Ne by a thousand dele2 so riche,
With orfraies3 laid was everie dele,
Of dukis stories and of kinges;
And knoppis fine of gold amiled'.
Was set the riche chevesaile9;
Of stonis clere and faire to se.
The bokill10 of it was of ston
For who so bare the ston so bright
While he the ston had him about.-
wrought in noble guise

For in this world is none it liche1,
Ne none so faire: For it full wele
And purtraied in the ribaninges
And with a bend of gold tassiled,
About her neck, of gentle entaile,
In which ther was ful grete plente
RICHESE a girdle had upon
Of vertu grete and mokill11 might,
Ofvenim durst him nothing doubt
The mordaunt12

Was of a ston ful precious,
That whole a man it couth ymake
And yet the ston had soche a grace
All thilke daie not blinde to bene
The barris11 were of gold full fine
Full hevie, grete, and nothing light,
Upon the tressis of RICHESSE,

1 Like.

That was so fin and vertuous
Of palsie, and of the tothe ake :
That he was sikre13 in evvrie place
That fasting might that ston sene.
Upon a tissue of sattin,

In everiche was a besaunt wight15.
Was sett a circle of noblesse,
Of brendel gold, that full light yshone,
So faire, trowe I, was nevir none.

2 Parts.

4 Laces laid on robes. Embroideries.
6 Knobbs. Buttons.

3 Embroidery in gold. 5 Band. Knot. 7 Enameled. Enameling, and perhaps pictures in enamel, were common in the middle ages. From the Testament of Joh. de Foxle, knight, Dat. apud Bramshill Co. Southampt. Nov. 5, 1378. Item lego domino abbati de Waltham unum annulum auri grossi, cum una saphiro infixa, et nominibus trium regum [of Cologne] sculptis in eodem annulo. Item lego Margarite sorori mee unam tabulam argenti deaurati et amelitam, minorem de duabus quas habeo, cum diversis ymaginibus sculptis in eadem.-Item lego Margerie uxori Johannis de Wilton unum monile auri, cum S. litera sculpta et amelita in eodem.' Registr. Wykeham, Episc. Winton, P. ii. fol. 24. See also Dugd. Bar. i. 234, a. 'AMILED is from the French EMAIL, or ENAMEL. This art flourished most at Limoges in France. So early as the year 1197, we have 'Duas tabulas æneas superauratas de labore Limogia.' Chart. ann. 1197,apud Ughelin. tom. vii. ITAL. SACR. p. 1274 It is called Opus Lemnoviticum, in Dugdale's Mox.

111.

310, 313, 331. And in Wilkin's CONCIL. i. 666, where two cabinets for the host are ordered, one of silver or of ivory, and the other de opere Lemovicino. SYNOD. WIGORN. A.D. 1240. And in many other places. I find it called Limaise, in a metrical romance, the name of which I have forgot, where a tomb is described,

And yt was, the Romans sayes,

All with golde and limaise.

Carpentier [V. LIMOGIA.] observes, that it was anciently a common ornament of sumptuous
tombs. He cites a Testament of the year 1327, Je lais huit cent livres pour faire deux
tombes hautes et levees de l'EvVRE de LIMOGES.' The original tomb of Walter de Merton,
bishop of Rochester, erected in his cathedral about the year 1276, was made at Limoges.
This appears from the accompts of his executors, viz. Et computant xl l. v s. vid. liberat.
Magistro Johanni Linnomcensi, pro tumba dicti Episcopi Roffensis, scil. pro Constructione
'et carriagio de Lymoges ad Roffam. Et xl s. viii d. cuidam Executori apud Lymoges ad
ordinandum et providendum Constructionem dicta Tumbæ. Et x s. viii. d. cuidam garcioni
eunti apud Lymoges quærenti dictam tumbam constructam, et ducenti eam cum dicto Mag.
Johanne usque Roffam. Et xxii 1. in materialibus circa dictam tumbam defricandam.
vii marcas, in ferramento ejusdem, et carriagio a Londin. usque ad Roff. et aliis parandis ad
'dictam tumbam. Et xi s. cuidam vitriario pro vitris fenestrarum emptarum juxta tumbam
'dicti Eispcopi apud Roffam.' Ant. Wood's MSS. MERTON PAPERS, Bibl. Bodl. Cod.
BALLARD. 46.

8 Of good workmanship, or carving. From Intagliare, Ital.
9 Necklace.
10 Buckle.
11 Muckel. Great.
13 Certain.

Et

1s Tongue of a buckle. Mordeo. Lat. 14 I cannot give the precise meaning of Barris, nor of Cloux in the French. It seems to be part of a buckle. In the wardrobe-roll, quoted above, are mentioned, One hundred garters cam boucles, barris, et pedentibus argento. For which were delivered, 'ccc barrs argenti.' An 21, Edw. iii. 15The weight of a besant.' A byzant was a species of gold-coin, stamped at Byzantium. A wedge of gold. 16 Burnished.

250

RICHESSE DESCRIBED-ATTRIBUTES OF MIRTH.

But he were konning for the nones1 That could devisin all the stones,
That in the circle shewin clere, It is a wonder thing to here:
For no man could or preis2, or gesse,

Of hem the value or richesse:
Rubies ther were, saphirs, ragounces3,
And emeraudes more than two ounces :

But all before full subtilly

A fine carboncle set sawe I:

The stone so clear was and so bright,
That al so sone as it was night,

Men mightin se to go for nede, A mile or two, in length or brede;
Soche light ysprang out of the stone,

That RICHESSE wondir bright yshone

Both on her hedde and all hir face And eke about her all the place.
The attributes of the portrait of MIRTH are very expressive.
Of berde unnethe had he nothing", For it was in the firste spring:
Ful young he was and merie' of thought,
And in samette with birdis wrought,

And with golde bete ful fetously, His bodie was clad full richely;
Wrought was his robe in straunge gise,

1 'Well-skilled in these things.'

Appraise. Value.

3 The gem called a Jacinth. We should read in Chaucer's text, Fagonces instead of Ragounces, a word which never existed; and which Speght, who never consulted the French Roman de la Rose, interprets merely from the sense of the context, to be 'A kind of precious stone.' Gloss. Ch. in V. The knowledge of precious stones was a grand article in the natural philosophy of this age: and the medical virtue of gems, alluded to above, was a doctrine much inculcated by the Arabian naturalists. Chaucer refers to a treatise on gems, called the LAPIDIARY, famous in that time. House of Fame, L. ii. v. 260.

And thei were sett as thicke of ouchis

Fine, of the finist stonis faire That men redin in the LAPIDAIRE. Montfaucon, in the royal library at Paris, recites 'LE LAPIDAIRE, de la vertu des pierres." Catal. MSS. p. 794. This I take to be the book referred to by Chaucer. Henry of Huntingdon wrote a book De Gemmis. He flourished about 1145. Tann. Bibl. p. 395. Greek Treatise, Du Cange, Gloss. Gr. Barb. ii. Ind. Auctor, p. 37, col. 1. In the Cottage library is a Saxon Treatise on precious stones. TIEBER. A 3, liii. fol. 98. The writing is more ancient than the con quest. Pellouter mentions a Latin poem of the eleventh century on Precious Stones, written by Marbode bishop of Rennes, and soon afterwards translated into French verse. Mem. Lang. Celt. part i. vol. i. ch. xiii. p. 26. The translation begins,

Evax fut un mult riche reis

Lu reigne tint d'Arabeis.

It was printed in OEUVRES de Hildebert Eveque du Mons, edit. Ant. Beaugendre, col. 1638. This may be reckoned one of the oldest pieces of French vesification. A manuscript De Speciebus Lapidum, occurs twice in the Bodleian library, falsely attributed to one Adam Nidzarde, Cod. Digb. 28, f. 169. -Cod. Laud. C. 3, Princ. 'Evax rex Arabum legitur scripsisse.' But it is, I think, Marbode's book above-mentioned. Evax is a fabulous Arabian king, said to have written on this subject. Of this Marbode, or Marbodæus, see Ol. Borrich. Diss. Acad. de Poet. pag. 87. § 78, edit. Francof. 1683, 4to. His poem was published, with notes, by Lampridius Alardus. The eastern writers pretend, that king Solomon, among a variety of physiological pieces, wrote a book on Gems: one chapter of which treated of those precious stones, which resist or repel evil Genii. They suppose that Aristotle stole all his philosophy from Solomon's books. Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiii. 387, seq. And i. p. 71. Compare Herbelot, Bibl. Oriental, p. 962, b. Artic. KETAB alahgiar, seq.

4. V. 1071

5 Et si n'avoit barbe a menton

Il etoit jeune damoysaulx
Qui tout etoit e or batu,
D'un' robe moult desgysee,
Et decouppee par quointise,
D'un souliers decouppes a las
Et sa neye luy fist chapeau
6 Samite. Sattin. Explained above.

And all to slittered1 for quientise,

In many a place lowe and hie,
With shone decopid2 and with lace,
His lefe1 a rosin chapelet

And shod he was, with grete maistrie,
By drurie3 and eke by solace
Had made and on his hedde it set".

;

FRANCHISE is a no less attractive portrait, and sketched with equal grace and delicacy.

And next him daunsid dame FRANCHISE,
Arayid in ful noble guise.

She n'as not broune ne dunne of hewe, But white as snowe ifallin newe,
Her nose was wrought at point devise, For it was gentill and tretise;
Her hare down to her helis wents:
With eyin glad and browis bent,
Ful debonaire of hart was she9.
Simple she was as dove on tre,

The personage of DANGER is of a bolder cast, and may serve as a contrast to some of the preceding. He is supposed suddenly to start from an ambuscade; and to prevent Bialcoil, or Kind Reception, from permitting the lover to gather the rose of beauty.

1 Cut and slashed.

With that anon out start DANGERE10,
Out of the place where he was hidde;
His malice in his chere was kidde11
Full grete he was, and blacke of hewe,
Sturdie and hideous whoso him knewe;
Like sharpe urchons 12 his heere was grov
His eyes red sparcling as fire glow,
His nose frouncid13 full kirkid1 stoode,
He come criande15 as he were woode16.

Cut or marked with figures. From Decouper, Fr. To cut. Thus the parish clerk Absolon, in the Miller's Tale, v. 210. p. 26, Urr.

With Poulis windowes carven on his shose.

I suppose Poulis windowes was a cant phrase for a fine device or ornament

3 Modesty.

4 Mistress.

6 Apres tous ceulx estoit FRANCHISE,
Ains fut comme la neige blanche

Le nez avoit long et tretis,

Les cheveulx eut tres-blons et longs,

5 v. 833.

Que ne fut ne brune ne bise;
Courtoise estoit, joyeuse et franche,
Yeulx vers rins, soureils saitis,
Simple feut comme les coulons.

Le cueur eut doulx et debonnaire, v. 1190.

7 With the utmost exactness.

All the females of this poem have grey eyes and yellow hair. One of them is said to have 'Les yeulx eut vers.' This too Chaucer Her eyen graie as is a faucon.' v. 546. Where the original word, translated graie, is vers. v. 345 We have this colour again, Orig. v. 822. translates, 'Her eyin graie,' 862. The same word occurs in the French text before us, v. This comparison was natural and beautiful, as drawn from a very familiar and favourite oject in the age of the poet. Perhaps Chaucer means 'grey as a falcon's eyes.

V. 1211

10 A tant saillit villain DANGERE,

Grant fut, noir et tout herice

Les vis fronce, le nez hydeux

De la on il estoit muee;
S'ot, les yeulx rouges comme feux,
V. 2959.
Est scerie tout forcenez.

11Was discovered by his behaviour, or countenance.' Perhaps we should read cheke,

Es chere.

13 Contracted.

15 Crying as if he was mad.'

12 Urchins. Hedge-hogs.
14 Crooked. Turned upwards.

16 v. 3130.

252 CHAUCER IMPROVES ON LORRIS-BEING THE MORE MASCULINE.

Chaucer has enriched this figure. The circumstance of DANGER'S hair standing erect like the prickles on the urchin or hedge-hog, is his own, and finely imagined.

Hitherto specimens have been given from that part of this poem which was written by William de Lorris, its first inventor. Here Chaucer was in his own walk. One of the most striking pictures in the style of allegorical personification, which occurs in Chaucer's translation of the additional part, is much heightened by Chaucer, and indeed owes all its merit to the translator; whose genius was much better adapted to this species of painting than that of John of Meun, the continuator of the poem.

With her, Labour and eke Travaile1,

Lodgid bene, with Sorowe and Wo, That nevir out of her court go,
Pain and Distresse, Sicknesse and Ire,
And Melanc❜ly that angry sire,

Ben of her palais2 senators;

Groning and Grutching her herbegeors";

The day and night her to tourment, With cruill deth their he present, And tellin her erliche1 and late,

That DETH stondith armid at her gate.

Then bring they to remembraunce, The foly dedes of hir enfance3.

The fiction that Sickness, Melancholy, and other beings of the like sort, were counsellors in the palace of OLD AGE, and employed in telling her day and night, that' DEATH stood armed at her gate,' was far beyond the sentimental and satirical vein of John of Meun, and is conceived with great vigour of imagination.

Chaucer appears to have been early struck with this French poem. In his DREME, written long before he began this translation, he supposes, that the chamber in which he slept was richly painted with the story of the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE". It is natural to imagine, that such a poem must have been a favourite with Chaucer. No poet, before William of Lorris, either Italian or French, had delineated allegorical personages in so distinct and enlarged a style, and with such a fullness of characteristical attributes: nor had descriptive poetry selected such a variety of circumstances, and disclosed such an exuberance of embellishment, in forming agreeable representations of nature. On this account, we are surprised that Boileau should mention Villon as the first poet of France who drew form and order from the chaos of the old French romancers,

1 Travaile et douleur la hebergent,
Que mort prochaine luy presentent,
Tant luy sont de fleaux sentir;
En cest tardifve presence,

9 Palace.

4 Early.

Mais il le lient et la chargent,

Et talent de seq repentir;

Adonc luy vient en remembraunce,
Quant et se voit foible et chenue. v. 4733.

3 Chamberlains. 5 v. 4994:

6 v. 322. Chaucer alludes to this poem in The MARCHAUNT'S TALE, v. 1548. p. 72. Urr.

Villon sceut le PREMIER, dans ces siecles grossiers

Debrouiller l'ART CONFUS de nos vieux ROMANCIERS1.

But the poetry of William of Lorris was not the poetry of Boileau. That this poem should not please Boileau, I can easily conceive. It is more surprising that it should have been censured as a contemptible performance by Petrarch, who lived in the age of fancy. Petrarch having desired his friend Guy de Gonzague to send him some new piece, sent the ROMAN DE LA ROSE. With the poem, instead of an encomium, he returned a severe criticism; in which he treats it as a cold, inartificial, and extravagant composition: as a proof, how much France, who valued this poem as her chief work, was surpassed by Italy in eloquence and the arts of writing2. In this opinion we must attribute something to jealousy. But the truth is, Petrarch's genius was too cultivated to relish these wild excursions of imagination: his favourite classics, whom he revived, and studied with so much attention, ran in his head. Especially Ovid's ART OF LOVE, a poem of another species, and evidently formed on another plan; but which Petrarch had been taught to venerate, as the model and criterion of a didactic poem on the passion of love reduced to a system. We may add, that although the poem before us was founded on the visionary doctrines and refinements concerning love invented by the Provencal poets, and consequently less unlikely to be favourably received by Petrarch, yet his ideas on that delicate subject were much more Platonic and more metaphysical.

SECTION XIV.

CHAUCER'S poem of TROILUS and CRESSEIDE is said to be formed on an old history, written by Lollius, a native of Urbino in Italy3. Lydgate says, that Chaucer, in this poem,

made a translacion

Of a boke which called is TROPHE
Of Lumbarde tongue, &c1.

1 Art. Poet. ch. i. He died about the year 1456.
2 See Petrarch. Carm. L. i. Ep. 30.

3 Petrus Lambeccius enumerous Lollius Urbicus among the Historici Latini profani of the third century. Prodrom. p. 246, Hamb. 1659. See also Voss. Historic. Latin, ii, 2, p. 163. edit. Ludg. Bat. But this could not be Chaucer's Lollius. Chaucer places Lollius among the historians of Troy, in his house of Fame, iii. 380. It is extraordinary, that Du Fresne, in the Index Auctorum, used by him for his Latin glossary, should mention this Lollius Urbicus of the third century. Tom. ì, p. 141, edit. i. As I apprehend, none of his works remain. A proof that Chaucer translated from some Italian original is, that in a MSS. which I have seen of this poem, I find, Monesteo for Menestes, Rupheo for Ruphes, Phebuseo for Phebuses, Lib. iv, so, seq. Where, by the way, Xantippe, a Trojan chief, was perhaps corruptly written for Xantippo, i. e. Xantippus. As Joseph. Iscan. iv. 10. In Lydgate's Troy, Zantiphus, 26. All corrupted from Antiphus, Dict. Cret. p. 105. In the printed copies we have Ascalapho for Ascalaphus. lib. v. 319.

+ Prol. Boch. st. iii.