His name is yhote syr Edward the kyng,
Prince of Wales Engelonde the fair thynge;
Me mott that he was armid wele,
Bothe with yrne and with stele,
And on his helme that was of stel,

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,
His name is nempned hure bifore,

Blissed be the time that he was bore, &c.

Of Syr Edward oure derworth' kyng
Iche mette of him anothere faire metyng, &c.
Me thought he wod upon an asse,
And that ich take God to witnesse;
A wondur he was in a mantell gray,
Toward Rome he nomm his way,
Upon his hevede sate a gray hure,
It semed him wel a mesure;
He wood withouten hose and sho,
His wonen was not so to do;
His shankes semeden al bloodrede,
Myne herte wop" for grete drede;
As a pylgrym he rood to Rome,
And thider he com wel swithe sone.
The thrid suevene me mette a nigt
Rigt of that derworth knight:

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
Bothe hy° hadde a new dublyng, &c.
Thus Crist ful of grace

Graunte our kyng in every place
Maistrie of his witherwines

And of al wicked Sarasynes.

Me met a suevene one worthig a nigth
Of that ilche derworthi knigth,

God iche it shewe and to witnesse take
And so shilde me fro, &c.

Into a chapel I cum of vre lefdy",
Jhe Crist her lever son stod by,
On rods he was an loveliche mon,
Al thilke that on rode was don

He unneled his honden two, &c.

Adam the marchal of Strattford atte Bowe
Wel swithe wide his name is iknowe
He himself mette this metyng,

To witnesse he taketh Jhu hevene kynge,
On wedenyssday" in clene leinte w

A voyce me bede I schulde nougt feinte,
Of the suevenes that her ben write

I shulde swithe don my lord kyng to wite.
The thursday next the beryng' of our lefdy
Me thougth an aungel com syr Edward by, &c.
Iche tell you forsoth withoutten les2,

Als God of hevene maide Marie to moder ches2,
The aungell com to me Adam Davie and seide
Bot thou Adam shewe this thee worthe wel yvel mede, &c.
Whoso wil speke myd me Adam the marchal
In Stretforde bowe he is yknown and over al,
Iche ne schewe nougt this for to have mede
Bot for God almigtties drede.

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,
Both cristen men and wyve:
I wol you telle of a wondur cas,
How Jhesu Crist bihated was,
Of the Jewes felle and kene,
That was on him sithe ysene,
Gospelles I drawe to witnesse

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,
Whider I wolde he bade me wende,
Upon the mount of olyvete, &c.

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,
Howe gode men in olde tyme,
Loveden God almigth;

That weren riche, of grete valoure,
Kynges sones and emperoure

Of bodies strong and ligth;

Zee habbeth yherde ofte in geste,
Of holi men maken feste

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,
Hungere schal on erthe be, trecherie, and falshede,
Batteles, and littell love, sekenesse and haterede,
And the erthe schal quaken that vche man schal ydrede:
The mone schal turne to blood, the sunne to derkhede, &c.1

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,
Ycome he is that swete dewe, that swete hony drope,
The kyng of alle kynges to whom is our hope:
Becom he is our brother, whar was he so long?
He it is and no other, that bougth us so strong:

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.]