from profe to verfe, in the course of a prolix narrative, seem to be made with much eafe; and, when he begins to verfify, the hiftorian disappears only by the addition of rhyme and stanza. In the first edition of his CHRONICLE, by way of epilogues to his seven books, he has given us The Seven joys of the Bleed Virgin in English Rime. And under the year 1325, there is a poem to the virgin; and another on one Badby, a Lollard, under the year 1409. These are fuppreffed in the later editions. He has likewife left a panegyric on the city of London; but despairs of doing justice to so noble a subject for verse, even if he had the eloquence of Tully, the morality of Seneca, and the harmony of that faire Lady Calliope . The reader will thank me for citing only one stanza from king Edward's COMPLAINT. When Saturne, with his cold and isye face, The ground, with his frostes, turneth grene to white; And causeth all verdure to avoyde quite : Then fortune, which sharpe was, with ftormes not lite P Edit. Lond. 1516. fol. Fol. 2. tom. ii. ut fupr. In the British Museum there is a poem on this fubject, and in the fame ftanza. MSS. Harl. 2393. 4to. 1. The ghost of Edward the fecond, as here, is introduced fpeaking. It is addreffed to queen Elizabeth, as appears, among other paffages, from ft. 92. 242. 243. 305. It begins thus. Whie should a wasted spirit spent in woe Disclose the wounds receyved within his breft? It is imperfect, having only 352 ftanzas. Then follows the fame poem; with many alterations, additions, and omiffions. This is addreffed to James the first, as appears from ft. 6. 259. 260. 326, &c. It contains 581 ftanzas. There is another copy in the I fing thy fad difafter, fatal king, As an historian, our author is the dulleft of compilers. He is equally attentive to the fucceffion of the mayors of London, and of the monarchs of England: and feems to have thought the dinners at guildhall, and the pageantries of the city-companies, more interesting transactions, than our victories in France, and our struggles for public liberty at home. One of Fabyan's hiftorical anecdotes, under the important reign of Henry the fifth, is, that a new weathercock was placed on the cross of Saint Paul's fteeple. It is faid, that cardinal Wolfey commanded many copies of this chronicle to be committed to the flames, because it made too ample a discovery of the exceffive revenues of the clergy. The earlier chapters of these childish annals faithfully record all those fabulous traditions, which generally fupply the place of historic monuments in defcribing the origin of a great nation. Another poet of this period is John Watson, a priest. He wrote a Latin theological tract entitled SPECULUM CHRISTIANI, which is a fort of paraphrafe on the decalogue and the creed'. But it is interfperfed with a great number of wretched English rhymes: among which, is the following hymn to the virgin Mary'. reference to the text, and on account of their fubject. Compare, MSS. Harl. 2251. 119. fol. 254. An unfinished poem on Edward the fecond, perhaps by Lydgate. Princ. "Beholde this greate prince Ed"ward the fecunde." MSS. C. C. C. Oxon. 155. MSS. Laud. G. 12. MSS. Thorefb. 530. There is an abridgement of this work, [MSS. Harl. 2250. 20.] with the date 1477. This is rather beyond the period with which we are at prefent engaged. Compare a hymn to the holy virgin, fupr. vol. i. p. 314. Mathew Paris relates, that Godrich, a hermit, about the year 1150, who lived in a folitary wild on the banks of the river Ware near Durham, had a vifion, in his oratory, of the virgin Mary, who taught him this fong. Seint Marie clane virgine, On fang bringe haeli widh the in godes rich. Matt. Parif. Hift. Angl. [HENRIC. ii.] In one of the Harleian manufcripts, many very antient hymns to the holy virgin occur. MS. 2253. These are fpecimens. 66. fol. 80. b. Bleffed be pou [thou] levedy, ful of heo- Swete flur of parays, moder of mildeneffe, Mary Moder, wel thou be; Mayden and moder was never none Schilde me fro ille, fchame, and tene, And out of dette, for charitee, &c". Caxton, the celebrated printer, was likewise a poet; and befide the rhyming introductions and epilogues with which he frequently decorates his books, has left a poem of confiderable length, entitled the WORKE OF SAPIENCE". It comprehends, not only an allegorical fiction concerning the two courts of the castle of Sapience, in which there is no imagination, but a fyftem of natural philosophy, grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, aftronomy, theology, and other Praye ze Jhefu by [thy] fone pat [that] he me rede and wyffe So my wey for to gon, þat he me nevere myffe. Ibid. 67. fol. 81. b. As y me rod his ender day, Lybe, and ich ou telle may al of pat fwete Ibid. 69. fol. 83. In French and English. Mayden moder mild, oyez cel oreyfoun, In the library of Mr. Farmer, of Tufmore in Oxfordshire, are, or were lately, a collection of hymns and antiphones, paraphrafed into English, by William Herbert, a Francifcan frier, and a famous preacher, about the year 1330. Thefe, with fome other of his pieces contained in Thefe four lines are in the exordium of a prayer to the virgin, MSS. Harl. 2382. (4to.) 3. fol. 86. b. [See fupr. p. 60.] " Printed by William Maclyn or Machlinia. Without date. w Printed by him, without date. fol. in thirty-feven leaves. topics topics of the fashionable literature. Caxton appears to be the author, by the prologue: yet it is not improbable, that he might on this occafion employ fome profeffed versifier, at least as an affiftant, to prepare a new book of original poetry for his prefs. The writer's defign, is to defcribe the effects of wisdom from the beginning of the world: and the work is a history of knowledge or learning. In a vision, he meets the goddess SAPIENCE in a delightful meadow; who conducts him to her caftle, or manfion, and there displays all her miraculous operations. Caxton, in the poem, invokes the gylted goddess and mooft facundyous lady Clio, apologifes to those makers who delight in termes gay, for the inelegancies of language which as a foreigner he could not avoid, and modeftly declares, that he neither means to rival or envy Gower and Chaucer. Among the anonymous pieces of poetry belonging to this period, which are very numerous, the most confpicuous is the KALENDAR OF SHEPHERDS. It seems to have been tranflated into English about the year 1480, from a French book entitled KALENDRIER DES BERGERS *. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in the year 1497'. This piece was calculated for the purposes of a perpetual almanac ; and seems to have been the univerfal magazine of every article of salutary and useful knowledge. It is a medley of verfe and profe; and contains, among many other.curious particulars, the faints of the whole year, the moveable feasts, the signs of the zodiac, the properties of the twelve months, rules for blood-letting, a collection of proverbs, a fyftem of ethics, politics, divinity, phifiognomy, medicine, aftrology, and geography. Among other authors, Cathon the great clarke*, Solomon, Ptolomeus the prince of aftronomy, and Ariftotle's Epistle to Alexander, are quoted. Every month is introduced refpectively fpeaking, in a ftanza of balad royal, its own panegyric. This is the fpeech of May. Of all monthes in the yeare I am kinge, In the theological part, the terrors and certainty of deathr are defcribed, by the introduction of Death, feated on the pale horse of the Apocalypfe, and speaking thus d. Upon this horfe, blacke and hideous The reader who is curious to know the ftate of quackery, astrology, fortune-telling, midwifery, and other occult fciences, about the year 1420, may confult the works of one John Crophill, who practifed in Suffolk. MSS. Harl. 1735. 4to. 3. feq. [See fol. 29. 36.] This cunning man was likewife a poet; and has left, in the fame manufcript, fome poetry spoken at an entertainment of Frere Thomas, and five ladies of quality, whofe names are mentioned: at which, two great bowls, or goblets, called MERCY and CHARITY, were brifkly circulated. fol. 48. a Epilogue. C Cap. 2. d Cap. xix. There |