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Then unto London1 I did me hie;

Of all the land it beareth the prize;
"Hot peascods!" one began to cry;

"Strawberries ripe!" and "Cherries in the rise!" 2
One bade me come near and buy some spice;
Pepper and saffron they gan me bid ;—

But, for lack of money, I might not speed.

Then to the Cheap3 I gan me drawn,*
Where much people I saw for to stand;
One offered me velvet, silk, and lawn ;
Another he taketh me by the hand,

"Here is Paris thread, the finest in the land;"
I never was used to such things indeed ;-
And, wanting money, I might not speed.
Then went I forth by London Stone,5
Throughout all the Canwick Street ;6
Drapers much cloth me offered anon;

.6

Then comes me one cried, "Hot sheep's feet!"

One cried, "Mackerel !" "Rushes green !"7 another gan greet;

One bade me buy a hood to cover my head ;

But, for want of money, I might not be sped

Then I hied me into East Cheap :

One cries, "Ribs of beef, and many a pie !"
Pewter pots they clattered on a heap ;

There was harp, pipe, and minstrelsy:

"Yea, by cock!""Nay, by cock!" some began cry;
Some sung of "Jenkin and Julian" for their meed;
But for lack of money I might not speed.

Then into Corn-hill8 anon I yode,9
Where was much stolen gear among;
I saw where hung mine ownè hood
That I had lost among the throng:
To buy my own hood I thought it wrong;
I knew it as well as I did my creed ;-
But, for lack of money, I could not speed.

1 London was formerly a distinct city, encompassed by a wall, which had seven gates. 2 On the branch.

3 Or Cheapside; a busy thoroughfare between St. Paul's and the Poultry, originally a market-place. 4 To draw.

5 An ancient stone, still standing in Cannon St. City; supposed by Camden to have been the central milestone from which the British highroads radiated and the distances on them were reckoned.

7 To lay on the floor.

6 Candlewick or Cannon Street. 8 A crowded street between the Poultry and Leadenhall Street. It was originally a corn-market, and was inhabited in Lydgate's time by clothiers and drapers.

9 Went

The Taverner took me by the sleeve;

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Sir," saith he, "will you our wine assay?”
I answered, "That cannot much me grieve;
A penny can do no more than it may.”
I drank a pint and for it did pay ;

Yet sore a-hungered from thence I yede ;-
And, wanting money, I could not speed.

Then hied I me to Billings-gate;1
And one cried, "Ho! go we hence!"
I prayed a barge-man, for God's sake,
That he would spare me my expense.

"Thou 'scap'st not here," quoth he, "under two-pence ; I list not yet bestow any alms-deed."

Thus, lacking money, I could not speed.

Then I conveyed me into Kent;
For of the law would I meddle no more.
Because no man to me took entent,
I dight 2 me to do as I did before.

Now Jesus, that in Bethlem was bore,3

Save London, and send true lawyers their meed ! * For whoso wants money with them shall not speed.

FROM LYDGATE'S TESTAMENT.

A MEDIEVAL SCHOOL-BOY.

Void of reason; given to wilfulness;
Froward to virtue; of thrift gave little heed;
Loth to learnè; lovèd no busyness

Save play or mirthè; strange to spell or read ;
Following all appetites 'longing to childhead;
Lightly turning; wild, and seldom sad;
Weeping for nought, and anon after glad.

For little wroth, to strive with my fellow
As my passions did my bridle lead;
Of the yardè sometime I stood in awe
To be scored; for that was all my dread.
Loth toward school, I lost my time indeed,
Like a young colt that ran withoutè bridle;
Made my friendès their good to spend in idle...

6 Whipt.

2 Set.
7 Uselessly

1 A quay or water-gate on the Thames; now a fish-market.
3 Born.
4 Payment.
5 Rod.

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To my betters I did no reverence;
Of my sovereins 1 gave no fors 2 at all;
Waxed obstinate by inobedience;
Ran into gardens; apples there I stall;
To gather fruitès spared hedge nor wall;
To pluck grapès in other mennes* vines
Was more ready than for to say matines.

Loth to rise; lother to bed at eve;
With unwashed handès ready to dinnère;
My Pater-noster, my Creed, or my Believe,
Cast at the cook; lo! this was my mannère;
Waved with each wind, as doth a reedè-spear;
Snibbed of my friends such taches for to amend,
Made deaf earè list not to them attend.

FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY."

SUNRISE.

When that the rowès 8 and the rayès red
Eastward to us full early ginnen spread,
Even at the twilight in the dawnèing;
When that the lark of custom ginneth sing,
For to salute in her heavenly lay

9

The lusty goddess of the morrow gray—
I mean Aurora-which afore the sun

Is wont to chase the blackè skyès dun,
And all the darkness of the dimmy night;
And fresh Phoebus, with comfort of his light,
And with the brightness of his beamès sheen,
Hath overgilt the huge hillès green;
And flowers eke, again the morrow-tide,
Upon their stalkès playn 10 their leaves wide.

A GOTHIC CASTLE.

Through many a hall, and many a rich tower,
By many a turn and many a diverse way,
By many a gree 11 y-made of marble gray :
And in his chamber, englasèd 12 bright and clear,

1 Governors.

4 Men's.

2 Force, heed.

5 Rebuked.

7 The two following passages are taken from Warton's Poetry. 8 Streaks of light. 9 According to its habit. 12 Windowed.

11 Stair.

3 Stole.

6

Faults (Fr. tache).
History of English

10 Open, display.

That shone full sheen with gold and with azure,
Of many image that there was in picture,

He hath commanded to his officers,

Duly in honour of them that were strangers,
Spices and wine.

THOMAS OCCLEVE.

(1370 ?-1454-)

ANOTHER young contemporary and disciple of Chaucer was Thomas Occleve, a lawyer in London, and, for twenty years of his life, a writer to the Privy Seal. His works, produced chiefly in the reign of Henry V. (1413-1422), included La Male Regle (the Mis-rule) de T. Hoccleve, some devotional and occasional verses, and an English version of a Latin treatise of Egidius, a Roman writer of 1250, called De Regimine Principum (on the Art of Governing). In the Prologue this poem occur some pathetic verses upon the death of Chaucer, written probably soon after the event, and incorporated some years later in the poem. Upon the margin of one of the MSS. of the De Regimine, now in the British Museum, Occleve painted his famous little coloured portrait of Chaucer. Few of Occleve's works have found their way into print. Even the De Regimine, the most important of them, exists only in manuscript; but its author will always hold a place among our early poets on account of his graceful and reverent homage to Chaucer, his "dear master and father."

FROM DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM.

OCCLEVE'S LAMENT FOR CHAUCER.

My dearè master-God his soul acquit !—
And father, Chaucer, fain would have me taught ;
But I was dull, and learnèd lite1 or naught.
Alas, my worthy master honorable,
This landès very treasure and richesse,
Death, by thy death, hath harm irreparable
Unto us done: his vengeable duresse 2

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Despoiled hath this land of the sweetness
Of rhetoric; for unto Tullius 1

Was never man so like amongest us.
Alas! who was there in philosophy
To 2 Aristotle in our tongue, but thou?
The steppès of Virgile in poesie

Thou suedest eke: men knowè well enow
That cumber-world that hath my master slow.5
Wold I slain were! Death was too hastife 6
To run on thee and reave thee of thy life :
She might have tarried her vengeance a while
Till that some man had equal to thee be:
Nay, let that be: she knew well that this isle
May never man forth bring like unto thee;
And her of office needès do mote she;8
God bade her so, I trust for all the best.
O master, master, God thy soulè rest!

JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.
(1394-1437.)

THIS Scottish prince was educated as a royal prisoner in England through the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V. During his captivity he was an enthusiastic student of poetry, and at length himself produced one of the most graceful poems that exist in old English. The King's Quhair (King's Book) is written in the seven-lined stanza of Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide. The main incident of the Quhair is nearly identical with that of Chaucer's Knight's Tale, where the captive youths discover Emilie walking in the prison garden. It may have been that Chaucer's story, which was in its turn a reproduction of the Teseide of Boccaccio, together with the similarity, in some points, of his own fate to that of Palamon and Arcite, suggested to the young king the plot of the Quhair. The common story is, however, that the Beauty of James's prison-garden was the Lady Jane Beaufort, first cousin of Henry V., who became eventually Queen of Scot

1 Cicero.

2 Equal to.

3 Followedst also. 4 Encumbrance of the world, i.e. Death. 5 Slain. 7 Bereave. 8 Must needs do according to her office.

6 Hasty.

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