1807.] 
THE ANTIQUARY. 
No. XII. 
To the Antiquary. 
SIR, 
HAVE taken from my portfolio two 
or three little articles on curious books. 
The firft relates to a work contemporary 
with Caxton: -the fecond prefents you 
with an account of Fabian the chronicler: 
and the third, though of comparatively 
modern date, with fome fingular illuttra- 
tions of our native tongue. For my owa 
part I confider them as rarities. Your’:, 
INDAGATOR. 
Among. the works which are not men- 
tioned in Herbert’s Typographical Anti- 
quities is an antient volume called “ The 
Dialogues of the Creatures moralyfed,” 
evidently tranflated from the “ Dyalogus 
Creaturarum  moralifatus,” printed. at 
Antwerp 1491. The letter of the Englifh 
verfion 1s of a,date not far fubfequent. 
The book is in quarto. 
The following is a fpecimen of the Fa- 
bles, 
“Uponatyme Gold went to Syluer and 
fayde, Be mery brodyr, for we twayne. 
bere the pryce amonge all othir metallys. 
And if we were conioyned togider, we 
fhulde be of greate fablymyte "and 
cone Wherto Syluer gave this 
anfwere and fayde, Broder thowe fpekitt 
charitably. But I confydre wele that thy 
colowre is reede and mynis whyte. Alfo 
I remembre that thow arte of grete re- - 
putacyon and imcomparable  valowre. 
Whertfor I trow verely that lvke as we be 
deuydid and contrary in pryce and in va- 
lowre, fo fhall we be deuydid in owre 
wyllys. It is bettyr therefore for vs not 
to begynne conjunccyon than aftyrwarde 
to make feparacyon and to withdraw us 
frome the thinge that is begon: and alfo 
Syluer fayd thefe wordis, 
** No wyidom it is for any. man to aplye 
To compare with his bettyr, nor to fteppe to 
hye. y 
“As rt is wryten Ecclefi. xi. He 
chargith him felf with an importable bur- 
don that joynythe hymfelfe to his bettyr ; 
and alfo hit is wrytten in that faine place, 
Be thowe no felowe to hym that is rycher 
than thowe; wherefore the philofofre 
fayth, The poreman periffhith whan he 
begynnyth to firyve with the ryche man, 
as Ifope fhewith in a fable and faith that 
the gote, the fhepe and the affe uppon a 
a tyme made.a confederacye with the’ 
Lyon and compenyed withe hym to goo 
‘an huntynge togyder, as felows and 
Montuy Mac., No. 156. 
The Antiquary.—No. XI. 
S17 
neybowris, and all they togider toke an 
harte. But whan they fthulde deuyde 
it, the Lyon spake and fayde, I fhall be 
eyre of the firlt parte, for T am grettilt of 
worlhippe here, and the firft choyce fhall 
yelde me the fecounde parte, and the 
grettiit labowre ihall gyve me the thryd 
parte, and but if I have the forth parte 
{hall breke the conuenauinte of con- 
corde, and with thele wordys he began 
to gryne with his teth, aud fmote the 
grownde with his tayle, so soore that all 
they for fere rane awaye, and left all the 
hoole harte to the lyon. Wherby it ape 
perithe. that aman owith to be ware to 
alfocyate hym felf with his bettyrs, for he 
{hall euyr be put tothe worfe parte, asitis 
fayde ina commune proverbe, I counfell 
not feruauntis to ete cheryes with ther 
bettyrs: fur they will have the rype, 
and Jeue them the harde; and therfore 
faith liope, By this exemple it is fhewyd 
that it is not good for the weke to be 
ioyned to the myghty, for he wyl not at 
all tymes be faithfull vnto hym.” 
The Tranflation of Acfop, however, 
appears to have fuperfeded the publica- 
tion of the “ Dialogs ues.’ 
Of Alderman Paneay, but few parti- 
culars have reached us. Mr, Warton’s 
account of him, in the Hiftory of Englifl 
Poetry, is unfavourable. 
“ Among the many firiking contratts 
(he obferves), between the manners and 
characters of antient and modern life, 
which thefe Annals prefent, we muft not 
be furprifed to find a mercer, a fheriff, 
and an alderman of London defcending 
rem his.important oceupations to write 
verfes. This is Robert Fabyan, who yet 
is generally better known as an hiftorian, 
than as a poet. He was efteemed, nat 
only the moft facetious, but the ‘moft 
learned, of all the mercers, theriffs, and 
aldermen, of his time: and no layman 
of that age is faid to have been better 
{killed in the Latin language. He flou- 
rifhed about the year 1494. In his Chro- 
nicle or Concordance of Hiftories, from 
Brutus to the year 1485, itis his ufual 
practice, at the divifion of the books, te 
infert metrical prologues, and other pieces 
in verfe. | The beit of his metres is the 
Complaint of King Edward the Second ; 
who, lke the perfonages in Boccacio’s 
Fall of Princes, is very dramatically in- 
troduced reciting his own misfortunes, 
But this foliloquy is nothing more than 
a tranflation from a fhort and a very poor 
Latin poem attributed to that monarch, 
but probably written by William of Wyc- 
Ss cefter, 
