RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, &c. BOOK VI. I. The Complaint of Conscience. I SHALL begin this Sixth Book with an old allegoric Satire: a manner of moralizing, which, if it was not first introduced by the author of Pierce Plowman's Visions, was at least chiefly brought into repute by that ancient satirist. It is not so generally known that the kind of verse used in this ballad hath any affinity with the peculiar metre of that writer, for which reason I shall throw together some cursory remarks on that very singular species of versification, the nature of which has been so little understood. ON THE ALLITERATIVE METRE, WITHOUT RHYME, IN PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISIONS. We learn from Wormius,' that the ancient Islandic poets used a great variety of measures: he mentions 136 different kinds, without including rhyme, or a correspondence of final syllables: yet this was Occasionally used, as appears from the Ode of Egil, which Wormius hath inserted in his book. He hath analyzed the structure of one of these kinds of verse, the harmony of which neither depended on the quantity of the syllables, like that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, nor on the rhymes at the end, as in modern poetry, but consisted altogether in alliteration, or a certain artful repetition of the sounds in the middle of the verses. This was adjusted according to certain rules of their prosody, one of 1 Literatura Runica. Hafniæ, 1636, 4to.-1651, fol. The Islandic language is of the same origin as our Anglo-Saxon, being both dialects of the ancient Gothic or Teutonic.-Vide Hickesii Præfat. in Grammat. AngloSaxon, and Meso-Goth. 4to, 1689. which was that every distich should contain at least three words beginning with the same letter or sound. Two of these correspondent sounds might be placed either in the first or second line of the distich, and one in the other; but all three were not regularly to be crowded into one line. This will be best understood by the following examples, 2 "Gab Ginunga "Meire og Minne Enn Gras huerge." There were many other little niceties observed by the Islandic poets, who, as they retained their original language and peculiarities longer than the other nations of Gothic race, had time to cultivate their native poetry more, and to carry it to a higher pitch of refinement, than any of the rest. Their brethren, the Anglo-Saxon poets, occasionally used the same kind of alliteration, and it is common to meet in their writings with similar examples of the foregoing rules. Take an instance or two in modern characters: 3 66 Skeop tha and Skyrede "Ham and Heahsetl I know not, however, that there is anywhere extant an entire Saxon poem all in this measure. But distichs of this sort perpetually occur in all their poems of any length. Now, if we examine the versification of Pierce Plowman's Visions, we shall find it constructed exactly by these rules: and therefore each line, as printed, is in reality a distich of two verses, and will, I believe, be found distinguished as such, by some mark or other in all the ancient MSS., viz. "In a Somer Season, | when 'hot' was the Sunne, So that the author of this poem will not be found to have invented any new mode of versification, as some have supposed, but only to have retained that of the Old Saxon and Gothic poets, which was probably never wholly laid aside, but occasionally used at different intervals: though the ravages of time will not suffer us now to produce a regular series of poems entirely written in it. There are some readers whom it may gratify to mention, that these Visions of Pierce [i. e. Peter] the Plowman, are attributed to Robert Langland, a secular priest, born at Mortimer's Cleobury in Shropshire, and Fellow of Oriel College in Oxford, who flourished in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., and published his poem a few years after 2 Vide Hickes, Antiq. Literatur. Septentrional. tom. i. p. 217. 3 Ibid. 4 So I would read with Mr. Warton, rather than either soft,' as in MS. orset,' as in P.CC. 1350. It consists of xx Passus or Breaks, exhibiting a series of visions, which he pretends happened to him on Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. The author excels in strong allegoric painting, and has with great humour, spirit, and fancy, censured most of the vices incident to the several professions of life; but he particularly inveighs against the corruption of the clergy, and the absurdities of superstition. Of this work I have now before me four different editions in black-letter quarto. Three of them are printed in 1550 by Robert Crowley dwelling in Elye rentes in Holburne. It is remarkable that two of these are mentioned in the title-page as both of the second impression, though they contain evident variations in every page. The other is said to be newly impryuted after the authors olde copy . Rogers, Feb. 21, 1561. ... by Owen As Langland was not the first, so neither was he the last that used this alliterative species of versification. To Rogers' edition of the Visions is subjoined a poem, which was probably writ in imitation of them, entitled Pierce the Plowman's Crede. It begins thus: "Cros, and Curteis Christ, this beginning spede For the Faders Frendshipe, that Fourmed heaven, And through the Special Spirit, that Sprong of hem tweyne, The author feigns himself ignorant of his Creed, to be instructed in which he applies to the four religious orders, viz. the gray friers of St. Francis, the black friers of St. Dominic, the Carmelites or white friers, and the Augustines. This affords him occasion to describe, in very lively colours, the sloth, ignorance, and immorality of those reverend drones. At length he meets with Pierce, a poor ploughman, who resolves his doubts, and instructs him in the principles of true religion. The author was evidently a follower of Wiccliff, whom he mentions (with honour) as no longer living. Now that reformer died in 1384. How long after his death this poem was written, does not appear. In the Cotton Library is a volume of ancient English poems, two of which are written in this alliterative metre, and have the division of the lines into distichs distinctly marked by a point, as is usual in old poetical MSS. That which stands first of the two (though perhaps the latest written) is entitled The Sege of I Erlam [i. e. Jerusalem], being 5 The poem properly contains xxi. parts: the word Passus, adopted by the author, seems only to denote the break or division between two parts, though by the ignorance of the printer applied to the parts themselves. -See vol. ii. book vii. preface to ballad iii., where Passus seems to signify Pause. 6 That which seems the first of the two, is thus distinguished in the titlepage, nowe the seconde tyme imprinted by Roberte Crowlye: the other thus, nowe the second time imprinted by Robert Crowley. In the former, the tolios are thus erroneously numbered, 39, 39, 41, 63. 43, 42, 45, &c. The booksellers of those days were not ostentatious of multiplying editions. 7 Signature T ii. Caligula A. ij. fol. 109, 123. an old fabulous legend composed by some monk, and stuffed with marvellous figments concerning the destruction of the holy city and temple. It begins thus: "In Tyberius Tyme. the Trewe emperour Syr Sesar hymself. beSted in Rome Whyll Pylat was Provoste. under that Prynce ryche And Jewes Justice also. of Judeas londe Herode under empere. as Herytage wolde Kyng," &c. the other is entitled Chevalere Assigne [or De Cigne], that is, "The Knight of the Swan," being an ancient romance, beginning thus: "All-Weldynge God. Whene it is his Wylle Wele he Wereth his Werke. With his owene honde Among Mr. Garrick's Collection of old Plays is a prose narrative of the adventures of this same Knight of the Swan, "newly translated out of Frenshe into Englyshe, at thinstigacion of the puyssaunt and illustryous prynce, lorde Edward duke of Buckynghame.' This lord, it seems, had a peculiar interest in the book, for in the preface the translator tells us, that this "highe dygne and illustryous prynce my lorde Edwarde by the grace of god Duke of Buckyngham, erle of Hereforde, Stafforde, and Northampton, desyrnge cotydyally to encrease and augment the name and fame of such as were relucent in vertuous feates and triumphaunt actes of chyvalry, and to encourage and styre every lusty and gentell herte by the exemply ficacyon of the same, havyng a goodli booke of the highe and miraculous histori of a famous and puyssaunt kynge, named Oryant, sometime reynynge in the parties of beyonde the sea, havynge to his wife a noble lady; of whome she conceyved sixe sonnes and a daughter, and chylded of them at one only time; at whose byrthe echone of them had a chayne of sylver at their neckes, the whiche were all tourned by the provydence of god into whyte swannes, save one, of the whiche this present hystory is compyled, named Helyas, the knight of the swanne, of whom linially is dyscended my sayde lorde. The whiche ententifly to have the sayde hystory more amply and unyversally knowen in thys hys natif countrie, as it is in other, hath of hys hie bountie by some of his faithful and trusti servauntes cohorted mi mayster Wynkin de Worde1 to put the aid vertuous hystori in prynte at whose instigacion and stiring I (Roberte Copland) have me applied, moiening the helpe of god, to reduce and translate it into our maternal and vulgare english tonge after the capacitè and rudenesse of my weke entendement." 66 9 K. vol. x. 1 W. de Worde's edit. is in 1512.-See Ames, p. 92. Mr. G.'s copy is ¶ Emprinted at London by me Wylliam Copland.” -A curious picture of the times! While in Italy literature and the fine arts were ready to burst forth with classical splendour under Leo. X., the first peer of this realm was proud to derive his pedigree from a fabulous knight of the swan. 2 To return to the metre of Pierce Plowman. In the folio MS. so often quoted in these volumes are two poems written in that species of versification. One of these is an ancient allegorical poem entitled Death and Life (in two fitts or parts, containing 458 distichs), which, for aught that appears, may have been written as early, if not before, the time of Langland. The first forty lines are broke, as they should be, into distichs, a distinction that is neglected in the remaining part of the transcript, in order, I suppose, to save room. It begins, "Christ Christen king, that on the Crosse tholed; the Greatlye to serve, that Rann from thy side." The subject of this piece is a vision, wherein the poet sees a contest for superiority between "our lady Dame LIFE" and the "ugly fiend Dame DEATH;" who, with their several attributes and concomitants, are personified in a fine vein of allegoric painting. Part of the description of Dame LIFE is, "Shee was Brighter of her Blee, then was the Bright sonn: as she Like would. And as shee came by the Bankes, They Lowted to that Ladye, and Layd forth their branches; Blossomes and Burgens Breathed full sweete; Flowers Flourished in the Frith, DEATH is afterwards sketched out with a no less bold and original pencil. He is said in the story-book to be the grandfather of Godfrey of Boulogne, through whom I suppose the duke made out his relation to him. This duke was beheaded May 17, 1521, 13 Henry VIII. |