I hold him strictly 'tween my armës twain, Our childë, young in his pure innocence, A mouth he has, but wordës hath he none; Writing her letter, awhapped2 all in drede, 1 Grutcheth:' murmureth.-2 Awhapped:' confounded.-3 Barme:' lap. And rove herselfë even to the heart; Her child fell down, which mightë not astart, THE LONDON LYCKPENNY. Within the hall, neither rich nor yet poor Fine felt hats? or spectacles to read? Then to Westminster gate I presently went, And proffered me bread, with ale and wine, A fair cloth they 'gan for to spread, Then unto London I did me hie, Of all the land it beareth the price; Pepper, and saffron they 'gan me beed;4 Then to the Cheap I 'gan me drawn, Where much people I saw for to stand; 1 'Copen:' koopen, (Flem.) to buy.-2 Took good intent:' took notice; paid attention.-3 In the rise:' on the branch.-Beed:' offer. VOL. I. D 49 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, Then comes me one cried 'Hot sheep's feet;' 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 minstrelsy; Yea by cock! nay by cock! some began cry; Some sung of Jenkin and Julian for their meed; But, for lack of money, I might not speed. Then into Cornhill anon I yode,2 Where was much stolen gear among; The taverner took me by the sleeve, 1Greet:' cry.-Yode:' went. ·?? I answered, ‘That can not much me grieve, HARDING, KAY, &c. JOHN HARDING flourished about the year 1403. He fought at the battle of Shrewsbury on the Percy side. He is the author of a poem entitled 'The Chronicle of England unto the Reign of King Edward the Fourth, in Verse.' It has no poetic merit, and little interest, except to the antiquary. In the reign of the above king we find the first mention of a Poet Laureate. John Kay was appointed by Edward, when he returned from Italy, Poet Laureate to the king, but has, perhaps fortunately for the world, left behind him no poems. Would that the same had been the case with some of his successors in the office! There is reason to believe, that for nearly two centuries ere this date, there had existed in the court a personage, entitled the King's Versifier, (versificator,) to whom one hundred shillings a-year was the salary, and that the title was, by and by, changed to that of Poet Laureate, i.e., Laurelled Poet. It had long been customary in the universities to crown scholars when they graduated with laurel, and Warton thinks that from these the first poet laureates were selected, less for their general genius than for their skill in Latin verse. Certainly the earliest of the Laureate poems, such as those by Baston and Gulielmus, who acted as royal poets to Richard I. and Edward II., and wrote, the one on Richard's Crusade, and the other on Edward's Siege of Stirling Castle, are in Latin. So too are the productions of Andrew Bernard, who was the Poet Laureate successively to Henry VII. and Henry VIII. It was not till after the Reformation had lessened the superstitious veneration for the Latin tongue 1 Yede:' went. that the laureates began to write in English. It is almost a pity, we are sometimes disposed to think, that, in reference to such odes as those of Pye, Whitehead, Colley Cibber, and even some of Southey's, the old practice had not continued; since thus, in the first place, we might have had a chance of elegant Latinity, in the absence of poetry and sense; and since, secondly, the deficiencies of the laureate poems would have been disguised, from the general eye at least, under the veil of an unknown tongue. It is curious to notice about this period the uprise of two didactic poets, both writing on alchymy, the chemistry of that day, and neither displaying a spark of genius. These are John Norton and George Ripley, both renowned for learning and knowledge of their beloved occult sciences. Their poems, that by Norton, entitled 'The Ordinal,' and that by Ripley, entitled 'The Compound of Alchemie,' are dry and rugged treatises, done into indifferent verse. One rather fine fancy occurs in the first of these. It is that of an alchymist who projected a bridge of gold over the Thames, near London, crowned with pinnacles of gold, which, being studded with carbuncles, should diffuse a blaze of light in the dark! Alchymy has had other and nobler singers than Ripley and Norton. It has, as Warton remarks, 'enriched the storehouse of Arabian romance with many magnificent imageries.' It is the inspiration of two of the noblest romances in this or any language 'St Leon' and 'Zanoni.' And its idea, transfigured into a transcendental form, gave light and life and fire, and the loftiest poetry, to the eloquence of the lamented Samuel Brown, whose tongue, as he talked on his favourite theme, seemed transmuted into gold; nay, whose lips, like the touch of Midas, seemed to create the effects of alchymy upon every subject they approached, and upon every heart over which they wielded their sorcery. We pass now from this comparatively barren age in the history of English poetry to a cluster of Scottish bards. The first of these is ROBERT HENRYSON. He was schoolmaster at Dunfermline, and died some time before 1508. He is supposed by Lord Hailes to have been preceptor of youth in the Benedictine convent in that place. He is the author of 'Robene and |