So wholesome was, and nourishing by kind, To give us hope that there fruit shall y-take There saw I growing eke the fresh haw-thorn That had his course as I could well behold, The gravel, gold: the water pure as glass: Chaucer has also taken care to tell us that he was magnificently lodged. And sooth to sayen, my chamber was In its nature. Were all the windows well y-glased· And all the Romant of the Rose, &c. He mentions another room which was curiously painted on the walls old portraiture Of horsemen, hawkis, and houndis, And hurt deer, all full of woundis, Some like bitten, some hurt with shot, &c. A modern reader may possibly not be aware that glass windows were so rare in the reign of Edward III. as to merit a particular description; but it appears The Painted Chamber, adjoining the House of Lords, represents the siege of Troy; and the tapestry was placed there at the marriage of Richard II. from Heywood's "Spider and Flie," that glazed windows were considered as a luxury in the time of Henry VIII. Heywood's window was only latticed. The Trojan war was indeed of little use, except as a provocative to dreaming, which Chaucer perhaps did not much want; but though an unnecessary, it must have been an expensive ornament. In the Legend of Cleopatra, we are surprised by the following description of the battle of Actium. The fleets having met― Up goeth the trump, and for to shout, and shete,' And from the top down cometh the great stones. In the Legend of Dido, the situation of Æneas at her court, is thus curiously described: This Æneas is come to Paradise, Out of the swallow of hell: and thus in joy And with the queen when that he had y-set, To take his ease, and for to have his rest, There ne was courser well y-bridled none, Ne gentil hautein falcon heronere,2 Ne hound for hart, or wilde boar, or deer; 1 Parement, Fr.; from parer, to adorn. • Gentil, hautain, heronier. Fr. Beaten, stamped, coined. That Dido ne hath Æneas it y-sent: AND ALL IS PAYED, WHAT THAT HE HATH SPENT; Thus can this worthy queen her guestis call As she that can in freedom passen all, &c. In the romance of Troilus and Cressida, Chaucer says— And after this the story telleth us, That she unto him gave the fair bay steed The which she onis won of Troilus gave to Diomede : And eke a broche (and that was little need) very The attributes of chivalry, and the fashions and customs of the middle ages, do not, perhaps, sit gracefully on classical characters; but we are glad to find them any where. The following description of the entry of Troilus into Troy, is inserted, because it seems to have suggested to Mr. Gray some very beautiful lines in his Latin Epistle from Sophonisba to Massinissa, 1 Once. 2 A clasp, or buckle; any jewel. Fr. A small streamer; pennoncel. Fr. |