"Of love, that thei be not idell, "And bid hem thinke of my bridell." She paffeth, as it were a skie", All clean out of the ladies fight". My readers will eafily conjecture the change which this spectacle must naturally produce in the obdurate heart of the princess of Armenia. There is a farther proof that the FLOURE AND LEAFE preceded the CONFESSIO AMANTIS. In the eighth book, our author's lovers are crowned with the Flower and Leaf. Myn eie I caste all aboutes, To knowe amonge hem who was who: As he which was a capitayne Some of the lefe, fome of the floure, And fome of grete perles were: The new guife of Beme was there, &c. I believe on the whole, that Chaucer had published most of his poems before this piece of Gower appeared. Chaucer had not however at this time written his TESTAMENT OF LOVE for Gower, in a fort of Epilogue to the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, is addreffed by Venus, who commands him to greet Chaucer as her favourite poet and difciple, as one who had employed his youth in compofing fongs and ditties to her honour. She adds at the close, A fhadow, Exsa, umbra. a Lib. iv. f. 70. feq. P Lib. viii. f. 188. a. col. 1. See fupr. vol. i. p. 466. ⚫ Boeme. Bohemia. For thy, For thy, now in his daies olde, To fette an ende of all his werke Chaucer at this time was fixty-five years of age. The Court of Love, one of the pedantries of French gallantry, occurs often. In an addrefs to Venus, " Madame, I am a "man of thyne, that in thy COURTE hath ferved long'." The lover obferves, that for want of patience, a man ought "" amonge the women alle, in LOVES COURTE, by judgement "the name beare of paciant." The confeffor declares, that many perfons are condemned for difclofing fecrets," In "LOVES COURTE, as it is faid, that lette their tonges gone "untide'." By Thy SHRIFTE, the author means his own poem now before us, the Lover's CONFESSION. There are also many manifeft evidences which lead us to conclude, that this poem preceded Chaucer's CANTERBURY'S TALES, undoubtedly fome of that poet's latest compofitions, and probably not begun till after the year 1382. The MAN OF LAWES TALE is circumftantially borrowed from Gower's CONSTANTIA : and Chaucer, in that TALE, apparently cenfures Gower, for his manner of relating the ftories of Canace and Apollonius in the third and eighth books of the CONFESSIO AMANTIS". The WIFE OF BATHES TALE is founded Lib. viii. f. 190. b. col. 1. Lib. i. f. 8. b. col. 1. • Lib. iii. f. 51. a. col. 1. Lib. iii. f. 52. a. col. 1. See fupr. vol. i. p. 460. In the fame ftrain, we have Cupid's pariement. Lib. viii, f. 187. b. col. 2. on Gower's Florent, a knight of Rome, who delivers the king of Sicily's daughter from the incantations of her stepmother*. Although the GESTA ROMANORUM might have furnished both poets with this narrative. Chaucer, however, among other great improvements, has judiciously departed from the fable, in converting Sicily into the more popular court of king Arthur. Perhaps, in estimating Gower's merit, I have pushed the notion too far, that because he fhews fo much learning he had no great share of natural abilities. But it should be confidered, that when books began to grow fashionable, and the reputation of learning conferred the highest honour, poets became ambitious of being thought fcholars; and facrificed their native powers of invention to the oftentation of displaying an extensive courfe of reading, and to the pride of profound erudition. On this account, the minstrels of these times, who were totally uneducated, and poured forth fpontaneous rhymes in obedience to the workings of nature, often exhibit more genuine ftrokes of paffion and imagination, than the profeffed poets. Chaucer is an exception to this obfervation: whofe original feelings were too strong to be fuppreffed by books, and whose learning was overbalanced by genius. This affectation of appearing learned, which yet was natural at the revival of literature, in our old poets, even in those who were altogether deftitute of talents, has loft to pofterity many a curious picture of manners, and many a romantic image. Some of our antient bards, however, aimed at no other merit, than that of being able to verfify; and attempted nothing more, than to cloath in rhyme those sentiments, which would have appeared with equal propriety in prose. SECT. II. NE of the reafons which rendered the claffic authors of the lower empire more popular than those of a purer age, was because they were chriftians. Among these, no Roman writer appears to have been more studied and esteemed, from the beginning to the close of the barbarous centuries, than Boethius. Yet it is certain, that his allegorical personifications and his vifionary philosophy, founded on the abstractions of the Platonic fchool, greatly concurred to make him a favourite. His CONSOLATION of PHILOSOPHY was tranflated into the Saxon tongue by king Alfred, the father of learning and civility in the midst of a rude and intractable people; and illuftrated with a commentary by Affer bishop of Saint David's, a prelate patronised by Alfred for his fingular accomplishments in literature, about the year 890. Bishop Grofthead is faid to have left annotations on this admired fyftem of morality. There is a very ancient manuscript of it in the Laurentian library, with an infcription prefixed in Saxon characters. There are few of those distinguished ecclefiaftics, whofe erudition illuminated the thickest gloom of ignorance and fuperftition with uncommon luftre, but who either have cited this performance, a It is obfervable, that this SPIRIT OF PERSONIFICATION tinctures the writings of fome of the chriftian fathers, about, or rather before, this period. Most of the agents in the SHEPHERD of HERMAS are ideal beings. An ancient lady converses with Hermas, and tells him that she is the CHURCH OF GOD. Afterwards several virgins appear and difcourfe with him; and when he defires to be informed who they are, he is told by the SHEPHERD-ANGEL, that they are FAITH, ABSTINENCE, or or honoured it with a panegyric. It has had many imitators. Eccard, a learned French Benedictine, wrote in imitation of this CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, a work in verse and profe containing five books, entitled the CONSOLATION OF THE MONKS, about the year 1120. John Gerfon alfo, a doctor and chancellor of the university of Paris, wrote the CONSOLATION OF THEOLOGY in four books, about the year 1420. It was the model of Chaucer's TESTAMENT OF LOVE. It was tranflated into French and English before the year 1350. Dante was an attentive reader of Boethius. In the PURGATORIO, Dante gives THEOLOGY the name of Beatrix his mistress, the daughter of Fulco Portinari, who very gravely moralifes in that character. Being ambitious of following Virgil's fteps in the defcent of Eneas into hell, he introduces her, as a daughter of the empyreal heavens, bringing Virgil to guide him through that dark and dangerous region". Leland, who lived when true literature began to be restored, fays that the writings of Boethius ftill continued to retain that high estimation, which they had acquired in the most early periods. I had almoft forgot to obferve, that the CONSOLATION was tranflated into Greek by Maximus Planudes, the most learned and ingenious of the Conftantinopolitan monks'. a tranflation of Virgil by Guillaume le Roy, there is one by De Cis, or Thri, an old French poet. Matt. Annal. Typogr. i. p. 171. Francifc. a Cruce, Bibl. Gallic. p. 216. 247. It was printed in Dutch at Ghent, apud Arend de Keyfer, 1485. fol. In Spanish at Valladolid, 1598, fol. See fupr. vol. i. p. 458. Polycarpus Leyferus, in that very fcarce book DE POESI MEDII Evi, [printed HALE, 1721, 8vo.] enumerates many curious old editions of Boethius, p. 95. 105. h See PURGAT. Cant. xxx. i Montfauc. Bibl. Coilin. p. 140. Of a Hebrew verfion, fee Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. |