the ladies; not by a panegyric on their beauty, nor encomiums on those amiable accomplishments, by which they refine our fenfibilities, and give elegance to life; but by a display of that religious fortitude with which fome women have suffered martyrdom; or of that inflexible chastity, by means of which others have been fnatched up alive into heaven, in a state of genuine virginity. Among other striking examples which the calendar affords, he mentions the tranfcendent grace of the eleven thousand virgins who were martyred at Cologne in Germany. In the mean time, female faints, as I suspect, in the barbarous ages were regarded with a greater degree of respect, on account of thofe exaggerated ideas of gallantry which chivalry inspired; and it is not improbable that the distinguished honours paid to the virgin Mary might have partly proceeded from this principle. Among the anachronistic improprieties which this poem contains, some of which have been pointed out, the most confpicuous is the fiction of Hector's fepulchre, or tomb: which also merits our attention for another reason, as it affords us an opportunity of adding fome other notices of the modes of antient architecture to those already mentioned. The poet from Colonna supposes, that Hector was buried in the principal church of Troy, near the high altar, within a magnificent oratory, erected for that purpose, exactly resembling the Gothic fhrines of our cathedrals, yet charged with many romantic decorations. With crafty archys rayfyd wonder clene, The structure is supported by angels of gold. The steps are of crystall. Within, is not only an image of Hector in folid gold; but his body embalmed, and exhibited to view with the refemblance of real life, by means of a precious liquor circulating through every part in golden tubes artificially difpofed, and operating on the principles of vegetation. This is from the chemistry of the times. Before the body were four inextinguishible lamps in golden fockets. To complete the work, Priam founds a regular chantry of priests, whom he accommodates with manfions near the church, and endows with revenues, to fing in this oratory for the foul of his fon Hector . In the Bodleian library, there is a prodigious folio manuscript on vellum, a translation of Colonna's TROJAN HISTORY into verfe; which has been confounded with Lydgate's TROYE-BOKE now before us. But it is an entirely different work, and is written in the fhørt minstrel-metre. I have given a fpecimen of the Prologue, above. It appears to me to be Lydgate's TROYE-BOKE divested of the octave stanza; and reduced into a measure which might more commodiously be fung to the harp'. It is not likely that Lydgate is its e B. iii. c. xxviii. Jofeph of Exeter in his Latin poem entitled ANTIOCHEIS, or the CRUSADE, has borrowed from this tomb of Hector, in his brilliant description of the mausoleum of Teuthras. lib. iv. 451. I have quoted the paffage in the SECOND DISSERTATION. Signat. i. MSS. Laud. K. 76. fol. * Supr. vol. i. p. 119. 120. It may, however, be thought, that this poem is rather a translation or imitation of fome French original, as the writer often refers to The Romance. If this be the cafe, it is not immediately formed from the TROYE-BOKE of Lydgate, as I have fuggefted in the text. I believe it to be about Lydgate's age; but there is no other Great. authority for fuppofing it to be written by That men called hanne Jaconitas; + Hight, named, With author: that he should either thus transform his own compofition, or write a new piece on the fubject. That it was a poem in fome confiderable eftimation, appears from the fize and splendour of the manufcript: and this circumstance With his baronage, and his meynè, And al the ffelawes that he hadde In clothe of golde as kynges he cladde, &c. Afterwards, the forcerefs Medea, the king's daughter, is thus characterised. Sche couthe the science of clergy, All weders, and the firmament, &c. The reader, in fome of thefe lines, obferves the appeal to The romance for authority. This is common throughout the poem, as I have hinted. But at the clofe, the poet wishes eternal falvation to the foul of the author of the Romaunce. And he that this romaunce wroght and made Lord in heven thow him glade. If this piece is translated from a French romance, it is not from the antient metrical one of Benoit, to whom, I believe, Colonna is much indebted; but perhaps from fome later French romance, which copied, or tranflated, Colonna's book. This, among other circumstances, we may collect from thefe lines. Dares the heraud of Troye fays, And Dites that was of the Gregeis, &c. This maifter Gy, or Guy, that is Guido of In the manere I fchall telle. That is " my author, or romance, follows "Colonna." [See fupr. vol. i. p. 127.] Dares the heraud is Dares Phrygius, and Dites Dictys Cretenfis. This poem, in the Bodleian manufcript aforefaid, is finished, as I have partly obferved, with an invocation to god, to fave the author, and the readers, or hearers; and ends with this line, Seythe alle Amen for charite. But this rubric immediately follows, at the beginning of a page. "Hic bellum de Troye "finit et Greci tranfierunt verfus patriam fuam." Then follow feveral lineated pages of vellum, without writing. I have never feen any other manufcript of this piece. induces me to believe, that it was at a very early period afcribed to Lydgate. On the other hand, it is extraordinary that the name of the writer of so prolix and laborious a work, refpectable and confpicuous at least on account of its length, should have never tranfpired. The language accords with Lydgate's age, and is of the reign of Henry the fixth : and to the fame age I refer the hand-writing, which is executed with remarkable elegance and beauty. SECT. T WO more poets remain to be mentioned under the reign of Henry the fixth, if mere tranflation merit that appellation. These are Hugh Campeden and Thomas Chester. The first was a great traveller, and translated into English verse the French romance of SIDRAC. This translation, a book of uncommon rarity, was printed with the following title, at the expence of Robert Saltwood, a monk of faint Austin's convent at Canterbury, in the year 1510. "The "Historie of king Boccus and SYDRACKE how he confoundyd "his lerned men, and in the fight of them dronke stronge "venyme in the name of the trinite and dyd him no hurt. "Alfo his divynite that he lerned of the boke of Noe. "Also his profesyes that he had by revelation of the angel. "Alfo his aunfweris to the queftyons of wyfdom both "morall and naturall with muche wyfdom contayned in [the] noumber CCCLXV. Tranflated by Hugo of Caumpeden out of French into Englifshe, &c. There is no fort of elegance in the diction, nor harmony in the verfification. It is in the minstrel-metre *. See fupr. vol. i. p. 143. h With a wooden cut of Bocchus, and Sidracke. There is a fine manufcript of this tranflation, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud. G. 57. pergam. i MS. Laud. G. 57. Princip. VIIIe hundred yere fourty and feven. The kynge Bochus hym be thought |