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beams upon crag and tree; and even the dark forest of pines, and the bare surface of the rock, seemed to smile in its radiance. The dogs soon roused a gallant buck from his green retreat: he bounded rapidly before them; and away swept the whole train, spurning the earth beneath their feet, awakening the echoes of the distant hills, and making the valleys ring with the sound of hoof and horn. Every heart was inspired with joy, save that which beat in Leuthold's aching breast. He almost envied the fate of the stag, so vainly flying before him, and so speedily destined to sink beneath the fury of his assailants; for, though all other ills might have been borne by a soldier and a knight, the loss of Adriana, the worshipped object of his soul's idolatry, was a misfortune which no fortitude could withstand, no time could assuage. He was miserable, and for ever.

the state of his companion's affairs, the Lord of Carlstrad's artful questions soon drew a very important piece of information from the unsuspecting knight. He had borrowed money from Amos Golshen, a rich Jew of Stockholm. The next day Xavier despatched a confidential messenger to this man, whose persuasions wrought upon the Israelite to persecute his unhappy creditor for payment. Reports of Leuthold's debts, extravagance, and, what was still more disgraceful, his want of means, were industriously disseminated|| throughout the neighbouring castles. His vassals and servants, too, who had hitherto borne their hard lot with patience, began to murmur at the privations which they were obliged to endure; and Koningsfeldt was not slow to perceive a change in the deportment of his acquaintance and dependents. He was either entirely shunned, or coldly regarded by the former, and the majority of the latter neglected his "The wearied animal, now slackening commands. His hawks were suffered to his speed, was driven against a rocky bargrow wild, his hounds were unfed, and his rier, whence there was no escape. He horses unhandsomely caparisoned. turned, and made a desperate stand at bay; "In the midst of these vexations, the|| the dogs fell mangled around him; and Count of Carlstrad offered to become the || Leuthold, first taking an interest in the purchaser of the Koningsfeldt estate. chase, sprang forward, fronted the enraged Leuthold would gladly have put off the brute, and plunged his javelin into his evil day which should see him bereft of the heart. The buck fell amid the clamorous last relique of his ancestral dominions; but shouts of the whole field. Koningsfeldt, the pretended friend so strongly urged the in gazing upon the prostrate monarch of necessity of upholding his character and the wood, so lately cropping the dewy honour at any sacrifice, and the unfeeling || grass or reposing in safety in his lair, felt taunts of the Jew chafed his lofty spirit so all his melancholy reflections revive; and grievously, that he consented, with infinite just as he was withdrawing his eyes from anguish, to the only means which were left a spectacle which grieved him, he observed to avoid reproach. A day was appointed a strange appearance upon the antlers. for the purchase, and Xavier, hardly con- || He stooped to examine them more closely: cealing his joy, kept close to his victim, in- they were covered with an ochreous inspired with a vague fear that there might crustation, and he needed no other evibe a possibility of his meeting with succour dence to assure him of the existence of a in his adversity. Refining upon cruelty, copper mine, whose rich ore, hitherto conhe proposed that the Count should take a cealed under a flinty soil, would exalt him farewell of his lands by hunting over them at once to a proud equality with the most on the last day in which he could call them powerful and wealthy noble of the land. his own. The plan was extremely repug- He imparted the discovery to his comnant to Leuthold's feelings: but the more panions. Cries of Long live Leuthold! anxiously he declined it, the more eager joy to the house of Koningsfeldt!' prowas his tormentor to induce him to con- ceeded from every lip excepting Xavier's. sent. Weary with fruitless contention, he He retired to Carlstrad, unable to conconceded the point, and prepared for the ceal his disappointment; whilst the buck, chase with a heavy heart. The day was wreathed and crowned with oaken garremarkably fine; the sun threw its brightest lands, was carried in triumph to the

Count's ancestral: hall. Leuthold flew with the intelligence to the castle of Stalhohenberg, secured the hand of Adriana by her own promise, and the consent of her father; and on the first day in which the toils of the labourer revealed the treasures of the mine, their nuptials were solemnized with a splendour which still forms a theme for conversation with the inhabitants of the neighbouring hamlets.

"The pictures of Leuthold and his fair consort hang in the great banqueting hall, together with a numerous progeny of their lineal descendants. There are tales connected with their old portraits which might serve to beguile an idle hour, and at some not very distant period I will, with your leave, resume the chronicle of the house of Koningsfeldt."

ENGLAND'S ANCIENT BARD S.-No. III.

ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER.

tory, and in Ellis's Specimens; but it is selected on the present occasion, as not only affording a fair specimen of the poet's versification, but also as exhibiting, no doubt, a picture of the manners of the times, transferred to the more distant period of which the writer is speaking; viz.the coronation of King Arthur. I have adopted the modernized orthography of Ellis.

"The king was to his palace, tho(a) the

service was y-do,

Y-lad with his menye,(b) and the queen to her's also,

men were

there.

Tho hi were each one y-set, as it to her (e)

THIS poet of the olden time was a monk of the abbey of Gloucester, whence he took his name. Born in the year 1230, he lived in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I.; || but the time of his death is uncertain. Little is known of his history, which is enveloped in the obscurity of the age. He wrote a rhyming Chronicle of the History|| of England," clothing the fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth in rhyme, which have often a more poetical air in Geoffrey's prose." The language is obscure; and, as Warton observes, abounds in Saxonisms: a circumstance to be accounted for from his" employing the vulgar language as he For hii(c) held the old usages, that men with found it, without any attempt at embellishment or refinement," as he wrote for the By hem (d) selve, and women by hem selve also use of his illiterate countrymen, whom he wished to render more familiar with the records of their ancient state, of the authentieity of which, most likely, he entertained no doubt. This poem was probably writ ten in or about the year 1280; it furnishes internal evidence that it was penned subsequently to 1278, as in that year a splendid tomb was erected for the British King Arthur, before the high altar in Glastonbury church, which the poet mentions, and which, therefore, we may presume he had seen. It contains a history of the first crusade a subject likely to make his work popular in the martial age of Edward I.; and when a Prince filled the throne, who had rendered himself conspicuous for his valour, and gained high fame by his magnanimity displayed in the Holy Land. I quote a specimen of our monk's poetry; it has already appeared in Warton's His- ||

state become,

Kay, King of Anjou, a thousand knights
vome(f)

Of noble men y-clothed in ermine each one
of one suit,(8) and served at this noble feast

anon.

Bedwer, the butler, King of Normandy,
Nom also in his half,(h) a fair companye
Of one suit, for to serve of the buttery.
Before the queen it was also of all such
courtesy.

(a) When; this word also sometimes means then, and the sense it is to be taken in must be determined by the context. It never means though, which was anciently written they or thogh. (b) Attendants. (c) They. (d) Them. (e) Their. It was an ancient custom to place the men and women separate at festivals. (f) Took, (8) In the same (h) On his behalf, or on his part. :

dress.

"For to tell of all the nobleye(1) that there || obtaining the object of his wishes. Yet

was y-do,

Though my tongue were of steel, me should

nought dure(j) thereto.

Women, ne kept of(k) no knight as in druery,(') But (kk) he were in arms well y-proved, and at least thrye.(")

That made, lo, the women the chaster life lead,

And the knights the stalurrder,(TM) and the better in her deed.

this was not altogether an age of darkness: learning was beginning to emerge from that obscurity into which the triumphs of the barbarians who overran the western empire had cast it: most of the pure and mathematical sciences were cultivated; many of the useful, and some of the fine, arts had attained to a great degree of eminence; several schools and colleges were

Soon after this noble meat,(n) as right was of founded; and a number of learned men

such tide,

The knights atyled(0) hem about, in each side,
In fields and in meads to prove her bachelry,(P)
Some with lame, some with sword, without
villany :(9)

With playing at tables, other() at chekere,(s)
With casting, other with setting,(t) other in some
ogyit(u) manere.

And which-so of any game had the mastery,
The king hem of his gifts did large courtesy.
Up the alues(v) of the castles the ladies then
stood,

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And beheld this noble game, and which knights was Peter Langtoft, who, like Robert, was

were good.

All the three hent(w) days y-last this nobleye,
In halls, and in fields, of meat, and else of play.
These men came the fourth day before the

kyng there,

And he gave hem large gifts, ever as hii worth

were.

Bishopricks and churches, clerks he gave

some,

And castles and towns, knights, that were y-come."

The poet does not appear to any very great disadvantage in this extract, when we consider the time in which he lived, and the little assistance which genius could then receive from any adventitious aid; he, who sought to cultivate his intellectual attainments, being completely thrown upon his own resources, and compelled to look only to his own powers for the means of

of the clerical order; as, indeed, were most men of learning in those days. Amongst the laity, a very considerable dissoluteness of manners appears to have prevailed; oc✶ casioned, most probably, by the civil strifes and contentions which disgraced great part of the thirteenth century. A contempo rary historian* says "In these five years past there have been so many battles, both by land and sea, so much slaughter and destruction of the people of England, so many devastations, plunderings, robberies, and treasons, that the nation has lost all thefts, sacrileges, perjuries, treacheries, sense of distinction between right and wrong, virtue and vice. In a word, such has been the insignificancy of the laws, through the weakness of the King, that every one did whatever seemed good in his own eyes." This was in the reign of Henry III., and this state of things was certainly unfavourable to the cultivation of literature or the polite arts. › Robbery also prevailed, and the administration of justice was so corrupt, that we read of several judges being tried, and fined in large sums, for malpractices in their office. It is true (P) Knighthood. (4) Meanness. (†) Or. (s) Chess. (t) Per- the clergy were no less dissolute than the haps different methods of playing chess: orlaity; but then they led a more secluded it may mean tric-trae, or back-gammon.life, and whilst their profession compelled (u) Other.

(i) Noble feats. (3) Endure. (k) Took no account of. (1) Some interpret this word modesty, decorum (see Wharton); others gallantry (see Ellis). It would seem here to have the latter signification, as applied to feats of arms, and not to behaviour to females. (kk) Unless (") Thrice. (m) Bolder. (n) Feast. (0) Prepared or armed.

battlements.

(*) The walks on the castle
(w) Highest, or feast-days.:

Chron. T. Wykes, A. D. 1267.

them to cultivate several branches of learning, they had more leisure to attend to intellectual pursuits than fell to the lot of men who lived more in the world; who carved out their fortunes, and held their estates, and defended their rights, mainly || by the sword; and despised all book-learning as effeminate, and unworthy of a knight and a soldier. Yet there were many redeeming virtues to be found amongst the English people; the common people were, generally, faithful to their superiors; and the higher classes were distinguished by valour and munificence and a splendid hospitality, which atoned for many of their vices. The revival of chivalry, too, by Edward I. did much to improve the manners of the higher orders. This institution was of peculiar use in these almost lawless times: it bound every knight to defend the helpless, and to succour the oppressed; it compelled him to be faithful to his God, and true to his lady-love; and Saint Palaye asserts, with a considerable degree of truth, that" all the heroic virtues which then existed in the several states of Christendom, were the fruits of chivalry.

The diffusion of a chivalrous feeling had the effect, very probably, of creating a taste for those metrical romances, celebrating the heroic deeds, real or fabled, of valiant knights, which were the favourite productions of the thirteenth century. The adventures of Arthur and of Alfred, of Rowland and of Oliver, of Charlemagne and of Alexandre, of Turpin and of Gawaine, and many others, were commemorated in rude verse, and still ruder language: and they formed the delight alike of the noble in his castle, the friar in his cell, and the peasant in his humble cottage.

At the latter end of the reign of Henry|| III. we have a satirical ballad of some merit and humour, written, soon after the battle of Lewes, by one of the adherents of the Earl of Leicester. It has been ingeniously remarked that this ballad probably gave rise to the statute against libels in the year 1275, under the title—“ Against slanderous reports, or tales to cause discord betwixt king and people."

the vein of thought which pervades it. Some of the ideas are very good.

DITTY.

UPON THE UNCERTAINTY OF THIS LIFE, AND
THE APPROACH OF DEATH.

Winter wakeneth all my care;

Now these leaves waxeth bare.

Oft I sigh, and mourne sare,
When it cometh in my thought,
Of this world's joy, how it goth all to nought!

Now it is, and now it n'is,
All so it ne'er n'were(a) I wis:
All go'th, (b) but Godes will:
That many men saith, sooth it is,
All we shall die, though us like ill.(c)
All that grain me groweth green;
Now, it falloweth (d) all ley-dene. (e)
Jesu help, that it be seen, (†)
And shield us from hell,
For I n'ot(g) whither I shall, ne lang here dwell.
The following song is also worth pre-
serving :—

Summer is y-comin in,
Loude sing cuckoo :
Groweth seed,

And bloweth (a) mead,

And spring'th the wood now:
Sing cuckoo !

Ewe bleateth after lamb,
Low'th after calf cow:
Bullock starteth,
Buck verteth, (b)

Merry sing cuckoo !

Cuckoo, cuckoo !
Vell sings thou cuckoo !

Ne swick(c) thou never now.

These specimens might be extended to a much greater length; but the object of noticing these earliest of our poets is not to make a book out of the materials their works afford, but merely to form a connecting link with the following century, which produced some poets of a very high order.

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(a) As if it had never been. (b) Passeth away. (c) Though we may dislike it. (d) Fadeth. (e) Presently. (f) May Jesus help us, in such a way, that his assistance

The lyrical poetry of this period, though may be visible, or manifest to us. (8) Ne

not abundant, furnishes some very agreeable specimens. The following is far from contemptible, either in versification, or in

wot;

i. e., Know not.

(a) Bloometh. (b) Goes to harbour among the fern. (c) Cease.

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"What mole drest me to-day? O patience!
Who would be troubled with these mop-eyed chamber-maids?
There's a whole hair on this side more than t'other,
I am no lady else!""

THE mutations of dress-the fluctuations of manners, habits, and customs-throughout Europe, since George the First swayed the English sceptre, have been nearly as great, though not so important in their consequences, as those of politics.

This position could easily be illustrated. It may not, however, be altogether lost time to go back a little farther-not quite so far, though, as the era of our British ancestors, who, like Adam and Eve, wore the skins of beasts, and painted their bodies to keep themselves warm.

66

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RANDOLPH,

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general wearing of Monmouth or Bewdley caps-we find that people of all ranks and conditions wore hats of all sorts, forms, and sizes, and of all the colours of the rainbow. Some of these hats were "sharpe on the crowne, pearking up like the spire or shaft of a steeple, standyng up a quarter of a yarde above their heades;" others were "broad in the crowne like the battlementes of a house;" now they were "black, now white, now russet, now red, now greene, now yellow, now this, now that, never content with one colour or fashion two daies to an ende;" some of them were

some of sarcenet, some of wool, and, which is more curious, some of a certaine kinde of fine haire." It was not unusual, it seems, to surmount the hat with " a greate bunche of feathers, of divers and sundrie colours.".

Let us take a peep at the "golden days of good Queen Bess ;" and here it will be" of silke, some of velvett, some taffetie, curious to observe, that the complaint was then, as it is now, that there was 66 such a confuse mingle-mangle of apparell,” and suche a preposterous excesse thereof," as every one was permitted to flaunt it out in what apparel" he pleased, or could 'get by any kinde of means;" so that it was very hard to know" who was noble," who was worshipful," who was a gentleman, who was not; for there were those which were "neither of the nobilitie, gentilitie, or yeomanrie, no, nor yet any officer or magistrate in the commonwealth,"› who went "daiely in silkes, velvetts, satens, damaskes, taffeties, and suche like;" notwithstanding that they were both base by birthe, meane by estate, and servile by callyng." This did poor Philip Stubbes (supposed to be a son or brother of John Stubbes, who had his right hand chopped off for writing a satyri- || cal work on Queen Elizabeth's projected marriage with the Duke of Anjou)" coumpt a great confusion, and a general disorder;" and he could not refrain from exclaiming, with characteristic piety," God be merciful unto us!"

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Much more than this, however, we learn from Stubbes's work-" The Anatomie of Abuses." First-notwithstanding Queen Elizabeth passed an act to enforce the No. 7.-Vol. II.

The ruffs, and the doublets, and the hose, and the pantofles, were all tremendous affairs in their way; but our limits will not allow us to describe them. "What a poor unfledged animal," exclaims a contempo rary writer, "does the best accoutred dandy of these degenerate days appear by the side of the exquisite of the sixteenth century, with his spherical hat surmounted by a gallant plume of party-coloured feathers; his neck defended by a broad chevaux de frise of ruff, with its buttresses of starch and wire; his curving sweep of doublet, well padded, pinked and slashed; his damask hosen; his nether-stocks curiously knit with quirks and clocks: his cork-heeled pantofles, embroidered with silk and gold; equipped with his cloak of fine cloth, bordered with gold lace; and armed with rapier and dagger, with silver hilts and velvet scabbards,"

Stubbes was not a whit less severe upon the dandysettes-with their false hair, their perfumes, their nosegays, their rings, their bracelets, their armlets, and their velvet

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