This poem was designed to be sung at public festivals': a practice, of which many instances occur in this work; and concerning which it may be sufficient to remark at present, that a JOCULATOR or Bard, was an officer belonging to the court of William the Conqueror ". Another Norman Saxon poem cited by the same industrious antiquary, is entitled THE LIFE OF SAINT MARGARET. The structure of its versification considerably differs from that in the last-mentioned piece, and is like the French Alexandrines. But I am of opinion that a pause, or division, was intended in the middle of every verse: and in this respect its versification resembles also that of ALBION'S ENGLAND, or Drayton's PoLYOLBION, which was a species very common about the reign of queen Elisabeth". The rhymes are also continued to every fourth line. It appears to have been written about the time of the Crusades. It begins thus: t Olde ant* yonge I priet ou, oure folies for to lete, a Hire fader was a patriac, as ic ou tellen may, Deve godes ant doumbe, he served nitt ant day, So deden mony othere that singet weilaway. Theodosius was is nome, on Crist ne levede he noutt, He levede on the false godes, that weren with honden wroutt. as appears from this line: Lordinges gode and hende, &c. It is in MSS. More, Cantabrig. 784. f. 1. " His lands are cited in Doomsday Book. "GLOUCESTERSCIRE. Berdic, Joculator Regis, habet iii. villas et ibi v. car. nil redd.' See Anstis, Ord. Gart. ii. 204. W It is worthy of remark, that we find in the collection of ancient Northern monuments, published by M. Biorner, a poem of some length, said by that author to have been composed in the twelfth or thirteenth century. This poem is professedly in rhyme, and the measure like that of the heroic Alexandrine of the French poetry. See Mallet's Introd. Dannem, &c. ch. xiii. * and. Fr. y I direct, Fr. "I advise you, your, &c." [The writer of this Life in the Bodleian MS., who is quite as likely to have understood the author's meaning, reads "I preye you": words bearing no doubt the same signification then as they do at present.-EDIT.] called. Saxon. "He was Z life. Fr. b chose a wife. Sax. married in Antioch.' edeaf gods, &c." Tho that child sculde cristine ben it com well in thoutt, Ebed wen it were ibore, to deth it were ibroutt, &c. In the sequel, Olibrius, lord of Antioch, who is called a Saracen, falls in love with Margaret: but she being a Christian, and a candidate for canonization, rejects his solicitations and is thrown into prison. Meidan Maregrete one nitt in prisun lai Ho com biforn Olibrius on that other dai. Ant Ihu that thou levest on, thou do him al awey. Ciclatoun ant purpel pal scaltou have to wede: Wid all the metes of my lond ful wel I scal the fede.f This piece was printed by Hickes from a manuscript in Trinity College library at Cambridge. It seems to belong to the manuscript metrical LIVES OF THE SAINTS, which form a very considerable volume, and were probably translated or paraphrased from Latin or French prose into English rhyme before the year 1200h. We are sure that they were written d in bed. • Checklaton. See Obs. Fair. Q. i. 194. f Hickes. i. 225. The legend of Seinte Juliane in the Bodleian library is rather older, but of much the same versification. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. NE. 3. xi. membran. 8vo. iii. fol. 36. This manuscript I believe to be of the age of Henry the Third or king John: the composition much earlier. It was translated from the Latin. These are the five last lines. Open drihtin o domes dei pindfed hip hpeate, And peppeð þæt dusti chef to hellene heate, be more beon a coɲn i goder guldene edene, De turde dis of Latin to Engliɣche ledenne And he þær her leart onprat spa ar he cube. AMEŃ. That is, "When the judge at doomsday winnows his wheat, and drives the dusty chaff into the heat of hell; may there be a corner in God's golden Eden for him [Rather: "may he be a corn in God's golden Eden".-EDIT.] who turned this book into [from] Latin," &c. The same that are mentioned by Hearne, from a manuscript of Ralph Sheldon. See Hearne's Petr. Langt. p. 542. 607. 608. 609. 611. 628. 670. Saint Winifred's Life is printed from the same collection by bishop Fleetwood, in his Life and Miracles of S. Winifred, p. 125. ed. 1713. h It is in fact a metrical history of the festivals of the whole year. The life of the respective Saint is described under every Saint's day, and the institutions of some sundays, and feasts not taking their rise from saints, are explained, on the plan of the Legenda Aurea, written by Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Ge after the year 1169, as they contain the LIFE of Saint Thomas Becket'. In the Bodleian library are three manuscript copies of these LIVES OF THE SAINTS*, in which the LIFE of Saint Margaret constantly occurs; but it is not always exactly the same with this printed by Hickes. And on the whole, noa, about the year 1290, from which Caxton, through the medium of a French version entitled Legend Dorée, translated his Golden Legend. The Festival or Festiall, printed by Wynkin de Worde, is a book of the same sort, yet with homilies intermixed. See MSS. Harl. 2247. fol. and 2371. 4to. and 2391. 4to. and 2402 4to. and 2800 seq. Manuscript lives of Saints, detached, and not belonging to this collection, are frequent in libraries. The Vita Patrum were originally drawn from S. Jerome and Johannes Cassianus. In Gresham College library are metrical lives of ten Saints chiefly from the Golden Legend, by Osberne Bokenham, an Augustine canon in the abbey of Stoke-clare in Suffolk, transcribed by Thomas Burgh at Cambridge 1477. The Life of S. Katharine appears to have been composed in 1445. MSS. Coll. Gresh. 315. The French translation of the Legenda Aurea was made by Jehan de Vignay, a monk, soon after 1300. i Ashmole cites this Life, Instit. Ord. Gart. p. 21. And he cites S. Brandon's Life, p. 507. Ashmole's manuscript was in the hands of Silas Taylor. It is now in his Museum at Oxford. Ashm. 50. [7001.] MSS. * MSS. Bodl. 779.-Laud, L 70. And they make a considerable part of a prodigious folio volume, beautifully written on vellum, and elegantly illuminated, where they have the following title, which also comprehends other antient English religious poems: "Here begynnen the tytles of the book that is cald in Latyn tonge SALUS ANIME, and in Englysh tonge SoWLEHELE." It was given to the Bodleian library by Edward Vernon, esq. soon after the civil war. I shall cite it under the title of MS. Vernon. Although pieces not absolutely religious are sometimes introduced, the scheme of the compiler or transcriber seems to have been, to form a complete body of legendary and scriptural history in verse, or rather to collect into one view all the religious poetry he could find. Accordingly the Lives of the Saints, a distinct and large work of itself, properly constituted a part of his plan. There is another copy of the Lives of the Saints in the British Museum, MSS. Harl. 2277; and in Ashmole's Museum, MSS. Ashm. ut supr. I think this manuscript is also in Bennet College library. The Lives seem to be placed according to their respective festivals in the course of the year. The Bodleian copy (marked 779.) is a thick folio, containing 310 leaves. The variations in these manuscripts seem chiefly owing to the transcribers. The Life of Saint Margaret in MSS. Bodl. 779. begins much like that of Trinity library at Cambridge, Old ant yonge I preye you your folyis for to lete, &c. I must add here, that in the Harleian library, a few Lives, from the same collection of Lives of the Saints, occur, MSS. 2250. 23. f. 72. b. seq. chart. fol. See also ib. 19. f. 48. These Lives are in French rhymes, ib. 2253. f. 1. [The LIVES OF THE SAINTS in verse, in Bennet library, contain the martyrdom and translation of Becket, Num. clxv. This manuscript is supposed to be of the fourteenth century. Archbishop Parker, in a remark prefixed, has assigned the composition to the reign of Henry the Second. But in that case, Becket's translation, which did not happen till the reign of king John, must have been added. See a specimen in Mr. Nasmith's accurate and learned CATALOGUE of the Bennet Manuscripts, pag. 217. Cantab. 1777. 4to. There is a manuscript of these LIVES in Trinity College library at Oxford, but it has not the Bodleian Lives seem inferior in point of antiquity. I will here give some extracts never yet printed. he Life of Becket. MSS. Num. lvii. In scribe a few lines from the LIFE of SAINT CUTHBERT, f. 2. b. Seint Cuthberd was ybore here in Engelonde, A swete creature and a fayr, yt was myld and bold: To the zong Cuthberd he zede, sene brother he sede, Ne bench not such ydell game for it ne ozte nozt be thy dede: And pleyde forth with his felawes, al so they him bede. Tho this zonge child y sez that he his red forsok, A doun he fel to grounde, and gret del to him to tok, It by gan to wepe sore, and his honden wrynge, This children hadde alle del of him, and bysened hare pleyinge. As that they couthe hy gladede him, sore he gan to siche, At even this zonge child made del y siche, A welaway, qd seint Cuthbert, why wepes thou so sore lines as they appear in that mode of po by gan seint Cuthberd. for to wepe sore He made his fader and frendis. sette him to lore So hat he servede boje nýgt and day. to plese god be more It by fel hat seint Ajdan. þe bisschop was ded Cuthberd was a felde with schep. angeles of heven he sez I nell þis schep no longer kepe. a fonge hem who so a fonge* psalms in our choral service. In the psalms of our liturgy, this pause is expressed by a colon: and often, in those of the Roman missal, by an asterisc. The same mark occurs in every line of this manuscript; which is a folio volume of considerable size, with upwards of fifty verses in every page. ["take them who will."-EDIT] From the LIFE of Saint Swithin. 'Seint Swythan the confessour was her of Engelonde, Bisyde Wynchestre he was ibore, as ich undirstonde: Bi the kynges dei Egbert this goode1 was ibore, That tho was kyng of Engelonde, and somedele eke bifore; Seynt Austen hedde bifore to Cristendom i brouht Athelbryt the goode kynge as al the londe nouht. Al settheTM hyt was that seynt Berin her bi west wende, From the LIFE of Saint Wolstan. Seynt Wolston bysscop of Wirceter was then in Ingelonde, 1 Thus in MSS. Harl. fol. 78. Seint Swippin de confessour was here [The Harleian MS. is imperfect at 1 [gode man.] [as our lorde him grace sende.] [Seint Egbert that was kyng tho Seint Swithin was ibore, VOL. I. 4 [the este gate.] C |