Saxon . The letter z, however, is retained; a retention which can require no apology, after the respectable examples of a Ruddiman and a Percy; notwithstanding they may have been ranked among" ignorant editors," for the preservation of " this stupid blunder."* Its power, at the same time, is, in these poems, every where that of the modern y, consonant; though, on many occasions, it is the substitute of gh.

It may be requisite to apprise the reader, that our author, like Chaucer, and, perhaps, other poets of the same age, makes occasional use of the e feminine, which renders it necessary, in pronunciation, to divide, in some cases, what in others is a single syllable: a liberty upon which the metre and harmony of his lines will now and then be found essentially to depend. Thus, for

66

care

* See Ancient Scottish Poems, 1786, p. 520. The assertion made in the same page, that the letter z, " in the old editions," is fully distinguished from the" y consonant, in the manner there described, seems to be hazarded without the slightest authority or foundation;

instance, in page 1, line 8, the word "dedes" is to be pronounced as a dyssallable, " dedés;" though, in the very next line but one, it is equally requisite to be pronounced as a monosyllable. In the same predicament are "Scottés," p. 3, 1. 5, and "Scottes, p. 4, l. 4, and “bowés,” p. 20, 1. 10, and "bowes," p. 23, 1. 4. The use of the acute accent, which has been introduced in a few instances of proper names, may, perhaps, be thought no less proper in the case spoken of; but, beside that there is only a single manuscript, the writer of which, not having received the terrible injunction layed upon Adam Scrivinere,* was possibly unaware of the poet's intention, one must not forget the sentiment of a most ingenious and accurate person upon this subject: that" a reader, who cannot perform such operations for himself, had better not trouble his head about the versifiation of ancient author.""+ It

* See Urry's Chaucer, p. 626.

+ Canterbury Tales, 1775, vol. iv. p. 95.

*

may, therefore, be deemed sufficient to add, in the words of the same excellent critic, that " the true e feminine is always to be pronounced with an obscure evanescent sound, and is capable of bearing any stress or accent.”*

The NOTES which accompany these poems are given chiefly from some ancient manuscript, from the old English translation of Froissart, an almost contemporary writer, and from the Chronicles of Fabian, Holinshed, and Stow; but more especially from that of Froissart, the extracts from which, though occasionally prolix, as it is a book of great rarity, may be excused, if not welcomed, by most readers, on account of their novelty. The language of this translation, however obsolete it may now appear, was doubtless esteemed perfectly elegant at the court of king Henry the Eighth it being the work of a very eminent and accomplished nobleman of that period.

* The latter is never implied by the acute accent; but Urry, out of ignorance, adopted the grave accent, which always requires it.

b

As the general information which appeared necessary to illustrate the two principal subjects of MINOT's poetry-his hero's wars with Scotland and with France-was thought too long for the notes, it has been thrown into the form of DISSERTATIONS. This, however, being an afterthought, has occasioned some repetitions, which the reader is desired to pardon.

No word of the least difficulty has been intentionally omitted in the GLOSSARY; though many words, peculiar to our author, are necessarily submitted to farther investigation; as it seems no part of an editor's duty to save his readers the trouble of guessing at the meaning of expressions for which they cannot possibly be more at a loss than he is himself.

INTRODUCTORY

DISSERTATIONS.

I.

ON THE SCOTISH WARS OF KING EDWARD III.

THE male line of the royal family of Scotland having become extinct by the death of Alexander III. in the year 1285-6, and the young queen Margaret of Norway, his grand-daughter, the only surviving descendant of Henry, prince of Cumberland, eldest son of David I. dying an infant, in 1290, several persons, in different rights, laid claim to the crown; and the regency of Scotland, either unable or unwilling to decide