to the accomplishment of learning the languages and arts. Pitfeus fays, he was not only an elegant poet, and an eloquent rhetorician, but also an expert mathematician, an acute philofopher, and no mean divine. His verfes were fo very smooth, and indeed to a modern ear they appear fo, that it was faid of him by his cotemporaries, that his wit was framed and fashioned by the Muses themselves. After his return from France and Italy, he became tutor to many noblemen's fons, and for his excellent endowments was much efteemed and reverenced by them. He writ a poem called the Life and Death of Hector, from which I shall give a fpecimen of his verfification.

I am a monk by my profeffion

In Bury, called John Lydgate by my name,
And wear a habit of perfection;

(Although my life agree not with the fame)
That meddle fhould with things fpiritual,
As I must needs confefs unto you all.

But feeing that I did herein proceed
At his commands whom I could not refuse,
I humbly do befeech all thofe that read,
Or leifure have this ftory to perufe,
If any fault therein they find to be,
Or error that committed is by me,

That they will of their gentleness take pain,
The rather to correct and mend the fame,
Than rafhly to condemn it with disdain,
For well I wot it is not without blame,

Because I know the verfe therein is wrong
As being fome too fhort, and fome too long.

* K. Henry V.

His

His prologue to the ftory of Thebes, a tale (as he fays) he was conftrained to tell, at the command of his hoft of the Tabard in Southwark, whom he found in Canterbury with the rest of the pilgrims who went to vifit St. Thomas's fhrine, is remarkably fmooth for the age in which he writ, This ftory was first written in Latin by Chaucer, and tranflated by Lydgate into English verfe, Pitfeus fays he writ, partly in profe and partly in verse, many exquifite learned books, amongst which are eclogues, odes, and fatires. He flourished in the reign of Henry VI.. and died in the fixtieth year of his age, ann. 1440, and was buried in his own convent at Bury, with this epitaph,

Mortuus fæclo, fuperis fuperftes,

Hic jacet Lydgate tumulatus urna :
Qui fuit quondam celebris Britannæ,
Fama poefis.

Which is thus rendered into English by Winftanly;

Dead in this world, living above the sky,
Intomb'd within this urn doth Lydgate lie;
In former times fam'd for his poetry,
All over England.

JOHN

JOHN HARDING.

OHN HARDING, the famous English Chronologer, was born (fays Bale) in the Northern parts, and probably Yorkshire, being an Efquire of an eminent parentage. He was a man addicted both to arms and arts, in the former of VOL. I. N° 1.

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which

which he feems to have been the greatest proficient His first military exploit was under Robert Um 'reuil, governor of Roxborough Castle, where he distinguished himself against the Scots, before which the King of Scotland was then encamped, and unfortunately loft his life. He afterwards followed the ftandard of Edward IV. to whofe intereft both in profperity and diftress he honourably adhered. But what endeared him moft to the favour of that Prince, and was indeed the mafterpiece of his fervice, was his adventuring into Scotland, and by his courteous infinuating behaviour, fo far ingratiating himself into the favour of their leading men, that he procured the privilege of looking into their records and original letters, a copy of which he brought to England and prefented to the King. This fuccessful atchievement eftablished him in his Prince's affections, as he was follicitous to know how often the Kings of Scotland had taken oaths of fealty and fubjected themselves to the English Monarchs in order to fecure their crown. Thefe fubmiffions are warmly disputed by the Scotch hiftorians, who in honour of their country contend that they were only yielded for Cumberland and fome parcels of land poffeffed by them in England fouth of Tweed; and indeed when the warlike temper and invincible spirit of that nation is confidered, it is more than probable, that the Scotch hiftcians in this particular contend only for truth. Our author wrote a chronicle in verse of all our English Kings from Brute to King Edward IV. for which Dr. Fuller and Winftanly bestow great encomiums upon him; but he feems to me to be totally deftitute of poetry, both from the wretchednefs of his lines, and the unhappiness of his fubject, a chronicle being of all others the driest, and the leaft fufceptible of poetical ornament; but.. let the reader judge by the fpecimen fubjoined. He died about the year 1461, being then very

aged.

aged. From Gower to Barclay it must be obfer. ved, that Kings and Princes were conftantly the patrons of poets.

On the magnificent houfhold of King Richard II.

Truly I herd Robert Irelefe fay,

Clark of the Green Cloth, and that to the houshold,
Came every day, forth most part alway,

Ten thousand folk by his meffes told;
That followed the house, aye as they wold,
And in the kitchen, three hundred fcruitours,
And in eche office many occupiours,
And ladies faire, with their gentlewomen
Chamberers alfo, and launderers,

Three hundred of them were occupied then ;
There was great pride among the officers,
And of all men far pafling their compeers,
Of rich arraye, and much more coftous,
Then was before, or fith, and more precious.

JOHN SKELTON

WAS born of an ancient family in Cumber

land, he received his education at Oxford, and entering into holy orders was made rector of Dyffo in Norfolk in the reign of Henry VIII. tho' more probably he appeared firft in that of Henry VII. and may be faid to be the growth of that time. That he was a learned man Erafmus has confirmed, who in his letter to King Henry VIII. ftileth him, Britanicarum Literarum Lumen & Decus: Tho' his file is rambling and loofe, yet he was not without invention, and his fatire is ftrongly pointed. He lived near fourfcore years after Chaucer, but

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seems

feems to have made but little improvement in verfification. He wrote fome bitter fatires against the clergy, and particularly, his keen reflections on Cardinal Wolfey drew on him fuch fevere profecutions, that he was obliged to fly for fanctuary to Westminster, under the protection of Iflip the Abbot, where he died in the year 1529. It appears by his poem entitled, The Crown of Laurel, that his performances were numerous, and fuch as remain are chiefly thefe, Philip Sparrow, Speak Parrot, the Death of King Edward IV. a Treatife of the Scots, Ware the Hawk, the Tunning of Elianer Rumpkin. In thefe pieces there is a very rich vein of wit and humour, tho' much debased by the ruft of the age he lived in. His fatires are remarkably broad, open and ill-bred; the verse cramped by a very short measure, and encumbered with such a profufion of rhimes, as makes the poet appear almost as ridiculous as thofe he endeavours to expofe. In his more ferious pieces he is not guilty of this abfurdity; and confines himself to a regular stanza, according to the then reigning mode. His Bouge of Court is a poem of fome merit: it abounds with wit and imagination, and fhews him well verfed in human nature, and the infinuating manners of a court. The allegorical characters are finely defcribed, and well fuftained; the fabric of the whole I believe entirely his own, and not improbably may have the honour of furnishing a hint even to the inimitable Spencer. How or by whofe intereft he was made Laureat, or whether it was a title he affumed to himself, cannot be determined, neither is his principal patron any where named; but if his poem of the Crown Lawrel before mentioned has any covert meaning, he had the happiness of having the Ladies for his friends, and the countess of Surry, the lady Elizabeth Howard, and many others united their fervices in his favour. When on his death-bed he was charged with

having