A Literary History of the English People Part 59

I stode chekmate for feare whan I gan see, In my way how little I had runne.

"Fall of Princes," prologue to Book iii., Schick, "Story of Thebes," p.

cv.

[839] Example, fight between Ulysses and Troilus:

He smote Ulyxes throughout his viser ...

But Ulyxes tho lyke a manly man, Of that stroke astoned not at all, But on his stede, stiffe as any wall, With his swerde so mightely gan race, Through the umber into Troylus face, That he him gave a mortal wounde,

of which, naturally, Troilus does not die. "The auncient historie ... of the Warres, betwixte the Grecians and the Troyans," London, 1555, 4to, Book iii., chap xxii. First edition, 1513. The work had been composed for Henry V. and at his request. Thomas Heywood gave a modernised version of it: "The Life and Death of Hector," 1614.

[840] Ed. Zupitza, Early English Text Society.

[841] A selection of his detached poems, mixed with many apocryphal ones, was edited by Halliwell: "A Selection from the minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate" (Percy Society), 1840, 8vo.

[842] "Troy Book"; in Schick, "Lydgate's Temple of Glas," p. lvi. In his learned essay Mr. Schick pleads extenuating circ.u.mstances in favour of Lydgate.

[843] This appeal to Chaucer is in itself quite touching; here it is:

For he that was grounde of well sayinge, In all his lyfe hyndred no makyng, My maister Chaucer yt founde ful many spot Hym list not pynche nor grutche at every blot....

Sufferynge goodly of his gentilnesse, Full many thynge embraced with rudenesse, And if I shall shortly hym discrive, Was never none to thys daye alive, To reken all bothe of yonge and olde, That worthy was his ynkehorne for to holde.

"The Auncient Historie," London, 1554, 4to, Book v. chap, x.x.xviii.

[844] Thomas Hoccleve was born about 1368-9 and entered the "Privy Seal"

in 1387-8; he died about 1450. His works are being published by the Early English Text Society: "Hoccleve's Works," 1892, 8vo; I., "The Minor Poems." His great poem, "De Regimine principum," has been edited by Th. Wright, Roxburghe Club, 1860, 4to. Two or three of his tales in verse are imitated from the "Gesta Romanorum"; another, the "Letter of Cupid," from the "Epistre an Dieu d'Amours," of Christine de Pisan.

"Hoccleve's metre is poor, so long as he can count ten syllables by his fingers he is content." Furnivall, "Minor Poems," p. xli.

[845] It seems like nothing, he says, but just try and see:

Many men, fadir, wennen that writynge No travaile is; thei hold it but a game ...

But who-so list disport hym in that same, Let hym continue and he shall fynd it grame; It is wel gretter labour than it seemeth.

("Minor Poems," p. xvii.)

[846] "La Male Regle de Thomas Hoccleve," in the "Minor Poems," pp. 25 ff.

[847]

Al-thogh his lyfe be queynt, the resemblaunce Of him hath me so fressh lyflynesse, That, to putte othir men in remembraunce Of his persone, I have heere his lyknesse Do make, to this ende, in sothfastnesse, That thei that have of him lest thought and mynde, By this peynture may ageyn him fynde.

("Minor Poems," p. x.x.xiii.; on this portrait see above, p. 341.)

[848] "Poetical Remains of James I. of Scotland," ed. Ch. Rogers, Edinburgh, 1873. The "King's Quhair" is found entire in Eyre Todd: "Abbotsford series of the Scotch poets," Glasgow, 1891, 3 vols, _Cf._ "Le roman d'un roi d'ecosse," with details from an unprinted MS., Paris, 1894.

[849] Though used by others before him, and especially by Chaucer; they rhyme _a b a b b c c_. Chaucer wrote in this metre "Troilus," "Parlement of Foules," &c. Here is an example, consisting in the commendation of the book to Chaucer and Gower:

Unto [the] impnis of my maisteris dere, Gowere and Chaucere, that on the steppis satt Of rethorike quhill thai were lyvand here, Superlative as poetis laureate, In moralitee and eloquence ornate, I recommend my buk in lynis sevin, And eke thair soulis un-to the blisse of hevin.

[850] "The Actis and Deidis of ... Schir William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie," by Henry the Minstrel, commonly known as Blind Harry, ed. J.

Moir, Edinburgh, 1884-99, Scottish Text Society. Blind Harry died towards the end of the fifteenth century.

[851] Henryson was born before 1425, and wrote under James II. and James III. of Scotland; he was professor, perhaps schoolmaster, at Dunfermline. His works have been edited by David Laing, Edinburgh, 1865.

[852] "The Works of Gavin Douglas," ed. J. Small, Edinburgh, 1874, 4 vols. 8vo. Born in 1474-5, died in 1522. He finished his "Palice of Honour" in 1501, an allegorical poem resembling the ancient models: May morning, Vision of Diana, Venus and their trains, descriptions of the Palace of Honour, &c. We shall find, at the Renaissance, Douglas a translator of Virgil; his aeneid was printed only in 1553.

[853] Born about 1460, studies at St. Andrews, becomes a mendicant friar and is ordained priest, sojourns in France, where the works of Villon had just been printed, then returns to the Court of James IV., where he is very popular. He died probably after 1520. "The Poems of William Dunbar," ed. Small and Mackay, Edinburgh, Scottish Text Society.

[854] See, for example, his "Lament for the Makaris quhen he wes seik,"

a kind of "Ballade des poetes du temps jadis," a style which Lydgate and Villon had already furnished models of. In it he weeps:

The n.o.ble Chaucer, of makaris flouir, The monk of Bery and Gower all three.

[855] Beginning of the "Thrissil and the Rois" (to be compared with the opening of the "Canterbury Tales"):

Quhen March wes with variand windis past, And Appryl had, with his silver schouris, Tane leif at Nature with ane orient blast, And l.u.s.ty May, that muddir is of flouris, Had maid the birdis to begyn their houris Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt, Quhois armony to heir it was delyt....

[856] Text in the Morris edition of Chaucer's poetical works, London, Aldine poets, vol. iv.

[857] Princ.i.p.al work to consult: F. J. Child, "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads," Boston, 1882. See above, p. 352.

[858] In "Bishop Percy's Folio MS.," ed. Hales and Furnivall, London, Ballad Society, 1867, 8vo.

[859] Text, _e.g._, in Skeat, "Specimens of English Literature," Oxford, 4th ed. 1887, p. 96, written, under the form in which we now have it, about the end of the fifteenth century.

[860]

The pillers of yvery garnished with golde, With perles sette and brouded many a folde, The flore was paved with stones precious, &c.

Stephen Hawes, "Pastime of Pleasure," Percy Society, 1845, p. 125.

[861] "A History of Agriculture and Prices," vol. iv., Oxford, 1882, p.

19. See also the important chapters on Industry and Commerce in Mrs.

Green's "Town Life in the XVth Century," London, 1894, 2 vols. 8vo, vol.

i. chaps. ii. and iii.

[862] This t.i.tle, since conferred upon the Russells, had been given to George Neville. The king, who had intended to endow the new duke in a proper manner, had given up the idea; and on the other hand, "as it is openly knowen that the same George hath not, nor by enheritance mey have, eny lyffelode to support the seid name, estate and dignite, or eny name of estate; and oft time it is sen that when eny lord is called to high estate and have not liffelode conveniently to support the same dignite, it induces gret poverty, indigens, and causes oftymes grete extortion, embracere and mayntenaunce to be had.... Wherfore the kyng, by the advyse ... [&c.] exact.i.th that fro hensfforth the same erection and making of Duke, and all the names of dignite guyffen to the seid George, or the seid John Nevele his fader, be from hens fors voyd and of no effecte." 17 Ed. IV. year 1477, "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. vi. p.

173.

[863] See "Stans puer ad mensam," by Lydgate, printed by Caxton:

T' enboce thi jowes with brede it is not due ...

Thy teth also ne pike not with the knyff ...

The best morsell, have this in remembraunce, Hole to thiself alway do not applye.

Hazlitt, "Remains," 1864, vol. iii. p. 23. Many other treatises on etiquette cooking, &c. See chiefly: "The Babes Book ... The Book of Norture," &c., ed. Furnivall, 1868, 8vo; "Two fifteenth century Cookery Books," ed. T. Austin, 1888, 8vo; "The Book of quinte essence," about 1460-70, ed. Furnivall, 1866 (medical recipes); "Palladius on husbondrie ..." about 1420, ed. Lodge, 1872-9 (on orchards and gardens); "The Book of the Knight of la Tour Landry ... translated in the reign of Henry VI.," ed. T. Wright, 1868, 8vo (the whole published by the Early English Text Society).

[864] "The Paston Letters," 1422-1509, ed. J. Gairdner, 1872, 3 vols.

8vo.