JOHN THE CHAPLAIN-THOMAS OCCLEVE.

THE first of these is the only versifier that can be assigned to England in the reign of Henry IV. His name was John Walton, though he was generally known as Johannes Capellanus, or 'John the Chaplain.' He was canon of Oseney, and died sub-dean of York. He, in the year 1410, translated Boethius' famous treatise, 'De Consolatione Philosophiæ,' into English verse. He is not known to have written anything original.―Thomas Occleve appeared in the reign of Henry V., about 1420. Like Chaucer and Gower, he was a student of municipal law, having attended Chester's Inn, which stood on the site of the present Somerset House; but although he trod in the footsteps of his celebrated predecessors, it was with far feebler powers. His original pieces are contemptible, both in subject and in execution. His best production is a translation of 'Egidius De Regimine Principum.' Warton, alluding to the period at which these writers appeared, has the following oftquoted observations:-'I consider Chaucer as a genial day in an English spring. A brilliant sun enlivens the face of nature with an unusual lustre; the sudden appearance of cloudless skies, and the unexpected warmth of a tepid atmosphere, after the gloom and the inclemencies of a tedious winter, fill our hearts with the visionary prospect of a speedy summer, and we fondly anticipate a long continuance of gentle gales and vernal serenity. But winter returns with redoubled horrors; the clouds condense more formidably than before, and those tender buds and early blossoms which were called forth by the transient gleam of a temporary sunshine, are nipped by frosts and torn by tempests.' These sentences are, after all, rather pompous, and express, in the most verbose style of the Rambler, the simple fact, that after Chaucer's death the ground lay fallow, and that for a while in England (in Scotland it was otherwise) there were few poets, and little poetry.

JOHN LYDGATE.

THIS copious and versatile writer flourished in the reign of Henry VI. Warton affirms that he reached his highest point of eminence in 1430, although some of his poems had appeared before. He was a monk of the Benedictine Abbey at Bury, in Suffolk. He received his education at Oxford; and when it was finished, he travelled through France and Italy, mastering the languages and literature of both countries, and studying their poets, particularly Dante, Boccaccio, and Alain Chartier. When he returned, he opened a school in his monastery for teaching the sons of the nobility composition and the art of versification. His acquirements were, for the age, universal. He was a poet, a rhetorician, an astronomer, a mathematician, a public disputant, and a theologian. He was born in 1370, ordained sub-deacon in 1389, deacon in 1393, and priest in 1397. The time of his death is uncertain. His great patron was Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, to whom he complains sometimes of necessitous circumstances, which were, perhaps, produced by indulgence, since he confesses himself to be a lover of wine.'

The great merit of Lydgate is his versatility. This Warton has happily expressed in a few sentences, which we shall quote:

He moves with equal ease in every form of composition. His hymns and his ballads have the same degree of merit; and whether his subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of Saint Austin or Guy, Earl of Warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a history or an allegory, he writes with facility. His transitions were rapid, from works of the most serious and laborious kind, to sallies of levity and pieces of popular entertainment. His muse was of universal access; and he was not only the poet of his monastery, but of the world in general. If a disguising was intended by the Company of Goldsmiths, a mask before His Majesty at Eltham, a May game for the sheriffs and aldermen of London, a mumming before the Lord Mayor, a procession of pageants, from the "Creation," for

the Festival of Corpus Christi, or a carol for the coronation, Lydgate was consulted, and gave the poetry.'

Lydgate is, so far as we know, the first British bard who wrote for hire. At the request of Whethamstede, the Abbot of St Alban's, he translated a 'Life of St Alban' from Latin into English rhymes, and received for the whole work one hundred shillings. His principal poems, all founded on the works of other authors, are the 'Fall of Princes,' the 'Siege of Thebes,' and the 'Destruction of Troy.' They are written in a diffuse and verbose style, but are generally clear in sense, and often very luxuriant in description. The London Lyckpenny' is a fugitive poem, in which the author describes himself coming up to town in search of legal redress for a wrong, and gives some curious particulars of the condition of that city in the early part of the fifteenth century.

CANACE, CONDEMNED TO DEATH BY HER FATHER ÆOLUS, SENDS
TO HER GUILTY BROTHER MACAREUS THE LAST TESTIMONY
OF HER UNHAPPY PASSION.

Out of her swoonë when she did abraid,1
Knowing no mean but death in her distress,
To her brother full piteously she said,
'Cause of my sorrow, root of my heaviness,
That whilom were the source of my gladnèss,
When both our joys by will were so disposed,
Under one key our hearts to be enclosed.-

This is mine end, I may it not astart;2
O brother mine, there is no more to say;
Lowly beseeching with mine whole heart
For to remember specially, I pray,
If it befall my little son to dey3

That thou mayst after some mind on us have,
Suffer us both be buried in one grave.

1 'Abraid:' awake.-2 Astart:' escape.-3 Dey:' die.

I hold him strictly 'tween my armës twain,
Thou and Naturë laid on me this charge;
He, guiltless, mustë with me suffer pain,
And, since thou art at freedom and at large,
Let kindness ourë love not so discharge,
But have a mind, wherever that thou be,
Once on a day upon my child and me.
On thee and me dependeth the trespace
Touching our guilt and our great offence,
But, welaway! most àngelic of face
Our childë, young in his pure innocence,
Shall against right suffer death's violence,
Tender of limbs, God wot, full guiltėless
The goodly fair, that lieth here speechless.

A mouth he has, but wordës hath he none;
Cannot complain, alas! for none outràge:
Nor grutcheth1 not, but lies here all alone
Still as a lamb, most meek of his visàge.
What heart of steel could do to him damage,
Or suffer him die, beholding the mannère
And look benign of his twain eyen clear.'--

Writing her letter, awhapped2 all in drede,
In her right hand her pen began to quake,
And a sharp sword to make her heartë bleed,
In her left hand her father hath her take,
And most her sorrow was for her childe's sake,
Upon whose face in her barme3 sleeping
Full many a tear she wept in complainíng.
After all this so as she stood and quoke,
Her child beholding mid of her paines' smart,
Without abode the sharpe sword she took,

1 'Grutcheth:' murmureth.-2 Awhapped:' confounded.-3 Barme:' lap.

And rove herselfë even to the heart;

Her child fell down, which mightë not astart,
Having no help to succour him nor save,
But in her blood theself began to bathe.

THE LONDON LYCKPENNY.

Within the hall, neither rich nor yet poor
Would do for me ought, although I should die:
Which seeing, I gat me out of the door,
Where Flemings began on me for to cry,
'Master, what will you copen1 or buy?

Fine felt hats? or spectacles to read?
Lay down your silver, and here you may speed.

Then to Westminster gate I presently went,
When the sun was at high prime:
Cooks to me they took good intent,2

And proffered me bread, with ale and wine,
Ribs of beef, both fat and full fine;

A fair cloth they 'gan for to spread,
But, wanting money, I might not be sped.

Then unto London I did me hie,

Of all the land it beareth the price; 'Hot peascods!' one began to cry,

'Strawberry ripe, and cherries in the rise!'3
One bade me come near and buy some spice;

Pepper, and saffron they 'gan me beed; 4
But, for lack of money, I might not speed.

Then to the Cheap I 'gan me drawn,

Where much people I saw for to stand;

1 'Copen:' koopen, (Flem.) to buy.-2 Took good intent:' took notice; paid attention.-3 'In the rise:' on the branch.-4' Beed:' offer.

VOL. I.

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