fully employed in importing the ideas of other languages into their own. They do not venture to think for themselves, nor aim at the merit of inventors, but they are laying the foundations of literature: and while they are naturalising the knowledge of more learned ages and countries by translation, they are imperceptibly improving the national language. This has been remarkably the case, not only in England, but in France and Italy. In the year 1387, John Trevisa canon of Westbury in Gloucestershire, and a great traveller, not only finished a translation of the Old and New Testaments, at the command of his munificent patron Thomas lord Berkley, but also translated Higden's POLYCHRONICON, and other Latin pieces. But these translations would have been alone insufficient to have produced or sustained any considerable revolution in our language: the great work was reserved for Gower and Chaucer. Wickliffe had also translated the Bible: and in other respects his attempts to bring about a reformation in religion at this time proved beneficial to English literature. The orthodox divines of this period generally wrote in Latin: but Wickliffe, that his arguments might be familiarised to common readers and the bulk of the people, was obliged to compose in English his numerous theological treatises against the papal corruptions. Edward the Third, while he perhaps intended only to banish a badge of conquest, greatly contributed to establish the national dialect, by abolishing the use of the Norman tongue in the public acts and judicial proceedings, See H. Wharton, Append. Cav. p. logus inter Clericum et Patronum. See more of his translations in MSS. Harl. Such as Bartholomew Glanville De 1900. I do not find his ENGLISH BIBLE 49. Proprietatibus Rerum, lib. xix. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1494. fol. And Vegetius De Arte Militari. MSS. Digb. 233. Bibl. Bodl. In the same manuscript is Ægidius Romanus De Regimine Principum, a translation probably by Trevisa. He also translated some pieces of Richard Fitzralph, archbishop of Armagh. See supr. p. 127. He wrote a tract, prefixed to his version of the PoLYCHRONICON, on the utility of translations: De Utilitate Translationum, Dia Cax in any of our libraries, nor do I believe h It is observable, that he made his translation from the vulgate Latin version of Jerom. It was finished 1383. See MS. Cod. Bibl. Coll. Eman. Cant. 102. as we have before observed, and by substituting the natural language of the country. But Chaucer manifestly first taught his countrymen to write English; and formed a style by naturalising words from the Provencial*, at that time the most polished dialect of any in Europe, and the best adapted to the purposes of poetical expression. It is certain that Chaucer abounds in classical allusions: but his poetry is not formed on the antient models. He appears to have been an universal reader, and his learning is sometimes mistaken for genius: but his chief sources were the French and Italian poets. From these originals two of his capital poems, the KNIGHT'S TALE, and the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, are imitations or translations. The first of these is taken from Boccacio. Boccacio was the disciple of Petrarch: and although principally known and deservedly celebrated as a writer or inventor of tales, he was by his cotemporaries usually placed in the third rank after Dante and Petrarch. But Boccacio having seen the Platonic sonnets of his master Petrarch, in a fit of despair committed all his poetry to the flames*, except a single poem, of which his own good taste had long taught him to entertain a more favourable opinion. This piece, thus happily rescued from destruction, is at present so scarce and so little known, even in Italy, as to have left its author but a slender proportion of that eminent degree of poetical reputation, which he might have justly claimed from so extraordinary a performance. It is an heroic poem, in twelve books, entitled LE TE passage, which I do not well understand. v. 420. And al the love of Palamon and Arcite Of Thebis, though the storicis known lite. [The last words seem to imply that it had not made itself very popular. TYRWHITT.] Goujet, Bibl. Fr. Tom. vii. p. 328. But we must except, that besides the poem mentioned below, Boccacio's AMAZONIDA, E FORZE D'ERCOLE, are both now extant: and were printed at Ferrara in, or about, the year 1475. fol. SEIDE, and written in the octave stanza, called by the Italians ottava rima, which Boccacio adopted from the old French chansons, and here first introduced among his countrymen'. It was printed at Ferrara, but with some deviations from the original, and even misrepresentations of the story, in the year 1475. Afterwards, I think, in 1488. And for the third and last time at Venice, in the year 1528". But the corruptions have been suffered to remain through every edition. Whether Boccacio was the inventor of the story of this poem is a curious enquiry. It is certain that Theseus was an early hero of romance. He was taken from that grand repository of the Grecian heroes, the History of Troy, written by Guido de Colonna P. In the royal library at Paris, there is a manuscript entitled, The ROMAN DE THESeus et de GaDIFER. Probably this is the printed French romance, under the title, "Histoire du Chevalier THESEUS de Coulogne, par sa prouesse empereur de Rome, et aussi de son fils Gadifer empereur du Greece, et de trois enfans du dit Gadifer, traduite de vieille rime Picarde en prose Francoise. Paris 1534'." Gadifer, with whom Theseus is joined in this antient tale, written probably by a troubadour of Picardy, is a champion in the oldest French romances $. He is mentioned frequently in the French romance of Alexander'. In the romance of PERCEFORREST, he is called king of Scotland, and said to be crowned by Alexander the Great". But whether or no this prose HISTOIRE DU CHEVALIER THESEUS is the story of Theseus in question, or whether this is the same Theseus, I cannot In Lydgate's TEMPLE OF GLAS, never printed, among the lovers painted on the wall is Theseus killing the Minotaure. I suppose from Ovid. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Fairfax, 16. Or from Chaucer, Legende Ariadne. P See vol.i. p. 129. supr. and foregoing la Gr. Bretagne, et Gadiffer roy d'Es note. cosse, &c. 6 tom. Paris, 1531. fol. ascertain. There is likewise in the same royal library a manuscript, called by Montfaucon, HISTORIA THESEI IN LINGUA VULGARI, in ten books". The Abbe Goujet observes, that there is in some libraries of France an old French translation of Boccacio's THESEID, from which Anna de Graville formed the French poem of PALAMON and ARCITE, at the command of queen Claude, wife of Francis the First, about the year 1487*. Either the translation used by Anna de Graville, or her poem, is perhaps the second of the manuscripts mentioned by Montfaucon. Boccacio's THESEID has also been translated into Italian prose, by Nicolas Granuci, and printed at Lucca in 1570. The title of Granucci's prose THESEIDE is this, THESEIDE di Boccacio de ottava Rima nuovamente ridotta in prosa per Nicolao Granucci di Lucca. In Lucca appresso Vinzenzza Busdraghi. MDLXX. In the DEDICAZIONE to this work, which was printed more than two hundred years ago, and within one hundred years after the Ferrara edition of the THESEIDE appeared, Granucci mentions Boccacio's work as a TRANSLATION from the barbarous Greek poem cited below. DEDICAZ. fol. 5. "Volendo far cosa, que non sio stata fatta da loro, pero mutato parere mi dicoli a ridurre in prosa questo Innamoramento, Opera di M. Giovanni Boccacio, quale egli transporto DAL GRECO in octava rima per compiacere alla sua Fiametta," &c. * Boccacio himself mentions the story of Palamon and Arcite. This may seem to imply that the story existed before his time: unless he artfully intended to recommend his own poem on the subject by such an allusion. It is where he introduces two lovers singing a portion of this tale. "Dioneo e Fiametta gran pezza canterona insieme d'ARCITE e di PALAMONE." By Dioneo, Boccacio represents himself; Bibl. MSS. ut supr. p. 773. * Ut supr. p. 329. Y 4to. There is a French prose translation with it. The THESEID has also been translated into French prose by D. C. C. 1597. 12mo. Paris. "La THESEIDE de Jean Boccace, contenant les chastes amours de deux chevaliers The bans, Arcite et Polemon," &c. Jane de la Fontaine also translated into French verse this poem. She died 1536. Her translation was never printed. It is applauded by Joannes Secundus, Eleg. xv. [Lib. SLONIAN. 1614. Brit. Mus.ADDITIONS.] Giorn. vii. Nov. 10. p. 348. edit. and by Fiametta, his mistress, Mary of Arragon, a natural daughter of Robert king of Naples. I confess I am of opinion, that Boccacio's THESEID is an original composition. But there is a Greco-barbarous poem extant on this subject, which, if it could be proved to be antecedent in point of time to the Italian poem, would degrade Boccacio to a mere translator on this occasion. It is a matter that deserves to be examined at large, and to be traced with accuracy. This Greek poem is as little known and as scarce as Boccacio's THESEID. It is entitled, Onσeos xx yaμou тys Epŋdias. It was printed in quarto at Venice in the year 1529. Stampata in Vinegia per Giovanantonio et fratelli da Sabbio a requisitione de M. Damiano de Santa Maria de Spici M.D.XXIX. del Mese de Decembrio. It is not mentioned by Crusius or Fabricius; but is often cited by Du Cange in his Greek glossary, under the title, DE NUPTIIS THESEI ET ÆMILIÆ, The heads of the chapters are adorned with rude wooden cuts of the story. I once suspected that Boccacio, having received this poem from some of his learned friends among the Grecian exiles, who being driven from Constantinople took refuge in Italy about the fourteenth century, translated it into Italian, Under this supposition, I was indeed surprised to find the ideas of chivalry, and the ceremonies of a tournament minutely described, in a poem which appeared to have been written at Constantinople. But this difficulty was soon removed, when I recollected that the Franks, Venetians, and Germans had been in possession of that city for more than one hundred years; and that Baldwin earl of Flanders was elected emperor of Constantinople in the year 1204, and was succeeded by four Latin or Frankish emperors, down to the year 1261. Add Vineg. 1548. 4to. Chaucer himself alludes to this story, Bl. Kn. v. 369. Perhaps on the same principle. A manuscript of it is in the Royal library at Paris, Cod. 2569. Du Cange Ind. Auct. Gloss. Gr. Barb. ii. p. 65. col. 1. b About which period it is probable that the anonymous Greek poem, called the Loves of Lybister and Rhodamna, was written. This appears by the German name Frederic, which often occurs in it, and is grecised, with many other German words. In a manuscript of this |