364 LIST OF AUTHORITIES FROM WHOM LYDGATE WROTE. afterwards translated into English verse. Our author's originals are Guido Colonna, Statius, and Seneca the tragedian1. Nicholas Trevet, an Englishman, a Dominican friar of London, who flourished about the year 1330, has left a commentary on Seneca's tragedies2: and he was so favorite a poet as to have been illustrated by Thomas Aquinas3. He was printed at Venice so early as the year 1482. Lydgate in this poem often refers to myne auctor, who, I suppose, is either Statius, or Colonna1. He sometimes cites Boccacio's Latin tracts particularly the GENEALOGIÆ DEORUM, a work which at the restoration of learning greatly contributed to familiarise the classical stories, DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, the ground-work of the FALL OF PRINCES just mentioned, and DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS, in which pope Joan is one of the heroines. From the first, he has taken the story of Amphion building the walls of Thebes by the help of Mercury's harp, and the interpretation of that fable, together with the fictions about Lycurgus king of Thrace'. From the second, as I recollect, the accoutrements of Polymites: and from the third, part of the tale of Isophile. He also characterises Boccacio for a talent, by which he is not now so generally known, for his poetry; and styles him among poetes in Itaile stalled1o. But Boccacio's THESEID was yet in vogue. He says, that when Oedipus was married, none of the Muses were present, as they were at the wedding of SAPIENCE with ELOQUENCE, described by that poet whilom so sage, Matrician inamed de Capella. This is Marcianus Mineus Felix de Capella, who lived about the year 470, and whose Latin prosaico-metrical work, de Nuptiis Philologia et Mercurii, in two books, an introduction to his seven books, or system, of the SEVEN SCIENCES, I have mentioned before: a writer highly extolled by Scotus Erigena", Peter of Blois12, John of Salisbury, and other early authors in corrupt Latinity13; and of such eminent estimation in the dark centuries, as to be taught in the seminaries of philological education as a classic11. Among the royal manuscripts in the British museum, a manuscript occurs written about the 1 pag. 630, col. 1. 2 MSS. Bodl. NE, F. 8, 6. Leland saw this Commentary in the library of the Cistercian abbey of Buckfast-Lees in Devonshire. Coll. iii. p. 257. 3 Some say, Thomas Anglicus. 4 Pag. 623, col. 2, 630, col. 1, 632, col. 2, 635, col. 2, 647, col. 2, 654, col. 1, 659, col. 1. 5 First printed, Ulm. 1473, fol. 6 Lydgate says, that this was the same Lycurgus who came as an ally with Palamon to Athens against his brother Arcite, drawn by four white bulls, and crowned with a wreath of gold. Pag. 650, col. 2. KN. TALE, Urry's Ch. p. 17, v. 2131, seq. col. 1. Our author expressly refers to Chaucer's KNIGHT'S TALE about Theseus, and with some address, ‘As ye have before heard it related in passing through Deptford, &c.' Page 568, col. 1. 7 Page 623, col. 2. 624, col. 1. 651, col. 1. 8 Page 634, col. 2. 9 Page 648, col. 1, seq. 10 Page 651, col. 1. 12 Epist. 101. 11 De Divis. Natur. lib. iii. p. 147, 148. 13 See Alcuin. De Sept. Artib. p. 1256. Honorious Augustodunus, de Philosophia Mundi, lib. ii. cap. 5. And the book of Thomas Cantipratanus attributed to Boethius, De Disciplina Scholarium. Compare Barth. ad Claudian, p. 32. 14 Barth. ad Briton, p. 110. edii ævi scholas tenuit, adolescentibus prælectus, &c.' Wilibaldus, Epist. 147, tom. ii, Vet. Monum. Marten. p. 334 eleventh century, which is a commentary on these nine books of Capella, compiled by Duncant an Irish bishop', and given to his scholars in the monastery of saint Remigius2. They were early translated into Latin leonine rhymes, and are often imitated by Saxo Grammaticus3. Gregory of Tours has the vanity to hope, that no readers will think his Latinity barbarous: not even those, who have refined their taste, and enriched their understanding with a complete knowledge of every species of literature, by studying attentively this treatise of Marcianus1. Alexander Necham, a learned abbot of Cirencester, and a voluminous Latin writer about the year 1210, wrote annotations on Marcianus, which are yet preserved. He was first printed in the year 1499, and other editions appeared soon afterwards. This piece of Marcianus, dictated by the ideal philosophy of Plato, is supposed to have led the way to Boethius's celebrated CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. The marriage of SAPIENCE and ELOQUENCE, or Mercury and Philology, as described by Marcianus, at which Clio and Calliope with all their sisters assisted, and from which DISCORD and SEDITION, the great enemies of literature, were excluded, is artfully introduced, and beautifully contrasted with that of Oedipus and Jocasta, which was celebrated by an assemblage of the most hideous beings. Ne was there none of the Muses nine,- None of the sistren in number thrise thre, 1 Leland says he saw this work in the library of Worcester Abbey. Coll. iii. p. 268. 2 MSS. Reg. 15 A. xxxiii. Liber olim S. Remig. Studio Gifardi scriptus. Labb. Bibl. Nov. MSS. p. 66. In imitation of the first part of this work, a Frenchman, Jo. Boræus, wrote NUPTIAE JURISCONSULTI ET PHILOLOGIE, Paris, 1651, 4to. 3 Stephan. in Prolegomen. c. xix. And in the Notes, passim. He is adduced by Fulgentius. 4 Hist. Fr. lib. x. ad calc. A MSS. of Marcianus, more than 700 years old, is mentioned by Bernard a Pez. Thesaur. Anecdot. tom. iii. p. 620. But by some writers of the early age he is censured as obscure. Galfredus Canonicus, who flourished about 1170, declares, Non 'petimus nos, aut lascivire cum Sidonio, aut vernare cum Hortensio, aut involvere cum Marciano. Apud Marten. ubi supr. tom. i. p. 506. He will occur again. 5 Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digb. 221. And in other places. As did Scotus Erigena, Labb. Bibl. Nov. MSS. p. 45. And others of that period. Mabillon. Itin. Ital. p. 221. 7 PHILOLOGIA. 8 NIGHT. 366 THE HELLISH WEDDING. THEBAID OF A TROUBADOUR. MEGERA and THESIPHONEE, ALECTO eke: with LABOUR, and ENVIE, All these folkes were at weddyng new : The bare conception of the attendance of this allegorical groupe on these incestuous espousals, is highly poetical and although some of the personifications are not presented with the addition of any picturesque attributes, yet others are marked with the powerful pencil of Chaucer. This poem is the THEBAID of a troubadour. The old classical tale of Thebes is here cloathed with feudal manners, enlarged with new fictions of the Gothic species, and furnished with the descriptions, circumstances, and machineries, appropriated to a romance of chivalry. The Sphinx is a terrible dragon, placed by a necromancer to guard a mountain, and to murther all travellers passing by. Tydeus being wounded sees a castle on a rock, whose high towers and crested pinnacles of polished stone glitter by the light of the moon: he gains admittance, is laid in a sumptuous bed of cloth of gold, and healed of his wounds by a king's daughter3. Tydeus and Polymite tilt at midnight for a lodging, before the gate of the palace, of King Adrastus; who is awakened with the din of the strokes of their weapons, which shake all the palace, and descends into the court with a long train by torch-light: heorders the two combatants to be disarmed and cloathed in rich mantles studded with pearls; and they are conducted to repose by many a stair to a stately tower, after being served with a refection of hypocras from golden goblets. The next day they are both espoused to the king's two daughters, and entertained with tournaments, feasting, revels, and masques". Afterwards Tydeus, having a message to deliver to Eteocles king of Thebes, enters the hall of the royal palace, completely armed and on horseback, in the midst of a magnificent festival1o. This palace, 3 Burning. 5'Oaths which proved false in the end." 1 Garment. 4 'Death was the only 6 Pag. 629, col. 1. 7 Pag. 627, col. 2, 2 The attendants on Mars. refuge, or remedy.' 9 Pag. 633, col. 1, seq. Concerning the dresses, perhaps in the masques, we have this line. pag. 635, col. 2. 8 Pag. 640, col. 2, seq. And the DEVISE of many a SOLEIN WEDE. 10 Pag. 637, col. 2. like a Norman fortress, or feudal castle, is guarded with barbicans, portcullisses, chains, and fosses1. Adrastus wishes to close his old age in the repose of rural diversions, of hawking and hunting2. The situation of Polymite, benighted in a solitary wilderness, is thus forcibly described. Holding his way, of herte nothing light, Ne, him to shrowde, saw no where no succour, When Oedipus consults concerning his kindred the oracle of Apollo, whose image stood on a golden chariot with four wheels burned bright and sheen, animated with a fiend, the manner in which he receives his answer is touched with spirit and imagination. And when Edipus by great devotion Finished had fully his orison, The fiend anon, within invisible, In this poem, exclusive of that general one already mentioned, there are some curious mixtures of manners, and of classics and scripture. The nativity of Oedipus at his birth is calculated by the most learned astronomers and physicians. Eteocles defends the walls of Thebes with great guns. And the priests Amphiorax, or Ampharus, is styled a bishop, whose wife is also mentioned. At a council held at Thebes, concerning the right of succession to the throne, Esdras and Solomon are cited: and the history of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem is introduced1o. The moral intended by this calamitous tale consists in shewing the pernicious effects of war: the diabolical nature 2 Pag. 635, col. I. 3 Afraid. Fatigued. 4 Pag. 631, col. 2. 6 Pag. 625, col. 1. Great and small, and some as large as tonnes. 1 Pag. 644, col. 2. Pag. 645, col. 1. 368 LYDGATE'S TROY BOKE, AND HISTORY THEREOF. of which our author still further illustrates by observing, that discord received its origin in hell, and that the first battle ever fought was that of Lucifer and his legion of rebel angels1. But that the argument may have the fullest confirmation, Saint Luke is then quoted to prove, that avarice, ambition, and envy, are the primary sources of contention; and that Christ came into the world to destroy these malignant principles, and to propagate universal charity. At the close of the poem, the mediation of the holy virgin is invoked, to procure peace in this life, and salvation in the next. Yet it should be rememembered, that this piece is written by a monk, and addressed to pilgrims2. THE third of Lydgate's poems which I proposed to consider, is the TROY BOKE, or the DESTRUCTION OF TROY. It was first printed at the command of king Henry VIII., in the year 1513, by Richard Pinson, with this title, ‘THE HYSTORY SEGE AND DESTRUCCION OF Troye. 'The table or rubrisshe of the content of the chapitres, &c. Here after foloweth the TROYE BOKE, otherwise called the SEGE OF TROVE, 'Translated by JOHN LYDGATE monke of Bury, and emprynted at the 'commaundement of oure souveraygne lorde the kynge Henry the eighth, 'by Richarde Pinson, &c. the yere of our lorde god a M.CCCCC. and XIII3' Another, and a much more correct edition followed, by Thomas Marshe under the care of one John Braham, in the year 1555. It was begun in the year 1414, the last year of the reign of king Henry IV. It was written at that prince's command, and is dedicated to his successor. It was finished in the year 1420. In the Bodleian library there is a MSS. of this poem elegantly illuminated, with the picture of a monk 1 Pag. 660, col. 1. 2 Lydgate was near fifty when this poem was written, pag. 622, col. 2. 3 Among other curious decorations in the title page, there are soldiers firing great guns at the city of Troy. Caxton, in his RECUYLE OF THE HYSTORYES OF TROYE, did not translate the account of the final destruction of the city from his French author Rauol le Feure, 'for as muche as that worshipfull and religious man Dan John Lydgate monke of Burye did 'translate it but late, after whose worke I feare to take upon me, &c.' At the end of B. ii. 4 With this title. The auncient historie, and only true and syncere chronicle, of the warres 'betwixte the Grecians and the Troyans, and subsequently of the fyrst evercyon of the aun'cient and famouse cyte of Troye under Laomedon the king, and of the last and fynall destructyon of the same under Pryam: wrytten by Daretus a Troyan and Dictus a Grecian, 'both souldiours and present at and in all the sayd warres, and digested in Latyn by the 'learned Guydo de Columpnis, and sythes translated into Englyshe verse by John Lydgate moncke of Burye and newly imprinted.' The colophon, Imprinted at London in Flete'strete at the sygne of the Princes Armes by Thomas Marshe. Anno. do. M.D.L.V.' This book was modernised, and printed in five-lined stanzas, under the title, THE LIFE AND 'DEATH OF HECTOR, &c. written by John Lydgate monk of Berry, &c. At London, printed by Thomas Purfoot. Anno Dom. 1614,' fol. But I suspect this to be a second edition. 'Princip. 'In Thessalie king Peleus once did raigne. Farmer's ESSAY, p. 39, 40, edit. 1767. This spurious TROYE-BOKE is cited by Fuller, Winstanley, and others, as Lydgate's genuine work. |