Chaucer. Arcite's address to Mars, at entering the temple, has great dignity, and is not copied from Statius.

O strongè god, that in the regnes cold
Of Trace honoured art, and lord yhold!
And hast in every regne, and every lond,
Of armes al the bridel in thin hond;
And hem fortunist, as thee list devise,
Accept of me my pitous sacrifise'.

The following portrait of Lycurgus, an imaginary king of Thrace, is highly charged, and very great in the gothic style of painting.

Ther maist thou se, coming with Palamon,
Lycurge himself, the grete king of Trace;
Blake was his berde, and manly was his face:
The cercles of his eyen in his hed
They gloweden betwixten yalwe and red:
And like a griffon loked he about,

With kemped heres on his browes stout:
His limmes gret, his braunes hard and stronge,
His shouldres brode, his armes round and longe.
And as the guise was in his contree

Ful highe upon a char of gold stood he:

as the asylum where these ladies were
assembled, THEB. Xii. 481.
Urbe fuit media, nulli concessa potentum
Ara deum, mitis posuit Clementia se-
dem, &c.

for the pyre, with the consternation of the Nymphs, takes up more than twentyfour lines. v. 84-116. In Chaucer about thirteen, v. 2922—2937. In Boccacio, six stanzas. B. xi. Of the three poets, Statius is most reprehensible, the first author of this ill-placed and unnecessary description, and who did not live in a Gothic age. The statues of Mars and Venus I imagined had been copied from Fulgentius, Boccacio's favorite mythographer. But Fulgentius says nothing of Mars: and of Venus, that she only stood in the sea on a couch, attended by the Graces. It is from Statius that Theseus became a hero of romance.- -ADDITIONS.]

1 v. 2375.

With foure white bolles in the trais.
Instead of cote-armure, on his harnais
With nayles yelwe, and bright as any gold,
He hadde a beres" skin cole-blake for old.
His longe here was kempt behind his bak,
As
any ravenes fetherit shone for blake.

A wreth of gold armgrete°, of huge weight,
Upon his hed sate full of stones bright,
Of fine rubins, and of diamants.

About his char ther wenten white alauns P,
Twenty and mo, as gret as any stere,
To hunten at the leon or the dere;
And folwed him with mosel fast ybound,
Colered with gold' and torretes filed' round.
A hundred lordes had he in his route,

Armed full wel, with hertes sterne and stoute."

The figure of Emetrius king of India, who comes to the aid of Arcite, is not inferior in the same style, with a mixture of grace.

a bear's.

0 as big as your arm.

P greyhounds. A favourite species of dogs in the middle ages. In the antient pipe-rolls, payments are frequently made in greyhounds. Rot. Pip. an. 4. Reg. Johann. [A. D. 1203.] "Rog. Constabul. Cestrie debet D. Marcas, et X. palfridos et X. laissas Leporariorum pro habenda terra Vidonis de Loverell de quibus debet reddere per ann. C. M." Ten leashes of greyhounds. Rot. Pip. an. 9. Reg. Johann. [A. D. 1208.] "SuTHANT. Johan. Teingre debet c. M. et X. leporarios magnos, pulchros, et bonos, de redemtione sua," &c. Rot. Pip. an. 11. Reg. Johan. [A. D. 1210.] "EVERVEYCSIRE. Rog. de Mallvell redd. comp. de I. palefrido velociter currente, et II. Laisiis leporariorum pro habendis literis deprecatoriis ad Matildam de M." I could give a thousand other instances of the sort. [Alano is the Spanish name of a species of dog which the dictionaries call a mastiff.-TYRWHITT.]

¶ muzzle.

rings; the fastening of dogs' collars. They are often mentioned in the INVENTORY of furniture, in the royal palaces of Henry the Eighth, above cited. MSS. Harl. 1419. In the Castle of Windsor. Article COLLARS. f. 409. "Two greyhoundes collars of crimsun velvett and cloth of gold, lacking torrettes."—" Two other collars with the kinges armes, and at the ende portcullis and rose."—"Item, a collar embrawdered with pomegranates and roses with turrets of silver and gilt."-" A collar garnished with stoleworke with one shallop shelle of silver and gilte, with torrettes and pendauntes of silver and guilte."-"A collar of white velvette, embrawdered with perles, the swivels of silver."

t filed; highly polished.

2129.

With Arcita, in stories as men find,
The gret Emetrius, the king of Inde,
Upon a stede bay, trapped in stele,
Covered with cloth of gold diapred" wele,
Came riding like the god of armes Mars:
His cote-armure was of a cloth of Tars*,
Couched with perles, white, and round and grete;
His sadel was of brent gold new ybete,
A mantelet upon his shouldres hanging,
Bretfull of rubies red, as fire sparkling.
His crispè here like ringes was yronne,
And that was yelwe, and glitered as the sonne.
His nose was high, his eyen bright citrin",
His lippes round, his colour was sanguin.
And a fewe fraknes in his face ysprent,
Betwixen yelwe and blake somdele ymeinta.
And as a leon he his loking caste ©.
Of five and twenty yere his age I caste.
His berd was well begonnen for to spring,
His vois was as a trompe thondiring.
Upon his hed he wered, of laurer grene
A gerlond freshe, and lusty for to sene.
Upon his hond he bare for his deduit
An egle tame, as any lily white'.
An hundred lordes had he with him there,
All armed, save hir hedes, in all hir gere.

"See this word explained above, p. 9. * Not of Tarsus in Cilicia. It is rather an abbreviation for Tartarin, or Tartarium. See Chaucer's Flowre and Leafe,

v. 212.

On every trumpe hanging a brode bannere

Of fine Tartarium full richely bete. That it was a costly stuff appears from hence. "Et ad faciendum unum Jupoun de Tartaryn blu pouderat. cum garteriis blu paratis cum boucles et pendants de argento deaurato." Comp. J. Coke Provisoris Magn. Garderob. temp.

Edw. III. ut supr. It often occurs in
the wardrobe-accounts for furnishing
tournaments. Du Cange says, that this
was a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary.
Gloss. Tartarium. But Skinner in V.
derives it from Tortona in the Milanese.
He cites Stat. 4. Hen. VIII. c. vi.
y burnt, burnished.
quite full.

a

rings. blemon-colour. Lat. Citrinus.

About this king ther ran on every part

Full many a tame leon, and leopart. "

The banner of Mars displayed by Theseus, is sublimely

conceived.

The red statue of Mars, with spere and targe,

So shineth in his white banner large

That al the feldes gliteren up and doun.

This poem has many strokes of pathetic description, of which these specimens may be selected.

Upon that other side Palamon

Whan that he wist Arcita was ygon,

Swiche sorwe he maketh, that the grete tour

Resouned of his yelling and clamour:

The pure fetters on his shinnes grete

Were of his bitter salte teres wete. k

Arcite is thus described, after his return to Thebes, where he despairs of seeing Emilia again.

His slepe, his mete, his drinke, is him byraft;
That lene he wex, and drie as is a shaft:

His eyen holwe, and grisly to behold
His hewe falwe, and pale as ashen' cold:
And solitary he was, and ever alone,

And wailing all the night, making his mone.
And if he herdè song or instrument,
Than wold he wepe, he mighte not be stent".
So feble were his spirites and so low,

And changed so, that no man coude know
His speche, ne his vois, though men it herd."

Palamon is thus introduced in the procession of his rival Arcite's funeral:

Tho came this woful Theban Palamon
With flotery berd, and ruggy ashy heres,
In clothes blake ydropped all with teres,
And, (passing over of weping Emelie,)
Was reufullest of all the compagnie.P

To which may be added the surprise of Palamon, concealed in the forest, at hearing the disguised Arcite, whom he supposes to be the squire of Theseus, discover himself at the mention of the name of Emilia.

Thrughout his herte

He felt a colde swerd sodenly glide:
For ire he quoke, no lenger wolde he hide,
And whan that he had herd Arcites tale,

As he were wood, with face ded and pale,

He sterte him up out of the bushes thikke, &c.

A description of the morning must not be omitted; which vies, both in sentiment and expression, with the most finished modern poetical landscape, and finely displays our author's talent at delineating the beauties of nature.

The besy larke, messager of day,

Saleweth in hire song the morwe gray;
And firy Phebus riseth up so bright,
That all the orient laugheth of the sights:
And with his stremes drieth in the greves'
The silver dropes hanging on the leves."

Nor must the figure of the blooming Emilia, the most beautiful object of this vernal picture, pass unnoticed.