Take a singular example of no fewer than three rhymes to each verse. Crimina crescere flete; tepescere jus, decus, æquum ; Fabricius, who gives these verses, remarks, that they were written in the dactylic Leonine; that is, they had every foot a dactyl, excepting the last, and contained three rhymes in each verse, two within the verse itself, and one referring to the verse that followed. He adds, that their author, Bernardus Morlanensis, a monk of the eleventh century, composed no less than three books of this wonderful versification. What leisure must he have had, and how was it employed?" Before we quit the subject of rhyme we may add, that rhyme was used not only by the Latin, but by the Arabian poets, as we may see by a tract upon the Arabic prosody, subjoined by Dr. Pococke to his Carmen Tograï. Rhyme, however, was not so strictly followed, but that sometimes they quitted it. In the following heroics, the monk Odilo, addressing himself to his friend Hucbaldus, appears so warm in his wishes, as not only to forget rhyme, but even classical quantity. Hucbaldo Sopho Sophia sit semper amica ; This genius (over whose verses I have occasionally marked the accentual quantity in contradistinction to the syllabic) is supposed to have written in the tenth century. Others, rejecting rhyme, wrote elegiacs; as that monk who celebrated Hildīgrim and Halabuldus; the one for building a church, the other for consecrating it. Hildīgrim struxit; Hălăbaldus episcopus archi Sanctificavit: honor certus utrumque manet. In the first of these two verses the word archi-episcopus is, by a pleasant transposition, made into a dactyl and spondee, so as to complete the hexameter." It was upon these principles of versification, that the early poets of this era wrote much bad verse in much bad Latin. At length they tried their skill in their vernacular tongues, introducing here also their rhyme and their accentual quantity, as they had done before in Latin. Through the southern parts of France, the troubadours (already mentioned) composed sonnets in the Provençal tongue. e See Fabric. Biblioth. med. et infim. ætatis, under the word, Bernardus Mor lanensis. f See Recueil de divers Ecrits pour servir de l'Eclaircissements a l'Histoire de France Soon after them, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio wrote poems in Italian; and soon after these, Chaucer flourished in England. From Chaucer, through Rowley, we pass to lords Surry and Dorset; from them to Spencer, Shakspeare, and Johnson; after whom came Milton, Waller, Dryden, Pope, and a succession of geniuses down to the present time. The three Italian poets we have mentioned, were capital in their kind, being not only strong and powerful in sentiment, but, what is more surprising, elegant in their diction, at a time when the languages of England and France were barbarous and unpolished. This, in English, is evident from our countryman, Chaucer, who, even to an English reader, appears so uncouth, and who yet wrote later than the latest of these three. It must, however, be acknowledged, that, if we except his language, for learning and wit he appears equal to the best of his contemporaries, and, I may add, even of his successors. I cannot omit the following sample of his literature in the Frankelein's Tale. In that poem, the fair Dorigen is made to lament the absence of her much-loved Arveragus; and, as she sits upon a cliff, beholding the sea and the formidable rocks, she breaks forth with terror into the following exclamation. Eternal God! that thro' thy purveyaúnce Of work, than any fair creátión Of such a perfect God, wise, and full stable: Dorigen, after more expostulation of the same sort, adds, I wote well clerkis woll sayn, as 'hem leste, But thilké God, that make the winds to blow, Ay keep my Lord, &c. There is an elegant pathos in her thus quitting those deeper speculations, to address a prayer for the safety of her Arveragus. The verse, before quoted, To lead the world by certain governaunce, is not only a philosophical idea, but philosophically expressed. The next verse, In idle, as men sayn, ye nothing make, is a sentiment translated literally from Aristotle, and which that philosopher so much approved as often to repeat it. Take one example: Ὁ δὲ Θεὸς καὶ ἡ φύσις οὐδὲν μάτην ποιοῦσιν: “God and nature make nothing in vain." & Arist. de Cælo, l. i. c. 4. As to what follows, I mean that speculation of learned men, that "All is for the best," this, too, we meet in the same philosopher, annexed (as it were) to the sentiment just alleged. 66 Ἡ φύσις οὔθεν δημιουργεῖ μάτην, ὥσπερ εἴρηται πρότερον, ἀλλὰ πάντα πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον ἐκ τῶν ἐνδεχομένων: “ Nature (as has been said before) creates nothing in vain, but all things for the best, out of the contingent materials."h It may be fairly doubted, whether Chaucer took this from the original Greek; it is more probable he took it from the Latin version of the Spanish Arabic version, which Latin was then current, and admitted through Western Europe for the Aristotelic text. The same thought occurs in one of our most elegant modern ballads; though whence the poet took it, I pretend not to decide. How can they say, that nature Has nothing made in vain? Those rocks no eyes discover, But to return to Chaucer. If in the tale we have just quoted, if in the tale of the Nun's Priest, and in many other of his works, there are these sprinklings of philosophy; if to these we add the extensive knowledge of history, mythology, and various other subjects, which he everywhere shews: we may fairly, I think, arrange him among our learned poets, and take from him an estimate of the literature of the times, as far at least as possessed by men of superior education. After having mentioned (as we have lately done) Petrarch and some of the Italians, I can by no means omit their countryman Sannazarius, who flourished in the century following, and whose eclogues in particular, formed on the plan of fishing life instead of pastoral, cannot be enough admired both for their Latinity and their sentiment. His fourth eclogue, called Proteus, written in imitation of Virgil's eclogue called Silenus, may be justly valued as a master-piece in its kind. The following slight sketch of it is submitted to the reader. "Two fishermen sailing during a dark night from Caprea into the bay of Naples, as they silently approach the promontory of Minerva, hear Proteus from the shore, singing a marvellous narrative of the strange events of which those regions had been the well-known scene. He concludes with the unhappy fate of the poet's friend and patron, Frederic, king of Naples, who, having been expelled his kingdom, died an exile in France." h De Animal. incessu, c. 12. If I might be pardoned a digression, it should be on the elegance of the numbers by which this unfortunate part of the tale is introduced. Addit tristia fata, et te, quem luget ademptum Italia, &c. The omission of the usual cæsura, in the first of these verses, naturally throws it into that anapæstic rhythm, so finely suited to solemn subjects. Addit-tristia-fata et-te quem, &c.i It may be observed, also, in how pathetic, and yet, withal, in how manly a way Sannazarius concludes. Frederic died in a remote region, and was buried where he died. "It is pleasing," says Proteus, "for a man's remains to rest in his own country, and yet for a tomb every land suffices." Grata quies patriæ, sed et omnis terra sepulcrum. Those who know how much sooner Italy emerged from barbarity than the rest of Europe, may choose to place Sannazarius rather at the beginning of a good age, than at the conclusion of a bad one. Their opinion, perhaps, is not without foundation, and may be extended to Fracastorius, Politian, Poggius, and many other eloquent authors, which that century then produced, when eloquence was little known elsewhere. Before we quit poetry, we shall say something upon its lowest species, upon acrostics, chronograms, wings, altars, eggs, axes, &c. These were the poor inventions of men devoid of taste, and yet absurdly aiming at fame by these despicable whims. Quitting the paths of simplicity and truth, (of which it is probable they were wholly ignorant,) they aspired, like rope-dancers, to merit, which only lay in the difficulty. The wings, the axes, the altars, &c. were wretched forms into which they tortured poor words, just as poor trees in our gardens were formerly mangled into giants, flower-pots, peacocks, obelisks, &c. Whoever remembers that acrostics, in versification, are formed from the initial letter of every verse, will see the force and ingenuity of the following description. Firm and compact, in three fair columns wove, Chronograms, by a different conceit, were not confined to initial letters, but, as they were to describe dates, the numeral letters, in whatever part of the word they stood, were distinguished from other letters by being written in capitals. * Πότνια—θέα μὴμοί τόδε—χώεο. Ηom. Οdyss. Ε. 215. For example: I would mark by a chronogram the date 1506. I take for the purpose the following words, Feriam sidera vertice; and by a strange elevation of capitals, I compel even Horace to give me the date required. FeriaM siDera VertIce-MDVI. The ingenious author, whom I have quoted before, thus admirably describes this second species of folly. Not thus the looser chronograms prepare; If I have dwelt too long on these trifles, it is not so much for their merit, (of which they have none,) as for those elegant lines in which they are so well described. On the same motive I conclude this chapter with selecting a few more lines from the same ingenious poem. To join these squadrons, o'er the champain came A numerous race, of no ignoble name; Riddle, and rebus, riddle's dearest son, And false conundrum, and insidious pun; On their fair standards, by the winds display'd, CHAPTER XII. PAUL THE VENETIAN, AND SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE, GREAT TRAVELLERS -SIR JOHN FORTESCUE, A GREAT LAWYER-HIS VALUABLE BOOK ADDRESSED TO HIS PUPIL THE PRINCE OF WALES-KING'S COLLEGE IN CAMBRIDGE FOUNDED BY HENRY THE SIXTH. Ir was during this middle period lived those celebrated travellers, Paul the Venetian, and our countryman, sir John Mandeville. We have mentioned Chaucer before them, though he flourished after both; for Chaucer lived till past the year 1400, Paul began his travels in the year 1272, and Mandeville began his in the year 1322. The reason is, Chaucer has been arranged with the poets already spoken of. Marc Paul, who is the first writer of any note concerning the Eastern countries, travelled into those remote regions as far as See the Scribleriad (book ii. 151, &c.) of my valuable friend, Mr. Cambridge of Twickenham. |