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And dryeth up the bytter terys wete
Of Aurora, after the morowe graye,
That she in wepying dothe on floures flete",
In lusty Aprill, and in fresshè Maye:
And causeth Phebus, the bryght somers daye,
Wyth his wayne gold-yborned ", bryght and fayre,
To' enchase the mystès of our cloudy ayre.

Now fayre sterre, O sterre of sterrys all!
Whose lyght to se the angels do delyte,
So let the gold-dewe of thy grace yfall

Into my breste, lyke scalys fayre and whyte,
Me to enspirex !

Lydgate's manner is naturally verbose and diffuse. This circumstance contributed in no small degree to give a clearness and a fluency to his phraseology. For the same reason he is often tedious and languid. His chief excellence is in description, especially where the subject admits a flowery diction. He is seldom pathetic, or animated.

In another part of this poem, where he collects arguments to convince unbelievers that Christ might be born of a pure virgin, he thus speaks of God's omnipotence.

And he that made the high and cristal heven,

The firmament, and also every sphere,

The golden ax-tre, and the sterres seven,
Citherea, so lusty for to' appere,

And reddè Marsè, with his sternè here;
Myght he not eke onèly for our sake
Wythyn a mayde of man hisa kyndè take?

For he that doth the tender braunches sprynge,
And the fresshe flouris in the grete mede,
That were in wynter dede and eke droupynge,

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Of bawme all yvoyd and lestyhede;

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

We are surprised to find verses of so modern a cast as the following at such an early period; which in this sagacious 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 discendeth on the rose

With sylver drops. d

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

Whan he of purple did his baner sprede

On Calvarye abroad upon the rode,

To save mankynde.

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Our author, in the course of his panegyric on the Virgin Mary, affirms, that she exceeded Hester 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 superstitious devotion so little discrimination should have been made between sacred and profane characters and incidents. But the common sense of mankind had not yet attained a just estimate of things. Lydgate, in another piece, has versified the rubrics of the missal, 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

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afraid to suffer death for the faith of that omnipotent divinity. There are instances, in which religion was even made the instrument of love. Arnaud Daniel, a celebrated troubadour of the thirteenth century, in a fit of amorous despair, promises to found a multitude of annual masses, and to dedicate perpetual tapers to the shrines of saints, for the important purpose of obtaining the affections of an obdurate mistress.

8 MSS. Fairfax, xvi. Bibl. Bodl.

SECTION XXII.

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 distinctly.

About the year 1360, Boccacio wrote a Latin history in ten books, entitled DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ET FEMINARUM ILLUSTRIUM. 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 prisoner by the English at the battle of Poitiers, in the year 1359a. This book of Boccacio was soon afterwards translated into French, by one of whom little more seems to be known, than that he was named Laurence; yet so paraphrastically, and with so many considerable additions, as almost to be rendered a new work". Lau

* Printed at Ausbourg. And at Paris, 1544. fol. It is amazing, that Vossius should not know the number of books of which this work consisted, and that it was ever printed. De Hist. Lat. lib. iii. cap. ii. It was translated into Italian by Betussi, in Firenza, 1566. 8vo. 2 volum.

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

He that sumtime did his diligence The boke of Bochas in French to translate

Out of Latin, he called was LAURENCE. He says that Laurence (in his Prologue) declares, that he avails himself of the privilege of skilful artificers; who may chaunge and turne, by good discretion, shapes and forms, and newly them devise, 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 design, in his transla

tion into French, to amende, correct, and declare, and not to spare thinges touched shortly. Ibid. col. 2. Afterwards he calls him this noble translatour. Ibid. b. col. 1. In another place, where a panegyric on France is introduced, he says that this passage is not Boccacio's, but added, By one LAURENCE, which was transla

tour

Of this processe, to commende France;
To prayse that lande was all his plea-

saunce.

B. ix. ch. 28. fol. 31. a. col. 1. edit. ut infr. Our author, in the Prologue above cited, seems to speak as if there had been a previous translation of Boccacio's book into French. Ut supr. a. col. 1.

Thus LAURENCE from him envy excluded

Though toforne him translated was this book.

But I suspect he only means, that Boccacio's original work was nothing more than a collection or compilation from more ancient authors.

rence's French 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, sometimes called Laurent de Premierfait, a village in the diocese of Troies, was an ecclesiastic, and a famous translator. He also translated into French Boccacio's DECAMERON, at the request of Jane queen of Navarre: Cicero DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE; and Aristotle's Oeconomics, dedicated to Louis de Bourbon, the king's uncle. These versions appeared in the year 1414 and 1416. Caxton's TULLIUS OF OLD AGE, or DE SENECTUTE, printed in 1481, is translated from Laurence's French version. Caxton, in the postscript, calls him

Laurence de primo facto.

Lydgate's poem consists of nine books, and is thus entitled in the earliest edition. "The TRAGEDIES gathered by John BOCHAS of all such princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of fortune since the CREACION of ADAM until his time, &c. Translated into English by John Lidgate monke of Buryef." The best and most authentic manuscript of this piece is in the British Museum; probably written under the inspection of the author, and perhaps intended as a present to Humphrey duke of Glocester, at whose gracious command the poem, as I have before hinted, was undertaken. It contains among numerous miniatures illustrating the several histories, portraits of Lydgate, and of another monk habited in black, perhaps an abbot of Bury, kneeling before a prince, who seems

MSS. Harl. See also ibid. MSS. Reg. 18 D. vii. And 16 G. v. And MSS. Bodl. F. 10. 2. [2465.] He is said to have translated this work in 1409. MSS. Reg. ut supr. 20 C. iv.

In folio. Bayle says, that a French translation appeared at Paris, by Claudius Vitart, in 1578. 8vo. Diction. BocCACE. Note %.

e 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 should not be

mentioned by the French antiquaries as one of Laurence's translations. Lydgate, in the Prologue above cited, observes, that Laurence, who in cunyng did excel, undertook this translation at the request of some eminent personages in France, who had the interest of rhetorike at heart. Ut supr. a. col. 2.

f Imprinted at London by John Wayland, without date, fol. He printed in the reign of Henry the Eighth. There is a small piece by Lydgate, not connected with this, entitled The Tragedy of princes that were LECHEROUS. Ashmol. 59. ii.

MSS.

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