SECTION III. p. 51. Reign of Henry the fixth. Lydgate. His life and character. His Dance of Death. Macaber a German poet. Lydgate's poem in honour of Saint Edmund. Prefented to Henry the fixth, at Bury-abbey, in a most splendid manuscript, now remaining. His Lyf of our Lady. Elegance and harmony of his ftile and verfification. SECTION IV. p. 61. Lydgate continued. His Fall of Princes, from Laurence Premierfait's French paraphrafe of Boccace on the fame fubject. Nature, plan, and fpecimens of that poem. Its fublime allegorical figure of Fortune. Authors cited in the fame. 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 defcription. SECTION V. p. 81. Lydgate's Troy-Boke. A paraphrafe of Colonna's Historia Trojana. Homer, when, and how, first known in Europe. Lydgate's powers in rural painting. Dares and Dictys. Feudal manners, and Arabian imagery, ingrafted on the Trojan Story. Anecdotes of antient Gothic architecture difplayed in the Structure of Troy. An ideal theatre at Troy fo defcribed, 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 fhrine and chantry. Specimens of another Troy-Boke, anonymous, and written in the reign of Henry the fixth. SECTION SECTION VI. p. 101. Reign of Henry the fixth continued. Hugh Campeden tranflates the SECTION VII. p. 125. Caxton. Harding's Chronicle. First mention of the king's Poet Laureate occurs in the reign of Edward the fourth. Hiftory of that office. 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. p. 165. The reigns of Richard the third, and Henry the feventh, abound in obfcure verifiers. Bertram Walton. Benedict Burgh translates Cato's Latin Diftichs. Hiftory of that work. Julian Barnes. Abbeffes fond of hunting and hawking. A religious poem by William of Naffyngton. His Prologue explained. Minstrels and Geftours to be diflinguished. Gest of the Three Kings of Cologne fung in the arched chamber of the Pricr at Winchester. The Geft 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 Chefter-plays. Specimen of Bradshaw's poem, from his description of the historical tapestry in the hall of Ely monaftery when the princess Werburgh was admitted to the veil. Legends and legend-makers. Fabyan. Wat Jon. fon. Caxton a poet. Kalendar of Shepherds. Pageaunts. Myfteries. Tranfition to the drama. Hiftrionic profeffion. Reign of Henry the feventh. Hawes. His poems. Painting on Digreffion to the Scotch poets. William Dunbar. His Thiftle Scotch poets continued. Eneid. Honour, and other pieces. His Palice of Scotch poets continued. Sir David Lyndefay. His chief perfor- mances the Dreme, and Monarchie. His talents for defcription and imagery. His other poems examined. An poem, never printed, called Duncane Laider. Its humour and Skelton. His life. Patronised by Henry, fifth earl of Northum- A digreffion on the origin of Mysteries. Various origins assigned. Religious dramas at Conftantinople. Plays first acted in the monafteries. This ecclefiaftical origin of the drama gives rife to the practice of performing plays in univerfities, colleges, and Schools. Influence of this practice on the vernacular drama. On the fame principle, plays acted by finging-boys in choirs. Boy- bishop. Fete de Foux. On the fame principle, plays acted by the company of parish clerks. By the Law-focieties in London. Caufes of the increase of vernacular compofition in the fifteenth The fame fubject continued. Reformation of religion. Its effects |