lish poetry, but revered as a champion of reformation: and a familiar knowledge of his phraseology was considered, at least in the reign of Edward VI. as essential to the politeness of a courtier. in its infancy: this was the age of adventure and experiment, undertaken for the instruction of posterity. Mr. Warton thinks he sees in the writers of this reign a cerI knowtain dignified inattention to nicethem,' says Wilson, in his Rheto-ties,' and to this he attributes the rick, that think rhetorick to stand wholly upon dark words: and he that can catch an inkhorn term by the tail, him they count to be a fine Englishman and a good rhe 'torician. He that cometh lately out of France will talk FrenchEnglish, and never blush at the ' matter. Another chops in with English Italianated. The fine courtier will talk nothing but Chau'cer.' This, by the way, may serve to explain the cause of Spenser's predilection for a phraseology, which, though antiquated, was not either obsolete or unfashionable. "The whole world of words, therefore (to borrow an expression of one of our glossarists), was open to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and the mode of employing its treasures was left very much to their discretion. Criticism was flowing modulation which now marked the measures of our poets:' but there seems to be neither dignity nor inattention in deviating from rules which had never been laid down: and the modulation, which he ascribes to this cause, is not less likely to have resulted from the musical studies, which at this time formed a part of general education. The lyrical compositions of this time are so far from being usually marked with a faulty negligence, that excess of ornament, and laboured affectation, are their characteristic blemishes. Such as are free from conceit and antithesis, are, in general, exquisitely polished, and may safely be compared with the most elegant and finished specimens of modern poetry." abstruse researches of science; and fancy seemed to be crushed and overlaid by the weight of learning. The accession of James I. who brought to the throne the accomplishments and dispositions of a pedagogue, contributed to the growth of pedantry and affectation; and at the same time the sullen spirit of puritanism, which began to be widely diffused, concurred in vitiating the national taste. The theatres alone seem to have been the refuge of genius: indeed no period of our history has produced so many models of dramatic excellence: but the wretched spirit of criticism which prevailed in the closet, is evinced by the multiplied editions of Donne, Herbert, and similar versifiers; by the general preference of Jonson to Shakespeare; and by the numberless volumes of patchwork and shreds of quotation, which form the prose compositions of this age. "It is remarkable, that the series of Scotish poets terminates abruptly in this reign; and that no name of eminence occurs between those of Drummond and Thomson. Indeed it is not extraordinary, that the period which intervened be tween the union of the two crowns and that of the countries, should have proved highly unpropitious to Scotish literature. Scotland be-. coming an appendage to the sister kingdom, was subjected, as Ireland has since been, to the worst of all governments, being abandoned to the conflict of rival families, who were alternately supported by the English administration; so that it exhibited a species of anarchy under. the auspices of a legitimate sovereign. "James I. was himself a poet, and specimens of his talent, such as it was, are to be found in many of our miscellanies. He also wrote some rules and cauteles, for the use of professors of the art, which have been long, and perhaps deservedly, disregarded." On the Private LIFE of the ENGLISH during the REIGN of HENRY VI. "TH [From the Same.] HAT we may not be encumbered by the accumulation of our materials, it is obviously necessary to take some opportunity of reviewing those which we have collected; of comparing them with such descriptions of national manners as are furnished by our professed historians; and of connecting them with such further particulars, as are to be gleaned from sources of incidental information. For this necessary digression, there is no period more convenient than that on which we are now entering; because the interval between the reigns of Henry V. and Henry VIII. which comprehends near a century,' although uncommonly rich in Scotch poets of distinguished excellence, does not furnish us with a single name among the natives of England deserving of much notice. Our survey must of course be very rapid, and rather desultory, but it will at least break the monotony of the narrative, and preclude, for the future, the necessity of introducing many detached observations, which, when our extracts become more more amusing, would prove a disagreeable interruption to the reader. "To begin with the lower classes of society. sist during the cold season on the natural pastures, they were slaughtered and salted in autumn for a winter provision. This is a reason adduced by sir John Fortescue for rejecting the gabelle or salt-tax, as a source of revenue for England. In France,' says he, the people "It is generally agreed, that before the Norman conquest, and for a long time after, nearly all the lands of the kingdom were culti-salten but little meat, except their vated by serfs, whose situation was, in many respects, scarcely distinguishable from absolute slavery. It may, however, be inferred from the very curious extract already quoted from Pierce Ploughman, During a great part of the year, indeed, they were glad to work for a mere subsistence; but when provisions were plentiful, they could only be induced to work at all by the temptation of excessive wages. Against this indolence the author inveighs with great vehemence; but his remonstrances were probably ineffectual, because a stupid insensibility, and a heedless profusion, are the natural characteristics of an oppressed and degraded people. Besides, their conduct seems to have arisen, in some measure, from the imperfect state of agriculture. Animal food formed a considerable part of the support of the people; but as the whole of the manure was used on the arable lands, and it was impossible that large numbers of cattle could sub bacon, and therefore would buy little salt; but yet they be artyd (compelled) to buy more salt than they would. This rule and order 'would be sore abhorred in England, as well by the merchants, that be wonted to have their freedom in buying and selling of salt, as by the people, that usen much " more to salt their meats than do 'the Frenchmen.'-Fortescue on Monarchy, chap. x. "But it appears that, partly from the improvidence usual to a barbarous state of society, and partly from the want of those internal means of communication which tend to diffuse general abundance, these stores of animal food, as well as the grain, were often consumed before the reproduction of a fresh stock. Hence, in the above-mentioned extracts from Pierce Ploughman, the poor are represented as reduced to loaves of beans and bran,' and to feed hunger with beans and baken apples, chyboles and charvell,' until the return of the harvest again enabled them to waste their time in idleness and profusion. "Even the farmers themselves, the order to which Pierce the Ploughman apparently belonged, do not seem to have fared very sumptuously, during some part of the year; for he declares, that his whole provision consists in two green cheeses, some curds and cream, and an oat cake:' but he adds, that 'after Lammas, he might M 3 'dight 'dight his dinner' as he likes. The particulars of his wealth are, a cow and calf, and a cart-mare, which he keeps for the purpose of carrying manure upon his land. These articles, perhaps, were designed to give an exact statement of his condition in society; for they seem to agree with what sir John Fortescue considers as sufficient for the maintenance of a yeoman, "It is very honourable to the good sense of the English nation, that our two best early poets, Chaucer, and the author of Pierce Ploughman, have highly extolled this useful body of men, while the French minstrels of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, universally seem to approve the supercilious contempt with which the nobles affected to treat them. The absurd prejudices of chivalry on this subject are not ill expressed by Lydgate, where he makes Achilles express his apprehension that, In this rage furious and wood, Full likely is that all the noble blood And a rural folk (and that were great Shall have lordship, and wholly gover nance: called a frankleyne, all men of 'considerable estates: there are others who are called freeholders, ' and many yeomen of estates sufficient to make a substantial jury.' (Chap. xxix.) This wealth he attributes principally to the enclosure of our pasture lands. "The same writer thus describes the comparative poverty of the French common people: The same commons be so impoverished and destroyed, that they may un'neth (scarcely) live. They drink water; they eat apples, with bread right brown, made of rye. They eat no flesh, but if be seldom a little lard, or of the entrails or heads of beasts slain for the nobles ' and merchants of the land. They wearen no woollen, but if it be a poor coat under their outermost garment, made of great canvass, ' and call it a frock. Their hosen be of like canvass, and passen 'not their knee, wherefore they be 'gartered, and their thighs bare. Their wives and children gon 'bare-foot; they may in none other wise live. For some of them that was wont to pay to his lord for his tenement which he hireth by the year, a scute (a And churlis cke, with sorrow and mis- crown), payeth now to the king chance, "There is a curious chapter in " over that scute, five scutes. 'Wherethrough they be artyd (compelled) by necessity so to watch, labour, and grub in the ground for their sustenance, that the kind of them brought to nought. They gon crooked, and are feeble, 'not able to fight, &c.' Fortescue on Monarchy, chap. iii. sir John Fortescue's Treatise de their nature is much wasted, and "But though the lower orders of people in England were so advantageously distinguished from those of other nations, by a superiority in food and clothing, their domestic buildings seem to have been much inferior "In old time,' says he, the ⚫ houses of the Britons were slightly set up with a few posts, and many raddies (hurdles), with stable and all offices under one roof; the like whereof almost is to be seen in the fenny countries and northern parts, unto this day, where, for lack of wood, they are enforced to continue this ancient manner of building. So in the open and. champain countries, they are en'forced, for want of stuff, to use no studs at all*, but only frank'posts, and such principals; with here and there a girding, where'unto they fasten their splints or raddles, and then cast it all over with thick clay, to keep out the wind, which otherwise would annoy them. Certes, this rude kind of building made the Spaniards, in queen Mary's days, to wonder, but chiefly when they saw what large diet was used in many of these so homely cottages; insomuch, that one of no small reputation amongst them, said after this manner: "These Eng⚫lish," quoth he, "have their houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king." Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed, P. 187. "We have already seen that glazed windows are always mentioned by our early poets, with an air of affectation, which evinces "The upright beams. Sax." their rarity; so that we are not surprised at being told that the yeomen and farmers were perfectly contented with windows of lattice. Rooms provided with chimnies are also noticed as a luxury, by the author of Pierce Ploughman; but it is difficult to read with gravity, the sagacious observations of Harrison, on the ill consequences attending the enjoyment of warmth, without the risk of suffocation. 'Now,' says he, have we many chimnies, and yet our tenderling's complain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses (colds in the head). Then had we none but reredossest, and our heads did never ache. For as the smoke in those days was supposed to be a sufficient hardening for the timber of the house, so it was reputed a far better medicine to keep the good man and his family from the quacke (ague) or pose; wherewith, as then, f very few were oft acquainted.' Description of England, p. 212. "After witnessing the indignation which this author has vented against the tenderlings of his time, the reader may possibly learn with some surprise, that from the latter end of the thirteenth to nearly the sixteenth century, persons of all ranks, and of both sexes, were universally in the habit of sleeping quite naked. This custom is often alluded to by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and all our ancient writers. In the Squire of Low Degree,' there is a curious instance, She rose, that lady derc, To take her leave of that squyere "Anderson (History of Commerce, vol. i. p. 90, edit. 1764) says, that they were first introduced into England A. D. 1180.” "Reredosses; this word is sometimes used to express soine part of a chimney, and sometimes as a substitute for one. It seems to mean a plate of iron, or perhaps a goating of brick, to enable the wall to resist the flame." |