Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

In fret-wise couched with pearlis white,
And greate balas lemyng as the fire,
With many an emerant and fair sapphìre,
And on her head a chaplet fresh of hue
Of plumys, parted red, and white, and blue.

XXVIII.

Full of quaking spangis 3 bright as gold,
Forged of shape like to the amorettis ;
So new, so fresh, so pleasant to behold;
The plumis eke like to the floure-jonettis, 5
And other of shape like to the floure-jonettis;•
And above all this there was, well I wote,
Beauty enough to make a world to dote !

XXIX.

About her neck, white as the fyre amaille,7
A goodly chain of small orfeverye;8
Whereby there hang a ruby without fail,
Like to an heart [y-] shapen verily,
That as a spark of lowe, so wantonly

'A sort of precious stones (says Urry) brought from Balassia, in India. Tyrwhitt says, the balais Fr. is a sert of bastard ruby. 3 Spangles.

[ocr errors]

Shining.

4 "Made in the form of a love-knot or garland." (Tytler.) 5 Probably the fleur de genêt, (genista) broom.

The repetition of this word is apparently a mistake of

the original transcriber.

7 Qu. Is this an error for fair email, i. e. enamel ?

Fr. Goldsmith's-work. • Fire. (Ruddiman's Glossary.)

Seemed burning upon her white throat:
Now gif there was good party, God it wote.

XXX.

And for to walk, that freshe Maye's morrow,
An hook she had upon her tissue white,
That goodlier had not been seen to-forrow,

2

1

As I suppose; and girt she was a lyte;' Thus halfling loose for haste, to such delight It was to see her youth in goodlihead, That, for rudeness, to speak thereof I dread.

XXXI.

In her was youth, beauty, with humble aport,
Bounty, richess, and womanly feature;
God better wote than my pen can report:
Wisdom, largèss, estate, and cunning sure,
In every point so guided her measure,
In word, in deed, in shape, in countenance,
That Nature might no more her child avance.

It would, perhaps, be difficult to select even from Chaucer's most finished works a long specimen of descriptive poetry so uniformly elegant as this: indeed some of the verses are so highly

[blocks in formation]

finished, that they would not disfigure the compositions of Dryden, Pope, or Gray. Nor was King James's talent confined to serious and pathetic compositions. Two poems of a ludicrous cast, and which have been the constant favourites of the Scotish people to the present day, are now universally attributed to this monarch. These are Christ's Kirk on the Green, and Peblis to the Play; the first composed in the northern, and the second in the southern dialect of Scotland. A third, called Falkland on the Green, which Mr. Pinkerton supposes to have described the popular sports of the central district of the kingdom, and to have been written in the Fifeshire dialect, has hitherto eluded the researches of antiquaries. In Mr. Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems (London, 1786, p. 214) is found a Song on Absence, which the editor suspects to be the same described by Major, as beginning with the words Yas sen &c.

Of the King's Quair only one MS. is known to exist it is a small folio, in the Bodleian library (Seld. Archiv. B. xxiv.). Mr. Tytler, having procured a transcript of this MS. published it at Edinburgh, 1783, together with Christ's Kirk on the Green, under the title of "Poetical Remains of James I." The work is illustrated with copious notes, and with two dissertations; the first on the

life and writings of the author, and the second on Scotish music.

A strange fatality seems to have attended the literature of this period. It has been just observed that King James's work was lately recovered by the casual preservation of a single manuscript. His contemporary, CHARLES DUKE OF ORLEANS, father of Louis XII. is still very imperfectly known to the public by means of some short specimens of his poetry given in the Annales Poetiques (Paris, 1778), and of a few more published in M. de Paulmy's Mélanges d'une grande Bibliotheque.

It is singular enough, that the two best poets of the age, both of royal blood, both prisoners at the same court, both distinguished by their military as well as literary talents, both admired during their lives, and regretted after death, as the brightest ornaments of their respective nations, should have been forgotten by the world during more than three centuries, and at length restored to their reputation at the same period. The Duke of Orleans, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, acquired such a proficiency in our language, during a stay of twenty years in this country, as to write several small pieces of English poetry, which are said to be still preserved in MS. in the Royal Library at Paris. These may possibly not

be worth transcribing; but, whatever be their poetical merit, they may fairly be adduced as a

Mr. Ritson has printed (page 47 of his Dissertation on Ancient Songs and Music, prefixed to his Ancient Songs, London, 1792) a specimen of this prince's English poetry, copied from No. 682 of the Harleian MSS. It is a dialogue between a lover and his mistress, but, being founded on a strange sort of pun or play on words, it is very obscure, and apparently not worth unriddling.

Another MS. in the Museum (Bibl. Reg. 16. F. ii), solely consisting of poems by the Duke of Orleans, affords three speciments of his attempts at English poetry; and, as they are very short, and never were printed, I shall here subjoin them all, in their original orthography.

CHANSON.

Go forth, my hert, with my lady!
Loke that ye spar no bysynes,1

To serve her with such lolynes
(That 3 ye gette her oftyme1 pryvely)
That she kepe truly her promès.

Go forth, &c.

Iniust as a helis body

Abyde alone in hevynes;

And ye shall dwell with your mastrès

In plaisauns, glad and mery.

Go forth &c.

་ Care, attention.

? If that ?

• Lowliness.

* At any time?

• I cannot understand the word iniust; perhaps it means exactly. Helis is perhaps hele-less, i, e. unhealthy, diseased.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »