ART. X. The Proverbes of Lydgate.

BELOW is the portraiture of a gentleman with a stick in his hand, standing with two holy fathers in conversation. On the other side of the title-page is another very curious print which represents an holy father sitting under a canopy with a number of books before him on a table, and an ancient reading-desk thereon. It is comprized in 56 pages, also in black letter, prologue, title, &c. included. At the end, "Here endeth the Proverbes of Lydgate upon the Fall of Princes." Imprinted by Wynkin de Worde, with his usual marks.

ART. XI. Skelton Laureate agaynst a comely Coystrawne, that curyously chawntyd and curryshly cownted, and madly in his maskys mokkyshly made agaynst XI Musys of Polytyke Poems and Poettys Matryculat,

UNDERNEATH is a wood cut of the Laureat, as it seems, a man in a loose robe, with a book in his hand, which he is holding up, and an inscription in the background: he is decorated with a crown of laurel, and seated under a Gothic canopy. His poem begins,

"Of all nacyons under the hevyn;"

it closes thus:

"Wryten at Croydon by Crowland in the clay,
On Candlemass evyn the calendes of May."+

* See Herbert, I. 230. Editor.

This edition is not mentioned by Ritson, who says the poem was included in Skelton's Works by T. Marsh, 1568. Editor.

This and the two following are "Imprinted by Richard Pynson, Printer to the King's most noble Grace."

ART. XII. Here followyethe the dyvers Balletys and Dyties salacyous divised by Master Skelton Laureat.

It begins with,

"Lullay, lullay, lyke a chylde;"

and is comprized in eight pages, black letter, printed as above.

ART. XIII. Honorificatissimo, Amplissimo, longeque Reverendissimo in Christo patri ac domino Domino Thom. &c. &c.-A Replycasion against certain young Scholairs, abjured of late, &c. &c. by Master Skelton, Laureat.

COMPRIZED in 20 pages of black letter, printed as above..

ART. XIV. Syrs, spare youre good. [The fragment of a poem printed in quarto by Wynkyn de Worde.] OF the shattered remains of two leaves the first page has apparently the customary ribband, for title

which begins, "Sy." Beneath, a wood-cut of an old man and a young one in the attitudes of walking, and the last pointing to the preceding figure, yet looking at an object past; probably meant to represent the intention of youth to follow the course of experience. A tree between the figures and a blank label over each person. The same cut appears noticed in Herbert, 1780, as prefixed to "the complaynt of a louer's lyfe." On the second page the poem commences, and might have been entitled prologe." Some letters of the rhime of the first couplet remain, as follows:

aye

ye

gesse

haue I blesse

it well by a thynge

whiche I hauh had knowlegynge

As here after ye shall here full well

་

Of a knyghtes sone howe it befell

A ryche knyght there was in Fraunce I vnderstande

And was a man of grete lande

And hyght Syr Thomas perlore

A sone he hadde wyth his wyfe and no more

And she was called fayre ysaungrayne

And theyr sone was called Rafeleyne

And of this chylde ye shall here
And of his fader and his moder dere

Of his fader he was lefe and dere

So was he of his moder I

you ensere

So it happened vpon a daye

That this yonge man sholde sporte and playe

His fader badde hym go amonge wyse men

That he might lerne some good of theym

But this yonge man hym bethought

That after his faders counseyll he wolde do nought
But to yll compayne he hym drewe
And lerned all vyce and lefte vertue
Tyll fader and mode [r] were dede
Than coude he none other rede
But burye theym after the comen vse
Other sorowe wolde he none vse

[Conclusion of second side.]

Whan soeuer in the world of ryote my be th[ought]
I coude it lyghtly helpe for to be wrought
Whiche is now bytter it was than swete at that
Therfore spare your good that ye haue in hap

Wherefore sholde not I take no sorowe agayne
Ye certes there is none that wyll me ony thynge lene
Euen thus the whele of fortune rennethe

And yf good locke dyde rayne, I sholde not be wete
If it be good locke or yll happe

It cometh to hym that shall haue it at a clappe
Euery body may se by me in this shande

Thyr fore spare your good that ye haue in hande

A man maye well a good felawe be

In the wine in good ale in bere where so it be
And yf he thynke for the comune profyte also
Here or there where so euer he go

Thus maye a man haunte myrth and game
If he do it not by mesure he is to blame
For in euery thynge mesure is good I vnderstande
Therefore spare your good that ye haue in hande

Fare well I sette you all this testamente

Who well lerne this shall be vnshente
And can kepe hym amonge good company

Shall be fre of all sorowe and miserye

Who so euer taketh this testament in remembraunce
Pouerte and myserye shall not fall to his chaunce
His good his worshyp shall he kepe I vnderstande
Therfore spare your good that he haue in hande

FINIS

[Conclusion of third side.]

[Her]e endeth a lytell treatyse very profytable for [euery] yonge man and yonge women called Syrs spare [youre] good. Emprynted at London in the Fletestrete [at the] sygne of the Soone by me Wynken de Worde.

AMEN.

After the colophon the printer's device in three compartments, viz. 1. An irradiated sun central of two blazing stars, with lesser ones black. 2. Caxton's small sign. 3. "Wynkyn de Worde" on twisted riband, greyhound couchant, sagittarius with arrow discharged; a rose central with border of leaves at bottom; the whole square on a white ground.

From the errors of the press, and entire neglect of punctuation, this tract appears to have been one of the earliest attempts by Wynken de Worde. The alteration of measure in the verse also implies that the first portion contained an introductory description of the whole relation, and the hiatus a deficiency of four pages.

*

It is difficult to ascertain the deficiency of such fragments. To ascertain at what period printers first adopted the plan of occasionally printing by sixes of a quarto size, or inserting a half sheet in the middle, is become material from the many titles and ends discovered as above described. I believe it was not practised so early as Wynken de Worde's time.