A Literary History of the English People Part 41

As stremande sternes quen strothe men slepe, Staren in welkyn in wynter nyght. (St. 10.)

[583]

For that thou lestes wacs bot a rose, That flowred and fayled as kynde hit gefe. (St. 23.)

[584] The princ.i.p.al collections containing lyrical works and popular ballads of that period are: "Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of Henry II. to the Revolution," collected by John Ritson, revised by W. C.

Hazlitt, London, 1877, 12mo; "Specimens of Lyric Poetry, composed in England in the reign of Edward I.," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1842, 8vo; "Reliquiae Antiquae, sc.r.a.ps from ancient MSS. ill.u.s.trating chiefly Early English Literature," ed. T. Wright and J. O. Halliwell, London, 1841-43, 2 vols. 8vo; "Political Songs of England, from the reign of John to that of Edward II.," ed. Th. Wright, Camden Society, 1839, 4to; "Songs and Carols now first printed from a MS. of the XVth Century," ed.

Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo; "Political Poems and Songs, from Edward III. to Richard III.," ed. Th. Wright, Rolls, 1859-61, 2 vols.

8vo; "Political, Religious and Love Poems," ed. Furnivall, London, Early English Text Society, 1866, 8vo; "Bishop Percy's Folio MS." ed. J. W.

Hales and F. J. Furnivall, Ballad Society, 1867, 8vo; "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads," ed. F. J. Child, Boston, 1882 ff. Useful indications will be found in H. L. D. Ward's "Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum," vol. i., 1883.

[585]

Tiel come tu es je autie fu, Tu seras til come je su.

De la mort ne peusay-je mie Tant come j'avoy la vie.

En terre avoy grand richesse Dont je y fis grand n.o.blesse, Terre, mesons et grand tresor, Draps, chivalx, argent et or, Mes ore su-je povres et cheitifs, Perfond en la terre gys, Ma grand beaute est tout alee ...

Et si ore me veissez, Je ne quide pas qe vous deeisez Qe j'eusse onqes hom este.

(Stanley, "Historical Memorials of Canterbury.")

[586] Compiled in France in 1395. Lecoy de la Marche, "la Chaire francaise au moyen age," 2nd ed., Paris, 1886, 8vo, p. 334.

[587] MS. R. iii. 20, in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, fol.

33. In the same MS.: "A roundell made ... by my lorde therlle of Suffolk":

Quel desplaysier, quel courous quel destresse, Quel griefs, quelx mauls viennent souvent d'amours, &c. (fol. 36).

The author is the famous Earl, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was beaten by Joan of Arc, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, and was beheaded in 1450. For ballads of the same kind, by Gower, see below, p. 367. The same taste reigned in France; without mentioning Charles d'Orleans, Pierre de Beauveau writes: "Le joyeulx temps pa.s.se souloit estre occasion que je faisoie de plaisant diz et gracieuses chanconnetes et balades." "Nouvelles Francoises du XIVe Siecle," ed.

Moland and d'Hericault, 1858, p. 303.

[588] "Visions concerning Piers Plowman," A. Prol. l. 103, written about 1362-3. See following Chapter.

[589] "Parson's Tale."--"Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 581.

[590] "Munimenta Gildhallae Londiniensis."--"Liber albus, Liber custumarum; Liber Horn," Rolls, 1859, ed. Riley. The regulations (in French) relating to the Pui are drawn from the "Liber Custumarum,"

compiled in 1320 (14 Ed. II.), pp. 216 ff. "The poetical compet.i.tions called _puis_," established in the north of France, "seem to have given rise to German and Dutch imitations, such as the _Master Singers_ and the _Chambers of Rhetoric_." G. Paris, "Litterature francaise au moyen age," paragraph 127. To these we can add the English imitation which now occupies us.

[591] "Songs and Carols now first printed," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo, p. 4.

[592]

For hortyng of here hosyn Non inclinare laborant.

In the same piece, large collars, wide sleeves, big spurs are satirised.

Th. Wright, "Political Poems and Songs from Ed. III. to Ric. III.,"

Rolls, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 275.

[593] "Political Poems," _ibid._, vol. i. p. 263.

[594] The greater part of those that have come down to us are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; but Robin was very popular, and his praises were sung as early as the fourteenth century. The lazy parson in Langland's Visions confesses that he is incapable of chanting the services:

But I can rymes of Robin Hood and Randolf erle of Chestre.

Ed. Skeat, text B. v. 402. See above, p. 224.

[595] Walsingham, "Historia Anglicana," Rolls, vol. ii. p. 32. See an English miniature representing Adam and Eve, so occupied, reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 283.

[596]

Nede they fre be most, Vel nollent pacificari, &c.

"Political Poems," vol. i. p. 225. Satire of the heretical Lollards: "Lollardi sunt zizania," &c. _Ibid._, p. 232; of friars become peddlers, p. 264.

[597] "Political Poems." _ibid._, vol. i. pp. 26 ff.

[598] Ballad by Eustache des Champs, "Oeuvres Completes," ii. p. 34.

[599] "The Poems of Laurence Minot," ed. J. Hall, Oxford, 1887, 8vo, eleven short poems on the battles of Edward III. Adam Davy may also be cla.s.sed among the patriotic poets: "Davy's five dreams about Edward II.," ed. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1878, 8vo. They are dreams interspersed with prophecies; the style is poor and aims at being apocalyptic. Edward II. shall be emperor of Christendom, &c. Various pious works, a life of St. Alexius, a poem on the signs betokening Doomsday, &c., have been attributed to Davy without sufficient reason.

See on this subject, Furnivall, _ibid._, who gives the text of these poems.

[600] _Ibid._, p. 21.

[601] Vices and faults of Edward: "Political Poems," vol. i. p. 159, 172, &c.

[602] "Political Poems," vol. i. p. 172.

[603] "The Bruce, or the book of the most excellent and n.o.ble Prince Robert de Broyss, King of Scots," A.D. 1375, ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1879-89. Barbour, having received safe conducts from Edward III., went to Oxford, and studied there in 1357 and in 1364, and went also to France, 1365, 1368. Besides his "Bruce" he wrote a "Brut," and a genealogy of the Stuarts, "The Stewartis Oryginale," beginning with Ninus founder of Nineveh; these two last poems are lost. Barbour was archdeacon of Aberdeen; he died in 1395 in Scotland, where a royal pension had been bestowed upon him.

[604] "The incidents on which the ensuing novel mainly turns are derived from the ancient metrical chronicle of the Bruce by Archdeacon Barbour, and from," &c. "Castle Dangerous," Introduction.--"The authorities used are chiefly those ... of Archdeacon Barbour...." "Lord of the Isles,"

Advertis.e.m.e.nt to the first edition.

[605] Book vii. line 483.

[606] Book xvi. line 270.

[607] Book i. line 235.

[608]

Et si jeo n'ai de Francois la faconde, Pardonetz moi qe jeo de ce forsvoie; Jeo suis Englois.

"Balades and other Poems by John Gower," London, Roxburghe Club, 1818 4to, _in fine_.

[609] Book v. st. 266.

[610] "Confessio Amantis," ed. Pauli, London, 1857, 3 vols, 8vo. vol.

iii. p. 374.

[611] Henry, then earl of Derby, had given him a collar in 1393; the swan was the emblem of Thomas, duke of Gloucester, Henry's uncle, a.s.sa.s.sinated in 1397; Henry adopted it from that date. A view of Gower's tomb is in my "Piers Plowman," 1894, p. 46.