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- h St. xiv. i Sende god biforen him man 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, What is ther in paradis Bot grass, and flure, and grene ris? Sende god bifoɲen him man, 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, The rote is gingeur and galingale, The rind canel of swete odure: buttery, [a chamber.] Shingles. "The tiles, or covering of the house, are of rich cakes." the pinnacles. h fountains. Smaragde, lugre, and prassiune, Amethiste and crisolite, Calcedun and epetite". Ther beth birddes mani and fale And othir briddes without tale, [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 This word will be explained at large 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 Hi doth ham up and forth hi fleeth, And techith the nonnes an oreisun 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, ⚫ dear-worthy. apartments. d Squizeres in vche syde, "Sire Water my feere "." And wente to the sete: Ther was wyn ful clere 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. 64 Him, woulde I comfort and rechete." And TR. CRESS. iii. 350. |