Appollo first yfhewed his presence, Fresshe, yonge, and lufty, as any funnè fhene, And Dianà came with her arowes kene : And the following lines are remarkable. God hath a thousand handès to chaftyfe, A thousand bowès made in divers wyse, Lydgate, in this poem, quotes Seneca's tragedies for the ftory of Oedipus, Tully, Virgil and his commentator Servius, Ovid, Livy, Lucan, Lactantius, Justin or " prudent Juftinus an old croniclere," Jofephus, Valerius Maximus, faint Jerom's chronicle, Boethius, Plato on the immortality of the foul*, and Fulgentius the mythologist. He mentions" noble Perfius," Profper's epigrams, Vegetius's book on Tactics, which was highly esteemed, as its fubject coincided with the chivalry of the times, and which had been just tranflated into French by John of Meun and Christina of Pifa, and into English by John Trevifa", "the grene "B. iv. ch. 22. fol. cxiii. a. col. 1, w Tower.Castle. B. 1. ch. 3. fol. vi. a. col. 1. * B. i. ch. 9. fol. xviii. a. col. 1. y B. i. ch. 11. fol. xxi. b. col. 2. B. ii. ch. 6. fol. xlv. a. col. 1. B. iii. ch. 14. fol. lxxxi. b col. 1. Ibid. ch. 25. fol. lxxxix. a. col. 2. B. iv. ch. 11. fol. iii. b. col. 1. See PROL. B. i. B. ii. ch. 15. fol. li. a. col. 1. col. 2. Ibid. ch. 16. fol. 52. a. col. 2. Ibid. ch. 2. fol. xlii. a. col. I. Ibid. ch. 30. fol. lxii. b. col. 1. B. viii. ch. 24. fol. xiiii. a. col. 2. a B. iii. ch. 5. fol. lxxi. a. col. 1. b B. ix. ch. 1. fol. xx. a. col. 1. From whom Boccacio largely transcribes in his GENEALOGIE DEORUM, hereafter mentioned. MSS. Digb. Bibl. Bodl. 233. Princip. "In olde tyme it was the manere." Finished at the command of his patron Thomas lord Berkeley. See fupr. vol. i. p. 343. chaplet of Efop and Juvenal "," Euripides " in his tyme a great tragician, because he wrote many tragedies," and another called Clarke Demofthenes. For a catalogue of Tully's works, he refers to the SPECULUM HISTORIALE', or Myrrour Hyftoriall, of Vyncentius Bellovacenfis; and fays, that he wrote twelve books of Orations, and feveral morall ditties". Aristotle is introduced as teaching Alexander and Callifthenes philofophy". With regard to Homer, he observes, that "Grete Omerus, in Ifidore ye may fee, founde amonge "Grekes the crafte of eloquence." By Ifidore he means the ORIGINES, OF ETYMOLOGIES of Ifidore Hifpalenfis, in twenty books; a fyftem of univerfal information, the encyclopede of the dark ages, and printed in Italy before the year 1472 *.. In another place, he cenfures the fingular partiality of the book called Omere, which places Achilles above Hector'. Again, fpeaking of the Greek writers, he tells us, that Bochas mentions a scriveyn, or scribe, who in a small scroll of paper wrote the deftruction of Troy, following Homer: a history much esteemed among the Greeks, on account of its brevity". This was Dictys Cretenfis, or Dares Phrygius. d Prol. B. iv. fol. 92. a. col. 2. col. I. e B. ii. ch. 22. fol. 54. b. col. 2. * See fupr. vol. i. p. 93. a. This is 8 B. vi. ch. 15. fol. 151. b. col. 1. h B. iv. ch. 9. fol. xcix. feq. from Ariftotle's SECRETUM SECRETORUM, which Lydgate, as I have mentioned above, tranflated. But he did not finish the tranflation: for about the middle of it we have this note. "Here dyed this tranf"lator and notable poet John Lydgate, "monk of Bury, and FowLER bygan his "prolog in this wyfe. Where floure of knight"bood the bataile doth refufe." fol. 336. MSS. Laud. K. 53. The Prologue confifts of ten ftanzas: in which he compares himfelf to a dwarf entering the lifts when the knight is foiled. But it is the yong FOWLER, in MSS. Laud. B. xxiv. In the Harleian copy of this piece I find the fol lowing note, at fol. 236. "Here deyde "the tranflatour a noble poete Dan Johne "Lydgate, and his folewere began his prologe in this wife. Per Benedictum Burghe. Where floure of, &c." MSS. Harl. 2251. 117. Where Flowere may be a corruption of Fulwer, or Fowler. But it must be obferved, that there was a Benedict Burghe, coeval with Lydgate, and preferred to many dignities in the church, who tranflated into English verfe, for the ufe of lord Bourchier fon of the earl of Effex, CATONIS moralia carmina, altered and printed by Caxton, 1483. fol. More will be faid of Burgh's work in its proper place. i B. ii. ch. 15. fol. 51. a. col. 2. 1 B. iv. Prol. fol. 93. a. col. 1. But But for perpetuating the atchievements of the knights of the round table, he fuppofes that a clerk was appointed, and that he compiled a register from the pourfuivants and heralds who attended their tournaments; and that thence the hiftories of thofe invincible champions were framed, which, whether read or fung, have afforded fo much delight". For the stories of Conftantine and Arthur he brings as his vouchers, the chronicle or romance called BRUT OF BRUTUS, and Geoffrey of Monmouth. He concludes the legend of Conftantine by telling us, that an equestrian statue in brass is ftill to be seen at Conftantinople of that emperor; in which he appears armed with a prodigious fword, menacing the Turks. In defcribing the Pantheon at Rome, he gives us some circumstances highly romantic. He relates that this magnificent fane was full of gigantic idols, placed on lofty stages: these images were the gods of all the nations conquered by the Romans, and each turned his countenance to that province over which he prefided. Every image held in his hand a bell framed by magic; and when any kingdom belonging to the Roman jurisdiction was meditating rebellion against the imperial city, the idol of that country gave, by fome fecret principle, a folemn warning of the distant treason by ftriking his bell, which never founded on any other occafion'. Our author, following Boccacio who wrote the THESEID, fuppofes that Thefeus founded the order of knighthood at Athens'. He introduces, much in the manner of Boethius, a difputation between Fortune and Poverty; fupposed to have been written by ANDALUS the blake, a doctor of aftronomy at Naples, who was one of Bochas's preceptors. " B. viii. ch. 25. fol. xv. a. col. 1. See fupr. col. 1. p. 331. feq. B. viii. ch. 13. fol. 7. a. col. 2. fol. 14. b. col. 1. fol. 16. a. col. 2.. See fupr. vol. 1. p. 62. P B. viii. ch. 13. fol. viii. b. col. 2. Boc cacio wrote the original Latin of this work 9 B. viii. ch. 1. fol. xx. a. col. 1. At At Naples whylom, as he dothe specifye, Lydgate appears to have been far advanced in years when he finished this poem: for at the beginning of the eighth book he complains of his trembling joints, and declares that age, having benumbed his faculties, has deprived him " of all "the fubtylte of curious makyng in Englyfshe to endyte "." Our author, in the structure and modulation of his style, seems to have been ambitious of rivalling Chaucer": whose capital compofitions he enumerates, and on whose poetry he bestows repeated encomiums. I cannot quit this work without adding an observation relating to Boccacio, its original author, which perhaps may deserve attention. It is highly probable that Boccacio learned many anecdotes of Grecian history and Grecian fable, not to be found in any Greek writer now extant, from his preceptors Barlaam, Leontius, and others, who had lived at Conftantinople while the Greek literature was yet flourishing. Some of these are perhaps fcattered up and down in the compofition before us, which contains a confiderable part of the Grecian ftory; and especially in his treatise of the genealogies of the gods. Boccacio himself calls his mafter Leontius an inexhaustible archive of Grecian tales and fables, although not equally converfant with those of curiofus aftrologus. See Papyrius Mafs. Elog. tom. ii. p. 195. u B. vii. Prol. fol. i. b. col. 2. ad calc. He calls himself older than fixty years. w Prol. B. i. f. ii. a. col. 2. feq. * In fifteen books. First printed in 1481. fol. And in Italian by Betuffi, Venet. 1553. In French at Paris, 1531. fol. In the interpretation of the fables he is very prolix and jejune. the the Latins'. He confeffes that he took many things in his book of the genealogies of the gods from a vast work entitled COLLECTIVUM, now loft, written by his cotemporary Paulus Perufinus, the materials of which had in great measure been furnished by Barlaam. We are informed also, that Perufinus made use of some of these fugitive Greek scholars, efpecially Barlaam, for collecting rare books in that language. Perufinys was librarian, about the year 1340, to Robert king of Jerufalem and Sicily: and was the most curious and inquifitive man of his age for fearching after unknown or uncommon manufcripts, especially hiftories, and poetical compofitions, and particularly fuch as were written in Greek. I will beg leave to cite the words of Boccacio, who records this anecdote. Et, fi ufquam CURIOSISSIMUS fuit "homo in perquirendis, juffu etiam principis, PEREGRINIS undecunque libris, HISTORIIS et POETICIS operibus, iste "fuit. Et ob id, fingulari amicitiæ Barlaæ conjunctus, quæ " a Latinis habere non poterat EO MEDIO INNUMERA exhaufit a GRÆCIS." By thefe HISTORIA and POETICA OPERA, brought from Conftantinople by Barlaam, undoubtedly works of entertainment, and perhaps chiefly of the romantic and fictitious fpecies, I do not understand the claffics. It is natural to fuppofe that Boccacio, both from his connections. and his curiofity, was no ftranger to these treasures: and that many of thefe pieces, thus imported into Italy by the difperfion of the Conftantinopolitan exiles, are only known at present through the medium of his writings. It is certain that many oriental fictions found their way into Europe by means of this communication. Lydgate's STORIE OF THEBES was firft printed by William Thinne, at the end of his edition of Chaucer's works, in |