Ne was there none of the Muses nine,-
By one accorde to maken melody:
For there fung not by heavenly harmony,
Neyther Clio nor Caliope,

n

None of the fistren in number thrise thre,
As they did, when PHILOLAIE'
Afcended up highe above the skie,
To be wedded, this lady virtuous,
Unto her lord the god Mercurius.-
But at this weddinge, plainly for to telle,
Was CERBERUS, chiefe porter of hell;
And HEREBUS, fader to Hatred,
Was there present with his holle kindred,
His WIFE alfo with her browes blacke,
And her daughters, forow for to make,
Hideously chered, and uglie for to see,
MEGERA, and THESIPHONEE,

ALECTO eke: with LABOUR, and ENVIE,
DREDE, FRAUDE, and false TRETCHERIE,
TRESON, POVERT, INDIGENCE, and NEDE,
And cruell DEATH in his rent wede':
WRETCHEDNESSE, COMPLAINT, and eke RAGE,
FEAR full pale, DRONKENESSE, croked AGE:
Cruell MARS, and many a tigre wood,
Brenning IRE, and UNKINDE Blood,
FRATERNALL HATE depe fett in the roote,
Sauf only death that there was no boote':
ASSURED OTHES at fine untrew',
All these folkes were at weddyng new;
To make the town defolate and bare,

As the story after shall declare ".

" PHILOLOGIA.

• NIGHT.

P Garment.

The attendants on Mars.

* Burning.

"Death was the only refuge, or remedy." "Oaths which proved falfe in the end.' "Pag. 629. col. 1.

The

The bare conception of the attendance of this allegorical groupe on these inceftuous efpoufals, is highly poetical and although fome of the perfonifications are not presented with the addition of any picturesque attributes, yet others are marked with the powerful pencil of Chaucer.

This poem is the THEBAID of a troubadour. The old claffical tale of Thebes is here cloathed with feudal manners, enlarged with new fictions of the Gothic fpecies, and furnished with the descriptions, circumstances, and machineries, appropriated to a romance of chivalry. The Sphinx is a terrible dragon, placed by a necromancer to guard a mountain, and to murther all travellers paffing by". Tydeus being wounded fees a caitle on a rock, whofe high towers and crested pinnacles of polished fione glitter by the light of the moon he gains admittance, is laid in a fumptuous bed of cloth of gold, and healed of his wounds by a king's daughter'. Tydeus and Polymite tilt at midnight for a lodging, before the gate of the palace of king Adraftus; who is awakened with the din of the strokes of their weapons, which fhake all the palace, and defcends into the court with a long train by torch-light: he orders the two combatants. to be difarmed, and cloathed in rich mantles ftudded with pearls; and they are conducted to repose by many a ftair to a stately tower, after being ferved with a refection of hypocras from golden goblets. The next day they are both efpoufed to the king's two daughters, and entertained with tournaments, feafting, revels, and mafques". Afterwards Tydeus, having a message to deliver to Eteocles king of Thebes, enters the hall of the royal palace, completely armed and on horseback, in the midst of a magnificent festival". This palace, like a Norman fortrefs, or feudal castle, is

X

Pag. 627. col. 2.

* Pag. 640. col. 2. feq.

y Pag. 633. col. 1. feq. Concerning the dreffes, perhaps in the mafques, we have

this line. pag. 635. col. 2.

And the DEVISE of many a SOLEIN WEDE.

Pag 637. col. 2.

guarded

guarded with barbicans, portculliffes, chains, and foffes". Adraftus wishes to close his old age in the repofe of rural diverfions, of hawking and hunting '.

The fituation of Polymite, benighted in a solitary wilder ness, is thus forcibly described.

Holding his way, of hertè nothing light,
Mate and weary, till it draweth to night:
And al the day beholding envirown,
He neither fawe ne caftle, towre, ne town;
The which thing greveth him full fore,
And fodenly the fee began to rore,
Winde and tempèft hidiously to arise,
The rain down beten in ful grifly wife;
That many à beaft thereof was adrad,
And nigh for ferè gan to waxè mad,
As it seemed by the full wofull fownes
Of tigres, beres, of bores, and of liounes
Which to refute, and himself for to fave,
Evrich in hafte draweth to his cave.
But Polymitè in this tempeft huge
Alas the whilè findeth no refuge.

Ne, him to fhrowde, faw no where no fuccour,
Till it was paffed almoft midnight hour".

When Oedipus confults concerning his kindred the oracle of Apollo, whofe image ftood on a golden chariot with four wheels burned bright and sheen, animated with a fiend, the manner in which he receives his anfwer is touched with fpirit and imagination.

And when Edipus by great devotion
Finished had fully his orifon,

The fiend anon, within invisible,

With a voice dredefull and horrible,

■ Pag. 644. col. 2. ↳ Pag. 635. col. 1.

C

Afraid. Fatigued.

P. 631. col. 2.
Bade

Bade him in hafte take his voyage

Towrds Thebes, &c.

In this poem, exclufive of that general one already mentioned, there are fome curious mixtures of manners, and of claffics and fcripture. The nativity of Oedipus at his birth is calculated by the most learned aftronomers and physicians'. Eteocles defends the walls of Thebes with great guns. And the priest" Amphiorax, or Amphiaraus, is ftyled a bishop', whose wife is alfo mentioned. At a council held at Thebes, concerning the right of fucceffion to the throne, Efdras and Solomon are cited: and the history of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerufalem is introduced. The moral intended by this calamitous tale confifts in fhewing the pernicious effects of war: the diabolical nature of which our author still further illuftrates by obferving, that discord received its origin in hell, and that the first battle ever fought was that of Lucifer and his legion of rebel angels '. But that the argument may have the fulleft confirmation, Saint Luke is then quoted to prove, that avarice, ambition, and envy, are the primary fources of contention; and that Christ came into the world to destroy these malignant principles, and to propagate universal charity.

At the clofe of the poem, the mediation of the holy virgin is invoked, to procure peace in this life, and salvation in the next. Yet it fhould be remembered, that this piece is written by a monk, and addreffed to pilgrims ".

T

HE third of Lydgate's poems which I proposed to confider, is the TROY BOKE, or the DESTRUCTION OF TROY. It was first printed at the command of king Henry the eighth, in the year 1513, by Richard Pinson, with this title, "THE HYSTORY SEGE AND DESTRUCCION OF TROYE. "The table or rubrifshe of the content of the chapitres, &c. Here after foloweth the TROYE BOKE, otherwife called the SEGE OF "TROYE. Tranflated by JOHN LYDGATE monke of Bury, and emprynted at the commaundement of oure fouveraygne lorde the kynge Henry the eighth, by Richarde Pinson, &c. the yere "of our lorde god a м.ccccc. and xIII "." Another, and a much more correct edition followed, by Thomas Marshe, under the care of one John Braham, in the year 1555°. It was begun in the year 1414, the last year of the reign of king Henry the fourth. It was written at that prince's

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a Grecian, both fouldiours and prefent at "and in all the fayd warres, and digested "in Latyn by the learned Guydo de Co"lumpnis, and fythes tranflated into Eng

lyfhe verfe by John Lydgate moncke of "Burye and newly imprinted." The colophon, Imprinted at London in Flete"ftrete at the fygne of the Princes Armes "by Thomas Marfhe. Anno. do. M.D.L.V." This book was modernised, and printed in five-lined ftanzas, under the title, "The "LIFE AND DEATH OF HECTOR, &C. "written by John Lydgate monk of Berry, " &C. At London, printed by Thomas "Purfoot. Anno Dom. 1614." fol. But I fufpect this to be a fecond edition. Princip. "In Theffalie king Peleus once did

raigne." See Farmer's ESSAY, p. 39. 40. edit. 1767. This fpurious TROYEBOKE is cited by Fuller, Winstanley, and others, as Lydgate's genuine work.

command,