adopted from French enlargements of Colonna, and incorporated from romances on other fubjects, in the French RECUYEL OF TROY, written by a French ecclefiaftic, Rauol le Feure, about the year 1464, and tranflated by Caxton'. The description of the city of Troy, as newly built by king Priam, is extremely curious; not for the capricious incredibilities and abfurd inconfiftencies which it exhibits but because it conveys anecdotes of antient architecture, and especially of that florid and improved fpecies, which began to grow fashionable in Lydgate's age. Although much of this is in Colonna. He avoids to defcribe it geometrically, having never read Euclid. He fays that Priam procured, Eche carver, and curious joyner, To make knottes with many a queint floure That he fent for fuch as could " grave, groupe, or carve, "were fotyll in their fantafye, good devyfours, marveylous "of castinge, who could raise a wall with batayling and "creftes marciall, every imageour in entayle", and every portreyour who could paynt the work with fresh hewes, "who could pullish alabaster, and make an ymage." And yf 1 fhulde rehersen by and by, 1 As for instance, Hercules having killed the eleven giants of Cremona, builds over them a valt tower, on which he placed eleven images of metal, of the fize and figure of the giants. B. ii. c. 24. Something like this, I think, is in Ámadis de Gaul. Robert Braham, in the EPISTLE TO THE READER, prefixed to the edition of Lydgate's TROY-BOOK of 1555, is of opinion, that the fables in the French RECUYEL ought to be ranked with the trifeling tales and barrayne luerdries of ROBYN HODE and BEVYS OF HAMPTON, and are not to be compared with the fayth ful and trewe reports of this history given by Dares Phrigius and Dictys Cretenfis. m It is three days journey in length and breadth. The walls are two hundred cubits high, of marble and alabafter, and machiocolated. At every angle was a crown of gold, fet with the richest gems. There were great guns in the towers. On each turret were figures of favage and monftrous beafts in brafs. The gates were of brass, and each has a portcullis. The houses were all uniform, and of marble, fixty cubits high. Intaglia. The The fresh embowing with verges right as lynes, The ryche coynyng, the lufty tablemènts, Nor how they put, inftedè of mortère, Smote on the goldè that was burned bright. The fides of every street were covered with freshe alures ▾ of marble, or cloisters, crowned with rich and lofty pinnacles, and fronted with tabernacular or open work', vaulted like the dormitory of a monaftery, and called deambulatories, for the accommodation of the citizens in all weathers. And every house ycovered was with lead; And again, of Priam's palace. And the walles, within and eke without, Depeynt with afure, golde, cinople', and grene.- Wrought were with beryll and of clere cryftall. With regard to the reality of the last circumstance, we are told, that in Studley caftle in Shropshire, the windows, fo late as the reign of Elizabeth, were of beryl'. The account of the Trojan theatre must not be omitted, as it displays the imperfect ideas of the stage, at least of dramatic exhibition, which now prevailed; or rather, the abfolute inexistence of this fort of fpectacle. Our author supposes, that comedies and tragedies were first represented at Troy'. He defines a comedy to begin with complaint and to end with gladnesse: expreffing the actions of those only who live in the loweft condition. But tragedy, he informs us, begins in profperity, and ends in adverfity: fhewing the wonderful viciffitudes of fortune which have happened in the lives of kings and mighty conquerours. In the theatre of Troy, he adds, was a pulpit, in which stood a poet, who rehearsed the noble dedes that were hiftorial of kynges, prynces, and worthy emperours; and, above all, related those fatal and fudden catastrophes, which they sometimes fuffered by murther, poison, confpiracy, or other fecret and unforeseen machinations. And this was tolde and redde by the poete. Harrison's DESCRIPT. BRIT. Cap. xii. p. 188. The occupations of the citizens of Troy are mentioned. There were goldsmiths, jewellers, embroiderers, weavers of woollen and linen, of cloth, of gold, damafk, fattin, velvet, fendel, or a thin filk like cyprefs, and double famyte, or fatin, Smiths, who forged poll-axes, fpears, and quarrel-heads, or cross-bow darts fhaped fquare. Armourers, Bowyers, Fletchers, makers of trappings, banners, standards, penons, and for the fielde freshe and gaye GETOURS. I do not precifely understand the laft word. Perhaps it is a fort of orna mented armour for the legs, • All that follows on this fubject, is not in Colonna. Playing Playing by fignès in the people's fyght Wordes of joyè or of hevineffe,— It is added, that thefe plays, or rytes of tragedyes old, were acted at Troy, and in the theatre halowed and yholde, when the months of April and May returned. In this detail of the dramatic exhibition which prevailed in the ideal theatre of Troy, a poet, placed on the stage in a pulpit, and characteristically habited, is faid to have recited a series of tragical adventures; whofe pathetic narrative was afterwards expreffed, by the dumb gefticulations of a set of mafqued actors. Some perhaps may be inclined to think, that this imperfect fpecies of theatric representation, was the rude drama of Lydgate's age. But furely Lydgate would not have described at all, much less in a long and laboured digreffion, a public fhew, which from its nature was familiar and notorious. On the contrary, he describes it as a thing obfolete, and existing only in remote times. Had a more perfect and legitimate stage now fubfifted, he would not have deviated from his fubject, to communicate unneceffary information, and to deliver fuch minute definitions of tragedy and comedy. On the whole, this formal history of a theatre, conveys nothing more than an affected difplay of Lydgate's learning; and is collected, yet with apparent inaccuracy and confufion of circumstances, from what the antient grammarians have left concerning the origin of the Greek tragedy. "That which the poet fung, standing "in the pulpit." w The actors. * Themselves. y Lib. ii. cap. x. See alfo, B. iii. c. xxviii. Or Or perhaps it might be borrowed by our author from fome French paraphraftic version of Colonna's Latin romance. Among the antient authors, befide those already mentioned, cited in this poem, are Lollius for the history of Troy, Ovid for the tale of Medea and Jafon, Ulyffes and Polyphemus, the Myrmidons and other stories, Statius for Polynices and Eteocles, the venerable Bede, Fulgentius the mythologist, Juftinian with whose institutes Colonna as a civilian must have been well acquainted, Pliny, and Jacobus de Vitriaco. The laft is produced to prove, that Philometer, a famous philofopher, invented the game of chefs, to divert a tyrant from his cruel purposes, in Chaldea; and that from thence it was imported into Greece. But Colonna, or rather Lydgate, is of a different opinion; and contends, in oppofition to his authority, that this game, fo fotyll and fo marvaylous, was discovered by prudent clerkes during the fiege of Troy, and first practiced in that city. Jacobus de Vitriaco was a canon regular at Paris, and, among other dignities in the church, bishop of Ptolemais in Palestine, about the year 1230. This tradition of the invention of chefs is mentioned by Jacobus de Vitriaco in his ORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL HISTORY. The anecdote of Philometer is, I think, in Egidius Romanus on this fubject, above-mentioned. Chaucer calls Athalus, that is Attalus Philometer, the fame perfon, and who is often mentioned in Pliny, the inventor of chess*. I must not pass over an inftance of Lydgate's gallantry, as it is the gallantry of a monk. Colonna takes all opportunities of fatirifing the fair fex; and Lydgate with great politenefs declares himself abfolutely unwilling to translate thofe paffages of this fevere moralift, which contain fuch unjust and illiberal misrepresentations of the female character. Instead of which, to obviate these injurious reflections, our tranflator enters upon a formal vindication of |