His name is yhote syr Edward the kyng, A coroune of gold bicom him wel. Bifore the shrine of Seint Edward he stood, Myd glad chere and myld of mood". Most of these Visions are compliments to the king. Our poet then proceeds thus: Another suevene me mette on a twefniti Bifore the fest of Alhalewen of that ilke knigt, Blissed be the time that he was bore, &c. Of Syr Edward oure derworth' kyng On Wednysday a nigt it was Next the dai of seint Lucie bifore Christenmasse, &c. Me thougth that ich was at Rome, And thider iche come swithe sone, 。 they. 4 lady. The pope and syr Edward our kyng Graunte our kyng in every place And of al wicked Sarasynes. Me met a suevene one worthig a nigth God iche it shewe and to witnesse take Into a chapel I cum of vre lefdy", He unneled his honden two, &c. Adam the marchal of Strattford atte Bowe To witnesse he taketh Jhu hevene kynge, A voyce me bede I schulde nougt feinte, I shulde swithe don my lord kyng to wite. Als God of hevene maide Marie to moder ches2, t unnailed. " Wodenis day. Woden's day. Wednesday. w Lent. I make haste. [Swithe don to wite, quickly let him know.-RITSON.] y Christmass-day. z lies. a "As sure as God chose the Virgin Mary to be Christ's mother." There is a very old prose romance, both in French and Italian, on the subject of the Destruction of Jerusalem. It is translated from a Latin work, in five books, very popular in the middle ages, entitled, HEGESIPPI de Bello Judaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitana Libri quinque. This is a licentious paraphrase of a part of Josephus's Jewish history, made about the fourth century: and the name Hegesippus is most probably corrupted from Josephus, perhaps also called Josippus. The paraphrast is supposed to be Ambrose of Milan, who flourished in the reign of Theodosius. On the subject of Vespasian's siege of Jerusalem, as related in this book, our poet Adam Davie has left a poem entitled the BATTELL OF JERUSALEM. It begins thus. Listeneth all that beth alyve, Of this matter more or lesse, &c.c In the course of the story, Pilate challenges our Lord to single combat. This subject will occur again. b In an antient inventory of books, all French romances, made in England in the reign of Edward the Third, I find the romance of TITUS and VESPASIAN. Madox, Formul. Anglican. p. 12. See also Scipio Maffei's Traduttori Italiani, p. 48. Crescimbeni (Volg. Poes. vol. i. I. 5. p. 317.) does not seem to have known of this romance in Italian. Du Cange mentions Le Roman de la Prise de Jerusalem par Titus, in verse. Gloss. Lat. i. IND. AUCT. p. cxciv. A metrical romance on this subject is in the royal manuscripts. 16 E viii. 2. Brit. Mus. There is an old French play on this subject, acted in 1437. It was printed in 1491. fol. M. Beauchamps, Rech. Fr. Theat. p. 134. C He mentions Constantinople and New Rome: and the provinces of Scotia and Saxonia. From this work the Maccabees seem to have got into romance. It was first printed at Paris. fol. 1511. Among the Bodleian manuscripts there is a most beautiful copy of this book, believed to be written in the Saxon times. d The latter part of this poem appears detached, in a former part of our manuscript, with the title THE VENGEAUNCE OF GODDES DEATH, viz. f. 22. b. This latter part begins with these lines. And at the fourty dayes ende, MS. ut supr. f. 72. b. Davie's LEGEND OF SAINT ALEXIUS THE CONFESSOR, SON OF EUPHEMIUS, is translated from Latin, and begins thus: All that willen here in ryme, That weren riche, of grete valoure, Of bodies strong and ligth; Zee habbeth yherde ofte in geste, Both day and nigth, For to have the joye in hevene (With aungells song, and merry stevene,) The which is brode and brigth: Το you all heige and lowe The rigth sothe to biknowe Zour soules for to save, &c. f Our author's SCRIPTURE HISTORIES want the beginning. Here they begin with Joseph, and end with Daniel. Ffor thritti pens & thei sold that childe The seller higth Judas, h Itho Ruben com him and myssed him Ffor ynow he was.i k His FIFTEEN TOKNES BEFORE THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, are taken from the prophet Jeremiah. The first signe thar ageins, as our lord hymselfe sede, Another of Davie's poems may be called the LAMENTATION OF SOULS. But the subject is properly a congratulation of Christ's advent, and the lamentation, of the souls of the fathers remaining in limbo, for his delay. Off joye and blisse is my song care to bileveTM, And to here hym among that altour soroug shal reve, Our brother we mowen hym clepe wel, so seith hymself ilome°. My readers will be perhaps surprised to find our language improve so slowly, and will probably think, that Adam Davie writes in a less intelligible phrase than many more antient bards already cited. His obscurity, however, arises in great measure from obsolete spelling, a mark of antiquity which I have here observed in exact conformity to a manuscript of the age of Edward the Second; and which in the poetry of his prede m leave. n may. 。 sometimes. MS. ut supr. f. 72. [By an error of the press in the former edition, the reference to the note was affixed to the word "wel;" and though Warton in his Additions had pointed out the mistake, yet the candour of Mr. Ritson fastened on the original reading and exposed it as a voluntary and ignorant blunder. Could this gentleman have condescended to be just, or to confide in an interpretation furnished him by Warton, he might have avoided the erroneous explanation given of "ylome" in the Glossary to his Metrical Romances, or at any rate have obtained a closer approximation to the true meaning than his own knowledge supplied him with. Ure ship flet forth ylome; which the Glossary renders lately. It is the Anglo-Saxon ge-lome, sæpe, frequenter, continuiter. In the Chronicle of England we have, And yet the Englesche ofte ilome; where "ofte" appears to be a gloss which has found its way into the text. "Oft and gelome" is the language of Cædmon.-EDIT.] * [Mr. Campbell has observed upon this passage: "Warton anticipates the surprize of his reader in finding the English language improve so slowly when we reach the verses of Davie. The historian of our poetry had in a former section treated of Robert De Brunne as a writer anterior to Davie; but as the latter part of De Brunne's Chronicle was not finished till 1339, in the reign of Edward III., it would be surprizing indeed if the language should seem to improve when we go back to the reign of Edward II." Essay on English Poetry, p. 57.-In this the usual accuracy and candour of Mr. Campbell appear to have forsaken him. The observation in the text is far from being a general one, and might have been interpreted to the exclusion of De Brunne. That such was Warton's intention is obvious from note, p. 47, where he speaks of De Brunne as living, and probably composing some of his pieces, during the reign of Edward II. A date (1303) recorded in his translation of the Manuel de Pechces, was the cause of his being classed among the writers of the preceding reign. -EDIT.] |