From the Prologue, among other circumstances, it appears that Robert de Brunne designed this performance to be sung to the harp at public entertainments, and that it was written or begun in the year 1303 t. Meet the seven dwarfs. [Page 61] From the work itself I am chiefly induced to give the following specimen; as it contains an anecdote relating to bishop Grosthead his author, who will again be mentioned, and on that account. He has however taken care to acquaint his readers, that he avoided [Page 73] high description, and that sort of phraseology which was then used by the minstrels and harpers: that he rather aimed to give information than pleasure, and that he was more studious of truth than ornament. I will cite his opinion of this matter in his own words.
In the midst of the contest, the combatants being both unhorsed, the strange knight observing the sword of his adversary not only to be remarkably long and broad, but without a point, begs a truce for a moment. '"Because, replied the camel-feeder, this bird assured me, that a company of people is coming this [Page 414] way, and that you are the chief of them. "' He suffered no priest that was illiterate to be advanced to any ecclesiastical dignity y. The Mercians did not fear or fly the rough game of the hand. D. Syx and the seven dwarfs pictures. —Et in datis alt [... ]ri citharizatori [Page 90] in ffesto Apostolorum Simonis et Jude cognomine Hendy, xii d. —Et in datis cuidam minstrallo domini le Talbot infra natale domini, xii. Tudor is like a wolf rushing on his prey.
A most distinguished ornament of this age was John of Salisbury b. These are ridiculed with much humour and spirit, couched under a strong vein of allegorical invention. It was probably composed about the reign of Henry the second or Richard the first. Bruto, Liber de, et de gestis Anglorum, me [... ]rificatus, 63. The titles of Froissart's poetical pieces will alone serve to illustrate the nature of this NEW POETRY: but they prove, at the same time, that the Provencial cast of composition still continued to prevail. Gesta Passionis et Resurrectionis Christi, 74. Sleepy of the seven dwarfs. She declares to Sir Degore that she was his mother, and gives him an account of his birth: she told him that the knight his father gave her a pointless sword, which was to be delivered to no person but the son [Page 184] that should be born of their stolen embraces.
Pierce Plowman's Visions. How conducted by Chaucer. Temple of Honour, a Poem, by Froissart, 465. Odoeporicon Ricardi Regis, a Latin Poem, by Peregrinus, 232. Dioscorides, Ancient Mss.
Death and Life, Poem of, 312. Perceforest, Romance of, 346, 464. Lancelot du Lac, mis en Francois par Robert de Borron, du Commandement d' Henri Roi d' Angleterre, av [... ]c figures, 114. Its design and tendency. '"I offer my freight to the king.
And in the library of this monastery, the richest in England, there were upwards of four hundred volumes in the year 1248 p. More than eighty books were thus transcribed for saint Alban's abbey, by abbot Wethamstede, who died about 1440 q. Our early poetry often appears in satirical pieces on the established and eminent professions. Dante has honoured some of them with a s [... ]at in his Paradise s: and in his tract DE VULGARI ELOQUENTIA, has mentioned Thiebault king of Navarre as a pattern for writing poetry t. With regard to Dante's capital work the INFERNO, Raoul de Houdane, a Provencial bard about the year 1180, wrote a poem entitled, LE VOYE OU LE SONGE D'ENFER u. This piece of tapestry appears to have been in Warwick castle before the year 1398. COVETISE or Covetousness, is thus drawn in the true colours of satirical painting.
This circumstance throws the French original to a still higher period. Not to mention the success which attends all novelties, their reputation arose quickly to an amazing height. It was recommended to me, by a person eminent in the republic of letters, totally to exclude from [Page vii] these volumes any mention of the English drama. At the ceasing of the plague, when the religious were compelled to return to their cloisters, they could not forsake their attachment to these secular indulgences; they continued to practice the same free course of life, and would not submit to the disagreeable and unsocial injunctions of their respective orders. Hence it was cultivated with universal avidity.
Archbishop Parker, or rather his learned scribe Jocelin, affirms, that the copy of Homer, and of some of the other books imported into England by archbishop Theodore, as I have above related, remained in his time y. But I have chiefly done this for the sake of connection, and to prepare the mind of the reader for other anecdotes of the history of our stage, which will occur in the course of our researches, and are reserved for their respective places. Yet their national love of verse and music still so strongly predominated, that in the place of their old scalders a new rank of poets arose, called GLEEMEN or Harpers n. These probably gave [Page] rise to the order of English Minstrels, who flourished till the sixteenth century. Robert d'Oilly, constable of Oxford castle, was ordered to pay for the board of the young prince in the convent, which the king himself frequently visited g. Nor was William wanting in giving ample revenues to learning: he founded the magnificent abbies of Battel and Selby, wit [... ] other smaller convents. Yet the history of human credulity is a necessary speculation to those who trace the gradations of human knowledge. But in the mean time, to recur to our original argument, we should be cautious of asserting in general and indiscriminating terms, that the Provencial poets were the first writers of metrical romance: at least we should ascertain, with rather more precision than has been commonly used on this subject, how far they may claim this merit. And that master Wace aimed only at the merit of a translator, appears from his exordial verses. Moses appeared in an alb and cope, with a long beard and rod. The Picts, at this period, were at peace with the Saxons or English, and converted to christianity. Leland mentions one William Glatisaunt, an astrologer and physician, a fellow of Merton college in Oxford, who wrote a medical tract, which, says he, '"nescio quid MAGIAE spirabat f. "' I could add many other proofs g. The books which our physician studied are then enumerated. Marville, M. de Vigneul, cv. The poet in some of these lines implies, that after the Christians were driven out of Palestine, the English knights of his days joined the knights of Livonia and Prussia, and attacked the pagans of Lithuania, and its adjacent territories. Charle [... ] the Fi [... ]th, Account of his Collection of Books, lxxxiv [... ] the Bald, xci. Above her, as if sustained on her shoulders, sate Alexander and Hercules.
It must [Page] be acknowledged, that many European nations were antiently fond of tracing their descent from Troy. In the CLERKE OF OXENFORDE our author glances at the inattention paid [... ]o literature, and the unprofitableness of philosophy. The carpenter, alarmed at this long seclusion, and supposing that his guest might be sick or dead, tries to gain admittance, but in vain. He who had won a prize three times was created a doctor en gaye Science, the name of the poetry of the Provencial troubadours. Walter of Exeter, Author of the Romance of Guy, Earl of Warwick, 87. The extemporaneous effusions of the glowing bard seem naturally to have fallen into this measure, and it was probably more easily suited to the voice or harp. Hakluyt, 101, 426, 430. These enchanted fortresses are all inhabited by various divinities; some of which assist, and some oppose, the lover's progress d. Chaucer has luckily translated all that was written by William of Lorris e: he gives only part of the continuation of John of Meun f. How far he has improved on the French [Page 370] original, the reader shall judge.
The chosen bands of the West-Saxons, going out to battle, pressed on the steps of the detested nations, and slew their flying rear with sharp and bloody swords. The first is on the Trojan War; it is in six books, and dedicated to Baldwin archbishop of Canterbury m. The second is entitled ANTIOCHEIS, the [Page] War of Antioch, or the Crusade; in which his patron th [... ] archbishop was an actor n. The poem of the Trojan war is founded on Dares Phrygius, a favorite fabulous historian of that time o. I will give one example out of many. They founded universities in many cities of Spain and Africa r. They brought with them thei [... ] books, which Charlemagne, emperor of France and Germany, commanded to be translated from Arabic into Latin s: and which, by the care and encouragement of that liberal prince, being quickly disseminated over his extensive dominions, soon became familiar to the western world. And among deeds of arms and other shewes, Rhees caused all the poets of Wales p to come thither: and provided chairs for them to be set in his hall, where they should dispute together to try their cunning and gift in their several faculties, where great rewards and rich giftes were appointed for the overcomers q. "' But perhaps these northern adventurers, at least their princes and leaders, were not even at their first migrations into the south, so totally savage and uncivilised as we are commonly apt to suppose. Vengeance of Goddes Death, a Poem, by Adam Davie. In the Prologue to the MONKES TALE. Some of the knights and ladies do obeysance to the leaf, and some to the [Page 467] flower of the daisy.
Meliboeus, Tale of, by Chaucer, 433. Paradise of Love, a Poem, by Froissart, 465. Eliduc, Tale of, iii. Hence it was that many of the learned English ecclesiastics of these times became acquainted with their books and language. Chronicon Trojae, 88. His poem called LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY g, and his ASSEMBLE OF LADIES, are from the same [Page 460] school h. Chaucer's PRIORESSE and MONKE, whose lives were devoted to religious reflection and the most serious engagements, and while they are actually travelling on a pilgrimage to visit the shrine of a sainted martyr, openly avow the universal influence of love. Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince or Hellpoint or Titan Quest Anniversary Edition? In one of these he is said to have shewn to the poetical earl of Surry, the image of his mistress, the beautiful Geraldine, sick and reposing on a couch p. Nearly allied to this, was the infatuation of seeing things in a beryl, which was very popular in the reign of James the first, and is alluded to by Shakespeare. Warhammer: Chaosbane.
As to the Mirabilia Mundi, mentioned in the statutes of New College at Oxford, in conjunction with these Poemata [Page 101] and Regnorum Chronicae, the immigrations of the Arabians into Europe and the crusades produced numberless accounts, partly true and partly fabulous, of the wonders seen in the eastern countries; which falling into the hands of the monks, grew into various treatises, under the title of Mirabilia Mundi. Davy, or Davie, Adam, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232. On the first pillar made of lead and iron k, stood Josephus, the Jewish historian, '"That of the Jewis gestis told, "' with seven other writers on the same subject. To mention no more instances, such great institutions of persons dedicated to religious and literary leisure, while they diffused an air of civility, and softened the manners of the people in their respective circles, must have afforded powerful invitations to studious pursuits, and have consequently added no small degree of stability to the interests of learning. The stories in the MIRROR OF MAGISTRATES are called TRAGEDIES, so late as the sixteenth century u. Bale calls his play, or MYSTERY, of GOD'S PROMISES, a TRAGEDY, which appeared about the year 1538. Minstrels, Account of the, 74, 90, 91, 116, 238. Thus in the old Welsh laws, whoever even slightly injured a bard, was to be fined six cows and one hundred and twenty pence. Nicholas de Ely, lxxix.
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