Dame Olympias, mid this press Her yellow hair was fair-attired, To her gentil middle small: Bright and sheen was her face; Every fair-head in her was. The following is part of a description of a battle: Alexander made a cry hardi "Ore tost, aby, aby !” 2 Then the knights of Achaye Justed with them of Araby : Between Vavasor ne king. Tofore,3 men mighten, and behind, Conteck4 seek, and conteck find. Hid. Helan. Sax. Perhaps the same as abois; the cry when the stag is taken. 3 Before. • Contest. Greek; Gregeois. Fr. 6 Shame. Fr. There might knight find his peer; There was quick, in little thrawe3 Some from the body reaved. There les quick her ami. Both kings there sans doute, Beeth in dash'd with all their rout. Many lands near and far Lesen their lord in that war. Lost. Sax. ⚫ War-horse, Fr.; so called from its being led on the right hand. 3 Time. 5 Maimed. 4 Head. 6 Standard. Fr. 7 Clashing, An unusual word, like diquetis, Fr. from which it is perhaps derived. Perhaps here is an omission by the transcriber, and the line should run thus, "There was spears in blood bathing," otherwise we do not know what the kings and their route dashed into. [Earth'] quaked of their riding; The procession of Olympias described in the first of these specimens, is given by Gower (Conf. Am. fol. 137; edit. 1554.), but is by no means equal in spirit or elegance to the picture drawn by Adam Davie and we probably should search in vain among our poets, anterior to Chaucer, for lines so full of animation, as the four last in the foregoing extract. The language, as far as we can judge from the specimens preserved by Mr. Warton, is exactly such as we should expect, and marks that popularity, which French phrases were beginning to acquire, and which continued to increase, during the whole of the following reign. Upon the whole, it is certainly to be wished, that some editor may be found, who shall have the courage to decipher the obsolete manuscript of Adam Davie's romance of Alexander, and give it entire to the public. A poet named Robert Baston, a carmelite friar of Scarborough, is mentioned as attending Edward II. to the siege of Stirling castle. He was taken Here the word has been erased. "Low, i. e. to the low grounds. 1 prisoner by the Scots, and compelled, for his ransome, to write a panegyric on Robert Bruce. This was probably in English; and he is described by Bale as the author of " Poemata et Rythmi, Tragediæ et Comedia vulgares;" but his only poem now extant, viz. an account of the siege of Stirling castle, is written in Latin monkish hexameters. It is not easy to understand what Bale meant by "tragediæ et comedia," for the words do not always imply scenic representations. It appears, indeed, that before the reign of Edward II. many Scriptural histories, in dialogue, were exhibited in our churches, under the name of mysteries or miracles; but these dialogues were not poems: on the other hand, many poems were written about this period under the name of tragedies and comedies, but these poems were not in dialogue. CHAPTER VI. Reign of Edward III.—The Hermit of Hampole.-Lawrence Minot.-Pierce Ploughman's Vision-Specimens of the Vision.Pierce the Ploughman's Creed-Specimen. THE first English poet that occurs in the reign of Edward III. is Richard Rolle, hermit of the order of St. Augustine, and doctor of divinity, who lived a life of solitude near the nuns of Hampole, four miles from Doncaster, in Yorkshire. He was a very popular and learned, though inelegant writer in Latin, on theological subjects; and his pretensions to the character of an English poet are founded on a metrical paraphrase of the book of Job, another of the Lord's Prayer, seven penitential psalms, and a piece in seven parts, called " the Prick of Con"science," all of which are usually attributed to him. Mr. Warton, however, suspects that they were all translated by contemporary poets, from the Latin prose originals composed by him; and he has proved by a long extract, that they are not worth transcribing. The Hermit of Hampole died in 1349. |