Mr. URBAN,

Dec. 4.

IN page 405, Mr. Mason Chamber

lin ventures to vindicate an unfounded, and therefore certainly an unjust statement, relative to a College in the University of Cambridge, that has ever been noted for its excellent discipline, from the time of Dr. Bentley; and then attempts taking the meed of honour from the head of Dr. Postlethwaite's Statue to place it on the recent bust of his successor Dr. Mansel. Mr. C. is no Logician. I doubt whether he be even a member of any University: 1 doubt the latter, from the internal evidence of his communication, from its want of documents and of facts: I doubt the former, from the vague kind of unsatisfactory proof attempted by him, in the blank verse of Cowper, and in the prose of Knox, neither of which authors have written and printed one single word about Dr. Postlethwaite, or Dr. Mansel, or about Trinity College, Cambridge!!! When great National Establishments in Church and State are brought under general consideration, every truly enlightened mind will pause before it condemns in a mass what it may blame partially in detail; and it will scorn, at any rate, to attribute to one man or to one contemporary set of men (however respectable) a DISCIPLINE existing before the birth of the individual or individuals intended to be extolled. The act is ungenerous. The effect is extensively pernicious. Thereby, the massive foundations of all orders and societies are shaken: inasmuch as they are falsely represented to depend for stability, support, and duration, not upon well-digested statutes and rules gradually improved by the sanction of years; but, alas! upon the "chance," skill, zeal, learning, popularity, and personal conduct of the short-lived rulers of the day.

Under Dr. Postlethwaite, besides

Porter, Jones, and Favell, were several able tutors: for corroboration of this known truth, I confidently refer M. C. to the annual TRIPOS, on which the Trinity bachelors came in for their full share of Wranglers. If M. C. be indeed a scholar from Cam. bridge, he will hardly think it proper to deny the force of such a reference. It is an axiom, confirmed by the paucity of recorded exceptions, Mr. Urban, that "No Cambridge HONOURS are disorderly." The cause is clear. Such enviable distinctions are unattainable, but by regular habits of determined application and study, and those habits do almost imperceptibly controul the turbulence of the spirits, and master the irregularities of the most impetuous passions in youths elsewhere previously notorious for misrule : “cùm verò ad naturam eximiam atque illustrem accesserit ratio quædam confirmatioque doctrinæ ; tum illud nescio quid præclarum ac singulare solet existere.”—Cic. pro Archiâ. VINDEX.

Mr. URBAN,

WHI

Dec. 5. HEN I ventured a few remarks (p. 118) on the account your Correspondent E. I. C. had given of the Repairs at St. Catharine's, I certainly expressed not merely my own conviction, but that of many others, that his picture of its condition before those repairs, was much too highly coloured; and, of course, our regret at the losses of which he informed us proportionably diminished.

We are not, however, so far removed in opinion as he may perhaps imagine. I have no fellow-feeling with parish carpenters and plasterers, or any other class of modern innovators (see p. 294). I have no objec tion whatever to the improvement he suggests on the South side and East end; though I doubtless was and am still struck with the inconsistency of

this recommendation, with his anxiety to preserve the very few re. mains of the antient building; nay, further, with respect to the restoration of the Church to its state in Hollar's time, and the general practice recommended to professional men, my wishes are quite in unison with his own.

I am at the same time aware how different are the feelings of a warm and zealous Antiquary, having the modern innovations before him to heighten his indeterminate recollections of what is lost, and those of one whom an every day observance of what was disappearing, and what was succeeding it, may perhaps have driven towards the opposite extreme. To this and not to any uncandid or unworthy motive, I attribute the only difference between us.

With respect to the fragments of glass, he has certainly interpreted my words correctly; and braving the disgrace of being classed among innovators and defenders of innovation, I will in plain words declare my opinion, that “they were not worth preservation." But before he brings out the ergo that would associate me with the anticipated destruction of the Church itself, he should recollect what claims these fragments had to the regard of the Antiquary: intrinsic beauty they certainly had none; as historical documents they possessed no value whatever, since the most skilful Herald would have failed in making out their bearings. In the present windows, far from being ornamental, their appearance would be ridiculous; and if their date alone is to protect them, your Correspondent will hardly be able consistently to get rid of one among the numerous and most barbarous innovations (their contemporaries), which have acquired the same prescriptive right to remain. Yours, &c. S. I. A.

deed, so few instances are known of the former, and the latter have been so ably blended by Warton with Poetry in his elaborate History, that we were at first inclined to omit them both, and to enter at once upon the Jest Books of the 16th century. Previous, however, to these, the "Dictes of Philosophers," and Gesta Romanorum, claim consideration; the former as the first of the Apothegms to which we shall have occasion frequently to refer; the latter as a curious collection of tales which has engaged the attention of many learned Commentators. But to embrace the nume. rous editions and dissertations to

which that work has given rise, would require a greater length than is consistent with our plan. It may probably form a subject for a future article on the Anecdotal Literature of the Continent.

The Minstrels, Joculators, or Gestours, were the descendants of the antient Troubadours in this country: they were for the most part itinerant, and supported themselves by reciting poems and tales wherever they went. With the Monks (whose seclusion prevented their mixing freely with the world) they were particular favourites; and amongst the nobility they found several liberal patrons. Many of them lived in Warwickshire. Of what their recitations chiefly consisted, we learn from some lines of William of Nassyngton, Advocate of the Ecclesiastical Court of York;

"I warne you firste at the begynnynge,
That I will make no vayne carpynge
Of dedes of armes, ne of amours,
As does Mynstrelles and Gestours."
Such stories were the last to recite
within the walls of a convent, altho'
they offered an easy relaxation from
the perplexities of scholastic theo-
logy. Butler, whose depth in antient
lore exceeded that of many subtle
Doctors, speaks of an old philoso-
pher, who

"Swore the world, as he cou'd prove,
Was made of fighting and of love;
Just so romances are, for what else
Is in them all, but love and battles?"

Prologue to his Translation of a Theological Tract, by John de Waldenby, against Wicliffe, preserved in MS. in Lincoln Cathedral.-Warton.

Hudibras, Part i. Canto 2.

One

One instance occurs to the contrary. In 1432, on the Feast of Epiphany, six Minstrels went from Buckingham to the Priory of Bicester in Oxfordshire, in order to sing in the Refectory a legend called "The Martyrdom of the Seven Sleepers," who, having been thrown into a cave at Ephesus, by order of the Emperor Decius, in the 4th century, are said to have been found alive and sleeping 372 years after! for which they received the sum of four shillings. *

66

When this order of men began to decline it is not certain; but it is not to our purpose to follow them any further. The private Jesters of whom we have now to speak, were men of quick parts, lively and sarcastic. Though they were licensed to say any thing, it was still necessary, to prevent giving offence, that every thing they said should have a playful airt." Cardinal Wolsey maintained a fool, of the name of Sexton, but more commonly known by the name of Patch. One of his sayings is preserv. ed in these lines by Heywood:

"A saying of Patche, my Lord Cardinale's Foole."

"Maister Sexton, a person of knowen wit, As he at my Lord Cardinale's boord did sit,

Greedily raught at a goblet of wine; Drink none, sayd my lord, for that sore leg of thyne.

I warrant your Grace, saith Sexton, I provide

For my leg: I drinke on the tother side§."

Henry Patenson (or Patison), before mentioned, was fool to Sir Thomas More; who gave him " to the Lo. Mayor of London, upon this condition, that he should everie yeare wayte upon him, that should have

that office."

The earliest printed collection of sayings is from the press of Caxton, and a translation from the French; as, therefore, it is not of English composition, we shall briefly touch upon the original.

William de Thignoville (a name dear to Anecdotists), was Provost of Paris, about the year 1408; in which

* Warton, vol. II. p. 175, from the Accompt-roll of Bicester Priory.

+ Sir Joshua Reynolds, edit. Shaksp. 1803, vol. XVII. 365.

Reached.

§ First Century of Epigrams, No. 44.

capacity, having caused two students to be banged for murder, contrary to the Statutes of the University, he was compelled to have their bodies taken down, to kiss their lips, and to attend their funeral in the cloisters belonging to the Convent of the Mathurins. He translated and arranged a Miscellany in Latin, well known amongst the Literati of that age (and to which Gower refers), under the title of "Les Dictes moraux des Philosophres, les dictes des sages, et les sécrets d'Aristote;" for the use of his Sovereign Charles VI. who laboured under an unfortunate delirium. the British Museum is preserved the first English translation of this work, as follows:

In

"This boke byfore wretyn is called in French Letris, Ditz de Philosophibus, and in Englyshe, for to say, the Doctryne and the Wysedome of the Wyse, Auncyent Philosophers, as Arystotle, Plato, Socrates, Tholome, and such other. Translated out

of Laten into Frenche, to Kyng Charles Tyngnovylle, Knyght, late Provoste of the Syxte of Fraunse, by Wyllyam de the Cyte of Parys and sythe now translatyd out of Frenshe tung in to Englyshe, the yeare of our Loid 1450, to John Fostalfe, Knyghte, for his contemplacion and solas, by Stevyn Scrope, Squyer, sonne in

law to the saide Fostalle. Deo Gracias."

To the industry and erudition of Anthony Widville, Earl Rivers, we owe the printed translation. He was a native of Grafton in Northamptonshire, and brother to Elizabeth, Queen to Edward IV. Brave, gallant, and devout, he fell a victim to the ambition of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, for his attachment to the Crown, at Pontefract, in 1483. His anecdotal work is entitled "The Dictes and Sayinges of Philosophres. Whiche Boke is translated out of Frenshe into Englyssh by the noble and puissant Lord Antoine Erle of Ryuyers Lord of Scales and of the Isle of Wyght, defendour and directour of the Siege Apostolique. Emprynted by me

William Caxton at Westmestre the year of our Lord M.CCCC.LXXVIJ." Folio.

Caxton, in his Postscript, complains that the Apothegms of Socrates are omitted by the noble author, and subjoins several of them, chiefly against women, of which (as we do not quite agree with the sentiments) a short specimen may suffice:

"Socrates

"Socrates said, That women be the apparailles to catch men, but they take none but them that will be poor, or else them that know them not. And he said, whosomever will acquire and get science, let him never put him in the governance of a woman."

It is now time to return to the period from which we have made so long a digression.

The first collection of Anecdotes that comes within our design, is Shakspeare's Jest Book,' an elegant reprint by Samuel Weller Singer, Esq. of three tracts, dedicated to Mr. Douce, and containing,

1. The Hundred Merry Tales,' a translation from Les Cent Nouvelles, printed at Paris before 1500, and said to have been written by some of the Royal Family of France: Warton believes it to be a compilation from the Italian *. It was licensed to be printed by John Waly in 1557, under the title of "A. C. Merry Tayles, together with the freere and the boye, stans puer ad mensam, and youthe, charite, and humilite." To us they seem to be of English manufacture, although some erudite editor may perhaps discover them to be of foreign material. It is to this book that Beatrice alludes when she asks Benedict +,

"Will you tell me who told you *** that I was disdainful - and that I had my good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales ?"

This little volume is said to have issued from the Press of John Rastell (who died in 1536 §) about 1520; to which information we know not what authority to assign. Rastell was a zealous Catholic, as was his son William, an eminent lawyer, and nephew to Sir Thomas More: nor are we willing to accuse him of publishing stories which were certainly intended to impair the credit of the Religion which he professed. The following tale is the first on the list : "Of the Preste that would say two Gospels for a grote. Sometime there dwelled a preest in Stretforde upon Auyue of small lerning, which undevoutly sang masse, and oftentymes twyse on one day; so it happened on a tyme after his seconde masse was done

in shorte space nat a myle from Stretforde, there mette with him dyvers marchauntemen which wolde have masse, and desyred hym to synge masse and he shud have a grote, which answered them and sayd. Syrs, I wyll say masse no more this day, but I will say you two Gospels for one grote, and that is dogge chepe a masse in any place in Englande." -"By this tale a man may see that they that be rude and unlerned regarde but lytell the meryte and goodness of holy prayer."

The Colophon is as follows,

"Here endeth the booke of a C. Merry Talys. Imprinted at London at the sygne of the Meremayde, at Powlys gate, nexte to Chepesyde."

2. "Tales and Quicke Answeres, very mery, and pleasant to rede." A small quarto volume of great rarity, containing 44 leaves. It is printed,' says Mr. Singer, in a semi-gothic letter, which is common to most of the earlier productions of Berthelet.' It contains 114 tales, of which the following is the 35th.

"Of Thales the astronomer that fell into a ditch. Laertius wryteth that Thales Milesius went oute of his house upon a tyme to beholde the starres of a certayn cause and so longe he went backeward, that he fell plumpe into a ditche over the eares. Wherfore an olde woman that he kept in his house laughed, and sayde to him in derision; O Thales, how shuldest thou have knowledge in hevenly things above, and knowest nat what is here benethe thy feet ?"

"Imprinted at London, in Flete-strete, in the house of Thomas Berthelet, nere to the Cundite, at the sygue of Lucrece," [about 1556].

3. " Mery Tales, Wittie Questions, and Quicke Answeres, very pleasant to be Readde." 1567. Warton cites

from the Stationers' Books a licence to Henry Bynneman, in 1576, to print, "Mery Tales, Wittie Questions, and Quicke Answeres," which appear to relate to the same work, notwithstanding the difference of title. This collection is printed in 12mo, b. l. and is alluded to by Sir John Harrington in his Ulysses upon Ajax,' where he says, Lege the boke of Mery Tales.' The general design of the book is to expose the Friars who preached against Erasmus as an heretic, including, however, some of no particular bent, such as of the husbandman that caused the judge to geve sentence agaynst himselfe,' 'of

Tachas,