Ad bona non tardus,-audax veluti leopardus. Tunc erit argentum-per terras undique lentum Many lines seem much corrupted and are difficult to understand When Edward the third first quartered the arms of France with those of England, an epigram was made upon the occasion 25: Rex sum regnorum-binâ ratione duorum: The poet laureate of the same monarch, when he was besieging Philip de Valois in Cambray, who could not be induced to quit the city, made these verses, with which the king was so much pleased that he swore "by Saint George that they were 25 Camden, p. 305. valiant verses," and commanded them to be affixed to an arrow, and shot into the city as a challenge 26: Si valeas, venias, Valoys,-depelle timorem, Non lateas, pateas, maneas—ostende vigorem. To this I must add a quaint epigram made when Henry the third levied a subsidy, which the rich would not, and the poor could not pay, and therefore it fell upon the middle orders. A back-gammon player will understand it: Deuce-ace non possunt—at size-cinque solvere nolunt, Est igitur notum-quater-trey solvere totum". A pleasing kind of poetry was at length invented in stanzas of four lines, of which the three first were not prosodiacal, but the last was from some classical author. The following is the beginning of a poem upon the epicurism and simony of the prelates 28: Missus sum in vineam circa horam nonam: 29 Varia doctorum piorumque virorum de corrupto ecclesiæ statu poemata. Cum præfatione Matthiæ Flacii Illyrici. Basil per Ludovicum Lucium, 1517: the greater part of the poems are in rhyme. Quando cibus deficit animalibus brutis, Mugiendo postulant cibum, spem salutis, Sed est mihi resonans vocibus acutis Fistula disparibus septem compacta cicutis. Jam prorsùs abolevit usus largiendi Præbendas, altaria video nunc vendi; Versa est in habitum cupido tenendi, Tempore crevit amor qui nunc est summus habendi. Vis Decanus fieri, Præsul, Patriarcha? Auri multa tibi sit et argenti marcha 29. Tantum habet fidei, teste manu parcâ, Quantum quisque sua nummorum servet in arcâ. In quo mundi climate, sub quo cœli signo, Est Abbas, vel Pontifex, pectore benigno, Dignus Christi nuptiis, dignus vitæ ligno? Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno. Ut Judæis odio carnes sunt suillæ, Sic in eis extinctæ sunt virtutum scintillæ. Hic vacat marsupio, nummo servit ille. Credite me vobis folium recitare Sybilla. Omnes avaritiâ mentibus imbutis 29 Marcha, a mark in money. A Prælatis defluunt vitiorum rivi, Vos ergo cùm talia Præsules agatis, De futuræ gaudio vitæ desperatis : Illudque Lucanium mente pertractatis Tolle moras, semper nocuit differre paratis. Quanto plura possidet, quanto plus ditescit, Velut hydropicus, qui semper arescit. Senes avaritiæ sunt imbuti felle, Odor lucri primus dulcior est melle. "Nolle pudicitiam nummos ante velle," Hoc dicunt omnes ante alpha et beta puellæ. In this style a poem was written by Walter Disse, a Carmelite friar of Bordeaux, in 1390, de Scismate: Heliconis rivulo modicè conspersus, Vereor ne pondere sim verborum mersus, Sed quia labitur mundus universus, Incipe Manalios mecum mea tibia versus. Rhythmis dum lascivio, versus dum propino, Quia nec afflatus spiritu divino, The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, etc. Rhyming poetry, particularly in the hymns of the church, continued in use till the revival of elegant learning, and the reformation. There is a sort of song, used upon the admission of students in Germany, said to have been written by Luther: Salvete candidi hospites, Mos est cibum magnatibus Nos, dum jocamur crassiùs, |