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., are 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 work' (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. To 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 City.] Then unto London I dyd me hye, Of all the land it beareth the pryse: 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'; 2 One cryde 'makerell,' 'ryshes grene,' an other gan greete3; On bad me by a hood to cover my head, But for want of mony I myght not be sped. 1 began to offer me. 2 rushes. 3 cry. Then I hyed me into Est-Chepe; One cryes rybbs of befe, and many a pye : Then into Corn-Hyll anon I yode1, The taverner tooke me by the sleve, Sir,' sayth he, 'wyll you our wyne assay'? I answered, 'That can not mutch me greve: Then hyed I me to Belyngsgate; 'Thou scapst not here,' quod he, 'under two pence; I lyst not yet bestow my almes dede.' Thus, lackyng mony, I could not spede. Then I convayd me into Kent; For of the law wold I meddle no more; I dyght me to do as I dyd before. 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. FROM LYDGATE'S 'DIETARY,' OR RULES FOR HEALTH. And if so be that lechis done the faile1, Nat malicious for none adversité; Riche with litel, content with suffisaunce; Fyre at morowe, and towards bed at eve, Suffre no surfetis in thy house at nyght, And sloth at morow, and slomberyng idelnes, Voyde al drunklew, lyers, and lechours; Of al unthriftës exile the mastres, That is to say, dyse, players, and haserdours. After mete beware, make not to longë slepe, Swere none othis no man to begyle; In thy youth be lusty, sad whan thow art olde. 1 if physicians make thee fall ill. 3 air. 2 late suppers. murmuring. Dyne nat at morwe aforne thyn appetite, Clere eyre and walkyng makith goode digestioun, To feble stomakes, whan they can nat refrayne; Thus in two thinges standith al the welthe Of sowle and body, whoso lust to sewe2, Moderat foode gevith to man his helthe, And al surfetis doth from hym remeue3, And charité unto the sowle is dewe : This ressayt is bought of no poticarye, Of maister Antony, nor of maister Hewe, To all indifferent, richest diatorye 5. DESCRIPTION OF THE GOLDEN AGE. [Falls of Princes, book vii.] Rightwisenes chastised al robbours, Fraud, false mede, put backward fro jurours, That golden world could love God and drede, |