the addition of fume epiftles and epigrams, in the same style, did not, I believe, appear in print before the year 1554°. Coccaie is often cited by Rabelais, a writer of a cogenial caft'. The three laft books, containing a defcription of hell, are a parody on part of Dante's INFERNO. In the preface, or APOLOGETICA, our author gives an account of this new species of poetry, fince called the MACARONIC, which I must give in his own words. "Ars ista poetica nuncupatur "Ars MACARONICA, a Macaronibus derivata: qui Macarones "funt quoddam pulmentum, farina, cafeo, butyro compa"ginatum, groffum, rude, et rufticanum. Ideo MACA RONICA nil nifi groffedinem, ruditatem, et VOCABULAZZOS, "debet in fe continere." Vavaffor obferves, that Coccaie in Italy, and Antonius de Arena in France, were the two firft, at least the chief, authors of the femi-latin burlesque poetry". As to Antonius de Arena, he was a civilian of Avignon; and wrote, in the year 1519, a Latin poem in elegiac verses, ridiculously interlarded with French words and phrafes. It is addreffed to his fellow-ftudents, or, in his own words, « Ad fuos compagnones ftudiantes, qui funt de perfona friantes, baffas dansas, in galanti filo bifognatas, cum guerra Romana, totum ad longum fine require, et cum guerra Neapolitana, et cum revoluta Genuenfi, et guerra Avenionenfi, "et epiftola ad falotiffimam garfam pro paffando lo tempos '." I have gone out of my way, to mention these two obfcure writers with fo much particularity, in order to obferve, k Cum ipfis et illis Qui manent in villis, Of fuch pater nofter pekes All the worlde fpekes. e At Venice,, 8vo. Again, 1564. And, 613. 8vo. See Liv. iv. c. 13. ii. 1. xi. 3. See Menag. DICTION. ETYMOL. ORIG. Lang. Franc. edit, 1694. p. 462. V. MACARONS And O&. Ferrarius, ORIG. ITALIC. DICT. LUDR. p. 453 iHe wrote alfo DEBELLO MASSILIENST. Erythraeus mentions Bernardinus Stephonius as writing in this way. PINAсотн. і. P. 160. See also fome poems in Baudius, which have a mixture of the Greek and Latin. languages; and which others have imitated, in German and Latin. that that Skelton, their cotemporary, probably copied their manner: at least to shew, that this fingular mode of verfification was at this time fashionable, not only in England, but also in France and Italy. Nor did it cease to be remembered in England, and as a species of poetry thought to be founded by Skelton, till even fo late as the close of queen Elizabeth's reign. As appears from the following poem on the SPANISH ARMADA, which is filled with Latin words. A SKELTONICALL falutation, Of the Spanish nation; Spent many a crufado, In fetting forth the armado But I must not here forget, that Dunbar, a Scotch poet of Skelton's own age, already mentioned, wrote in this way. His TESTAMENT OF MAISTER ANDRO KENNEDY, which represents the character of an idle diffolute scholar, and ridicules the funeral ceremonies of the Romish communion, has + Printed at Oxford by Jofeph Barnes, 1589. 4to. See alfo a doggrel piece of this kind, in imitation of Skelton, introduced into Browne's SHEPHERD'S PIPE, Lond. 1614. 8vo. Perhaps this way of writing is ridiculed by Shakespeare, MERRY W. OF WINDS. A. ii. Sc. i. Where Falstaffe fays, "I will not fay, Pity me, 'tis not a fol"dier's phrafe, but I fay love me: by me Thine own true knight, by day or night, "Or any kind of light, with all his might "With thee to fight. See alfo the Interlude of Pyramus and Skel title of BOTTOM THE WEAVER. almost almost every alternate line compofed of the formularies of a Latin Will, and fhreds of the breviary, mixed with what the French call Latin de cuifine. There is fome humour, arifing from these burlesque applications, in the following ftanzas ". In die mea fepulturæ, I will have nane but our awin gang", Berand ane barrell on a ftang ̊; Singand and greitand with the stevin, I will no priestis for me fing, Nar yet no bellis for me ring But a bag-pyp to play a spring, Quatuor lagenas cervifiæ Within the graif to fett, fit thing, To fle the feyndis', then hardly fing I See ANT. SCOTTISH POEMS, Edinb. 1770. p. 35. And the Notes of the learned and ingenious editor; who says, that Dunbar's DERGE is a moft profane parody on the popish litanies. p. 243. m ST. xiii. xiv. My own merry companions. • A stake. With that verfe, or ftanza, in the Pfalms, "I have mingled my drink with "weeping." A hymn on the refurrection in the miffal, fung at funerals. Inftead of a crofs on my grave to keep off the devil. A verfe in the Pfalms. See other instances in Dunbar, ibid. p. 73. In George Bannatyne's-manufcript collection, of old Scotch poetry are many examples of this mixture: the impropriety of which was not perhaps perceived by our ancestors.. Ibid. p. 268. See a very ludicrous fpeci men We muft, however, acknowledge, that Skelton, notwith-. ftanding his fcurrility, was a claffical fcholar; and in that capacity, he was tutor to prince Henry, afterwards king Henry the eighth: at whofe acceffion to the throne, he was appointed the royal orator. He is ftyled by Erafmus, "Britanni"carum literarum decus et lumen ". His Latin elegiacs are pure, and often unmixed with the monaftic phrafeology; and they prove, that if his natural propenfity to the ridiculous had not more frequently feduced him to follow the whimfies of Walter Mapes and Golias", than to copy the elegancies of Ovid, he would have appeared among the first writers of Latin poetry in England at the general restoration of literature. Skelton could not avoid acting as a buffoon in any language, or any character. I cannot quit Skelton, of whom I yet fear too much has been already said, without reftoring to the public notice a play, or MORALITY, written by him, not recited in any catalogue of his works, or annals of English typography; and, I believe, at prefent totally unknown to the antiquarians in this fort of literature. It is, The NIGRAMANSIR, a morall ENTERLUDE and a pitbie written by Maifter SKELTON men in Harfenet's DETECTION, p. 156. "All you that stolen the miller's eeles, "Benedicamus domino." See a poem on Becket's martyrdom, in Waffe's BIBL. LITER. Num. i. p. 39. Lond. 1722. 4to. Hither we must refer the old Caroll on the BOAR'S HEAD, Hearne's SPICILEG. ad Gul. Neubrig. HIST. vol. ii. p. 740. [See alfo fupr. vol. i. p. 86.] Some of the metrical hymns in the French FETE DE ANE are in Latin and French. See MERCURE DE FRANCE, Avril. 1725. p. 724. fuiv. " See OP. p. 1019. 1021. : w Thefe two writers are often confounded. See the Second DISSERTATION. James fays, that Golias was not a name adopted by Mapes but that there was a real writer of that name, a collection of whose works he had seen. See MSS. [Bibl. Bodl.] JAMES, i. p. 320. Golias and Mapes appear to have been cotemporaries, and of a fimilar genius. The curious' reader will find many extracts from their poetry, which has very great merit in its way, among James's manufcript collections.The facility of thefe old Latin rhymers is amazing: and they have a degree of humour and elegance far exceeding their age. laureate laureate and plaid before the king and other eftatys at Woodtoke on Palme Sunday. It was printed by Wynkin de Worde in a thin quarto, in the year 1504. It must have been presented before king Henry the feventh, at the royal manor or palace, at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, now destroyed. The characters are a Necromancer, or conjurer, the devil, a notary public, Simonie', and Philargyria, or Avarice. It is partly a satire on some abuses in the church; yet not without a due regard to decency, and an apparent respect for the dignity of the audience. The ftory, or plot, is the tryal of SIMONY and AVARICE: the devil is the judge, and the notary public acts as an affeffor or fcribe. The prifoners, as we may fuppose, are found guilty, and ordered into hell immediately. There is no fort of propriety in calling this play the Necro * My lamented friend Mr. William Collins, whofe ODES will be remembered while any tafte for true poetry remains, fhewed me this piece at Chichester, not many months before his death: and he pointed it out as a very rare and valuable curiofity. He intended to write the His TORY OF THE RESTORATION OF LEARNING UNDER LEO THE TENTH, and with a view to that defign, had collected many fcarce books. Some few of these fell into my hands at his death. The reft, among which, I fuppofe, was this INTERLUDE, were difperfed. In the Mystery of MARIE MAGDALENE, written in 1512, a Heathen is introduced celebrating the fervice of Mabound, who is called Saracenorum fortiffimus; in the midst of which, he reads a Leffon from the Alcoran, confifting of gibberish, much in the metre and manner of Skelton. MSS. Digb. 133. y Simony is introduced as a person in SIR PENNY, an old Scotch poem, written in 1527, by Stewart of Lorne. See ANTIENT SCOTTISH POEMS. Edinb. 1770. 8vo. p. 154. So wily can fyr Peter wink, And als fir SYMONY his fervand, And again, in an antient anonymous Scotch poem, ibid. p. 253. At a feaft, to which many diforderly perfons are invited, among the rest are, And twa lerit men thairby, Schir Ochir and fchir SIMONY. That is, fir Ufury and fir Simony. SIMONY is also a character in Pierce Plowman's VISIONS. Paff. fec. fol. viii. b. edit. 1550. Wiccliffe, who flourished about the year 1350, thus defcribes the ftate of Simony in his time. "Some "lords, to colouren their Symony, wole "not take for themselves but keverchiefs " for the lady, or a palfray, or a tun of "wine. And when fome lords wolden "prefent a good man and able, for love "of god and criften fouls, then some la"dies been means to have a dancer, a "tripper on tapits, or hunter or hawker, " or a wild player of fummers gamenes, "&c." MSS. C. C. C. Cant. O. 161. 148. There is an old poem on this subject, MSS. Bodl. 48. z Robert Crowley, a great reformer, of whom more hereafter, wrote " The Fable "of PHILARGYRIA, the great gigant of "Great Britain, what houfes were build"ed, and lands appointed, for his provifion, " &c." 1551. 4to. A a a mancer: |