Siththe was fchewed him bi With ryal rechet? Bi the bordės up thei stode, &c. Pag. 14. to Not. “. ADD, “ The Lives of the Saints in verse, in Bennet library, contain the martyrdom and translation of Becket, Num. clxv. This manuscript is supposed to be of the fourteenth century. Archbishop Parker, in a remark prefixed, has assigned the composition to the reign of Henry the second. But in that case, Becket's translation, which did not happen till the reign of king John, must have been added. See a specimen in Mr. Nasmith's accurate and learned CATALOGUE of the Bennet manuscripts, pag. 217. Cantab. 1777. 4". There is a manuscript of these Lives in Trinity college library at Oxford, but it has not the Life of Becket. MSS. NUM. LVII. In Pergamen. fol. The writing is about the fourteenth century. I will transcribe a few lines from the Life of SAINT CUTHBERT, f. 2. b. Seint Cuthberd was ybore here in Engelonde, zong Cuthberd he zede, sene brother he fede, Afterwards there was sport and minfrelsy. . i. e. Recept. Reception. But fec Chaucer's ROM. R. v. 6509. Him, woulde I comfort and rechete. And TR, Crass, iii. 350. Tho Tho this zongé child y sez that he his red forsok, child wente, An angel it was of heven that our lord thuder sent. Saxon letters are used in this manuscript. I will exhibit the next twelve lines as they appear in that mode of writing; together with the punctuation. bo by gan eint Cuthberd. for to wepe fore The reader will observe the constant return of the hemistichal point, which I have been careful to preserve, and to represent with exactness ; as I suspect, that it shews how these poems were sung to the harp by the minstrels. Every line was perhaps uniformly recited to the same monotonous modulation, with a pause a pause in a midst: just as we chant the psalms in our choral service. In the psalms of our liturgy, this pause is expressed by a colon: and often, in those of the Roman missal, by an asterisc. The fame mark occurs in every line of this manuscript ; which is a folio volume of considerable size, with upwards of fifty verses in every page. Pag. 18. Not. *. lin. 3. Instead of “ Saint Dorman,” READ • The Seven Sleepers.” Pag. 30. to Not. ". ADD, “ In the same stile, as it is manifestly of the fame antiquity, the following little descriptive song, on the Approach of Summer, deserves notice. MSS. HARL. 978. f. 5. Sumer is i cumen, That is, « Summer is coming: Loud sing, Cuckow! Groweth “ feed, and bloweth mead, and springeth the wood now. Ewe « bleateth after lamb, loweth cow after calf; bullock starteth, “ buck verteth': merry fing, Cuckow! Well fingest thou, “. Cuckow, Nor cease to sing now.”. This is the most antient English song that appears in our manuscripts, with the musical notes annexed. The music is of that species of composition . Goes to barbour among the fern. which is called Canon in the Unison, and is supposed to be of the fifteenth century. . Pag. 50. Not. ?. For “ hills," Read “ halls.” DELE “ It is a catapult or battering ram.' Pag. 68. Ibid. Notes, col. 2. After lin. 4. INSERT, “ Sec infr. p. 72. Mangonel also fignified what was thrown from the machine so called. Thus Froissart.” Et avoient les Brabançons de tres grans engins devant la ville, qui gettoient pierres de faix et mangoneaux jusques en la ville.” Liv. iii. c. 118. And in the old French Ovide cited by Borel, TRESOR. in V. Onques pour une tor abatre, abatre un clocher. 1 Ibid. ibid. After lin. 17. ADD, “ The use of artillery, howe ever, is proved by a curious passage in Petrarch, to be older than the period to which it has been commonly referred. The passage is in Petrarch's book de REMEDIIS UTRIUSQUE FORTUNÆ, undoubtedly written before the year 1334. “G. Habeo “ machinas et balistas. R. Mirum, nisi et glandes æneas, quæ “ flammis injectis horrisono fonitu jaciuntur.-—Erat hæc pestis nuper rara, ut cum ingenti miraculo cerneretur : nunc, ut “ rerum peffimarum dociles sunt animi, ita communis est, ut quodlibet genus armorum.” Lib. i. DIAL. 99. See Muratori, ANTIQUITAT. Med. Æv. tom. ii. col. 514. Cannons are supposed to have been first used by the English at the battle of Cressy, in the year 1346. It is extraordinary that Froissart, Vol. II. b who who minutely describes that battle, and is fond of decorating his narrative with wonders, should have wholly omitted this circumstance. Musquets are recited as a weapon of the infantry so early as the year 1475. “ Quilibet peditum habeat balistam « vel bombardam.” Lit. Casimiri iii. an. 1475. Leg. Polon. tom. i. p. 228. These are generally affigned to the year 1520. Pag. 72. 1. 6. READ “ sueynes.” Pag. 73. to l. 21. Add this Note, “ The rhymes here called, by Robert de Brunne, Couwée, and Enterlacée, were undoubtedly derived from the Latin rhymers of that age, who used versus Çaudati et interlaqueati. Brunne here professes to avoid these elegancies of composition, yet he has intermixed many passages in Rime Couwée. See his CHRONICLE, p. 266. 273. &c. &c. And almost all the latter part of his work from the Conquest is written in rhyme enterlacée, each couplet rhyming in the middle, as well as the end. As thus, MSS. HARL. 1002. Plausus Græcorum | lux cæcis et via claudis Incola cælorum | virgo dignissima laudis. The rhyme Baston had its appellation from Robert Baston, a celebrated Latin rhymer about the year 1315. The rhyme frangere means uncommon. See CANTERBURY Tales, vol. 4. p. 72. seq. ut infr. The reader, curious on this subject, may receive further information from a manuscript in the Bodleian library, in which are specimens of MỆtra Leonina, cristata, cornuta, recriproca, &c. MSS. LAUD. K. 3. 4". In the same library, there is a very antient manuscript copy of Aldhelm's Latin poem De Virginitate et Laude San&torum, written about the year 700, and given by Thomas Allen, with Saxon glofses, and the text almost in semi-faxon characters. These are the two first verses. Metrica tyrones nunc promant carmina casti, Langbaine, |