which accordingly happened soon after at Southwark, where he then resided, in 1402. His remains were interred in St. John's Chapel, and to his memory a monument of unparalleled magnificence, for that age, was erected, upon which was inscribed a Latin Epitaph, that may be thus rendered into English.

His shield henceforth is useless grown,

To pay death's tribute slain,

His soul with joyous freedom flown,
Where spotless spirits reign.

Gower was a man of very extensive literary and legal attainments, and his poems, therefore, were rather the offspring of his learning than of his genius. His spirit was bold and uncompromising, and he accordingly inveighed in clear and energetic language against the debaucheries of the times, the immorality of the clergy, the wickedness of corrupt judges, and the vices of an abandoned court.

His principal poetic work was a poem in three parts, which were respectively entitled, Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis ; the last of which, the 'Confession of a Lover,' was written in English, and was so pure and elevated in tone and sentiment, that Chaucer, upon reading it, immediately called its author, in spontaneous admiration, the Moral Gower—an encomium, to deserve which in that corrupt age, certainly argues very exalted merit. From this poem we select the following specimen, as it fully indicates the character of the author's poetic genius.

THE ENVIOUS MAN AND THE MISER.

Of Jupiter thus I find y-writ,

How whilom that he would wit,

Upon the plaints which he heard

Among the men, how it fared,

As of the wrong condition

To do justification;

And for that cause down he sent

An angel, that about went,

That he the sooth know may.

So it befel upon a day,

This angel which him should inform

Was clothed in a man's form,

And overtook, I understand,

Two men that wenten over lond;
Through which he thought to aspy
His cause, and go'th in company.
This angel with his words wise
Opposeth them in sundry wise;
Now loud words and now soft,
That made them to disputen oft;
And each his reason had,

And thus with tales he them led,

With good examination,

Till he knew the condition,

What men they were both two;
And saw well at last tho,1

That one of them was covetous,
And his fellow was envious.

And thus when he hath knowledging,
Anon he feigned departing,

And said he mote algate wend;
But hearken now what fell at end!
For than he made them understond
That he was there of God's sond,
And said them for the kindship,
He would do them some grace again,
And bade that one of them should sain,2
What thing is him levest to crave,3

And he it shall of gift have.

And over that ke forth with all

He saith, that other have shall

The double of that his fellow axeth;

And thus to them his grace he taxeth.

The Covetous was wonder glad;
And to that other man he bade,
And saith, that he first ax should;
For he supposeth that he would
Make his axing of world's good;
For then he knew well how it stood;
If that himself by double weight
Shall after take, and thus by sleight
Because that he would win,
He bade his fellow first begin.

This Envious, though it be late,
When that he saw he mote, algate,
Make his axing first, he thought,
If he his worship and profit sought
It shall be double to his fere,

That he would chuse in no manner.
But then he showeth what he was
Toward envy, and in this case,
Unto this angel thus he said,
And for his gift thus he prayed,
To make him blind on his one ee,
So that his fellow nothing sec.
This word was not so soon spoke,
That his one ee anon was loke:
And his fellow forthwith also
Was blind on both his eyes two.
Tho was that other glad enough:
That one wept, that other lough.
He set his one ee at no cost,
Whereof that other two hath lost.

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE, the last writer to whom ou attention will at present be directed, was born at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, in the begin3 What thing he was most disposed to crave.

1 Then.

2 Say.

ning of the fourteenth century. He was liberally educated, and was designed for the medical profession; but early conceiving an unconquerable desire to visit foreign countries, he left England when in the twenty-third year of his age, and passed thirty-four years in travelling through various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, visiting Cythia, the Greater and the Lesser Armenia, Arabia, Syria, Media, Mesopotamia, Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Dalmatia, and Egypt, dwelling a sufficient length of time in each of these countries to acquire a thorough knowledge of their respective languages, and closely to inspect the habits and manners of the people.

On his return to his native country, Mandeville wrote an Iteniary, or account of his travels, in the Latin, the French, and the English languages respectively; but his absence had been so prolonged by his various journeyings in foreign lands, that when he returned home he could not be recognized even by his relatives and friends. This circumstance, together with the vices with which his native country then abounded, induced him again to leave his home, to pass the remainder of his life among strangers. He, accordingly, embarked once more for the continent, but soon after died at Liege, in Holland, on the seventeenth of November, 1372, and in the seventy-third year of his age.

The travels of Mandeville contain little information that is important at the present time, farther than as they contribute to furnish us with another specimen of the English language in the fourteenth century. The following extract, however, presents a moral lesson which should not be neglected :

A MOHAMMEDAN'S LECTURE ON CHRISTIAN VICES.

And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords, and other; for he would speak to me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. And I said [to] him, 'Right well, thonked be God.' 'And he said [to] me, 'Truly nay, for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day and all night, and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when they have enow. And therewithal they ben so proud, that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now daggered, and in all manner guises. They shoulden ben simple, meek, and true, and full of alms-deeds, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they been all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they been so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han, [have] they lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serve God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living, (as they ben

now) we have no dread of 'em in no kind; for here God will not helpen 'em in no wise.'

And then I asked him how he knew the state of Christian men. And he answered me, when he knew all the states of the commons also by his messengers, that he sent to all londs, in manner as they were merchants of precious stones, of cloths of gold, and of other things, for to knowen the manner of every country amongs Christian men. And then he let clepel in all the lords, that he made voiden first out of his chamber; and there he showed me four that were great lords in the country, that tolden me of my country, and of many other Christian countries, as well as if they had been of the same country; and they spak French right well, and the Soudan also, whereof I had great marvel. Alas, that it is great slander to our faith and to our laws, when folk that ben withouten law shall reproven us, and undernemen 2 us of our sins. And they that shoulden ben converted to Christ, and to the law of Jesu, by our good example, and by our acceptable life to God, ben through our wickedness and evil living, far fro us; and strangers fro the holy and very3 belief shall thus appallen us and holden us for wicked livirs and cursed. And truly they say sooth. For the Saracens ben good and faithful. For they keepen entirely the commandment of the holy book Alcoran, that God sent 'em by his messager Mahomet; to the which, as they sayen, St. Gabriel, the angel, oftentimes told the will of God.

1 Call

2 Remind.

3 Truc.

Lecture the Third.

CAUSES OF THE DEARTH IN LITERATURE THAT FOLLOWED THE AGE OF EDWARD THE THIRD-THE FORMATION OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE LOWLANDS OF SCOTLAND-SCOTTISH POETS-JOHN BARBOUR-ANDREW WYNTOUN-BLIND HARRYJAMES THE FIRST-ROBERT HENRYSON-WILLIAM DUNBAR-GAVIN DOUGLASSIR DAVID LYNDSAY-SIR PATRICK SPENS.

THE light of genius which spread such lustre over the English nation during the reign of Edward the Third, and that of his successor Richard the Second, when Wickliffe was shaking the papal power of Rome to its very center, and Chaucer was chanting forth his sweet poetic strains, and Gower was clothing his severe moral and didactic lessons in harmonious numbers, was succeeded by a long period of literary darkness and gloom; for, from that time until toward the close of the reign of Henry the Eighthembracing a period of more than a century and a half-only an occasional literary star glimmered through the surrounding darkness. The civil disturbances by which the kingdom was then convulsed, was probably the principal reason why this was the state of the national mind; for while men were trembling for their lives, they were not likely to occupy themselves very greatly, either in the production, or the perusal of literary works.

The sceptre first passed from the strenuous grasp of Edward the Third into the feeble hands of his grandson Richard the Second. Then came the usurpation of the Duke of Lancaster, which was soon followed by the rebellion of the Earl of Northumberland, and afterward the long and bloody war of the Roses. Henry the Seventh of the House of Lancaster, however, after triumphing over Richard the Third of the opposite faction, by marrying Elizabeth, heiress of the House of York, united the interest of the contending parties; but it occupied the whole of that monarch's long and vigorous reign to raise the kingdom from the exhausted state in which he found it, to happiness and prosperity. His son and successor, Henry the Eighth, succeeded to an undisputed crown; and as he had been carefully educated, and possessed some small degree of literary taste, he made some pretensions to the patronage of learning. This dark period was, it is true, occasionally relieved by some light of genius twinkling through its murky gloom. To a brief notice