1802.) 
I fend you one of thefe Fables by way 
of {pecimen of Englifh poetry. As you 
are verfed in the languages of ‘Northern 
Europe, you will be at no great difficulty 
to underftand it. I fhall only obferve that 
the pious and learned monk has made 
Efopus {peak like.a Chriftian in the ap- 
plication ; but fuch.is the nature of thefe 
Apologues, that they may be fuited with 
morals at the pleafure of the interpreter. 
Alle that will of Wyfdam lere, 
Herkeneth to me and ze fchal here, 
Appelogue in Greke y writ, 
Efopus, Phrygius witneffet hit 5 
Efopus, he, for fothe, in Greke 
Mad Fyfch, and Beftes and Fowl to fpeke, 
Who lyk un to grete Clerkes do preche, 
Men that bin unroyfe toteche, 
Pryvily by nyght had Vulpes ftole 
With innea Garner thorug litil hole ; 
Mete grek ftore had ‘thar bin fette, 
The fals Thefeaten with oute tet : 
Agen could he nougt that weye paffe, 
The Schrewe with Mete fo fyllid was; 
Moche forowe thanne'was he, and creyen ; 
Allas, Allas! for glotonye {chal y deyen. 
Glotonye and Coyetys I zow telle, 
Draweth moft Mannys foule to helle 5 
Lecherye isa nother fchame, 
That bryngs a manin wyked fame 5 
But Covetys hath ende no dele, 
Ther fore it is-lykenid to a whele, 
In holy wryt it is fette, 
That Lecherye is the Devels net3 
And combre women that bin nougt good, 
Both evel is ‘to leréd and lewed. 
The -wyly glotones they will not fyn, 
Ere they bendronken with ale or wyn3 
They cryeth and the fwereth as they were 
woad 
By goddys foule and goddys blode. 
He is wyfe that hevene may wynne, 
That kepeth hym from dedly fynne. 
Now, of this Fable y have maykid an 
ende, , 
Goddys blyffe fchal he have his lyfe that wil 
mende, 
Brunetto Latini, of Florence, is faid 
to have been the reftorer of learning in 
Italy, and the friend and patron of Dante, 
Boccace and Petrarch. Villani, a Floren- 
tine, who has written the Livés of his Il- 
luftrious Fellow-Citizens, fays, he was 
gran Filofofo, ed fommo Maefire.di Ret- 
torica; and he adds, dittatore del nofiro 
comunc, a magiftrate of great account. 
Brunetto Latini was driven out of Italy b 
the fation of the Ghibelins (cheEmperor’s 
.. Montuuy Masa, No, 82. 
From the Port-Folio of a Man of Letters. 
. 
595 
party), being a ftaunch Guelphite, in fa- 
vour of the Pope. He fought refuge in 
France, from whence. it appears that he 
came over, to England with Richard, 
Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, 
who was the brother,of our Henry the 
Third, He.died in 1295. . ; 
Guido Cavalcanti is ttiled poeta gregia. 
He was a native of Florence, born in 1200, 
and died in 1300. 
Lered and lewed; the learned and un- 
Jearned. The Leudes, according to the 
feudal fyftem, were the loweft kind of 
vaffals, folely for the purpofe of ‘tilling the 
Lord’s foil. . Thefe. may well be fuppofed 
the.moft unlettered part of the kingdom ; 
hence they are fet in oppofition to the 
lered, the clergy, clerks, or fuch as were 
ABLE TO READ AND WRITE, 
JUDICIAL COMBAT. ; 
In the dark ages of mankind, the or- 
deal, and trial by battle, took their rife ; 
and feem to have been ferious and religious 
calls to Heaven for judgment, in cafes 
where the parties appear unwilling to fub- 
mit themfelves tothe decifion of thejudges 
of theland. Hiltory tells us, trial by bat« 
tle obtained fo late as the reign of Charles 
the Firft; though the appeals were not 
fuffered to terminate in combats, as the 
grand affize had been long before invented’ 
to remedy the inconvemence and uncer- 
tainty of them. .In real aétions, however, 
it ftill remained in the defendant’s, that 
is to fay, the tenant’s power, to choofe 
either method of trial as he thought bef. 
Accordingly, we find an inftance in the 
beginning of the reign. of, Elizabeth of 
iffue joined by battle, which, as the cuf- 
tom was by that time much difcouraged, 
was put off by repeated adjournments, un- 
til the parties came to an agreement; 
when, as Dyer reports, judgment, was” 
given upon failure of one of the parties fo 
appear on the day appointed for combat. 
The laft inflance of judicial combat to be 
found in the Hiftory’of France, was the 
famous one in 1547, between M. Jarnac 
and M. de la Chaftaignerie. : 
I find trial by battle to have been ree 
gulated in the manner which here follows, 
in the poffeffions belonging to-the Crown 
of England in France, during the thir- 
teenth century. The account here fet 
down is taken, and literally tranflated 
from a manufcript, compofed in the 
French of that time, and written (accord- 
ing to its date) in the year 1444. " 
«© When battle takes place, it is to bé‘in 
this manner :—If the plaintiff declares 
- ge aa ett ae 
