mous compositions. As a sample we will transcribe the one on Edward's first expedition to France, omitting a prologue, which is in a different measure, and modernizing the spelling where it does not affect the rhyme or rhythm :

Come.

a design to fight."

Edward, owre comely king,
In Braband has his woning
With many comely knight;
And in that land, truely to tell,
Ordains he still for to dwell

To time he think to fight.

Now God, that is of mightés mast,3
Grant him grace of the Holy Ghast
His heritage to win;

And Mary Moder, of mercy free,
Save our king and his menỳ
Fro sorrow, shame, and sin.

Thus in Braband has he been,
Where he before was seldom seen

For to prove their japes ;5
Now no langer will he spare,
Bot unto France fast will he fare
To comfort him with grapes.

Furth he fared into France;
God save him fro mischance,
And all his company!
The noble Duke of Braband
With him went into that land,
Ready to live or die.

Then the rich flower de lice
Wan there full little price;

Fast he fled for feared:

The right heir of that countree

Is comen, with all his knightes free,
To shake him by the beard.

Sir Philip the Valays
Wit his men in tho days

To battle had he thought:9

He bade his men them purvey
Withouten langer delay;

But he ne held it nought.

2 Till the time.

5 Jeers.

8

།

Philip VI. de Valois, king of France.

The meaning seems to be, "informed his men in those days that he had

Unless, indeed, wit be a mistranscription of with.

He brought folk full great won,'
Aye seven agains2 one,

That full well weaponed were,
Bot soon when he heard ascry3
That king Edward was near thereby,
Then durst he nought come ncar.

In that morning fell a mist,
And when our Englishmen it wist,
It changed all their cheer;

Our king unto God made his boon,*
And God sent him good comfort soon;
The weader wex full clear.

Our king and his men held the field
Stalworthly with spear and shield,
And thought to win his right;
With lordes and with knightes keen,
And other doughty men bydeen*
That war full frek" to fight.

When Sir Philip of France heard tell
That king Edward in field wald dwell,
Then gained him no glee:8

He traisted of no better boot,"
Bot both on horse and on foot
He hasted him to flee.

It seemed he was feared for strokes
When he did fell his greate oaks
Obout 10 his pavilioùn;

Abated was then all his pride,

For langer there durst he nought bide;
His boast was brought all down.

The king of Beme" had cares cold,
That was full hardy and bold
A steed to umstride:12

He and the king als13 of Naverne14
War fair feared 15 in the fern

Their hevids16 for to hide.

1 Number.

5

2 Against.

3 Report.

Prayer, request.-Rits. Perhaps, rather, vow or bond.

6 Were full eager.

Perhaps "besides." The word is of common occurrence, but of doubtful or various meaning. 7 Would (was dwelling). The meaning seems to be, "then no glee, or joy, was given him" 9 He trusted in no better expedient, or alternative. 11 Bohemia. 12 Bestride. 13 Also. 15 Were fairly frightened. 16 Heads.

(accessit ei).

10

14

About.
Navarre.

And leves' well it is no lic,
And field hat2 Flemangry3

That king Edward was in,

With princes that were stiff and bold,
And dukes that were doughty told*
In battle to begin.

The princes, that were rich on raw,5
Gert nakers strike, and trumpes blaw,
And made mirth at their might,
Both alblast and many a bow
War ready railed upon a row,
And full frek for to fight.

Gladly they gave meat and drink,
So that they suld the better swink,10
The wight" men that there were.
Sir Philip of France fled for doubt,
And hied him hame with all his rout:
Coward! God Give him care!

For there then had the lily flower
Lorn all halely12 his honoùr,

That so gat fled13 for feard;

Bot our king Edward come full still14
When that he trowed no harm him till,15

And keeped him in the beard.16

ALLITERATIVE VERSE.-PIERS PLOUGHMAN.

It may be observed that Minot's verses are thickly sprinkled with what is called alliteration, or the repetition of words having the same commencing letter, either immediately after one another, or with the intervention only of one or two other words generally unemphatic or of subordinate importance. Alliteration, which we find here combined with rhyme, was in an earlier stage of our poetry employed, more systematically, as the substitute for that decoration-the recurrence, at certain regular intervals, of like beginnings, serving the same purpose which is now accom

1 Believe.
4 Reckoned.

6 Caused.

9 Placed.

11 Stout.

2 Was called.

3 The village of La Flamengrie. Apparently, " arranged richly clad in a row." 7 Tymbals. 8 Arblast, or crossbow.

10 Should the better labour.

12 Lost wholly.

14 Came back quietly at his ease.

13 Got put to flight?

15 When he perceived there was no harm intended him. 16 Perhaps, "kept his beard untouched.”

plished by what Milton has contemptuously called "the jingling sound of like endings." To the English of the period before the Conquest, until its very latest stage, rhyme was unknown, and down to the tenth century our verse appears to have been constructed wholly upon the principle of alliteration. Hence, naturally, even after we had borrowed the practice of rhyme from the French or Romance writers, our poetry retained for a time more or less of its original habit. In Layamon, as we have seen, alliterative and rhyming couplets are intermixed; in other cases, as in Minot, we have the rhyme only pretty liberally bespangled with alliteration. At this date, in fact, the difficulty probably would have been to avoid alliteration in writing verse; all the old customary phraseologies of poetry had been moulded upon that principle; and indeed alliterative expression has in every age, and in many other languages as well as our own, had a charm for the popular ear, so that it has always largely prevailed in proverbs and other such traditional forms of words, nor is it yet by any means altogether discarded as an occasional embellishment of composition, whether in verse or in prose. But there is one poetical work of the fourteenth century, of considerable extent, and in some respects of remarkable merit, in which the verse is without rhyme, and the system of alliteration is almost as regular as what we have in the poetry of the times before the Conquest. This is the famous Vision of Piers Ploughman, or, as the subject is expressed at full length in the Latin title, Visio Willielmi de Petro Ploughman, that is, The Vision of William concerning Piers or Peter Ploughman. The manuscripts of this poem, which long continued to enjoy a high popularity, are very numerous, and it has also been repeatedly printed: first in 1550, at London, by Robert Crowley, "dwelling in Elye rentes in Holburne," who appears to have produced three successive impressions of it in the same year; again in 1561, by Owen Rogers, "dwellyng neare unto great Saint Bartelmewes gate, at the sygne of the Spred Egle;" next in 1813, under the superintendence of the late Thomas Dunham Whitaker, LL.D.; lastly, in 1842, under the care of Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., &c.

Of the author of Piers Ploughman scarcely anything is known. He has commonly been called Robert Langland: but there are grounds for believing that his Christian name was William, and it is probable that it is himself of whom he speaks under that name throughout his work. He is supposed to have been a monk, and he seems to have resided in the West of England, near the Malvern Hills, where he introduces himself at the commencement of his poem as falling asleep "on a May

morwenynge," and entering upon his dreams or visions. The date may be pretty nearly fixed. In one place there is an allusion to the treaty of Bretigny made with France in 1360, and to the military disasters of the previous year which led to it; in another passage mention is made of a remarkable tempest which occurred on the 15th of January, 1362, as of a recent event. "It is probable," to quote Mr. Wright, "that the poem of Piers Ploughman was composed in the latter part of this year, when the effects of the great wind were fresh in people's memory, and when the treaty of Bretigny had become a subject of popular discontent."* We may assume, at least, that it was in

hand at this time.

We cannot attempt an analysis of the work. It consists, in Mr. Wright's edition, where the long line of the other editions is divided into two, of 14,696 verses, distributed into twenty sections, or Passus as they are called. Each passus forms, or professes to form, a separate vision; and so inartificial or confused is the connection of the several parts of the composition (notwithstanding Dr. Whitaker's notion that it had in his edition "for the first time been shown that it was written after a regular and consistent plan "), that it may be regarded as being in reality not so much one poem as a succession of poems. The general subject may be said to be the same with that of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the exposition of the impediments and temptations which beset the crusade of this our mortal life; and the method, too, like Bunyan's, is the allegorical; but the spirit of the poetry is not so much picturesque, or even descriptive, 'as satirical. Vices and abuses of all sorts come in for their share of the exposure and invective; but the main attack throughout is directed against the corruptions of the church, and the hypocrisy and worldliness, the ignorance, indolence, and sensuality, of the ecclesiastical order. To this favourite theme the author constantly returns with new affection and sharper zest from any less high matter which he may occasionally take up. Hence it has been commonly assumed that he must have himself belonged to the ecclesiastical profession, that he was probably a priest or monk. And his Vision has been regarded not only as mainly a religious poem, but as almost a puritanical and Protestant work, although produced nearly two centuries before either Protestanism or Puritanism was ever heard of. In this notion, as we have seen, it was brought into such repute at the time of the Reformation that three editions of it were printed in one year. There is nothing, however, of anti-Romanism, properly * Introduction, p. xii,