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Two hundred days is grauntid of pardoun,
Writ and registred afforn his holy fhryne,
Which for our feyth fuffrede paffioun,
Blyffyd Edmund, kyng, martyr, and virgyne.

This is our poet's l'envoye.

Go littel book, be ferfull, quaak for drede,
For to appere in fo hyhe prefence.

Lydgate's poem called the LYFE OF OUR LADY, printed by Caxton', is opened with these harmonious and elegant lines, which do not seem to be deftitute of that eloquence which the author wishes to fhare with Tully, Petrarch, and Chaucer. He compares the holy Virgin to a star.

O thoughtfull hertè, plonged in diftreffe
With flombre of flouth, this long wynter's night!
Out of the slepe of mortal hevinesse

Awake anon, and loke upon the light

Of thilkè fterre, that with her bemys bright,
And with the fhynynge of her ftremes meryè,
Is wont to glad all our hemifperie' !—

This fterre in beautie paffith Pleiades,
Bothe of shynynge, and eke of ftremes clere,
Bootes, and Arctur, and alfo Iades,
And Efperus, whan that it doth appere :
For this is Spica, with her brightè fpere',

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That towarde evyn, at midnyght, and at morowe,
Downe from hevyn adawith ' al our forowe.-

And dryeth up the bytter terys wete
Of Aurora, after the morowe graye,
That the in wepying dothe on floures flete',
In lufty Aprill, and in fresfhè Maye:
And causeth Phebus, the bryght fomers daye,
Wyth his wayne gold-yborned", bryght and fayre,
To' enchase the myftès of our cloudy ayre.

Now fayre fterre, O fterre of sterrys all!
Whose lyght to fe the angels do delyte,
So let the gold-dewe of thy grace yfall
Into my brefte, lyke scalys fayre and whyte,
Me to enfpire!—

Lydgate's manner is naturally verbose and diffuse. This circumstance contributed in no small degree to give a clearness and a fluency to his phrafeology. For the fame reafon he is often tedious and languid. His chief excellence is in defcription, especially where the fubject admits a flowery diction. He is feldom pathetic, or animated.

In another part of this poem, where he collects arguments to convince unbelievers that Chrift might be born of a pure virgin, he thus fpeaks of God's omnipotence.

And he that made the high and cristal heven,
The firmament, and alfo every sphere,

The golden ax-tre, and the sterres feven,
Citherea, fo lufty for to' appere,

Affright. Remove. u Float. Drop.

Burnished with gold. So in Lydgate's Legend on Dan Joos a monk, taken from Vincentius Bellovacenfis's Speculum His

TORIALE, the name Maria is ful fayre
igraven on a red rofe, in lettris of BOURNID
gold. MSS. Harl. 2251. 39. fol. 71. b.
* Prologue.

y of the fun.

And

And redde Marfe", with his fternè here ;
Myght he not eke onèly for our fake
Wythyn a mayde of man his 'kyndè take?

For he that doth the tender braunches fprynge,
And the fresshe flouris in the gretè mede,
That were in wynter dede and eke droupynge,
Of bawmè all yvoyd and leftyhede;

Myght he not make his grayne to growe and fede,,
Within her breft, that was both mayd and wyfe,
Whereof is made the sothfast breade of lyfe?

We are furprised to find verses of so modern a cast as the following at fuch an early period; which in this fagacious: age we fhould judge to be a forgery, was not their genuineness authenticated, and their antiquity confirmed, by the venerable types of Caxton, and a multitude of unquestion-able manuscripts.

Like as the dewe difcendeth on the rofe
With fylver drops ‘.-

Our Saviour's crucifixion is expreffed by this remarkable: metaphor.

Whan he of purple did his baner sprede

On Calvarye abroad upon the rode,

To fave mankynde. .

Our author, in the course of his panegyric on the Virgin: Mary, affirms, that she exceeded Hefter in meekness, and Judith: in wisdom; and in beauty, Helen, Polyxena, Lucretia, Dido,,

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Bathsheba, and Rachel'. It is amazing, that in an age of the most fuperftitious devotion fo little difcrimination fhould have been made between facred and profane characters and incidents. But the common sense of mankind had not yet attained a just estimate of things. Lydgate, in another piece, has verfified the rubrics of the miffal, which he applies to the god Cupid: and declares, with how much delight he frequently meditated on the holy legend of those conftant martyrs, who were not afraid to fuffer death for the faith of that omnipotent divinity. There are instances, in which religion was even made the inftrument of love. Arnaud Daniel, a celebrated troubadour of the thirteenth century, in a fit of amorous defpair, promifes to found a multitude of annual maffes, and to dedicate perpetual tapers to the fhrines of faints, for the important purpose of obtaining the affections of an obdurate mistress.

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SECT. IV.

UT OF
the SIEGE OF THEBES, and the DESTRUCTION OF TROY.

BUT Lydgate's principal poems are the FALL OF PRINCes,

Of all these I shall speak diftinctly.

About the year 1360, Boccacio wrote a Latin history in ten books, entitled DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ET FEMINARUM ILLUSTRIUM. Like other chronicles of the times, it commences with Adam, and is brought down to the author's age. Its laft grand event is John king of France taken prifoner by the English at the battle of Poitiers, in the year 1359. This book of Boccacio was foon afterwards tranflated into French, by one of whom little more feems to be known, than that he was named Laurence; yet so paraphrastically, and with so many confiderable additions, almost to be rendered a new work". Laurence's French

a Printed at Aufbourg. And at Paris, 1544. fol. It is amazing, that Voffius

fhould not know the number of books of which this work confifted, and that it was ever printed. De Hift. Lat. lib. iii. cap. ii. It was tranflated into Italian by Betuffi, in Firenza, 1566. 8vo. 2 volum.

In Lydgate's PROLOGUE, B. i. fol. i. a col. 1. edit. ut infr.

He that fumtime did his diligence The boke of Bochas in French to tranflate Out of Latin, he called was LAURENCE. He fays that Laurence (in his Prologue) declares, that he avails himself of the privilege of skillful artificers; who may chaunge and turne, by good difcretion, shapes and forms, and newly them devife, make and unmake, &c. And that old authors may be rendered more agreeable, by being cloathed in new ornaments of language, and improved with new inventions. Ibid. a. col.1. He adds, that it was Laurence's defign, in

fo

as

his tranflation into French, to amende, cor-
rect, and declare, and not to spare thinges
Afterwards
touched fhortly. Ibid. col. 2.

he calls him this noble tranflatour. Ibid. b.
col. I. In another place, where a panegy-
ric on France is introduced, he fays tha
this paffage is not Boccacio's, but added,
By one LAURENCE, which was tranflatour
Of this proceffe, to commende France;
To prayfe that lande was all his pleasaunce.
B. ix. ch. 28. fol. 31. a. col. 1. edit ut infr.
Our author, in the Prologue above-cited,
feems to speak as if there had been a pro-
vious tranflation of Boccacio's book into
French. Ut fupr. a. col. 1.

Thus LAURENCE from him envy excluded
Though toforne him tranflated was this book.
But I fufpect he only means, that Boccacio's
original work was nothing more than a
collection or compilation from more an-
cient authors.

tranflation,

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