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"dearest brother: and never afk me again why I am fad at "a feaft."

Gower, in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, may perhaps have copied the circumstance of the morning trumpet from this apologue. His king is a king of Hungary.

It fo befell, that on a dawe

There was ordeined by the lawe

A Trompe with a sterne breathe,

Which was cleped the Trompe of deathe:
And in the court where the kyng was,
A certaine man, this trompe of braffe
Hath in kepyng, and therof ferveth,
That when a lorde his deathe deserveth,
He shall this dredfull trompe blowe
To fore his gate, to make it knowe,
Howe that the jugement is yeve
Of deathe, whiche shall not be foryeve.
The kyng whan it was night anone,
This man affent, and bad him gone,
To trompen at his brothers gate;
And he, whiche mote done algate,
Goth foorth, and doth the kyng's hefte.
This lorde whiche herde of this tempest
That he tofore his gate blewe,

Tho wift he by the lawe, and knewe

That he was schurly deade, &c.

But Gower has connected with this circumstance a different story, and of an inferior caft, both in point of moral and imagination. The truth is, Gower feems to have altogether followed this story as it appeared in the SPECULUM HISTORIALE of Vincent of Beauvais ", who took it from Damafcenus's romance of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT'. Part of it is thus * OFF. ut fupr. pag. 12.

Lib. i. fol. xix. b. col. i. ‣ Ubi fupr. p. xlix.

told

told in Caxton's translation of that legend *. "And the kynge "hadde fuche a custome, that whan one fholde be delyvered to "deth, the kynge fholde fende hys cryar wyth hys trompe that "was ordeyned therto. And on the euen he fente the cryar wyth the trompe tofore hys brother's gate, and made to foune "the trompe. And whan the kynges brother herde this, he "was in despayr of fauynge of his lyf, and coude not slepe of "alle the nyght, and made his teftament. And on the morne "erly, he cladde hym in blacke: and came with wepyng with

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hys wyf and chyldren to the kynges paleys. And the kynge "made hym to com tofore hym, and fayd to hym, a fooll “that thou art, that thou haft herde the meffager of thy brother, to whom thou knoweft well thou haft not trefpaced "and doubteft fo mooche, howe oughte not I then ne doubte "the meffageres of our lorde, agaynfte whom I haue foo ofte fynned, which fignefyed unto me more clerely the deth then "the trompe ?"

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CHAP. cxlv. The philofopher Socrates fhews the cause of the infalubrity of a paffage between two mountains in Armenia, by means of a polished mirrour of fteel. Albertus is cited; an abbot of Stade, and the author of a Chronicle from Adam to 1256.

CHAP. cxlvi. Saint Auftin's CITY OF GOD is quoted for an anfwer of Diomedes the pirate to king Alexander.

CHAP. cxlviii. Aulius Gellius is cited.

Aulus Gellius is here quoted, for the story of Arion', throwing himself into the fea, and carried on the back of a dolphin to king Periander at Corinth ". Gellius relates this story from Herodotus, in whom it is now extant ".

CHAP. cliii. The hiftory of Apollonius of Tyre.

This ftory, the longest in the book before us, and the ground

*See Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE, fol. ccclxxxxiii. b. See alfo METRICAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS, MSS. BODL. 779. f. 292. a.

1 It is printed Amon.

m NOCT. ATTIC. Lib. xvi. cap. xix. ■ Lib. viii.

work

work of a favorite old romance, is known to have existed before the year 1190.

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In the Prologue to the English romance on this subject, called KYNGE APOLYNE OF THYRE, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510, we are told. My worshypfull mayfter Wynskyn de Worde, havynge a lytell boke of an auncyent hystory "of a kynge fomtyme reygnyne in the countree of Thyre "called Appolyn, concernynge his malfortunes and peryllous "adventures right efpouventables, bryefly compyled and pyteous "for to here; the which boke, I Robert Coplande have me applyed for to translate out of the Frensfhe language into our "maternal Englysfhe tongue, at the exhortacyon of my for

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fayd mayster, accordynge dyrectly to myn auctor: gladly fol"lowynge the trace of my mayfter Caxton, begynnynge with "fmall storyes and pamfletes and fo to other." The English romance, or the French, which is the fame thing, exactly correfponds in many paffages with the text of the GESTA. I will instance in the following one only, in which the complication of the fable commences. King Appolyn dines in disguise in the hall of king Antiochus.-" Came in the kynges daugh"ter, accompanyed with many ladyes and damoyfelles, whofe

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fplendente beaute were too long to endyte, for her rofacyate "coloure was medled with grete favour. She dranke unto hir "fader, and to all the lordes, and to all them that had ben at "the play of the Shelde. And as the behelde here and there, "the efpyed kynge Appolyn, and then she fayd unto her fader, Syr, what is he that fytteth so hye as by you, it femeth by hym that he is angry or forrowfull? The kynge fayd, I never "fawe fo nimble and pleasaunt a player at the shelde, and ther

• The printer of that name. He alfo tranflated from the French, at the defire of Edward duke of Buckingham, the romance of the KNYGHT OF THE SWANNE. See his PROLOGUE.

P The tournament. To tourney is often called fimply to play. As thus in SYR

LAUNFAL, MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. 2.
fol. 37.

Hym thozte he brente bryzte
But he myzte with Launfal pleye
In the felde be tweene ham twey
To jufty or to fyzte.

And in many other places.

"fore

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"fore have I made hym to come and foupe with my knyghtes. "And yf ye wyll knowe what he is, demaunde hym; for per"adventure he wyll tell you fooner than me. Methynke that "he is departed from fome good place, and I thinke in my mynde that somethynge is befallen hym for which he is forry. This fayd, the noble dameyfell wente unto Appolyn "and faid, "Fayre Syr, graunt me a boone. And he graunted "her with goode herte. And the fayd unto hym, albeyt that your vyfage be tryst and hevy, your behavour fheweth noblesse "and facundyte, and therefore I pray you to tell me of your affayre and estate. Appolyn anfwered, Yf ye demaunde of my rycheffes, I have loft them in the fea. The damoyfell fayd, I pray you that you tell me of your adventures." But in the GESTA, the princess at entering the royal hall kisses all the knights and lords prefent, except the ftranger'. Voffius fays, that about the year 1520, one Alamanus Rinucinus a Florentine, translated into Latin this fabulous hiftory; and that the translation was corrected by Beroaldus. Voffius certainly cannot mean, that he tranflated it from the Greek original '.

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CHAP. cliv. A story from Gervafe of Tilbury, an Englishman, who wrote about the year 1200, concerning a miraculous ftatue of Chrift in the city of Edeffa.

CHAP. clv. The adventures of an English knight named Albert in a fubterraneous paffage, within the bishoprick of Ely. This story is faid to have been told in the winter after supper, in a castle, cum familia divitis ad focum, ut Potentibus moris eft, RECENSENDIS ANTIQUIS GESTIS operam daret, when the family of a rich man, as is the custom with the Great, was fitting round the fire, and telling ANTIENT GESTS. Here is a traite of the private life of our ancestors, who wanted the diverfions and engagements of modern times to relieve a tedious evening. Hence we learn, that when a company was afsembled, if a

4 CAP. xi.

Fol. lxxii. b. col. z.

• HIST. LAT. Lib. iii. c. 8. edit. 1627. 4to.

pag. 552.

jugler

jugler or a minstrel were not prefent, it was their custom to entertain themselves by relating or hearing a feries of adventures. Thus the general plan of the CANTERBURY TALES, which at first fight seems to be merely an ingenious invention of the poet to serve a particular occafion, is in great measure founded on a fashion of antient life: and Chaucer, in fuppofing each of the pilgrims to tell a tale as they are travelling to Becket's shrine, only makes them adopt a mode of amufement which was common to the conversations of his age. I do not deny, that Chaucer has shewn his addrefs in the ufe and application of this practice.

So habitual was this amusement in the dark ages, that the graver fort thought it unfafe for ecclefiaftics, if the subjects admitted any degree of levity. The following curious injunction was deemed neceffary, in a code of ftatutes affigned to a college at Oxford in the year 1292. I give it in English. "CH. XX."The fellows fhall all live honeftly, as becomes Clerks.

They shall not rehearse, fing, nor willingly hear, BALLADS or "TALES of LOVERS, which tend to lafcivioufnefs and idle"nefs." Yet the libraries of our monafteries, as I have before obferved, were filled with romances. In that of Croyland-abbey we find even archbishop Turpin's romance, placed on the fame shelf with Robert Tumbeley on the Canticles, Roger Dymock against Wickliffe, and Thomas Waleys on the Pfalter. But their apology must be, that they thought this a true hiftory: at least that an archbishop could write nothing but truth. Not to mention that the general subject of those books were the triumphs of christianity over paganism ".

CHAP. clvi. Ovid, in his TROJAN WAR, is cited for the ftory of Achilles difguifed in female apparel.

Gower has this hiftory more at large in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS but he refers to a Cronike, which feems to be the BOKE OF TROIE, mentioned at the end of the chapter ".

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