be a copy of the HOUSE OF FAME of CHAUCER, in which that poet fees in a vifion a temple of glass, on the walls of which were engraved ftories from Virgil's Encid and Ovid's Epiftles. It also ftrongly resembles that part of Chaucer's ASSEMBLY OF FOULES, in which there is the fiction of a temple of brafs, built on pillars of jafper, whose walls are painted with the ftories of unfortunate lovers'. And in his ASSEMBLY of LADIES, in a chamber made of beryl and crystal, belonging to the sumptuous caftle of Pleafaunt Regard, the walls are decorated with historical sculptures of the fame kind. The fituation of Hawes's TEMPLE on a craggy rock of ice, is evidently taken from that of Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME. In Chaucer's DREAME, the poet is transported into an island, where wall and yate was all of glaffe'. These structures of glass have their origin in the chemistry of the dark ages. This is Hawes's exordium.

Me dyd oppreffe a fodayne, dedely flepe:
Within the whichè, methought that I was
Ravyshed in spyrite into a TEMPLE OF GLAS,
I ne wyft howe ful ferre in wyldernesse,
That founded was, all by lyckelyneffe,
Nat upon ftele, but on a craggy roche

Lyke yfe yfroze: and as I dyd approche,
Againe the fonne that fhone, methought, fo clere
As any cristall; and ever, nere and nere,

pears in that edition in faint John's college library at Oxford.

The ftrongeft argument which induces me to give this poem to Hawes, and not to Lydgate, is, that it was printed in Hawes's life-time, with his name, by Wynkyn de Worde. Bale alfo mentions, among Hawes's poems, Templum Cryftallinum in one book. There is, however, a no less ftrong argument for giving it to Lydgate, and that is from Hawes himfelf; who, reciting Lydgate's Works, in the PASTIME OF PLEASURE, fays thus, [ch. xiv. edit. 1555. Signat. G. iiii. ut infr.]

As I gan nyghe this grifely dredefull place,
I wext aftonyed, the lyght fo in my face
Began to fmyte, fo perfyng ever in one,
On every partè where that I dyde gon,
That I ne mightè nothing as I wolde
Aboutè me confydre, and beholde,

The wondre efters ", for brightneffe of the fonne :
Tyll at the lastè, certayne skyes donne

With wynde ychafed, han their course ywent,
Before the ftremes of Titan and iblent ",
So that I myght within and without,
Where fo I wolde, behelden me about,
For to report the facyon and manere
Of all this place, that was circuler,

In cumpace-wyse rounde by yntale ywrought :
And whan I had longe goòn, and well fought,
I founde a wicket, and entred yn as faste
Into the temple, and myne eyen caste

On every fide, &c .

The walls of this wonderful temple were richly pictured with the following hiftorical portraitures; from Virgil, Ovid, king Arthur's romance, and Chaucer.

ple.

I fawe depeynted upon a wall ',

From eft to weft ful many a fayre ymage,
Of fondry lovers, lyke as they were of age
I fet in ordre after they were true;

With lyfely colours, wonders fresshe of hewe,
And as methought I saw fom fyt and fom ftande
And some knelyng, with bylles' in theyr hande,

The wonderful chambers of this tem

A Dun. Dark.

• i. e. Collected.

Blinded, darkened the fun.

An fome with complaynt woful and pitious,
With dolefull chere, to put to Venus,
So as she fate fletynge in the fee,
Upon theyr wo for to have pite.

And fyrst of all I fawe there of Cartage
Dido the quene, fo goodly of visage,

That gan complayne her auenture and caas,
Howe she disceyued was of Aeneas,
For all his heftes and his othes fworne,
And fayd helas that she was borne,

Whan fhe fawe that dede she must be.

And next her I sawe the complaynt of Medee, Howe that she was falfed of Jafon.

And nygh by Venus fawe I fyt Addon,

And all the maner howe the bore hym floughe,
For whom the wepte and had pite inoughe.
There fawe I also howe Penelope,

For she so long ne myght her lorde fe,
Was of colour both pale and grene.

And alder next was the freshe quene;
I mean Alceft, the noble true wife,
And for Admete howe fhe loft her lyfe;
And for her trouthe, if I fhall nat lye,
Howe she was turned into a dayfye.

There was alfo Grifildis innocence,
And all hir mekeneffe and hir pacience.

There was eke Yfaude, and many other mo,
And all the tourment and all the cruell wo
That fhe had for Triftram all her lyue;
And howe that Tybe her hert dyd ryue
With thylke fwerde of fyr Pyramus.

And all maner, howe that Thefeus
The minotaure flewe, amyd the hous
That was forwrynked by craft of Dedalus,

Whan that he was in prifon fhyt in Crete, &c.

And

And uppermore men depeinten might fee,
Howe with her ring goodlie Canace
Of every foule the leden' and the fong
Could understand, as the hem walkt among:
And how her brother so often holpen was
In his mischefe by the ftede of brass *.

We must acknowledge, that all the picturefque invention which appears in this compofition, entirely belongs to Chaucer. Yet there was fome merit in daring to depart from the dull taste of the times, and in chufing Chaucer for a model, after his fublime fancies had been fo long forgotten, and had given place for almost a century, to legends, homilies, and chronicles in verfe. In the mean time, there is reason to believe, that Chaucer himfelf copied these imageries from the romance of GUIGEMAR, one of the metrical TALES, or LAIS, of Bretagne ", translated from the Armorican original into French, by Marie, a French poetefs, about the thirteenth century: in which the walls of a chamber are painted with Venus, and the Art of love from Ovid. Although, perhaps, Chaucer might not look further than the temples in Boccacio's THESEID for these ornaments. At the fame time it is to be remembered, that the imagination of these old poets must have been affifted in this respect, from the mode which antiently prevailed, of entirely covering the walls of the more magnificent apartments, in caftles and palaces, with ftories from fcripture, hiftory, the claffics, and romance. I have already given inftances of this practice, and I will

• Language.

See Chaucer's SQUIER'S TALE. "Fol. 141. MSS. Harl. 978. See fupr. DISSERTAT. i.

A paffage in Ovid's REMEDIUM AmoRIS concerning Achilles's fpear, is fuppofed to be alluded to by à troubadour,

Bernard Ventadour, who lived about the year 1150. HIST. TROUBAD. p. 27. This Monf. Millot calls," Un trait d'eru"dition fingulier dans un troubadour." It is not, however, impoffible, that he might get this fiction from fome of the early romances about Troy.

here

here add more". In the year 1277, Otho, duke of Milan, having restored the peace of that city by a signal victory, built a noble caftle, in which he ordered every particular circumftance of that victory to be painted. Paulus Jovius relates, that these paintings remained, in the great vaulted chamber of the castle, fresh and unimpaired, fo late as the year 1547. "Extantque adhuc in maximo teftudinatoque con"clavi, incorruptæ præliorum cum veris ducum vultibus ima

gines, Latinis elegis fingula rerum elogia indicantibus *." That the castles and palaces of England were thus ornamented at a very early period, and in the most splendid style, appears from the following notices. Langton, bishop of Litchfield, commanded the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral, of his patron king Edward the first, to be painted in the great hall of his epifcopal palace, which he had newly built. This must have been about the year 1312. The following anecdote relating to the old royal palace at Westminster, never yet was published. In the year 1322, one Symeon, a friar minor, and a doctor in theology, wrote an ITINERARY, in which is this curious paffage. He is speaking of Westminster Abbey. "Eidem monafterio quafi "immediate conjungitur illud famofiffimum palatium regium Anglorum, in quo illa VULGATA CAMERA, in cujus parietibus funt omnes HISTORIA BELLICE TOTIUS BIBLIA "ineffabiliter depictæ, atque in Gallico completiffime et per"fectiffime conftanter confcriptæ, in non modica intuen"tium admiratione, et maxima regali magnificentia *."

See fupr. vol. i. p. 303. To the paffages adduced from Chaucer thefe may be added, CHAUCER'S DREME, V. 1320. In a chamber paint

Full of ftories old and divers.

Again, ibid. v. 2167.

For there n' as no lady ne creture,
Save on the wals old portraiture

Of horsemen, hawkis, and houndes, &c. Compare Dante's PURGATORIO, c. x. pag. 105, feq. edit. Ald.

* Vit. Vicecomit. Mediolan. Oтно. р. 56. edit. Paris, 1549. 4to.

y Erdfwicke's Staffordshire; p. 101.

"Itinerarium Symeonis et fratris Hugonis Illuminatoris ex Hibernia in terram Jan&am, A. D. мCCCXXII." MSS. C. C. C. Cantabr. G. 6. Princip." Culmine "honoris fpreto." It comprehends a journey through England, and defcribes many curiofities now loft. See fupr. vol. i. p. 114.

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