pected to know that this monarch was, upon that occasion, at the siege of Calais; and, in fact, he is, in the very poem alluded to, expressly stated to be "out of the londe." With respect to the age of the manuscript, which the same gentleman attributes to the reign of Henry VI. he was probably misled by the person who transmitted the poems, as it may very fairly be referred to that of Richard II. though some pieces, it is true, are inserted by a later hand, and of a more modern date.

That these poems were written, or at least completed, in the beginning of the year 1352, according to the present stile, is not a mere circumstance of probability, but may be clearly demonstrated by internal evidence and matter of fact. The latest event they commemorate is the capture of Guisnes Castle, which happened,

"sir John de Bailliof, sir Hugh de Bailliof, sir Eustace de Baillof." Blind Harry, the Scotish Homer; calls John de Baliol, Jhon the Balzoune."

according to Avesbury, on saint Vincent's day, January 22, 1351-2; and it is manifest that the concluding poem, of which that capture is the subject, was written in "winter," most likely in February, while the fact was recent, and the captors were in possession of the place, which, we learn from Stow, they did not long occupy.* The fact, indeed, might have been inferred from other circumstances: that the duke of Lancaster, who is familiarly mentioned by that title, was only so created the 6th of March, 1350-1; and that some great events quickly succeeded the year 1352, which, as our author has not celebrated nor alluded to them, it may be presumed he did not live to witness. MINOT, of course, is to be regarded as a poet anterior not

* Stow's account, whencesoever he had it, is not every where clear. If Avesbury be right, and the ambassadors from the earl of Guisnes did not arrive in London before the day of St. Maurice the abbot, which is the 15th of January, John de Doncaster must have kept possession till the following year, 1352-3; which is highly improbable.

only to Chaucer, who, in 1352, was but twenty

four years of age, and had not, so far as we know, given any proofs of a poetical imagination, but also to Gower, who, though he survived that writer, was probably his senior by some years. He cannot, at the same time, be considered as the first of English poets, since, not to mention the hermit of Hampole, the prolixity of whose compositions is compensated more by their piety than by their spirit, he is clearly posterior to Robert [Mannyng] of Brunne;* whose namesake of Gloucester is, in fact, the Ennius of this numerous family.t

* Robert Mannyng of Brunne, or Bourn, in Lincolnshire. He translated into English rhymes, from the French of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, a treatise called Manuel de Pechés, as early as the year 1303. This work of his has not been printed, but is preserved in MS. Harl. 1701, and in the Bodleian, 2323. He also translated from the French an history of England; the first part, or Gesta Britonum, from Master Wace; the remainder, to the death of Edward I. from Peter of Langtoft, which translation he finished in 1338 or 9. The latter part, with some extracts from the former, was printed by Hearne, in 1725, from a single manuscript.

+ How long Mannyng was employed upon his translation of Langetoft does not appear; but that he had not finished it in 1337 is clear

It seems pretty clear, from our author's dialect and orthography, that he was a native of one of the northern counties, in some monastery whereof the manuscript which contains his poems, along with many others in the same dialect, is conjectured to have been written; and to which, at the same time, it is not improbable that he himself should have belonged. Chance, however, may one day bring us somewhat better acquainted with his history.

The creative imagination and poetical fancy which distinguish Chaucer, who, considering the general barbarism of his age and country, may be regarded as a prodigy, admit, it must be acknowledged, of no competition; yet, if the truth

from a passage in p. 243 of the printed copy: and, indeed, he elsewhere, at p. 341, expressly tells us,

"Idus that is of May left i tow rite this

ryme,

B letter & Friday bi ix. that zere zede prime."

The dominical letter, as Hearne observes, should be D: so that the poet finished his work, upon which he had probably been engaged for some years, on Friday, the 15th of May, 1339.

may be uttered, without offence to the established reputation of that pre-eminent genius, one may venture to assert that, in point of ease, harmony, and variety of versification, as well as general perspicuity of style, LAURENCE MINOT is, perhaps, equal, if not superior, to any English poet before the sixteenth, or even, with very few exceptions, before the seventeenth century. There are, in fact, but two other poets who are any way remarkable for a particular facility of rhyming and happy choice of words: Robert of Brunne, already mentioned, who wrote before 1340, and Thomas Tusser, who wrote about 1560.

As to what concerns the present publication, it may be sufficient to say, that the poems are printed, with scrupulous fidelity, from the only manuscript copy of them known to exist. All abbreviations have been entirely discarded; as hath likewise the character y; the improper representative, though peculiar, perhaps, at that period, to the northern scribes, of the