ports, and fynding them ftaunch, and repayrs no need wanting, I did buy of the owner, Geoffry Coombe, on a repayring leafe for ninety-nine years', he thinkying it would fall down everie day; but with a few marks expence did put it up in a manner neat, and therein I lyvd.” It is with regret that I find myself obliged to pronounce Rowlie's poems to be spurious. Antient remains of English poetry, unexpectedly difcovered, and fortunately rescued from a long oblivion, are contemplated with a degree of fond enthusiasm: exclufive of any real or intrinfic excellence, they afford those pleasures, arifing from the idea of antiquity, which deeply intereft the imagination. With thefe pleasures we are unwilling to part. But there is a more folid fatisfaction, refulting from the detection of artifice and imposture. I very much queftion, whether this technical law-term, or even this mode of contract, exifted in the year 1460. TH SECT. IX. HE fubfequent reigns of Richard the third, Edward the fifth, and Henry the feventh, abounded in obfcure verfifiers. A mutilated poem which occurs among the Cotton manuscripts in the British museum, and principally contains a fatire on the nuns, who not lefs from the nature of their establishment, than from the usual degeneracy which attends all institutions, had at length loft their original purity, seems to belong to this period. It is without wit, and almoft without numbers. It was written by one Bertram Walton, whofe name now first appears in the catalogue of English poets; and whofe life I calmly refign to the researches of fome more laborious and patient antiquary. About the year 1480, or rather before, Benedict Burgh, a mafter of arts of Oxford, among other promotions in the church, archdeacon of Colchester, prebendary of faint Paul's, and canon of faint Stephen's chapel at Westminster', tranflated Cato's MORALS into the royal ftanza, for the use of his pupil lord Bourchier fon of the earl of Effex. Encou 'The univerfity fealed his letters teftimonial, jul. 3. A. D. 1433. Registr. Univ. Oxon. fupr. citat. T. f. 27. b. He died A. D. 1483. • Gafcoigne fays that "rithme royal is "a verfe of ten fyllables, and ten fuch "verfes make a staffe, &c." Inftructions for verfe, &c. Sign. D.i. ad calc. WORKES, 1587. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 464. Notes, .] Burgh's ftanza is here called balade royall: by which, I believe, is commonly fignified the octave stanza. All thofe pieces in Chaucer, called Certaine Ballads, are in this measure. In Chaucer's LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, written in long verse, a song of three raged by the example and authority of fo venerable an ecclefiaftic, and tempted probably by the convenient opportunity of pilfering phraseology from a predeceffor in the fame arduous task, Caxton tranflated the fame Latin work; but from the French verfion of a Latin paraphrase, and into English profe, which he printed in the year 1483. He calls, in his preface, the measure, ufed by Burgh, the BALad Royal. Caxton's tranflation, which fuperfeded Burgh's work, and with which it is confounded, is divided into four books, which comprehend seventy-two heads. I do not mean to affront my readers, when I inform them, without any apology, that the Latin original of this piece was not written by Cato the cenfor, nor by Cato Uticenfis': although it is perfectly in the character of the former, and Aulus Gellius has quoted Cato's poem DE MORIBUS. Nor have I the gravity of the learned Boxhornius, who in a prolix and elaborate differtation has endeavoured to demonstrate, that these distichs are undoubtedly fuppofititious, and that they could not poffibly be written by the very venerable Roman whofe name they bear. The title is DISTICHA DE MORIBUS AD FILIUM, which are distributed into four books, under the name of Dionyfius Cato. But he is frequently called MAGNUS CATO. This work has been abfurdly attributed by fome critics to three octave ftanzas is introduced; beginning, Hide Abfolon thy gilte treffis clere. V. 249. p. 340. Urr. Afterwards, Cupid fays, v. 537. P. 342. -a ful grete negligence Was it to thee, that ilke time thou made, Hide Abfolon thy treffis, IN BALADE. In the British Museum there is a Kalandre in Englyfshe, made in BALADE by Dann John Lydgate monke of Bury. That is, in this ftanza. MSS. Harl. 1706. 2. fol. 10. b. The reader will observe, that whether there are eight or seven lines, I have called it the octave ftanza. Lydgate has, most commonly, only feven lines. As in his poem on Guy earl of Warwick, MSS. Laud. D. 31. fol. 64. Here ginneth the Without the gate remembered as I rede, See Vignol. Marville. Mifcell. tom. i. p. 56. Noct. Att. xi. 2. Seneca, 'Seneca, and by others to Aufonius'. It is, however, more antient than the time of the emperour Valentinian the third, who died in 455°. On the other hand, it was written after the appearance of Lucan's PHARSALIA, as the author, at the beginning of the second book, commends Virgil, Macer", Ovid, and Lucan. The name of Cato probably became prefixed to thefe diftichs, in a lower age, by the officious ignorance of transcribers, and from the acquiefcence of readers equally ignorant, as Marcus Cato had written a fet of moral diftichs. Whoever was the author, this metrical system of ethics had attained the highest degree of estimation in the barbarous ages. Among Langbain's manuscripts bequeathed to the university of Oxford by Antony Wood, it is accompanied with a Saxon paraphrafe'. John of Salisbury, in his POLYCRATICON, mentions it as the favourite and established manual in the education of boys'. To enumerate no others, f It was printed under the name of Aufonius, Roftoch. 1572. 8vo. Ex Epiftol. Vindiciani Medici, ad Valent. They are mentioned by Notkerus, who flourished in the tenth century, among the Metrorum, Hymnorum, Epigrammatumque conditores. Cap. vi. DE ILLUSTRIB. VIR. etc. printed by Fabric. M. Lat. v. p. 904. The poem DE VIRTUTIBUS HERBARUM, under the name of Macer, now extant, was written by Odo, or Odobonus, a physician of the dark ages. It was tranflated into English, by John Lelarmoner, or Lelamar, mafter of Hereford school, about the year 1373. MSS. Sloane. 29. Princ. Apium, Ache is hote and drie." There is Macer's Herbal, ibid. 43. This feems to have been printed, fee Ames, P. 158. 66 i Cod. 12. [8615.] Polycrat. vii. 9. p. 373. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1595. It is cited, ibid. p. 116. 321. 512. In the ART OF VERSIFICATION, a Latin poem, written by Eberhardus Bethunienfis, about the year 1212, there is a curious paffage, in which all the claffics of that age are recited; or the beft authors, then in vogue, and whom he recommends to be taught to youth. [Leyfer. Poet. Med. æv. p. 825.] They are, CATO the moralift. THEODULUS, the author of a leonine Eclogue, a dialogue between Truth and Falfhood, written in the tenth century, printed among the OCTO MORALES, and by Goldaftus, Man. Bibl. 1620. 8vo. MSS. Harl. 3093. 4. Wynkyn de Worde printed this piece under the title of Theodoli liber, cum commento satis prolixo autoris cujufdam Anglici qui multa Anglicana ubique mifcuit. 1515. 4to. It was from one of Theodulus's ECLOGUES, beginning Ethiopum terras, that Field, mafter of Fotheringay college, about the year 1480, fette the verfis of the book caullid Ethiopum terras, in the glaffe windowe, with figures very neatly. Leland. ITIN. i. fol. 5. [p. 7. edit. 1745.] This feems to have been in a window of the new and beautiful cloister, built about that time. FLAVIUS AVIANUS, a writer of Latin fables, or apologues, Lugd. Bat. 1731. 8vo. Æsor, or the Latin fabulift, printed among the OCTO MORALES, Lugd. Bat. 1505. 4to. MAXIMIANUS, whofe fix elegies, written about the feventh century, pafs under the name of Gallus. Chaucer cites this writer; and it is much applauded by Ifidore the old etymologift", Alcuine", and Abelard and we must acknowledge, that the writer, and in a manner, which fhews his elegies had not then acquired the name of Gallus. COURT OF L. v. 798. "MAXIMINIAN "truely thus doeth he write." PAMPHILUS MAURILIANUS, author of the hexametrical poem de Vetula, and the elegies de Arte amandi, entitled PAMPHILUS, published by Goldaftus, Catalect. Ovid. Francof. 1610. 8vo. [See fupr. p. 130.] GETA, or Hefidius Geta, who has left a tragedy on Medea, printed in part by Pet. Scriverius, Fragm. Vett. Tragic. Lat. p. 187. [But fee fupr. vol. i. p. 234.] DARES PHRYGIUS, on the deftruction of Troy. MACER. [See fupr. p. 159.] MARBODEUS, a Latin poet on Gems. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 378.] PETRUS DE RIGA, canon of Rheims, whofe AURORA, or the Hiftory of the Bible allegarifed, in Latin verfes, fome of which are in rhyme, was never printed entire. He has left alfo Speculum Ecclefie, with other pieces, in Latin poetry. He flourished about the year 1 130. SEDULIUS. PROSPER. ARATOR. PRUDENTIUS. BOETHIUS. ALANUS, author of the Anticlaudian, a poem in nine books, occafioned by the fcepticifm of Claudian. [See fupr.vol. i. p.391.] VIRGIL, HORACE, OVID, LUCAN, STATIUS, JUVENAL, and PERSIUS. JOHN HANVILLE, an Englishman, who wrote the ARCHITRENIUS, in the twelfth century, a Latin hexameter poem in nine books. PHILIP GUALTIER, of Chatillon, who wrote,. about the fame period, the ALEXANDREID, an heroic poem on Alexander the great. SOLYMARIUS, or GUNTHER, a German Latin poet, author of the SOLYMARIUM, or Crufade. GALFRIDUS, our countryman, whose NovA POETRIA was in higher celebrity than Horace's Art of Poetry. [See vol. i. Differtat. ii.] MATTHÆUS, of Vendofme, who in the year 1170, paraphrafed the Book of Tobit into Latin elegiacs, from the Latin bible of faint Jerom, under the title of the TOBIAD, fometimes called the THEBAID, and first printed among the OCTO MORALES. ALEXANDER DE VILLA DEI, whofe DocTRINALE, or Grammar in Leonine verfe, fuperfeded Prifcian about the year 1200. it was firft printed at Venice, fol. 1473. And by Wynkyn de Worde, 1503. He was a French frier minor, and also wrote the ARGUMENTS of the chapters of all the books of either Teftament, in two hundred and twelve hexameters. With fome other forgotten pieces. MARCIANUS CAPELLA, whofe poem on the MARRIAGE OF MERCURY WITH PHILOLOGY rivalled Boethius. [See fupr. p. 75.] JOANNES DE GARLANDIA, an Englishman, a poet and grammarian, who ftudied at Paris about the year 1200. The most eminent of his numerous Latin poems, which croud our libraries, feem to be his EPITHALAMIUM on the Virgin Mary in ten books of elegiacs. MSS. Cotton. CLAUD. A. x. And DE TRIUMPHIS ECCLESIE, in eight books, which contains much English hiftory. MS. ibid. Some of his pieces, both in profe and verse, have been printed. BERNARDUS CARNOTENSIS, or Sylvefter, much applauded by John of Salisbury, who ftyles him the moft perfect Platonic of that age. Metallog. iv. c. 35. His MEGACOSM and MICROCOSM, a work confifting both of verfe and profe, is frequently cited by the barbarous writers. He is imitated by Chaucer, Man of L. Tale, v. 4617. "In ❝fterres many a winter, &c." LOGUS, or THEOBALDUS EPISCOPUS, who wrote in Latin verfe De Naturis xii. animalium, MSS. Harl. 3093. 5. He is there called Italicus. There is also a Magifter FLORINUS, ftyled alfo PHYSIOLOGUS, on the fame fubject. Chaucer quotes PHYSIOLOGUS, whom I by mistake have fuppofed to be Pliny, "For PHISIOLO PHYSIO Το GUS fays fikerly." NONNES Pr. TALE. V. 15277. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 420.] SIDONIUS, who wrote a metrical dialogue between a Jew and a Chriftian on both the Teftaments. And a SIDONIUS, perhaps the fame, regis qui fingit prælia. thefe our author adds his own GRECISMUS, or a poem in hexameters on rhetoric and grammar; which, as Du Cange [Præf. Lat. Gloff. § XLV.] obferves, was antiently a common manual in the feminaries of France, and, I fuppofe, of England. Etymol. V. OFFICIPERDA. m n Contra Elipand. lib. ii. p. 949. • Lib. i. Theol. Chrift. p. 1183, |