sweetness to the soul and wholesomeness to the body; and, wife, because of thy sweet words, and eke for I have preved and assayed thy great sapience and thy great truth, I wol govern me by thy counsel in all thing. This is probably one of the passages that have been conceived to have most of a rhythmical character; yet its balanced style does not go beyond what is not uncommon in rhetorical prose. Part of the measured march of the language may arise from the French tale, in perhaps its original form, having been in verse. What is called the Persones (or Parson's) Tale, which winds up the Canterbury Tales, as we possess the work, is a long moral discourse, which, for the greater part, is not very entertaining, but which yet contains some passages curiously illustrative of the age in which it was written. Here is part of what occurs in the section headed De Superbia (Of Pride), the first of the seven mortal sins. Tyrwhitt justly recommends that the whole "should be read carefully by any antiquary who may mean to write De re Vestiaria of the English nation in the fourteenth century." 3 Now ben there two manner of prides that on of hem is within the heart of a man, and that other is without; of which soothly these foresaid things, and mo2 than I have said, appertainen to pride that is within the heart of man. And there be other spices that ben withouten; but, natheless, that on of these spices of pride is sign of that other, right as the gay levesell at the tavern is sign of the wine that is in the cellar. And this is in many things, as in speech and countenance, and outrageous array of clothing; for certes if there had ben no sin in clothing Christ wold not so soon have noted and spoken of the clothing of thilk rich man in the Gospel and, as Saint Gregory saith, that precious clothing is culpable, for the dearth of it, and for his softness, and for his strangeness and disguising, and for the superfluity or for the inordinate scantiness of it. Alas! may not a man see as in our days the sinful costlew array of clothing, and namely in too much superfluity, or else in too disordinate scantness. As to the first sin, in superfluity of clothing, which that maketh it so dear, to the harm of the people, not only the cost of the embrouding," the disguising, indenting or barring, ownding, paling, winding, or bending, and semblable waste of cloth in vanity; but there is also the 2 More. 3 Species, kinds. 1 The one of them. The meaning of this word, which at a later date appears to have been pronounced and written lessel, is unknown. See Tyrwhitt's note to Cant. Tales, v. 4059, and Glossary, ad verbum; and note by the editor, Mr. Albert Way, on pp. 300, 301, of the Promptorium Parvulorum, vol. i., printed for the Camden Society, 4to. Lond. 1843. 5 Especially. 6 Embroidering. 7 Imitating waves. 8 Imitating pales. 1 costlew furring in hir gowns, so moch pounsoning of chisel to maken holes, so moch dagging of shears, with the superfluity in length of the foresaid gowns, trailing in the dong and in the mire, on horse and eke on foot, as well of man as of woman, that all thilk training is verily (as in effect) wasted, consumed, threadbare, and rotten with dong, rather than it is yeven to the poor, to great damage of the foresaid poor folk, and that in sondry wise; this is to sayn, the more that cloth is wasted, the more mustit cost to the poor people, for the scarceness; and, furthermore, if so be that they wolden yeve swich pounsoned and dagged clothing to the poor people, it is not convenient to wear for hir estate, ne suffisant to bote3 hir necessity, to keep hem fro the distemperance of the firmament. . . . ... Also the sin of ornament or of apparel is in things that appertain to riding, as in too many delicate horse that ben holden for delight, that ben so fair, fat, and costlew; and also in many a vicious knave that is sustained because of hem; in curious harness, as in saddles, croppers, peitrels, and bridles, covered with precious cloth and rich, barred and plated of gold and of silver; for which God saith by Zachary the prophet, I wol confound the riders of swich horse. These folk taken little regard of the riding of God's son of heaven, and of his harness, whan he rode upon the ass, and had none other harness but the poor clothes of his disciples, ne we read not that ever he rode on ony other beast. I speak this for the sin of superfluity, and not for honesty whan reason it requireth. And, moreover, certes pride is greatly notified in holding of great meiny, whan they ben of little profit, or of right no profit, and namely whan that meiny is felonious and damageous to the people by hardiness of high lordship, or by way of office; for certes swich lords sell than hir lordship to the devil of hell, whan they sustain the wickedness of hir meiny; or else whan these folk of low degree, as they that holden hostelries, sustainen theft of hir hostellers, and that is in many manner of deceits; thilk manner of folk ben the flies that followen the honey, or else the hounds that followen the carrain; swich foresaid folk stranglen spiritually hir lordships; for which thus saith David the prophet, Wicked death mot come unto thilk lordships, and God yeve that they mot descend into hell all down, for in hir houses is iniquity and shrewedness, and not God of heaven: and certes, but if they done amendment, right as God yave his benison to Laban by the service of Jacob, and to Pharaoh by the service of Joseph, right so wol God yeve his malison to swich lordships as sustain the wickedness of hir servants, but they come to amendment. Pride of the table appeareth eke full oft; for certes rich men be cleped to feasts, and poor folk be put away and rebuked; and also in excess of divers meats and drinks, and namely swich manner bake meats and dish meats brenning of wild fire, and painted and castled with paper, and semblable waste, so that it is abusion to think; and eke in too great preciousness of vessel, and curiosity of minstrelsy, by which a man is stirred more to the delights of luxury. 2 Slitting. 1 Punching. 5 Called, invited. 3 Help (boot). LITERATURE AND LEARNING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.-- A few facts which are important rather as forming epochs in the chronology of our subject, and for the results by which they were followed, than in themselves, constitute the main part of the history of learning and literature in England during the fifteenth century. The actual contributions of this age to our national literature are smaller in amount and value than those of any preceding space of time of the same length since the Norman Conquest. The ferment of studious enthusiasm which had been excited in men's minds in the beginning of the preceding century had, in a great measure, spent itself before the beginning of this. According to an oration delivered before the pope and cardinals by Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, in 1357, the 30,000 students of the University of Oxford had even by that time decreased to about 6000. The popular veneration for learning had also, from various causes, undergone a corresponding decline; and, instead of the honours formerly paid by all classes to talent and scholarship, and the crowding of eager multitudes around every eminent doctor wherever he appeared, we perceive now the aspect of a general indifference, and encounter occasional instances of the votaries of science and letters begging their bread, and of their unappreciated acquirements being turned into matter of ridicule and mockery by the insolence of rank and wealth. Anthony Wood, the quaint historian of the University of Oxford, relates a story of two itinerating students of this age, who, having one day presented themselves at a baronial castle, and sought an introduction by the exhibition of their academical credentials, in which they were each described as gifted, among other accomplishments, with a poetical vein, were ordered by the baron to be suspended in a pair of buckets over a draw-well, and dipped alternately into the water, until each should produce a couplet on his awkward situation; it was not till after a considerable number of duckings that the unfortunate captives finished the rhymes, while their involuntary ascents and descents during the process of concoction were heartily enjoyed by the baron and his company. It would be unfair, indeed, to judge of the general state of things from one or two anecdotes of this kind, although such consequences are only what might be expected when scholars took to perambulating the country as mendicants, with recommendations to the charity of the benevolent by the chancellors of their universities, as we are assured was now become customary; but the circumstances of our own country at least, in this age, must have proved in no small degree depressing to all liberal pursuits. Although much of the popular effervescence had evaporated, however, the love of knowledge was still alive and active in many of the more select order of minds, prompting them to zealous exertions both in its acquisition and its diffusion. In the course of the fifteenth century, very nearly forty new universities were founded in the different countries of Europe. In our own several new colleges were added both to Oxford and Cambridge. In the former university, Lincoln College was founded in 1430 by Richard Flemyng, Bishop of Lincoln, though only completed about 1475 by his successor, Thomas Rotherham; All Souls was founded in 1437 by Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, with the design of providing a perpetual service of prayers and masses for the souls of all the faithful departed, and especially of those who had fallen or should fall in the French wars; and Magdalen, which soon became one of the wealthiest academical establishments in Europe, was founded by William Pattyn, or De Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, who began the erection of the fabric in 1458, and lived to witness its completion in 1479. Cambridge received the additions, of King's College, founded in 1441, on a scale of great liberality and magnificence, by Henry VI., who established, about the same time, the celebrated school of Eton, to be a nursery for his college; of Queen's College, founded in 1446, by Henry's consort, Margaret of Anjou; and of Catherine Hall, founded in 1475, by Robert Woodlark, the third provost of King's College. Extensive public buildings, which came to be known by the name of the New Schools, were also erected at Oxford in 1439, by Thomas Hokenorton, Abbot of Osney, for the delivery of lectures in metaphysics, natural philosophy, moral philosophy, astronomy, geometry, music, arithmetic, logic, rhetoric, and grammar. The foundation of a divinity school and of a public library was laid in the same university about 1427; and, although the building was often interrupted, it was, at length, through the liberal donations of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, Cardinal John Kemp, Archbishop of York, his nephew Thomas Kemp, Bishop of London, and other benefactors, completed in 1480, when it formed the most magnificent structure of which the university yet had to boast. The building of public schools was also begun at Cambridge, in 1443, at the expense of the university, and finished, by the aid of various contributors, about 1475. More interesting, however, than these extensions of former establishments, is the founding of a temple to Learning in a part of the island in which no permanent abode had ever before been built for her. The first of the Scottish universities, that of St. Andrews, rose a few years after the commencement of the fifteenth century, out of the scheme of a few men of letters in that city, who, probably on the suggestion of the Bishop, Henry Wardlaw, formed themselves into an association for giving instruction in the sciences then usually taught in universities to all who chose to attend their lectures, and are supposed to have begun teaching about the year 1410. Their names, as recorded by the father of Scottish history, and eminently worthy to be preserved, were Lawrence Lindores, who undertook to explain the Fourth Book of the Master of the Sentences; Richard Cornel, Archdeacon of Lothian, John Litster, canon of St. Andrews, John Shevez, official of St. Andrews, and William Stephen, who lectured on the civil and canon laws; and John Gyll, William Fowler, and William Crosier, who taught logic and philosophy.* The institution, with this apparatus of professors, was already, in everything but in form, a university-and such it is styled in the charter or grant of privileges which Wardlaw hastened to bestow upon it. In that instrument, which is dated the 27th of February, 1411, the bishop speaks of the university as having been already actually instituted and founded by himself, saving the authority of the apostolic see, and laudably begun by those to whom he addresses himself, the venerable doctors, masters, bachelors, and scholars dwelling in his city of St. Andrews. He now proceeded more formally to endow the new seminary, in so far as his jurisdiction extended, with all the rights and liberties of a university. Two years afterwards, bulls of confirmation, &c., in the usual terms, were obtained from Benedict XIII., the one of the three contending popes who was acknowledged by the kingdom of Scotland. Benedict's bulls are six in number, all dated the same day, the 25th of August, 1413, at Paniscola, in *Fordun, Scotichronicon. |