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 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 ancient 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.

With crafty archys raysyd wonder clene,
Embowed over all the work to cure,
So marveylous was the celature:

That al the rofe, and closure envyrowne,
Was of fyne goldè plated up and downe,
With knottès gravè wonder curyous

Fret ful of stonys rich and precious, &c.

The structure is supported by angels of gold. The steps are of crystal. 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

b with.

* [I wonder nobody ever thought of proving that the circulation of the blood was known before Harvey, from this passage. However, it seems difficult to conceive how this liquor was seen to circulate

through golden tubes let into a mummy. Had he made his body of crystal instead of the steps, with proper tubular passages, we might fancy the blood circulated, as it is seen to do in a great length of glass tube artificially twisted.-ASHBY.]

were four inextinguishable 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.

In the Bodleian library, there is a prodigious folio manuscript on vellum, a translation of Colonna's TROJAN HISTORY into versed; 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. 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 harp1. For al aboute that riche toun Stode wodes, and parkis, enviroun, That were repleny sched wonderful Of herte, and hynd, bore, and bul, And othir many savage bestis, Betwixt that wode and that forestis. Ther was large contray and playn, Faire wodes, and champayn Ful of semely-rennyng welles, As the ROMAUNCE the sothe1 telles, Withoute the cite that ther sprong. Ther was of briddes michel song, Thorow al the 3er and michel cry, Of al joyes gret melody. To that citè [of] Eetes 3ode Jason and Hercules,

B. iii. c. xxviii. Joseph of Exeter in his Latin poem entitled Antiocheis, or the Crusade, has borrowed from this tomb of Hector, in his brilliant description of the mausoleum of Teuthras, lib. iv. 451. have quoted the passage in the Second Dissertation.

d MSS. Laud. K. 76. fol. Supr. vol. i. p. 124.

I

It may, however, be thought, that this poem is rather a translation or imitation of some French original, as the writer often refers to The Romance. If this be the case, it is not immediately formed from the Troye-boke of Lydgate, as I have suggested in the text. I believe it to be about Lydgate's age; but there is no other authority for supposing it to be written by Lydgate, than that, in the beginning of the Bodleian manuscript now before us, a hand-writing, of about the reign of James the First, assigns it to that poet. [In this prefix: "Dares a Trojan haralte and Dictas a Grecian haralt, wrat this booke in Greeke, and lefte it in Athenes, and theare it was founde by Guido de Columpnis, a notary of Rome, and digested into Lattyn, and in anno 1414 translated into Englishe by John Lidgate munke of Bury. Vide fo. secunda." Of the latter assertion there appears no correspondent proof. -PARK.] I will give a few lines from the poem itself; which begins with Jason's expedition to Colchos, the constant prelude to the Trojan story in all the writers of this school.

In Colkos ile a cite was,

That men called hanne Jaconitas;
Fair, and mekel', large, and long,
With walles huge and wondir strong,
Ful of toures, and heye paleis,
Off rich knyztes, and burgeis:
A kyng that tyme hete2 Eetes
Gouerned than that lond in pes 3,
With his baronage, and his meynè,
Dwelleden thanne in that citè :

And al the felawes that he hadde
In clothe of golde as kynges he cladde, &c.

Afterwards, the sorceress Medea, the
king's daughter, is thus characterised.
Sche couthe the science of clergy,
And mochel of nigramauncy.—
Sche coude with conjurisouns,
With here schleyght7, and oresouns,
The day, that was most fair and lyght,
Make as darke as any nyght:
Sche couthe also, in selcouthe wise,
Make the wynde both blowe and rise,
And make him so loude blowe,
As it schold howses overthrowe.
Sche couth turne, verament,
All weders, and the firmament, &c.

It is not likely that Lydgate is its 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 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.

SECTION XXIV.

Reign of Henry the Sixth continued. Hugh Campeden translates the French romance of Sidrac. Thomas Chestre's Sir Launfale. Metrical romance of the Erle of Tholouse. Analysis of its Fable. Minstrels paid better than the clergy. Reign of Edward the Fourth. Translation of the classics and other books into French. How it operated on English literature. Caxton. Anecdotes of English typography.

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 SIDRACE. This translation, a book of uncommon

romance, it is not from the ancient metri-
cal one of Benoit, to whom, I believe, Co-
lonna is much indebted; but perhaps from
some later French romance, which co-
pied, or translated, Colonna's book. This,
among other circumstances, we may col-
lect from these lines.

Dares the heraud of Troye says,
And Dites that was of the Gregeis, &c.
And after him cometh maister GY,
That was of Rome a notary.
This maister Gy, or Guy, that is Guido of
Colonna, he adds, wrote this history,

In the manere I schall telle.
That is "my author, or romance, follows
Colonna." See supr. vol. i. p. 129. Dares

the heraud is Dares Phrygius, and Dites Dictys Cretensis.

This poem, in the Bodleian manuscript aforesaid, is finished, as I have partly observed, with an invocation to God, to save the author, and the readers, or hearers; and ends with this line,

Seythe alle Amen for charite. But this rubric immediately follows, at the beginning of a page: "Hic bellum de Troye finit et Greci transierunt versus patriam suam." Then follow several lineated pages of vellum, without writing. I have never seen any other manuscript of this piece.

See supr. vol. i. p. 145.

rarity, was printed with the following title, at the expense of Robert Saltwood, a monk of St. 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. Also 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 Englisshe," &c. There is no sort of elegance in the diction, nor harmony in the versification. It is in the minstrel-metre1.

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 LAUNFALK, one of Arthur's knights, who is celebrated with other cham

h With a wooden cut of Bocchus and Sidracke. There is a fine manuscript of this translation, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud. G. 57. pergam.

iMS. Laud. G. 57. Princip.
Men may fynde in olde bookes
Who soo yat in them lookes
That men may mooche here
And yerefore yff yat yee wolle lere
I shall teche yoowe a lytill jeste
That befell oonys in the este.
There was a kynge that Bochus hyght
And was a man of mooche myght
His londe lay be grete Inde
Bectorye hight hit as we fynde
After the tyme of Noee even
VIIJe hundred yere fourty and seven
The kynge Bochus hym bethought
That he would have a citee wrought
The rede Jewes fro hym spere
And for to mayntene his were
Ayenst a kyng that was hys foo
And hath moste of Inde longyng hym too
His name was Garaab the kyng.
Bocchus tho proved all this thing
And smartly a towre begenne he
There he wolde make his citee
And it was right at the incomyng
Of Garabys londe the kyng.
The masons with grete laboure
Beganne to worke uppon the toure
And all that they wroghten on day
On night was hit done away.
On morn when Bochus hit herde
Hee was wroth that hit so ferde
And dyd hyt all new begynne
At even whan they shuld blynne
Off worke when they went to reste
In the night was all downe keste.
Well vii monthes this thei wrought
And in the night avaylid yt nought

1 liege, [lay.]

Boccus was wroth wonderly

And callid his folke that was hym by
Councellith me lordinges seyde hee
Howe I may beste make this citee
They sayde sir sendith anoon
After your philosophers everychon
And the astronomers of your londe
Of hem shall yee counseill fonde.
Afterwards king Tractabare is requested
to send

the booke of astronomye
That whilom Noe had in baylye,
together with his astronomer Sidracke.
At the end,

And that Hugh of Campedene
That this boke hath thorogh soght
And untoo Englyssh ryme hit brought.

Sidrake, who is a Christian, at length builds the tower in Nomine S. Trinitatis, and he teaches Bocchus, who is an idolater, many articles of true religion. The only manuscript I have seen of this translation is among MSS. Laud. G. 57. fol. ut

supr.

It begins thus.

LAUNFAL MILES.

Be doughty Artours dawes

That held Engelond yn good lawes,
Ther fell a wondyr cas,

Of a ley' that was ysette,

That hyght LAUNVAL and hatte yette.
Now herkeneth how hyt was;
Doughty Artour som whyle
Sojournede yn Kardevyle2,
Wyth joye and greet solas,

And knyghtes that wer profitable,
With Artour of the rounde table,
Never noon better ther was.

pions in a set of French metrical tales or romances, written by some Armorican bard [Marie de France], under the name of LANVAL. They are in the British Museum'.

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

In romance this gest

A LEY" of BRITAYN callyd I wys, &c.

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 emperor 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 vic

Sere Persevall, and syr Gawayn,
Syr Gyheryes, and syr Agrafrayn,
And Launcelot du Lake,
Syr Kay, and syr Ewayn,
That well couthe fyghte yn plain,
Bateles for to take.

Kyng Ban Booght, and kyng Bos,
Of ham ther was a greet los,
Man sawe tho no wher3 her make1,
Syr Galafre, and syr LAUNFALE,
Whereof a noble tale
Among us schall a-wake.

With Artour ther was a bacheler
And hadde y-be well many a yer,
LAUNFAL for soht 5 he hyght,
He gaf gyftys largelyche

Gold and sylver and clódes ryche,
To squyer and to knyght.
For hys largesse and hys bountè
The kynges stuward made was he
Ten yer y you plyght,

Of alle the knyghtes of the table rounde
So large ther was noyn y-founde,
Be dayes ne be nyght.

So hyt befyll yn the tenthe yer
Marlyn was Artours counsalere,
He radde hym for to wende
To kyng Ryon of Irlond ryght,
And fette him ther a lady bryght
Gwennere hys doughtyr hende, &c.

In the conclusion.

THOMAS CHESTRE made thys tale, Of the noble knyght syr Launfale Good of chyvalrye;

Jhesus that ys hevene kyng
Yeve us alle hys blessyng
And hys modyr Marye.

EXPLICIT LAUNFALE. Never printed. MSS. Cotton. Calig. A. 2 f. 33. I am obliged to Dr. Percy for this transcript. It was afterwards altered into the romance of Sir Lambwell. [This Romance forms a part of Mr. Ritson's collection, from whose transcript the text has been corrected. Under the title of Sir Lambwell it occurs in Bishop Percy's folio MS. PRICE.]

1 MSS. Harl. 978. 112. fol. i. 154. "En Bretains l'apelent LAUNVAL." See a note at the beginning of Diss. i. m Never printed. MSS. Ashmol. Oxon. 45. 4to. [6926.] And MSS. More. Camb. 27. Princip.