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In Gower alfo, as often as the poor man fells the pretious stone, on returning home, he finds it again among the money in his purse.

The acquifition of riches, and the multiplication of treasure, by invifible agency, is a frequent and favorite fiction of the Arabian romance. Thus, among the prefents given to Sir Launfal by the Lady Triamore, daughter of the king of Faerie. I will the zeve an Alver ",

I mad of fylver and gold cler,
With fayre ymages thre:

As ofte thou putteft thy honde ther ynne,
A marke of golde thou shalt wynne",
In wat place shalt thou be*.

CHAP. XX. King Darius's legacy to his three fons. To the eldest he bequeathes all his paternal inheritance: to the second, all that he had acquired by conqueft: and to the third, a ring and necklace, both of gold, and a rich cloth. All the three laft gifts were endued with magical virtues. Whoever wore the ring on his finger, gained the love or favour of all whom he defired to please. Whoever hung the necklace over his breast, obtained all his heart could defire. Whoever fate down on the cloth, could be instantly transported to any part of the world which he chose.

From this beautiful tale, of which the opening only is here given, Occleve, commonly called Chaucer's difciple, framed a poem in the octave stanza, which was printed in the year 1614, by William Browne, in his fet of Eclogues called the SHEPHEARDS PIPE. Qccleve has literally followed the book before us, and has even tranflated into English profe the MORALISATION annexed'. He has given no fort of embellishment to his

* Give thee.

"Perhaps Almer, or Almere, a cabinet or chest, w Get. Find.

SYR LAUNFAL. MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 35. b.

Viz. MSS. SELD. Sup. 53. Where is a prologue of many ftanzas not printed by Browne. See alio MSS. Dion. 185. MSS. LAUD. K. 78. [See fupr. vol. ii. 38.]

original

original, and by no means deserves the praises which Browne in the following elegant paftoral lyrics has bestowed on his performance, and which more justly belong to the genuine Gothic, or rather Arabian, inventor.

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And to them his pipe did found
As they danced in a round;
Mickle folace would they make him,
And at midnight often wake him,
And convey him from his roome
To a fielde of yellow broome,
Or into the medowes where
Mints perfume the gentle aire,

And where Flora fpreads her treasure

There they would beginn their measure.
If it chancd night's fable fhrowds

Muffled Cynthia up in clowds,

Safely home they then would fee him,

And from brakes and quagmires free him.
There are few fuch swaines as he

Now a dayes for harmonie 2.

The history of Darius, who gave this legacy to his three fons, is incorporated with that of Alexander, which has been decorated with innumerable fictions by the Arabian writers. There is also a separate romance on Darius. And on Philip of

Macedon⚫.

Z EGL.i.

VOL. III.

• Bibl. REG. Parif. MSS. Cod. 3031.

h

CHAP.

CHAP. CXXIV. Of the knights who intercede for their friend with a king, by coming to his court, each half on horse back and half on foot.

This is the last novel in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE. CHAP. CXXVI. Macrobius is cited for the addrefs and humour of an ingenuous boy named Papirius.

This is one of the most lively stories in Macrobius *.

CHAP. CXXViii. The forged testament of the wicked knight, under the reign of Maximian.

CHAP. CXXIX. A young prince is fent on his travels. His three friends.

CHAP. CXXXii. The four physicians.

CHAP. CXXXiii. The king and his two greyhounds.

CHAP. CXXXIV. A ftory from Seneca.

CHAP. CXXXV. The ftory of Lucretia, from faint Austin's CITY OF GOD.

A more claffical authority for this story, had it been at hand, would have been flighted for faint Auftin's CITY OF GOD, which was the favorite spiritual romance; and which, as the transition from religion to gallantry was antiently very easy, gave rife to the famous old French romance called the CITY OF LADIES.

CHAP. CXXXVII. The Roman emperor who is banished for his impartial diftribution of justice. From the CRÓNICA of Eufebius.

CHAP. CXXXViii. King Medro.

CHAP. CXXXIX. King Alexander, by means of a mirrour, kills a cockatrice, whofe look had deftroyed the greatest part of his army.

Aelian, in his VARIOUS HISTORY, mentions a ferpent which appearing from the mouth of a cavern, stopped the march of Alexander's army through a fpacious defert. The wild beafts, ferpents, and birds, which Alexander encountered in marching through India, were most extravagantly imagined a SATURNAL. Lib. i. c. 6. pag. 147. Loudin. 1694.

by

by the oriental fabulifts, and form the chief wonders of that monarch's romance .

CHAP. cxl. The emperor Eraclius reconciles two knights.

This ftory is told by Seneca of Cneius Pifo . It occurs in Chaucer's SOMPNOUR'S TALE, as taken from Senec, or Seneca ". CHAP. cxli. A knight who had diffipated all his substance in frequenting tournaments, under the reign of Fulgentius, is reduced to extreme poverty. A ferpent haunted a chamber of his houfe; who being conftantly fed with milk by the knight, in return made his benefactor rich. The knight's ingratitude and imprudence in killing the ferpent, who was fuppofed to guard a treasure concealed in his chamber.

Medea's dragon guarding the golden fleece is founded on the oriental idea of treasure being guarded by ferpents. We are told in Vincent of Beauvais, that there are mountains of folid gold in India guarded by dragons and griffins.

CHAP. Cxliii. A certain king ordained a law, that if any man was fuddenly to be put to death, at fun-rifing a trumpet should be founded before his gate. The king made a great feast for all his nobles, at which the most skilful musicians were prefent'. But amidst the general feftivity, the king was fad and filent. All the guests were surprised and perplexed at the king's melancholy; but at length his brother ventured to afk him the cause.

In Vincent of Beauvais, there is a long fabulous Hiftory of Alexander, tranfcribed partly from Simeon Seth. SPEC. HIST. Lib. iv. c. i. f. 41. a. feq. edit. Ven. 1591. fol.

• De IR A. Lib. i. c. 8. Ver. 7600. Tyrwh.

SPECUL. HIST. Lib. i. c. 64. fol. 9. b. f In the days of chivalry, a concert of a variety of inftruments of music conftantly made a part of the folemnity of a fplendid feaft. Of this many inftances have been given. I will here add another, from the unprinted metrical romance of EMARE. MSS. Cott. CALIG, A. 2. fol. 71, 2,

Syre Ladore latte make a fefte,
That was fayre and honefte,

With his lord the kynge;
Ther was myche minstralse,
Trompus, tabors, and fawtre,

Both harpe, and fydyllynge:
The lady was gentyll and small,
In kurtell alone ferved in hall

By fore that nobull kynge;
The cloth upon her fchone so bryzth,
When she was ther yn dyzth,

She femed non erdly thynge, &c.
And in Chaucer, JAN, AND MAY, V. 1234.
Att everie cours came the loud min-
ftralfie.

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The king replied, "Go home, and you shall hear my anfwer "to morrow." The king ordered his trumpeters to found early the next morning before his brother's gate, and to bring him with them to judgement. The brother, on hearing this unexpected dreadful fummons, was feized with horror, and came before the king in a black robe. The king commanded a deep pit to be made, and a chair compofed of the most frail materials, and fupported by four flight legs, to be placed inclining over the edge of the pit. In this the brother, being stripped naked, was feated. Over his head a fharp fword was hung by a fmall thread of filk. Around him four men were stationed with swords exceedingly sharp, who were to wait for the king's word, and then to kill him. In the mean time, a table covered with the most coftly dishes was spread before him, accompanied with all forts of mufic. Then faid the king, My "brother, why are you fo fad? Can you be dejected, in the midst "of this delicious mufic, and with all these choice dainties?" He answered, "How can I be glad, when I have this morning "heard the trumpet of death at my doors, and while I am "feated in this tottering chair ? If I make the smallest mo"tion, it will break, and I shall fall into the pit, from which "I shall never arife again. If I lift my head, the suspended "fword will penetrate my brain; while these four tormentors

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only wait your command to put me to death." The king replied, "Now I will answer your question, why I was sad yesterday. I am exactly in your fituation. I am feated, like you, in a frail and perishable chair, ready to tumble to pieces every moment, and to throw me into the infernal pit. Divine judgement, like this sharp fword, hangs over my "head: and I am surrounded, like you, with four executioners. "That before me is Death, whose coming I cannot tell; that "behind me, my Sins, which are prepared to accuse me before "the tribunal of God; that on the right, the Devil, who is "ever watching for his prey; and that on the left, the Worm, "who is now hungering after my flesh. Go in peace, my

❝dearest

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