That no man he fo bold, prieft ne clerk,
Me to disturb of Chrift's holy werke;
And after that I tell forth my tales,
Of bulls, of popes, and of cardinales,
Of patriarkes, and of bishops I fhew;
And in Latin I fpeake wordes a few,
To faver with my predication,

And for to flere men to devotion.
Then fhew forth my long christall stones,
Ycrammed full of clouts and of bones;
Relicks they been, as were they, echone!
Then have I, in Latin a fhoder-bone,
Which that was of an holy jewes fhepe.
Good men, fay, take of my words kepe!
If this bone be wahen in any well,
If cow, or calfe, fhepe, or oxe fwell
That any worm hath eaten, or hem ftrong,
Take water of this well, and wash his tong,
And it is hole a-non: And furthermore,
Of pockes, and fcabs, and every fore
Shall thepe be hole, that of this well
Drinketh a draught: Take keep of that I tell!
If that the good man, that beafts oweth,
Woll every day, ere the cocke croweth,
Fafting drink of this well, a draught,
(As thilk holy Jew our elders taught)
His beafts and his store fhall multiplie :
And firs, alfo it healeth jealoufie,
For, though a man be fall in jealous rage,
Let make with this Water his potage,
And never shall he more his wife miftrift,
Thughe, in footh, the default by her wift:
Al had the taken priests two or three!
Here is a mittaine eke, that ye may
He that has his hand well put in this mittaine;
He shall have multiplying of his graine,
When he hath fowen, be it wheat or otes;
So that he offer good pens or grotes !

fee.

Thofe

Those who would prefer the thoughts of this father of English poetry, in a modern drefs, are referred to the elegant verfions of him, by Dryden, Pope, and others, who have done ample juftice to their illuftrious predeceffor.

LANGLA N D.

T has been difputed amongst the critics whether this poet preceded or followed Chaucer. But we are rather inclined to believe that he was cotemporary with him, and our conjecture is ftrengthened by the confideration of his ftile, which is equally unmufical and obfolete with Chaucer's; and though Dryden has told us that the latter exceeded those who followed him at 50 or 60 years distance, in point of smoothness, yet with great fubmiffion to his judgment, we think there is fome alteration even in Skelton and Harding, which will appear, to the reader, to the best advantage, by a quotation.

Of Langland's family we have no account. Selden in his notes on Draiton's Poly-Olbion, quotes him with honour; but he is entirely neglected by Philips and Winftanly, tho' he feems to have been a man of great genius: Befides Chaucer, few poets in that or the fubfequent age had more real inspiration or poetical enthufiafin in their compofitions. One cannot read the works of this author, or Chaucer, without lamenting the unhappiness of a fluctuating language, that buries in its ruins even genius itself; for like edifices of fand, every breath of time defaces it, and if the form

form remain, the beauty is loft. The piece from which I fhall quote a few lines, is a work of great length and labour, of the allegoric kind; it is animated with a lively and luxurious imagination; pointed with a variety of pungent fatire; and dignified with many excellent leffons of morality; but as to the conduct of the whole, it does not appear to be of a piece; every vifion feems a diftinct rhapsody, and does not carry on either one fingle action or a feries of actions. But we ought rather to wonder at its beau ties than cavil at its defects; and if the poetical defign is broken, the moral is entire, which is uniformly the advancement of piety, and reformation of the Roman clergy. The piece before us is entitled the Vifion of Piers the Ploughman, and I fhall quote that particular part which feems to have furnished a hint to Milton in his Paradife Loft, b. 2.1. 475.

Kinde Confcience tho' heard, and came out of the planets,

And fent forth his forrioues, fevers, and fluxes,
Coughes, and cardicales, crampes and tooth-
aches,

Reums, and ragondes, and raynous fcalles,
Byles, and blothes, and burning agues,
Frenefes, and foul euyl, foragers of Kinde!

There was harrow! and help! here cometh Kinde
With death that's dreadful, to undone us all
Age the hoore, he was in vaw-ward

And bare the baner before death, by right he it claymed!

Kinde came after, with many kene fores,
As pockes, and peftilences, and much purple
fhent;

So Kinde, through corruptions killed full many:
Death came driving after, and all to dust pashed
Kyngs and bagaars, knights and popes.

MILTON,

MILTON.

-Immediately a place

Before his eyes appear'd, fad noifom, dark,
A lazar-house it feem'd; wherein were laid ·
Numbers of all difeafed: all maladies
Of ghaftly fpafm, or racking torture, qualms
Of heartfick agony, all fev'rous kinds,
Convulfions, epilepfies, fierce catarrhs,
Inteftine ftone and ulcer, cholic pangs,
Demoniac phrenzy, moping melancholy,
And moon-ftruck madnefs, pining atrophy,
Marafmus, and wide-wafting peftilence,
Dropfies and afthmas, and joint-racking rheums;,
Dire was the toffing! deep the groans! defpair
Tended the fick, bufieft from couch to couch:
And over them, triumphant death his dart
Shook. P. L. b. xi. 1. 477.

F

JOHN GOWER

Lourished in the reign of Edward III, and Richard II. He was cotemporary with Chaucer, and much efteemed and honoured by him, as appears by his fubmitting his Troilus and Creffida to his cenfure. Tho' generally ftiled Sir John Gower, yet Stow, in his Survey of London, feems to be of opinion that he was no knight, but only an efquire; however, it is certain he was defcended of a knightly family, at Sittenham in Yorkshire. He received his education in London, and ftudied the law, but being poffeffed of a great fortune, he dedi

cated

cated himself more to pleasure and poetry than the bar; tho' he feems not to have made any great proficiency in poetry, for his works are rather cool. tranflations, than originals, and want poetical file. Bale makes him Equitem Auratum & Poetam Laureatum, but Winftanly fays, that he was neither laureated nor hederated, but only rofated, having a chaplet of four rofes about his head in his monumental ftone erected in St Mary Overy's, Southwark: He was held in great efteem by King Richard II, to whom he dedicates a book called Confeffio Amantis. That he was, however, a time-ferver, appears by his behaviour when the revolution under Henry IV happened in England. He was under the higheft obligations to Richard II; had been preferred, and honoured by him; yet no fooner did that unhappy prince (who owed his misfortunes in a great meafure to his generofity and eafinefs of nature (fall a facrifice to the policy of Henry, and the rage of rebellion, but he worshipped the Rifing Sun, joined his intereft with the new king, and, though he was then totally blind, and, as might naturally be imagined, too old to defire either riches or power, yet he was capable of the groffeft flattery to the reigning prince, and ungratefully infulted the memory of his late fovereign and generous patron. He furvived Chaucer two years. Winftanly fays, that in his old age he was made a judge, poffibly in confequence of his adulation of Henry IV. His death happened in the year 1402, and as he is faid to have been born fome Years before Chaucer, so he must have been near fourfcore years of age: He was buried in St. Mary Overy's in Southwark, in the chapel of St. John, where he founded a chauntry, and left money for a Mafs to be daily fung for him, as alfo an obit within the church to be kept on Friday after the feaft of St. Gregory. He lies under a tomb of stone, with his image alfo of ftone over him; the hair of his head auburn, long to his fhoulders, but curling up,

and