POE 
Thou fiueftmy cofyn Coldran, 
Of all Sirafyns the boldeft man,” &c. 
Notwithftanding much poetry began to be written 
about the reign of Edward the Second, yet the only 
Englifh poet of that period, whofe name has defcended to 
pofterity, is Adam Davy, or Davie. All that is known 
of his life is, that he was Marfhal of Stratford-le-bow, 
near London. He has left feveral poems, amongft which 
may be enumerated Vifions,The Battle of Jerufalem, and 
the Life of Alexander.__ This laft poem is confidered by 
Warton as his beft. The language of this poet is per¬ 
haps more unintelligible than that of many writers who 
preceded him : e. g. 
Mery is the blaft of the llynoure, 
Mery is the touchyng of the harpoure : 
Sweete is the fmellinge of the flower, 
Sweete it is in the maydens bower. 
In tyme of May the nightingale 
In wood maketh mery gale, 
So don the foules grete the fmale. 
Sum in hylies and fum in dale. 
In the beginning of the reign of Edward the Third, 
and in the year 134.9, flourifhed Richard Hampole, a poet 
and an eremite of the order of Saint Auguftine. He 
lived a folicary life near the nuns of Hampole, four miles 
from Doncafter, in Yorkfliire. His principal pieces of 
Englifti rhyme are a paraphrafe of part of the Book of 
Job, of the Lord’s Prayer, of the feven penitential pfalms, 
and the Pricke of Confcience. His poetry, however, is 
of a very inferior defcription, but his language is mucli 
more Ample and intelligible than his predeceffors. The 
following fpecimen is from his Pricke of Confcience : 
He that knoweth well and con fe 
What he is, was, and fchal be, 
A wifere man may be told 
Whethur he be young or old, 
Then he that con al other thing, 
And of fiymfelf hath no knowyng. 
The next poet in fucceflion is Roberte Longlande, 
author of the Viflon of Pierce Plowman. Longlande was 
a fecular prieft, and a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He 
flourifhed, according to Warton, about the year 1350. 
His poem is a fatire upon almolt all the profefflons, but 
particularly upon the corruptions of the clergy. It con- 
fifts of a feries of diftinft viflons, which the author ima¬ 
gines himfelf to have feen while he was deeping, after a 
long ramble on Malvern Hills, in Worcefterfhire. 
The Viflon of Pierce Plowman is a poem of fome merit; 
and is frequently quoted by Tooke in his Diverfions 
of Purley. The author, inflead of following the rapid 
alterations in the Englifli language, prefers and adopts 
the ftyle of the Anglo-Saxon poets. He even imitates 
their alliterative verfification, which confided in ufing 
an aggregate of words beginning with the fame letter, 
and rejects rhyme. The abfurdities and fuperftition of 
the clergy are ridiculed with great humour and fpirit by 
Longlande. He appears to have been a popular poet, 
and had feveral imitators. His religious doCtrines were 
thofe of Wickliffe. 
I give the following as a brief fpecimen of his verfifi¬ 
cation. The poet inveighs againft the luxury and pride 
of the prelates: 
And now is religion a rider, a romer by the ftreete, 
A leader of lovedayes and a loude beggar, 
A pricker on a palfrey from maner to maner, 
An heape of houndes at his-as he a lorde were. 
And yf but his knave knele, that fhall hys cape bryng, 
He loured on hym, and afked who taught hym curtefye. 
This poem contains a remarkable prediction refpeCting 
Henry VIII. 
And ther Jhall come a king, and confefle your religions, 
And bete you as the bible telleth for breking of your rule. 
Vol. XX. No. 1410. 
TRY. 789 
After fome farther obfervations in the fame ftrain, lie 
concludes the prophecy in thefe words: 
And than fhall the Abot of Abingdon, and all his iflue 
for ever, 
Have a knocke of a king, and incurable the wound. 
The principal charaCteriftics of the Viflon of Pierce 
Plowman, are piClurefque humour and biting fatire. It 
contains, however, paflages of a different ftrain. 
The poem called Pierce the Plowman’s Crede, is an 
imitation of Longlande’s Viflon, but written by another 
perfon. It is a fatire upon the four orders of mendicant 
friars, to whom a poor man feveraily applies for infor¬ 
mation refpeCting his creed. From thefe he can get no 
information. The orders abufe one another, but teach 
him nothing. At length he meets one Pierce, or Peter, 
a ploughman, who refolves his doubts, and teaches him 
the true religion. 
About this time flourifhed two poets, natives of Scot¬ 
land, who, fays Warton, “ have adorned the Englifli lan¬ 
guage by a ftrain of verfification, expreflion, and poetical 
imagery, far fuperior to their age.” One of them was 
Barbour, archdeacon of Aberdeen, and the other was 
called Blind Harry. They flourifhed about the year 1360. 
Barbour’s capital poem, for which David Bruce gave him 
a penfion for life, is called the Hiftory of Robert Bruce, 
King of Scotland. The following verfes are a fpecimen 
of his talents at rural defcription : 
This was in midftof month of May, 
When birds fing in ilka fpray, 
Melland their notes with feemly foun, 
For foftnefs of the fweet feafoun, 
And leaves of the branches fpreeds 
And blooms bright befide them breeds, 
And fields ftrawed are with flowers 
Well favouring of feir colours. 
And all thing worthis blyth and gay. 
Blind Harry’s poem is written on the exploits of Sir 
William Wallace. The four following lines on the 
Spring are confidered by Warton as uncommonly terfe 
anc( elegant: 
Gentle Jupiter, with his mild ordinance. 
Both herb and tree reverts into pleafance; 
And frefh Flora, her flowery mantle fpread, 
In every dale doth hop, hight, hill, and mead. 
Thefe authors were, however, mere labourers in the 
fields of poetry. They cultivated the foil, but knew not 
either to fow or reap. 
Chaucer did for Englifh poetry what Dante, Petrarch, 
and Boccaccio, did for the Italian; compounded the 
rude and diforganized materials which multitudes of 
minor poets had written in a mixed language of Norman, 
Latin, and Saxon, and formed poems fit to ftand in com¬ 
petition even with thofe of a polillied age. The moft 
ftriking faff that occurs to us in reading Chaucer, is the 
extreme frequency of his plagiarifms. It has been faid, 
that there is among his Canterbury Tales not one of his 
own invention ; and moft of his fimiles and allegorical 
illuftrations are borrowed from the ancients. To the 
Italians efpecially,he, as well as all the early Englifh authors, 
owes incalculable advantages. But in his chief work 
(the Tales), we ftill find fomething original. There is in 
it that clofe and faithful painting of human character, 
which is truly Englifh. When we read the defcription of 
the Wife of Bath, we have a portrait before us more 
natural, and yet more highly finifhed, than any that is to 
be met with in the Italian poets, and one which forcibly 
brings to our recollection the comic efforts of Shakef'peare. 
There are in the fame work many other characters equally 
good, and which never could have been drawn fecond- 
hand. They are all the refult of a fine talent for ob- 
fervation, and a critical knowledge of fociety. People 
fay that Chaucer is not much read, becaufe it is difficult 
to underftand him; but truly this is furprifing; he has 
9 P fcarcely 
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