SECTION. III. p. 51. : ; Reign of Henry the hath. Lydgate. His life and character. His Dance of Death. Macaber a German poet. Lydgate's poem in horour of Saint Edmund. Presented to Henry the fixth, at Bury-abbey, in a most splendid manuscript, now remaining. His Lyf of our Lady. Elegance and harmony of his file and versification. SECTION IV. p. 61. Lydgate continued. His Fall of Princes, from Laurence Pre mierfait's French paraphraje of Boccace on the same subject. Nature, plan, and specimens of that poem. Its sublime allegorical figure of Fortune. Authors cited in the same. Boccace's opportunities of collecting many stories of Greek original, now not extant in any Greek writer. Lydgate's Storie of Thebes. An additional Canterbury Tale. Its plan, and originals. Martianus Capella. Happily imitated by Lydgate. Feudal manners applied to Greece. Specimen of Lydgate's force in description. SECTION V. p. 81. Lydgate's Troy - Boke. A paraphrase of Colonna's Historia Trojana. Homer, when, and how, first known in Europe. Lydgate's powers in rural painting. Dares and Dietys. Feudal manners, and Arabian imagery, ingrafted on the Trojan story. Anecdotes of antient Gothic architecture displayed in the structure of Troy. An ideal theatre at Troy so described, as to prove that no regular stage now existed. Game of chefs invented at the fiege of Troy. Lydgate's gallantry. His anachronisms. Hector's shrine and chantry. Specimens of another Troy-Boke, anonymous, and written in the reign of Henry the fixth. SECTION SECTION VI. p. 101. Reigri of Henry the sixth continued. Hugh Campeden translates the French romance of Sidrac. Thomas Cheftre's Sir Launfale. Metrical romance of the Erle ot" Tholouse.' Analysis of its Fable. Minstrels paid better than the clergy. Reign of Edward the fourth. Translation of the classics and other books into French. How it operated on English literature. Caxton. Anecdotes of English typography. SECTION VII. p. 125. Harding's Chronicle. First mention of the king's Poet Laureate occurs in the reign of Edward the fourth. History of that ofice. Scogan. Didactic poems on chemistry by Norton and Ripley. SECTION VIII. p. 139. Poems under the name of Thomas Rowlie. Supposed to be Spurious. SECTION IX. IX. p. 165. The reigns of Richard the tbird, and Henry the seventh, abound in obscure verhfiers." Bertram Walton. Benedi&t Burgh translates Cato's Latin Distichs. History of that work. Julian Barnes. Abbesses fond of bunting and hawking. A religious poem by William of Nassyngton. "His Prologue explained. Minstrels and Gestours to be distinguished. Gest of the Three Kings of Cologne sung in the arched chamber of the Prior at Winchester. The Gest of the Seven Sleepers. Originally a Greek Legend. Bradshaw's Life of Saint Werburgh. Metrical chronicles of the kings of England fashionable in this century. Ralph Higden proved to be the author of the Chester-plays. Specimen of Bradshaw's poem, from his description of the historical tapestry in the ball of Ely monastery when the princess Werburgh was admitted to the veil. Legends and legend-makers. Fabyan. Wat Jon. for. Caxton a poet. Kalendar of Shepherds. Pageaunts. Reign of Henry the seventh. Hawes. His poems. Painting on Barklay's Ship of Fools. Its origin. Specimens. Barklay's Eclogues, and other pieces. Alcock bishop of Ely. Modern Digression to the Scotch poets. William Dunbar. His Thistle and Rose, and Golden Terge. Specimens. Dunbar's comic Scotch poets continued. Gawen Douglass. His translation of the Scotch poets continued. Sir David Lyndesay. His chief perfor- mances the Dreme, and Monarchie. His talents for description and imagery.. His other poems examined. An anonymous Scotch poem, never printed, called Duncane Laider. Its humour and satire. Feudal robbers. Blind Harry reconhdered. A History Skelton. His life. Patronised by Henry, fifth earl of Northum- His character, and peculiarity of style. Critical examination of his poems. Macaronic poetry. Skelton's Mo- rality called the Nigramansır. Moralities at their height about the close of the seventh Henry's reign. A digreson on the origin of Mysteries. Various origins afhgned. Religious dramas at Constantinople. Plays first acted in the schools. Influence of this pračtice on the vernacular drama. On the same principle, plays acted by finging-boys in choirs. Boy- bishop. Fete de Foux. On the same principle, plays afted by the company of parish clerks. By the Law-societies in London. |