The Boar made them ful law to lout, Bifide Creffy opon the grene'. Sir Philip wanted all his will That was wele on his fembland" fene, With spere and fchelde, and helmis fchene, When kinges fuld them tell counfaill call. The fame boar, that is, Edward the third, is introduced by Minot as refifting the Scottish invasion in 1347, at Nevil's cross near Durham ". Sir David the Brufe Was at diftance, When Edward the baliolfe', The reader will recollect, that this verfification is in the structure of that of the LIVES OF THE SAINTS, where two lines are thrown into one. [See fupr. Vol. ii. EM. ADD. at p. 14.] viz. VNDECIM MILLIA VIRGINUM. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. 57. Ellevene thousand virgines, that fair companye was, Imartird wer for godis fone, ich wille telle that cas. A kyng ther was in Bretaygne, Maur was his name, A douzter he hadde that het Vrfe, a mayde of guod fame. So fair woman me nyste non, ne fo guod in none poynte, Criftene was al hire ken, fwithe noble and queynte: Of hire fairhede and guodneffe me told in eche fonde fide, That the word com into Engelonde, and elles wher wide. A kyng ther was in Engelonde, man of gret power, Of this maide he herde telle gret nobleize far and ner. The minstrel, who ufed the perpetual return of a kind of plain chant, made his pause or close at every hemiftic. In the fame manner, the verfes of the following poem were divided by the minstrel. MSS. Cott. JUL. V. fol. 175. Pergamen. [The tranfcript is not later than the year 1300.] e Buttons, every one of them azure, from his elbow ro his hand. f Cushions, or tapeftry, on the benches laid, The Alfo in Edward's victory over the Spaniards in a fea-fight, in 1350, a part of Minot's general subject. I have seen one of Merlin's PROPHESIES, probably translated from the French, which begins thus. Listeneth now to Merlin's faw, What he wrat for men to come, Nother by greffe ne by plume*. The public pageantries of this reign are proofs of the growing familiarity and national diffufion of claffical learning. I * I know not when this piece was written. But the word greffe is old French for Graphium, or Stylus. It is generally fuppofed, and it has been pofitively afferted by an able French antiquary, that the antient Roman practice of writing with a ftyle on waxen tablets, lafted not longer than the fifth century. Hearne alfo fupposes that the pen had fucceeded to the ftyle long before the age of Alfred. Lel. ITIN. Vol. vii. PREF. p. xxi. I will produce an inftance of this practice in England fo late as the year 1395. In an accompt-roll of Winchefter college, of that year, is the following difbursement. "Et "in i tabula ceranda cum viridi cera pro VOL. III. "intitulatione capellanorum et clericorum "Capelle ad miffas et alia pfallenda, "viijd." This very curious and remarkable article fignifies, that a tablet covered with green wax was kept in the chapel, for noting down with a style, the refpective courses of daily or weekly portions of duty, alternately affigned to the officers of the choir. So far, indeed, from having ceafed in the fifth century, it appears that this mode of writing continued throughout all the dark ages. Among many exprefs proofs that might be produced of the centuries after that period, Du Cange cites thefe verfes from a French metrical will select an instance, among others, from the fhews exhibited with great magnificence at the coronation of queen Anne Boleyn, in the year 1533. The proceffion to Westminster abbey, began from the Tower; and the queen, in paffing through Gracechurch street, was entertained with a representation of mount Parnaffus. The fountain of Helicon, by a bold fiction unknown to the bards of antiquity, ran in four streams of Rhenish wine from a bafon of white marble. On the fummit of the mountain fate Apollo, and at his feet Calliope. On either fide of the declivity were arranged four of the Mufes, playing on their re Les uns fe prennent a ecrire, Des greffes en tables de cire; Les autres fuivent la couftume De fournir lettres a la plume. Many ample and authentic records of the royal houshold of France, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, written on waxen tablets, are ftill preferved. Waxen tablets were constantly kept in the French religious houfes, for the fame purpose as at Winchefter college. Thus in the Ordinary of the Priour of faint Lo at Rouen, printed. at Rouen, written about the year 1250.. Qui, ad miffam, lectiones aut tractus "dicturi funt, in tabula cerea primitus re"citentur." pag. 261. Even to this day, feveral of the collegiate bodies in France, more especially the chapter of the cathedral of Rouen, retain this ufage of marking the fucceffive rotation of the minifters of the choir. See the Sieur le Brun's VOYAGE LITURGIQUE, 1718. p. 275. The fame mode of writing was used for regiftering the capitular acts of the monafteries in France. Du Cange, in reciting from an antient manufcript the Signs injoined to the monks of the order of faint Victor at Paris, where the rule of filence was rigoroufly obferved, gives us, among others, the tacit fignals by which they call. ed for the ftyle and tablet. "Pro SIGNO See ibid. STYLISONUS. "Grafii.-Signo metalli præmiffo, extenfo pollice cum indice fimila [fimula] fcri"bentem. Pro SIGNO Tabularum.-Manus "ambas complica, et ita disjunge quafi "aperiens Tabulas." GLOSS. ut fupr. V. SIGNA. tom. iii. p. 866. col. 2. edit. vet. Among the implements of writing allowed to the Carthufians, Tabula and Graphium are enumerated. Statut. Antiq. CARTHUSIAN. 2 part. cap. xvi. §. 8. This, however, at Winchester college, is the only exprefs fpecification which I have found of the practice, in the religious houses of England. Yet in many of our old collegiate establishments it feems to be pointed out by implication: and the article here extracted from the roll at Winchester college, explains the manner of keeping the following injunction in the Statutes of faint Elifabeth's college at Winchester, now destroyed, which is a direction of the fame kind, and cannot be well understood without fuppofing a waxen tablet. These ftatutes were given in 1301. "Habeat itaque idem præcentor unam Tabulam femper in capella appenfam, in qua "fcribat quolibet die fabbati poft pran"dium, et ordinet, qualem Miffam quis "corum capellanorum in fequenti fepti 66 66 66 mana debeat celebrare; quis qualem lec❝tionem in craftino legere debeat; Et fic ❝ de cæteris divinis officiis in prædicta ca pella faciendis. Et fic cotidie poft pran"dium ordinet idem præcentor de fervicio But fee Wanley's account of the text of S. Chad CATAL, Codd, Anglo-Sax. p. 289. feg, |