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of an alchemist, who projected a bridge of gold over the river Thames near London, crowned with pinnacles of gold, which being studded with carbuncles, diffused a blaze of light in the dark". I will add a few lines only, as a specimen of his versification.

Wherefore he would set up in higth
That bridge, for a wonderfull sight,
With pinnacles guilt, shininge as goulde,
A glorious thing for men to behoulde.
Then he remembered of the newe,
Howe greater fame shulde him pursewe,

If he mought make that bridge so brighte,
That it mought shine alsoe by night:

And so continewe and not breake,

Then all the londe of him would speake, &c."

Norton's heroes in the occult sciences are Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Raymond Lully, to whose specious promises of supplying the coinage of England with inexhaustible mines of philosophical gold, king Edward the Third became an illustrious dupe.

George Ripley, Norton's cotemporary, was accomplished in' many parts of erudition; and still maintains his reputation as a learned chemist of the lower ages. He was a canon regular of the monastery of Bridlington in Yorkshire, a great traveller, and studied both in France and Italy. At his return from abroad, pope Innocent the Eighth absolved him from the observance of the rules of his order, that he might prosecute his studies with more convenience and freedom. But his convent not concurring with this very liberal indulgence, he turned

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Carmelite at saint Botolph's in Lincolnshire, and died an anachorite in that fraternity in the year 1490. His chemical poems are nothing more than the doctrines of alchemy cloathed in plain language, and a very rugged versification. The capital performance is THE COMPOUND OF ALCHEMIE, written in the year 1471'. It is in the octave metre, and dedicated to Edward the Fourth. Ripley has left a few other compositions on his favourite science, printed by Ashmole, who was an enthusiast in this abused species of philosophy. One of them, the MEDULLA, written in 1476, is dedicated to archbishop Nevil". These pieces have no other merit, than that of serving to develope the history of chemistry in England.

Ashmol. p. 455. seq. Bale, viii. 49. Pits. p. 677.

Ashmol. THEATR. CHEM. p. 193. It was first printed in 1591. 4to. Reprinted by Ashmole, THEATR. CHEM. ut supr. p. 107. It has been thrice translated into Latin, Ashm. ut supr. p. 465. See Ibid. p. 108. 110. 122. Most of Ripley's Latin works were printed by Lud. Combachius, Cassel. 1619. 12mo.

He mentions the abbey church at Westminster as unfinished. Pag. 154. st. 27. P. 156. and st. 34.

Ashmole conjectures, than an English chemical piece in the octave stanza, which he has printed, called HERMES'S BIRD, no unpoetical fiction, was translated from Raymond Lully, by Cremer, abbot of Westminster, a great chemist: and adds, that Cremer brought Lully into England, and introduced him to the notice of Edward the Third, about the year 1334. Ashmol. ubi supra, p. 213. 467.

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dered to be painted in Westminster abbey, upon an arch where the waxen kings and queens are placed: but that it was obliterated with a plasterer's brush by the puritans in Oliver's time. He also mentions a large and beautiful window, behind the pulpit in the neighbouring church of saint Margaret, painted with the same subject, and destroyed by the same ignorant zealots, who mistook these innocent hieroglyphics for some story in a popish legend. Ashmol. ibid. 211. 466. 467. Compare Widmore's Hist. WESTMINSTER-ÅBBEY, p. 174. seq. edit.

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It will be sufficient to throw some of the obscurer rhymers of this period into the Notes. Osbern Bokenham wrote or translated metrical lives of the saints, about 1445. Sec supra, vol. i. p. 15. Note. Gilbert Banester wrote in English verse the Miracle of saint Thomas, in the year 1467. CCCČ. MSS. Q. viii. See supra, vol. i. p. 79. Note. Lel. COLLECTAN. tom. i. (p. ii.) pag. 510. edit. 1770. Wydville earl of Rivers, already mentioned, translated into English distichs, The morale Proverbes of Crystyne of Pyse, printed by Caxton, 1477. They consist of two sheets in folio. This is a couplet; Little vailleth good example to see For him that wole not the contrarie flee. This nobleman's only original piece is a 2 G

The writer of HERMES'S BIRD, however, appears by the versification and language, to have lived at least an hundred years after that period. He informs us, that he made the translation "owte of the Frensche." Ibid. p. 214. [It was translated by Lydgate from a French Fabliau. See Way's Fabliaux, vol. i. It had been previously printed by Caxton, DeWorde, &c. under the title of the Chorle and the Byrde.-EDIT.] Ashmole mentions a curious picture of

the GRAND MYSTERIES OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, which abbot Cremer or

VOL. II.

-They certainly contributed nothing to the state of our

poetry.

Balet of four stanzas, preserved by Rouse, a cotemporary historian, Ross. Hist. p. 213. edit. Hearn. apud Leland. Itin. tom. x. edit. Oxon. 1745. I refer also the NOTBROWNE MAYDE to this period. [Warton retracted this opinion, Vid, infra, Sect. XLIV.]-See Capel's PROLUSIONS, p. 23. seq. edit. 1760. And Percy's ANC. BALL. vol. ii. p. 26. seq. edit. Of the same date is perhaps the DELECTABLE HISTORIE of king Edward the Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth,

1767.

&c. &c. See Percy, ubi supra, p. 81. This is but a modern version of an earlier poem published by Mr. Ritson under the title of the "Kyng and the Barker."-EDIT.] Hearne affirms, that in this piece there are some "romantic assertions:-otherwise 'tis a book of value, and more authority is to be given to it than is given to poetical books of Late YEARS." Hearne's Leland, ut supra, vol. ii. p. 103.

SECTION XXVI.

BUT a want of genius will be no longer imputed to this period of our poetical history, if the poems lately discovered at Bristol, and said to have been written by Thomas Rowlie, a secular priest of that place, about the year one thousand four hundred and seventy, are genuine,

It must be acknowledged, that there are some circumstances which incline us to suspect these pieces to be a modern forgery. On the other hand, as there is some degree of plausibility in the history of their discovery, as they possess considerable merit, and are held to be the real productions of Rowlie by many respectable critics; it is my duty to give them a place in this series of our poetry, if it was for no other reason than that the world might be furnished with an opportunity of examining their authenticity. By exhibiting therefore the most specious evidences, which I have been able to collect, concerning the manner in which they were brought to light, and by producing such specimens, as in another respect cannot be deemed unacceptable; I will endeavour, not only to gratify the curiosity of the public on a subject that has long engaged the general attention, and has never yet been fairly or fully stated, but to supply the more inquisitive reader with every argument, both external and internal, for determining the merits of this interesting controversy. I shall take the liberty to add my own opinion, on a point at least doubtful: but with the greatest deference to decisions of much higher authority.

About the year 1470, William Cannynge, an opulent merchant and an alderman of Bristol, afterwards an ecclesiastic,

a I acknowledge myself greatly in- ton of Bath, for facilitating my enquiries debted to the ingenious Doctor Harring- on this subject.

and dean of Westbury college, erected the magnificent church of Saint Mary of Redcliffe, or Radcliff, near Bristol. In a muniment-room over the northern portico of the church, the founder placed an iron chest, secured by six different locks©; which seems to have been principally intended to receive instruments relating to his new structure, and perhaps to his other charities, inventories of vestments and ornaments, accompts of church-wardens, and other parochial evidences. He is said to have directed, that this venerable chest should be annually visited and opened by the mayor and other chief magistrates of Bristol, attended by the vicar and church-wardens of the parish and that a feast should be celebrated every year, on the day of visitation. But this order, that part at least which relates to the inspection of the chest, was soon neglected.

In the year 1768, when the present new bridge at Bristol was finished and opened for passengers, an account of the ceremonies observed on occasion of opening the old bridge, appeared in one of the Bristol Journals; taken, as it was declared, from an antient manuscript. Curiosity was naturally raised to know from whence it came. At length, after much inquiry concerning the person who sent this singular memoir to the newspaper, it was discovered that he was a youth about seventeen years old, whose name was Chatterton; and whose father had been sexton of Radcliffe church for many years, and also mas

b He is said to have rebuilt Westbury college. Dugd. WARWICKSH. p.634. edit. 1730. And Atkyns, GLOCESTERSH. p. 802. On his monument in Radcliffe church, he is twice represented, both in an alderman's and a priest's habit. He was five times mayor of Bristol. See Godwin's BISH. p. 446. [But see edit. fol. p. 467.]

It is said there were four chests; but this is a circumstance of no consequence. d These will be mentioned below.

See an inventory of ornaments given to this church by the founder, Jul. 4, 1470, formerly kept in this chest, and printed by Mr. Walpole, ANECD. PAINT.i. p. 45.

f The old bridge was built about the year 1248. HISTORY of BRISTOL, MS. Archiv. Bodl. C. iii. By Abel Wantner.

Archdeacon Furney, in the year 1755, left by will to the Bodleian library, large collections, by various hands, relating to the history and antiquities of the city, church, and county of Gloucester, which are now preserved there, Archiv. C. ut supr. At the end of N. iii. is the manuscript HISTORY just mentioned, supposed to have been compiled by Abel Wantner, of Minchin-Hampton in Glocestershire, who published proposals and specimens for a history of that county, in 1683.

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