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 for the pyre, with the consternation of assembled, Theb. xii. 481.

the Nymphs, takes up more than twentyUrbe fuit media, nulli concessa potentum four lines. v. 84-116. In Chaucer Ara deum, mitis posuit Clementia se about thirteen, v. 2922—2937. In Bocdem, &c.

cacio, six stanzas. B. xi. Of the three V. 2947.

poets, Statius is most reprehensible, the Ne what jewillis men into the fire cast,

first author of this ill-placed and unne&c.

cessary description, and who did not live Literally from Statius, THEB. vi. 206.

in a Gothic age. The statues of Mars

and Venus I imagined had been copied Ditantur flammæ, non unquam opulen- from Fulgentius, Boccacio's favorite tior illa

mythographer. But Fulgentius says Ante cinis; crepitant gemmæ, &c. nothing of Mars : and of Venus, that But the whole of Arcite's funeral is she only stood in the sea on a couch, minutely copied from Statius. More attended by the Graces. It is from Stathan a hundred parallel lines on this sub- tius that Theseus became a hero of roject might be produced from each poet. - ADDITIONS.] Ju Statius the account of the trees felled I v. 2375.

mance.

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,
Twenty and mo, as gret as any stere,
To hunten at the leon or the dere;
And folwed him with mosel 4 fast ybound,
Colered with gold' and torretess 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.

" In Hawes's PASTIME OF PLEASURE, as big as your arm.

[written temp. Hen. VII.] Fame is atP greyhounds. A favourite species of tended with two greyhounds; on whose dogs in the middle ages. In the antient golden collars Grace and Governaunce pipe-rolls, payments are frequently made are inscribed in diamond letters. See in greyhounds. Rot. Pip. an. 4. Reg. next note. Johann. (A.D. 1203.] “ Rog. Consta rings; the fastening of dogs' collars. bul. Cestrie debet D. Marcas, et X. They are often mentioned in the Invenpalfridos et X. laissas Leporariorum pro TORY of furniture, in the royal palaces habenda terra Vidonis de Loverell de of Henry the Eighth, above cited. MSS. quibus debet reddere per ann. C. M." Harl. 1419. In the Castle of Windsor. Ten leashes of greyhounds. Rot. Pip. Article Collars. f. 409. an. 9. Reg. Johann. (A.D. 1208.] “Su- houndes collars of crimsun velvett and THANT. Johan. Teingre debet c. M. et cloth of gold, lacking torrettes.”—“ Two X. leporarios magnos, pulekros, et bonos, other collars with the kinges armes, and de redemtione sua," &c. Rot. Pip. an. 11. at the ende portcullis and rose.”—“Item, Reg. Johan. (.A.D. 1210.).“ EVERVEYC a collar embrawdered with pomegraSIRE. Rog. de Mallvell redd. comp. nates and roses with turrets of silver and de I. palefrido velociter currente, et II. gilt."-"A collar garnished with stoleLaisiis leporariorum pro habendis literis worke with one shallop shelle of silver deprecatoriis ad Matildam de M." I and gilte, with torrettes and pendauntes could give a thousand other instances of of silver and guilte.”—“A collar of the sort. (Alano is the Spanish name white velvette, embrawdered with perles, of a species of dog which the dictionaries the swivels of silver.” call a mastiff. — Pyrwhitr. 1

' filed; highly polished. ' muzzle.

. 2129.

si Two grey.

u

With Arcita, in stories as men find,
The gret Emetrius, the king of Inde,
Upon a stedè bay, trapped in stele,
Covered with cloth of gold diapred w 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 brenty gold new ybete,
A mantelet upon his shouldres hanging,
Bretfull of rubies red, as fire sparkling.
His crispè here like ringesa 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 ymeint d.
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 f.
An hundred lordes had he with him there,
All armed, save hir hedes, in all hir gerek.

See this word explained above, p. 9. Edw. III. ut supr. It often occurs in * Not of Tarsus in Cilicia. It is rather the wardrobe-accounts for furnishing an abbreviation for Tartarin, or Tarta- tournaments. Du Cange says, that this rium. See Chaucer's Flowre and Leafe, was a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary. v. 212.

Gloss. Tartarium. But Skinner in V. On every trumpe hanging a brode derives it from Tortona in the Milanese. bannere

He cites Stat. 4. Hen. VIII. C. vi. Of fine Tartarium full richely bete. y burnt, burnished. That it was a costly stuff appears from

quite full.

rings. hence. " Et ad faciendum unum Ju

o lemon-colour. Lat. Citrinus. poun de Tartaryn blu pouderat. cum

sprinkled. farteriis blu paratis cum boucles et pen

d si a mixture of black and yellow." dants de argento deaurato.” Comp. J.

cast, darted. Coke Provisoris Magn. Garderob. temp.

If See vol. i. p. 178.

a

с

e

armour

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 m.
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 floteryo berd, and ruggy ashy heres,
In clothes blake ydropped all with teres,
And, (passing over of weping Emelie,)

Was reufullest of all the compagnie.” 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. 9 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 sight':
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.

squallid. ( Flotery seems literally to edition of Chaucer in 1561. So also the mean floating; as hair dishevelled (ra- barbarous Greek poem on this story, buffata) may be said to flote upon the 'o Oupcevos óros zsoa. Dryden seems to air. TYRWHITT.]

have read, or to have made out of this P v. 2884. 9 v. 1576.

mispelling of Horison, Orient. The saluteth.

ear instructs us to reject this emendation. See Dante, Purgat. c. I. p. 234. - Additions. ]

(For Orient, perhaps Orisount, or the horison, is the true reading. So the v. 1193.

t

groves, bushes.

U