ize Lydgate was that he was a "stinking monk ;" and with haste commensurate to his fury he anathematizes the venerable poet's writings, as "cart-loads of rubbish of a voluminous poetaster; a prosaic and drivelling monk."

In opposition to Ritson and his associates-if the names of Percy and Ritson may be associated without the risk of an explosion-we find the poets Gray and Coleridge, and Thomas Warton. They rank themselves on the side of Lydgate, and claim for him a just measure of consideration, in compensation for the volumes of contempt that had been poured upon him. And we are the more willing to trust the taste and discernment of these "children of fancy," because they re-echo the sentence which Lydgate's contemporaries pronounced, and which the enthusiastic favor of two centuries confirmed. For it is an indisputable historical fact, that during that period his popularity was unbounded, and diffused through all classes. The prince and the peasant, the courtier and the warrior, the merchant, the artisan, and the scholar, all were his fervent admirers: and we dare not nor do we wish to denounce generations of men who lived "lang syne," as being destitute of taste and refinement. We are willing to abide by Gray's judicious observation, "that it is a folly to judge of the understanding of those times by our own. They loved, I will not say tediousness, but length, and a train of circumstances in a narrative. The vulgar do so still; it gives an air of reality to facts; it fixes the mind; raises and keeps in suspense their attention, and supplies the defects of their lifeless and barren imaginations; and it keeps pace with the slow motion of their own thoughts. Circumstances ever were and ever will be the life and essence both of Oratory and Poetry." If therefore a poet wished to be appreciated, or even understood, how much soever he was in advance of his age, it was necessary that his style and machinery should be adapted to his readers or hearers.

John Lydgate was born in the year 1375; some authorities

say at Bury, and others at Lydgate. He was educated at Oxford, and travelled through France, Germany, and Italy; where it is inferred that he was received with open arms by his brethren of the clergy, and by them admitted to the vast stores of manuscripts over which they were the jealous guardians. He so improved these opportunities, that upon his return to England he became renowned for his polite learning, and was induced to open a school in the Abbey at Bury (of which he was a monk) for the education of the children of the nobility.

His principal works were, The Fall of Princes, The Story of Thebes, and The Troy Tale. The former was composed at the request of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester; and the latter by command of Henry V. But besides these, his writings are numbered at two hundred and forty, ranging from the unpretending ballad to the voluminous epic. Although candor must award to him a great share of ability, it cannot be disguised that Lydgate's claims to genius are not commensurate with the size and quantity of his productions. We nevertheless believe that he was a true child of song. For if his genius be overshadowed by that of his master Chaucer, they yet had many things in common; the same enthusiastic admiration of flowers and birds; the same passionate love of feminine loveliness and purity; the same fellowship with Nature in her bright and gay moods: and much of the same wizard power of expressing his sentiments simply and earnestly. The following portrait of Lydgate's lite rary character is by Thomas Warton, and is limned with the proverbial grace and elegance of that amiable writer. "Whether Lydgate's subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of Saint Austin or of 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 wit and pieces of popular entertainment. His muse was of universal access; and he was not only

the poet of the monastery but of the world in general. If a disguising was intended by the company of goldsmiths; a mask before his majesty of 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."

Like all our old English poets, who were close observers and lovers of nature, Lydgate excels in description; and although his pedantry constantly obtrudes itself before our attention, it is impossible to deny to the following selections the merit of being fanciful, spirited, and harmonious.

A COOL RETREAT."

AND at the last, amonge the bowes glade,
Of adventure, I caught a plesaunt shade;
Ful smooth and playn, and lusty for to sene,
And softe as velvette was the yonge grene:
Where from my hors I did alight as fast,
And on a bough aloft his reyne cast.
So faynte and mate of wearynesse I was.
That I me layd adowne upon the gras,
Upon a brincke, shortly for to telle,
Beside the river of a crystall welle;
And the water, as I reherse can,
Like quicksilver in his streames yran,
Of which the gravell, and the bryghte stone,

As any golde, agaynst the sun yshone.3

1 Wharton's His. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii., p. 53.

2 Compare with Chaucer, p. 99.

3 Troye Boke.

CAIUS MARIUS.

BLACKE was his weed, and his habyte also,
His hed unkempt, his lockes hore and gray,
His loke downcast in token of sorowe and wo:
And on his cheke the salte teres lay.

His robe stayned was with Romayne blode,
His sworde aye redy whet to do vengeaunce;
Lyke a tyraunt most furyouse and wode,
In slaughter and murdre was set his plesaunce.1

VENUS."

AND she stant naked in a wavy sea,
Environ her with goddesses thre,
That be assign'd with busy attendance
To wait on her and do her observance.
And floures fresh, blue, red, and white,
Be her about, the more for to delight.
And on her hed she hath a chapelet
Of roses red full pleasauntly yset,
And from the head down unto her foote
With sundry gums and ointementes soote
She is enointe, sweeter for to smelle.
And all alofte, as these poets tell,

Be doves white, fleeing, and eke sparrows,
And her beside Cupide with his arrows.'

1 Fall of Princes. 2 Compare with Chaucer, p. 123. 3 Troy Boke

[C.]

Douglas.-Gawin Douglas was born in Scotland, A. D. 1475, and was the third son of Archibald, the great Earl of Angus. He had a classical education, to which he superadded the advantage of long travel in Germany and France, where his high birth and great acquirements commanded the notice of the most polished men. In his thirty-ninth year he was presented by the queen-mother, then regent of Scotland, to the Abbey of Aberbrothe, and soon after to the archbishopric of Saint Andrew's ; but the Pope having refused to confirm his nomination he never assumed the title. In the next year he became Bishop of Dunkeld, and after a long struggle obtained peaceable possession of that see. He was a man of great and varied learning, and the possessor of numerous virtues. He, however, suffered from the violent persecution in which his family was involved; and was at length compelled to seek an asylum in England. He accordingly removed to London, where he died of the plague in April, 1522, and was buried in the Savoy Church.1

The works which have transmitted to us a knowledge of his genius are, King Hart, The Palice of Honour, and a translation of Virgil's Eneid. This last is greatly esteemed, and by competent critics is lauded for its ability and the truth of its rendering. It is a durable monument to our author's genius and learning: for it was the first metrical version of any classic into English, and was executed within the space of sixteen months. Each of the thirteen books into which it is divided is prefaced by a prologue in which David Hume, the historian of his life, says, "he showeth a natural and ample vein of poetry, pure, pleasant, and judicious." That more refined critic, T. Warton, says of them, "the several books are introduced with metrical prologues, which are

1 These and the following facts are selected from Hollinshed, Floyd, Warton, and Ellis.