on his way, it is probable his good in tentions cooled a little, and rendered a trifling rub of the memory necessary to keep him to his vow; for the monkish writer, quoted by Sir William Dugdale, very gravely assures us that, as he was on his journey, "being one night asleep, he seemed to be carried by a certain monstrous creature, that had four feet and two wings, and placed on a very high precipice, where, just under him, he saw a horrible pit which had no bottom," or, at least, none that Rahere could espy. Being in a terrible fright, and recollecting all his sins, from the first he had ever committed, to the time then present, he called out most piteously, and was on the very point of falling into the dismal abyss, when there appeared a gentleman of wonderfully mild countenance and great beauty, who asked him what he would give to be delivered from so great and instant danger? "Give?" cries Rahere," all I have in the world!" forgetting his hospital, and all about it, for the moment. "Well," said the stranger, "I am Saint Bartholomew; know that I have chosen a place at Smithfield, in the suburbs of London, where thou shalt build a church to my name, nor needest thou to regard the cost, seeing that thou shalt, without doubt, accomplish the work, of which I promise thee to be the lord and patron." Rahere, awakened from his dream, was in great doubt as to the reality of his vision; however, he resolved, in the end, to consider it as an oracle sent from Heaven, and to obey the command to the utmost of his power. Upon his arrival in England, the first thing he did was to consult with his friends how he should commence so important an undertaking, and from them he learned, that the ground upon which St. Bartholomew had set his mind, belonged to no less a person than the king. Nothing dismayed, Rahere petitioned his royal master for a grant of the scite, which request, backed as it was by the interest of the Bishop of London, was not denied to an old favourite, and he obtained a free grant of the ground and the king's licence to build a hospital, church, and priory upon it. Rahere's next care was, how to clear the ground and procure the proper materials for his buildings at the least trouble and expence, and here tradition relates that he had recourse to his old trade, and effected that by a stratagem which it would have drained his purse dry to have attempted in the usual mode. He feigned himself to be a merry idiot, and collecting a vast rabble about him by his anticks and buffoonery, and setting them the example, which they as readily followed, he cleared away the rubbish, and brought in its room stones and all other the proper materials for his purpose. Having accomplished his design, he discovered who he was, set about building the hospital, and afterwards, the church and priory, all which he finished in 1123, and dedicated to St. Bartholomew. In his priory he placed certain canons regular, of the order of St. Augustin; and, that he might fulfil St. Bartholomew's intentions to the very letter, constituted himself the first Prior, and presided over his own foundation for two and twenty years. In 1133, Henry granted him the privilege of a fair to be kept yearly for three days, the eve, the day, and the morrow of St. Bartholomew. The original intention of this fair was for the sale of English cloths; all the clothiers of England and drapers of London having booths and standings in the churchyard, the strangers being li censed for the three days," the free men so long as they would, which was sixe or seuen dayes: "* and this was the origin of the far-famed Bartholomew fair. We have little more to say of our jesting Prior: after continuing superior of his own house till a good old age rendered him fit to be gathered to his fathers, he died in his priory and was buried in the church he had himself erected, where a splendid monument was erected to his memory with the following inscription, "Hic jacet Raherus primus Canonicus, et primus Prior istius Ecclesiæ." * Stow's Survey of London. Edit. 4to. 1618, p. 714. PIERRE GRINGORE. EARLY FRENCH POETS. I AM half inclined to hand over Pierre Gringore to the lovers of the Gothic letter. There are three of his volumes before me, which would probably have great attractions for them. Their titles are as follows. 1. Les Abus du mōde nouvellement Imprimes a Paris. 8vo. (no date.) 2. Contreditz du Prince des Sots autrement dit Songecreux. On les vend a Paris en la rue neufue nostre dame lenseigne sainct Nicolas. The table of contents is wanting at the conclusion of this copy; and with it the date also, which according to De Bure is 1530. 3. Notables enseignemes Adages et proverbes faitz et composez par Pierre Gringore dit Dauldemont Herault darmes de hault & puissant seigneur monsieur le Duc de Lorraine, Nouvellemēt reveuz et corrigez. Avecques plusieurs austres adjoustez oultre la precedente Impression. On les vend a Lyon cheulx Olivier Arnoullet. 16mo. 1538. De Bure gives the titles of twelve more of these treasures; and on one of them, for its rarity the most precious of all, he expatiates at great length. It is No: 3269 in his catalogue, and is called, Le Jeu du Prince des Sots et Mere Sotte, En ung beau jardin delectable Rempli d'arbres, derbes, de fleurs Vis ung jeune enfant amiable Sentir, fleurer, gouster odeurs, Fleurettes de plusieurs couleurs Luy presentoit dame Jeunesse, Question nestoit de douleurs, Mais de tout plaisir et liesse. mis en rime Françoise; par Pierre Gringore; ou Gringoire; et joué par personnaiges, aux Halles de Paris, le Mardy gras de l'année, 1511. in 16 gotiq. From the account given of it, it appears to have been a sort of comedy, or rather farce, divided into four separate parts. A copy of it, preserved in the King's Library at Paris, is said to be the only one then known. I have not discovered whether a Duessa has since appeared to dispute the homage paid to this Una. In the Bibliotheca Parisiana, No. 252, there is at least a manuscript copy of it. Besides all these, there is yet another book attributed to Pierre, which is not in black letter, and which in De Bure, No. 3036 with an asterisk, is erroneously said to bear the name of Octavien de St. Gelais in the title-page, unless indeed the title-pages of all the copies were not the same. This is Le Chasteau de Labour, auquel est contenu ladresse de richesse, et chemin de pouurete. Les faintises du monde. Imprime a Paris pour Galliot du Pre, 1532. 8vo. After a prologue setting forth the author's design, he thus enters on his subject. Pres de luy estoit Chastiement, Ung maistre descolle dhonneur, Qui luy remonstroit doulcement Comme au disciple le recteur, Et disoit qui ne prent labeur Il vit comme une brute beste. Le jeune enfant du bon du cueur Descouter Chastiement sapreste. (Fol. 4.) "In a fair pleasant garden filled with trees, herbs, and flowers, I saw a lovely young child enjoying the sweet odours. Dame Youth presented to him many a floweret of divers hue. Of sorrow there was no thought, but all was pleasure and gladness. Near him was Chastisement, a master of a school of honour, who remonstrated with him gently, as a teacher with his scholar. He told him, that one who labours not, lives like a brute beast. The young child sets himself with good heart to listen to the words of Chastisement.' Jeune Enfant, in spite of this good advice, gets into many difficulties, which are described as allegorical personages, and some of them touched not without spirit. The dress of Jeune Enfant himself is thus painted: Il estoit vestu de vert gay En facon de gorre nouvelle, Aussi gent comme ung papegay Est, quant le prin temps renouvelle.-(Fol. 10.) Yclad in a green mantle gay Of newly-fangled gore was he, That sits in springtide on the tree. Gorrierement le saluerent marriage. Marry, however, he will; and, as the lady proves a "Grande Gorre," " a lady of fashion," according to Franc Arbitre's prediction of her, the difficulties of Jeune Enfant are thus completed. When he is ready to sink under them, there appears to him a lady, quite of another sort, who delivers him out of them all. This is no less than the Blessed Virgin, whom the author calls also "Reason." At the beginning of the French Revolution, the philosophers thought they were freeing themselves from Et il leur rendit leur salut.-(Fol. 8.) all their old superstitions when they La femme met l'homme a raison, Il luy fault riches paremens, En gorre selon la saison.-(Fol. 19.) Favin, in his Théatre d'Honneur, tom. i. p. 714, (as quoted by Roquefort, in the Glossary of the Romance tongue) gives the name of Grande Gorre to Isabeau, of Baviere, "pour se bobander en habits à l'Allemande," " from her flaunting in clothes made after the German fashion." The last verses I have cited "are in the description which Franc Arbitre, Free-Will, gives the Jeune Enfant of a wife, when he is obstinately bent on worshipped, in the person as it is said of a common woman, the Goddess of Reason; though they were, in fact, relapsing into a very old superstition, only stripped of all that was decorous and affecting to the imagination. The Virgin, or Reason, gives Jeune Enfant some excellent advice; which is further enforced by the admonitions of a grave old man, called "Entendement," "Understanding; but all is like to prove of no avail, in consequence of the arrival of one who comes up dressed in the garb of a lawyer. Ce seigneur que je diz, estoit Robbe trainante jusque en bas.-(Fol. 51.) This lord of whom I spake was clad This is "Barat," "Barrateria," Ital. "Baratry in our old law language, accompanied by his clerk "Tricherie" "Treachery," and his varlet "Hoquellerie" "Chicanery." "Hoker" and Hokerly" are words in Chaucer, which, as well as our word “Huckster," are probably of the same stock with this. This goodly trio are endeavouring to seduce Jeune Enfant from his duty, but their ill intentions are defeated by "Reason," who is reinforced by a man and woman in plain garb, the one named " Bon Cueur," the other "Bonne Voulente ;” “Good Heart," and "Good Will;" bringing with Vient il d'Angleterre ou de Romme ? He declares his willingness to be employed; and "Peine tells him that her husband "Travail" "Work" will see how he executes his task, and reward him accordingly. He has much to do, and fares hard; but is well satisfied with his lot, till, at last, finding his hunger grow importunate, he is told by "Work" that he may go for a while to "Repose," who will feed him better, and allow him a little pastime. "Soing" and "Cure," "Carefulness" and "Heed," let him out of the castle, not without some good advice, and a pluck of the ear from each. He tells his wife of all that had befallen him, speaking of it as if it were a dream. She would fain dissuade him from his good resolutions, but he determines not to listen to her, and concludes with a prayer that he may have firmness to persevere. The style is of the homeliest throughout; but there is the good meaning of the writer, worthy the age of Louis the Just, and here and there an arch phrase, or a quaint old word, cunningly set, to repay the reader for his trouble. Much the same may be said of his three other books which I mentioned before. The first, "Les Abus du Mode Nouvel," is a strange farrago. Near the beginning, indeed, (leaf the third, for the book is not paged) there is something better. It is the description of his musing himself to sleep at a little village, lulled by the song of a nightingale; and is quite in the taste of Chaucer. At waking, he 66 hears most dreadful cries, uttered by Laisse ses guerres et puissantes victoires "Leave his wars and mighty conquests for chroniclers to record." He then goes on to satirize the hypocrites (or bigots as he calls them) of both sexes; and, from them, passes to the barbers, physicians, apothecaries, dancers, mummers, astrologers, gamesters, chemists, searchers after the philosopher's stone, forgers, priests, notaries, &c. &c. In the last leaf, the book is presented to Jaques nomme de Touteville, counsellor and chamberlain to the king. The next, the Contreditz du Prince des Sots, &c. consists of arguments for and against the different trades, professions, and modes of life. These are introduced by Fantasy's conducting him to the forgery of Pallas, where he sees the apparatus that had been used for fabricating all the great writings in ancient times; among the rest, the Speculum Vite of Roderic Zamora. Oultreplus je trouvay encore Ce feu tout chault ou puis naguere Avoit fait Roderic Zamore Ce mirouer humain par sainct pere De lespaignol je prins matiere Si parfond et si largement Que jen ay faict le fondement.-(Fol. 4.) And furthermore still there I found His human mirror: by heaven's prince, I from that Spaniard's learning took, There were no less than five editions of the Speculum Vitae Humanæ, besides a French translation of it, before the conclusion of the fifteenth century. The arguments on Merchandise, fol. 37, are in prose; as is great part of the second book, de l'Estat civil. The tyranny of fashion over the Courtier's life is one of the most entertaining things in this work:Fol. 171. Towards the end, there is a brief eulogy on Saint Louis, and on the reigning monarch, Louis XII. The last of the above-mentioned books, the Notables enseignemes, &c. is, as the title imports, a collection of adages and proverbs: all of these are in quatrains. I should take this edition to be scarce: for De Bure has only the first (No. 3028 with an asterisk, in his Bibliographie) printed at Paris, without date: but this has many additions. There is much wisdom in these, as there is in most sayings of this kind; but few readers I doubt are now willing to be at the trouble of “understanding a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise and their dark sayings." A scantling of these therefore will suffice, and they shall be such as, to make them the more palatable, contain some curious intimation of the manners and customs of those times. Aucuns plaisirs prenent de estre servilles Mais benistz sont les habitans es villes. (Not paged.) Some choose the lowly villain's servile state, Their love of fields, and thorps and burghs so great; Aucuns y a sans raison ne propos There are who fondly do their houses paint Limprudent meine et tient dessus ses mains Unwise the man who heareth mass, I wist, |