Ne was there none of the Muses nine,- n None of the fistren in number thrise thre, ALECTO eke: with LABOUR, and ENVIE, 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, Ne, him to fhrowde, faw no where no fuccour, 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 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 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 ર 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, |