church. The little town of Norcia had the privilege of making its own laws and chusing its own magistrates, and so jealous were the people of all priests, that in order to prevent the possibility of any one obtaining authority among them, one of their laws was, that all men who could read and write, should be incapable of bearing a share in their government. Their magistracy therefore, which consisted of four persons, were called, Gli quatre Illiterati, the four illiterates,.. and as a necessary consequence of this singular institution, all causes were examined without writings, and decided orally. I know not when this brutalizing system was established, nor what circumstances occasioned it. It would be interesting to trace its history; · a Jack Cade establishing a permanent order of things is a phenomenon, of which there is no other instance. The fact is mentioned in a volume of letters concerning the state of Italy, in 1687, written as a supplement to Gilbert Burnet's Travels, p. 189. And as it is noticed by Busching also, as a still-existing custom, it was probably not abrogated till the general wreck of all the institutions in Italy under Buonaparte's tyranny. This strange institution is the more remarkable, because Norcia is the birthplace of St. Benedict, one of the most eminent of the Romish Church, from whose institution almost all the Apostles of the North of Europe proceeded. 135. Early English Metre. A remarkable rhyme occurs in the metrical Romance of Octouian Imperator. Whan they were seght alle yn same, Al so prest, So hyght my sone that was take fra me Mr. Weber observes upon the passage, that "this singular rhyme strongly supports the opinion of Wallis and of Tyrwhitt in his Essay on the versification of Chaucer, that the final e which is at present mute, was anciently pro- nounced obscurely like the e feminine of the French." Mr. Weber is so faithful and accurate an editor, that I doubt not the words fra me are divided as he has printed them in the manuscript which he has followed; but I find among my memoranda made in perusing Gower some years ago, some passages marked which lead to a con. trary inference. In Berthelette's edition, 1554, this couplet occurs. For love is ever fast byme Which taketh none hede of due tyme. And again, So that the more me mervaileth f. 81. What thyng it is my lady aileth, f. 108, In both places the words by me are thus contracted into one. This must have been because they were pronounced so in the printer's days;-whether they were so in the poet's might be determined by a manuscript, if there be any existing The first stanza of Troilus and Crescide contains another instance of contraction. of his own age. The double sorow of Troilus to teilen 136. Troilus and Creseide. It is evident from the first stanza of this poem (just quoted) when the narrator says, "er that I part froy," that Chaucer intended it for one of his Canterbury Tales, and this seems to be confirmed by the 65th stanza of the first book. For aie the nere the fire the hotter is, I do not know whether this has been observed before. A compleat and faithful edition of the works of this great father of English poetry, with an accurate verbal index, as well as glossary, is much to be desired. 187. Miraculous combustion of wood without ashes, and oil without smoke. There was in Kildare an ancient monument named the fire house, wherein Cambrensis saith, was there continual fire kept day and night, and yet the ashes never increased. I travelled, says Stanihurst, of set purpose, to the town of Kildare to see this place, where I did see a monument like a vault, which to this day they call the fire-house. (Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. 6, p. 38. Edit. 1808.) The secret of this miracle had been lost at Kildare, but had Stanihurst (to use one of his own words) pilgrimaged to the monastery of N. Señora de Valvanera, |