his cavern, is lulled asleep by the whistling of the winds among the rocks, and the beating of the tide. He then has the following vision. He sees a lady of great beauty, and benignity of aspect; who says, she comes to sooth his melancholy by shewing him some new spectacles. Her name is REMEMBRANCE. Instantaneously she carries him into the centre of the earth. Hell is here laid open; which is filled with popes, cardinals, abbots, archbishops in their pontifical attire, and ecclesiastics of every degree. In explaining the causes of their punishments, a long satire on the clergy ensues. With these are joined bishop Caiphas, bishop Annas, the traitor Judas, Mahomet, Chorah, Dathan, and Abiram. Among the tyrants, or unjust kings, are Nero, Pharaoh, and Herod. Pontius Pilate is hung up by the heels. He sees also many duchesses and countesses, who suffer for pride and adultery. She then gives the poet a view of purgatory. It was a part of the old mundane system, that hell was placed in the centre of the earth. So a fragment, cited by Hearne, GLOSSARY Rob. Glouc. ii. 583. Ryght so is hell-pitt, as clerkes telles, Amyde the erthe and no where elles. So also an old French tract, L'IMAIGE DU MONDE, or Image of the world, "Saches que en la terre est enfer, car enfer ne pourrait estre en si noble lieu comme est l'air," &c. ch. viii. See above, p. 32. seq. I have there mentioned a Vision of Hell, under the title of OWAYNE MILES. One Gilbertus Ludensis, a monk sent by king Stephen into Ireland, where he founded a monastery, with an Irish knight called OEN, wrote De OENI Visione in Purgatorio. See Wendover, apud Mat. Paris, sub ann. 1153. Reg. Stephan. According to Ware, Gilbertus flourished in the year 1152. SCRIPTOR. HIBERN. p. 111. Among the manuscripts of Magdalene college in Oxford, are the VISIONES of Tundal, or Tungal, a knight of Ireland. "Cum anima mea corpus exueret." MSS. Coll. Magd. 53. It is printed in Tinmouth's SANCTILOGIUM. And in the SPECULUM HISTORIALE of Vincentius Bellovacensis, lib. xxvii. cap. 88. He is called Fundalus in a manuscript of this piece, Bibl. Bodl. NE. B. 3. 16. He lived in the year 1149. Ware, ut supr. p. 55. I believe this piece is in the Cotton library, under the name of TUNDALE, MS. CALIG. A. 12. f. 17. See what is said in Froissart, of the visions of a cave in Ireland, called saint Patrick's Purgatory. tom. ii. c. 200. Berners's Translat. [There is a manuscript, Of a knight, called SIR OWEYN, visiting saint Patrick's Purgatory, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. BoDL. 550. MSS. Cott. NERO. A. vii. 4. [See ad p. 33.] This piece was written by Henry, a Cistercian monk of Saltry in Huntingtonshire. See T. Messingham, FLORILEG. p. 86. seq. In the Catalogue of the library of Sion monastery, which contained fourteen hundred volumes, in Bennet library, it is falsely attributed to Hugo de Saltereia. MSS. C.C.C.C. XLI. The French have an antient spiritual romance on this favorite expedition, so fertile of wonders, entitled, "Le VOYAGE du Puys Saint Patrix, auquel lieu on voit les peines du Purgatoire et aussi les joyes de Paradis, Lyon, 1506. 4to."-ADDITIONS.] A lytill above that dolorous dungeoun, Greitand and gowland with mony ruthfull rair". Qhuilk purgis saulis or thay cum to glorie. After some theological reasonings on the absurdity of this intermediate state, and having viewed the dungeon of unbaptized babes, and the limbus of the souls of men who died before Christ, which is placed in a vault above the region of torment, they reascend through the bowels of the earth. In passing, they survey the secret riches of the earth, mines of gold, silver, and precious stones. They mount, through the ocean, which is supposed to environ the earth: then travel through the air, and next through the fire. Having passed the three elements, they bend towards heaven, but first visit the seven planets'. They enter the sphere of the moon, who is elegantly styled, Quene of the sey, and bewtie of the nicht. The sun is then described, with great force. roar. Than past we to the spheir of Phebus bricht, SIGNAT. D. iii. K three elementary spheres, fire, air, and water. Milton, in his Elegy on the Death of a fair INFANT, makes a very poetical use of the notion of a primum mobile, where he supposes that the soul of the child hovers -Above that high FIRST MOVING SPHERE, Or in th' Elysian fields, &c. For to discryve his diademe royall, The foure steidis that drawith it full richt, &c.h They now arrive at that part of heaven which is called the CHRYSTALLINE', and are admitted to the Empyreal, or heaven of heavens. Here they view the throne of God, surrounded by the nine orders of angels, singing with ineffable harmony.* SIGNAT. E. i. i Most of this philosophy is immediately borrowed from the first chapters of the Nuremburgh Chronicle, a celebrated book when Lyndesay wrote, printed in the year 1493. It is there said, that of the waters above the firmament which were frozen like crystal, God made the crystalline heaven, &c. fol. iv. This idea is taken from GENESIS, i. 4. See also saint Paul, ii. EPIST. Cor. xii. 2. The same system is in Tasso, where the archangel Michael descends from heaven, GIER. LIB. C. ix. st. 60. seq. And in Milton, Parad. L. iii. 481. They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed, And that crystallin sphere, &c. Because the scriptures have mentioned several degrees of angels, Dionysius the Areopagite, and others, have divided them into nine orders; and those they have reduced into three hierarchies. This was a tempting subject for the refining genius of the school-divines: and accordingly we find in Thomas Aquinas a disquisition, De ordinatione Angelorum secundum Hierarchias et Or dines. QUEST. cviii. The system, which perhaps makes a better figure in poetry than in philosophy, has been adopted by many poets who did not outlive the influence of the old scholastic sophistry. See Dante, PARAD. C. xxviii. Tasso mentions, among La grande oste del ciel, TRE FOLTE SQUADRE, et ogni squadra instrutta IN TRE ORDINI gira, &c. GIER. LIB. Xviii. 96. And Spenser speaks of the angels singing in their TRINALL TRIPLICITIES. FAIR. QU. i. xii. Next the throne is the Virgin Mary, the queen of queens, "well cumpanyit with ladyis of delyte." An exterior circle is formed by patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, apostles, conquerors in the three battles of the world, of the flesh, and of the devil, martyrs, confessors, and doctours in divinitie, under the command of saint Peter, who is represented as their lieutenant-general.' Milton, who feigns the same visionary route with very dif ferent ideas, has these admirable verses, written in his nineteenth year, yet marked with that characteristical great manner which distinguishes the poetry of his maturer age. He is addressing his native language. Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse, Thy service in some graver subject use; Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, How he before the thunderous throne doth lie, To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings 'Then passing through the sphears of watchfull fire, REMEMBRANCE and the poet, leaving heaven, now contemplate the earth, which is divided into three parts. To have mentioned America, recently discovered, would have been nine-fold music of the spheres. One Thomas Haywood, a most voluminous dramatic poet in the reign of James the First, wrote a long poem with large notes on this subject, called THE HIERARCHIE OF ANGELS, printed in folio, at London, 1635. See also Jonson's At a VACATION EXERCISE, &C. Newton's MILT. ii. p. 11. heresy in the science of cosmography; as that quarter of the globe did not occur in Pliny and Ptolemy." The most famous cities are here enumerated. The poet next desires a view of Paradise; that glorious garth, or garden, of every flower. It is represented as elevated in the middle region of the air, in a climate of perpetual serenity. From a fair fountain, springing in the midst of this ambrosial garden, descend four rivers, which water all the east. It is inclosed with walls of fire, and guarded by an angel. The cuntre closit is about full richt, With wallis hie of hote and birnyng fyre, And straitly keipit be ane angell bricht. P From Paradise a very rapid transition is made to Scotland. Here the poet takes occasion to lament, that in a country so fertile, and filled with inhabitants so ingenious and active, universal poverty, and every national disorder, should abound. It is very probable, that the poem was written solely with a view of introducing this complaint. After an enquiry into the causes of these infelicities, which are referred to political mismanagement, and the defective administration of justice, the COMMONWEALTH OF SCOTLAND appears, whose figure is thus, delineated. We saw a bousteous berne cum ovir the bent', For the benefit of those who are making researches in antient cosmography, I observe that the map of England, mentioned by Harrison and Hearne, and belonging to Merton college library, appears to have existed at least so early as the year 1512. For in that year, it was lent to the dean of Wells, William Cosyn, with a caution of forty shillings. Registr. Vet. Coll. Mert. fol. 218. b. See its restitution, ibid. fol. 219. b. "Paradisus tantæ est altitudinis, quod est inaccessibilis secundum Bedam; et tam altus, quod etheream regionem pertingat," &c. CHRON. Nur. ut supr. f. viii. b. fil.] SIGNAT. E. iii. coarse grass, (also, an open field, or ⚫ without. plain.] 1 riven. |