And redde Marfe, with his fternè here;
Myght he not eke onèly for our fake
Wythyn a mayde of man his * kyndè take?

For he that doth the tender braunches fprynge,
And the fresshe flouris in the gretè mede,
That were in wynter dede and eke droupynge,
Of bawmè all yvoyd and leftyhede;

Myght he not make his grayne to growe and fede,
Within her breft, that was both mayd and wyfe,
Whereof is made the sothfast breade of lyfe?

b

We are surprised to find verfes of fo modern a cast as the following at fuch an early period; which in this fagacious age we should judge to be a forgery, was not their genuineness authenticated, and their antiquity confirmed, by the venerable types of Caxton, and a multitude of unquestionable manuscripts.

Like as the dewe difcendeth on the rofe

Our Saviour's crucifixion is expreffed by this remarkable metaphor.

Whan he of purple did his baner fprede

On Calvarye abroad upon the rode,

To fave mankynde.

Our author, in the courfe of his panegyric on the Virgin Mary, affirms, that the exceeded Hefter in meekness, and Judith in wisdom; and in beauty, Helen, Polyxena, Lucretia, Dido,

Bathsheba, and Rachel'. It is amazing, that in an age of the most superftitious devotion fo little discrimination should have been made between facred and profane characters and incidents. But the common fenfe of mankind had not yet attained a just estimate of things. Lydgate, in another piece, has verfified the rubrics of the miffal, which he applies to the god Cupid: and declares, with how much delight he frequently meditated on the holy legend of those constant martyrs, who were not afraid to fuffer death for the faith of that omnipotent divinity. There are instances, in which religion was even made the inftrument of love. Arnaud Daniel, a celebrated troubadour of the thirteenth century, in a fit of amorous despair, promises to found a multitude of annual maffes, and to dedicate perpetual tapers to the fhrines of faints, for the important purpose of obtaining the affections of an obdurate mistress.

Cap. iv. In a LIFE of the Virgin in the British museum, I find these easy lyrics introduced, MSS. Harl. 2382. 2. 3. fol. 75. fol. 86. b. Though I am not certain that they properly belong to this work.

A mery tale I telle yow may
Of feynt Marie that fwete may :

Alle the tale of this leffone
Is of her Affumptione.

Mary moder, welle thee be!
Mary mayden, thenk on me!
Mayden and moder was never nore,
Togader, lady, fave thee allone.
But thefe lines will be confidered again.
MSS. Fairfax, xvi. Bibl. Bodł.

SECT.

BUT Lydgate's principal poems are the FALL OF PRINCES,

the SIEGE OF THEBES, and the DESTRUCTION OF TROY.

Of all these I shall speak diftinctly.

ILLUSTRIUM.

About the year 1360, Boccacio wrote a Latin history in ten books, entitled DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ET FEMINARUM Like other chronicles of the times, it commences with Adam, and is brought down to the author's age. Its last grand event is John king of France taken priyear foner by the English at the battle of Poitiers, in the 1359. This book of Boccacio was foon afterwards tranflated into French, by one of whom little more feems to be known, than that he was named Laurence; yet fo paraphrastically, and with fo many confiderable additions, as almost to be rendered a new work".

• Printed at Aufbourg. And at Paris, 1544. fol. It is amazing, that Voffius fhould not know the number of books of which this work confifted, and that it was ever printed. De Hift. Lat. lib. iii. cap. ii. It was tranflated into Italian by Betuffi, in Firenza, 1566. 8vo. 2 volum.

In Lydgate's PROLOGUE, B. i. fol. i. a col. 1. edit. ut infr.

He that fumtime did his diligence The boke of Bochas in French to tranflate Out of Latin, he called was LAURENCE. He fays that Laurence (in his Prologue) declares, that he avails himself of the privilege of skillful artificers; who may chaunge and turne, by good difcreion, shapes and forms, and newly them devife, make and unmake, &c. And that old authors may be rendered more agreeable, by being cloathed in new ornaments of language, and improved with new inventions. Ibid. a. col.1. He adds, that it was Laurence's defign, in

Laurence's French

his tranflation into French, to amende, cor's
rect, and declare, and not to Spare thinges
Afterwards
touched fhortly. Ibid. col. 2.
he calls him this noble tranflatour. Ibid. b.
col. 1. In another place, where a panegy-
ric on France is introduced, he fays that
this paffage is not Boccacio's, but added,
By one LAURENCE, which was tranflatour
Of this proceffe, to commende France;
To prayle that lande was all his pleafaunce.
B. ix. ch. 28. fol. 31. a. col. 1. edit ut infr.
Our author, in the Prologue above-cited,
feems to speak as if there had been a pre-
vious tranflation of Boccacio's book into
French. Ut fupr. a. col. 1.

Thus LAURENCE from him envy excluded
Though toforne him tranflated was this book.
But I fufpect he only means, that Boccacio's
original work was nothing more than a
collection or compilation from more an-
cient authors.

translation,

translation, of which there is a copy in the British Museum", and which was printed at Lyons in the year 1483, is the original of Lydgate's poem. This Laurence or Laurent, fometimes called Laurent de Premierfait, a village in the diocefe of Troies, was an ecclefiaftic, and a famous tranflator. He alfo tranflated into French Boccacio's DECAMERON, at the request of Jane queen of Navarre: Cicero DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE; and Ariftotle's Oeconomics, dedicated to Louis de Bourbon, the king's uncle. These verfions appeared in the year 1414 and 1416. Caxton's TULLIUS OF OLD AGE, or DE SENECTUTE, printed in 1481, is tranflated from Laurence's French verfion. Caxton, in the poftfcript, calls him Laurence de primo facto.

Lydgate's poem confifts of nine books, and is thus entitled in the earliest edition. "The TRAGEDIES gathered

by Jhon BOCHAS of all fuch princes as fell from theyr "eftates throughe the mutability of fortune fince the CRE"ACION of ADAM until his time, &c. Tranflated into

English by John Lidgate monke of Burye." The best and most authentic manufcript of this piece is in the British Museum; probably written under the inspection of the author, and perhaps intended as a prefent to Humphrey duke of Glocefter, at whofe gracious command the poem, as I have before hinted, was undertaken. It contains among

< MSS. Harl. See alfo ibid. MSS. Reg. 18 D. vii. And 16 G. v. And MSS. Bodl. F. 10. 2. [2465.] He is faid to have tranflated this work in 1409. MSS. Reg. ut fupr. 20 C. iv.

In folio. Bayle fays, that a French tranflation appeared at Paris, by Claudius Vitart, in 1578. 8vo. Diction. BOCCACE. Note g.

He died in 1418. See Martene, Ampl. Collect. tom. ii. p. 1405. And Mem. de Litt. xvii. 759. 4to. Compare du Verdier, Biblioth. Fr. p 72. And Bibl. Rom. ii. 291. It is extraordinary that the piece before us fhould not be mentioned by the

numerous miniatures illuftrating the several hiftories, por-· traits of Lydgate, and of another monk habited in black, perhaps an abbot of Bury, kneeling before a prince, who feems to be faint Edmund, feated on a throne under a canopy, and grasping an arrow.

The work is not improperly styled a fet of tragedies. It is not merely a narrative of men eminent for their rank and misfortunes. The plan is perfectly dramatic, and partly fuggefted by the pageants of the times. Every perfonage is fupposed to appear before the poet, and to relate his respective sufferings: and the figures of thefe fpectres are fometimes finely drawn. Hence a fource is opened for moving compaffion, and for a display of imagination. In fome of the lives the author replies to the fpeaker, and a fort of dialogue is introduced for conducting the story. Brunchild, a queen of France, who murthered all her children, and was afterwards hewn in pieces, appears thus.

She came, arayed nothing like a quene,

Her hair untreffed, Bochas toke good hede;
In al his booke he had afore not fene

A more wofull creature indede,

With weping eyne, to torne was al her wede:
Rebuking Bochas caufe he' had left behynde
Her wretchednes for to put in mynde 1.

Yet in fome of these interesting interviews, our poet excites pity of another kind. When Adam appears, he familiarly accosts the author with the falutation of Colyn Bochas'.

Nor does our dramatift deal only in real characters and hiftorical perfonages. Boccacio ftanding penfive in his library, is alarmed at the fudden entrance of the gigantic and mon

MSS. Harl. 1766. fol 5.
Lib. vii. f. xxi. a. col. 1.

1 B. i. fol. i. a. col. 2. In the fame style he calls Ixion Juno's fecretary. B. i. ch. xii. fol. xxi. b. col. 2.

ftrous