wrote many things to the disadvantage of the fair sex which are painful to the politeness of the monk, who declares that he translates them unwillingly, and would give their author, were he alive, a 'bitter penance' for his crabbed language. In the third book, where the story of Troilus and Cressida is introduced, Lydgate seizes the opportunity of paying an ardent tribute of praise, love, and admiration to his 'maister Chaucer,' who had chosen that subject for a poem. The versification of Lydgate, in this Troy-book and in The Storie of Thebes, as well as in his numerous shorter pieces, is extremely rough. If the structure of the lines is attentively considered, it will be seen that he did not regard them as consisting of ten syllables and five feet, or at least that he did not generally so regard them, but rather as made up of two halves or counterbalancing members, each containing two accents. Remembering this, the reader can get through a long passage by Lydgate or Barclay with some degree of comfort; though, if he were to read the same passage with the expectation of meeting always the due number of syllables, his ear would be continually disappointed and annoyed. This vicious mode of versification was probably a legacy from the alliterative poets, whose popularity, especially in the North of England, was so great that their peculiar rhythm long survived after rhyme and measure had outwardly carried the day. Not to mention Layamon's Brut, where we see a curious mixture of rhyme and alliteration, the former, as the poem proceeds, gradually edging out the latter,-romances and other pieces of much later date can be pointed out, in which not only rhyme and measure but even the stanza form is adopted (for instance, in the Anters of Arthur, published by the Camden Society, 1842), yet still alliteration is carefully practised, and the syllabic lawlessness which the alliterator held to be his privilege, maintained. In the South of England, where the influences of French and Italian literature were more powerful, alliteration was repudiated; thus we find Chaucer making his 'Persone' say, I am a sotherne man, I cannot geste, rom, ram, ruf, by my letter.' 'To geste' meant to write in alliterative style, because of the great number of romances or gestes so written which were then ir circulation. Lydgate's last notable work was The Falls of Princes, founded on a French version of the Latin treatise by Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium. It is dedicated to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, brother to Henry V, whom he speaks of as dead, and mentions his having written his Troy-book at his desire. The subject of this vast poem, which is in nine books, and was printed in folio in 1558, may be gathered from the old title-page, which rans, 'The Tragedies gathered by Jhon Bochas of all such Princes as fell from theyr Estates throughe the Mutability of Fortune since the creation of Adam until his time; wherin may be seen what vices bring menne to destruccion, wyth notable warninges howe the like may be avoyded. Translated into English by John Lidgate, Monke of Burye.' The Monk's Tale of Chaucer proceeds on the same lines; and a company of Marian or Elizabethan poets, Sackville, Baldwin, Ferrers, &c., working out the same idea, but with a more distinct ethical purpose, produced that stupendous but forgotten work, the Myrrour for Magistrates. In this work Lydgate adopted the seven-line stanza so much employed by Chaucer, and also seems to have taken more pains than before to emulate the rhythmic excellence of his master's work. Hence the Falls of Princes is, of his three principal poems, by far the most readable. In the beginning of the eighth book he complains of age and poverty; and one of the minor poems, written while he was employed on this work, is in the form of a letter to the Duke of Gloucester, saying that his 'purs was falle in great rerage' (arrears), and asking for money. In his old age the genius loci, and the saintly memories which clung round the monastery, appear to have influenced the poet more than in his youth. We find him composing a metrical 'Life of St. Edmund,' which still reposes in MS., and writing the 'Legend of St. Alban' for the monks of that famous monastery. Of his minor poems a large and not uninteresting selection was edited some forty years ago for the Percy Society by Mr. Halliwell. They are mostly written in an octave stanza, not the ottava rima, but one in which the second rhyme embraces the second, fourth, fifth and seventh lines, whilst the third rhyme connects the sixth and eighth. A considerable number are in the 'rhyme royal,' or seven-line stanza. Two or three of them are satirical, not to say cynical; several are descriptive; but the majority are either versions of French or Latin fabliaux, or moralizing pieces based on proverbs and old saws. There is much that is vivid and forcible in the picture of the manners and humours of London and Westminster given in London Lickpenny. Pur le Roy may remind us of the effusions of Elkanah Settle the city poet, unmercifully ridiculed by Pope in the Dunciad. If it may certainly be attributed to Lydgate, it proves that he was living in 1433, in which year occurred the visit of Henry VI to London after his coronation, when the citizens received him with extraordinary demonstrations of joy and loyalty. The pageants, dresses, uniforms, speeches, &c., arc described by the poet with a wearisome minuteness. It is unlikely that Lydgate lived long after writing this poem, but the exact year of his death has never been ascertained. It happened while he was engaged in translating into rhyme royal a French version of the supposed work of Aristotle, addressed to Alexander, which is variously entitled On the Government of Princes, The Secret of Secrets, and The Philosopher's Stone. At the head of one of the MSS. of this work1 (which has never been printed) there is a small picture of Lydgate: he is represented as an old man, dressed in the black habit of the Benedictines, and tendering, bare-headed and on his knees, his book to some august personage above him, who is meant either for Henry VI or St. Edmund the patron of his monastery. 1 Harl. 4826. T. ARNOLD. LONDON LICKPENNY. Te London once my stepps I bent, But for lack of mony I cold not spede. [After visiting all the courts at Westminster one after another, and finding that everywhere want of cash is the one insuperable impediment, he passes eastward to the Citv.] Then unto London I dyd me hye, Then to the Chepe I began me drawne, Then went I forth by London stone, Drapers mutch cloth me offred anone; Then comes me one, cryed, 'Hot shepes feete'; One cryde 'makerell,' 'ryshes 2 grene,' an other gan greete'; But for want of mony I myght not be sped. 1 began to offer me. 2 rushes. 8 cry. Then I hyed me into Est-Chepe; One cryes rybbs of befe, and many a pye: There was harpe, pype, and mynstralsye. 'Yea, by cock! nay, by cock!' some began crye; Some songe of Jenken and Julyan for there mede; But for lack of mony I myght not spede. Then into Corn-Hyll anon I yode1, The taverner tooke me by the sleve, Then hyed I me to Belyngsgate ; 'Thou scapst not here,' quod he, 'under two pence; Then I convayd me into Kent ; For of the law wold I meddle no more; Now Jesus, that in Bethlem was bore, Save London, and send trew lawyers there mede! For who so wantes mony with them shall not spede. |