cacio3, about the year 1360. This appears from Petrarch's Epistles to his friend Boccacio: in which, among other curious circumstances, the former requests Boccacio to send him to Venice that part of Leontius's new Latin version of the Odyssey, in which Ulysses's descent into hell, and the vestibule of Erebus, are described. He wishes also to see, how Homer, blind and an Asiatic, had described the lake of Averno and the mountain of Circe. In another part of these letters, he acknowledges the receipt of the Latin Homer; and mentions with how much satisfaction and joy the report of its arrival in the public library at Venice was received, by all the Greek and Latin scholars of that city. The Iliad was also translated into French verse, by Jacques Milet, a licentiate of laws, about the year 1430d. Yet I cannot believe that Lydgate had ever consulted these translations, although he had travelled in France and Italy. One may venture to pronounce peremptorily, that he did not understand, as he probably never had seen, the original. After the migration of the Roman emperors to Greece, Boccacio was the first European that could read Homer; nor was there perhaps a copy of either of Homer's poems existing in Europe, till about the time the Greeks were driven by the Turks from Constantinople. Long after Boccacio's time, the knowledge of the Greek tongue, and consequently of Homer, was confined only to a few scholars. Yet some ingenious French critics have insinuated, that Homer

a

It is a slight error in Vigneul Marville, that this translation was procured by Petrarch. Mel. Litt. tom. i. p. 21. The very ingenious and accurate author of MEMOIRES POUR LA VIE DE PETRARQUE, is mistaken in saying that Hody supposes this version to have been made by Petrarch himself. lib. vi. tom. iii. p. 633. On the contrary, Hody has adjusted this matter with great perspicuity, and from the best authorities. DE GRAC. ILLUSTR. lib. i. c. 1. p. & seq.

с

SENIL. lib. iii. cap. 5.

Hody, ubi supra, p. 5. 6. 7. 9. The Latin Iliad in prose was published under the name of Laurentius

was familiar in France very early; and that Christina of Pisa, in a poem never printed, written in the year 1398, and entitled L'EPITRE D'OTHEA A HECTOR', borrowed the word Othea, or WISDOM, from w Jea in Homer, a formal appellation by which that poet often invocates Minerva.

This poem is replete with descriptions of rural beauty, formed by a selection of very poetical and picturesque circumstances, and cloathed in the most perspicuous and musical numbers. The colouring of our poet's mornings is often remarkably rich and splendid.

When that the rowesh and the rayes redde
Eastward to us full early ginnen spredde,
Even at the twylyght in the dawneynge,
Whan that the larke of custom ginneth synge,
For to saluè in her heavenly laye,
The lusty goddesse of the morowe graye,
I meane Aurora, which afore the sunne
Is wont t' enchase the blackè skyès dunne,
And al the darknesse of the dimmy night:
And freshe Phebùs, with comforte of his light,
And with the brightnes of his bemès shene,
Hath overgylt the hugè hyllès grene;

And flourès eke, agayn the morowe-tide,

Upon their stalkes gan playn' their leavès wide.m

Again, among more pictures of the same subject.

When Aurora the sylver droppès shene,
Her teares, had shed upon the freshè grene;
Complaynyng aye, in weping and in sorowe,
Her chyldren's death on every sommer-morowe:

In the royal manuscripts of the British Museum, this piece is entitled LA CHEVALERIE SPIRITUELLE de ce monde. 17 E. iv. 2.

Mons. L'Abbè Sallier, Mem. Litt. xvii. p. 518.

streaks of light. A very common

word in Lydgate. Chaucer, Kn. T. v.
597. col. 2. Úrr. p. 455.

And while the twilight and the rowis red
Of Phebus light..

i salute.

I open.

* chase.
m B. i. c. vi.

That is to sayè, when the dewe so soote,
Embawmed hath the floure and eke roote
With lustie lycoùr in Aprill and in Maye:
When that the larke, the messenger of daye,
Of custom aye Aurora doth salúe,

With sundry notes her sorowe to "transmuè.

The spring is thus described, renewing the buds or blossoms of the groves, and the flowers of the meadows.

And them whom winter's blastes have shaken bare
With sotè blosomes freshly to repare;

And the meadows of many a sundry hewe,

Tapitid ben with divers flourès newe

Of sundry motless P, lusty for to sene

And holsome balm is shed among the grene.

Frequently in these florid landscapes we find the same idea differently expressed. Yet this circumstance, while it weakened the description, taught a copiousness of diction, and a variety of poetical phraseology. There is great softness and facility in the following delineation of a delicious retreat.

Tyll at the last, amonge the bowès glade,
Of adventure, I caught a plesaunt shade;
Ful smothe, and playn, and lusty for to sene,
And softe as velvette was the yongè grene:
Where from my hors I did alight as fast,
And on a bowe aloft his reynè cast.
So faynte and mate of werynesse I was,
That I me layd adowne upon the gras,
Upon a brinckè, shortly for to telle,
Besyde the river of a cristall welle;
And the water, as I rehersè can,
Like quickè-sylver in his streames yran,
Of which the gravell and the bryghte stone,
As any golde, agaynst the sun yshone."

change.

B. iii. c. xxiiii.

P colours. 4 B. ii. cap. xii.

The circumstance of the pebbles and gravel of a transparent stream glittering against the sun, which is uncommon, has much of the brilliancy of the Italian poetry. It recalls to my memory a passage in Theocritus, which has been lately restored to its pristine beauty.

Εύρον αεανναον κραναν ύπο λισσάδι πετρή,
Υδατι πεπληθυιαν ακηρατῳ· αἱ δ' ὑπενερθεν
Λαλλαι κρυσταλλῳ ηδ' αργυρω ινδάλλοντο
Εκ βυθου.

They found a perpetual spring, under a high rock,
Filled with pure water: but underneath

The pebbles sparkled as with crystal and silver

From the bottom."

There is much elegance of sentiment and expression in the portrait of Creseide weeping when she parts with Troilus.

And from her eyn the teare's round drops tryll,
That al fordewed have her blackè wede;
And eke untrussd her haire abrode gan sprede,
Lyke golden wyre, forrent and alto torn.—
And over this, her freshe and rosey hewe,
Whylom ymeynts with whitè lylyes newe,
Wyth wofull wepyng pyteously disteynd;
And lyke the herbes in April all bereynd,
Or floures freshè with the dewes swete,

Ryght so her chekès moystè were and wete.'

The following verses are worthy of attention in another style of writing, and have great strength and spirit. A knight brings a steed to Hector in the midst of the battle.

And brought to Hector. Sothly there he stoode
Among the Grekes, al bathed in their bloode:

Anaxeve. Idyll. xxii. v. 57.

mingled.

B. iii. c. xxv. So again of Polyxena, B. iv. c. xxx.

And aye she rentè with her fingers smale

Her golden heyre upon her blackè

wede.

The which in haste fal knightly he bestrode,

And them amonge like Mars himselfe he rode. "

The strokes on the helmets are thus expressed, striking fire amid the plumes.

But strokys felle, that men might herden rynge,

On bassenetts, the fieldès rounde aboute,
So cruelly, that the fyrè sprange oute

Amonge the tuftès brodè, bright and shene,

Of foyle of golde, of fethers white and grene.

W

The touches of feudal manners, which our author affords, are innumerable: for the Trojan story, and with no great difficulty, is here entirely accommodated to the ideas of romance. Hardly any adventure of the champions of the round table was more chimerical and unmeaning than this of our Grecian chiefs and the cause of their expedition to Troy was quite in the spirit of chivalry, as it was occasioned by a lady. When Jason arrives at Colchos, he is entertained by king Oetes in a Gothic castle. Amadis or Lancelot were never conducted to their fairy chambers with more ceremony and solemnity. He is led through many a hall and many a tower, by many a stair, to a sumptuous apartment, whose walls, richly painted with the histories of antient heroes, glittered with gold and azure.

Through many a halle, and many a riche toure,
By many a tourne, and many divers waye,
By many a gree* ymade of marbyll graye.—
And in his chambre', englosed bright and cleare,
That shone ful shene with gold and with asùre,
Of many image that ther was in picture,
He hath commaunded to his offycers,
Only' in honour of them that were straungers,
Spyces and wyne. 2

"B. iii. c. xxii.

B. ii. c. xviii.

* Greece, degree, step, stair, gradus. y Painted; orr. Englased. Skelton's CROWNE OF LAWRELL, p. 24. edit. 1736.

Wher the postis wer embulioned with saphir's indy blewe

Englased glitteringe, &c.

z B. i. c. v. See Colonna, Signat. b.