His guide then led him to dominus illuminatio for a safevij conduct in all the lands they should visit: viij ix . X xi 'So for to purchas a parfyte wryte. Emprynted at London by me Richard Faques, xij dwellyng in Poulys churche yerde at the sygne of the Maydynhed [the Virgin or Mary's head]. xiij xiiij The Pylgremage of the Sowle. Printed by Wil Ca. XV Item how mankynde enteryth the empyre of august Ca. Item howe mankynde enteryth the lordshyp of December. 'We hym folowynge a full good spede. xvj xvij xviij xix liam Caxton. 1483. Small folio.' Dr. Dibdin having, in his account of this very rare volume, stated that 'this extraordinary production, which, perhaps, rather than Bernard's Isle of Man, laid the foundation of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,' I shall make no apology to the reader for the following specimens of its poetry and prose. Not daring to trust to the xx doctor's specimens, which occupy eight folio pages, nor even the excellent outline of this pilgrimage, published by W. Hone in his Ancient Mysteries," I went to the fountain-head. My analysis is drawn from a careful perusal of the original edition by Caxton, compared with the manuscript written in 1413; the result is, to establish honest John's originality, and to excite great surprise that the learned doctor could have published so unfounded an insinuation. xxi xxij xxiij xxiiij XXV xxvi So he sets out with Beatus vir for a guide, and enters the land of June—a royal land, full of pleasures and fruits, of which he eat plenteously in every lane; then came to a place held by the 'Pope of June,' where was the cleanest castell in Xtendom, called, 'castell of corpus xti ;' 'Of whiche indulgence by auctorytye The founder is called by naturall sext Of the romaynes romanus pontifex,' where man could be healed from worldly wretchedness and sinful sore. As I laye in a seynt laurence nyght, slepyng in my bedde, me bifelle a full merueylous dreme. Having finished my pilgrimage and laid aside my fleshly carrion, it appeared loathsome and dame Misericord buried it. The fowle horrible Satan cruelly menaced me and told me I was his prisoner-a youngling of full huge beauty appeared, and defends the soul of the pilgrim, who is taken to judgment. He is brought before Michael; while his good angel pleads for him, Satan cries loudly against him. The devils complain that as soon as a pilgrim is born and washed in the salt lye (christened) Grace Dieu assigns them a guardian angel-we are ill used, let us cry a row so loud that in spite of them they shall hear our complaint. Peter the porter of heaven is called to testify whether the pilgrims have done penance-Call St. George for the Gentiles, for clerks St. Nicholas, for hermits St. Anthony, St. Benet for monks, for wedded folk St. Paul-not that he was ever married, but he taught the duties of marriage-for widows St. Anne, for maids St. Katherine. The pilgrim is placed before the tribunal, and his guardian angel pleads that he had kept his belief, never lost his scrip, nor his burden,3 and having persevered to the end, he ought to be safe. The cursed Satan acknowledged that the pilgrim passed the water and was therein washed and fully cleansed of all rather fylthe, but as soon as he knew good and evil he set 1 British Museum, 21, d. 2 P. 285. little by that washing, but cast himself like a swine in ordure and fylthe. He was washed at a tender age unwillingly, and although by this laver the foul spot of sin original was utterly avoided, yet he has not kept the vow, and is more spotted with deadly sin than he was before he was washed; and as all heathen men that have never received this laver belong to our Company because they have it not, much more those that have received these gifts of Grace de Dieu and despised them must be ours. The soul pleads in verse; he appeals to Jesus. Some of the lines are striking: 'For though there ran a river from thy side, 'Now be my help a blissful heaven's Quene Nor thou nor might no Lioness be In thou there is no malice nor cruelty Though that I have thy son and the agrieved He calls upon Michael, John Baptist, apostles and martyrs, and all saints. Justice pleads against him, and will allow none to speak on his behalf. He then answers for himself, and accuses Satan of being a liar; but the fiend calls the worm of conscience to bear witness against him, and he relates all his wickedness that was not purged with penance, and as he spoke, Satan wrote it all down in a great paper. The soul defends himself by having at all times borne his burden and scrip, by his natural frailty and the temptations of Satan and allurements of the world. Mercy pleads for him that he had been contrite, and made amends for sin, and had confessed; but when his good and bad deeds were weighed, the evil was heaviest. Then Mercy flew to heaven and brought back a pardon from Jesus, which is given in verse; inter alia: 3 'At instance of mine own mother sweet To whom I may no manner of thing deny Christ balances the wicked works of this sinner with- A forset full which putteth in balance.' The balance is in favour of the soul, and his sentence is to bear all his sins as a burden into purgatory, and abide in the fire until all are burned and thou, clean purged of all thy foul sins, shall then be pardoned.' At this sentence Satan is sore annoyed, and has great anguish. He meets a number of pilgrims from purgatory, who sing to the Trinity and to Mary a song of praise for their deliverance. The angels join in a song without comparison more lusty than he had heard before. Then came one pilgrim, conducted by a huge number of angels, each having in his hand some lusty instrument, as harp, organs, &c., some of which he could not scribe. It was a soul who, by extraordinary penance, had suffered his purgatory on earth. He then sees a number of pilgrims condemned to 'brenne withynne the fyre of helle, neuer to be releued.' An ugly company of devils seized them, saying, 'Goo we fast in to helle; there shall we fynde a warm duellynge place.' Our poor pilgrim is taken to purgatory, where, in three days, he imagines that he has suffered a thousand years' indescribable tortures." His guardian angel is with him in the fire, but being a pure spirit, suffereth not. In his torments he is told that naught can help him but masses and the good 'dedes of hooly chirche.' He asks, What is the use of the pardons and indulgences granted by the church? His angel tells him that they abridge the time of punishment and pain; that for every deadly sin he must suffer seven years' purgation, and the thousand years that he had suffered was but as a moment, for his fardel of sins seemed to be as huge as ever, although the fire was so fierce, that if the great sea fell therein, it would be dried in a moment. At length Grace Dieu sends from the church a quantity of prayers, masses, and good works, to comfort the pilgrims in purgatory—a packet to each prisoner, with the names of those who had purchased the masses for their relief. Every soul answered the summons, and greedily took the relief, all swimming in hot fire: it was ointment that relieved their horrid pains, and decreased their burden of sins. He then discovers the place in which Adam and the Fathers, to John the Baptist, were confined, till Christ descended into hell and released them. The prison also in which the souls of infants who had died without being christened-a dark and doleful place, where they will be shut up for ever. He inquires how it is possible for the God of love thus to condemn the innocent? His angel refers him to the words of Christ to Nicodemus: As seynt John recordeth, he seith, that an innocent deyng without baptym is dampned withouted ende." And they lay in endless darkness, and never know joy; and this pain shall be extended to all the most innocent souls not baptized. All these places of punishment are within inclosed all round by the earth. He is then led by his angel to the surface of the earth, the fire still burning within him, to every place in which he had committed sin; the punishment was according to the nature of his crime-sometimes shut up in thick ice, the pain being more intolerable than fire. This was for having used baths and steues for easement of his body. One soul who had been purged could not escape, because his executors had neglected to pay his debts. He finds that one day's penance upon earth cleanseth from sins more than years of purgatory. In the journey he finds his bones, and has a long conversation with them, in which they mutually criminate each other. A Protestant has a very feeble view of the Popish purgatory-exquisite tortures for thousands, nay millions of ages. What Christian in his senses would exchange This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise' for millions of ages of indescribable torture. A strange mode of purify. ing; like washing a blackamore white! What a perversion of the words, 'Ye must be born again!' 8 Brothels. C-D His guardian angel then takes him into the very depth of the earth, to hell, the stink of which nearly caused his soul to burst. The unbaptized innocents he saw in a place: 'Hit was wonder merueylous blacke and derke ynowe:' ever flying about seeking, but never finding a hole to escape. He then came to a darker place of fire horrible and wonder hideous.' There saw he the cursed fiends; some blew the fire; some, with iron forks, righted the brands; some, with sharp hooks, dressed the wretched souls into divers pains. Lucifer sat in a red-hot iron chair, chained with red-hot chains. The devils torment each other. The punishment of Pride is that a devil sits upon her head, and befouls her as much as he can. Hypocrites are trodden perpetually under foot by devils, ingulfed in fire and stink. The envious and backbiters were hung by red-hot iron hooks through their tongues over eternal flames. Judas thus hung, but as his mouth had kissed the king, his lips shined like gold; and his tongue was drawn out through his neck, and he hung in hottest flames. Traitors were broken upon wheels turning swiftly round, fixed by hooks; the same punishment was inflicted upon lawyers, proctors, and counsel, who, to fill their purses, had pleaded for the guilty against the innocent. He saw a number of souls being devoured by wolves, but never eaten; others having molten brass poured down their throats: he swooned, but is revived by his angel. These were the punishments of extortioners. Angry people were tied up in bundles, and pitched into fiery furnaces; drunkards were laid upon burning coals, with sulphur, their throats slit, and tongues drawn through the slit; the lechours were laid upon beds of burning thorns, full of venomous and huge toads and worms, for ever biting and gnawing them. The boiling caldron and pit of hell was boiling full of heretics; and when our Lord shall renew the world, all their burning and stinking and horrible pains shall be renewed, and all the filth that may be found in every other place shall be cast thereto. He then ascends to the earth, and sees the tree from which Eve plucked the apple, and which, after process of time, formed the cross on which the Saviour suf fered. Then follows a number of dialogues between the Trinity, regarding the scheme of mercy. His purgation being finished, and sins consumed, his angel took him by the hand, and began to mount towards heaven. The angel shows him many mansions; tells him how saints' days are to be kept. In the feast of the Purification, the cherubims sing this song: 'Heryed' be thou blysfull heuen quene And worshyped mote2 thou be in euery place No preysynge is that may be peregal.” In the feast of Ascension the father honoured the sone; and at the feast of Assumption the Son honoured and worshipped his mother. Song of angels on Easter day, to the Saviour, is 'When thou were dead, to hell thou descended 'Heryed;' praised-from which is derived hurrah. 2 'Peregal;' equal. The angel illustrates to him the doctrine of the Trinity, by the world being round, without beginning or end; having breadth, length, and depth, which three, by unity in measure, comprise one world. So in a body is matter, form, and substance; if one of these be missing, it is imperfect. So the matter is likened to the Father, the form to the Son, and the substance to the Holy Ghost. So to every perfect work, there must be might, cunning, and will. He then asks, that as these three are one, how came it that one was separated, and became incarnate alone? This is accounted for, as a sunbeam does not leave the sun, but enliveneth the earth; so the Son illuminated the world, being clothed with man's flesh in the blessed maiden, and yet departed he not from his Father's presence. When properly prepared, the angel went to clear his way to heaven, and as he looked after him, a 'wonder huge light' descended from the high heaven, smiting on his eye, and awoke him from his sleep; whereof he was full sorry, after having seemed to live so many thousand years; the clock struck twelve, and the bell tolled midnight, and he remembered that he had not slept three hours while all these adventures had passed. Now Jesus give us grace to come to this bliss! Translated in 1413, and printed by W. Caxton, June 6, 1483. There is, in the British Museum, a very fine and curious MS. copy of this very singular work, illustrated with rude illuminated drawings. It finishes with, 'Here endith the dreem of the pilgrimage of the soule, translated owt of the Frensch in to Englysche. The yere of our Lord M.CCCC.XIII.' The translator craves indulgence, if 'in som places ther it be ouer fantastyk nought grounded nor foundable in Holy Scripture, ne in docteors wordes, for I myght not go fro myn auctor.' The original work was written in verse by Guillaume de Guileville, prior of Chaalis, about 1330. The Pryke of Conscience." A very curious old English poem; it is theological and descriptive, but not allegorical. The Myrrour of Lyfe, by William of Nassyngton, 1418.5 An ancient English poetical treatise on religion; excepting the title, it has no pretence to allegory. The Abbey of the Holy Ghost. This curious allegory was written by John Alcocke, the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge, a learned and abstemious English bishop, in the reign of Henry VII. The author represents the fall and recovery of mankind under the simile of an Abbey, the inmates of which are perfect in holiness and happiness. The abbess is Charity; the prioress, Wisdom; the sub-prioress, Mekenesse; and the nuns, Poverty, Cleanness, Temperance, Soberness, Penance, Buxomness, Confession, Righteousness, Predication, Strength, Pacience, Simplicity, Mercy, Largeness, Reason, Pity, Meditation, Orison, Devocion, Contemplation, Chastity, Jubilation, Honesty, Curtesy, Fear, and Jealousy. This abbey was conveyed by the Almighty to Adam, Eve, and their heirs for ever, upon condition that he withstood the temptation of the fiend and that of his wife. The deed is witnessed by angels and man, heaven and earth, sun and moon, stars, and all creatures. Geven at Paradise, the first day that man was made; in the year of the reigning of Almighty God, King of Kings, whose kingdom never began nor never shall have end. No persons were to be admitted until Conscience had cleansed the soul with grace of the Holy Ghost. Two maidens, called Love and Righteousness, shall cast away from Conscience all manner of filth; Meekness and Poverty shall keep them poor in spirit. The abbey was situated upon the waters of repentance. Joy and Mercy built the walls and strengthened them with alms. Patience and strength are the pillars and buttresses. The nuns have each her place; Contemplation is the doctor; Devotion the butler [the bishop remarks, Alas! if I durst say, full many be in religion (nuns), but few be religious']; Oryson shall be chanter. St. Bernard saith, When we pray in good life, our good Angel danseth and maketh thereof a present to the Father of heaven. The abbey being so well-furnished, a tyrant came, and in an evil hour, while the portress was absent, he put in his four daughters, who were all of shrewd manners; the fiend father of them all. Their names were Pride, Envy, False Judgment, and Lust; and these destroyed the abbey, and dispersed the inmates. The punishment of man was the loss of Paradise, to spend his days in sorrow, to eat grass that groweth on the earth, and never to come to bliss until the abbey was restored. When Adam and Eve died, their souls went to hell; and not only they, but all those that of them came for four thousand six hundred years; to hell they went, every one. Then some of the nuns prayed the Holy Ghost for assistance. David, Isaiah, and others, endeavoured to re-edify the abbey; but in vain. At length Christ came, and sought out the abbess and her company for thirty-three years; and at last brought them together by hanging on the cross; after which he led them with him into hell,' and took out Adam and Eve his wife, and all his friends, and replaced them in the Abbey of the Holy Ghost in Paradise. From this curious and very rare little volume, Bunyan could not have gained any idea; but in it are some translations of passages of Scripture, made fifty years before any version of the Bible was published in English, which prove the great liberties the church took with the Scriptures, and the extent to which they misled the people, while the Holy Oracles were locked up in a foreign language. Mat. iii. 2: Shrive ye and do ye penance, and be ye of good belief; the kingdom of heaven nigheth fast.' John viii. 6: 'He stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger all their sins, so that each of them might se how sinfull other was.' Matt. xxvi. 38: I have, he said, full much dread against that I shall die. Sit ye down, he said, and wake ye, and bid your beads till I come again to you.' The next allegorical work in chronological order, representing life as a pilgrimage, is 2 Invented by Stephen Hawes, Grome of King Henry the Seuenth his Chamber. Printed by John Waylande, 1554. Small 4to. Such is the rarity of this volume, that, although it wants six leaves, it bears this inscription on the fly-leaf, 'I bought this Volume at Mr. Bindley's sale, January 21st, 1813, for the inordinate sum of forty guineas. James Boswell' (Author of the Life of Dr. Johnson). Mr. Hallam, in his Literature of Europe, gives a good account of this poem:-'From the title we might hardly expect a learned allegory, in which the seven sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, besides a host of abstract virtues and qualities, play their parts in living personality. It is rude, obscure, full of pedantic Latinisms, but learned and philosophical. The best, though probably an unexpected, parallel for Hawes, is John Bunyan; their inventions are of the same class, various and novel; their characters, though abstract in name, have a personal truth about them; they render the general allegory subservient to inculcating a system, the one of philosophy, the other of religion. I do not mean that the Pastime of Pleasure is equal in merit, as it certainly has not been in success, to the Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan is powerful and picturesque, from his concise simplicity; Hawes has the common failings of our old writers—a tedious and languid diffuseness, an expatiating on themes of pedantry in which the reader takes no interest, a weakening of every feature and every reflection, by ignorance of the touches that give effect. Hawes was educated at Oxford, and travelled much on the Continent, and held an office in the court of Henry VII. He was the earliest of our learned and accomplished gentlemen.' Hawes' work was the result of a learned edu cation, great connections, an extensive knowledge of the world, and singular ability; still Mr. Hallam justly admits that the Pilgrim's Progress is greatly superior as a work of genius, although Bunyan was not blessed even with the rudiments of education, no literary connections, and his travels extended not beyond his neighbouring villages. How extensive and prolific must have been the natural powers of Bunyan's mind! But compare the moral tendency of those two allegories: Hawes' inspiration is from beneath, strongly tinged with the smoke of the infernal pit; Bunyan is inspired by heaven, his whole course is illuminated from the celestial city. His pilgrims breathe a heavenly atmosphere; every line of his narrative has a holy, and consequently a happy tendency. Hawes derived his know2 From a copy in the Editor's library, printed by ledge from worldly philosophers, Bunyan from Wynken de Worde, with Caxton's mark. The Historie of Graunde Amoure and la bell Pucel; called the Pastime of Pleasure, containing the Knowledge of the Seven Sciences, and the Course of Man's Life in this Worlde. 1 Hence 'the descent into hell,' in a popish creed, which passes under the name of the apostles. the Bible. The Pastime of Pleasure is a narrative of the adventures | win and wed La Bell Pucell. The principal officers in the of a love-sick knight, in search of a lady named La Bell castle are thus named :— Pucel. He is directed to the Tower of Doctrine, where he is told that he must become proficient in the seven liberal sciences, in order to win his lady. Walking in a gay meadow, he finds a statue, whose hands point to two paths, one of contemplative life : 'And in the other hande, ryght fayre wrytten was "The marshall, yclipped was dame Reason He is then sent in succession to Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, and at length to Music. In the temple of Music, he sees and falls deeply in love with La Bell Pucell. She returns his love, but informs him that he will have to brave many desperate adventures before they can be united. He promises to fit himself for all that may happen, and goes In pursuit of this beautiful virgin he chooses the path of to Chivalry-he is taught by Minerva-harnessed and knighted:active life, and sets out: 'Thus all alone, I began to trauayle But often times, I had great maruayle Forthe on my waye, by long continuaunce Of the by pathes, so full of pleasaunce I toke the waye, whiche went before me right.' 'For by the waye, there lye in waite That all deuoureth, by their euil conceite Against whose strength, there may no man endure But beyond them, a great sea there is With noble stories, whiche do appeare without.' He at length arrives at the castle, where the portresse thus questions him : 'Tyll that I came to a royall gate Where I sawe standyng the goodly portres When she hearde thys, she liked me ryght well.' The portress, whose name was Countenaunce, introduced him into the castle, and in the Fair Hall, upon the arras, is portrayed the perils he will have to encounter; that Folly will beset his path, but that Correction will follow: 'And in her hande, a strong knotted whippe : He finds that he will have to destroy a giant with three heads, another more fierce with four heads, and a third still more terrible with seven heads, and at length he will 'For first good hope, his legge harneys should be His habergion, of perfect righteousnes Gyrde fast, wyth the girdle of chastitie The helmet mekenes, and the shelde good fayeth, His swerde Gods worde, as S. Paule sayeth.' Fortitude, Consuetude, Justice, Misericorde, Sapience, Curtesye, Concord, and dame Minerva see him on his road, and bid him farewell. His first adventure is with a Kentish man, Godfrey Gobilion, who gives an account of his parentage in these lines: 'Ich am a gentilman, of much noble kynne She wyped her dishes, with her dogges tayle.' In vain have I endeavoured to discover the intention of the author in this allegory. His editor says, that it was to stimulate young men 'Placarde;' a stomacher or breastplate, frequently or namented with jewels. 2'Larges;' a bounty bestowed, a large gift.—Imp. Dict. 3 'Consuetude;' custom, common law or equity, as dis tinguished from statute law. |