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ferior, supported the renown of English poetry after the death of Chaucer. One specimen from the latter we cannot help extracting as irresistibly ludicrous.

"One of the most amusing passages in the Book of Troy relates to a well-known event in the life of Venus.

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"The smotry* smith, this swarte Vulcanus,
That whilom in hearte was so jealous
Toward Venus that was his wedded wife,
Whereof there rose a deadly mortal strife,
When he with Mars gan her first espy,
Of high malice, and cruel false envy,

Through the shining of Phebus' beams bright,
Lying a-bed with Mars her owne knight.

* Smoky.

For which in heart he brent as any glede,* *Aburning coal.
Making the slander all abroad to sprede,

And gan thereon falsely for to muse.

"

And God forbid that any man accuse

FOR SO LITTLE any woman ever!

Where love is set, hard is to dissever!
For though they do such thing of gentleness,
Pass over lightly, and bear none heaviness,
Lest that thou be to woman odious!

And yet this smith, this false Vulcanus,
Albe that he had them thus espied,
Among Paynims yet was he defied
And, for that he so FALSELY THEM AWOKE,
I have him set last of all my boke,

Amon the goddes of false mawmentry,"* &c.

[* Mahometry.

i. e. idolatry. (Sign. L. i.)

Upon this occasion, the morals of our poetical monk are so very pliant, that it is difficult to suppose him quite free from personal motives which might have influenced his doctrine. Perhaps he had been incommoded by some intrusive husband, at a moment when he felt tired of celibacy, and wished to indulge in a temporary relaxation from the severity of monastic discipline."

From Lydgate our author proceeds to James 1 of Scotland, upon whose personal qualities he pronounces a merited panegyric, accompanied with several extracts from the "Kingis Quair." The next chapter is peculiarly interesting. It contains a retrospect of the conclusions to be drawn from the information already conveyed; and this introduces a well-written and pleasing digression upon the private life of the English during the middle ages. We learn that, even in that early period, the life of the English farmer or yeoman was far superior in ease and comfort to that of persons of the same rank in France. Pierce Ploughman, a yeoman apparently, possessed a cow and calf, and a cart-mare for

transporting manure; and although, at one time of the year, he fed upon cheese curds and oat cakes, yet after Lammas, when his harvest was got in, he could "dress his dinner to his own mind." We also learn, that the peasants were so far independent, as to exact great wages; and doubtless these circumstances, combined with the practice of archery, gave the English infantry such an infinite advantage over those of other nations, consisting of poor half-fed serfs, and gained them so many battles in spite of the high-souled chivalry of France, and the obstinate and enduring courage of our Scottish ancestors. Mr. Ellis remarks, on this subject-" It is very honourable to the good sense of the English nation, that our two best early poets have highly extolled this useful body of men, while the French minstrels of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, universally seem to approve the supercilious contempt with which the nobles affected to treat them. We have also much curious information concerning the dress of the period, particularly of the ladies, who in the day-time seem to have been wrapt up in furs, and in the night-time to have slept without shifts. The serenades, the amusements, the food, the fashions, the manners of the period, are all illustrated by quotations from the authors who have referred to them; and, with the singular advantage of never losing sight of his main subject, Mr. Ellis has brought together much information on collateral points of interest and curiosity, which will be new to the modern reader, and pleasing to the antiquary, by placing, at once, under his review, circumstances dispersed through many a weary page of black

letter.

The reign of Henry VI, and those of the succeeding monarchs, down to Henry VIII, seem to have produced few poets worthy of notice. Two translators of some eminence occur during the former period, and the latter is graced by Harding, (a kind of Robert of Glocester redivivus;) Hawes, a bad imitator of Lydgate, ten times more tedious than his original; the Ladie Juliana Berners, who wrote a book upon hunting in execrable poetry; and a few other rhymers, who, excepting perhaps Lord Rivers, are hardly worth naming. During this period, however, the poetry of Scotland was in the highest state of perfection; and Mr. Ellis finds ample room, both for his critical and historical talents, in celebrating Henry the Minstrel, Hen

rysoun, Johnstoun, Mercer, Dunbar, and Gawain Douglas. Upon the works of the two last Mr. Ellis dwells with pleasure; and his opinion may have some effect in refreshing their faded laurels. In the reign of Henry VIII, the Scottish bards continue to preserve their superiority; for, surely, the ribald Skelton, and the tiresome John Heywood, cannot be compared to Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, or to the anonymous author of the Mourning Maiden.

We have already taken notice of the very extensive range of discussion which this sketch embraces. It was therefore almost unavoidable that there should remain subjects on which we might have wished for farther information. The history of English minstrelsy in particular, makes too important a part of Mr. Ellis's subject for us to permit him to escape from it so slightly. As he has announced his intention to publish a second series of speci mens, selected from the early metrical romances, we recommend strongly to him, to prefix such a prefatory memoir as may fill up this wide blank in the history of our language. We are the more earnest in this recommendation, because we know from experience that Mr. Ellis will manage, with the temper becoming a gentleman, a dispute which, though the circumstance seems to us altogether astonishing, has certainly had a prodigious effect in exciting the irritable passions of our antiquaries, and has been managed with a degree of acrimony only surpassed by the famous and rancorous quarrel about the Scots and Picts. We observe with pleasure, that, in repelling some attacks upon his first and second editions, Mr. Ellis has uniformly used the lance of courtesy, as a romancer would have said; and truly we have no pleasure in seeing his contemporaries spur their hobbyhorses headlong against each other, and fight at outrance, and with fer emoulu. Mr. Ellis's style is uniformly chaste and simple, diversified by a very happy gaiety which enlivens even the most unpromising parts of his subject. have only to add, that no author has passed over his own pretensions with such unaffected modesty, or given more liberal praise to the labours of others.

We

From the works of voluminous authors, Mr. Ellis has selected such passages as might give the best general idea of their manner; but he has also been indefatigable in seeking out all such beautiful smaller pieces as used to form the

little collections, called, in the quaint language of the times, Garlands. His own work may be considered as a new garland of withered roses. The list concludes with the reign of Charles II. The publication seems to have been made with the strictest attention to accuracy, except that, throughout the whole, the spelling is reduced to the modern standard, for which, we fear, Mr. Ellis may undergo the censure of the more rigid antiquaries. For our part, as all the antique words are carefully retained and accurately interpreted, we do not think that, in a popular work, intelligibility should be sacrificed to the preservation of a rude and uncertain orthography.

EARLY ENGLISH METRICAL ROMANCES.*

[Edinburgh Review, 1806.]

THE history, the laws, and even the religion of barbarous nations, are usually expressed in verse. Whether poetry is preferred for the sake of the facility with which it may be committed to memory where written records are unknown, or whether the solemnity of these subjects is supposed to require a mode of expression the most distant from that of common life, would be difficult to discover, and superfluous to inquire. But it is sufficiently obvious, that what is preserved only by recitation, must soon be altered and corrupted, enlarged or compressed, so as may best suit the powers of the reciter's memory, or most readily arrest the attention of those whom he wishes to please by the repetition. Thus, in the course of a few generations, the religious poem becomes a mythological fable, and the history degenerates into an incredible romance. Still, however, the poetry of an early age continues to be interesting to the moderns, even when entirely perverted from the purposes to which it was originally applied. The bard may have changed his subject from the facts occurring in his own period, or that of his father's, to the feats of foreign or imaginary heroes: but his work will not the less continue to reflect the manners of the time in which he composed. A Gothic poet, like a Gothic painter, discards all attention to local costume, and portrays his characters, his manners, his scenery, according to the characters, manners, and scenery of his own age. It is therefore no matter whether the scene be laid in Greece or in Taprobana; the description, however unlike what it is

* Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances. 3 vols. 1805. And Ancient English Metrical Romances. Selected by JOSEPH RITSON.† 3 Vols. 1802.

[+ Joseph Ritson, the ingenious but whimsical and crabbed Antiquarian, died at Hoxton, 23d Sept. 1803.]

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