wanting money, I might not be sped.

Then unto London I did me hie.

Of all the land it beareth the price.
"Hot peascods !"-one began to cry,
"Strawberry ripe, and cherries in the rise."
One bade me draw near and buy some spice.
Pepper and saffron they 'gan me bid,
But, for lack of money, I might not speed.

Then to the Cheap3 I 'gan me drawn,
Where much people I saw for to stand.
One offered me velvet, silk, and lawn;
Another he taketh me by the hand,-
"Here is Paris thread, the finest in the land."
I never was used to such things indeed,
And, wanting money, I might not speed.

Then went I forth by London Stone,*
Through out all Canwyke Street.

Drapers much cloth me offered anon.

Then comes me one cried-"Hot sheep's feet."
One cried "Mackrell !”—“Rysses green!" another
'gan greit.

One bade me buy a hood to cover my head,

But, for want of money, I might not be sped.

Then I hied me unto East Cheap.

One cries ribs of beef, and many a pie.
Pewter pots they clattered on a heap.

There was harp, pipe, and minstrally.

1 The Lickpenny is valuable for its pictures of the manners and customs of the times. The Flemings had been the instructors of the English in manufactures. Koopen in Flemish is to purchase.

2

The first canonical hour, or six o'clock. Prime was also used to signify the first quarter of the artificial day, from six to nine."-Chalmers, vid. Gloss. to Lyndsay's Works. 3 Market; Cheapside. 4 Supposed to have been the Roman central milliarium. It stood on the south side of Cannon (anciently Canwyke or Candlewick) Street. A small fragment of it still remains, inclosed in the street wall. Rushes.