*This alludes to the painted effiges of Alabafter, anciently erected upon tombs aad monuments.

THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

THE

BOOK III.

I.

COMPLAINT OF CONSCIENCE.

I fhall begin this THIRD BOOK with an old allegoric Satire: A manner of moralizing, which, if it was not first introduced by the author of PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISIONS, was at leaft chiefly brought into repute by that ancient satirift. It is not fo generally known that the kind of verfe used in this ballad hath any affinity with the peculiar metre of that writer, for which reafon I shall throw together fome curfory remarks on that very fingular fpecies of verification, the nature of which has been so little understood.

ON

ON THE METRE

OF

PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISIONS.

We learn from Wormius (a), that the ancient Islandic poets ufed a great variety of measures: he mentions 136 different kinds, without including RHYME, or a correfpondence of final fyllables: yet this was occafionally ufed, as appears from the Ode of Egil, which Wormius hath inferted in his book.

He hath analyfed the ftructure of one of these kinds of verfe, the harmony of which neither depended on the quantity of the fyllables, like that of the ancient Greeks and Romans; nor on the rhymes at the end, as in modern poetry; but confifted altogether in alliteration, or a certain artful repetition of the founds in the middle of the verfes. This was adjusted according to certain rules of their profody, one of which was, that every diftich fhould contain at least three words beginning with the fame letter or found. Two of thefe correfpondent founds might be placed either in the first or fecond line of the distich, and one in the other: but all three were not regularly to be crowded into one line. This will be beft underftood by the following examples (b).

"Meire og Minne

Mogu heimdaller."

"Gab Ginunga

Enn Gras huerge."

There were many other little niceties obferved by the Iflandic poets, who as they retained their original language and peculiarities longer than the other nations of Gothic

(a) Literatura Runica. Hafnie 1636. 4to.-1651. fol. The ISLANDIC language is of the fame origin as our ANGLO-SAXON, being 1 both dialects of the ancient GOTHIC or TEUTONIC. Vid. Hickefi Præfat. in Grammat. Anglo-Saxon. & Moefi-Coth. 4to. 1689.

(b) Vid Hickes Antiq. Literatur. Septentrional. Tom. 1. p. 217,

Gothic race, had time to cultivate their native poetry more, and to carry it to a higher pitch of refinement, than any of the rest.

Their brethren the Anglo-faxon poets occafionally ufed the fame kind of alliteration, and it is common to meet in their writings with fimilar examples of the foregoing rules. Take an instance or two in modern characters: (c)

“Skeop tha and Skyrede
Skyppend ure."

"Ham and Heahfetl
Heofena rikes."

7

"I know not however that there is any where extant an entire Saxon poem all in this measure. But diftichs of this fort perpetually occur in all their poems of any length.

Now, if we examine the verfification of PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISIONS, we fhall find it constructed exactly by thefe rules; and therefore each line, as printed, is in reality a diftich of two verfes, and will, I believe, be found diftinguifhed as fuch, by fome mark or other in all the ancient MSS. viz.

"In a Somer Seafon, when hot (d) was the Sunny,
"I Shope me into Shroubs, ↑ as I a Szepe were ;
"In Habite as an Harmet unHoly of werkes,
"Went Wyde in thys world | Wonders to heare, &c.

So that the author of this poem will not be found to have invented any new mode of verfification, as fome have fuppofed, but only to have retained that of the old Saxon and Gothic poets; which was probably never wholly laid afide, but occafionally ufed at different intervals; tho'

(c) Ibid.

(d) So I would read with Mr. Warton, rather than either foft,' as in MS, or 'fet,' as in PCC,

tho' the ravages of time will not fuffer us now to produce a regular series of poems entirely written in it.

There are some readers, whom it may gratify to mention, that these VISIONS OF PIERCE [1. e. Peter] the PLOWMAN, are attributed to Robert Langland, a fecular prieft, born at Mortimer's Cleobury in Shropshire, and fellow of Oriel college in Oxford, who flourished in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. and published his poem a few years after 1350. It confifts of xx PASSUS or Breaks (e), exhibiting a series of vifions, which he pretends happened to him on Malvern hills in Worcesterfhire. The author excells in ftrong allegoric painting, and has with great humour spirit and fancy, cenfured most of the vices incident to the feveral profeffions of life; but he particularly inveighs against the corrup tions of the clergy, and the abfurdities of fuperftition. Of this work I have now before me four different editions in black letter quarto. Three of them are printed in 1550 bp Koberce Crowley dwelling in Clpe rentes in Hols burne. It is remarkable that two of these are mentioned in the title-page as both of the fecond impreffion, tho' they contain evident variations in every page (ƒ). The other is faid to be newlye imprpnted after the authors olde copy .... by Owen Rogers, Feb. 21. 1561.

As Langland was not the firft, fo neither was he the laft that used this alliterative species of verfification. To Rogers's edition of the Visions is fubjoined a poem,

which

(e) The poem properly contains xxi parts: the word PASSUS, adopted by the author, feems only to denote the break or divifion between two parts, tho' by the ignorance of the printer applied to the parts themselves. See vol. 3. preface to ballad III. where Passus feems to fignify Paufe.

(f) That which feems the firft of the two, is thus diftinguished in the title-page, nowe the seconde tpme imprinted by Roberts Crowipe; the other thus, nowe the seconde time imprinted by Roberte Crowley. In the former the folios are thus erroneously numbered 39, 39. 41. 63.43. 42. 45. &c. The bookfellers of thofe days were not oftentatious of multiplying editions.