his fadre did dye, was begunn to be put up, and fomme houses neer the old church erased; it was drawn by Aflema, preeft of Saint Cutchburts, and offerd as a drawyng for Westminster, but cast asyde, being the tender did not speak French. "I had now mickle of ryches, and lyvd in a house on the hyll, often repayrings to mastere William, who was now lord of the house. I fent him my verses touching his church, for which he did send me mickle good things. "In the year kyng Edward came to Briftow, Master Cannings fend for me to avoid a marriage which the kyng was bent upon between him and a ladie he neer had seen, of the familee of the Winddivilles, the danger where nigh, unless avoided by one remidee, an holie one, which was, to be ordained a fonn of holy church, beyng franke from the power of kynges in that cause, and can be wedded.-Mr. Cannings inftauntly fent me to Carpenter, his good friend, bishop of Worcester, and the Fryday following was prepaird and ordaynd the next day, the daie of Saint Mathew, and on Sunday fung his first mass in the church of our ladie°, to the astonishing of kyng Edward, who was fo furiously madd and ravyngs withall, that master Cannings was wyling to give him three thoufand markes, which made him peace again, and he was admyted to the prefence of the kyng, ftaid in Bristow, partook of all his pleasures and pastimes till he departed the next year ". "I gave master Cannings my Briftow tragedy, for which he gave me in hands twentie pound, and did praise it more then I did think my self did deserve, for I can say in troth I was never proud of my verfes fince I did read master Chaucer; and now haveing nought to do, and not wyling to be • Moft probably Worcester cathedral. See above, p. 153. That is, the poem called the EXECUTION OF SIR CHARLES BAWDWIN, mentioned above, p. 153. What is there faid concerning this poem, greatly invalidates the authenticity of thefe MEMOIRS. Rowlie might indeed write a poem on this fubject; but not the poem circulated as his. ydle, ydle, I went to the minfter of our Ladie and Saint Goodwin, and then did purchase the Saxon manufcripts, and sett my self diligently to translate and worde it in English metre, which in one year I performd and fettled in the Battle of Haftyngs; master William did bargyin for one to be manuscript, and John Pelham, an efquire, of Ashley, for another. Master William did praise it muckle greatly, but advifd me to tender it to no man, beying the mann whose name where therein mentioned would be offended. He gave me twenty markes, and I did goe to Ashley, to master Pelham, to be payd of him for the other one I left with him. - "But his ladie being of the family of the Fifcamps', of whom fome things are faid, he told me he had burnt it, and would have me burnt too if I did not avaunt. Dureing this dinn his wife did come out, and made a dinn to speake by a 'figure would have over founded the bells of our Ladie of the Cliffe; I was fain content to gett away in a safe skin. "I wrote my Juftice of Peace', which mafter Cannings advifd me secrett to keep, which I did; and now being grown auncient I was feizd with great pains, which did cost me mickle of marks to be cured off.-Master William offered me a cannon's place in Westbury collige, which gladly had I accepted, but my pains made me to ftaie at home. After this mischance I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird fince Robert Confull of Gloucefter repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, fome marks it coft me to put it in repair my new house, and brynging my chattles from the ould; it was a fine house, and I much marville it was untenanted. A perfon greedy of gains was the then poffeffour, and of him I did buy it at a very small rate, having lookd on the ground works and mayne sup• I know nothing of this piece. A Norman family. ports, and fynding them ftaunch, and repayrs no need wanting, I did buy of the owner, Geoffry Coombe, on a repayring leafe for ninety-nine years', he thinkying it would fall down everie day; but with a few marks expence did put it up in a manner neat, and therein I lyvd.” It is with regret that I find myself obliged to pronounce Rowlie's poems to be spurious. Antient remains of English poetry, unexpectedly discovered, and fortunately rescued from a long oblivion, are contemplated with a degree of fond enthusiasm: exclufive of any real or intrinfic excellence, they afford those pleasures, arifing from the idea of antiquity, which deeply intereft the imagination. With these pleasures we are unwilling to part. But there is a more folid fatisfaction, resulting from the detection of artifice and imposture. I very much queftion, whether this technical law-term, or even this mode of contract, exifted in the year 1460. SECT. TH SECT. IX. HE fubfequent reigns of Richard the third, Edward the fifth, and Henry the feventh, abounded in obfcure verfifiers. A mutilated poem which occurs among the Cotton manuscripts in the British museum, and principally contains a fatire on the nuns, who not lefs from the nature of their establishment, than from the usual degeneracy which attends all institutions, had at length loft their original purity, feems to belong to this period. It is without wit, and almost without numbers. It was written by one Bertram Walton, whofe name now first appears in the catalogue of English poets; and whofe life I calmly refign to the researches of fome more laborious and patient antiquary. About the year 1480, or rather before, Benedict Burgh, a master of arts of Oxford, among other promotions in the church, archdeacon of Colchester, prebendary of faint Paul's, and canon of faint Stephen's chapel at Westminster, tranflated Cato's MORALS into the royal stanza, for the use of his pupil lord Bourchier fon of the earl of Effex. Encou The univerfity fealed his letters teftimo- с Gascoigne fays that "rithme royal is a verfe of ten fyllables, and ten fuch "verfes make a ftaffe, &c." Inftructions for verfe, &c. Sign. D.i. ad calc. WORKES, 1587. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 464. Notes, ".] Burgh's ftanza is here called balade royall: by which, I believe, is commonly fignified' the octave stanza. All thofe pieces in Chaucer, called Certaine Ballads, are in this measure. In Chaucer's LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, written in long verfe, a fong of three raged by the example and authority of fo venerable an ecclefiaftic, and tempted probably by the convenient opportunity of pilfering phrafeology from a predeceffor in the fame arduous task, Caxton tranflated the fame Latin work; but from the French verfion of a Latin paraphrafe, and into English profe, which he printed in the year 1483. He calls, in his preface, the measure, ufed by Burgh, the BALAD ROYAL. Caxton's translation, which superfeded Burgh's work, and with which it is confounded, is divided into four books, which comprehend feventy-two heads. I do not mean to affront my readers, when I inform them, without any apology, that the Latin original of this piece was not written by Cato the cenfor, nor by Cato Uticenfis: although it is perfectly in the character of the former, and Aulus Gellius has quoted Cato's poem DE MORIBUS. Nor have I the gravity of the learned Boxhornius, who in a prolix and elaborate differtation has endeavoured to demonftrate, that these diftichs are undoubtedly fuppofititious, and that they could not poffibly be written by the very venerable Roman whofe name they bear. The title is DISTICHA DE Moribus ad FILIUM, which are distributed into four books, under the name of Dionyfius Cato. But he is frequently called MAGNUS CATO. This work has been abfurdly attributed by fome critics to three octave ftanzas is introduced; beginning, Hide Abfolon thy gilte treffis clere. V. 249. p. 340. Urr. Afterwards, Cupid fays, v. 537. P. 342. a ful grete negligence Was it to thee, that ilke time thou made, Hide Abfolon thy treffis, IN BALADE. In the British Museum there is a Kalandre in Englyfshe, made in BALADE by Dann John Lydgate monke of Bury. That is, in this ftanza. MSS. Harl. 1706. 2. fol. 10. b. The reader will obferve, that whether there are eight or feven lines, I have called it the odave ftanza. Lydgate has, most commonly, only feven lines. As in his poem on Guy earl of Warwick, MSS. Laud. D. 31. fol. 64. Here ginneth the Without the gate remembered as I rede, See Vignol. Marville. Mifcell. tom. i. P. 56. Noct. Att. xi. 2. Seneca, --- |