OF

P. 1. note a.-Bishop Grosthed, a worthy and exalted character, is the person here meant.-ASHBY.

P. 7. note y.-Of the CATO PARVUS, says Mr. Dibdin, there was but one edition printed in the fifteenth century. Lydgate was the translator both of Cato Magnus and Parvus. Typ. Antiq. vol. i. p. 201.-PARK.

P. 7. note a.-The sentences of the

Wys Cato may be in doggrel, but Æsop's Fables are in prose; both, however, of affected orthography. Ritson MS. note. -PARK.

P. 8. l. 10.-I can, however, hardly understand how she could get the technical English terms: as I can hardly believe one in her situation followed the chase, and conversed with huntsmen enough for the purpose. I think that these Religious translated the French or Latin books on hunting, war, &c. to please their friends, who were professed sportsmen and warriors, and that they

furnished the terms of art.-. -ASHBY.

P. 8. note e.-From Wynkyn de Worde's curious edition of 1496, a fac simile has recently been printed, which displays an admirable specimen of modern art in rivalling ancient typography; while under the editorial superintendance of Mr. Haslewood, it is illustrated and embellished with biographical notices, &c. that could scarcely perhaps have been supplied by any of his contemporaries. 150 copies only were taken off.-PARK.

P. 13. note w.-Bradshaw seems rather to say, that as his book was compiled for unlearned readers, it ought to VOL. III.

2

submit itself with deference to the judgement of learned poets. But as the passage is interesting, I will present it, with the context. It occurs in a brief conclusion to the work by the translator.

Go forth, litell boke, Jesu be thy spede, And save the alway from mysreportyng,

Whiche art compiled for no clerke indede,

But for marchaunt men havyng litell lernyng,

And that rude people therby may have of this holy virgin and redolent rose, knowyng, Which hath ben kept full longe tyme in close.

To all auncient poetes, litell boke, submytte thee,

Whilom flouryng in eloquence facundious,

And to all other whiche present now be,

Fyrst to Maister Chaucer and Ludgate

sentencious,

edere populo, ut ludos, venationes,recitare comœdias, item in templis vitas divorum ac martyria repræsentare, in quibus, ut cunctis par sit voluptas, qui recitant vernaculam linguam tantum usurpant.' The first three books of Polydore's work were published in 1499 in 1517, at which time he was in England, he added five more." Hist. Ant. of the Eng. Stage. Mr. Ashby (MS. note) doubted whether the Latin mysteries were to be presented in public, as they had been confined to churches, which makes a difference.-PARK.

[These interesting remains of early English literature appear at length to have excited some share of attention. Mr. Sharp of Coventry is said to have printed some specimens of the Coventry Mysteries, and Mr. Hone's amusing volume likely to be generally known. Specimens of the Chester Mysteries have also been printed for the use of the Roxburgh Club. It may not be strictly decorous, perhaps, to notice works of this private nature, and which are obviously intended to be kept from the public eye; but the extensive acquaintance with the subject displayed in one of these pamphlets, demands a protest against reserving it for the exclusive information of a few black-letter dilettanti.-EDIT.]

P. 23. note b.-This is ascertained by one of the laudatory balades affixed, which speaks of Bradshaw "-nowe departed from this temporall lyght

The present yere of this Translacion M. D. xш. of Christis incarnacion.' Sig. Sii. b.-PARK.

P. 27. l. 6.-Lord Orford, in his Catalogue of Royal Authors, indulged his talent for sarcasm about King Edward's imputed poem, and said; "I should believe that this melody of a dying monarch is about as authentic as that of the old poetic warbler, the swan, and no better founded than the title of Gloriosi." Now the title, as Mr. Gough observed, may probably have been added by the transcriber of the MS., and the production itself is sufficiently ascertained to have had the belief of being written by Edward the Second, in the "tyme of hys emprysonment," being cited as such by Fabian. See his Chron. edit. 1559. vol. ii. p. 185.-PARK.

P. 27. l. 15.-Mr. Dibdin states that this remark is not quite correct; these verses having been in part omitted and in part altered in Reyner's and Kingston's editions, but inserted entire in Rastall's. See specimen of an English De Bure, p. 28.-PARK.

P. 30. l. 17.-Caxton could only be deemed a foreigner, from having passed some time in foreign countries; since he was born a Man of Kent. See Dibdin's Ames.-PARK.

P. 31. l. 21.-Mr. Ashby asks, how can a black and a pale horse be one and the same? Groseley and Comines both make the same mistake, owing to the likeness of blanc and black. MS. note.- -PARK.

P. 32. l. 21.-Herbert remarks here, that W. de Worde's edition being but a small quarto, could not admit of the more elegantdrawings to the folio edition in 1503, and which were exactly copied in 1656. MS. note.-PARK.

P. 41. note w.- -See some notices in the preliminary matter to a collection of poems by Mr. S. Whyte, printed in 1752, and many more in the Collectanea of my studious friend Mr. Douce.PARK.

P. 46. note h.-Or rather, says Herbert, as in the collection of poems by Chaucer and Lydgate in the public library, Cambridge.

P. 47. note h.-The following argument, says Mr. George Mason, since occurring, may strengthen the strong claim of Lydgate to be regarded as the author. In one of the Paston letters, published by Sir John Fenn, vol. 2. p. 90. and dated 1471, the Temple of Glass is mentioned as if it had then been written some years. This circumstance must ill accord with its being attributed to Hawes; besides that the language is older in many particulars than that which Hawes used. MS. note in W. de Worde's edit. of the book which does not give the poem to Hawes; as Mr. Warton had been led to believe, from the misrepresentation of Ames.PARK.

P. 50. note u.-It is evident (says Mr. Waldron) from the conclusion of the passage above cited, that more of the Squier's Tale had been written than has been preserved. MS. note.-PARK.

P. 59. note i.-This curious allusion

Yonge Steven Hawse, whose soule God pardon,

Treated of love so clerkely and well, To rede his workes is myne affeccyon Which he compyled of La bell Pusell.PARK.

P. 72. note b.-It was printed in prose by R. Pinson, 4to. without date, says Herbert, MS. note.-PARK.

P. 73. note e.-Wood, who designates him Alexander de Barklay, surmises him to have been born at or near a town so called in Somersetshire: but Ritson owns that there is no such town in that county. Bale, the oldest authority, tells us that some contend he was a Scot, others an Englishman. Pitts admits, that with some he appeared to have been a Scot, but was verily an Englishman, and probably a Devonshire man. Dr. Bulleyn, his cotemporary, says he was born beyond the cold river of Tweed; and Holinshed positively calls him a Scot. He is likewise claimed as his countryman by Dempster, who informs us, he lived in England, being expelled (from his native country) for the sake of religion. This report, however, is considered as the invention of Dempster, since no religious dissentions had taken place in Scotland so early as 1506. After all this diversity of allegation, Ritson's conclusion is, that Barclay's name of baptism and the orthography of his surname seem to prove that he was of Scotish extraction. See Bibliogr. Poetica, p. 46.-PARK.

P. 81. note f.-Powell's early and rare edition contained the first three eclogues only, and had the following title: "Here begynneth the Egloges of · Alexander Barclay, priest, whereof the first thre conteineth the miseries of courters and courtes, of all princes in generall. The mattier whereof was translated into Englysshe by the said Alexander in forme of dialoges, out of a boke named in Latin, Miserie Curialium, compiled by Eneas Silvius, poete and oratour, which after was pope of Rome, and named Pius. In the whiche the interloquutors be Cornix and Coridon."-PARK.

had not then taken place.-ASHBY.

P. 88. note i.-The old black letter translation of Mantuan mentioned above, was by Turbervile, and appeared in 1567; a copy is in the King's library. See Cens. Literaria.-PARK.

P. 109. note z.-This task, though thus persuasively recommended, the late Lord Hailes of Session (Sir David Dalrymple) was not prevailed upon to undertake. Mr. Ashby conceived that the allusion above was not to the fowl Ptarmigan, of the grouse kind, which makes no noise or disturbance, but to termagants, scolds. See Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, i. 76-7. edit. 1794.-PAKK.

P. 124. note m.-This was reprinted at Edinbro' in 1571, 1707, and 1751. The two latter editions were superintended by Ruddiman and Wishart. The work was translated into English verse by Robert Blair, the classical author of that deservedly popular poem "The Grave."-PARK.

P. 124. note m.-' -That bishop Douglas wrote a small Latin history of Scotland seems to be a mistake. He wrote a letter on the subject to Polydore Virgil.-RITSON.

P. 152. l. 5.-Muffler appears to have been the term used in England, for the same half-masked article of dress, which was a thin piece of linen that covered the lips and chin. See a note by Mr. Stevens in the Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 2.-PARK. [See also Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare.

P. 161. l. 3.-In the year 1798, an INTRODUCTION to the History of Poetry in Scotland was published by Mr. Alexander Campbell, which contains much interesting matter in a miscellaneous form. Mr. C. professed himself only to be a diligent pioneer, willingly relinquishing the field to any one who might be inclined to follow his track. Should Mr. George Chalmers be induced to take the field with his strong forces, no living writer could be named who possesses the means of executing such a work with equal comprehension. -PARK.

P. 161. l. 20.-Dr. David Irving, in 1804, published the Lives of the Scotish Poets in two volumes, with great research and critical ingenuity. The

P. 83. l. 1.-The chapel is defaced, but not miserably. The allusion is to

lives were those of Thomas Lerment, John Barbour, Andrew Winton, King James the First, Henry the Minstrel, Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, Sir David Lindsay, John Bellenden, Sir Richard Maitland, Alexander Scot, Alexander Arbuthnot, Alexander Montgomery, King James the Sixth, Allan Ramsay, Alexander Ross, Alexander Geddes, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns; with many minor names. A dissertation is prefixed on the early ScOTISH DRAMA.-PARK.

P. 163. l. 4.-The following entry occurs among the Acts and Orders of the Court of Requests: "An. xvii. Hen. VII. (1501) 10 Julij, apud Westminster Jo. Shelton commissus carceribus janitoris domini regis." PARK.

P. 163. note f.-In Caxton's preface to his prose version of the Æneid (1490), he prays "Mayster John Skelton, late created poet laureate in the unyversite of Oxenforde, to oversee and correcte thys sayd booke :-for hym I knowe for suffycyent to expowne and Englysshe every dyffyculte that is therin." This, however, does not seem to have flattered Skelton into the service of becoming Caxton's critical overseer, as the book had no re-impression.-PARK.

P. 168. l. 8.-I reckon the interval of time when Skelton began to write, and when Puttenham published, to be infinite as to the refinement of manners. Yet even in this last period, and later, the commentators of Shakspeare are glad to shelter his ribaldry and puns under the manners of his age.-ASHBY.

P. 168. note o. Bishop Hall characterized both the temper and metre of this lampooner with forcible brevity, when he spoke of " angry SKELTON'S breathlesse rhymes." Virgidemiarum, lib. iv.-PARK.

P. 168. l. 31.-Caxton speaks of Skelton's translations from the Greek and Latin, as not rendered in rude and old language, but in polished and ornate terms craftily. He adds, "And also he hath redde the ix muses, and understande their musicalle scyences, and to whom of them eche scyence is appropred. I suppose he hath dronken of Elycon's well." Preface to Æneid. Vide supr. p. 337.-PARK.

P. 168. l. 31.-That Churchyard indulged the same strange notion appears

from the following curions encomium, in which he tells us that the conversation of Skelton resembled the taunting personality of his writings.

divers men of late

Have helpt our Englishe toung,
That first was baes and brute:
Oh! shall I leave out SKELTON's name?
The blossome of my frute:
The tree wheron in deed
My branches all might gro:
Nay, Skelton wore the laurell wreath,
And past in schools, ye knoe,
A poet for his arte,

Whose judgment suer was hie,
And had great practics of the pen,
His works they will not lie.
His termes to taunts did lean,
His talke was as he wrate,
Full quick of witte, right sharp of words,
And skilful of the state.
Of reason ripe and good,
And to the hatefull mynd,
That did disdain his doings still,
A skorner of his kynd.
Most pleasant every way,
As poets ought to be;
And seldom out of princes grace,
And greate with eche degre.

On the English Poets, Muses,
lib. p. 137.

P. 173. note d.-Dr. Lort suggested to Mr. Ashby, that the above loss was the reason why the Cardinal is always represented in profile, to hide his blemish. But how comes it, says Mr. Ashby, that we have no pictures of him prior to the accident, i. e. before he was a cardinal, for as such he is always dressed; yet he was as great a man before?-PARK.

P. 183. note l.-It is much that Warton did not know Friar Tuck was Robin Hood's confessor or chaplain, and perhaps the original of all the parsons that are brought on the stage to be laughed at. But how comes Matilda, the chast daughter of Lord Fitzwater, to be the fair Maid Marian ?-ASHBY.

P. 184. l. 19.-Mr. Ashby expresses his surprise that such a man should be chosen; and he adds, with appearance of probability, that Skelton's having conceived his disappointment of preferment to be owing to Wolsey, may have been the cause of his extreme irritation against that prelate.-PARK.

P. 185. note x.-In the same ancient MS. are contained the following mysteries.

"Saulus, or Saint Paul." Superscribed Myles Blomefylde y Possessor.

Pr. "Rex glorio [sus] kyng omnipotent, Redeemer of ye world by the pouer divine,

And Maria, yt pure vyrgyn quene most excellent, Wyche bare yt blyssyd babe Jhu yt for us sufferd payne," &c. At the end, "Finis * * Sancti Pauli."

"Candlemas-day and The Kyllyng of the Children of Israell," (by John Parfre), 1512.

Pr. This solemne fest to be had in remembraunce

Of blissed Seynt Anne, moder to our Lady,

Whos right discent was hys kyns alyaunce

Of Davyd and Salamon-witnesseth the story, &c.

End. Also ye menstralles, doth yo diligens,

A fore our departyng gees be a daunce.

Finis.

"Wisdom, spirit, wille, wit, minde and understanding, and Lucifer. Impft. 12 leaves. 4to.

Pr. Fyrst entreth Wysdom in a ryche purpyll cloth of gold, with a mantyll of the same ermyned within, havyng a bought his nek a ryall hood furred with ermyn. Upon his hed a cheveler with browes, a berd of gold of sypres curled, a ryche imperiall gowne therupon, set with riche stonys and perlys. In his left hand a ball of gold with a crosse therupon; and in his right hand a regall sceptre, thus seyng:

If ye wyll wote the propyrte,

And the resoun of my name imperiall,
I am clepyd of him that in erthe be,
Everlastyng Wysdom to my nobley
egall.'

PARK.

P. 187. note b. Another direction is, "With this word vii dyvyls sall de woyde from the woman, and the bad

angyll enter into hell with thondyr."PARK.

P. 195. l. 6.—“The reign of Charles the Fifth (says Anderson, from Pasquier and Brantome) gave rise to the French drama and theatre. The actors being erected into a company by letters patent, represented the MYSTERIES OF CHRIST'S PASSION; which, with some additional pieces called Moralities, continued to be the theatrical entertainment for more than 130 years. Though in the time of Lewis the Twelfth some farces or comedies were wrote, the French drama received no sort of improvement, but continued in the reign of Francis the First under the direction of the fraternity of the passion, who only added some burlesque pieces to their Moralities. Under Henry the Second, Francis the Second, and Charles the Ninth, Jodella was the dramatic poet, and produced two tragedies and two comedies. His

Cleopatra,' together with a comedy, being acted at Paris, he is said to have been rewarded for this new entertain

ment, by his monarch, with 500 crowns. But the genius and the relish for such compositions remained suspended for a considerable time after this exhibition of them." Hist. of France, temp. Francis I. and Charles IX. vol. ii. p. 427.PARK.

P. 196. 7. 11. Such an imitation Mr. Ashby thinks as probable as Otway and Dryden's imitations of Shakspeare. -PARK.

P. 196. note i.-Bergerette was the title also of a species of pastoral poetry. See vol. ii. p. 301.-PARK.

P. 207. note r.-The song quoted by Hamlet was pointed out by Ritson as printed in Percy's Reliques. A more complete copy is presented in the late edition of Evans's Old Ballads from the Roxburghe Collection.-PARK.

P. 210. l. 3.-Mr. Ashby conceived that the antichapel must be here meant; though the whole, he adds, is one plain room, of uniform dimensions, and no separation of any kind except the organ: but the antichapel is more superbly fitted up than the chapel, i. e. with roses and shields of arms in alto-relievo.-PARK. P. 211. l. 7.- Here is certainly an