ROBERTE.

Oh! I coulde waile mie kynge-coppe-decked mees,
Mie spreedynge flockes of shepe of lillie white,
Mie tendre applynges,* and embodyde trees,
Mie parker's grange, far spreedynge to the
syghte,

Mie cuyen kyne, mie bullockes stringe yn fyghte,
Mie gorne emblaunched with the comfreie

plante,

[lyghte, Mie floure Seyncte Marie shotteyng wythe the Mie store of all the blessynges Heaven can grant. I amm duressed unto sorrowes blowe, [flowe. Ihantend to the peyne, will lette ne salte teare

RAUFE.

Here I wille obaiet untylle dethe doe 'pere,
Here lyche a foule empoysoned leathel tree,
Whyche sleaeth everichone that cometh nere,
Soe wille I fyxed unto thys place gre.

I to bement haveth more cause than thee;
Sleene in the warre mie boolie fadre lies;
Oh! joieous I hys mortherer would slea,
And bie hys syde for aie enclose myne eies.

*Mr. Tyrwhitt asserts that this word is not to be found elsewhere.

+ This word is explained, as Chatterton has interpreted it, by Kersey and Speght. But the compiler of Gloss. Ur. has observed, that obay, in the single passage of Chaucer, in which it occurs C. T. ver. 12034. is a misprint, and should be abeye, as it is printed in the last edition from the best MSS. The inference is plain enough, from whence the author of the poem got his word obaie, with its interpretation. Tyrwhitt.

M 2

Calked from evrych joie, heere wylle I blede : Fell ys the Cullys-yatte of mie hartes castle stede.

ROBERTE.

Oure woes alyche, alyche our dome shal bee.
Mie sonne, mie sonne alleyn,† ystorven ys;
Here wylle I staie, and end mie lyff with thee;
A lyff lyche myne a borden ys ywis.
Now from een logges fledden is selyness,
Mynsterres alleyn can boaste the hallie seyncte;
Now doeth Englonde weare a bloudie dresse‡
And wyth her champyonnes gore her face de-
peyncte;

Peace fledde, disorder sheweth her dark rode,
And thorow ayre doth flie, yn garments steyned
with bloude.

*This word appears to have been formed upon a misapprehension of the following article in Skinner: "Calked, exp. cast, credo, cast up." Chatterton did not attend to the difference be tween casting out, and casting up, i. e. casting up figures in calculation. That the latter was Skinner's meaning may be collected from the next article. "Calked for calculated. Ch. the Frankeleynes tale." It is probable too, I think, that in both articles Skinner refers, by mistake, to a line of the Frankeleins Tale, which, in the common editions, stands thus :-" Full subtelly he had calked al this," where calked is a mere misprint for calculed, the reading of the MSS. Tyrwhitt.

† Alone is never used for only; solus for unicus; seul for unique. The distinction I believe subsists in most languages. If the learned persons do not yet apprehend it, I would advise them in the following passage of Shakspeare, "Ah! no-it is my only son"-to substitute my son alone, and to judge for themselves whether the difference in the idea suggested arises merely from the different position of the words. Tyrwhitt.

When I will wear a garment all of blood,

And stain my favours in a bloody mask.

Shakspeare, Henry IV. p. 1.

ECLOGUE THE SECOND.

NYGELLE.

SPRITES of the bleste, the pious Nygelle sed,
Poure owte yer pleasaunce on mie fadres hedde.

Rycharde of lyons harte to fyghte is gon,
Uponne the brede sea doe the banners gleme,
The amenused nationnes be aston,

To ken syke large a flete, syke fyne, syke breme.
The barkis heafods coupe the lymed streme ;
Oundes synkeynge oundes upon the hard ake
riese ;

The water slughornes wythe a swotye cleme
Conteke the dynnynge ayre, and reche the skies.
Sprytes of the bleste, on gouldyn trones astedde,
Poure owte yer pleasaunce onn mie fadres hedde.
The gule depeyncted oares from the black tyde,
Decorn with fonnes rare, doe shemrynge ryse;
Upswalynge doe heie shewe ynne drierie pryde,
Lyche gore red estells in the eve merk skyes;
The nome-depeyncted shields, the speres aryse,
Alyche talle roshes on the water syde; [flyes;
Alenge from bark to bark the bryghte sheene
Sweft-kerv'd delyghtes doe on the water glyde.
Sprytes of the bleste, and everich seyncte ydedde,
Poure owte youre pleasaunce on mie fadres hedde.
The Sarasen lokes owte: he doethe feere,
That Englondes brondeous sonnes do cotte the
waie.
[there,

Lyke honted bockes, theye reineth here and
Onknow lachynge inne whatte place to obaie.
The banner glesters on the beme of daie ;
The mittee crosse Jerusalim ys seene;

Dhereof the syghte yer corrage doe affraie,
In balefull dole their faces be ywreene.

Sprytes of the bleste, and everich seyncte ydedde,
Poure owte youre pleasaunce on mie fadres hedde.

The bollengers and cottes, soe swyfte yn fyghte, Upon the sydes of everich bark appere

Fourthe to his office lepethe everych knyghte,
Eftsoones hys squyer, with his shielde and spere.
The jynynge shieldes doe shemre and moke glare;
The dosheynge oare doe make gemoted dynne ;
The reynyng foemen, thynckeynge gif to dare,
Boun the merk swerde, theie seche to fraie, theie
blyn.

Sprytes of the bleste, and everyche seyncte ydedde,
Poure owte yer pleasaunce onne mie fadres hedde.
Now comm the warrynge Sarasyns to fyghte;
Kynge Rychard, lyche a lyoncel of warre,
In sheenynge goulde, lyke feerie gronfers,* dyghte,

* Mr. Bryant has a curious remark upon this word. "It is here said to be derived from gron, a fen, and fer, a corruption of fire. Hence we may perceive that it is taken for a common ignis fatuus; the same which the country people style a Will of the wish and Jack-a-lantern. On this account the expositor has been induced to derive it from gron a fen. But there is nothing in an ignis fatuus which agrees with the description here given. This meteor, the ignis fatuus. is represented as a vague, playful and innocent light, in which there is nothing terrible or alarming. Besides a gronfire is plainly a ground-fire from gron* and grun, solum. See Olai Verelii Lex con Sueo. Gothic. Moreover from the comparison it is evident, that something is alluded to, which was of a very fearful nature, and of an uncommon appearance. Whatever it may have been, we find it again referred to, though in d ffrent terms

Lyche a battently low mie swerde shall brend.

Goddwyn. 50. Gron signifies undoubtedly a marshy place: but also solid ground.

Shaketh alofe his honde, and seene afarre.
Syke haveth I espyde a greter starre

Now what have we similar by which these descriptions can be explained? Nothing that I am apprised of, now a days. But I think that there were of old some phenomena, mentioned by the more early historians of this country, which will illustrate the point greatly. In the Saxon Chronicle we read, that in the year 1032, there were earthquakes in many parts of this kingdom; and that a sad mortality ensued; and what is very particular, there were seen fires of an uncommon appearance, such as were never seen before. They broke out of the earth in different places, and did a great deal of mischief. Simeon Dunelmensis takes notice of earthquakes happening, and of a like fire appearing a few years after, anno 1048. He speaks of it as breaking out in Derbyshire and some neighbouring counties, and being of an alarming nature; and he concludes with saying, "villas et segetes muitas ustulavit." Hist. Ang. Script. Decem p. 183. It is recorded by John Brompton nearly in the same manner. He mentions the mortality which then prevailed; and the mischief which was done by these fires. Ibid. p. 939. l. 48. The like phenomenon is said to have appeared in the next century, according to Holinshead, as well as other writers. He mentions in the reign of Henry the First, that there were earthquakes similar to the former; and that fires came out of the earth with great violence, which could not by water, nor by any means be subdued.† V. 2. p: 44. Fires of this nature must have had a very formidable appearance. And it was not any fenny meteor, but undoubtedly these groundfires, to which the poet alluded. It is remarkable that the first appearance of them was anno 1032, and the second, if not a continuation of the same phenomenon, was anno 1048; both in the days of earl Godwin, from whom the tragedy has its name. So that the comparison there made agrees very well with the times, and with the event by which they were distinguished. The last instance of such fires was not indeed in the days of king Richard,‡ who is the person con

* P. 154. See also Roger de Hoveden, p. 440. Hence we may perceive that the artificial fire called wild fire at this day, took its name from the similitude it bore to these battent lowes and gron-fires, which broke out in the times specified.

† See an account of a similar phenomenon in Germany, mentioned by Tacitus.

They happened anno 1135, in the last year of Henry the First. See Polydore Virgil, p. 195.