These few lines will he sufficient to show" ffivlc is noV w^hgut
merit j.tiiey -haVe^^^^l^much cffi-f||:Karinom- which had,been introduced
by Chaucer dnt|f;5hSkEng]iSh_‘p"oetry. But thp, subj ects he chose were not
very'favourable for .the,exhibition. of poetic, talent; and he lias top muelftof
the flatness ' which characterises -the-wiriiangs; of Lydgate^1 Tl^^pit^*;dfi“4his
period' were much overrated!by the poets the, sixteeuthy c^ntinw^ ftven
as early as the beginning ofTt^e seventeenth; the pastoral poet Browse, who-in
one~o£ his elegies borrows a story <^Qct|eve^ speaks'hf, th;S!pldeMp,oet in'the
following elegant lines!-;;
“”WeLT wot. the man that first
Sung this lay", did quenche his th irst, .
Deeply as did^ever one
In the Muses HeEoon.
Many timesthe hath -been scene '
"With the faeries' on tKe^greene;;, -; ',
And to theiR-his p ip ft^ d fgm n d . ■'
As they danced in a round; 1 "
Mickle solace would fhey make himjv
And at' midnight -often wake him,
And convey him from his foome- -
Tola fielde of yellow-broome,
Or into the medowes1 where
Mints perftune thc.gehtie hire,
And where Flora spreads her treasirk!|&
There they would begin measur^* |
I f it chanced nig^j£$jk&ble shrowds. ™
Muffled Cynthia up m clowds^
Safely home they then WOifici see him.
And firom hrakes and quagmires free him.
There areTew suck'swaines as he
How-a-dayesforharmotiie.”'-
Ocdeve’s chief work was a metrical version of rt^^^rsrtedT^reamse o ^ g p in s,
Be Regimine Pnncipum, a work on the education and-government o^pjance*;
which be dedicated to prince Henry, Many of dgA- minpr pfems ares f«?und
scattered through different manuscripts. , , : ^ .
Our initial letter is taken from the same MS.-which furnished thefsubject
for the plate.