compofed for the inftruction of farmers, and their fervants, down to the fwine-herd, were written in Latin; but even the accounts of the expences and profits of farms and dairies were kept in that language. That the Latin of thofe accounts was not claffical, he gives the following inftances from Fleta: • Et pro uno feedcod empto iiid.—Et pro uno cartsadel uno colero cum uno pari tractuum emptis xivd.-Et pro factura de drawgere iiid.-Et pro uno dungecart empto xivd.-Et pro farratione & dolatione unius cartbody vi d.'

Architecture, our author obferves, continued nearly in the fame ftyle with that which was introduced towards the end of the preceding period, and which he has formerly defcribed. Prodigious numbers both of churches and monafteries were built in Britain, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The ftyle was what is commonly called the lighter Gothic, with fome variations. In the thirteenth century were introduced lofty steeples, with fpires and pinnacles. The following paffage accounts for the attention which was paid to the Society of Masons in thofe times.

The opulence of the clergy, and zeal of the laity, furnished ample funds for building fo great a number of magnificent churches, monafteries, and religious houfes, that it was with great difficulty workmen could be procured to execute those pious works. The popes, for very obvious reafons, favoured the erection and endowment of churches and convents; and granted many indulgences, by their bulls, to the fociety of mafons, in order to increase their numbers. These indulgences produced their full effect in thofe fuperftitious times; and that fociety became very numerous, and raifed a prodigious multitude of magnificent churches about this time in feveral countries. "For (as we are told by one who was well acquainted with their history and conftitution) the Italians, with fome Greek refugees, and with them French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a fraternity of architects, procuring papal bulls for their encouragement, and particular privileges; they ftyled themfelves Free-mafons, and ranged from one nation to another, as they found churches to be built, (for very many in those ages were every where in building, through piety or emulation): their government was regular; and where they fixed near the building in hand, they made a camp of huts. A furveyor governed in chief; every tenth man was called a warden, and overlooked each nine. The gentlemen in the neighbourhood, either out of charity or commutation of penance, gave the materials and carriages. Thofe who have seen the accounts in records of the charge of the fabrics of fome of our cathedrals, near four hundred years old, cannot but have a great esteem for their economy, and admire how foon they erected fuch lofty ftructures."

Dr.

Dr. Henry juftly remarks, that the keen pursuit of the philofopher's ftone, in which many ingenious men were at this time engaged, contributed not a little to make them better acquainted with the nature and compofition of metals, and with the arts of compounding, melting, and refining them. Of copper they not only made many useful utenfils, but even ftatues. It appears from an authority cited, that the fum of four hundred pounds was paid, in the year 1395, to Nicolas Broker and Godfrey Preft, citizens of London, coppersmiths, for two ftatues, one of the king, and another of the queen, made of copper, and gilt.

Rude as we confider thofe times, rich and magnificent furniture feems not to have been uncommon.

It is, fays our author, impoffible to perufe the defcription of the gold and filver plate and jewels taken from Piers Gaveston, the unfortunate favourite of Edward II. by the earls of Lancafter and Warwick, without admiring both the quantity and workmanship. Some pieces of the filver plate in that collection are faid to have been worth four times the quantity of filver which they contained. At the triumphant entry of Richard II. and his good queen Anne, into London, A. D. 1392, the ci tizens, befides many other gifts, prefented a crown of gold to the king, and another to the queen, both of great value, at the Fountain in Cheapfide; and when the proceffion had advanced a little further, they prefented a table of gold, with a representation of the Trinity upon it, worth eight hundred pounds, equivalent to eight or ten thousand pounds of our money, to the king; and another table of gold, with the figure of St. Anne upon it, of equal value, to the queen. There is the fullest evidence, that England was very rich in gold and filver plate in this period : for, befides the immenfe maffes of thofe precious metals in the cathedral, conventual, and other churches, made into images, altar-tables veffels and utenfils of various kinds, fome of the nobles had greater quantities of plate than we could imagine. When the palace of the Savoy, belonging to John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, was burnt, with all its rich furniture, in the great infurrection A. D. 1381, the keeper of the duke's wardrobe declared, upon oath, that the filver, filver gilt, and gold plate, in that palace, would have loaded five carts.”

Both fculpture and painting appear to have been greatly cultivated. So fashionable, we are told, was the ftudy of the latter, that it was esteemed as necessary a part of the education of a young gentleman as writing.

The fixth chapter contains the hiftory of commerce, coin, and fhipping, of the period above fpecified. Internal trade was at this time burdened with a variety of taxes and impofitions, which were demanded by every town, and by every baron

through

through whose boundaries traders conveyed their goods, as well as at every place where they expofed them to fale. The foreign trade of England, however, our author is of opinion, was more confiderable and extenfive than is commonly imagined. This he infers from a review of the feveral countries with which the people of England had commercial intercourse, and of the several fovereigns and states with which the kings of England had commercial treaties.

The feventh and laft chapter treats of the manners, vices, remarkable customs, language, drefs, diet, and diverfions. The author has added an Appendix, containing, 1. A copy in Latin of the Magna Charta granted by Henry the Third. 2. A translation of the preceding Magna Charta. 3. A catalogue of provifions, &c. at the installation-feaft, in 1309, of Ralph de Borne, abbot of St. Auftin's Abbey, Canterbury, with their prices. 4. A charter of Henry the Third, in the vulgar English of that time, with a literal translation interlined.

The fame general remarks which were made on the execution of the preceding parts of this work, are equally applicable to the prefent volume; where Dr. Henry continues to discover great industry in researches, and where he has amaffed much hiftorical and antiquarian information, relative to various fubjects which intereft the curiofity of a reader.

The Hiftory of English Poetry. Vol. III. By Thomas Warton, B. D. [Continued from Vol. LI. p. 330.1

IN N the twenty-second section, Mr. Warton introduces to the reader's acquaintance a name that has never before appeared in poetical biography. It is that of Nicholas Grimoald, a native of Huntingdonfhire, who flourished about the middle of the fixteenth century. Our author obferves, that after lord Surrey, he is the fecond English poet who wrote in blank-verse; to which he added new strength, elegance, and modulation. As a writer of verfes in rhyme, it is Mr. Warton's opinion that he yields to none of his contemporaries, for chafteness of expreffion, and the concife elegancies of didactic verfification. In fupport of thofe remarks, the hiftorian adduces feveral specimens, for which we refer our readers to the work.

In fection twenty-third, Mr. Warton gives farther proof of his researches, and accurate examination of the writers fubjected to his view. He obferves that all the poets of the neign of Henry VIII. were not educated in the school of Petrarch.

'The

The graces of the Italian mufe, which had been taught by Surrey and Wyat, were confined to a few. Nor were the beauties of the claffics yet become general objects of imitation. He afterwards delivers an account of the inferior poets of this period. The perfon firft mentioned is Andrew Borde, who, fays Mr. Warton, writes himself ANDREAS PERFORATUS, with as much propriety and as little pedantry as Buchanan calls one Wifehart SoPHOCARDIUS. He was a phyfician, and practifed chiefly in Hampshire. Hearne is of opinion that he gave rife to the name of Merry Andrew, the fool on the mountebank's ftage. He is alfo fuppofed to have compiled or compofed the Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham. Next follow the names of John Bale, promoted to the bishoprick of Offory by king Edward the Sixth; Brian Anflay, or Annesley, yeoman of the wine-cellar to Henry the Eighth; Wilfrid Holme, a gentleman of Huntington in Yorkshire; and a few others. Of the writings of thofe fubordinate poets our author gives an adequate account.

The twenty-fourth fection is occupied with an account of John Heywood, commonly called the epigrammatift, who was favoured and rewarded for his buffooneries by Henry the Eighth; and in the twenty-fifth fection we are prefented with fome juvenile pieces, the very early productions of fir Thomas More, whofe character, without the fame of poetical talents, will always be revered.

In the twenty-fixth fection our author retracts his opinion relative to the date of the Notbrowne Mayde, which he now, on probable reafons, concludes to have been written in the reign of Henry the Eighth, a hundred years later than Prior had fixed its origin. On mature confideration of the subject, Mr. Warton makes the following judicious remarks on the conduct both of the original author and Mr. Prior.

Whoever was the original inventor of this little dramatic dialogue, he has fhewn no common skill in contriving a plan, which powerfully detains our attention, and interests the paffions, by a conftant fucceffion of fufpence and pleafure, of anxiety and fatisfaction. Betwixt hopes perpetually disappointed, and folicitude perpetually relieved, we know not how to determine the event of a debate, in which new difficulties ftill continue to be raised, and are almost as foon removed. In the midst of this viciffitude of feelings, a triking contraft of character is artfully formed, and uniformly fupported, between the feeming unkindnefs and ingratitude of the man, and the unconquerable attachment and fidelity of the woman, whofe amiable compliance unexpectedly defeats every objection, and continually furnishes new matter for our love and compaffion. At length, our fears fubfide

The

in the triumph of fuffering innocence and patient fincerity. man, whose hard fpeeches had given us fo much pain, fuddenly furprises us with a change of fentiment, and becomes equally an object of our admiration and efteem. In the difentanglement of this distressful tale, we are happy to find, that all his cruelty was tenderness, and his inconftancy the most invariable truth; his levity an ingenious artifice, and his perverfity the friendly dif guife of the firmest affection. He is no longer an unfortunate exile, the profligate companion of the thieves and ruffians of the forest, but an opulent earl of Westmoreland; and promifes, that the lady, whe is a baron's daughter, and whofe conftancy he had proved by fuch a series of embarraffing propofals, fhall instantly be made the partner of his riches and honours. Nor should we forget to commend the invention of the poet, in imagining the modes of trying the lady's patience, and in feigning fo many new fituations: which, at the fame time, open a way to defcription, and to a variety of new fcenes and images.

I cannot help obferving here, by the way, that Prior has mifconceived and effentially marred his poet's defign, by foftening the fternness of the man, which could not be intended to admit of any degree of relaxation. Henry's hypocrify is not characteristically nor confiftently fuftained. He frequently talks in too refpectful and complaifant a style. Sometimes he calls Emma my tender maid, and my beauteous Emma; he fondly dwells on the ambrofial plenty of her flowing ringlets gracefully wreathed with variegated ribbands, and expatiates with rapture on the charms of her fnowy bofom, her flender waift, and harmony of fhape. In the ancient poem, the concealed lover never abates his affectation of rigour and referve, nor ever drops an expreffion which may tend to betray any traces of tenderness. He retains his severity to the laft, in order to give force to the conclufion of the piece, and to heighten the effect of the final declaration of his love. Thus, by diminishing the oppofition of interefts, and by giving too great a degree of uniformity to both characters, the diftrefs is in fome meafure deftroyed by Prior. For this reafon, Henry, during the courfe of the dialogue, is lefs an object of our averfion, and Emma of our pity. But thefe are the un avoidable confequences of Prior's plan, who prefuppofes a long connection between the lovers, which is attended with the warmeft profeffions of a reciprocal paffion. Yet this very plan fuggefted another reafon, why Prior fhould have more clofely copied the cast of his original. After fo many mutual promifes and proteftations, to have made Henry more obdurate, would have enhanced the fufferings and the fincerity of the amiable Emma.'

Mr. Warton thinks it probable, that the metrical romances of Richard Cœur de Lyon, Guy Earl of Warwick, and Syr Bevys of Southampton, were modernifed in the reign of Henry VIII. from more ancient and fimple narratives. Among the poetry VOL. LII. July, 1781. C

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