Then unto London1 I did me hie; Of all the land it beareth the prize; "Strawberries ripe!" and "Cherries in the rise!" 2 But, for lack of money, I might not speed. Then to the Cheap3 I gan me drawn,* "Here is Paris thread, the finest in the land;" .6 Then comes me one cried, "Hot sheep's feet!" One cried, "Mackerel !" "Rushes green !"7 another gan greet; One bade me buy a hood to cover my head ; But, for want of money, I might not be sped Then I hied me into East Cheap : One cries, "Ribs of beef, and many a pie !" There was harp, pipe, and minstrelsy: "Yea, by cock!""Nay, by cock!" some began cry; Then into Corn-hill8 anon I yode,9 1 London was formerly a distinct city, encompassed by a wall, which had seven gates. 2 On the branch. 3 Or Cheapside; a busy thoroughfare between St. Paul's and the Poultry, originally a market-place. 4 To draw. 5 An ancient stone, still standing in Cannon St. City; supposed by Camden to have been the central milestone from which the British highroads radiated and the distances on them were reckoned. 7 To lay on the floor. 6 Candlewick or Cannon Street. 8 A crowded street between the Poultry and Leadenhall Street. It was originally a corn-market, and was inhabited in Lydgate's time by clothiers and drapers. 9 Went The Taverner took me by the sleeve; Sir," saith he, "will you our wine assay?” Yet sore a-hungered from thence I yede ;- Then hied I me to Billings-gate;1 "Thou 'scap'st not here," quoth he, "under two-pence ; I list not yet bestow any alms-deed." Thus, lacking money, I could not speed. Then I conveyed me into Kent; Now Jesus, that in Bethlem was bore,3 Save London, and send true lawyers their meed ! * For whoso wants money with them shall not speed. FROM LYDGATE'S TESTAMENT. A MEDIEVAL SCHOOL-BOY. Void of reason; given to wilfulness; Save play or mirthè; strange to spell or read ; For little wroth, to strive with my fellow 6 Whipt. 2 Set. 1 A quay or water-gate on the Thames; now a fish-market. To my betters I did no reverence; Loth to rise; lother to bed at eve; FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY." SUNRISE. When that the rowès 8 and the rayès red 9 The lusty goddess of the morrow gray— Is wont to chase the blackè skyès dun, A GOTHIC CASTLE. Through many a hall, and many a rich tower, 1 Governors. 4 Men's. 2 Force, heed. 5 Rebuked. 7 The two following passages are taken from Warton's Poetry. 8 Streaks of light. 9 According to its habit. 12 Windowed. 11 Stair. 3 Stole. 6 Faults (Fr. tache). 10 Open, display. That shone full sheen with gold and with azure, He hath commanded to his officers, Duly in honour of them that were strangers, THOMAS OCCLEVE. (1370 ?-1454-) ANOTHER young contemporary and disciple of Chaucer was Thomas Occleve, a lawyer in London, and, for twenty years of his life, a writer to the Privy Seal. His works, produced chiefly in the reign of Henry V. (1413-1422), included La Male Regle (the Mis-rule) de T. Hoccleve, some devotional and occasional verses, and an English version of a Latin treatise of Egidius, a Roman writer of 1250, called De Regimine Principum (on the Art of Governing). In the Prologue this poem occur some pathetic verses upon the death of Chaucer, written probably soon after the event, and incorporated some years later in the poem. Upon the margin of one of the MSS. of the De Regimine, now in the British Museum, Occleve painted his famous little coloured portrait of Chaucer. Few of Occleve's works have found their way into print. Even the De Regimine, the most important of them, exists only in manuscript; but its author will always hold a place among our early poets on account of his graceful and reverent homage to Chaucer, his "dear master and father." FROM DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM. OCCLEVE'S LAMENT FOR CHAUCER. My dearè master-God his soul acquit !— Despoiled hath this land of the sweetness Was never man so like amongest us. Thou suedest eke: men knowè well enow JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. THIS Scottish prince was educated as a royal prisoner in England through the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V. During his captivity he was an enthusiastic student of poetry, and at length himself produced one of the most graceful poems that exist in old English. The King's Quhair (King's Book) is written in the seven-lined stanza of Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide. The main incident of the Quhair is nearly identical with that of Chaucer's Knight's Tale, where the captive youths discover Emilie walking in the prison garden. It may have been that Chaucer's story, which was in its turn a reproduction of the Teseide of Boccaccio, together with the similarity, in some points, of his own fate to that of Palamon and Arcite, suggested to the young king the plot of the Quhair. The common story is, however, that the Beauty of James's prison-garden was the Lady Jane Beaufort, first cousin of Henry V., who became eventually Queen of Scot 1 Cicero. 2 Equal to. 3 Followedst also. 4 Encumbrance of the world, i.e. Death. 5 Slain. 7 Bereave. 8 Must needs do according to her office. 6 Hasty. |