terms, I am inclined to think it of rather higher antiquity. In deference, however, to so great an authority, I am obliged to mention it here; and especially as it exhibits a regular lyric strophe of four lines, the second and fourth of which rhyme together: although these four lines may be perhaps resolved into two Alexandrines; a measure concerning which more will be said hereafter, and of which it will be sufficient to remark at present, that it appears to have been used very early. For I cannot recollect any strophes of this sort in the elder Runic or Saxon poetry; nor in any of the old Frankish poems, particularly of Otfrid, a monk of Weissenburgh, who turned the evangelical history into Frankish verse about the ninth century, and has left several hymns in that language f; of Stricker, who celebrated the achievements of Charlemagne; and of the anonymous author of the metrical life of Anno archbishop of Cologn. The following stanza is a specimen b.

See Petr. Lambec. Commentar. de Bibl. Cæsar. Vindebon. pag. 418. 457.

See Petr. Lambec. ubi supr. lib. ii. cap. 5. There is a circumstance belonging to the antient Frankish versification, which, as it greatly illustrates the subject of alliteration, deserves notice here. Otfrid's dedication of his evangelical history to Lewis the First, king of the oriental France, consists of four-lined stanzas in rhyming couplets: but the first and last line of every stanza begin and end with the same letter: and the letters of the title of the dedication respectively, and the word of the last line of every tetrastic. Flacius Illyricus published this work of Otfrid at Basil, 1571. But I think it has been since more correctly printed by Johannes Schilterus. It was written about the year 880. Otfrid was the disciple of Rhabanus Maurus.

[Schilter's book was published under this title: "SCHILTERI Thesaurus antiquitatum Teutonicarum, exhibens monumenta veterum Francorum, Alamannorum vernacula et Latina, cum additamentis et notis Joan. Georg. Schertzii.

In

Ulmæ 1727-8. 3 vol. in fol." The The-
saurus of Schilter is a real mine of Fran-
cic literature. The text is founded on
a careful collation of all the MSS.
to which he could obtain access; and
these, with one exception perhaps the
life of Saint Anno-are highly valuable
for their antiquity and correctness.
the subsequent editions of this hap-
piest effort of the Francic Muse, by
Hegewisch, Goldman, and Besseldt,
Schilter's oversight has been abundantly
remedied. Stricker's poem, or rather
the Strickers (a name which some have
interpreted the writer), is written in the
Swabian dialect; and was composed to-
wards the close of the thirteenth century.
It is a feeble amplification of an earlier
romance, which Warton probably in-
tended to cite, when he used the Stric-
kers' name. Both poems will be found
in Schilter; but the latter, though usu-
ally styled a Francic production, ex-
hibits a language rapidly merging into
the Swabian, if it be not in fact an early
specimen of that dialect in a rude un-
cultivated state.-EDIT.]

h St. xiv.

i Sende god biforen him man
The while he may to hevene,
For betere is on elmesse bifore
Thanne ben after seuene *.

That is, "Let a man send his good works before him to heaven while he can: for one alms-giving before death is of more value than seven afterwards." The verses perhaps might have been thus written, as two Alexandrines.

Send god biforen him man the while he may to hevene, For betere is on almesse biforen, than ben after sevene1. Yet alternate rhyming, applied without regularity, and as rhymes accidentally presented themselves, was not uncommon in our early poetry, as will appear from other examples.

Hickes has printed a satire on the monastic profession; which clearly exemplifies the Saxon adulterated by the Norman, and was evidently written soon after the Conquest, at least before the reign of Henry the Second. The poet begins with describing the land of indolence or luxury.

Fur in see, bi west Spaynge,
Is a lond ihote Cokaygne:
Ther nis lond under hevenriche
Of wel of godnis hit iliche.
Thoy paradis bi miri and brigt
Cokaygn is of fairir sigt.

What is ther in paradis

Bot grass, and flure, and grene ris?
Thoy ther be joy, and gret dute,
Ther nis met, bot frute.

Sende god bifoɲen him man,
pe hpile he mai to heuene;
Fon betene if on elmerre biroɲen
Danne ben arten jeuene.
This is perhaps the true reading, from
the Trinity manuscript at Cambridge,
written about the reign of Henry the
Second, or Richard the First. Cod.
membran. 8vo. Tractat. I. See Abr.
Wheloc. Eccles. Hist. Bed. p. 25. 114.

MSS. Digb. A 4. membran. As I recollect, the whole poem is thus exhibited in the Trinity manuscript.

a heaven. Sax.

h

merry, cheerful. "Although Paradise is chearful and bright, Cokayne is a much more beautiful place.'

101, Orig. d. pleasure.

Ther nis halle, bure, no bench;

But watir manis thurst to quench, &c.

In the following lines there is a vein of satirical imagination and some talent at description. The luxury of the monks is represented under the idea of a monastery constructed of various kinds of delicious and costly viands.

Ther is a wel fair abbei,

Of white monkes and of grei,
Ther beth boures and halles :
All of pasteus beth the walles,
Of fleis of fisse, and a rich met,
The likefullist that man mai et.
Fluren cakes beth the schingles alle,
Of church, cloister, bours, and halle.
The pinnes beth fat podinges
Rich met to princes and to kinges.—
Ther is a cloyster fair and ligt,
Brod and lang of sembli sigt.
The pilers of that cloister alle
Beth iturned of cristale,
With harlas and capital
Of grene jaspe and red coral.
In the praer is a tree
Swithe likeful for to se,

The rote is gingeur and galingale,
The siouns beth al sed wale.
Trie maces beth the flure,

The rind canel of swete odure:
The frute gilofre of gode smakke,
Of cucubes ther nis no lakke.-
There beth iiii willish in the abbei
Of tracle and halwei,

buttery, [a chamber.]

Shingles. "The tiles, or covering

of the house, are of rich cakes."

the pinnacles. h fountains.

Smaragde, lugre, and prassiune,
Beril, onyx, toposiune,

Amethiste and crisolite,

Calcedun and epetite".

Ther beth birddes mani and fale
Throstill, thruisse, and nigtingale,
Chalandre, and wodwale,

And othir briddes without tale,
That stinteth never bi her migt
Miri to sing dai and nigt.

[Nonnulla desunt.]

Yite I do yow mo to witte,

The gees irostid on the spitte,

Fleey to that abbai, God hit wot,

And gredith, gees al hote al hote, &c.

Our author then makes a pertinent transition to a convent of nuns; which he supposes to be very commodiously situated at no great distance, and in the same fortunate region of indolence, ease, and affluence.

An other abbai is ther bi
For soth a gret nunnerie ;
Up a river of swet milk
Whar is plente grete of silk.
When the summeris dai is hote,
The yung nunnes takith a bote

This word will be explained at large
hereafter.
running. Sax.
I course. Sax. m The Arabian phi-
losophy imported into Europe was full
of the doctrine of precious stones.

Our old poets are never so happy as when they can get into a catalogue of things or names. See Observat. on the Fairy Queen, i. p. 140.

crieth. Gallo-Franc. [Anglo-Sax.]

And doth ham forth in that river
Both with oris and with stere:
Whan hi beth fur from the abbei
Hi makith him nakid for to plei,
And leith dune in to the brimme
And doth him sleilich for to swimme:
The yung monkes that hi seeth

Hi doth ham up and forth hi fleeth,
And comith to the nunnes anon,
And euch monk him takith on,
And snellich berith forth har prei
To the mochill grei abbei,

And techith the nonnes an oreisun
With jambleus' up and dun.

quick, quickly. Gallo-Franc. [Anglo-Saxon.]

"to the great abbey of Grey Monks."

lascivious motions, gambols. Fr. gambiller.

Hickes. Thes. i. Par. i. p. 231 seq. [A French fabliau, bearing a near resemblance to this poem, and possibly the production upon which the English minstrel founded his song, has been published in the new edition of Barbazan's Fabliaux et Contes, Paris 1808, vol. iv. p. 175.-EDIT.]

[The secular indulgences, particularly the luxury, of a female convent, are intended to be represented in the following passage of an antient poem, called A Disputation bytwene a Crystene mon and a Jew, written before the year 1300. MS. Vernon, fol. 301.

Till a Nonneri thei came,
But I knowe not the name;
Ther was mony a derworthe dame
In dyapre dere":

⚫ dear-worthy.

apartments.

d

Squizeres in vche syde,
In the wones so wyde:
Hur schul we longe abyde,
Auntres to heare.
Thene swithe spekethe he,
Til a ladi so fre,
And biddeth that he welcum be,

"Sire Water my feere "."
Ther was bords i clothed clene
With schire clothes and schene,
Seppel a wasschen", i wene,

And wente to the sete:
Riche metes was forth brouht,
To all men that gode thouht:
The cristen mon wolde nouht
Drynke nor ete.

Ther was wyn ful clere
In mony a feir masere",
And other drynkes that weore dere,
In coupes ful gret:
Siththe was schewed him bi
Murththe and munstralsy",
And preyed hem do gladly,
With ryal rechet.

Bi the bordes up thei stode, &c. ADDIT.]

8 swiftly, immediately.

my companion, my love. He is called afterwards "Sire [Sir] Walter of Berwick. tables.

* sheer, clean.

Or sithe, i. e. often. [afterwards: but per"afterwards they."-Enir.] m washed. cups. P afterwards there was sport and minstrelsy.

haps we should read seththe thei,

mazer, great cup.
i. e. recept, reception. But see Chaucer's Rom. R. v. 6509:

64 Him, woulde I comfort and rechete." And TR. CRESS. iii. 350.