And snatches this again, and pauses there. And closes the sweet quarrel, rousing all Of short thick sobs, whose thund'ring volleys float, His honey-dropping tops, plough'd by her breath In that sweet soyl it seems a holy quire, In cream of morning Helicon, and then To woo them from their beds, still murmuring Into loose extasies, that she is plac't Above herself, musick's enthusiast. Shame now and anger mixt a double stain Or tune a song of victory to me, Or to thyself sing thine own obsequie; Of his own breath, which, married to his lyre, Doth tune the sphears, and make heaven's self look higher; From this to that, from that to this he flies, Feels musick's pulse in all her arteries; Caught in a net which there Apollo spreads, Gives life to some new grace; thus doth h' invoke The lute's light genius now does proudly rise, Creeps on the soft touch of a tender tone, At length (after so long, so loud a strife Of all the strings, still breathing the best life His fingers' fairest revolution, In many a sweet rise, many as sweet a fall) A full-mouth'd diapason swallows all. This done, he lists what she would say to this, And she, although her breath's late exercise Had dealt too roughly with her tender throat, Yet summons all her sweet powers for a note; Alas! in vain! for while (sweet soul) she tries To measure all those wild diversities Of chatt'ring strings, by the small size of one She fails, and failing grieves, and grieving dies; (That liv'd so sweetly) dead, so sweet a grave!" ART. V. The Voyage of the Wandering Knight, shewing the whole course of a Man's Life, how apt he is to follow Vanitie, and how hard it is for him to attaine to Virtue; devised by John Carthemy, a Frenchman, and translated out of French into English, by W. G. [Goodyeare] of Southampton, merchant: a worke worthy of reading, and dedicated to the R. W. Sir Francis Drake; black letter, quarto. Lond. pr: by W. Stansby, n. d. The only notice which we find of this curious and very rare work, is a very slight one in Dunlop's History of Fiction. He there says, speaking of the origin of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, "that by some it has been attributed to Barnard's Religious Allegory, while others have traced it to the Story of the Wandering Knight, translated from the French by Will. Goodyeare, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ;" but of the original work, we find not the slightest mention, except in an enumeration of Romans de spiritualité et de morale, in the Bibliothèque of Gordon de Percel, where he quotes the title, Le Voyage du Chevalier Errant, par Jean de Carthemi, Dominicain, in 8; and drily adds, C'est un Roman où l'on fait entrer jusqu'aux Sept Pseaumes de la Penitence.* There were two, if not more, editions of the translation about the end of the sixteenth century, and another in the seventeenth, not many years before the appearance of Bunyan's deservedly popular work, and this strengthens the conjecture, that he might have been possessed of a copy, and that to the meditations, arising from the perusal of it during his imprisonment, we are indebted for the Pilgrim's Progress. It is by no means the wish of the writer to detract from the merit, or claims of Bunyan's work to originality, but merely to shew how far the original work, brooding over a warm and somewhat fervid imagination, may have furnished some of the materials, if not the basis, of Bunyan's admirable superstructure. We have had many successful instances of late of this having been done, without either lessening the merit or the popularity of the work * Percel Bibliothèque des Romans, p. 172. so examined; such, for instance, as Dunster's Milton and Ferriar's Sterne, as well as many others; and we must acknowledge that we are much indebted to these curious and interesting researches, for their having pointed out to our notice many valuable works, which but for these fortunate circumstances would probably have fallen into total oblivion; or would only have been known to the curious book collector. Upon a careful collation of the two early editions, we have discovered no variations, except a trifling change in the initials subscribed to the dedication, which in the first edition are R: N: probably Rob. Norman, the author of many valuable hydrographical works about the period, [see Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vol. vi.] but in the second edition these are reversed; but this is of too trifling an interest to merit farther investigation. We shall now, therefore, proceed to give an analysis of the work, and such occasional extracts as may enable the reader to judge for himself of the main question, upon which it is entitled to his notice; as also of the nature, aim, and merit of the original work; and which, if it has no other claim to our admiration, must certainly be allowed to exhibit a very curious picture of the manners, customs, and religious opinions, of the times in which it was written. The Contents of the first part of the Voyage of the Wandering Knight. Chap. I. The Wandering Knight declareth his intent and foolish enterprise, wishing and supposing in this world to find true felicitie. Chap. II. The Wandering Knight declareth unto Dame Folly, his governess, what is his intent. Chap. III. Folly and Evill-will provide the Knight apparel, armour, and horse; Folly apparalleth and armeth the Wandering Knight. Chap. IV. Folly, upon the way, sheweth the Knight many of her ancient proceedings, and how many great and notable personages she had governed. Chap. V. The Wandering Knight finding two ways, and doubtful whether of them to take, there chanced to come to him Virtue and Voluptuousness, eyther of them offering to guide and conduct the Knight on the way. Chap. VI. The Wandering Knight, by the counsaile of Folly, left. Ladie Virtue and followeth Voluptuousness, which led him to the palace of Worldly Felicitie. Chap. VII. How the Wandering Knight was received and welcomed to the palace of Worldly Felicitie. Chap. VIII. Voluptuousness sheweth the Wandering Knight some part of the palace of Worldly Felicitie, and after brought him some dinner. Chap. IX. Dinner being done, Voluptuousness sheweth the Wandering Knight the rest of the palace of Worldly Felicitie, with the su |