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That he had flayne understond.

He there' schevyd oure other lordys of thys lond,
Forfothe that was a ful fayre daye.

Therefore all England maye

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this fyng

LAWS DEO We may well faye.

The Duke of Glocetor, that nys no nay,
That day full wordely he wrozt,

h

On every fide he made goode waye,

The Frenche men faste to grond they browzt.
The erle of Hontynton sparyd nozt,
The erle of Oxynforthe ' layd on all foo*,
The young erle of Devynfchyre he ne rouzt,
The Frenche men fast to grunde gan goo.
Our Englismen thei were ffoul fekes do
And ferce to fyzt as any lyone.
Bafnets bryzt they crafyd a to',
And bet the French banerys adoune;
As thonder-ftrokys ther was a fcownde",
Of axys and sperys ther they gan glyd.
The lordys of Franyse " lost her renowne
With grefoly wondys they gan abyde..
The Frensche men, for all here pryde,,
They fell downe all at a flyzt:

о

Te me rende they cryde, on every syde,
Our Englys men they understod nozt arizt".
Their pollaxis owt of her hondys they twizt,
And layde ham along ftryte upon the graffe.
They fparyd nother deuke, erlle, ne knyght'.

f Shewed. 8 Laus. h Worthily.
i Oxford.
k Alfo.
"They broke the bright helmets in

two."

m Sound.

• Griefly.

n France.

"They did not rightly."

9 Strait.

* Printed [from MSS. Cotton. VITELL.

D. XII. 11. fol. 214.] by Hearne, Elmham, ut fupr. APPEND. P. 359. Num. vi. See p. 371. feq. There is The BATTAYLE. of EGYNCOURTE, Libr. impreff. Bibl. Bodl. C. 39. 4to. Art. Selden. See Oв. SERVAT. on Spenf. ii. 41. Doctor Percy has printed an ancient ballad on this subject. ANC. BALL. vol. ii. p. 24. edit. 1767.. See Hearne's PRÆFAT. ut fupr. p. xxx.

These.

These verses are much less intelligible than some of Gower's and Chaucer's pieces, which were written fifty years before. In the mean time we must not mistake provincial for national barbarifms. Every piece now written is by no means a proof of the actual state of ftyle. The improved dialect, which yet is the estimate of a language, was confined only to a few writers, who lived more in the world and in polite life: and it was long, before a general change in the public phraseology was effected. Nor muft we expect among the minstrels, who were equally carelefs and illiterate, thofe refinements of diction, which mark the compositions of men who profeffedly studied to embellish the English idiom.

Thomas Occleve is the first poet that occurs in the reign of Henry the fifth. I place him about the year 1420. Occleve is a feeble writer, confidered as a poet: and his chief merit seems to be, that his writings contributed to propagate and establish thofe improvements in our language which were now beginning to take place. He was educated in the municipal law, as were both Chaucer and Gower; and it reflects no small degree of honour on that very liberal profeffion, that its ftudents were fome of the first who attempted to polish and adorn the English tongue.

The titles of Occleve's pieces, very few of which have been ever printed, indicate a coldness of genius; and on the whole promife no gratification to those who seek for invention and fancy. Such as, The tale of Jonathas and of a wicked woman'. Fable of a certain emperefs". A prologue of the nine lefons that is read over Allhalow-day". The most profitable and holfomeft craft that is to cunne, to lerne to dye'. Confolation of

X

He ftudied in Cheftres-inn where Somerfet-house now ftands. See Buck, De tertia Aglia Accademia, cap. xxv.

Ubi. infr. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. From the GESTA ROMANORUM.

Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Seld. fupr. 53. Digb. 185. Laud. K. 78. MSS. Reg. Brit. Muf. 17 D. vi. 2. This story seems to

be alfo taken from the GESTA ROMANORUM. Pr. "In the ROMAN ACTYS writyn."

Ubi fupr. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. x Know.

y MSS. Bodl. ut fupr. And MSS. Reg. Brit. Muf. 17 D. vi. 3. 4. The best manufcript of Occleve.

fered

fered by an old man". Pentafthicon to the king. Mercy as defined by Saint Auftin. Dialogue to a friend. Dialogue between Occleef and a beggar'. The letter of Cupid. Verfes to an empty purfe. But Occleve's most confiderable poem is a piece called a tranflation of Egidius DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM.

This is a fort of paraphrase of the first part of Aristotle's epistle to Alexander abovementioned, entitled SECRETUM SECRETORUM, of Egidius, and of Jacobus de Cafulis, whom he calls Jacob de Caffolis. Egidius, a native of Rome, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas, eminent among the fchoolmen by the name of Doctor Fundatiffimus, and an archbishop, flourished about the year 1280. He wrote a Latin tract in three books DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM, or the ART OF GOVERNMENT, for the use of Philip le Hardi, fon of Louis king of France, a work highly esteemed in the middle ages, and translated early into Hebrew, French, and Italian. In those days ecclefiastics and schoolmen prefumed to dictate to kings, and to give rules for administering states, drawn from the narrow circle of fpeculation, and conceived amid the pedantries of a cloister. It was probably recommended to Occleve's notice, by having been tranflated into English by John Trevisa, à celebrated tranflator about the year 1390. The original was printed at Rome in 1482, and at Venice 1498, and,

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appears to be Chaucer's, from the twenty additional ftanzas not printed in Urry's Chaucer, pag. 549. MSS. Harl. 2251. 133. fol. 298.

eWolf. Biblioth. Hebr. tom. iii. p. 1206. It was tranflated into French by Henry de Gand, at the command of Philip king of France. Mem. de Lit. tom. xvii. P. 733. 4to.

Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digb. 233. Princip. "To his fpecial, [etc.] politik fentence "that is." In this manufcript there is an elegant picture of a monk, or ecclefiaftic, prefenting a book to a king. See fupr. vol. i. p. 343. Notes, g.

I think,

I think, again at the fame place in 1598. The Italian tranflation was printed at Seville, in folio, 1494, "Tran"fladar de Latin en romance don Bernardo Obispo de Osma

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impreffo por Meynardo Ungut Alemano et Staniflao Polono "Companeros." The printed copies of the Latin are very rare, but the manufcripts innumerable. A third part of the third book, which treats of De Re Militari Veterum, was printed by Hahnius in 1722'. One of Egidius's books, a commentary on Ariftotle DE ANIMA, is dedicated to our Edward the firft*.

Jacobus de Cafulis, or of Cafali in Italy, another of the writers copied in this performance by our poet Occleve, a French Dominican friar, about the year 1290, wrote in four parts a Latin treatise on chefs, or, as it is entitled in fome manufcripts, De moribus hominum et de officiis nobilium fuper LUDO LATRUNCULORUM five SCACCORUM. In a parchment manuscript of the Harleian library, neatly illuminated, it is thus entitled, LIBER MORALIS DE LUDO SCACCORUM, ad honorem et folacium Nobilium et maxime ludencium, per fratrem JACOBUM DE CASSULIS ordinis fratrum Prædicatorum. At the conclufion, this work appears to be a translation'. Pits carelessly gives it to Robert Holcot, a celebrated English theologift, perhaps for no other reason than because Holcot was likewife a Dominican. It was printed at Milan in 1479. I believe it was as great a favourite as Egidius on GOVERNMENT, for it was tranflated into French by John Ferron, and John Du Vignay, a monk hofpitalar of Saint James du

h All in folio. Thofe of 1482, and 1598, are in the Bodleian library. In AllSouls college library at Oxford, there is a manufcript TABULA IN EGIDIUM DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM, by one Thomas Abyndon. MSS. G. i. 5.

i In the first tome of Collectio Monumentorum veter. et recent. ineditorum. E. Cod. MS. in Biblioth. Obrecktina. The curious

reader may fee a full account of Ægidius de REGIMINE PRINCIPUM in Morlier, Effais de Litterature, tom. i. p. 198. feq. And of the Venetian edition in 1498, in Theophilus Sincerus De Libris Rariorib. tom. i. p. 82. feq.

k Cave, p. 755. edit. 1688.

1 MSS. Harl. 1275. 1. 4to. membran.

Haut-pag,

Haut-pag", under the patronage of Jeanne dutchefs of Bourgogne, Caxton's patronefs, about the year 1360, with the title of LE JEU DES ECHECS moralife, or Le traite des Nobles et de gens du peuple felon le JEU DES ECHECS. This was afterwards tranflated by Caxton, in 1474, who did not know that the French was a tranflation from the Latin, and called the GAME OF THE CHESS. It was alfo tranflated into German, both profe and verfe, by Conrade von Almenhufen ". Bale abfurdly supposes that Occleve made a separate and regular tranflation of this work.

Occleve's poem was never printed. This is a part of the Prologue.

Aristotle, most famous philofofre",

His epiftles to Alifaunder fent';

Whos fentence is wel bet then golde in cofre,

And more holfum, grounded in trewe entent,
Fore all that ever the Epistle ment
To fette us this worthi conqueroure,
In rewle howe to fufteyne his honoure,
The tender love, and the fervent good chere,
That the worthi clerke aye to this king bere,
Thrufting fore his welth durable to be,
Unto his hert flah and fate fovere,
That bi writing his counsel gaf he clere

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