view to censure, and perhaps to aggravate, the incapacity and worthlessness of his nephew; resembling surprisingly both in his manœuvres and catastrophe the duke of Guise, who, with still worse, or indeed no pretensions, aspired to depose Henry the third, and set himself on the throne of France. Both Richard and Henry felt the predominant ascendant of their rivals; and too weak to counteract by policy, or to stem by manly hardihood, their insolent competitors, they stooped to the infamy of assassination and precipitated by the odium of that act the destruction they had hoped to ward off. The duke of Hereford, whose nearer title would have been obstructed by Gloucester's ambition, lamented his uncle's fall, at which he must have rejoiced, and reaped the harvest that Gloucester had sown for himself. The earl of Salisbury, as a faithful subject, might have abhorred and dreaded the duke's machinations, and, for aught we know to the contrary, might have obtained proof of his guilt. The same fidelity to his legal master must have inspired him with detestation of the usurper Henry; nor, as the latter, after Salisbury's death, called to severe account some of Richard's ministers, who had dipped their hands in the death of Gloucester, must we rely too rashly on Henry's mercy to him, which might amount to no more than not having yet punished him. If Henry's indulgence is problematic, the crime of ingratitude vanishes and if Salisbury, Huntingdon, and Kent, retired to Cirencester with armed forces, I should believe that they had made an attempt to dethrone the usurper by arms, and found him prepared, rather than that they meditated to assassinate him at a mummery. In a word, though I cannot on such doubtful characteristics admit the earl into the choir of English poets, I must, as a good protestant subject, suspect that his zeal as a Lollard occasioned our monkish annalists to blacken his actions. And I must admire the fervour of the amiable Christina's love, which could counterbalance the prejudice of education and of the times, and aid her to discover virtues and innate worth even in a heretic, who had treated St. Catherine with so little politeness and decorum as to banish her into a bakehouse. [After so copious a disquisition on the merits and demerits of two nearly romance characters, affording so brilliant a specimen of lord Orford's love of the étincellante in composition, it was impossible the earl of Salisbury could be excluded from this catalogue.— It is recorded of him in the Bibliotheque, p. 134. Dans ces grandes commotions d'un etat, les malheureux sont souvent criminels, Salisbury perd la tête sur un échafaud, malgré l'estime publique, &c.] EDWARD DUKE OF YORK. 3 [To this metrician, as Fabian termed our elder writers in verse, lord Orford did not think it worth while to allot an article, as he deemed the authority too vague. Strutt, in his "Manners and Customs of the English2," introduced part of a poem from a manuscript in his own possession (temp. Hen. V.), which was composed by a duke of York. This duke was conjectured by lord Orford to be Edward, eldest son of Edmond of Langley; there being no duke of York in the reign of Henry the fifth. Yet as the verses seem to be addressed to a queen, his lordship thought they might have been written in the preceding reign, duke Edward having fallen in the battle of Agincourt; and in this case they were likely to have been addressed to Joanna, second wife of Henry the fourth, soon after she became queen dowager.4 However this unsettled point may be adjusted by profounder antiquaries, the manuscript itself is undoubtedly genuine, and the signature at the close of the poem assigns it to a duke of York, whom Mr. Warton considered as an "unknown prince." From the hands of Mr. War 2 Vol. iii. p. 183. 3 Qu. How is this sentence to be reconciled with the succeeding, which agrees with history in saying, that Edward, a duke of York, was slain at the battle of Agincourt? 4 Lord Orford's Works, vol. i. p. 527. > See Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 106. ton the manuscript passed into those of Mr. Strutt, of whom it was purchased by my kind and intelligent friend Francis Douce, esq. to whose indulgence the readers of the extracts here given will be indebted for their accuracy. The entire poem extends to thirtyfour stanzas, more of which may be seen, by those who wish for more, in Strutt's publication, above mentioned. Excellent sovraine! semely to see, Figure fairest, and fresshest of devys: I recomaunde me to your rialnesse, Your womanly beautè delicious Hath me hent all into his cheyne, Yif ye wist my lyfe, and knewe And of the peynes that y feell, And though ye be of high renoun, To you lady this is my boun, To graunt me grace, in som degrè. |