as is the "Soul's Voyage" of that admirable poem "The Soul's Errand,” the author of which is still uncertain, it having been found under the names of Raleigh, and Sylvester, and others, with singular varieties and additions. There are two sonnets, the author J. M. (John Milton), but these we do not reckon among the most successful. Dryden we like much better, especially the concluding lines: Heaven, that bestows the happiest gifts on men Then, ROYAL SIRE, revive the Imperial day, AND LEAVE IN MARBLE WHAT YOU FOUND IN CLAY! This clever and agreeable volume_ends with "The Author's Apology for his Book," attempted in the manner of J. B. (John Bunyan), from which we make this our latest extract: Whenas the late Exchange, like its old Sire, Near seven years since went to the ground in Fire; Had been long since the Friend esteem'd of him To hang this GARLAND on his EDIFICE, And here we take our leave of a production of genius, certainly as clever and as successfully executed as any of the kind within the compass of our recollection. B-h-ll. IGNOTO, we have read your book; Chamelion-like you change your hue; For wheresoe'er on it we look, Instant it shifts its magic view. Proteus you are of poesy; Colour and shape you take at will: But, unlike him in history, You ne'er assume a form of ill. Could those old poets now revive, And read what in their name you've said, They'd all exclaim, that "when alive They never wrote so well as dead." Like as the structure that you praise J. M. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. Biographia Britannica Literaria (Anglo-Norman Period). By Thomas Wright, M.A. TO Mr. Wright's former volume, treating of Anglo-Saxon literature, he has now added one of equal importance, and equally well executed, of the literature which succeeded it, namely, that which accompanied and followed the possession of our country by the Normans. "The use," says Mr. Wright, in his clear and learned introduction, "of the Anglo-Saxon in writing was almost abolished after the invasion of the Normans. It was only preserved in the continuation for a time of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and in some productions, mostly of a religious or moral character, for which we are probably indebted to the few Anglo-Saxon monks who were permitted to retain their places in our monasteries. Towards the end of this period the native literature begins again to make its appearance. At this time the Anglo-Norman had taken the place of the Anglo-Saxon; and we may properly divide the literature of the whole period into the two classes of Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman." Mr. Wright then gives a statement of the Anglo-Latin literature at the period of the Norman invasion, both in prose and poetry. The Poets flourished most during the middle of the thirteenth century, under the reign of Henry III.; but the most important class of writers was that of the Historians. William of Malmesbury is the most elegant of our medieval historians; and the names of Giraldus Cambrensis and William of Newbury stand high; but very little Latin prose that is tolerable was written after the middle of the thirteenth century. The letters which are preserved of this time, as those beginning with Lanfrane and Anselm, and afterwards of Becket and his friends, Mr. Wright considers to be among the most valuable illustrations of the public and private history of the age to which they belong. The Normans brought GENT. MAG. VOL. XXVI, with them to this country a language formed from a dialect of the ancient Latin, called Lingua Romana, or Langue Romane, which is the parent of the modern French. The popular literature of the Normans previous to the twelfth century is totally unknown to us. There does not appear any memorial of the language earlier than the year 1100, and it first makes its appearance in poems of a religious and serious character. Religion and Romance appear to be the subjects of song. In the reign of Stephen subjects were taken from natural history, as the poetry of Wace and Benoit shews; but a new æra of Norman literature opened with the reign of Richard I. and he was the patron of jongleurs and trouvères, whose works became more numerous at this period. Mr. Wright has an observation on the text of the Metrical Romances, which no doubt is equally applicable to that of the Homeric poems, composed in a state of society in some respects probably very similar. Many of the Metrical Romances were preserved orally by successive jongleurs, and when committed to writing they differed much from the original copy. This is the reason that different manuscripts of the earlier romances, taken down from the recital of different persons, vary so much from one another, as in the case of the Chanson de Roland." The Latin writers of the twelfth century contain many allusions to the existence of the jongleurs and trouvères; but it was not till the thirteenth century that their compositions were preserved in writing; and then Mr. Wright tells us, "their history in England becomes more complicated, because a more purely national literature was springing up, in which the other was gradually merged." The first name in Mr. Wright's volume is that of Lanfranc, being in the latter half of the eleventh century, and the last, with the exception of some minor writers, is William the trouvère, in the year 1213; and when we mention H that in this obscure age, and with such scanty materials for use, Mr. Wright has given us an account of no less than one hundred and fifty writers between the two above-mentioned, we may conceive the knowledge and industry with which his valuable and curious biography is composed. Among these, of course, to the general reader and even to persons well informed as to the authors of the history and literature of this period, most of the names mentioned will be but names, sounds bringing with them no associations of acquaintance with the person; but every name that can be received is valuable, as forming a link in the great historic chain, and we cannot but admire the research, and applaud the success, with which this learned and laborious work has been achieved. And now let us draw off the clouds and mists of age from a star or two as we pass along. Godfrey of Winchester, who died 1107, was the first and best of the Anglo-Norman writers of Latin verse. He is said to approach nearly to the poetry of Martial, who was his model. Camden printed some of his epigrams in his Remains. We give one: Pauca utilia multis inutilibus præponenda. Pauca Titus pretiosa dabat, sed vilia plura; Ut meliora habeam, pauca det, oro, Titus. The name of Anselm is the first great name we meet (1033-1109), and the biography is highly interesting. Mr. Wright thus sums up the character of this prelate, who held the see of Canterbury for sixteen years. "Anselm was equal to Lanfranc in learning, and far exceeded him in piety. In his private life he was modest, humble, and sober in the extreme. He was obstinate only in defending the interests of the Church of Rome, and, however we may judge the claims themselves, we must acknowledge that he supported them from conscientious motives. Reading and contemplation were the favourite occupations of his life, and even the time required for his meals, which were extremely frugal, he employed in discussing philosophical and theological questions. By his rare genius he did much towards bringing metaphysics into repute. He laid the foundation of a new school of theology, which was free from the servile character of the older writers, who did little more than collect together a heap of authorities on the subjects which they treated. The Monologium and the Proslogium are admirable specimens of abstract reasoning. His reading was extensive, and his style is clear and vigorous," &c. Athelard, of Bath (1110-1120), appears to have been one of the men most richly endowed with talent and learning of those periods. Mr. Wright says, "his is the greatest name in English science before Robert Grossetête and Roger Bacon. He travelled to Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, and probably studied among the Arabs of the East, and was absent in his pursuit of learning for seven years. His celebrity was great in after times, and in the thirteenth century Vincent of Beauvais calls him "Philosophus Anglorum." We next meet with Ordericus Vitalis (1075-1143), whose works on ecclesiastical history are among the most valuable of those old ones we possess, though wanting in system and sometimes inaccurate in dates. Turold, who lived in the time of Stephen, is the author of the earliest known romance in the Anglo-Norman language, the "Chanson de Roland," describing the disastrous battle of Roncevaux. His verse is of a very peculiar structure, vowels, independent of the consonants. in which the final rhyme rests on the Mr. Wright has quoted a passage from the death of Roland, and he says there are many passages possessing pathetic traits of considerable beauty in the poem. The only original MS. exists in the Bodleian library, from which M. Michel printed his edition in 1837. William of Malmesbury is a name better known than any of the preceding; and he was one of the most remarkable writers of the twelfth century. "He was the first English writer, after Bede, who attempted successfully to raise history above the dry and undigested de. tails of a chronicle. He boasts, and not without reason, of his industry in collecting materials. We cannot discover that he used any written authorities for the earlier portion of his history except such as are well known; but he lived at a period when a vast number of valuable traditions and legends of the Saxon times still existed, and he fortunately had the taste to collect many of them and preserve them in his work. On this account, next to the Saxon Chronicle, he is the most valuable authority for Anglo-Saxon history. In his annals of the Norman period, and of his own time, he is judicious, and, as far as could be expected, unprejudiced: and his constant reluctance to treat of the period at which he was writing shows his desire to be unbiassed and impartial. He was evidently a good scholar, and had read much. His Latin is not incorrect, and his style is much more pleasing than that of any previous writer of English history," &c. There is an excellent account of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and of his celebrated history; but we shall trespass on our limits if we allow ourselves the gratification of further transcription, and we can only point out a few other of the more remarkable names reader will here find that he also spent much of his time in literary pursuits (p. 291). The next name, that of Walter Mapes, is far better known, indeed, Mr. Wright says, he was one of the most remarkable of the literary men at the court of Henry the Second. There is a very judicious and careful account of his works, with their merits and defects, at pp. 298, 299. He was Latin, and to him we are indebted for a writer in Anglo-Norman as well as a large portion of the cycle of the romances of the Round Table in their earliest form. His work, entitled "De Nugis Curialium," is now in the press for the Camden Society, which has already printed a volume of the Latin Poetry commonly attributed to him. noticed. Laurence of Durham (1154) was the best, and, indeed, a remarkable writer of Latin verse for his day. following lines became very popular, Many years ago we remember the Mr.Wright quotes from his Hypognos-being quoted in the notes to the Purticon, or Scriptural History, some parts suits of Literature :— of which, describing his personal history, and his prospects, studies, and amusements, are very interesting. Religious duties and poetry divided the good man's time,-" Missas et carmina amo." The Life of Ailred of Rievaux should not be passed over without attention; his rules for the behaviour of the nuns is amusing, and shew that the good man watched sin in the cradle. "Pueris et puellis nullum ad te concedas accessum. Sunt quædam inclusæ quæ in docendis puellis occupantur, et cellam suam vertunt in scholam: illa sedet ad fenestram, istæ in porticu resident, illa intuetur singulas, et inter puellares motus nunc irascitur, nunc ridet, nunc minatur, nunc percutit, nunc blanditur, nunc osculatur, nunc flentem vocat pro verbere propius, palpat faciem, stringit collum, et in amplexum ruens nunc filiam vocat, nunc amicam," &c. The names that follow, of Wace (p. 203) and of Jordan Fantosme (p. 221), will be interesting to the lovers of poetry; but John of Salisbury, the most celebrated writer of the reign of Henry II. deserved and enjoys a more extended notice. (p. 230-245.) The Architrenius of John de Hauteville, one of the most remarkable Latin poets of the twelfth century, will not be overlooked (p. 250), with the description of the English drinking party in the twelfth century. Archbishop Baldwin is best known as the preacher of the third crusade, but the Meum est propositum in tabernâ mori, From these he has been called "the jovial archdeacon," "the Anacreon of his age," but this is all a mistake; the words are a mock confession in a poem called Confessio Golia, and the author, Mr. Wright tells us, was "a learned and elegant scholar, a man of good sense, high character, and strict morality." Of Richard Cœur de Lion Mr. Wright observes that "it is difficult to decide whether as a poct he ought to be classed exclusively with the troubadours or with the trouvères." The poet who appears under the name of Thomas (p. 340) was author of two of the most remarkable monuments of our early literature, the romance of Horn and that of Tristan. Of this latter poem, an English metrical translation was made in the beginning of the 14th century, and which was published by Sir Walter Scott, Mr. Wright informs us, “not very accurately, who had formed. some very wrong notions as to its history. We have now, we think, said enough to shew the value of the work before us, which is full of recondite and curious information, which certainly nothing but previously intimate knowledge of his subject could enable Mr. Wright to collect and dispose as he has done; and here we may refer, as to a rich store-house of information, concerning our early Romance poetry, our legendary stores, and our historical literature. A History of England under the AngloSaxon Kings. Translated from the German of Dr. J. M. Lappenberg, For. F.S.A., Keeper of the Archives of the City of Hamburg, by Benjamin Thorpe, F.S.A.; with additions and corrections by the Author and the Translator. 2 vols. 8vo. THAT this translation of an important contribution by a learned and enlightened foreigner to the historic literature of England, has not long globe, and to inquire into the character since been recommended to the atof each country. "jussit describere Omnes provincias, atque summopere Quæ bonæ fuerint, quæ non, inquirere." The afflicting result was, that the imperial messengers on their return declared that the worst of all the provinces of the world they had met with was the county of Norfolk. (See extracts from this poem in our number for Feb. 1846, p. 177.) John de St. Omer took up the pen in defence of his native county,"Nortfolchiensium cum sim de genere, Decet me patriam meam defendere." On the adjoining county of Suffolk we met with a fragment of a poem in the same monkish Latin in turning over some papers that belonged, we believe, to Thomas Martin, the antiquary of Palsgrave, in an old tattered manuscript which appeared to be a copy made about the time of Elizabeth. It is not very complimentary to the county, and seems dictated in a peevish and splenetic humour, probably by some laic who had quarreled with the neighbouring abbey, but we did not copy the whole. The title is merely "Suffolc. Provinc." but some additional words seem torn off or mutilated. "Nullæ silvæ, nullæ montes, Dum verbis captæ Euge,'' belle,' Apud stultos fit divina Gippo." tention of our readers, is mainly attributable to accident. Of Dr. Lappenberg's original production, printed in one volume at Hamburg in 1834, a short review was inserted in a former number of the Gentleman's Magazine;* but the work having since undergone (besides the process of translation) a strict revision by its author and the translator, and having, moreover, been considerably enlarged by both, may, in this country at least, be almost regarded as a new production, and as such lay claim to a more extended notice than was deemed necessary, while, in its original German, it continued a sealed book to the majority of English readers. Though to write again the story of England's earliest times, after the meritorious productions on the subject by Turner, Lingard, and Palgrave, may to many seem but actum agere, we can, nevertheless, assure those of our readers who so opine, that in the volumes under our consideration an abundance of highly interesting matter will be found, derived chiefly from foreign sources hitherto explored by very few of our countrymen, and of which some were hardly accessible be fore the publication of Dr. Pertz's inestimable volumes of the " Monumenta Germaniæ Historica." But, though manifesting throughout proofs of the most patient industry in the collection and use of materials wherever they were to be found,† as remainder is, through damp and worms, illegible. *For May 1835, p. 506. "My earnest endeavour to know and make known those sources of old English history which are at present accessible, would have been far from successful had Here the manuscript is torn, and the not the chiefs of the libraries at Göt |