204

CAREER, PROVOCATIONS, AND OPINIONS OF WICKLIFFE.

maintained, among other things, that the clergy should not possess estates, that the ecclesiastical ceremonies obstructed true devotion, and that mendicant friars, the particular object of our Plowman's CREDE, were a public and insupportable grievance. But Wickliffe, whom Mr. Hume pronounces to have been an enthusiast, like many other reformers, carried his idea of purity too far; and, at least it appears from the two first of these opinions, under the design of destroying superstition, his undistinguishing zeal attacked even the necessary aids of religion. It was certainly a lucky circumstance that Wickliffe quarrelled with the pope. His attacks on superstition at first probably proceeded from resentment. Wickliffe, who was professor of divinity at Oxford, finding on many occasions not only his own province invaded, but even the privileges of the university frequently violated by the pretensions of the mendicants, gratified his warmth by throwing out some slight censures against all the four orders, and the popes their principal patrons and abettors. Soon afterwards he was deprived of the wardenship of Canterbury hall, by the archbishop of Canterbury, who substituted a monk in his place. Upon this he appealed to the pope, who confirmed the archiepiscopal sentence, by way of rebuke for the freedom with which he had treated the monastic profession. Wickliffe, highly exasperated at this usage, immediately gave a loose to his indignation, and without restraint or distinction attacked in numerous sermons and treatises, not only the scandalous enormities of the whole body of monks, but even the usurpations of the pontifical power itself, with other ecclesiastical corruptions. Having exposed these palpable abuses with a just abhorrence, he ventured still farther, and proceeded to examine and refute with great learning and penetration the absurd doctrines which prevailed in the religious system of his age: he not only exhorted the laity to study the scriptures, but translated the bible into English for general use and popular inspection. Whatever were his motives, it is certain that these efforts enlarged the notions of mankind, and sowed those seeds of a revolution in religion, which were quickened at length and brought to maturity by a favourable coincidence of circumstances, in an age when the increasing growth of literature and curiosity naturally led the way to innovation and improvement. But a visible diminution of the authority of the ecclesiastics, in England at least, had been long growing from other causes. The disgust which the laity had contracted from the numerous and arbitrary encroachments both of the court of Rome, and of their own clergy, had greatly weaned the kingdom from superstition; and conspicuous symptoms had appeared, on various occasions, of a general desire to shake off the intolerable bondage of papal oppression.

the royal buildings under Henry VII. Parker Hist. Cambr. p. 119. He like Wykeham, was a great builder, but not therefore an architect. Richard Williams, dean of Litchfield, and chaplain to Henry VIII., bore the same office. MSS. Wood, Litchfield. D. 7. Ashmol Nicholos Townley clerk, was master of the works at Cardinal College. MSS. Twyne, 8. £ 351. Walpole, i. Anecd. Paint. p. 40.

SECTION X.

LONGLAND'S peculiarity of style and versification, seems to have had many cotemporary imitators. One of these is a nameless author on the fashionable history of Alexander the Great: and his poem on this subject is inserted at the end of the beautiful Bodleian copy of the French ROMAN D'ALEXANDRE, before mentioned, with this reference1. 'Here fayleth a prossesse of this romaunce of Alixaunder the whiche 'prossesse that fayleth ye schulle fynde at the ende of thys boke 'ywrete in Engeliche ryme.' It is imperfect, and begins and proceeds thus.

How Alexander partyd thennys3.

When this weith at his wil wedinge
Hadde, fful rathe rommede he rydinge
Thedince so ondrace with his oft
Alixandre wendeth there wilde contre
Was wist and wonderfull peple

That weren proved ful proude, and prys of hevi helde

Of bodi went thei thare withoute any wede

And had grave on the ground many grete cavys
There here wonnynge was wynturus and somerus
No syte nor no sur stede sothli thei ne hadde
But holus holwe in the grounde to hide hem inne
Now is that name to mene the nakid wise

Wan the kiddeste of the cavus that was kinge holde
Hurde tydinge telle and loknynge wiste

That Alixaundre with his ost at lede thidince
To beholden of hom hure heizest prynce
Than waies of worshipe wittie and quainte
With his lettres he let to the lud sende

1 P. 240. It is in a different hand yet with Saxon characters. It has minatures in water colers.

* There is a poem in the Ashmolean museum, complete in the former part, which I believe is the same. MSS. Ashm. 44. It has 27 passus, and begins thus:

Whener folk fasted and fed, fayne wolde thei her
Some farand thing, &c.

At the end are these rubrics, with void spaces, intended to be filled.

'How Alexandre remewid to a flood that is called Phison.'
'How king Duidimus sent letters to king Alexandre.'
"How Duidimus enditid to Alexaundre of here levyng.'

How he spareth not Alexandre to telle hym of hys governance."

'How he telleth Alexandre of his maumetrie.'

'How Alexandre sente aunswere to Duidimus by lettres.'

How Duidimus sendyd an answere to Alexandre by lettre.'

'How Alexandre sente Duidimus another lettre.'

'How Alexandre pight a pelyr of marbyl ther.'

206

THE WARRES OF THE JEWES-A FAVOURITE SUBJECT.

Thanne southte thei sone the foresaide prynce
And to the schamlese schalk schewen hur lettres
Than rathe let the . . . . reden the sonde

That newe tythinge is tolde in this wise

The gentil1 Geneosophistians that gode were of witte
To the emperour Alixandre here aunsweris wreten
This is worschip of word worthi to have
And in conquerer kid in contres manie
Us is sertefyed seg as we soth heren

That thou hast ment with the man among us ferre
But yf thou kyng to us come with caere to figte
Of us getist thou no good gome we the warne
For what richesse . . . us might you us bi reve
Whan no wordliche wele is with us founde
We ben sengle of us silfe and semen ful bare
Nouht welde we nowe but naked we wende
And that we happili her haven of kynde
May no man but god make us fine

Thei thou fonde with thi folke to fighte us alle

We schulle us kepe on caugt our cavns withinne

Nevere werred we with wigth upon erthe

For we ben hid in oure holis or we harme laache hadde
Thus saide sothli the loude that thi sente

And al so cof as the king kende the sawe

New lettres he let the . . . . bi take

And with his sawes of soth he hem alle

That he wolde faire with his folke in a faire wise

To bi holden here home and non harme wurke

So heth the king with hem sente and sithen with his peple

. . . . cosli til hem to kenne of hure fare

But whan thai sieu the seg with so manye ryde
Thei war a grison of his grym and wende gref tholie

Ffast heiede thei to holis and hidden there

And in the cavus hem kept from the king sterne, &c.

Another piece, written in Longland's manner, is entitled, THE WARRES OF THE JEWES. This was a favourite subject, as I have before observed, drawn from the Latin historical romance, which passes under the name of HEGESIPPUS DE EXCIDIO HIERUSALEM.

In Tyberyus tyme the trewe emperour
Syr Sesar hym sulf saysed in Rome

Whyle Pylot was provost under that prynce ryche
And sewen justice also in Judeus londis
Herodes under his empire as heritage wolde
King of Galile was ycallid whan that Crist deyad
They Sesar sakles wer that oft syn hatide
Throw Pilet pyned he was and put on the rode
A pyler pygt was don upon the playne erthe
His body bouden therto beten with scourgis

1 Gymnosophists.

Whippes of quyrbole by went his white sides.
Til he al on rede blode ran as rayn on the strete
Such stockyd hym an a stole with styf menes hondis
Blyndfelled hym as a be and boffetis hym ragte
Zif you be a prophete of pris prophecie they sayde
Which man her aboute bolled the laste

A thrange thorn crown was thraste on his hed

casten hym with a cry and on a cros slowen
Ffor al the harme that he had hasted he nogt
On hym the vyleny to venge that hys venys brosten
Bot ay taried on the tyme gif they tone wolde
Gaf he space that him spilede they he speede lyte
Yf aynt was as yfynde and no fewer1, &c.

Notwithstanding what has been supposed above, it is not quite certain, that Longland was the first who led the way in this singular species of versification. His VISION was written on a popular subject, and is the only poem, composed in this capricious sort of metre, which has been printed. It is easy to conceive how these circumstances contributed to give him the merit of an inventor on this occasion.

The ingenious doctor Percy has exhibited specimens of two or three other poems belonging to this class2. One of these is entitled, DEATH AND LIFE: it consists of 229 lines, and is divided into two parts or Fitts. It begins thus :

Christ christen king that on the cross tholed,

Hadde paines and passyons to defend our soules;
Give us grace on the ground the greatlye to serve
For that royall red blood that rann from thy side.

The subject of this piece is a VISION, containing a contest for superiority between Our lady Dame LIFE, and the ugly fiend Dame DEATH: who with their several attributes and concomitants are personified in a beautiful vein of allegorical painting. Dame LIFE is thus forcibly described.

Shee was brighter of her blee than was the bright sonn:
Her rud redder than the rose that on the rise hangeth:
Meekely smiling with her mouth, and merry in her lookes ;
Ever laughing for love, as shee like would:

And as she came by the bankes the boughes eche one
They lowted to that ladye and layd forth their branches;
Blossomes and burgens breathed full sweete,

1 Laud. 22. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Ad calc. Hic tractatur bellum Judaicum apud Jerusalem.' f. 19, b. It is also in Brit. Mus. Cott. MSS. CALIG. A. 1. fol. 109.-123. Gyraldus Cambrensis says, that the Welsh and English use alliteration, in omni sermone exquisitio. Descript. Cambr. cap. xi. p. 889. O'Flaherty also says of the Irish, Non parvæ est apud nos in oratione elegantiæ schema, quod Paromæon, i.e. Assimile, dicitur: quoties multæ dictiones, ab eadem litera incipientes, ex ordine collocantur.' Ogyg. part. iii. Percy's judicious Essay on the METRE OF PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISIONS. Essay on the Metr. of P. P. Vis. p. 8. seq.

30, p. 242

208

A VERY ANCIENT HYMN TO THE VIRGIN MARY.

Flowers flourished in the frith where she forth stepped,

And the grasse that was gray grened belive.

The figure of DEATH follows, which is equally bold and expressive. Another piece of this kind, also quoted by doctor Percy, is entitled, CHEVELERE ASSIGNE, or DE CIGNE, that is, the Knight of the Swan. This is a romance which is extant in a prose translation from the French, among Mr. Garrick's noble collection of old plays1. We must not forget, that among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, there is a French metrical romance on this subject, entitled, L'YSTOIRE DU CHEVALIER AU SIGNE2. Our English poem begins thus3:

All-weldynge god, whence it is his wylle,

Wele he wereth his werke with his owene honde,
For ofte harmes were hente that help wene mygte
Nere the hygnes of hem that lengeth in hevene
For this, &c.

This alliterative measure, unaccompanied with ryhme, and including many peculiar Saxon idioms appropriated to poetry, remained in use so low as the sixteenth centuay. In doctor Percy's Ancient Ballads, there is one of this class called THE SCOTTISH FEILDE, containing a very circumstantial narrative of the battle of Flodden fought in the year 1513.

In some of the earliest of our specimens of old English poetry, we have long ago seen that alliteration was esteemed a fashionable and favourite ornament of verse. For the sake of throwing the subject into one view, and further illustrating what has been here said concerning it, I chuse to cite in this place a very ancient hymn to the Virgin Mary, never printed, where this affectation professedly predominates*. Hail beo yow5 Marie, moodur and may,

I.

Mylde, and meke, and merciable;

Heyl folliche fruit of sothfast fay,
Agayn vche stryf studefast and stable!

Heil sothfast soul in vche a say,

Undur the son is non so able.

Heil logge that vr lord in lay,

The formast that never was founden in fable,

1 K. vol. 1o. 'Imprinted at London by me Wylliam Copland.' There is an edition on parchment by W. de Worde, 1512, Newly translated out of Frenshe into Englyshe at thinstigacion of the puyssaunt prynce lorde Edward duke of Buckynghame.' Here I understand French prose.

215 E. vi. 9 fol.

au Cigne en vers.'

And in the Royal library at Paris, MSS. 7192, 'Le Roman du Chevalier
Montf. Cat. MSS. ii. p. 789.

3 See MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. i. f. 109, 123.

4 Among the Cotton MSS. there is a Norman Saxon alliterative hymn to the Virgin Mary. NER. A. xiv. fol. 240, cod. membran. 8vo. 'On god ureisun to ure lesdi.' That is, A good prayer to our lady.

Crirter milde moder reyte Marie

Miner huer leonie, mi leoue lerdi.

See some pageant-poetry, full of alliteration, written in the reign of Henry VII., Leland. Coll. iii. App. 180, edit. 1770.