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comprehends a variety of other fubjects; as a description of the kingdom of the Mercians, the lives of faint Etheldred and faint Sexburgh', the foundation of the city of Chester and a chronicle of our kings. It is collected from Bede, Alfred of Beverly, Malmesbury, Girardus Cambrenfis, Higden's Polychronicon, and the paffionaries of the female faints, Werburgh, Etheldred, and Sexburgh, which were kept for

* Lib. i. c. ii.

y Lib. i. cap. xviii. xix.
z Lib. i. cap. iii.

a Lib. ii. cap. xv. The fashion of writing metrical Chronicles of the kings of England grew very fashionable in this century. See fupr. vol. i. p. 92. Many of these are evidently compofed for the harp: but they are mostly mere genealogical deductions. Hearne has printed, from the Heralds office, a PETEGREE of our kings, from William the conqueror to Henry the fixth, written in 1448. [APPENDIX to Rob. Glouceftr. vol. ii. p. 585. fee p. 588.] This is a specimen.

Then regnyd Harry nought full wyfe,
The fon of Mold [Maud] the emperyfe.
In hys tyme then feynt Thomas
At Caunterbury marteryd was.
He held Rofomund the fheen,
Gret forwe hit was for the queen :
At Wodeftoke for hure he made a toure,
That is called ROSEMOUNDES BOURE.-
And fithen regnyd his fone Richerd,
A man that was never aferd :
He werred ofte tyme and wyfe
Worthily upon goddis enemyfe.
And fithen he was fhoten, alas!
Atte caftle Gailard there he was.
Atte Fonte Everarde he lithe there:
He regnyd almost two yere.—
In Johne is tyme, as y underftonde,
Was entredyted alle Engelonde;
He was fulle wrothe and grym,
For preftus would nought fynge before
hym, &c.

Lydgate has left the best chronicle of the kind, and most approaching to poetry. The regnynge of kyngys after the conqueft by the monk of Bury. MSS. Fairf. Bibl. Bodl. 16. [And MSS. Afhmol. 59. ii. MSS. Vol. II.

Harl. 2251. 3. And a beautiful сору, with pictures of the kings, MSS. Cotton. JULIUS. E. 5.] Never printed. [Unless printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1530. 4to. "This

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myghty Wyllyam duke of Normandy."] This is one of the ftanzas. [See MSS. Bodl. B. 3. 1999. 6.]

RICARDUS PRIMUS. Rychard the next by fucceffyon, Ffirft of that name, ftrong, hardy, and notable,

Was crouned kynge, called Cur de lyon, With Saryzonys hedys ferved atte table: Sleyn at Galard by death full lamentable: The space regned fully ix yere ;

His hert buryed in Roon, atte highe autere.

Compare MSS. Harl. 372. 5. There was partly a political view in thefe deductions : to afcertain the right of our kings to the crowns of France, Caftile, Leon, and the dutchy of Normandy. See MSS. Harl. 326. 2.-116. 11. fol. 142. I know not whether it be worth obferving, that about this time a practice prevailed of constructing long parchment-rolls in Latin, of the Pedigree of our kings. Of this kind is the Pedigree of British kings from Adam to Henry the fixth, written about the year 1450, by Roger Alban, a Carmelite friar of London. It begins, "Confiderans chronico"rum prolixitatem." The original copy, prefented to Henry the fixth by the compiler, is now in Queen's college library at Oxford. MSS. [22.] B. 5. 3. There are two copies in Winchester college library, and another in the Bodleian. Among bifhop More's manufcripts, there is a parchment-roll of the Pedigree of our kings from Ethelred to Henry the fourth, in French, with pictures of the feveral moA a narchs,

public edification in the choir of the church of our poet's monaftery. Bradshaw is not fo fond of relating visions and miracles as his argument feems to promise. Although concerned with three faints, he deals more in plain facts than in the fictions of religious romance; and, on the whole, his performance is rather historical than legendary. This is remarkable, in an age, when it was the fashion to turn history into legend. His fabulous origin of Chester is not

narchs. MSS. 495. And, in the fame collection, a Pedigree from Harold to Henry the fourth, with elegant illuminations. MSS. 479. In the fame rage of genealogifing, Alban abovementioned framed the Defcent of Jefus Chrift, from Adam through the Levitical and regal tribes, the Jewish patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and priests. The original roll, as it feems, on vellum, beautifully illuminated, is in MSS. More, ut fupr. 495. But this was partly copied from Peter of Poitou, a disciple of Lombard about the year 1170, who, for the benefit of the poorer clergy, was the first that found out the method of forming, and reducing into parchment-rolls, HISTORICAL TREES of the old teftament. Alberic. in Chron. p. 441. See MSS. Denb. 1627. 1. Rot. membr.

ABBEY OF

As to Bradshaw's hiftory of the foundation of Chester, it may be classed with the FOUNDATION OF THE GLOUCESTER, a poem of twenty-two ftanzas, written in the year 1534, by the laft abbot William Malverne, printed by Hearne, Ubi fupr. p. 378. This piece is mentioned by Harpsfield, HIST. ECCLES. ANGL. p. 264. Princip. "In fundrie "fayer volumes of antiquitie." MSS. Harl. 539. 14. fol. 111.

b For as declareth the true PASSIONARY, A boke where her holie lyfe wrytten is, Which boke remayneth in Chester monastery.

Lib. i. c. vii. Signat. C ii. And again, ibid.

I folow the legend and true hyftory

After an humble ftile and from it lytell vary.

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• Even fcripture-history was turned into romance. The ftory of Efther and Ahafuerus, or of AMON Or Hamon, and MARDOCHEUS or Mordecai, was formed into a fabulous poem. MS. Vernon, ut fupr. fol. 213.

Of AMON and MARDOCHEUS.
Mony wynter witerly
Or Crift weore boren of vre ladi,
A rich kynge, hizte AHASWERE,
That ftif was on stede and stere;
Mighti kynge he was, i wis,
He livede muchel in weolye ant blis,
His bliffe may i nat telle zou,

How lange hit weore to schewe hit nou ;
But thing that tovcheth to vre matere
I wol zou telle, gif ze wol here.
The kyng lovede a knight so wele,
That he commaunded men fhould knele
Bifore him, in vche a streete,
Over all ther men mihte him meete;
AMON was the knihtes nome,
On him fell muchel worldus fchome,
Ffor in this ilke kynges lande
Was moche folke of Jewes wonande,
Of heore kynd the kyng hym tok
A qwene to wyve, as telleth the bok, &c.
In the British Museum, there is a long
commentitious narrative of the Creation of

Adam

so much to be imputed to his own want of veracity, as to the authority of his voucher Ranulph Higden, a celebrated chronicler, his countryman, and a monk of his own abbey ". He supposes that Chester, called by the antient Britons CAIR

Adam and Eve, their Sufferings and Repentance, Death and Burial. MSS. Harl. 1704. 5. fol. 18. This is from a Latin piece on the fame fubject, ibid. 495. 12. fol. 43. imperf. In the English, Peter Comeftor, the maifter of ftories, author of the biftoria fcholaftica, who flourished about the year 1170, is quoted. fol. 26. But he is not mentioned in the Latin, at fol. 49.

In Chaucer's MILLER'S TALE, we have this paffage, v. 3538.

Haft thou not herd, quod Nicholas alfo, The forwe of Noe with his felawship, Or that he might get his wif to fhip? I know not whether this anecdote about Noah is in any fimilar fuppofititious book of Genefis. It occurs, however, in the Chefter Whitfun Playes, where the authors, according to the established indulgence allowed to dramatic poets, perhaps thought themselves at liberty to enlarge on the facred ftory. MSS. Harl. 2013. This altercation between Noah and his wife, takes up almost the whole third pageaunt of these interludes. Noah, having reproached his wife for her ufual frowardnefs of temper, at laft conjures her to come on board the ark, for fear of drowning. His wife infifts on his failing without her; and swears by Chrift and faint John, that she will not embark, till fome of her old female companions are ready to go with her. She adds, that if he is in fuch a hurry, he fail alone, and fetch himself a new wife. At length Shem, with the help of his brothers, forces her into the veffel; and while Noah very cordially welcomes her on board, fhe gives him a box on the ear.

may

There is an apocryphal book, of the expulfion of Adam from Paradife, and of Seth's pilgrimage to Paradife, &c. &c. MSS. Ecclef. Cathedr. Winton. 4.

4 There is the greatest probability, that RALPH HIGDEN, hitherto known as a grave historian and theologist, was the com

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Done Rondall is Dan [dominus] Randal. In another of the Harleian copies of these plays, written in the year 1607, this note appears, feemingly written in the year 1628. [MSS. Harl. 2124.] "The Whitfun playes first "made by one Don Rondle Heggenet, a "monke of Chester abbey: who was thrise "at Rome before he could obtaine leave "of the pope to have them in the English tongue. Our chronicler's name in the text, fometimes written Hikeden, and Higgeden, was eafily corrupted into Higgenet, or Heggenet and Randal is Ranulph or Randolph, Ralph. He died, having been a monk of Chefter abbey fixty-four years, in the year 1363. In PIERS PLOWMAN, a frier fays, that he is well acquainted with the "rimes of RANDALL OF CHESTER." fol. 26. edit. 1550. I take this paffage to allude to this very perfon, and to his compofitions of this kind, for which he was probably foon famous. In an anony-" mous CHRONICON, he is ftyled Ranulphus Ceftrenfis, which is nothing more than RANDALL OF CHESTER. MS. Ric. James, A a 2 xi. 8.

LLEON, or the city of Legions, was founded by Leon Gaur, a giant, corrupted from LEON VAUR, or the great legion.

The founder of this citie, as fayth Polychronicon,
Was Leon Gaur, a myghte ftronge gyaunt,
Which buildid caves and dongeons manie a one,
No goodlie buildyng, ne proper, ne pleasant.

He adds, with an equal attention to etymology:

But kinge Leir a Britan fine and valiaunt,
Was founder of Chester by pleasaunt buildyng,
And was named Guar Leir by the kyng.

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But a greater degree of credulity would perhaps have afforded him a better claim to the character of a poet: and, at least, we should have conceived a more advantageous opinion of his imagination, had he been lefs frugal of those traditionary fables, in which ignorance and fuperftition had cloathed every part of his argument. This piece was first printed by Pinson in the year 1521. "Here begynneth the

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holy lyfe of SAYNT WERBURGE, very frutefull for all "criften people to rede f." He traces the genealogy of faint Werburg with much hiftorical accuracy.

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xi. 8. Bibl. Bodl. And again we have, RANULPHI CESTRENSIS ars compo"nendi fermones." MSS. Bodl. fup. N. 2. Art. 10. And in many other places.

By the way, if it be true that these MYSTERIES were compofed in the year 1328, and there was fo much difficulty in obtaining the pope's permiffion that they might be prefented in English, a prefumptive proof arifes, that all our MYSTERIES before that period were in Latin. These plays will therefore have the merit of being the first English interludes.

Lib. ii. c. iii.

In octavo. With a wooden cut of the

Saint. Princip. "When Phebus had ronne "his cours in Sagittari." At the beginning is an English copy of verses, by J. T. And at the end two others.

A defcrypcyon of the geanalogy of SAYNT
WERBURGE, &c.

This noble prynces, the doughter of Syon,
The floure of vertu, and vyrgyn gloryous,
Bleffed faynt Werburge, full of devocyon,
Defcended by auncetry, and tytle famous,
Of foure myghty kynges, noble and vyc-
toryous,

Reynynge

.

The most splendid paffage of this poem, is the following defcription of the feast made by king Ulpher in the hall of the abbey of Ely, when his daughter Werburgh was admitted to the veil in that monaftery. Among other curious anecdotes of antient manners, the fubjects of the tapestry, with which the hall was hung, and of the fongs fung by the minstrels, on this folemn occafion, are given at large 1.

Kynge Wulfer her father at this ghoftly spousage
Prepared great tryumphes, and folempnyte;
Made a royall feeft, as cuftome is of maryage,
Sende for his frendes, after good humanyte
Kepte a noble houfholde, fhewed great lyberalyte

Both to ryche and poore, that to this feest wolde come,
No man was denyed, every man was wellcome.

Her uncles and auntes, were present there all
Ethelred and Merwalde, and Mercelly alfo
Thre bleffed kynges, whome fayntes we do call

Saint Kenefwyd, faint Keneburg, their fifters both two
And of her noble lynage, many other mo

Were redy that season, with reverence and honour
At this noble tryumphe, to do all theyr devour.

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