ripally recommends them to notice, and explains the avidity with which they are ufually received by the public. But as the pleasure we derive from this fource must be proportionate to the degree of intereft which we take in the perfons described; it is probable that a feries of the works of our own an ceftors, and particularly of their poe, try, which, whatever may be its defects, is fure to exhibit the moft correct and lively delineation of contemporary manners, would attract very general notice, if it were not confidered by the greater number of readers as a hopeless attempt, to search for these sources of amufement and information, amidst the obfcurity of a difficult, and almoft unintelligible language." Vol. i. p. 1. "The veil which obfcures the writings of our early poets cannot now be wholly removed: and perhaps, among the admirers of antiquity, there may be fome who would regret its removal; because, like other veils, it leaves much to the imagination. But the prefent trivial work having been compiled for the convenience of indolent and curfory readers, it appeared neceffary to adopt, as generally as poffible, in all the extracts which are hereafter given, the orthography of the prefent day; not as being quite rational (which it certainly is not), but as being in fome degree confiftent, and fixed by cuftom and authority. Those obfolete words, which, having been long fince elbowed out of the language by French, or Latin, or Greek fubftitutes, were not reducible to any definite mode of fpelling; thofe which, having undergone a change in their vowel founds, or in their number of fyllables, could not be reformed without difturbing the rhyme or metre; and those which were fo far difguifed as to offer no certain meaning, have been left to that fortuitous combination of letters which the original tranfcribers or printers had affigned to them. All fuch are printed in italics, for the purpose of more easy reference to the gloffarial notes, in which their meaning is explained or conjectured." Vol. i. p. 10.

"It has not been fufficiently confidered that there was a period, and that of confiderable duration, during which the English language did not exift, or at leaft was not, and could not be applicable to any literary purpofe. The language of the church

was Latin; that of the king and nobles, Norman; and that of the people, Anglo-Saxon; and the Anglo-Norman jargon was only employed in the commercial intercourfe between the conquerors and the conquered. It was likely to be compofed almost entirely of fynonymous terms, which evidently can only encumber, without enriching the fpeech of any nation; and that this was the cafe, is proved by our exifting language, in which the names of the neceffaries of life, as ox and beef, fheep and mutton, flesh and meat, be fides many other words of frequent recurrence, had originally an identical meaning. This ftate of things would neceffarily continue fo long as the Norman and Anglo-Saxon people were separated by mutual hatred and preju dice; and their languages could only be amalgamated into one common and confiftent form of fpeech, when the conquerors and the conquered became confounded in the fame mafs, by intermarriages, and by a general unity of intereft. Hence, the Norman and Anglo-Saxon, which for some time exifted in England as diftinct and rival tongues, have long fince disappeared; while, from a series of oppofite caufes, the Welth has continued to the present day; and it is probable that, by a careful examination of our political and legal history alone, we might be able to trace the gradations of our language with tolerable accuracy. In the mean time it is impoffible not to fee, that a great deal too much has been attributed to the perfonal character of the Conqueror, and that hiftorians have afcribed to particular parts of his policy, effects directly oppofite to those which they were naturally calculated to produce.

"We are told, for inftance, that William hated and determined to eradicate the language of this island, and to introduce the Norman in its place; and this has been fo often repeated," that Mr. Tyrwhitt has thought it ne'ceffary to refute the affertion by the authority of Ordericus Vitalis, a contemporary hiftorian, who tells us, that Williamn had, in fact, taken great pains to acquire the Anglo-Saxon. But furely, the abfurdity of the charge is its beft refutation. William must have known, that the Franks who conquer. ed Gaul, and his own anccilors who fubdued Neuftria, had not been able

to substitute the Teutonic for the Romance language in their dominions; that the measure was not at all neceffary to the establishment of their power; and that such an attempt is, in all cafes, no lefs impracticable than abfurd, be cause the patient indocility of the multitude must ultimately triumph over the caprice and tyranny of their armed preceptors. But, having conquered a kingdom, and wifhing to retain his conqueft, he introduced a code of laws which placed his power on a military bafis; and he introduced it in the language in which it was originally compiled, and which was familiar to that army to which he looked for his fecurity. By encouraging the ftudy of French in the schools, he gave his fub jects the means of understanding the laws which he expected them to obey. He did this, perhaps, tyrannically and harthly; but it is not proved that he did it with the view of making the Norman the univerfal language of his fubjects, or that he expected them, at their return from school, to talk French in their own families: he might, with equal wisdom, have supposed that they would converse habitually in Latin, which they learnt in the same schools. Even during the reign of Edward the Confeffor, the Anglo-Saxon had ceased to be cultivated; and after the conqueft, it was fure to become more and more barbarous, because it was the language of an oppressed and enslaved people; but it continued to exift. Indeed, the obfcurity of our earliest poets is well known to arise from this fource; and the great influx of French words which was ultimately introduced, and thus formed the AngloNorman or English language, was fo far from being a confequence of the tyrannical policy of the Conqueror, that it was moft rapid at the very period when that policy was abandoned; that is to fay, a little before the time of Minot, Gower, and Chaucer; and was the natural refult of increasing intercourse between the Norman robles and their English vaffals." Vol. i. p. 36. "Though the minstrel character be now loft both in England and France, the traces of it are not univerfally effaced. In Wales, the modern harper is occafionally found to poffefs the accompliments of the ancient bard: and among the Italians, the improvifa fori of Rome and Florence, who are

ufually ready to attend the table of a traveller, and greet him with an extemporary poem on any fubject which he fhall prefcribe, and protracted to a length which is only measured by his patience, are no bad representations of the antique minstrels; particularly when they are accompanied (as frequently happens) by an attendant mufician, who gives the tone to their recitative, and fills up the pauses between the ftanzas by a few notes on his inftrument. The third character, or difour, is also to be found in many parts of Italy, but particularly at Venice; where, mounted on a temporary fcaffolding, or fometimes on a ftool or barrel, he recites, from memory, whole cantos of Ariofto.

"The fituation of a minstrel prefcribed to him the choice of his fubject. Addreffing himself to an audience who lived only for the purpofe of fighting, and who confidered their time as of little value when otherwise employed, he was fure of being liftened to with patience and credulity, fo long as he could tell of heroes and enchanters: and he could be at no lofs for either, because the hiftories of all the heroes and enchanters that the world had produced, were to be found in a few volumes, of eafy accefs.

"As vanity is not eafily fubdued, a people who are not quite satisfied with their present infignificance, will often be tempted to indemnify themselves by a retrospective warfare on their enemies; and will be the more prodigal in affigning triumphs to their heroic ancestors, because those who in former ages contefted the battle, can no longer be brought forward to difpute the claim of victory. This will explain the numerous triumphs of King Arthur: we have already feen, that a book containing the relation of his exploits, and of those of his knights of the round table, and of his faithful enchanter, Merlin, together with the antecedent hiftory of the British kings, from the deftruction of Troy, was purchased in Brittany, about the year 1100, by Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, a learned antiquary of those days, and confided to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welth Benedictine monk, who tranf lated it into Latin, with fome additions and interpolations. The French translations of Wace and Rufticien de Pife, and the Saxon and English verfions of Layamon

Layamon and Robert Brunne, laid open this mass of history, to readers of every description.

"A fecond work, equally abounding in marvellous adventures, and apparently written about the fame time with Geoffrey of Monmouth's chronicle, is the hiftory of Charlemagne and the twelve peers of France, forged under the name of Turpin, a monk of the eighth century, who, for his fervices against the Saracens, was raised to the archbishopric of Rheims. The real author was perhaps a Spaniard. This work was tranflated from Latin into French, by Michael de Hains, in 1207.

"The third fource of romantic fiction, was the hiftory of Troy. Homer's works were unknown at the period of which we are speaking, but the story was kept alive in two Latin pieces, which passed under the names of Dares Phrygius, and Dictys Cretenfis; and from these, as we have already feen, a French poem on the Trojan war had been compiled by Benoit de St. More, the contemporary and rival of Wace. A more improved compilation from the fame fources, under the title of Hiftoria de Bello Trojano, comprehending the Theban and Argonautic ftories, from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus, was written by Guido de Colonna, a native of Meffina, about the year 1260.

"Alexander the Great was known to the writers of romance, not only by translations from Quintus Curtius, a writer much admired in the middle ages, but also by a history much better fuited to the purposes of the hiftorians of chivalry, originally written in Perfic, and translated into Greek, under the affumed name of Callifthenes, by Simeon Seth, keeper of the wardrobe at Conftantinople, under the Emperor Michael Ducas, about the year 1070. Such a narrative could not fail of obtaining a very general circulation. A Latin tranflation of it is quoted by Giraldus Cambrenfis; and the famous Roman d'Alexandre, written (as Fauchet tells us) about the year 1200, by four confederates en jonglerie,' appears to be partly a paraphrafe of that tranflation.

"Thefe four works may be confidered as the foundation on which was erected the vast Gothic fabric of ro

mance; and materials for the super. ftructure were readily found in an age when anecdotes and apologues were thought very neceffary even to dif courfes delivered from the pulpit, and when all the fables that could be gleaned from ancient writings, or from the relations of travellers, were collected into story-books, and preferved by the learned for that purpofe."Vol. i. p. 132.

ON THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE ENGLISH DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VI.

"THAT we may not be encumbered by the accumulation of our materials, it is obviously neceffary to take fome opportunity of reviewing thofe which we have collected; of compar ing them with fuch defcriptions of national manners as are furnished by our profefled hiftorians; and of connecting them with fuch farther particulars, as are to be gleaned from fources of incidental information. For this neceffary digreffion, there is no period more convenient than that on which we are now entering; because the interval between the reigns of Henry V. and Henry VIII. which com prehends near a century, although uncommonly rich in Scotch poets of diftinguifheti excellence, does not furnish us with a fingle name among the natives of England deferving of much notice. Our furvey muft, of course, be very rapid, and rather desultory, but it will at least break the monotony of the narrative, and preclude, for the future, the neceffity of introducing many detached obfervations, which, when our extracts become more amufing, would prove a difagreeable interruption to the reader.

"To begin with the lower claffes offociety.

"It is generally agreed, that before the Norman conqueft, and for a long time after, nearly all the lands of the kingdom were cultivated by ferts, whofe fituation was, in many refpects, fcarcely diftinguishable from abfolute flavery. It may, however, be inferred from the very curious extract already quoted from Pierce Ploughman, that about the middle of the fourteenth century, and probably much earlier, the labouring poor, though fill ferfs

with refpect to their feudal lords, were perfectly free, with refpect to their immediate employers. The poet fays, Labourers that have no land to live

on, but their hands-→

But if they be highly hired elfe will they chide.'

During a great part of the year, indeed, they were glad to work for a mere fubfiftence; but when provifions were plentiful, they could only be induced to work at all, by the temptation of exceffive wages. Againft this indolence, the author inveighs with great vehemence; but his remonftrances were probably ineffectual, because a stupid infenfibility, and a heedlefs profufion, are the natural characteristics of an oppressed and degraded people.

"Befides, their conduct feems to have arifen, in some measure, from the imperfect state of agriculture. Animal food formed a confiderable part of the fupport of the people; but as the whole of the manure was used on the arable lands, and it was impoffible that large numbers of cattle could fubfift during the cold feason on the natural paftures, they were flaughtered and falted in autumn for a winter provifion. This is a reafon adduced by Sir John Fortescue for rejecting the gabelle or falt-tax, as a fource of revenue for England. In France,' fays he, the people falten but little meat, except their bacon, and therefore would buy little falt; but yet they be artyd (compelled) to buy more falt than they would. This rule and order would be fore abhorred in England, as well by the merchants, that be wonted to have their freedom in buy ing and felling of falt, as by the peo 'ple, that ufen much more to falt their meats than do the French men.' (Fortefcue on Monarchy, cap. x.)

"But it appears, that, partly from the improvidence ufual to a barbarous fate of fociety, and partly from the want of thofe internal means of communication, which tend to diffufe general abundance, the fe ftores of animal food, as well as the grain, were often confumed before the reproduction of a fresh stock. Hence, in the above-mentioned extracts from Pierce Ploughman, the poor are reprefented as reduced to loaves of beans and bran,' and to feed hunger with beans and

baken apples chyboles and charvell, until the return of the harvest again enabled them to wafte their time in idlenefs and profufion.

"Even the farmers themselves, the order to which Pierce the Ploughman apparently belonged, do not feem to have fared very fumptuously, during fome part of the year; for he declares, that his whole provifion confifts in two green cheefes, fome curds and cream, and an oat cake? but he adds, that after Lammas, he might dight his dinner as he likes. The particulars of his wealth are, a cow and calf, and a cart-mare, which he keeps for the purpofe of carrying manure upon his land. Thefe articles, perhaps, were defigned to give an exact statement of his condition in fociety; for they seem to agree with what Sir John Fortescue confiders as sufficient for the maintenance of a yeoman.

"It is very honourable to the good fenfe of the English nation, that our two beft early poets, Chaucer, and the author of Pierce Ploughman, have highly extolled this ufeful body of men, while the French minstrels of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, univerfally seem to approve the fupercilious contempt with which the nobles affected to treat them. The abfurd prejudices of chivalry on this fubject are not ill expreffed by Lydgate, where he makes Achilles express his apprchenfion that,

In this rage furious and wood,
Full likely is that all the noble blood
Throughout this worlde shall destroyed

be;

And a rural folk (and that were great Shall have lordship, and wholly gopity),