428 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



LITERATURE. 



Bergen, Henry, Brooklyn, New York. Research Associate in Early English 

 Literature. (For previous reports see Year Books Nos. 11-19.) 



The first two volumes of the edition of Lydgate's "Fall of Princes," 

 which I have been preparing under the auspices of the Institution, 

 are still in press. These volumes contain the complete text of the 

 poem, based on the Oxford manuscript, Bodley 263, and collated with 

 five other manuscripts dating approximately from the middle of the 

 fifteenth century; an introductory note, in which information is given 

 in regard to the authorship, origin, and nature of the work; a short 

 analysis of the meter; the prose Latin and French prefaces and dedica- 

 tions of Giovanni Boccaccio's "De casibus virorum illustrium" and 

 Laurence de Premierfait's "Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes," 

 which were used only in slight measure by Lydgate in his translation 

 of Laurence; and, as an appendix, Lydgate's rendering from the French 

 of "The Daunce of Machabree." 



The third and concluding volume of the present edition, containing 

 a bibliographical introduction descriptive of the manuscripts and early 

 printed editions, explanatory notes on the text, a glossary, and an 

 index, is already in part in an advanced state, and, provided there is no 

 unforeseen delay, will be completed by the end of 1922. 



The "Fall of Princes" is a translation in decasyllabic verse arranged 

 in seven and eight line stanzas of the second, amplified, version (1409) 

 of Laurence de Premierfait's French prose rendering of Boccaccio's 

 prose Latin "De casibus virorum illustrium," a history, or narrative, 

 told in dramatic form, of the chief events in the lives of the illustrious 

 personages of mythology and history, "from the tune of Adam to 

 King John of France," who died in 1364. As the fate of the majority 

 of these illustrious personages was tragic, and, as a rule, due to their 

 vicious irresponsibility, Boccaccio wrote his book in the hope that the 

 princes of his own time, who were equally vicious and irresponsible, 

 might see themselves as in a mirror and learn from the unhappy example 

 of their predecessors the virtue of wisdom and moderation. And 

 since he believed that in consequence of the iniquity of their rulers the 

 ordinary people were contaminated and led into evil customs, and, as 

 a free citizen of the Florentine republic and one of the most independent 

 minds of his era, he had no respect for hereditary privileges and titles, 

 his book, written between the years 1355 and 1360, was filled with 

 bitter satire. Nevertheless, owing more to the interest of its subject- 

 matter and to the reputation for learning of its author than to its 

 literary style — for there was no equally good compendium of universal 

 history in existence at that time — the "De casibus" enjoj^ed great 

 popularity throughout the whole of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 

 turies; and when Laurence completed his first French version in 1400 



