714 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
This piece, then, as we have it, is purely a confession testa¬ 
ment. But that it is a legitimate descendant of the Last Will 
and Testament, the author’s own words, “my laste wyl set in 
my Testament,” leave no doubt. Considered in its entirety 
the Testament is a mediocre performance. The meter is often 
irregular and in many cases disagreeable. But in the descrip¬ 
tion of his wayward youth and in the passage on his conversion 
Lydgate has attained no small degree of success. The descrip¬ 
tion of Spring is done with excellent taste. 
During the early part of the fifteenth century the Literary 
Testament had patrons in France as well as in England. 
Charles d’Orleans has among his ballads, written in prison be¬ 
tween 1415 and 1440, a very pretty testament. * 1 He says that 
his mistress is dead and that he too will die, but first he will 
make his testament. He bequeaths his spirit to the God of 
Love, asking that it be carried to Paradise. The goods which 
he has received from the God of Love, he leaves to all true lov¬ 
ers. He then directs that his body be fittingly interred in the 
chapel of the God of Love. 
A piece which may not have been without influence on the 
literature with which we are concerned is a testament followed 
by adieus which closes the Fortunes et Adversites of Jehan 
Begnier, Seigneur de Gnerchy. 2 This was composed in 1431 
but not printed till 1536. Begnier, in order to amuse himself 
while he was a prisoner of war, wrote of his fortunes and ad¬ 
versities. In an hour of depression he composed his testament. 2 
The poet feels the obligation resting on all good Christians to 
write a testament, but he has nothing to give. He commends 
his soul to Hotre Dame and St. Michael, and calls to his aid the 
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, confessors, martyrs, 
from that unprofitable task to this, and that this is the very last piece 
he wrote. Each biographical section was to be marked off by a hymn. 
But Lydgate never got beyond Ver. The completed poem would have 
been one of the most famous poems of Early England.” H. N. Mac- 
Cracken, Harvard dissertation, 1907. It is also probable that Lydgate 
got a suggestion from De Guilleville, whose Pelerinage, with its Testa¬ 
ment of Jesus, he translated in 1426. 
1 C. d’Hericault, Poesies Completes de Charles d’Orleans, Paris, 1874, 
Balade LXX, p. 89. 
2 A. Campaux, Francis Villon, Paris, 1859, p. 25. 
