The savage crew, by TYLER's death inflamed,

Were by his conduct, mild, yet brave, reclaimed. The anarchy that er'st prevailed,

Is by friend ANDREW's thus detailed,

Translated in a prosperous hour,

From that famed poet Master GOWER:*

"WAT cries, Toм flies, nor SYмKIN stays aside; "And BATT and GIBB, and HYKE† they summon loud,

"COLIN and BOв combustibles provide,

"While WILL the mischief forwards in the crowd;

GREG hawls, HoB bawls, and DAVY joins the

cry

"With LARRY, not the least among the throng;

Gower's verses as a specimen of this reign's literature may not be unacceptable, particularly from the comic effect produced by putting English nick-names into a Latin dress.

"WATTE Vocat cui THOMA venit, neque SYMME retardat,

"BAT que, GIBBE simul, HYKKE venire subent.

"COLLE furit, quem BOBBE juvat, nocumenta parantes,

"Cum quibus ad damnum WILLE coire vovet.

"GRIGGE rapit, Dun DAVIE, strepit, comes est quibus IIOBBE,

"LARKIN, et in medio non minor esse putat,

"HUDDE ferit, quem JUDDE terit, dum TIBBE juvatur, "JAKKE domosque vivos vellit, & ense necat, &c."

+ Isarc.

"With

"HODGE drubbs, JUDE Scrubbs, while TIB stands

grinning by,

"And JACK with sword and firebrand madly strides along.

In thirteen hundred eighty two,

The King had something more to do;

For doomed to lead a restless life,
Bohemian ANN he took to wife.

In thirteen hundred eighty three,
A Bishop* militant we see

Against the French, who does no more
Than JOHN of GAUNT achieved before.
In eighty four and eighty five,
The Scots against our armies thrive;
And RICHARD loses JOAN his mother,†

For grief, he would'nt spare his brother.
In thirteen hundred eighty six,

King RICHARD's favourites play sad tricks ;
Degrading so their lord's condition,

The crown was rendered in commission.‡

* Norwich.

In

† She broke her heart because Richard would not forgive Lord Holland, her son by a second marriage, for the murder of Lord Stafford's heir. Yet the inconsistent King granted him the next day the very pardon which, however unjust, would some hours earlier have saved his parent's life.

The King was forced through a dread of deposition to

abandon

In eighty seven the French confess,
The British Tars command success;
Being by NOTTINGHAM's brave fleet.
As since by others, soundly beat.*
'Twas TRESI L'AN and BREMBRES fate,
To swing in thirteen eighty eight;
"Sponges "who "soak'd authority
'Till "squeez'd, and then hung up to dry;"
In this year too we find a place

For famous fight of CHEVY CHACE †
In thirteen hundred eighty nine,
The Nobles to the King resign
Unfettered rule, and ninety sees

(Only one year) the land at ease.

With

abandon his Ministers, and even commit the government of the realm to twelve commissioners appointed by parliament.

* He took one hundred and fifty sail.

† Celebrated by ancient Scotch Bards as the battle of Otterbourne.-Vide Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, p. 27.

Richard at this period abounded in money, which he raised by various extortions, to squander it away in ridiculous prodigality; of this, John Hardinge, a cotemporary poet," not over smoothly," sings:

"Truly I herd Robert Ireleffe say,

"(Clerke of the grene cloth) that to the housholde
"Came every dayè forth, most part alway,

"Ten thousand folkis, bi his messes told,

"That follow'd the house, ayè as thei wold;

"And

With ninety one some Dæmon sent
Famine and plague and discontent;
Nor ninety two, nor three brought more
Of happiness, while ninety four,

Still to depress the luckless man,'

Deprived him of his good Queen ANN;
Who bid the fair no more bestride

Their steeds like men, but first to ride
As now, with decent modest pride,
Gracing the happy saddle's side.

" 'And, in the ketchin, three hundred servitours,
"And, in eche office, many occup❜ours;
"Chamberers also, eke and launderers,
"And ladies fair, with their gentlewomen,
"Three hundred of them occupied were then,
"There was great pride among the officers;
« And of all men far passing their compeers,
“Of rich arraye, and more cost o-us,

"Than was before or since more preci-ous."

Richard's favorite method of obtaining money, was by loan; the proportions of the respective sums (as given by Andrews, from Rymer's Fædera) will shew the comparative wealth of the English Cities:

"York, Gloucester, Salisbury, and Lincoln, each
"Cambridge, Canterbury, & Southampton, each
"Bristol

"Norwich

500 22

In ninety five his better star
Assists him in the Irish war;
And 'tis his fate in ninety six,

On Is'BEL* for a wife to fix,

Some bridegrooms had prefer'd to wait,
The lady's years were only eight.
In ninety seven GLO'STER fell,

And foully too, as records tell.
In ninety eight the banishment
Of HEREFORD† such discontent
Did in his partizans create,

As caus'd the King's ensuing fate;
For HEREFORD, his father dead,

(He, Duke of Lancaster instead),

Returns with means which soon encrease,
AS RICHARD's failing powers cease;
And BOLINGBROKE‡ the King deposes,
Whose scene of earthly grandeur closes.

Forced

* Daughter to Charles the Sixth of France.

+ Henry of Bolingbroke, son to the Duke of Lancaster.

A manuscript in the late Royal Library at Paris, entitled Embassies, and numbered 8448, makes the unfortunate Richard reproach the ingratitude of Bolingbroke, in what are given as his genuine words: "Thrice have I saved his life; once my dear uncle of Lancaster (on whom God have mercy) would have slain

him