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occur, equally descriptive of the times. In the tapestry of the Tower of London, the original and most antient seat of our monarchs, there are recited Godfrey of Bulloign, the three kings of Cologn, the emperor Constantine, saint George, king Erkenwald, the history of Hercules, Fame and Honour, the Triumph of Divinity, Esther and Ahasuerus, Jupiter and Juno, saint George, the eight Kings, the ten Kings of France, the Birth of our Lord, Duke Joshua, the riche history of king David, the seven Deadly Sins, the riche history of the Passion, the Stem of Jesse, our Lady and Son, king Solomon, the Woman of Canony, Meleager, and the Dance of Maccabre". At Durham

George embrawdered. A case of fyne carved work. A box with a bird of Araby. Two long cases of blacke lether with pedegrees. A case of Irish arrows. A table, with wordes, of Jhesus. A target. Twenty-nine bowes." MSS. Harl. 1412. fol. 58. In the GALLERY at Greenwich, mention is made of a "Mappe of England." Ibid. fol. 58. And in Westminster-palace "a Mappe of Hantshire." fol. 133. A proof that the topography of England was now studied. Among various HEADS of Furniture, or stores, at the castle of Windsor, such as HORNS, GYRDELLES, HAWKES HOODS, WEAPONS, BUCKLERS, DOGS COLLARS, and AIGLETTES, WALKING-STAVES are specified. Under this last HEAD we have, "A Cane garnished with sylver and gilte, with astronomie upon it. A Cane garnished with golde havinge a perfume in the toppe, undre that a diall, with a paire of twitchers, and a paire of compasses of golde and a foote reule of golde, a knife and the file, th' afte [the handle of the knife] of golde with a whetstone tipped with golde, &c." fol. 407,-ADDITIONS.]

f So in the record. But he was the third bishop of St. Paul's, London, son of king Offa, and a great benefactor to St. Paul's church, in which he had a most superb shrine. He was canonised. Dugdale, among many other curious particulars relating to his shrine, says, that in the year 1339 it was decorated anew, when three goldsmiths, two at the wages of five shillings by the week, and one at eight, worked upon it for a whole year. Hist. St. Paul's, p. 21. See also p. 233.

This was a favourite subject for a large gothic window. This subject also composed a branch of candlesticks thence called a JESSE, not unusual in the antient churches. In the year 1097, Hugo de Flori, abbot of S. Aust. Canterb. bought for the choir of his church a great branch-candlestick. "Candelabrum magnum in choro æneum quod jesse vocatur in partibus emit transmarinis." Thorn, Dec. Script. col. 1796. About the year 1830, Adam de Sodbury, abbot of Glastonbury, gave to his convent "Unum dorsale laneum le JESSE." Hearn. Joan. Glaston, p. 265. That is, a piece of tapestry embroidered with the stem of Jesse, to be hung round the choir, or other parts of the church, on high festivals. He also gave a tapestry of this subject for the abbot's hall. Ibid. And I cannot help adding, what indeed is not immediately connected with the subject of this note, that he gave his monastery, among other costly presents, a great clock, processionibus et spectaculis insignitum, an organ of prodigious size, and eleven bells, six for the tower of the church, and five for the clock tower. He also new vaulted the nave of the church, and adorned the new roof with beautiful paintings. Ibid.

hf. 6. In many churches of France there was an antient shew or mimicry, in which all ranks of life were personated by the ccclesiastics, who all danced together, and disappeared one after another. It was called DANCE MACCABRE, and seems to have been often performed in St. Innocent's at Paris, where was a famous painting on this subject, which

place we find the Citie of Ladies', the tapestrie of Thebes and of Troy, the City of Peace, the Prodigal Son*, Esther, and other pieces of Scripture. At Windsor castle the siege of Jerusalem, Ahasuerus, Charlemagne, the siege of Troy, and hawking and hunting'. At Nottingham castle, Amys and Amelion. At Woodstock manor, the tapestrie of Charlemagne". At the More, a palace in Hertfordshire, king Arthur, Hercules, Astyages, and Cyrus. At Richmond, the arras of Sir Bevis, and Virtue and Vice fighting. Many of these subjects are repeated at Westminster, Greenwich, Oatelands, Bedington in Surry, and other royal seats, some of which are now unknown as such P. Among the rest we have also Hannibal, Holofernes, Romulus and Remus, Æneas, and Susannah. I have mentioned romances written on many of these subjects, and shall mention others. In the romance of SYR GUY, that hero's combat with the dragon in Northumberland is said to be represented in tapestry in Warwick castle. In Warwike the truth shall ye see

In arras wrought ful craftely'.

This piece of tapestry appears to have been in Warwick castle before the year 1398. It was then so distinguished and valued

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who made the entry calls Theseus a saint. The seven Deadly Sins, Le saint Graal, Le graunt tappis de Neuf Preux, Reyne d'Ireland, and Godfrey of Bulloign. Monum. Fr. iii. 64. The neuf preux are the Nine Worthies. Among the stores of Henry the Eighth, taken as above, we have, "two old stayned clothes of the ix worthies for the greate chamber," at Newhall in Essex, f. 362. These were pictures. Again, at the palace of Westminster in the little study called the Newe Librarye, which I believe was in Holbein's elegant Gothic gatehouse lately demolished, there is, "Item, xii pictures of men on horsebacke of enamelled stuffe of the Nyne Worthies, and others upon square tables." f. 188. MSS. Harl. 1419. ut supr.

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Signat. Ca. 1. Some perhaps may think this circumstance an innovation or addition of later minstrels. A practice not uncommon.

a piece of furniture, that a special grant was made of it by king Richard the Second in that year, conveying "that suit of arras hangings in Warwick castle, which contained the story of the famous Guy earl of Warwick," together with the castle of Warwick, and other possessions, to Thomas Holland, earl of Kents. And in the restoration of forfeited property to this lord after his imprisonment, these hangings are particularly specified in the patent of king Henry the Fourth, dated 1399. When Margaret, daughter of king Henry the Seventh, was married to James king of Scotland, in the year 1503, Holyrood House at Edinburgh was splendidly decorated on that occasion; and we are told in an antient record, that the "hanginge of the queenes grett chammer represented the ystory of Troye toune." Again, "the king's grett chammer had one table, wer was satt, hys chammerlayn, the grett sqyer, and many others, well served; the which chammer was haunged about with the story of Hercules, together with other ystorys"." And at the same solemnity, "in the hall wher the qwene's company wer satt in lyke as in the other, an wich was haunged of the history of Hercules, &c. “” A stately chamber in the castle of Hesdin in Artois, was furnished by a duke of Burgundy with the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, about the year 1468". The affecting story of Coucy's Heart, which gave rise to an old metrical English romance entitled, the KNIGHT OF COURTESY, and the LADY OF FAGUEL, was woven in tapestry in Coucy castle in France*. I have seen an antient suite of arras, containing Ariosto's Orlando and Angelica, where, at every groupe, the story was all along illustrated with

Dugd. Bar. i. p. 237. Leland. Coll. vol. iii. p. 295, 296. Opuscul. edit. 1770. a Ibid. w See Obs. Fair. Qu. i. p. 177. * Howel's Letters, xx. vi. B. i. This is a true story, about the year 1180. Fauchet relates it at large from an old authentic French chronicle; and then adds, "Ainsi finerint les amours du Chastelain du Couci et de la dame de Faiel." Our Castellan, whose name is Regnard de Couci, was famous for

his chansons and chivalry, but more so for his unfortunate love, which became proverbial in the old French romances. See Fauch. Rec. p. 124. 128. [The Knight of Curtesy and the fair Lady of Faguel has been reprinted by Mr. Ritson, vol. iii. p. 193. The hero of this romance was Raoul de Coucy, and not Regnard as stated by Warton on the authority of Fauchet. See Memoires Historiques sur Raoul de Coucy. Paris, 1781.-EDIT.]

short rhymes in romance or old French. Spenser sometimes dresses the superb bowers of his fairy castles with this sort of historical drapery. In Hawes's Poem called the PASTIME OF PLEASURE, written in the reign of Henry the Seventh, of which due notice will be taken in its proper place, the hero of the piece sees all his future adventures displayed at large in the sumptuous tapestry of the hall of a castle. I have before mentioned the most valuable and perhaps most antient work of this sort now existing, the entire series of duke William's descent on England, preserved in the church of Bayeux in Normandy, and intended as an ornament of the choir on high festivals. Bartholinus relates, that it was an art much cultivated among the antient Islanders, to weave the histories of their giants and champions in tapestry'. The same thing is recorded of the old Persians; and this furniture is still in high request among many Oriental nations, particularly in Japan and China. It is well known, that to frame pictures of heroic adventures in needle-work, was a favourite practice of classical antiquity.

y Antiquit. Dan. Lib. i. 9. p. 51.

In the royal palace of Jeddo, which overflows with a profusion of the most exquisite and superb eastern embellishments, the tapestry of the emperor's audience-hall is of the finest silk,

wrought by the most skilful artificers of that country, and adorned with pearls, gold, and silver. Mod. Univ. Hist. B xiii. c. ii. vol. ix. p. 83. (Not. G.) edit. 1759.

SECTION VI.

ALTHOUGH much poetry began to be written about the reign of Edward the Second, yet I have found only one English poet of that reign whose name has descended to posterity. This is Adam Davy or Davie. He may be placed about the year 1312. I can collect no circumstances of his life, but that he was marshall of Stratford-le-bow near London'. He has left several poems never printed, which are almost as forgotten as his name. Only one manuscript of these pieces now remains, which seems to be coeval with its author. They are VISIONS, THE BATTELL OF Jerusalem, THE LEGEND OF SAINT ALEXIUS, SCRIPTURE Histories, of FIFTEEN TOKNES BEFORE THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT, LAMENTATIONS OF SOULS, and THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER".

In the VISIONS, which are of the religious kind, Adam Davie draws this picture of Edward the Second standing before the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster abbey at his coronation. The lines have a strength arising from simplicity.

To our Lorde Jeshu Crist in heven
Iche to day shawe myne sweven,
That iche mottef in one nycht,
Of a knycht of mychel mycht:

a Robert de Brunne, above mentioned, lived, and perhaps wrote some of his pieces, in this reign; but he more properly belongs to the last.

This will appear from citations which follow.

CMSS. Bibl. Bodl. Laud. I 74. fol. membran. It has been much damaged, and on that account is often illegible.

d In the manuscript there is also a piece in prose, entitled, The Pylgrymages

of the holi land. f. 65.-66. It begins : "Qwerr soever a cros standyth ther is a forgivenes of payne." I think it is a description of the holy places, and it appears at least to be of the hand-writing of the rest.

e dream.

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f thought, dreamed. In the first sense, we have me mette in Chaucer, Non. Pr. T. v. 1013. Urr. And below.

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