Siththe was fchewed him bi
Murththe and munftralfy,
And preyed hem do gladly,
With ryal rechet 1.

Bi the bordes up thei ftode, &c.

Pag. 13. 1.

15. READ "Ciclatoun ant purpel pal."

Pag. 14. to Not. . ADD, "The LIVES OF THE SAINTS in verse, in Bennet library, contain the martyrdom and translation of Becket, Num. clxv. This manufcript is fuppofed to be of the fourteenth century. Archbishop Parker, in a remark prefixed, has affigned the compofition to the reign of Henry the second. But in that case, Becket's tranflation, which did not happen till the reign of king John, must have been added. See a fpecimen in Mr. Nasmith's accurate and learned CATALOGUE of the Bennet manufcripts, pag. 217. Cantab. 1777. 4to. There is a manuscript of these LIVES in Trinity college library at Oxford, but it has not the Life of Becket. MSS. NUM. LVII. In Pergamen. fol. The writing is about the fourteenth century.

I will tranfcribe a few lines from the

LIFE of SAINT CUTHBERT. f. 2. b.

Seint Cuthberd was ybore here in Engelonde,

God dude for him meraccle, as ze scholleth vnderstonde.
And wel zong child he was, in his eigtethe zere,

Wit children he pleyde atte balle, that his felawes were:

That com go a lite childe, it thozt thre zer old,

A fwete creature and a fayr, yt was myld and bold:
To the zong Cuthberd he zede, fene brother he sede,

Ne pench not fuch ydell game for it ne ozte nozt be thy dede:
Seint Cuthberd ne tok no zeme to the childis rede

And pleyde forth with his felawes, al so they him bede.

Tho this zonge

child y fez that he his red forfok,

A doun he fel to grounde, and gret del to him to tok,
It by gan to wepe fore, and his honden wrynge,

This children hadde alle del of him, and byfened hare pleyinge.
As that they couthe hy gladede him, fore he gan to fiche,
At even this zonge child made del y fiche,

A welaway, qd feint Cuthbert, why wepes thou fo fore
Zif we the haveth ozt myfdo we ne scholleth na more.
Thanne spake this zonge child, fore hy wothe beye,
Cuthberd it falleth nozt to the with zonge children to pleye,
For no fuche idell games it ne cometh the to worche,
Whanne god hath y proveyd the an heved of holy cherche.
With this word, me nyfte whidder, this zong child wente,
An angel it was of heven that our lord thuder fent.

Saxon letters are used in this manufcript. I will exhibit the next twelve lines as they appear in that mode of writing; together with the punctuation.

po by gan feint Cuthberd. for to wepe fore

He made his fader and frendis. fette him to lore

So þat he fervede bope nygt and day. to plefe god be more
And in his goughede nýgt and day. of fervede godis ore

po he in grettere elde was. as pe bok us hap y fed

It by fel pat feint Aydan. pe biffchop was ded

Cuthberd was a felde with schep. angeles of heven he fez

be biffchopis foule feint Aydan. to heven bere on hez

Allas fede feint Cuthberd. fole ech am to longe

I nell pis fchep no longer kepe. a fonge hem who fo a fonge
He wente to be abbeye of Germans, a grey monk he per bycom
Gret joye made alle pe covent. po he that abbyt nom, &c."

The reader will obferve the conftant return of the hemiftichal point, which I have been careful to preferve, and to represent with exactness; as I fufpect, that it fhews how these poems were fung to the harp by the minstrels. Every line was perhaps uniformly recited to the fame monotonous modulation, with

a pause

a pause in a midft: just as we chant the pfalms in our choral fervice. In the pfalms of our liturgy, this pause is expreffed by a colon and often, in those of the Roman miffal, by an afterifc. The fame mark occurs in every line of this manuscript; which is a folio volume of confiderable fize, with upwards of fifty verses in every page.

Pag. 18. Not. *. lin. 3. Instead of "Saint Dorman," READ "The Seven Sleepers."

Pag. 30. to Not. . ADD, "In the fame ftile, as it is manifeftly of the fame antiquity, the following little defcriptive fong, on the Approach of Summer, deferves notice. MSS. HARL. 978. f. 5.

Sumer is i cumen,

Lhude fing cuccu:

Groweth fed, and bloweth med,

And Springeth the wde nu.

Sing, сисси, сисси.

Awe bleteth after lomb,

Louth after calve cu;
Bulluc ferteth,

Bucke verteth:

Murie fing, cuccu:

Wel fings thu cuccu;

Ne fwik thou never nu.

That is, "Summer is coming: Loud fing, Cuckow! Groweth "feed, and bloweth mead, and springeth the wood now. Ewe "bleateth after lamb, loweth cow after calf; bullock starteth, "buck verteth': merry fing, Cuckow! Well fingest thou, "Cuckow, Nor ceafe to fing now." This is the most antient English fong that appears in our manufcripts, with the mufical notes annexed. The mufic is of that fpecies of compofition

which is called Canon in the Unifon, and is fuppofed to be of the fifteenth century.

Pag. 47. ADD to Not. ". " Compare Tanner in JOANNES CORNUBIENSIS, who recites his other pieces. BIBL. p. 432. Notes, f. 8.

g

Pag. 50. Not. . For " hills," READ "halls."
Pag. 59. 1. 9. For "monk," READ " canon."
Pag. 62. Not. '. lin. 7. READ " Johnston.'

“

Pag. 68. Not. ". lin. 1. DELE " abfurdly." And 1. 3. DELE "It is a catapult or battering ram.'

"

Pag. 68. Ibid. Notes, col. 2. After lin. 4. INSERT, "Sec infr. p. 72. MANGONEL alfo fignified what was thrown from the machine fo called. Thus Froiffart." Et avoient les Brabançons de tres grans engins devant la ville, qui gettoient pierres de faix et mangoneaux jufques en la ville.” Liv. iii. c. 118. And in the old French OVIDE cited by Borel, TRESOR. in V.

Onques pour une tor abatre,
Ne oit on Mangoniaux defcendre
Plus briement ne du ciel deftendre
Foudre pour abatre un clocher.

Ibid. ibid. After lin. 17. ADD, "The use of artillery, however, is proved by a curious paffage in Petrarch, to be older than the period to which it has been commonly referred. The paffage is in Petrarch's book de REMEDIIS UTRIUSQUE FORTUNÆ, undoubtedly written before the year 1334. "G. Habeo "machinas et baliftas. R. Mirum, nifi et glandes æneas, quæ "flammis injectis horrifono fonitu jaciuntur.-Erat hæc peftis "nuper rara, ut cum ingenti miraculo cerneretur: nunc, ut rerum peffimarum dociles funt animi, ita communis eft, ut quodlibet genus armorum." Lib. i. DIAL. 99. See Muratori, ANTIQUITAT. Med. Ev. tom. ii. col. 514. Cannons are supposed to have been first used by the English at the battle of Creffy, in the year 1346. It is extraordinary that Froiffart,

VOL. II.

b

who

who minutely describes that battle, and is fond of decorating his narrative with wonders, fhould have wholly omitted this circumstance. Mufquets are recited as a weapon of the infantry fo early as the year 1475. Quilibet peditum habeat balistam "vel bombardam." LIT. Cafimiri iii. an. 1475. LEG. POLON. tom. i. p. 228. These are generally affigned to the year 1520.

Pag. 72. 1. 6. READ "fueynes."

Pag. 73. to 1. 21. ADD this Note, "The rhymes here called, by Robert de Brunne, Couwée, and Enterlacée, were undoubtedly derived from the Latin rhymers of that age, who used versus caudati et interlaqueati. Brunne here profeffes to avoid these elegancies of compofition, yet he has intermixed many paffages in Rime Couwée. See his CHRONICLE, p. 266. 273. &c. &c. And almost all the latter part of his work from the Conquest is written in rhyme enterlacée, each couplet rhyming in the middle, as well as the end. As thus, MSS. HARL. 1002.

Plaufus Græcorum | lux cæcis et via claudis |
Incola cælorum virgo digniffima laudis.

The rhyme Bafton had its appellation from Robert Baston, a celebrated Latin rhymer about the year 1315. The rhyme frangere means uncommon. See CANTERBURY TALES, vol. 4. p. 72. feq. ut infr. The reader, curious on this subject, may receive further information from a manuscript in the Bodleian library, in which are fpecimens of METRA Leonina, criftata, cornuta, recriproca, &c. MSS. LAUD. K. 3. 4. In the fame library, there is a very antient manuscript copy of Aldhelm's Latin poem De Virginitate et Laude San&torum, written about the year 700, and given by Thomas Allen, with Saxon gloffes, and the text almost in femi-faxon characters. These are the two first verses.

Metrica tyrones nunc promant carmina casti,
Et laudem capiat quadrato carmine Virgo.

Langbaine,