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Solemply he fonge the scate of the Romans,
Ruled under kynges by policy and wyfedome,
Of theyr hye justice and ryghtful ordinauns
Dayly encreafynge in worshyp and renowne,

Tyll Tarquyne the proude kynge, with that great confufion,
Oppreffed dame Lucrece, the wyfe of Colatyne,
Kynges never reyned in Rome fyth that tyme.

Alfo how the Romayns, under thre dyctatours,
Governed all regyons of the worlde ryght wyfely,
Tyll Julyus Cefar, excellynge all conquerours,
Subdued Pompeius, and toke the hole monarchy
And the rule of Rome to hym felfe manfully;
But Caffius Brutus, the fals confpyratour,
Caused to be flayne the fayd noble emperour.

After the fayd Julius, fucceded his fyfter fone,
Called Octavianus, in the imperyall fee,
And by his precepte was made defcrypcyon
To every regyon, lande, fhyre', and cytee,
A tribute to pay unto his dignyte :

That tyme was universal peas and honour,
In whiche tyme was borne our blessed Savyoure.

All these hystoryes, noble and auncyent,
Rejoyfynge the audyence, he fange with pleafuer;
And many other mo of the Newe Teftament,
Pleasaunt and profytable for their foules cure,
Whiche be omytted, now not put in ure*:
The mynyfters were ready, theyr offyce to fullfyll,
To take up the tables at their lordes wyll.

y This puts one in mind of the Sheriffs, in our Translation of the Bible, among the

officers of the kingdom of Babylon, DAN,
iii. 2.
z Not mentioned here.

B b 2

Whan

Whan this noble feeft and great folempnyte,
Dayly endurynge a longe tyme and space,
Was royally ended with honour and royalte,
Eche kynge at other lyfence taken hace,
And fo departed from thens to theyr place:
Kyng Wulfer retourned, with worshyp and renowne,
From the house' of Ely to his owne manfyon.

If there be any merit of imagination or invention, to which the poet has a claim in this description, it altogether confifts in the application. The circumstances themselves are faithfully copied by Bradshaw, from what his own age actually prefented. In this refpect, I mean as a picture of antient life, the paffage is interesting; and for no other reason. The verfification is infinitely inferior to Lydgate's worst manner.

Bradshaw was buried in the cathedral church, to which his convent was annexed, in the year 1513. Bale, a violent reformer, obferves, that our poet was a perfon remarkably pious for the times in which he flourished. This is an indirect fatire on the monks, and on the period which preceded the reformation. I believe it will readily be granted, that our author had more piety than poetry. His Prologue contains the following humble profeffions of his inability to treat lofty subjects, and to please light readers.

To defcrybe hye hystoryes I dare not be so bolde,
Syth it is a matter for clerkes convenyent ;
As of the seven ages, and of our parentes olde,
Or of the four empyres whilom most excellent;
Knowyng my lerning therto infuffycient :

As for baudy balades you shall have none of me,
To excyte lyght hertes to pleasure and vanity ‘.

• Monastery.

Ath. Oxon. i. 9.

c Cent. ix. Numb. 17.
Prol. lib. i. Signat. A. iii.

A great

A great translator of the lives of the Saxon faints, from the Saxon, in which language only they were then extant, into Latin, was Gofcelinus, a monk of Saint Austin's at Canterbury, who paffed from France into England, with Herman, bishop of Salisbury, about the year 1058°. As the Saxon language was at this time but little understood, these translations opened a new and ample treasure of religious. history: nor were they acquifitions only to the religion, but to the literature, of that era. Among the reft, were the Lives of faint Werburgh', faint Etheldred, and faint Sexburgh, most probably the legends, which were Bradshaw's originals. Ufher obferves, that Gofcelinus also tranflated into Latin the antient Catalogue of the Saxon faints buried in England'. In the register of Ely it is recorded, that he was the most eloquent writer of his age; and that he circulated all over England, the lives, miracles, and GESTS, of the faints of both fexes, which he reduced into profe-histories *. The words of the Latin deserve our attention." In hiftoriis; "in profa dictando mutavit." Hence we may perhaps infer, that they were not before in profe, and that he took them from old metrical legends: this is a prefumptive proof, that the lives of the faints were at firft extant in verse. In the fame light we are to understand the words which immediately follow. "Hic fcripfit Profam fanctæ Etheldredæ '. Where the Profe of faint Etheldred is opposed to her poetical legend". By mutavit dictando, we are to understand, that he

• W. Malmesbur. lib. iv. ubi infr.Gofcelin. in Præfatt. ad Vit. S. Auguftini. See Mabillon, ACT. BEN. Sæc. i. p. 499. f Printed, ACT. SANCTOR. Bolland. tom. i. februar. p. 386. A part in Leland, Coll. ii. 154. Compare MSS. C. C. C. Cant. J. xiii.

8 In Regiftr. Elienf. ut infr.

See Leland. Coll. iii. p. 152. Compare the Lives of S. Etheldred, S. Werburgh, and S. Sexburgh, at the end of the HISTORIA AUREA of John of Tinmouth, MS. Lambeth. 12. I know not whether

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tranflated, or reformed, or, in the most general fenfe, wrote anew in Latin, these antiquated lives. His principal objects were the more recent faints, especially thofe of this ifland. Malmesbury says, "Innumeras SANCTORUM VITAS RECEN"TIUM ftylo extulit, veterum vel amiffas, vel informiter editas, "comptius renovavit": In this refpect, the labours of Gofcelin partly resembled thofe of Symeon Metaphraftes, a celebrated Conftantinopolitan writer of the tenth century: who obtained the distinguishing appellation of the METAPHRAST,

may refer the legend of Saint Euftathius, MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2.

Seynt Euftace, a nobull knyzte,

Of hethen law he was ;
And ere than he crystened was
Mene callyd him Placidas.
He was with Trajan themperor, &c.

A Latin legend on this faint is in MSS.
Harl. 2316. 42.

Concerning legend-makers, there is a curious ftory in MSS. James, xxxi. p. 6. [ad ITER LANCASTR. num. 39. vol. 40.] Bibl. Bodl. Gilbert de Stone, a learned ecclefiaftic, who flourished about the year 1380, was folicited by the monks of Holywell in Flintshire, to write the life of their patron faint. Stone applying to these monks for materials, was anfwered, that they had none in their monaftery. Upon which he declared, that he could execute the work just as easily without any materials at all: and that he would write them a most excellent legend, after the manner of the legend of Thomas a Becket. He has the character of an elegant Latin writer; and feems to have done the fame piece of fervice, perhaps in the fame way, to other religious houses. From his EPISTLES, it appears that he wrote the life of faint Wolfade, patron of the priory of canons regular of his native town of Stone in Staffordshire, which he dedicated to the prior, William de Madely. Epift. iii. dat. 1399. [MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Sup. D. i. Art. 123] He was Latin fecretary to feveral bishops, and could poffibly write a legend or a letter with equal facility. His epiftles are 123 in number. The first of

them, in which he is ftiled chancellour to the bishop of Winchefter, is to the archbifhop of Canterbury. That is, fecretary. [MSS. Cotton. VITELL. E. x. 17.] This bishop of Winchester must have been William of Wykeham.

The most extraordinary compofition of this kind, if we confider, among other circumftances, that it was compiled at a time when knowledge and literature had made fome progrefs, and when mankind were fo much less difpofed to believe or to invent miracles, more especially when the fubject was quite recent, is the LEGEND of KING HENRY the SIXTH. It is entitled, De MIRACULIS beatiffimi illius Militis Chrifti, Henrici fexti, etc. That it might properly rank with other legends, it was tranflated from an English copy into Latin, by one Johannes, ftyled Pauperculus, a monk, about the year 1503, at the command of John Morgan, dean of Windfor, afterwards bishop of faint David's. It is divided into two books to both of which, prefaces are prefixed, containing proofs of the miracles wrought by this pious monarch. At the beginning, there is a hymn, with a prayer, addreffed to the royal faint. fol. 72.

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because, at the command, and under the auspices of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, he modernifed the more antient narratives of the miracles and martyrdoms of the most eminent eastern and western faints, for the use of the Greek church or rather digefted, from detached, imperfect, or obfolete books on the fubject, a new and more commodious body of the facred biography.

Among the many ftriking contrafts between the manners. and characters of antient and modern life, which these annals prefent, we must not be surprised to find a mercer, a sheriff, and an alderman of London, descending from his important occupations, to write verfes. This is Robert Fabyan, who yet is generally better known as an hiftorian, than as a poet. He was esteemed, not only the most facetious, but the most learned, of all the mercers, fheriffs, and aldermen, of his time and no layman of that age is faid to have been better skilled in the Latin language. He flourished about the year 1494. In his CHRONICLE, or Concordance of hiftories, from Brutus to the year 1485, it is his ufual practice, at the divifion of the books, to infert metrical prologues, and other pieces in verse. The best of his metres is the ComPLAINT of king Edward the fecond; who, like the perfonages in Boccacio's FALL OF PRINCES, is very dramatically introduced, reciting his own misfortunes. But this foliloquy is nothing more than a tranflation from a fhort and a very poor Latin poem attributed to that monarch, but probably written by William of Wyrcefter, which is preserved among the manufcripts of the college of arms, and entitled, Lamentatio gloriofi regis Edvardi de Karnarvon quam edidit tempore fuæ incarcerationis. Our author's tranfitions.

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