SUBSEQUENTLY to the Communication of the preceding Memoir by Mr. Kempe, Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq. exhibited to the Society, January 29th, 1829, Drawings of the various Fragments of Urns and other Pottery, found by himself and his friend Mr. Balmanno (who obligingly aided him) in the first excavation at War-bank. The Drawings were by William Henry Brooke, Esq. Fellow of the Society. Upwards of a hundred pieces of Pottery appear to have been collected at this time.

The Fragment of a border pattern in Fresco painting, found near the Circular Building, from which it was doubtless thrown out, alluded to in Mr. Kempe's Memoir, was probably the most interesting relic. A representation of it, with the colours heraldically designated, is here preserved.

XXV. Old English Poem on the Siege of Rouen, A. D. 1418. Communicated by FREDERIC MADDEN, Esq. F.S.A. in a Letter to HENRY ELLIS, Esq. F.R.S. Secretary.

Read 2nd April 1829.

MY DEAR SIR,

British Museum, 16th March 1829.

IN the twenty-first volume of the Archæologia a Communication was inserted from my lamented friend the late Rev. J. J. Conybeare, successively Professor of Saxon and of Poetry in the University of Oxford, containing an Abstract and Transcript of an extremely curious English Poem on the Siege of Rouen, by King Henry the Fifth, in 1418, written by a contemporary author, and giving a more detailed account of that occurrence than is to be met with

in any of our historians. The Manuscript from which the transcript was made is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and in some respects may be considered unique; but, as the Poem in this MS. is unfortunately imperfect, it was with no small degree of satisfaction I discovered the portion supposed to be lost, and under the impression that the Society of Antiquaries, as well as all those who are fond of our Old English historical poetry, may wish to see the Poem in a perfect state, I now have the pleasure to forward you a copy of the lines hitherto wanting to complete it.

The portion of the Poem at present submitted to the attention of the Society, is singularly introduced into the well known English MS. Prose Chronicle of the Brute, commonly, but falsely, attributed to Caxton.

a By the same sort of fortune, Mr. Conybeare was himself led to the recovery of the lost stanzas of Sir Cleges. Vide British Bibliographer, vol. iv. p. 17.

It is not my intention here to enter deeply into the history of this Chronicle, particularly since I have elsewhere traced its formation at considerable length. Perhaps, therefore, it may be sufficient to intimate, that the original of this Chronicle (so very common in our MSS. libraries) was composed in French, in the early part of the reign of Edward III. and was, with a great degree of probability, translated into English about the year 1435, by Sir John Maundevyle, Rector of Burnham-Thorp, in the County of Norfolk, who continued the History to the close of the siege of Rouen, and subsequently (unless it were added by another hand) to the eighth year of the reign of Henry the Sixth. A copy of this Chronicle was printed, with but few variations, by Caxton, in 1480, and continued by him to the accession of Edward IV. in 1460. Its subsequent changes are not a subject of the present inquiry.

C

Now, it must be remarked, that the lines in question on the Siege of Rouen, are by no means to be found in all the copies of this Chronicle, but, on the contrary, are rarely to be met with, so that out of the numerous MSS. of it we have examined, only three have preserved the Poem, viz. the MSS. Harl. 753 and 2256 (from which the present transcript and collation has been made) and a MS. in the valuable Collection at Holkham, in the Library of T. W. Coke, Esq. (No. 670), in which copy the Poem terminates imperfectly at line 773, but agrees, so far as remains, with the text of the Harleian MSS. None of the printed editions of this Chronicle contain the Poem.d

b See Introduction to the "Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane," p. xxv.. 4to. 1828.

c MS. Harl. 2279, fol. ult.

d The MS. copies of this Chronicle which do not contain the Poem, agree accurately with the old printed editions, and present only a very imperfect and abridged account of the Siege. The passage which comprehends the entire portion of the Poem from v. 630, is as follows, "Thanne anon they sent vnto the kyng, besechyng hym of grace and mercy, and broughte the keyes of the toune vnto the kyng, and deliuered the toune to hym, and alle the soudiours voided the toune wt hir hors and harnes, and the communes of the toune for to abide and dwelle stylle in the toune, yerely to pay to hym and to his succes

e

The manner in which it is inserted in this Chronicle is as follows. The chapter containing the lines is entitled, "How kyng Henre the Ve leide seege to the Cite of Roone, & how he gate the cite with' strength & manhode welle & worthily." The whole of the early part of the narration is taken verbatim by the prose compiler from the Poem (which proves the latter to have been composed at an earlier period), but with the omission of many circumstances deemed by the Chronicler too excursive for his purpose. So closely indeed has the prose writer followed the poet, that we often detect him unawares slipping into rhythm, and at length, as if tired of his task, or rather, willing to give the reader his original and more competent authority, he quits his prosaic narrative altogether, and without any notice of his intention, abruptly introduces the remainder of the Poem, from the passage at which he has arrived. The paragraph immediately preceding the lines (which may serve to compare with the corresponding lines of the versifier) reads thus: (Harl. MS. 2256, fol. 189.)

"And he [Sir Gilbert Umfraville] seide, what is 30ure wille, and thay seide at fewe wordis, we haue ben at euery porte of this cite there these princis loggeñ bifore & haue callid after speche of hem, but we cowde haue noon answere, furste at the duke of clarence the excellente prince, and from thens to the duke of Gloucestre, his worthie brothir, and ofte we clepud and long there stode, and so we come down to the duke of Exet' & there we gete noon.

And at Warwik that Erle so fre

We callid ofte," &c. &c.

This line will be found to occur at v. 636 of the Poem already printed in the Archæologia, vol. XXI., p. 68; but, as both the Harleian copies differ so considerably from the text there given as to render any attempt at collation difficult, if not impossible, it has been thought advise

sours for alle maner customes, and fee fermes and kateremes. And thanne the kyng entred into the toune, and restid hym in the Castelle tylle the toune was sett in rewle and in gouernaunce." MS. Cott. Claud. A. viii. f. 9.

e MS. Harl. 2256, fol. 184, b.

able to re-transcribe the whole, commencing from the above passage. The two MSS. Harl. are nearly of the same age, the one written on vellum, the other on alternate quires of vellum and paper, and both conclude with the capture of the Maid of Orleans, "callid the Puschelle," in the eighth year of Henry VI. In point of antiquity, perhaps No. 753 has slightly the advantage, and the Poem is there written in continuous lines, as if it were prose, but in No. 2256 it appears in double columns, and we have preferred forming our text from the latter on account of its being far more correctly written, adding at the bottom of the page an accurate collation of the former. They proceed in unison with the Bodley MS. to line 946, where the copy used by Mr. Conybeare ends imperfectly, and from this line to the conclusion is now for the first time printed. Both copies also conclude in the same manner, and the Prose Chronicler then proceeds with his narrative thus, (fol. 193. b.)

"Amen sey we alle pur cherite."

"And in this yere was quene Johñe that was kyng Henreis wiff the iiije arestid by John duke of Bedford," &c.

It will be admitted, I believe, by all who will take the trouble to compare the various contemporary narratives of the Siege of Rouen, that in point of simplicity, clearness, and minuteness of detail, there is no existing document which can compare with the Poem before us. Its authenticity is sufficiently established, from the fact of the author's having been an eye-witness of the whole. If we review the names of those Historians who lived at the same period, we shall have abundant reason to rejoice at so valuable an accession to our present stock of information on the subject. The tedious and inflated narrative of Thomas de Elmham wearies rather than interests, whilst the affected style of the writer known by the name of Titus Livius (in imitation of his Roman prototype) weakens the value of the facts he relates. The other English historians of that period, as Otterbourne, Walsingham, and Hardyng, pass over the event with a very slight notice, nor do we find the want of information in these supplied by many inedited MS. sources.