in a barbarous Latin translation, by one Syrus; or in a narrative framed from thence by Gregory of Tours'.

Henry Bradshaw has rather larger pretensions to poetical fame than William of Nassington, although scarcely deserving the name of an original writer in any respect. He was a native of Chester, educated at Gloucester college in Oxford, and at length a Benedictine monk of saint Werburgh's abbey in his native place". Before the year 1500, he wrote the LIFE OF saint WerburgH, a daughter of a king of the Mercians, in English verse". This poem, beside the devout deeds and passion of the poet's patroness saint, comprehends a variety of other subjects; as a description of the kingdom of the Mercians, the lives of saint Etheldred and saint Sexburgh, the foundation of the city of Chester, and a chronicle of our kings".

Apud Surium, ad 27 Jul.

Historia septem Dormientium. Paris. 1511. 4to. Ibid. 1640. And apud Ruinart. p. 1270. See Præf. Ruinart. § 79. And Gregory himself De gloria martyrum, cap. 95. pag. 826. This piece is noticed and much commended by the old chronicler Albericus, ad ann. 319. "Athen. Oxon. i. p. 9. Pits. 690. w He declares, that he does not mean to rival Chaucer, Lydgate sententious, pregnaunt Barklay, and inventive Skelton. The two last were his cotempora ries. L. ii. c. 24. * Lib. i. c. ii.

Y Lib. i. cap. xviii. xix.

Lib. i. cap. iii.
a Lib. ii. cap. xv. The fashion of
writing metrical Chronicles of the kings
of England grew very fashionable in this
century. See supr. vol. i. p. 96. Many
of these are evidently composed for the
harp: but they are mostly mere genea-
logical deductions. Hearne has printed,

from the Heralds office, a PETEGREE of
our kings, from William the conqueror
to Henry the Sixth, written in 1448.
[APPENDIX to Rob. Gloucestr. vol. ii.
p. 585. see p. 588.] This is a specimen.
Then regnyd Harry nought full wyse,
The son of Mold [Maud] the emperyse.
In hys tyme then seynt Thomas
At Caunterbury marteryd was.
He held Rosomund the sheen,
Gret sorwe hit was for the queen:
At Wodestoke for hure he made a toure,
That is called ROSEMOUNDES BOURE.—

And sithen regnyd his sone Richerd,
A man that was never aferd:
He werred ofte tyme and wyse
Worthily upon goddis enemyse.
And sithen he was shoten, alas!
Atte castle Gailard there he was.
Atte Fonte Everarde he lithe there:
He regnyd almost ten yere.-
In Johne is tyme, as y understonde,
Was entredyted alle Engelonde :
He was fulle wrothe and grym,
For prestus would nought synge before
hym, &c.

Lydgate has left the best chronicle of
the kind, and most approaching to poetry.
The regnynge of kyngys after the conquest
Bodl. 16. [And MSS. Ashmol. 59. ii.
by the monk of Bury. MSS. Fairf. Bibl.
MSS. Harl. 2251. 3. And a beautiful
copy, with pictures of the kings, MSS.
[Unless printed by Wynkyn de Worde,
Cotton. JULIUS. E. 5.] Never printed.
1530. 4to. This myghty Wyllyam duke
of Normandy."] This is one of the stan-
zas. [See MSS. Bodl. B. 3. 1999. 6.]
RICARDUS PRIMUS.

Rychard the next by successyon,
Ffirst of that name, strong, hardy, and
notable,

Was crouned kynge, called Cur de lyon,
With Saryzonys hedys served atte table:
Sleyn at Galard by death full lamentable:
The space regned fully ix yere ;
His hert buryed in Roon, atte highe
Compare

autere.

It is collected from Bede, Alfred of Beverly, Malmesbury, Girardus Cambrensis, Higden's Polychronicon, and the passionaries of the female saints, Werburgh, Etheldred, and Sexburgh, which were kept for public edification in the choir of the church of our poet's monastery. Bradshaw is not so fond of relating visions and miracles as his argument seems to promise. Although concerned with three saints, he deals more in plain facts than in the fictions of religious romance; and, on the whole, his performance is rather historical than legendary. This is remarkable, in an age, when it was the fashion to turn history into legend. His fabulous origin of Chester is not

Compare MSS. Harl. 372. 5. There was partly a political view in these deductions: to ascertain the right of our kings to the crowns of France, Castile, Leon, and the dutchy of Normandy. See MSS. Harl. 326. 2.-116. 11. fol. 142. I know not whether it be worth observing, that about this time a practice prevailed of constructing long parchment-rolls in Latin, of the Pedigree of our kings. Of this kind is the Pedigree of British kings from Adam to Henry the Sixth, written about the year 1450, by Roger Alban, a Carmelite friar of London. It begins, "Considerans chronicorum prolixitatem." The original copy, presented to Henry the Sixth by the compiler, is now in Queen's college library at Oxford. MSS. [22.] B. 5. 3. There are two copies in Winchester college library, and another in the Bodleian. Among bishop More's manuscripts, there is a parchment-roll of the Pedigree of our kings from Ethelred to Henry the Fourth, in French, with pictures of the several monarchs. MSS. 495. And in the same collection, a Pedigree from Harold to Henry the Fourth, with elegant illuminations. MSS. 479. In the same rage of genealogising, Alban above mentioned framed the Descent of Jesus Christ, from Adam through the Levitical and regal tribes, the Jewish patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and priests. The original roll, as it seems, on vellum, beautifully illuminated, is in MSS. More, ut supr. 495. But this was partly copied from Peter of Poictou, a disciple of Lombard about the year 1170, who, for the benefit of the poorer clergy, was the first that found out the

method of forming, and reducing into parchment-rolls, HISTORICAL TREES of the old testament. Alberic. in Chron. p. 441. See MSS. Denb. 1627. 1. Rot. membr.

As to Bradshaw's history of the foundation of Chester, it may be classed with the FOUNDATION OF THE ABBEY OF GLOU CESTER, a poem of twenty-two stanzas, written in the year 1534, by the last abbot William Malverne, printed by Hearne, ubi supr. p. 378. This piece is mentioned by Harpsfield, HIST. ECCLES. ANGL. p. 264. Princip. "In sundrie fayer volumes of antiquitie." MSS. Harl. 589. 14. fol. 111.

For as declareth the true PASSIO

so much to be imputed to his own want of veracity, as to the authority of his voucher Ranulph Higden, a celebrated chronicler, his countryman, and a monk of his own abbey". He

MARDOCHEUS or Mordecai, was formed into a fabulous poem. MS. Vernon, ut supr. fol. 213.

Of AMON and MARDOCHEUS.
Mony wynter witerly

Or Crist weore boren of vre ladi,
A rich kynge, hizte AHASWERE,
That stif was on stede and stere;
Mighti kynge he was, i wis,
He livede muchel in weolye ant blis,
His blisse may i nat telle zou,
How lange hit weore to schewe hit nou;
But thing that tovcheth to vre matere
I wol zou telle, gif ze wol here.
The kyng lovede a knight so wele,
That he commaunded men should knele

Bifore him, in vche a streete,
Over all ther men mihte him meete;
AMON was the knihtes nome,
On him fell muchel worldus schome,
Ffor in this ilke kynges lande
Was moche folke of Jewes wonande,
Of heore kynd the kyng hym tok
A qwene to wyve, as telleth the bok, &c.

In the British Museum, there is a long commentitious narrative of the Creation of Adam and Eve, their Sufferings and Repentance, Death and Burial. MSS. Harl. 1704. 5. fol. 18. This is from a Latin piece on the same subject, ibid. 495. 12. fol. 43. imperf. In the English, Peter Comestor, the maister of stories, author of the historia scholastica, who flourished about the year 1170, is quoted. fol. 26. But he is not mentioned in the Latin, at fol. 49.

In Chaucer's MILLER'S TALE, We have this passage, v. 3538. Hast thou not herd, quod Nicholas also, The sorwe of Noe with his felawship, Or that he might get his wif to ship? I know not whether this anecdote about Noah is in any similar supposititious book of Genesis. It occurs, however, in the Chester Whitsun Playes, where the authors, according to the established indulgence allowed to dramatic poets, perhaps thought themselves at liberty to enlarge on the sacred story. MSS. Harl. 2013. This altercation between Noah and his wife, takes up almost the whole third pageaunt of these interludes. Noah, hav

ing reproached his wife for her usual frowardness of temper, at last conjures her to come on board the ark, for fear of drowning. His wife insists on his sailing without her; and swears by Christ and saint John, that she will not embark till some of her old female companions are ready to go with her. She adds, that if he is in such a hurry, he may sail alone, and fetch himself a new wife. At length Shem, with the help of his brothers, forces her into the vessel; and while Noah very cordially welcomes her on board, she gives him a box on the ear.

There is an apocryphal book, of the expulsion of Adam from Paradise, and of Seth's pilgrimage to Paradise, &c. &c.

MSS. Eccles. Cathedr. Winton. 4.

There is the greatest probability, that RALPH HIGDEN, hitherto known as a grave historian and theologist, was the compiler of the Chester-plays, mentioned above, vol. ii. p. 76. In one of the Harleian copies [2013. 1.] under the Proclamation for performing these plays in the year 1522, this note occurs, in the hand of the third Randal Holme, one "Sir John of the Chester antiquaries. Arnway was mayor, A.D. 1327 and 1328. At which tyme these playes were written by RANDALL HIGGENET, a monke, of Chester abbey," &c. In a prologue to these plays, when they were presented in the year 1600, are these lines, ibid. 2. That some tymes ther was mayor of this

citie

Sir John Arnway knight: who most
worthilie

Contented hymselfe to sett out in playe,
The Devise of one Done RONDALL,

Moonke of Chester abbaye.
Done Rondall is Dan [dominus] Randal.
In another of the Harleian copies of
these plays, written in the year 1607,
this note appears, seemingly written in
the year 1628. [MSS. Harl. 2124.]
"The Whitsun playes first made by one
Don Rondle Heggenet, a monke of Ches-
ter abbey: who was thrise at Rome be-
fore he could obtaine leave of the pope to
have them in the English tongue." Our
chronicler's name in the text, sometimes
written Hikeden, and Higgeden, was easily

supposes that Chester, called by the antient Britons CAIR LLEON, or the city of Legions, was founded by Leon Gaur, a giant,. corrupted from LEON VAUR, or the great legion.

The founder of this citie, as sayth Polychronicon,
Was Leon Gaur, a myghte stronge gyaunt,
Which buildid caves and dongeons manie a one,
No goodlie buildyng, ne proper, ne pleasant.
He adds, with an equal attention to etymology:
But kinge Leir a Britan fine and valiaunt,
Was founder of Chester by pleasaunt buildyng,
And was named Guar Leir by the kyng."

But a greater degree of credulity would perhaps have afforded him a better claim to the character of a poet: and, at least, we should have conceived a more advantageous opinion of his imagination, had he been less frugal of those traditionary fables, in which ignorance and superstition had cloathed every part of his argument. This piece was first printed by Pinson in the year 1521. "Here begynneth the holy lyfe of SAYNT WErburge, very frutefull for all cristen people to redef." He traces the genealogy of saint Werburg with much historical accuracy.

corrupted into Higgenet, or Heggenet: and Randal is Ranulph or Randolph, Ralph. He died, having been a monk of Chester abbey sixty-four years, in the year 1963. In PIERS PLOWMAN, a frier says, that he is well acquainted with the "rimes of RANDALL OF CHESTER." fol. 26. edit. 1550. I take this passage to allude to this very person, and to his compositions of this kind, for which he was probably soon famous. [The MSS. read Randall erle of Chester, which independently of other reasons equally conclusive renders this conjecture perfectly nugatory.-EDIT.] In an anonymous CHRONICON, he is styled Ranulphus Cestrensis, which is nothing more than RANDALL OF CHESTER. MS. Ric. James xi. 8. Bibl. Bodl. And again we have, RANULPHI CESTRENSIS "ars componendi sermones. ." MSS. Bodl. sup. N. 2. Art. 10. And in many other places.

By the way, if it be true that these MYSTERIES were composed in the year

1328, and there was so much difficulty
in obtaining the pope's permission that
they might be presented in English, a
presumptive proof arises, that all our
MYSTERIES before that period were in
Latin. These plays will therefore have
the merit of being the first English in-
terludes.
Lib. ii. c. iii.

f In octavo. With a wooden cut of the Saint. Princip. "When Phebus had ronne his cours in Sagittari." At the beginning is an English copy of verses, by J. T. And at the end two others.

A descrypcyon of the genealogy of
SAYNT WERBURGE, &c.
This noble prynces, the doughter of
Syon,

The floure of vertu, and vyrgyn glory

The most splendid passage of this poem, is the following description of the feast made by king Ulpher in the hall of the abbey of Ely, when his daughter Werburgh was admitted to the veil in that monastery. Among other curious anecdotes of antient manners, the subjects of the tapestry, with which the hall was hung, and of the songs sung by the minstrels, on this solemn occasion, are given at large.

Kynge Wulfer her father at this ghostly spousage
Prepared great tryumphes, and solempnyte;
Made a royall feest, as custome is of maryage,
Sende for his frendes, after good humanyte
Kepte a noble housholde, shewed great lyberalyte
Both to ryche and poore, that to this feest wolde come,
No man was denyed, every man was wellcome.

Her uncles and auntes, were present there all
Ethelred and Merwalde, and Mercelly also
Thre blessed kynges, whome sayntes we do call

Saint Keneswyd, saint Keneburg, their sisters both two
And of her noble lynage, many other mo

Were redy that season, with reverence and honour
At this noble tryumphe, to do all theyr devour.