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greevous chances, heavye deftinies, and wofull misfortunes. "This done, we opened fuch bookes of Cronicles as we had "there prefent. And maifter Ferrers, after he had found where "Bochas left, which was about the ende of kinge Edwarde the "thirdes raigne, to begin the matter fayde thus.'

"I marvayle what Bochas meaneth, to forget among his "MISERABLE PRINCES fuch as wer of our nacion, whose numbre is as great, as their adventures wunderfull. For to "let paffe all, both Britons, Danes, and Saxons, and to come "to the laft Conqueft, what a forte are they, and some even " in his [Boccace's] owne time! As for example, king Richard "the fyrft, flayne with a quarle in his chyefe profperitie. "Alfo king John his brother, as fum faye, poyfoned. Are not "their hiftories rufull, and of rare example? But as it fhould

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b

appeare, he being an Italian, minded moft the Roman and "Italike ftory, or els perhaps he wanted our countrey Croni"cles. It were therefore a goodly and a notable matter, to "fearch and discourse our whole ftory from the first beginning "of the inhabiting of the yle. But feeing the printer's minde "is, to have us folowe where Lidgate left, we will leave that great labour to other that may intend it, and (as blinde Bayard " is alway boldest) I will begyn at the time of Rychard the fecond, a time as unfortunate as the ruler therein. And for"afmuch, frend Baldwyne, as it fhal be your charge to note "and pen orderlye the whole proces, I will, fo far as my "memorie and judgemente ferveth, fumwhat further you in "the truth of the ftorye. And therefore omittinge the ruffle "of Jacke Strawe and his meyney, and the murther of manye "notable men which therby happened, for Jacke, as ye knowe, "was but a poore prynce; I will begin with a notable example " which within a while after enfued. And although he be "no Great Prynce, yet fithens he had a princely office, I will "take upon me the miserable person of fyr ROBERT TRESI

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"LIAN chyefe juftyce of England, and of other which fuf"fered with him. Therby to warne all of his authoritye and "profeffion, to take hede of wrong judgements, misconstruynge "of lawes, or wrefting the fame to ferve the princes turnes, "which ryghtfully brought theym to a miserable ende, which they may justly lament in manner enfuing "." Then follows fir ROBERT TRESILIAN'S legend or hiftory, fuppofed to be spoken by himself, and addreffed to Baldwyne.

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Here we see that a company was feigned to be affembled, each of which, one excepted, by turns perfonates a character of one of the great Unfortunate: and that the stories were all connected, by being related to the filent perfon of the affembly, who is like the chorus in the Greek tragedies, or the Hoft in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The whole was to form a fort of dramatic interlude, including a series of independent foliloquies. A continuity to this imagined representation is preserved by the introduction, after every foliloquy, of a profe epilogue, which also serves as a prologue to the fucceeding piece, and has the air of a stage-direction. Boccace had done this before. We have this interpofition, which I give as a fpecimen, and which explains the method of the recital, between the tragedies of king RICHARD THE SECOND and OWEN GLENDOUR. "Whan he "had ended this fo wofull a tragedye, and to all PRINCES at right worthy inftruction, we paused: having paffed through a "miserable tyme, full of pyteous tragedyes. And feyng the reygne of Henry the fourth enfued, a man more ware and profperous in hys doynges, although not untroubled with "warres both of outforthe and inward enemyes, we began to "ferch what Pyers [peers] were fallen therein, wherof the "number was not fmall: and yet because theyr examples were "not muche to be noted for our purpose, we paffed over all the "Maskers, of whom kynge Rycharde's brother was chiefe: "whych were all flayne and put to death for theyr trayterous

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SIGNAT. A. ii.

"attempt,

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"attempt. And fyndynge Owen Glendoure next one of For"tune's owne whelpes, and the Percyes his confederates, I thought them unmete to be overpaffed, and therefore fayd "thus to the fylent cumpany, What, my maysters, is every "one at once in a browne ftudy, and hath no man affection "to any of these storyes? You mynd fo much fome other belyke, that those do not move you. And to say the trouth, "there is no special cause why they should. Howbeyt Owen "Glendoure, becaus he was one of Fortune's darlynges, rather "than he should be forgotten, I will tel his tale for him, "under the privelidge of Martine hundred. Which OWEN, "cuming out of the wilde mountains lyke the Image of Death "in al pointes, (his darte onlie excepted,) fo fore hath famyne "and hunger confumed hym, may lament his folly after this

maner." This process was a departure from Sackville's idea: who supposes, as I have hinted, the scene laid in hell, and that the unfortunate princes appeared to him in fucceffion, and uttered their respective complaints, at the gates of Elyfium, under the guidance of SORROW.

Many ftanzas in the legends written by Baldwyne and Ferrers, and their friends, have confiderable merit, and often fhew a command of language and verfification. But their performances have not the pathos which the fubject fo naturally fuggefts. They give us, yet often with no common degree of elegance and perfpicuity, the chronicles of Hall and Fabyan in verse. I shall therefore, in examining this part of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, confine my criticifm to Sackville's INDUCTION and Legend of Buckingham.

That is, Baldwyne had previously prepared and written his legend or monologue, and one of the company was to act his part, and affume this appearance. fol. xviii. b.

These lines in COLLINGBOURNE'S legend are remarkable, fol. cxliiii, a

Like Pegafus a poet muft have wynges, To flye to heaven, or where him liketh best;

He must have knowledge of eternal

thynges,

Almightie Jove muft harbor in his brest.

SECT.

SECT. XXXI.

ACKVILLE'S INDUCTION, which was to have been placed

SACK

at the head of our English tragical story, and which lofes much of its dignity and propriety by being prefixed to a fingle life, and that of no great historical importance, is opened with the following poetical landscape of winter a.

The wrathfull winter, prochinge on apace,
With bluftring blasts had all ybard the treene;
And old Saturnus with his frofty face
With chilling colde had pearst the tender greene:
The mantels rent, wherein enwrapped been
The gladfom groves, that nowe laye overthrowen,
The tapets torne, and every bloom downe blowne.

The foile that earft fo feemly was to seen,

Was all defpoyled of her beauty's hewe;

And foote freshe flowres, wherewith the fommers queen
Had clad the earth, now Boreas blaftes downe blewe;
And small fowles flocking in theyr fong did rewe
The winters wrath, wherewith eche thinge defaste
In wofull wife bewayld the fommer paste.

Hawthorne had loft his motley lyverye,

The naked twigges were shivering all for colde;
And droppinge downe the teares abundantly,

Eche thing, methought, with weping eye me tolde
The cruell feafon, bidding me witholde

a See fol. cxvi.

The

Myfelfe within: for I was gotten out

Into the feldes where as I walkt about.

When loe the night, with mistie mantels fpred,
Gan darke the daye, and dim the azure skies, &c.

The altered scene of things, the flowers and verdure of summer deformed by the frofts and ftorms of winter, and the day fuddenly overspread with darkness, remind the poet of the uncertainties of human life, the tranfient state of honour, and the instability of prosperity.

And forrowing I to fee the fommer flowers,
The lively greene, the lufty leas forlorne,
The sturdy trees fo fhattred with the showers,
The fieldes fo fade, that floorifht fo beforne;
It taught we wel, all earthly thinges be borne
To dye the death, for nought long time may laft:
If fommors beauty yeelds, to winters blast.

Then looking upwards to the heavens beams,
With nightès ftarres thick-powdred every where,
Which erft fo glistened with the golden ftreames
That chearfull Phebus fpred downe from his fphere,
Beholding darke, oppreffing day, fo neare;

The fodayne fight reduced to my mynde

The fundry chaunges that in earth we fynde.

Immediately the figure of SORROw fuddenly appears, which fhews the poet in a new and bolder mode of composition.

And strayt forth stalking with redoubled pace,
For that I fawe the night drew on so fast,

In black all clad there fell before my face
A piteous wight, whom woe had all forwaft;
Furth from her iyen the cryftall teares outbraft,

And

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