quently quoted by Chaucer. Particularly in the ASSEMBLY OF FOULES, he supposes himself to fall asleep after reading the SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS, and that Scipio shewed him the beautiful vision which is the subject of that poems. Nor is it improbable, that, not only the form, but the first idea of Dante's INFERNO, was suggested by this favourite apologue; which, in Chaucer's words, treats And yearth, and souls, that therein dwell". Not to insist on Dante's subject, he uses the shade of Virgil for a mystagogue; as Tully supposes Scipio to have been shewn the other world by his ancestor Africanus. But Hawes's capital performance is a poem entitled “THE PASSETYME OF PLEASURE, or the HISTORIE OF GRAUNDE AMOURE and LA BEL PUCEL: contayning the knowledge of the seven sciences, and the course of man's lyfe in this worlde. Invented by Stephen Hawes, groome of kyng Henry the Seventh hys chambre." It is dedicated to the king, and was finished at the beginning of the year 1506. If the poems of Rowlie are not genuine, the PASTIME OF PLEASURE is almost the only effort of imagination and inven nuscript of Julian, a cardinal of S. Angelo, Ο ονειρος τῇ Σκιπίωνος. 5. p. 153. The DISPUTATIO of Favonius Elogius, a Carthaginian rhetorician, and a disciple of saint Austin, on the SoMNIUM SCIPIONIS, was printed by G. Schottus, Antw. 1613. 4to. fROM. ROSE. lib. i. v. 7. [&c.] An author that hight MACROBE, MACROBIUS that writith th' AVISION In Affricke, of the worthy SCIPION. DREME CH. v. 284. He mentions this as the most wonderful of dreams. HOUSE F. v, 407. lib. i. He describes a prospect more extensive and various than that which Scipio saw in his dream. That sawe in dreme, at point devise, He makes Scipio say to him, v. 110, By Wynkyn de Worde, in 1517. 4to. with wooden cuts. A second edition followed in 1554. By John Wayland, in 4to. A third, in 4to. by John Waley, in 1555. See a poem called a Dialogue between a Lover and a Jay, by one Tho mas Feylde, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 4to. Princ. Prol. "Thoughe laureate poetes in old antiquite." This obscure rhymer is here only mentioned, as he bas an allusion to his cotemporary Hawes, tion which had yet appeared in our poetry since Chaucer. This poem contains no common touches of romantic and allegoric fiction. The personifications are often happily sustained, and indicate the writer's familiarity with the Provencial school. The model of his versification and phraseology is that improved harmony of numbers, and facility of diction, with which his predecessor Lydgate adorned our octave stanza, But Hawes has added new graces to Lydgate's manner. Antony Wood, with the zeal of a true antiquary, laments, that "such is the fate of poetry, that this book, which in the time of Henry the Seventh and Eighth was taken into the hands of all ingenious men, is now thought but worthy of a ballad-monger's stall!" The truth is, such is the good fortune of poetry, and such the improvement of taste, that much better books are become fashionable. It must indeed be acknowledged, that this poem has been unjustly neglected: and on that account, an apology will be less necessary for giving the reader a circumstantial analysis of its substance and design. GRAUNDE AMOURE, the hero of the poem, and who speaks in his own person*, is represented walking in a delicious meadow. Here he discovers a path which conducts him to a glorious image, both whose hands are stretched out and pointing * There is something dramatic in this circumstance. Raimond Vidal de Besaudin, a troubadour of Provence, who flourished about the year 1200, has given the following dramatic form to one of his contes or tales. One day, says the troubadour, Alphonsus, king of Castille, whose court was famous for good cheer, magnificence, loyalty, valour, the practice of arms and the management of horses, held a solemn assembly of minstrels and knights. When the hall was quite full, came his queen Eleanor, covered with a veil, and disguised in a close robe bordered with silver, adorned with the blason of a golden lion; who making obeysance, seated herself at some distance from the king. At this instant, a minstrel advancing to the king addressed him thus. "O king, emperour of valour, I come to supplicate you to give me audience.' The king, under pain "" of disgrace, ordered that no person should interrupt the minstrel in what he should say. The minstrel had travelled from his own country to recite an adventure which had happened to a baron of Arragon, not unknown to king Alphonsus: and he now proceeds to tell no unaffecting story concerning a jealous husband. At the close, the minstrel humbly requests the king and queen, to banish all jealous husbands from their dominions. The king replied, "MINSTREL, your tale is pleasant and gentle, and you shall be rewarded. But to shew you still further how much you have entertained me, I command that henceforth your tale shall be called Le JALOUX CHATIE." Our troubadour's tale is greatly enlivened by these accompaniments, and by being thrown into the mouth of a minstrel. to two highways; one of which is the path of CONTEMPLATION, the other of ACTIVE LIFE, leading to the Tower of Beauty. He chuses the last-mentioned path, yet is often tempted to turn aside into a variety of bye-paths, which seemed more pleasant: but proceeding directly forward, he sees afar off another image, on whose breast is written, "This is the road to the Tower of DOCTRINE, he that would arrive there must avoid sloth," &c. The evening being far advanced, he sits down at the feet of the image, and falls into a profound sleep; when, towards the morning, he is suddenly awakened by the loud blast of a horn. He looks forward through a valley, and perceives a beautiful lady on a palfrey, swift as the wind, riding towards him, encircled with tongues of fire'. Her name was FAME, and with her ran two milk-white greyhounds, on whose golden collars were inscribed in diamond letters Grace and GovernaunceTM. 'In Shakespeare, RUMOUR is painted full of tongues. This was from the PA GEANTS. "See supr. vol. ii. p. 199. Greyhounds were antiently almost as great favourites as hawks. Our forefathers reduced hunting to a science; and have left large treatises on this species of diversion, which was so connected with their state of life and manners. The most curious one I know, is, or was lately, among the manuscripts of Mr. Farmor, of Tusmore in Oxfordshire. It is entitled, "LE ART DE VENERIE, le quel maistre Guillame Twici venour le roy d'Angleterre fist en son temps per aprandre autres. This master William Twici was grand huntsman to Edward the Second. In the Cotton library, this book occurs in English under the names of William Twety and John Giffard, most probably a translation from the French copy, with the title of a book of Venerie dialogue wise. Princ. "TWETY now will we beginnen." MSS. Cotton. VESPAS. B. xii. The less antient tract on this subject, called the Maistre of the Game, written for the instruction of prince Henry, afterwards Henry the Fifth, is much more common. MSS. Digb. 182. Bibl. Bodl. I believe the maistre veneur has been long abolished in England: but the royal falconer still remains. The latter was an officer of high dignity in the Grecian court of Constantinople, at an early period, under the style of Tougarages. Pachym. lib. i. c. 8. x. 15. Codin. cap. ii. Phrenzes says, that the emperor Andronicus Palæologus the younger kept more than one thousand and four hundred hawks, with almost as many men to take care of them. lib. i. c. 10. About the year 750, Winifrid, or Boniface, a native of England, and archbishop of Mons, acquaints Ethelbald, a king of Kent, that he has sent him, one hawk, two falcons, and two shields. And Hedilbert, a king of the Mercians, requests the same archbishop Winifrid, to send him two falcons which have been trained to kill cranes. See EPISTOL. Winifrid. [Bonifac.] Mogunt. 1605. 1629. And in Bibl. Patr. tom. vi. and tom. xiii. p. 70. Falconry, or a right to sport with falcons, is mentioned so early as the year 986. Chart. Ottonis iii. Imperator. ann. 986. apud Ughell. de Episcop. Januens. A charter of Kenulf, king of the Mercians, granted to the abbey of Abingdon, and dated 821, prohibits all persons carrying hawks or falcons, to trespass on the lands of the monks. Dugd. Monast. i. p. 100. Julius Firmicus, who wrote about the year 355, is the first Latin author who mentions hawking, or has even used the word FALCO. Mathes. lib. v. c. 7. vii. c. 4. Hawking is often mentioned in the ca Her palfrey is Pegasus; and the burning tongues denote her office of consigning the names of illustrious personages to posterity; among which she mentions a lady of matchless accomplishments, named LA BELL PUCELL, who lives within a tower seated in a delightful island; but which no person can enter, without surmounting many dangers. She then informs our hero, that before he engages in this enterprise, he must go to the Tower of DOCTRINE, in which he will see the Seven Sciences"; pitularies of the eighth and ninth centuries. The grand fauconnier of France was an officer of great eminence. His salary was four thousand florins; he was attended by a retinue of fifty gentlemen and fifty assistant falconers, and allowed to keep three hundred hawks. He licensed every vender of falcons in France; and received a tribute for every bird that was sold in that kingdom, even within the verge of the court. The king of France never rode out, on any occasion, without this officer. [See supr, vol. i. p. 177-8,] An ingenious French writer insinuatès, that the passion for hunting, which at this day subsists as a favourite and fashionable species of diversion in the most civilised countries of Europe, is a strong indication of our gothic origin, and is one of the savage habits, yet unreformed, of our northern ancestors. Perhaps there is too much refinement in this remark. The pleasures of the chace seem to have been implanted by nature; and, under due regulation, if pursued as a matter of mere relaxation and not of employment, are by no means incompatible with the modes of polished life, "The author of the TRESOR, a troubadour, gives the following account of his own system of erudition, which may not be inapplicable here. He means to shew himself a profound and universal scholar; and professes to understand the seven liberal arts, grammar, the Latin language, logic, the Decretals of Gratian, music according to Boethius and Guy Aretin, arithmetic, geography, astronomy, the ecclesiastic computation, medicine, pharmacy, surgery, necromancy, geomancy, magic, divination, and mythology, better than Ovid and Thales le Menteur: the histories of Thebes, Troy, Rome, Romulus, Cesar, Pompey, Augustus, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, who took Jerusalem, the Twelve Cesars down to Constantine; the history of Greece, and that of Alexander, who dying distributed his acquisitions among his twelve peers; the history of France, containing the transactions of Clovis, converted by saint Remi; Charles Martel, who established tenths; king Pepin, Charlemague and Roland, and the good king Louis. To these he adds, the HISTORY of ENGLAND, which comprehends the arrival of Brutus in England, and his conquest of the giant Corineus, the prophecies of Merlin, the redoubted death of Arthur, the adventures of Gawaine, and the amours of Tristram and Bel Isould. Amidst this profusion of fabulous history, which our author seems to think real, the history of the Bible is introduced; which he traces from the patriarchs down to the day of judgment. At the close of the whole, he gives us some more of his fashionable accomplishments; and says, that he is skilled in the plain chant, in singing to the lute, in making canzonetts, pastorals, amorous and pleasant poesies, and in dancing: that he is beloved by ecclesiastics, knights, ladies, citizens, minstrels, squires, &c. The author of this TREASURE, or cyclopede of science, mentioned above, is Pierre de Corbian, who lived about the year 1200. Crescimbeni says, that this TRESOR furnished materials of a similar compilation in Italian verse to Bennet [Brunetti], Dante's master; and of another in French prose. But see Jul. Niger, Script. Flor. p. 112, [I know not whether this statement be correctly taken from Crescimbeni, but it has been previously shewn (vol. i, p. 150.) that the Tesoro of Brunetti Latini was written in French prose. His Tesoretto, a book of rare occurrence even in Italy, was written in Italian verse. These works are frequently confounded.-EDIT.] and that there, in the turret, or chamber of Music, he will have the first sight of La Bell Pucell. FAME departs, but leaves with him her two greyhounds. Graunde Amour now arrives at the Tower, or rather castle, of DOCTRINE, framed of fine copper, and situated on a craggy rock: it shone so bright, that he could distinctly discern the form of the building; till at length, the sky being covered with clouds, he more visibly perceives its walls decorated with figures of beasts in gold, and its lofty turrets crowned with golden images. He is admitted by COUNTENANCE the portress, who leads him into a court, where he drinks water of a most transcendent fragrance, from a magnificent fountain, whence flow four rivers, clearer than Nilus, Ganges, Tigris, or Euphrates P. He next enters the hall framed of jasper, its windows crystal, and its roof overspread with a golden vine, whose grapes are represented by rubies: the floor is paved with beryl, and the walls hung with rich tapestry, on which our hero's future expedition to the Tower of La Bell He says, that the little turrets had, for weathercocks or fans, images of gold, which, moving with the wind, played a tune. So Chaucer, CH. DREAME, V. 75. For everie yate [tower] of fine gold With phanis freshe, turning with everie And our author again, ch. xxxviii. Them for to heare it was great melody. marks of the florid mode of architecture, which was now almost at its height. See views of the palaces of Nonesuch and Richmond. The crusades made the eastern rivers more famous among the Europeans than any of their own. Arnaud Daniel, a troubadour of the thirteenth century, declares, he had rather please his mistress than possess all the dominions which are washed by Hebrus, Meander, and Tigris. Hist. Troub. ii. p. 485. The compliment would have been equally exaggerated, if he had alluded to some of the rivers of his own country. VELS, 9 From sir John Maundeville's TRA"In the hall, is a vine made of gold, that goeth all aboute the hall: and it hath many bunches of grapes, some are white, &c. All the red are of rubies," &c. ch. lxvii. Paulus Silentiarius, in his description of the church of S. Sophia at Constantinople, mentions such an or nament. ii. 235. Κλήμασι χρυσοκόμοισι περίδρομος αμπελος |