fhould be DRYGHTE, Sax. lord, i. e. anno domini. Before every Vision the manner and circumstances of his falling asleep, are diftinctly defcribed; before one of them, in particular, Pierce Plowman, is fupposed, with equal humour and fatire, to fall asleep, while he is bidding his beads. In the course of the poem, the fatire is carried on by means of feveral allegoric perfonages, fuch as Mede, Simony, Confcience, Sloth, &c. The learned Selden * mentions this author with honour. Drayton, in his Legend of Cromwell, has modernised a humourous paffage from him; and by Hickes he is frequently stiled, Celeberrimus ille fatyrographus, morum vindex acerrimus, &c. Leland feems to have confounded this poem with Chaucer's Plowman's Tale. Speaking of two editions of Chaucer, he adds, "Sed Petri Aratoris Fabula, quæ communi doctorum confenfu Chaucero, tanquam vero parenti, attribuitur, in utraque editione, quia malos facerdotum mores vehementer increpavit, fuppreffa eft+." Chaucer indeed, in the Plowman's Tale feems to have copied from our author. There is another poem, entitled, PIERCE THE PLOUGHMAN'S CREDE, intirely different from the VISIONS OF PIERCE PLOUGHMAN, though written in the fame fort of verfe and language. Hearne men *Notes on Polyolb. f. 11. VOL. II. + Comment, de Script. Brit. c. 55. Ff tions tions an edition of the Crede, London, R. Wolfe, 1553," 4to. in four sheets *. But I have feen this Crede annexed to Owen Rogers's edition of Pierce Plowman's Vifions, 1561, Feb. 21, 4to. is sometimes found without the Crede. the Crede: This edition Beginning of Cros and Curteis Chrift this beginning fpede. It contains a curious description of the stateliness of a monastery, which the author visits †, part of which is cited above. Some other fatyrical pieces on the Religious, before the reformation, bear the adopted name of PIERCE THE PLOUGHMAN. Stowe, an annotator on Chaucer, and in general accurate in these matters, has thought it worth recording in his Hiftory of England, that, "In the 66 yeere 1342, John Malvern, fellow of Oriell col"lege in Oxford, made and finished his book, en"titled, The Vifions of Pierce Ploughman ‡." But it could not be written or published fo early, as appears from the paffage quoted in the beginning of this note. With regard to which, Bale § fays, that this work was finished, 1369, when John Chichester was Mayor of * G. Neubrig, Spicil. &c. vol. 3. p. 770. 、 + Pag. 4. § Ubi fupr. London London. But Hearne obferves *, that there were two dear years, in which Chichester was Mayor of London, viz, 1350, and 1370. What may throw fome further light on the time in which our author lived and wrote, is, that Oriel college was not founded 'till the year 1324, or 26, of which he was a fellow. B. v. c. ix. f. xxxv. The horses of the fon, Towards the western BRIM begin to draw. BRIM is often used for margin or bank of a stream by our author, and the old poets. Alfo by Milton, in Comus, By dimpled brook, or fountain-BRIM †. Fountain-BRIM feems to have been a common expreffion. It is used by Drayton : Sporting with Hebe by a fountain-BRIM‡. And in Warner's Albion's England, As this fame fond felfe-pleafing youth ftood at a FOUNTAYNE-BRIM ||. We have ocean-BRIM in the Paradife-loft, With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean-BRIM *. B. v. c. x. f. xxix. And for more horror, and more crueltie, An hideous monster doth in darkness lie, We are apt to conceive fomething very wonderful of those mysterious things which are thus faid to be unknown to us, and to be out of the reach and compafs of man's knowledge and apprehenfion. Thus a cave is faid to be, A dreadfull depth, how deepe no man can tell. 5. 9. 6. If the poet had limited the depth of this cave to a very great, but to a certain number of fathoms, the fancy could ftill have fuppofed and added more; but, as no determinate measure is affigned, our imagination is left at liberty to exert its utmost arbitrary ftretch, to add fathom to fathom, and depth to depth, till it is loft in it's own attempt to grafp the idea of that which is unbounded or infinite. Omne ignotum pro MAGNIFICO eft, fays Tacitus, fomewhere; a writer of the strongest imagination. From a Concealment of this kind arifes the Sublime, in the following passage. There Merlin ftay'd, As overcommen of the spirits powre, That fecretlie he faw, yet n' ote difcoure. This is finely heightened by the confternation of the beholders. Which fuddein fitt, and half extatick ftoure 3. 3. 49. Here is a ftriking inftance of the force of additional figures. The whole is a fine subject for a picture. B. v. c. x. f. xxxiii. His corfe, Which tumbling downe upon the SENSELESSE ground. It should rather be " tumbling SENSELESSE downe." We have the fame metathetical form again : But as he lay upon the humbled grass. 6. 7. 26. Where humbled should be made to agree with he rather than with grass. B. v. |