Seur un cheval corant, En palleis vint eraunt: Si cum vous orres ja: 1 Or rather trifore. Undoubtedly from the Latin triforium, a rich ornamented edge or border. The Latin often occurs under Dugdale's INVENTORY of saint Paul's, in the MONASTICON, viz. "Morsus [a buckle] W. de Ely argenteus, cresta ejus argentea, cum TRIFORIO exterius aureo et lapillis insitis," &c. tom. iii. ECCL. CATH. p. 309. TRIFORIATUS repeatedly occurs in the same page, as thus. "Morsus Petri de Blois TRIFORIATUS de auro."- "Medio circulo [of a buckle] aurato, TRIFORIATO, inserto grossis lapidibus," &c.-" Cum multis lapi-, dibus et perlis insitis in limbis, et quadraturis TRIPHORATUS aureis," &c. &c. VOL. II. ibid. p. 309. et seq. It is sometimes written TRIFORIA. As, "Pannus cujus campus purpureus, cum xiv listis in longitudine ad modum TRIFORIE contexts." ibid. p. 326. col. 2. TRIFURE, in the text, may be literally interpreted jewel-work., As in CHRON. S. Dion. tom. iii. Collect. Histor. Franc. p. 183. "Il estoient de fin or esmere et aourné de tres riches pierres precieuses d' uere [œuvre] TRIPHOIRE. Which Aimon calls, "gemmisque ornata Opere inclusorio," that is, work consisting of jewels set in. De GEST. FRANC. Lib. ii. cap. ix. p. 44. G. edit. Paris. 1603. fol. 2 F Qu harpe ne viele Ne Sereigne du mer Nest tele desconter. These lines may be thus interpreted. "A boy, very graceful and beautiful, mounted on a swift horse, came into the palace of king Arthur. He bore in his hand a horn, having four bandages of gold; it was made of ivory, engraved with trifoire: many pretious stones were set in the gold, beryls, sardonyces, and rich chalcedonies: it was of elephant [ivory]: nothing was ever so grand, so strong, or so beautiful: at bottom was a ring [or rim] wrought of silver; where were hanging an hundred little bells, framed of fine gold, in the days of Constantine, by a Fairy, brave and wise, for the purpose which ye have just heard me relate. If any one gently struck the horn with his finger, the hundred bells sounded so sweetly, that neither harp nor viol, nor the sports of a virgin, nor the syrens of the sea, could ever give such music.' The author of this Lai is one Robert Bikez, as appears by the last lines; in which the horn is said still to be seen at Cirencester. From this tale came Ariosto's ENCHANTED CUP, ORL. FURIOS. xlii. 92. And Fontaine's LA COUPE ENCHANTEE. From the COURT MANTEL, a fiction of the same tendency, and which was common among the Welsh bards, Spenser borrowed the wonderful virtues and effects of his FLORIMEL'S GIRDLE, iv. 5. 3. Both stories are connected in an antient Ballad published by Percy. vol. iii. p. 1. In the Digby manuscript, which contains La Lai du Corn, are many other curious chansons, romantic, allegorical, and legendary, both in old French and old English. I will here exhibit the rubrics, or titles, of the most remarkable pieces, and of such as seem most likely to throw light on the subjects or allusions of our antient English poetry. Le Romaunz Peres Aunfour [Alfonse] coment il aprist et chastia son fils belement. [See Notes to CANTERB. T. p. 328. vol. iv.] De un demi ami. -De un bon ami enter.-De un sage homme et de i fol.-De un gopil et de un mul.-De un roi et de un clerc.-De un homme et de une serpente et de un gopil.-De un roi et de un versifiour. De ii clercs escoliers.-De un prodome et de sa male femme.— Del engin de femme del nelons.-Del espee autre engin de femme. -De un roy et de un fableour.-De une veille et de une lisette. -De la gile de la per e el pin.-De un prodfemme bone cointise. [Pr. "Un Espagnol ceo vy counter."]—De ii menestreus. [i. e. Minstrels.]-De un roy et de Platoun.-De un vilein de i lou et de un gopil.-De un roy fol large.─De maimound mal esquier. -De Socrates et de roi Alisaundre.-De roi Alisaundre et de i philosophe.-De un philosofel et del alme.-Ci commence le romaunz de Enfer, Le Sounge Rauf de Hodenge de la voie denfer. [Ad calc. "Rauf de Hodeng, saunz mensounge,-Qu cest romaunz fist de sun songe." See Verdier, BIBL. FR. ii. 394. v. 394. Paris, 1773.]—De un vallet qui soutint dames et dammaisales.-De Romme et de Gerusalem.-La lais du corn.-Le fabel del gelous.-Ci comence la bertournee.-La vie de un vaillet amerous.-De iiii files... [Pr. "Un rois estoit de graunt pouer."]-How Theu Crist herewede helle, &c. [See vol. ii. Sect. xxvii.]-Le xv singnes [signes] de domesday. [Pr. "Fifteene toknen ich tellen may." Compare vol. ii. p. 51.]-Ci comence la vie seint Eustace ci ont nom Placidas. 66 [Pr. "Alle dat loved godes lore Olde and yonge lasse and more.” See MS. VERNON, fol. 170. ut supr.]-Le diz de scint Bernard. [Pr. "e blessinge of hevene kinge."]—Vbi sont ci ante nos fuerount. [In English.]-Chaunçon de nostre dame. [Pr. "Stond wel moder ounder rode."]-Here beginneth the sawe of seint Bede preest. [Pr. "Holi gost di migtee.]—Coment le saunter notre dame fu primes cuntrone. [Pr. "Luedi swete and milde."] -Les... peines de enfen. [Pr. "Oiez Seynours une demande."] -Le regret de Maximian. [Pr. "Herkened to mi ron." MSS. HARL. 2253. f. 82. See vol. i. p. 35.]-Ci comence le cuntent par entre le mavis et la russinole. [Pr. "Somer is cumen wið love to tonne." See vol. i. p. 31.]-Of the fox and of the wolf. [Pr. "A vox gon out of de wode go."]-Hending the hende. [MSS. HARL. 2253. 89. fol. 125.]—Les proverbes del vilain.→ Les miracles de seint NICHOLAS.-Ragemon le bon.—Chancun del secle. [In English.]-Ci commence le fable et la courtise de dame siri... [Pr. "As I com bi an waie.”]-Le noms de un leure Engleis. [i. e. The names of the Hare in English.]-Ci comence la vie nostre dame.—Ci comence le doctrinal de enseignemens de curteisie.—Ci comence les Aves noustre dame.-De ii chevalers torts ke plenderent aroune.-Bonne prieur a nostre seigneur Jhu Crist.-Ci comence lescrit de ii dames.-Hic incipit carmen inter corpus et animam. [A Dialogue in English verse between a body laid on a bier and its Soul. Pr. "Hon on stude I stod an lutell escrit to here."]-Ci commence la manere que le amour est pur assaier. [Pr. “Love is soft, love is swete, love is goed sware."]-Chaunçon de noustre seigneur. This manuscript seems to have been written about the year 1304. Ralph Houdain, whose poem called VISION D'ENFER it contains, wrote about the year 1230. .... The word, LAI*, I believe, was applied to any subject, and signified only the versification. Thus we have in the Bodleian library La LUMERE AS LAIS, par Mestre Pierre de Feccham. Verai deu omnipotent Kestes fin et commencement. MSS. BODL. 399. It is a system of theology in this species of metre. [Though the etymology of this word still remains inscrutable, its import is sufficiently manifest. And notwithstanding the versification of the several pieces bearing this title is nearly similar, the appellation appears rather to have been given to the matter of them than to the form in which they were composed. Feccham's poem is not a lay; and its title would be rendered in more modern orthography La Lumiere aux Laïques. -EDIT.] SECTION XXV. THE first poet that occurs in the reign of king Edward the Fourth is John Harding'. He was of northern extraction, and To the preceding reign of Henry the Sixth, belongs a poem written by James the First, king of Scotland, who was atrociously murthered at Perth in the year 1436. It is entitled the KING's COMPLAINT, is allegorical, and in the seven-lined stanza. [The title of this poem is "the Quair, maid be king James of Scotland the First, callit the king's Quair," where the king's Quair, means the king's book (Quire).-EDIT.] The subject was suggested to the poet by his own misfortunes, and the mode of composition by reading Boethius. At the close, he mentions Gower and Chaucer as seated on the steppys of rhetoryke. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Selden. Archiv. B. 24. chart. fol. [With many pieces of Chaucer.] This unfortunate monarch was educated while a prisoner in En-, gland, at the command of our Henry' the Fourth, and the poem was written during his captivity there. The Scotch historians represent him as a prodigy of erudition. He civilised the Scotch na tion. Among other accomplishments, he was an admirable musician, and particularly skilled in playing on the harp. See Lesley, DE REB. GEST. Scor. lib. vii. p. 257. 266. 267. edit. 1675. 4to. The same historian says, "ita orator erat, ut ejus dictione nihil fuerit artificiosius: ita POETA, ut carmina non tam arte strinxisse, quam natura sponte fudisse videretur. Cui rei fidem faciunt carmina diversi generis, quæ in rhythmum Scotice illigavit, co artificio," &c. Ibid. p. 267. See also Buchanan, RER. Scot. lib. x. p. 186-196. Opp. tom. i. Edinb. 1715. Among other pieces, which I have never seen, Bale mentions his CANTILENE SCOTICA, and RHYTHMI LATINI. Bale, paral. post. Cent. xiv. 56. pag. 217. It is not the plan of this work to compre hend and examine in form pieces of In ver that full of vertue is and gude, pryse, That quilham was be cruell frost and flude, And shoures scharp, opprest in many wyse; And Cynthius gynneth to aryse He spred uppon the ground down fro That for gladness and confort of the The tender floures opinyt thanne and sprad And in thar nature thankit him for glad. This piece is not specified by Bale, Dempster, or Mackenzie. See Bale, ubi supr. Dempster, Scor. SCRIPTOR. ix. 714. pag. 380. edit. 1622, Mackenzie, vol. i. p. 318. Edinb. 1708, fol. John Major mentions the beginning of some of his other poems, viz. "Yas sen," &c. And " At Beltayn," &c. [Both these poems are supposed to be still existing. They will be found in Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, vol. i |