but matiere pour rire, did much cozen the world; for he came to the scaffold with good affurance, and contempt of death. He faid fome fhort prayers after his minifter, and fo outprayed the company that helped to pray with him, that a ftander-by faid, he had a good mouth in a cry, but was nothing fingle. Some few words he ufed, to exprefs his forrow for his of fence to the King, and craved pardon of him and the world; for Sir Walter Raleigh, he took it, upon the hope of his foul's refurrection, that what he had faid of him was true; and with thofe words would have taken a fhort farewel of the world, with that conftancy and boldness, that we might fee by him, it is an eafier matter to die well than live well. He was flayed by the fheriff, and told, that there refteth yet fomewhat elfe to be done; for that he was to be confronted with fome other of the prifoners, but named none. So as Grey and Markham being brought back to the scaffold, as they then were, but nothing acquainted with what had paffed, no more than the lookers on with what should follow, looked strange one upon the other, like men beheaded, and met again in the other world. Now all the actors being together on the ftage (as ufe is at the end of a play), the fheriff made a fhort fpeech unto them, by way of the interrogatory of the inoufnefs of their offences, the juftnefs of their trials, their lawful condemnation, and due execution there to be performed; to all which they affented; then, faith the fheriff, fee the mercy of your prince, who, of himself, hath fent hither a countermand, and given you your lives. There was then no need to beg a plaudite of the audience, for it was given with fuch hues and cries, that it went from the caftle into the town, and there began afresh, as if there had been fome fuch like accident. And this experience was made of the difference of examples of juftice and mercy;-that, in this laft, no man could cry loud enough, God fave the King; and at the holding up of Brooke's head, when the executioner began the fame cry, he was not feconded by the voice of any one man, but the fheriff. You must think, if the spectators were fo glad, the actors were not forry; for even those that went best refolved to death, were glad of life. Cobham vowed openly, if ever he proved traitor again, never fo much as to beg his life; and Grey, that fince he had his life, without begging, he would deferve it. Markham returned with a merrier countenance than he came to the fcaffold. Raleigh, you must think (who had a window opened that way), had hammers working in his head, to beat out the meaning of this ftratagem. His turn was to come on Monday next; but the King has pardoned him with the reft, and confined him with the two Lords to the Tower of London, there to remain during pleasure. Markham, Brookfby, and Copley, are to be banished the realm. refolution was taken by the King without man's help, and no man can rob him of the praife of yefterday's action; for the Lords knew no other, but that execution was to go forward, till the very hour it fhould be performed; and then, calling them before him, he told them how much he had been trou This bled bled to refolve in this bufinefs; for to execute Grey, who was a noble, young, fpirited fellow, and fave Cobham, who was as bafe and unworthy, were a manner of in-` juftice. To fave Grey, who was of a proud infolent nature, and execute Cobham, who had fhewed great tokens of humility and repentance, were as great a folecifm; and fo went on with Plutarch's comparisons in the reft, till, travelling in contrarieties, but holding the conclufion in fo indifferent balance, that the Lords knew not what to look for till the end came out, and therefore I have faved them all. The miracle was as great there, as with us at Winchefter, and it took like effect; for the applaufe that began about the King, went from thence into the prefence, and fo round about the court. I fend you a copy of the King's letter, which was privately written the Wednesday night, and the meffenger dispatched the Thursday about noon. But one thing had like to have marred the play; for the letter was clofed, and delivered him unfigned; which the King remembered himself, and called for him back again. And at Winchefter there was another cross adventure; for John Gib could not get fo near the fcaffold that he could speak to the fheriff, but was thrust out amongst the boys, and was forced to call out to Sir James Hays, or elfe Markham might have loft his neck. There were other bye paffages, if I could readily call them to mind; but here is enough already for un petit mot de lettre, and, therefore, I bid you heartily farewel. From Salifbury, Dec. 11, 1603. Yours, &c. DUDLEY CARLETON. Of CHAUCER and LYDGATE; from Mr. Warton's Hiftory of Englith Poetry. I CONSIDER Chaucer as a genial day in an English fpring. A brilliant fun enlivens the face of nature with an unusual luftre : the fudden appearance of cloudlefs fkies, and the unexpected warmth of a tepid atmosphere, after the gloom and the inclemencies of a tedious winter, fill our hearts with the vifionary profpect of a speedy fummer and we fondly anticipate long continuance of gentle gales and vernal ferenity. But winter returns with redoubled horrors; the clouds condenfe more formi dably than before; and thofe tender buds, and early bloffoms, which were called forth by the tranfient gleam of a temporary funfhine, are nipped by frofts, and torn by tempefts. Most of the poets that immediately fucceeded Chaucer, feem rather relapfing into barbarifm, than availing themfelves of those ftriking ornaments which his judg ment and imagination had difclof ed. They appear to have been infenfible to his vigour of verfifica tion, and his flights of fancy. It was not indeed likely that a poet fhould foon arife equal to Chaucer: and it must be remembered, that the national diftractions which enfued, had no fmall fhare in obftructing the exercife of thofe ftudies which delight in peace and repose. His fucceffors, however, approach him in no degree of proportion. Among thefe, John Lydgate is the poet who follows him at the fhortest interval. I have placed Lydgate in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and he Teems to have arrived at his highest C 3 point point of eminence about the year 1430. Many of his poems, however, appeared before. He was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Bury in Suffolk, and an uncommon ornament of his profeffion. Yet his genius was fo lively, and his accomplishments fo numerous, that I fufpect the holy father Saint Benedict would hardly have acknowledged him for a genuine difciple. After a fhort education at Oxford, he travelled into France and Italy; and returned a complete mafter of the language and the literature of both countries. He chiefly ftudied the Italian and French Poets, particularly Dante, Boccacio, and Alain Chartier; and became fo diftinguished a proficient in polite learning, that he opened a fchool in his monaftery, for teaching the fons of the nobility the arts of verfification and the elegance of compofition. Yet, although philology was his object, he was not unfamiliar with the fashionable philofophy; he was not only a poet and a rhetorician, but a geometrician, an aftronomer, a theologift, and a difputant. On the whole I am of opinion, that Lydgate made confiderable additions to thofe amplifications of our language, in which Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve led the way: and that he is the first of our writers whofe ftyle is cloathed with that perfpicuity, in which the English phrafeology appears at this day to an English reader. ballads, have the fame degree of merit; and whether his fubject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of faint Auftin or Guy earl of Warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a hiftory or an allegory, he writes with facility. His tranfitions were rapid from works of the most serious and laborious kind, to fallies of levity, and pieces of popular entertain⚫ment. His mufe was of univerfal accefs; and he was not only the poet of his monaftery, but of the world in general. If a disguifing was intended by the company of goldsmiths, a mafk before his majefty at Eltham, a may-game for the fheriffs and aldermen of London, a mumming before the lordmayor, a proceffion of pageants from the creation, for the feftival of Corpus Chrifti, or a carcl for the coronation, Lydgate was confulted, and gave the poetry. Lydgate's manner is naturally verbofe and diffuse. This circumftance contributed in no fmall degree to give a clearness and a fluency to his phrafeology. For the fame reafon he is often tedious and languid. His chief excellence is in defcription, especially where the fubject admits a flowery diction. He is feldom pathetic or animated. We are furprised to find verfes of fo modern a caft as the following at fuch an early period; which in this fagacious age we fhould judge to be a forgery, was not their genuineness authenticated, and their antiquity confirmed, by the venerable types of Caxton, and a multitude of unquestionable ma nufcripts. To enumerate Lydgate's pieces would be to write the catalogue of a little library. No poet feems to have poffeffed a greater verfatility of talents. He moves with equal cafe in every mode of compofition. His hymns, and his With filver drops. Like as the dewe difcendeth on the rofe Our Our Saviour's crucifixion is expreffed by this remarkable metaphor. Whan he of purple did his baner fprede, Our author, in the courfe of his panegyric on the Virgin Mary, affirms, that the exceeded Hefter in meekness, and Judith in wifdom; and in beauty, Helen, Polyxena, Lucretia, Dido, Bathfheba, and Rachel. It is amazing, that in an age of the most fuperftitious devotion fo little difcrimination fhould have been made between facred and prophane characters and incidents. But the common fenfe of mankind had not yet attained a juft eftimate of things. Lydgate, in another piece, has verfified the rubrics of the miffal, which he applies to the god Cupid and declares with how much delight he frequently meditated on the holy legend of thofe conftant martyrs, who were not afraid to fuffer death for the faith of that omnipotent divinity. There are inftances in which religion was even made the inftrument of love. Arnaud Daniel, a celebrated troubadour of the thirteenth century, in a fit of amorous defpair, promifes to found a multitude of annual maffes, and to dedicate perpetual tapers to the fhrines of faints, for the important purpose of obtaining the affections of an obdurate miftrefs. : But if we attend only to the politics of the times, we fhall find thefe poets, as alfo fome of their fuccef fors, much less blameable in this respect, than the critics imagine. Our wars with France, which began in the reign of Edward the Third, were of long continuance. The principal nobility of England, at this period, refided in France, with their families, for many years. John, King of France, kept his court in England; to which, exclufive of thofe French lords who were his fellow-prifoners, or neceffary attendants, the chief nobles of his kingdom must have occafionally reforted. Edward the black prince made an expedition into Spain. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancafter, and his brother the Duke of York, were matched with the daughters of Don Pedro, King of Caftile. All these circumstances must have concurred to produce a perceptible change in the language of the court. It is rational, therefore, and it is equitable to fuppofe, that inftead of coining new words, they only complied with the common and fashionable modes of fpeech. Would Chaucer's poems have been the delight of those courts in which he lived, had they been filled with unintelligible pedantries? The contemporaries of thefe poets never complained of their obfcurity. But whether de fenfible on these principles or not, they much improved the vernacular ftyle by the ufe of this exotic phrafeology. It was thus that our primitive diction was enlarged. and enriched. The English language owes its copioufnefs, elegance, and harmony, to these innovations. C 4 SKELTON, SKELTON, from the Same. MR OST of the poems of John Skelton, were written in the reign of Henry the VIII. But as he was laureated at Oxford, about 1 the year 1489, I confider him as belonging to the 15th century. Skelton having ftudied in both our univerfities, was promoted to the rectory of Dis, in Norfolk, but for his buffooneries in the pulpit,' and his fatirical ballads againft the mendicants, he was feverely cenfured, and perhaps fufpended by Nykke his diocefan, a rigid bishop of Norwich, from exercifing the duties of the facerdotal function. But these perfecutions only ferved to quicken his ludicrous difpofition, and to exafperate the acrimony of his fatire. As his fer mons could be no longer a vehicle for his abufe, he vented his ridicule in rhyming libels. At length, daring to attack the dignity of cardinal Wolfey, he was clofely purfued by the officers of that powerful minifter; and, taking thelter in the fanctuary of WestminsterAbbey, was kindly entertained and protected by Abbot 1flip, to the day of his death. He died, and was buried in the neighbouring church of Saint Margaret, in the year 1529. Skelton was patronifed by Henry Algernoon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, who deferves particular notice here; as he loved literature at a time when many of the nobility of England could hardly read or write their names, and was the general patron of fuch genius as his age produced. He encouraged Skelton, almoft the only profeffed poet of the reign of Henry the VII. to write an elegy on the death of his father, which is yet extant. But ftill stronger proofs of his literary turn, efpecially of his fingular paffion for poetry, may be collected from a very fplendid manufcript, which formerly belonged to this very diftinguished peer, and is at prefent preferved in the British Mufeum. It contains a large collection of English poems, elegantly engroffed on vellum, and fuperbly illuminated, which had been thus fumptuously tranfcribed for his ufe. The pieces are chiefly thofe of Lydgate, after which follow the aforefaid Elegy of Skelton, and fome fmaller compofitions. Among the latter are a metrical hiftory of the family of Percy, prefented to him by one of his own chaplains; and a prolix feries of poetical infcriptions, which he caufed to be written on the walls and ceilings of the principal apartments of his caftles of Lekinfield and Wreffil. His cultivation of the arts of external elegance appears, from the ftately fepulchral monuments which he erected in the minfter, or collegiate church, of Beverly, in Yorkshire, to the memory of his father and mother; which are executed in the richest style of the florid Gothic architecture, and remain to this day, the confpicuous and ftriking evidences of his tafte and magnificence. In the year 1520, he founded an annual ftipend of ten marcs for three years, for a preceptor or profeffor, to teach grammar and philofophy in the nonaftery of Alnewick, contiguous to another of his magnificent castles. A further inftance of his attention to letters and ftu |