be a copy of the House of FAME of CHAUCER, in which that

poet fees in a vision a temple of glass, on the walls of which were engraved stories from Virgil's Eneid and Ovid's Epistles. It also strongly resembles that part of Chaucer's ASSEMBLY OF FOULES, in which there is the fiction of a temple of brass, built on pillars of jasper, whose walls are painted with the stories of unfortunate lovers '. And in his AssEMBLY of LADIES, in a chamber made of beryl and crystal, belonging to the sumptuous castle of Pleafaunt Regard, the walls are decorated with historical sculptures of the same kind". The situation 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 glasse'. These structures of glass have their origin in the chemistry of the dark ages. This is Hawes's exordium.

Me dyd oppresse a fodayne, dedely slepe:
Within the whichè, methought that I was
Ravyshed in spyrite into a TEMPLE OF GLAS,
I ne wyst howe ful ferre in wyldernesse,
That founded was, all by lyckelynesse,
Nat upon stele, but on a craggy roche
Lyke yse yfroze: and as I dyd approche,
Againe the sonne that shone, methought, so clere
As any cristall; and ever, nere and nere,

1

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

The strongest 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 also mentions, among Hawes's poems, Templum Crystallinum in one book. There is, however, a no less strong argument for giving it to Lydgate, and that is from Hawes himself; who, reciting Lydgate's Works, in the PASTIME OF PLEASURE, says thus, (ch. xiv. edit. 1555. Signat. G. iii. ut infr.]

As I gan nyghe this grisely dredefull place,
I wext astonyed, the lyght so in my

face
Began to smyte, so persyng 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 esters“, for brightnesse of the sonne:
Tyll at the lastè, certayne skyes donne *
With wynde oychased, han their course ywent,
Before the stremes of Titan and iblent ,
So that I myght within and without,
Where so 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 historical portraitures

from Virgil, Ovid, king Arthur's romance, and Chaucer.

I sawe depeynted upon a wall',
From est to west ful many a fayre ymage,
Of sondry lovers, lyke as they were of age
I set in ordre after they were true ;
With lyfely colours, wonders fresshe of hewe,
And as methought I saw som fyt and som stande,
And some knelyng, with bylles' in theyr hande,

m The wonderful chambers of this temple.

^ Dun. Dark.
• i. e. Collected.
> Blinded, darkened the fün.

9 This text is given from: Berthelett's edition, collated with MSS. Fairfax. xvi.

From Pr. Cop. and MSS. Fairf. xvi. as before. Bills of complaint.

And

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

And fyrst of all I sawe there of Cartage
Dido the quene, so goodly of visage,
That gan complayne her auenture and caas,
Howe she disçeyued was of Aeneas,
For all his hestes and his othes sworne,
And sayd helas that she was borne,
Whan she sawe that dede she must be.

And next her I sawe the complaynt of Medee,
Howe that she was falsed of Jason.
And nygh by Venus sawe I fyt Addon,
And all the maner howe the bore hym foughe,
For whom she wepte and had pite inoughe.

There sawe 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 fresfhe quene ;
I mean Alcest, the noble true wife,
And for Admete howe she lost her lyfe ;
And for her trouthe, if I shall nat lye,
Howe she was turned into a daysye.

There was also Grifildis innocence,
And all hir mekenesfe and hir pacience.

There was eke Ysaude, and many other mo,
And all the tourment and all the cruell wo
That fhe had for Tristram all her lyue ;
And howe that Tysbe her hert dyd ryue
With thylke swerde of syr Pyramus.

And all maner, howe that Theseus
The minotaure flewe, amyd the hous
That was forwrynked by craft of Dedalus,
Whan that he was in prison shyt in Crete, &c.

And

And uppermore men depeinten might see,
Howe with her ring goodlie Canace
Of
every

foule the leden and the song
Could understand, as the hem walkt among :
And how her brother so often holpen was
In his mischefe by the stede of brasse.

cer.

We must acknowledge, that all the picturesque invention which

appears in this composition, entirely belongs to Chau

Yet there was some merit in daring to depart from the dull taste of the times, and in chusing Chaucer for a model, after his sublime fancies had been so long forgotten, and nad given place for almost a century, to legends, homilies, and chronicles in verse. 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 poetess, 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 same time it is to be remembered, that the imagination of these old poets must have been affifted in this refpet, from the mode which antiently prevailed, of entirely covering the walls of the more magnificent apartments, in castles and palaces, with stories from scripture, history, the claffics, and romance. I have already given instances of this practice, and I will

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 castle, in which he ordered every particular circumstance of that victory to be painted. Paulus Jovius relates, that these paintings remained, in the great vaulted chamber of the castle, fresh and unimpaired, so late as the year 1547 “ Extantque adhuc in maximo testudinatoque con“ clavi, incorruptæ præliorum cum veris ducum vultibus ima

gines, Latinis elegis singula 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 episcopal 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 passage. He is speaking of Westminster Abbey. “ Eidem monasterio quasi « immediate conjungitur illud famosissimum palatium re

gium Anglorum, in quo illa vulgATA CAMERA, in cujus

parietibus sunt omnes HISTORIÆ BELLICÆ totius BIBLIÆ “ ineffabiliter depi&tæ, atque in Gallico completissime et per“ fectiffime constanter conscriptæ, in non modica intuen“ tium admiratione, et maxima regali magnificentia ?.”

w See fupr. vol. i. p. 303. To the parfages adduced from Chaucer these may be added, CHAUCER'S Dreme, v. 1320.

In a chamber paint
Full of fories 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. OTHO. p. 56. edit. Paris, 1549. 4to.

y Erdswicke's Staffordshire; p. 101.

z “ Itinerarium Symeonis et fratris Hugonis Illuminatoris ex Hibernia in terram fan&iam, A. D. mcccxxvi.” MSS. C. C. C. Cantabr. G. 6. Princip. “ Culmine “ honoris fpreto." It coinprehends a journey through England, and describes many curiofities now loft. See supr. vol. i. p. 114.

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