card, a learned French Benedictine, wrote in imitation of this CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, a work in verse and prose containing five books, entitled the CONSOLATION OF THE MONKS, about the year 1120. John Gerson also, 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 translated into French and English before the year 1350. Dante was an attentive reader of Boethius. In the PURGATO

RIO, Dante gives THEOLOGY the name of Beatrix his mistress, the daughter of Fulco Portinari, who very gravely moralises in that character. Being ambitious of following Virgil's steps in the descent 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, says that the writings of Boethius still continued to retain that high estimation, which they had acquired in the most early periods. I had almost forgot to observe, that the CONSOLATION was translated into Greek by Maximus Planudes, the most learned and ingenious of the Constantinopolitan monks'.

I can assign only one poet to the reign of king Henry the Fourth, and this a translator of Boethius. He is called Jo

lic and philosopher by Hincmarus archbishop of Rheims, about the year 880. De Prædestinat. contr. Godeschalch. tom. i. 211. ii. 62. edit. Sirmond. And by John of Salisbury, for his eloquence and argument. Policrat. vii. 15. And by many other writers of the same class.

See Trithem. cap. 387. de S. E. And Illustr. Benedictin. ii. 107.

Opp. tom. i. p. 130. edit. Dupin. I think there is a French CONSOLATIO THEOLOGIE by one Cerisier.

Gallic, p. 216. 247. It was printed in Dutch at Ghent, apud Arend de Keyser, 1485. fol. In Spanish at Valladolid, 1598, fol. See supr. p. 292. Polycarpus Leyserus, in that very scarce book DE POESI MEDII ÆVI, [printed HALE, 1721, 8vo. ] enumerates many curious old editions of Boethius, p.95. 105.

See PURGAT. Cant. xxx.

i Montfauc. Bibl. Coislin. p. 140. Of a Hebrew version, see Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. tom. i. p. 229. 1092, 243. 354. 369.

I am aware that Occleve's poem, called the Letter of Cupid, was written in this king's reign in the year 1402. "In the year of grace joyfull and joconde, a thousand fower hundred and seconde." Urry's Chaucer, p.537.v.475. But there are reasons for making Oc

hannes Capellanus, or John the Chaplain, and he translated into English verse the treatise DE CONSOLATIONE PhilosoPHIÆ in the year 1410. His name is John Walton*. He was canon of Oseney, and died subdean of York. It appears probable, that he was patronised by Thomas Chaundler, among other preferments, dean of the king's chapel and of Hereford cathedral, chancellor of Wells, and successively warden of Wykeham's two colleges at Winchester and Oxford; characterised by Antony Wood as an able critic in polite literature, and by Leland as a rare example of a doctor in theology who graced scholastic disputation with the flowers of a pure latinity. In the British Museum there is a correct manuscript on parchment of Walton's translation of Boethius: and the margin is filled throughout with the Latin text, written by Chaundler above mentioned". There is another less elegant manuscript in the same collection. But at the end is this note; Explicit liber Boecij de Consolatione Philosophie de Latino in Anglicum translatus A.D. 1410. per Capellanum Joannem". This is the beginning of the prologue, "In suffisaunce of cunnyng and witte." And of the translation, "Alas I wretch that whilom was in welth." I have seen a third copy in the library of Lincoln cathedral°, and a fourth in Baliol college. This is the translation of Boethius printed in the monastery of Tavistoke, in the year 1525. "The BOKE of COMFORT, called in Latin Boecius de Consolatione Philosophie. Emprented in the exempt monastery of Tavestock in Denshyre, by me Dan Thomas Rychard monke of the sayd monastry. To the instant desyre of the right worshipfull esquyre magister Robert

cleve, as I have done, something later. Nor is Gower's Balade to Henry the Fourth a sufficient reason for placing him in that reign. Ibid. p. 540. The same may be said of Chaucer.

[A manuscript of this work noticed by Mr. Todd has the following colophon: "Explicit liber Boçcii de consolacione philosophie de latino in Anglicum translatus anno dni millesimo ccccx". per Capellanum Jobannem Tebaud alias Wa

tyrbeche." Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, Introd. p. xxxi.]

1 Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. ii. p. 134. Leland, Script. Brit. CHAUND

LERUS.

MSS. Harl. 43. 1. And MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. 75.

n MSS. Harl. 44. chart. et pergam. • MSS. i. 59.

P MSS. B. 5. He bequeathed his Biblia, and other books, to this library.

Langdon. Anno Domini, MDXXV. Deo gracias." In octave rhyme. This translation was made at the request of Elisabeth Berkeley. I forbear to load these pages with specimens, not original, and which appear to have contributed no degree of improvement to our poetry or our phraseology. Henry the Fourth died in the year 1399.

The coronation of king Henry the Fifth was celebrated in Westminster-hall with a solemnity proportioned to the lustre of those great atchievements which afterwards distinguished the annals of that victorious monarch. By way of preserving order, and to add to the splendor of the spectacle, many of the nobility were ranged along the sides of the tables on large war-horses, at this stately festival; which, says my chronicle, was a second feast of Ahasuerus. But I mention this ceremony, to introduce a circumstance very pertinent to our purpose; which is, that the number of harpers in the hall was innumerable', who undoubtedly accompanied their instruments with heroic rhymes. The king, however, was no great encourager of the popular minstrelsy, which seems at this time to have flourished in the highest degree of perfection. When he entered the city of London in triumph after the battle of Agincourt, the gates and streets were hung with tapestry, representing the histories of ancient heroes; and children were placed in artificial turrets, singing verses. But Henry, disgusted at these secular vanities, commanded by a formal edict, that for the future no songs should be recited by the harpers, or others, in praise of the recent victory'. This prohibition had no other effect than that of displaying Henry's humility,

P This is among Rawlinson's Codd. impress. Bibl. Bodl. There is an English translation of Boethius by one George Colvil, or Coldewell, bred at Oxford, with the Latin, "according to the boke of the translatour, which was a very old printe." Dedicated to queen Mary, and printed by John Cawood, 1556. 4to. Reprinted 1566. 4to.

Thomæ de Elmham Vit. et Gest. Henr. V. edit. Hearne, Oxon. 1727.

cap. xii. p. 23. Compare Lel. Coll. APPEND. iii, 226. edit, 1770.

Elmham, ubi supr. p. 23.

' Elmham, ubi supr. cap. xxxi. p. 72. "CANTUS de suo triumpho fieri, seu per CITHARISTAS, vel alios quoscunque, CANTARI, penitus prohibebat." Ibid. p. 72. And Hearnii Præfat. p.xxix. seq. Sviii. See also Hollingsh, Chron, iii. p. 556. col. 1. 40.

perhaps its principal and real design. Among many others, a minstrel-piece soon appeared, evidently adapted to the harp, on the SEYGE of HARFLETT and the BATTALLYE of AGYNKOURTE. It was written about the year 1417. These are some of the most spirited lines.

Sent Jorge be fore our kyng they dyd se",
They trompyd up full meryly,

The grete battell to gederes zed;

W

Our archorys theiy schot ful hartely,

They made the Frenche men faste to blede,
Her arrowys they went with full good spede.
Oure enemyes with them they gan down throwe
Thorow breste plats, habourgenys, and basnets*.
Eleven thousand was slayne on a rewy.
Denters of dethe men myzt well deme,
So fercelly in ffelde theye gan fythe".
The heve upon here helmyts schene2
With axes and with swerdys bryzt.
When oure arowys were at a flyztb
Amon the Frenche men was a wel sory

scherec.
Ther was to bring of gold bokylydd so bryzt
That a man myzt holde a strong armoure.
Owre gracyus kyng men myzt knowe
That day fozt with hys owene hond,

The erlys was dyscomwityd up on a rowe,

That he had slayne understond.

He there schevyd oure other lordys of thys lond,
Forsothe that was a ful fayre daye.

Therefore all England maye this syng

LAWS DEO We may well

saye.

The Duke of Glocetor, that nys no nay,
That day full wordely he wrozt,

On side he made goode waye,
every

The Frenche men faste to grond they browzt.
The erle of Hontynton sparyd nozt,

The erle of Oxynforthei layd on all soo*,
The young erle of Devynschyre he ne rouzt,
The Frenche men fast to grunde gan goo.
Our Englismen thei were ffoul sekes do
And ferce to fyzt as any lyone.
Basnets bryzt they crasyd a to',
And bet the French banerys adoune ;
As thonder-strokys ther was a scowndeTM,
Of axys and sperys ther they gan glyd.
The lordys of Franyse" lost her renowne
With gresoly wondys they gan abyde.
The Frensche men, for all here pryde,
They fell downe all at a flyzt:

Ie me rende they cryde, on every syde,
Our Englys men they understod nozt arizt".
Their pollaxis owt of her hondys they twizt,
And layde ham along stryte upon the grasse.
They sparyd nother deuke, erlle, ne knyght.'

These verses are much less intelligible than some of Gower's and Chaucer's pieces, which were written fifty years before. In the mean time we must not mistake provincial for national barbarisms. Every piece now written is by no means a proof of the actual state of style. The improved dialect, which yet is the estimate of a language, was confined only to a few wri

worthily.

i Oxford.

* also.

ham, ut supr. APPEND. p. 359. Num. vi. See p. 371. seq. There is The BATTAYLE

"They broke the bright helmets in of EGYNCOURTE, Libr. impress. Bibl.

two.

"

m sound.
griesly.

"they did not rightly.'

4 strait.

Printed [from MSS. Cotton. VITELL. D. x. 11. fol. 214.] by Hearne, Elm

Bodl. C. 39. 4to. Art. Selden. See OBSERVAT. on Spens. ii. 41. Doctor Percy has printed an ancient ballad on this subject. ANC. BALL. vol. ii. p. 24. edit. 1767. See Hearne's PRÆFAT. ut supr. p. xxx.