She thinks of Eden-life; and no rough wind,
In their pacifique sea shall wrinkles make;
That still her lowliness shall keep him kind,

Her cares keep him asleep, her voice awake.
She thinks, if ever anger in him sway

(The youthfull warriour's most excus'd disease)
Such chance her tears shall calm, as showres allay
The accidental rage of winds and seas.

She thinks that babes proceed from mingling eyes,
Or heav'n from neighbourhood increase allows,
As Palm and the Mamora fructifies;

Or they are got by close exchanging vows.

But come they (as she hears) from mother's pain,
(Which by th' unlucky first-maid's longing, proves
A lasting curse) yet that she will sustain,

So they be like this heav'nly man she loves.

Thus to herself in day-dreams Birtha talks:

The duke (whose wounds of war are healthfull grown)
To cure Love's wounds, seeks Birtha where she walks;
Whose wand'ring soul seeks him to cure her own.

Yet when her solitude he did invade,

Shame (which in maids is unexperienc'd fear)

Taught her to wish night's help to make more shade,
That love (which maids think guilt) might not appear.

And she had fled him now, but that he came
So like an aw'd and conquer'd enemy,
That he did seem offenceless, as her shame;
As if he but advanc'd for leave to flie.

First with a longing seaman's look he gaz'd,

Who would ken land, when seas would him devour;

Or like a fearfull scout, who stands amaz'd

To view the foe, and multiplies their pow'r."

It will have been observed, that the author has made use of one piece of machinery, by introducing the ring which had the magical property of indicating the constancy or inconstancy of the donor. With this exception, he has relied on the fertile resources of his own mind, and, because he has dared to be original, he has been sneered at by those who start at innovation, as children at imaginary phantoms. His poem is full of most delectable teachings, and must be studied and not skimmed over as some poems may be, which, like the flute, give out a

sweet tone, and yet are empty. The longer we dwell upon this noble, but unfinished, monument of the genius of Sir William Davenant, the more does our admiration of it increase, and we regret, that the unjust attacks which were made against it (or whatever else was the cause) prevented its completion. It might then, notwithstanding the prophetical oblivion to which Bishop Hurd has, with some acrimony, condemned it, have been entitled to a patent of nobility, and had its name inscribed on the roll of epic aristocracy.

ART. VIII. The Informacyon for pylgrymes unto the holy lande. That is to wyte to Rome, to Therusalem and to many other holy places. Imprynted at London in the Fletestrete at the signe of ye sonne by Wynkyn de Worde. The yere of God. m.cccc and xxiiii. the xxvi day of Julii, Reg. R. H. viii. xvi. [This is copied from the Colophon, the title page of the copy before us being wanting.] BLACK LETTER, 4to.

Such is the extreme rarity of this singular little work, that we consider ourselves particularly fortunate in being enabled to give an account of its contents. It is mentioned both by Herbert and Mr. Dibdin;* who, neither of them having seen the book, are indebted to Ames for their scanty notice of it; and if we may form a conclusion from the mistakes into which Ames appears to have fallen, it was perhaps never submitted even to his inspection. It is entitled, judging from the Colophon, Informacyon, and not Instructions, for Pilgrims, and is not written by one John Moreson, as he states. This John Moreson being a "marchaunte of Venyce," who was the owner of the ship in which the pilgrims sailed, whose journal is here given.

After the title, there commences a table of routes and distances, measured in leagues and miles, to all those places to

* Dibdin's Typ. Ant. vol. 2, page 254.

345.-Instruction for pilgrims to the Holy Land, Imprynted, &c. viii. Hen. viii. M.CCCC. xxiiii. 26th July, quarto.

"It is a pity that Ames, from whom Herbert and myself borrow our meagre accounts of this volume, has not given a more particular description of a work, in all probability as curious and interesting as it is rare. According to Ames it is "a description of a voyage to Jerusalem by one John Moreson;" a traveller who has escaped Boucher in his "Bibliothèque Universelledes Voyages."

which pilgrimages were usually made. After which comes an account of the course of exchange, called "chaunge of moneye fro Englande to Rome, and to Venyse;" which is succeeded by some three or four pages of general hints, concerning provisions, conveyances, compacts with captains, &c. and a complete list of the havens to be touched at between Venice and Jaffa. A list of fees, or tributa in terra sancta," next occurs; after which the regular journal thus commences.

66

"In the seven and twenty day of the moneth of June, there passed fro Venyse under sayle out of the haven of Venyse, at the sonne goinge downe certayne pilgrymes towards Jherusalem in a shyppe of a merchante of Venyse, called Johan Moreson. The patrone of the same shyppe was called Luke mantell. To the nombre of lx. and syxe pylgrimes every man paynge some more some lesse as they myght accorde with the patrone.-Some that might paye well payed xxxii. ducates, and some xxvi. and xxiiii. for meet and drynke and passage to port Jaffe, and from thens to Venyse agayne."

The journal then proceeds to mention briefly the places which the pilgrims visited until their arrival at Jerusalem, when an enumeration is given of all the traces which remained, or which were said to remain, of the remarkable spots mentioned by the evangelists. After the reliques of the holy city itself have been carefully reckoned up, a number of paragraphs occur, each containing a "pilgrimage" into other celebrated districts of the holy land. These are, the "Pylgrymages in the vale of Josephat; of the mount Olyvete; in the vale of Syloe; of mount Syon; of the Bethleem; in Bethany; of flume Jordan; in Nazaret. And here the writer changes his language from English to Latin, and proceeds in his enumeration, without assigning any reason for the alteration, or appearing to think that any was necessary. Though he speaks in a different language, his style is, however, preserved precisely the same. He goes on with "Peregrinationes Damasci, Montis Sinai, terre Egypti," until he comes to the chapter, entitled " Reditus et reversio dictorum peregrinorum versus Angliam." The next paragraph consists of a few lines "de brevitate et unitate hujus mundi;" after which," Here foloweth the langage of Moreske withe other also:" and there does follow, a list of the numbers in figures, up to xl. with their names in "Moreske," and a few of the commonest words and phrases in use, such as "bread, wine, ye be welcome, what tidings," &c. explained in the same language, but in the old black letter character. After which, there is a similar account of "Greke," and "The nombres of the language of Turky." There next succeeds a list of the "Stationes in Roma," and the tract coucludes with a " Nota de significatione singulorum membrorum ecclesie."

The writer of this curious little work was doubtless one of the pilgrims of whose motions he gives an account; but, concerning his name, we have no information. He invariably speaks in the third person of the pilgrims as a body, and never deviates into any particular account of either what they saw or what they did. In the times, indeed, when our traveller composed his journal, men did not print to satisfy idle curiosity. The book was not written to save his countrymen, at home, from the trouble of the voyage, but to serve as a faithful guide to all bound on the meritorious expedition; and it seems, indeed, to have been well adapted for its purpose, and was, we doubt not, much esteemed by those who were in want of such a manual. We will give our readers a specimen of the pilgrim's style, in an extract from his general hints prefixed to the journal. After various other useful directions, he says,

"Also hyre you a cage for halfe a dozen of hennes or chekyns to have with you in the shyppe or galey. For ye shall have nede of them many times. And by you halfe a busshell of mele sede at Venyse for them. Also take a barrel with you for a sege for your chambre in the shyppe; it is full necessary if ye were seke, that you come not into the ayre. Also whan you come to haven townes, yf she shall tary there thre dayes go by times to lande; for than ye may have lodginge before another; it wyll be take up anone. And whan you come to dyvers havens beware of fruytes that ye ete none for nothynge; as melons and such cold fruytes; for they be not according to our complexion, and they gendre a bloody fluxe. And yf ony englyssheman catche there that sekeness, it is a great mervayle, but and he dye therof. Also whan you shall come to port Jaffe, take with you out of the shyp unto land two botelles or two gourdes, one with wyne another with water, each of a potell at the leest, for she shall none have until you come to Rames, and that is right feble and dere. And at Jerusalem, there is good wyne and dere. Also se that your patron take charge of your harneys within the shyppe, tyl ve come agayne to the shyppe, ye shall tary there xii. days. Also take good hede to youre knyves and other small japes that ye bore upon you, for the Sarasyns wyll go talkynge by you and make good chere, but they will stele from you yf they may. Also whan ye take your asse at porte Jaffe, be not too long behynde your felowes, for and ye come betyme, ye may chuse the best mule or asse that ye can, for ye shall pay no more for the best than the worst. Also ye must gyve your asseman there of curtesy a grote of Venyse, and be not to moche before nor to moche behynde your felowes, for because of shrewes."

Speaking of Candy, this ancient writer says;

"In this city, the sayd pylgrymes taryed a moneth. And then was great hete. For from Maye to ye feest of All Sayntes, then groweth no gras. It is so brent with the hete of the sonne. And than about ye feest of All Sayntes begynneth grasse, herbes, and floures, to springe. And it is there than as in somer is in Englande, soo in the wynter it is

temperate, no cold but lyttell. There is never snowe nor froste with yse. And yf there come ony froste with a lytell yse, they will shewe it eche to other for a mervayle."

He thus commences his account of what was seen in Jerusalem.

"On a sondaye in the mornynge they began theyr pylgrymage. And a freer of Mount Syon wente with them to enfourme the places and the pardones of every place. These ben the pylgrymages within the cytee of Jerusalem. The fyrste is before the temple of the sepulcre dore. There is a foure square stone whyte, whereupon Chryste rested hym with his crosse whan he wente towarde the mount of Calvary, where is indulgence vii yeeres and vii lentes. Also the house of the ryche man whiche denyed Lazare ye crommes of breed," &c. &c.

When we add, that the signs are A 8, B 4, C 8, and that there are 32 lines on each full page, our account of this rare work will be, we think, considered amply sufficient. We should observe, that on the reverse of C 8 is the device No. 6. Dibdin, Typ. Ant. vol. 2, of W. de Worde.

ART. IX. Gesta Romanorum. Colophon. Thus endeth the boke of Gesta Romanorum. Enprynted at London in Flete Strete. By me Wynkyn de Worde. BLACK LETTER. sm. 4to. No date.

The following quotation, from the Typographical Antiquities of Mr. Dibdin, will shew the extreme rarity of this volume, and excite an interest in the description which we are enabled to give of it.

"The observations of Mr. Douce are well worth attending to, respecting this edition: As the English Gesta appears to have been extremely well known to both these writers (Lydgate and Gower) and also to Occleve, it is by no means improbable that the above translation was made by one or the other of them. Whether it has ever been printed is another question. Mr. Warton has twice mentioned (vol. ii. p. 18. vol. iii. p. lxxxiii.) an edition, without date, by Wynkyn de Worde; and Dr. Farmer has also, in a note prefixed to the Merchant of Venice, referred to the same edition. It had escaped the researches of the industrious Herbert, who has only mentioned it after Warton, and has, in vain, been sought for on the present occasion.'

"I have examined numerous Bibliographical Treatises and Cata logues for this edition, without effect. It does not appear to have been n Dr. Farmer's own collection."-Dibdin's Typ. Ant. vol. 2, p. 366.