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And long before high noon they had
An hundred fat bucks slain :
Then having dined, the drovers went
To rouse the deer again.

The bow-men muster'd on the hills,
Well able to endure;

Their backsides all, with special care,

That day were guarded sure.

The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,

The nimble deer to take,

That with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make.

Lord Percy to the quarry went,
To view the slaughter'd deer,
Quoth he, Earl Douglas promised
This day to meet me here.

But if I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay.

With that, a brave young gentleman
Thus to the Earl did say:

Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armor bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
All marching in our sight;

All men of pleasant Tivydale,
Fast by the river Tweed:

O cease your sports, Earl Percy said,
And take your bows with speed:

And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For there was never champion yet,
In Scotland or in France,

That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,

I durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spear.

Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,

Most like a baron bold,

Rode foremost of his company,

Whose armor shone like gold.

Show me, said he, whose men you be
That hunt so boldly here,

That, without my consent, do chase

And kill my fallow-deer.

The first man that did answer make,

Was noble Percy he;

Who said, We list not to declare,

Nor show whose men we be:

Yet we will spend our dearest blood
Thy chiefest harts to slay.
Then Douglas swore a solemn oath,
And thus in rage did say,

Ere thus I will out-braved be,

One of us two shall die:

I know thee well, an earl thou art,
Lord Percy, so am I.

But trust me, Percy, pity it were,
And great offense to kill
Any of these our guiltless men,

For they have done no ill.

Let thou and I the battle try,
And set our men aside.
Accurst be he, Earl Percy said,
By whom this is denied.

Then stepp'd a gallant squire forth,
Witherington was his name,
Who said, I would not have it told
To Henry our king for shame,

That e'er my captain fought on foot,
And I stood looking on;

You be two earls, said Witherington,
And I a squire alone:

I'll do the best that do I may,

While I have power to stand:
While I have power to wield my sword,
I'll fight with heart and hand.

Our English archers bent their bows,
Their hearts were good and true;
At the first flight of arrows sent,
Full threescore Scots they slew.

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From these remarks upon the poetry of England between the age of Chaucer and that of Elizabeth, we proceed to notice the prose writers of the same period. These will be found both more numerous, and of more elevated merit than the former.

SIR JOHN FORTESCUE, the first prose writer that appeared after Chaucer and Wickliffe, was born of an ancient family at Wear Gifford, in Devonshire about 1405. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, whence he removed to Lincoln's Inn, London, for the purpose of preparing for the law. His legal attainments soon became so great as to attract the attention of the court, and in 1430 he received the degree of sergeant-at-law. In 1441 he was made king's sergeant-at-law, and the next year appointed chief-justice of the king's bench at Westminster. These marks of royal confidence and favor were the result of Fortescue's integrity, wisdom, and firmness; but his attachment to the house of Lancaster proved the source of bitter persecutions; for in the first parliament of Edward the Fourth, he was attainted of high treason. Henry the Sixth had, meantime, escaped into Scotland, whither Fortescue immediately followed him, and was nominated by the exiled monarch, Chancellor of England.

From Scotland he embarked with queen Margaret and her son prince Edward, in 1463, for Holland, and remained for several years in exile in Lorraine. It was during his residence abroad that the chancellor composed most of his literary works, after which he returned to England, became reconciled to the reigning sovereign, and passed the remainder of his life in the quiet of retirement. He lived to reach nearly the ninetieth

year of his age, and must therefore have died about 1495. Besides several performances in the Latin language, chief-justice Fortescue wrote, The difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy, as it more particularly regards the English Constitution, in English; in which he draws a striking, though, perhaps, exaggerated contrast between the condition. of the French under an arbitrary monarch, and that of his own countrymen, who even at that time possessed very considerable privileges as subjects. The following extract from this work conveys at the same time, an idea of the literary style, and of the manner of thinking of that age.

ENGLISH COURAGE.

It is cowardice and lack of hearts and courage, that keepeth the Frenchmen from rising, and not poverty; which courage no Frenchman hath like to the Englishman. It hath been often seen in England that three or four thieves, for poverty, hath set upon seven or eight true men, and robbed them all. But it hath not been seen in France, that seven or eight thieves have been hardy to rob three or four true men. Wherefore it is right seld1 that Frenchmen be hanged for robbery, for that they have no hearts to do so terrible an act. There be therefore mo men hanged in England, in a year, for robbery and manslaughter, than there be hanged in France for such cause of crime in seven years. There is no man hanged in Scotland in seven years together for robbery, and yet they be oftentimes hanged for larceny, and stealing of goods in the absence of the owner thereof; but their hearts serve them not to take a man's goods while he is present and will defend it; which manner of taking is called robbery. But the Englishman be of an other courage; for if he be poor, and see an other man having riches which may be taken from him by might, he wal not spare to do so, but if that poor man be right true. Wherefore it is not poverty, but it is lack of heart and cowardice, that keepeth the Frenchmen from rising.

WILLIAM CAXTON, the English prose writer who follows Fortescue, and who is worthy to be held in immortal remembrance as the first who gave to England the means of diffusing knowledge through the medium of printing, was born in the weald of Kent about 1410. Having been brought up a mercer, he was employed by the Mercer's Company of London as their agent in the Netherlands-a situation which he filled with great credit to himself for the space of twenty-three years. During this agency he was employed by Edward the Fourth to negotiate a treaty between that

1 Seldom.

2 But if-unless.

3 The art of impressing characters upon paper with blocks of carved wood, was discovered in 1430, by Laurence Coster of Haarlem, in the Netherlands; and movable types were invented by John Guttenburgh of Mentz, in Germany, 1440; soon after which Shoeffer and Faust founded types of metal.

prince and the Duke of Burgundy, and was subsequently in the employment of Lady Margaret, the duke's wife.

Some years after he commenced his residence in the Netherlands, Caxton acquired a knowledge of the art of printing, and at the request of the duchess he translated The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, from the French, and printed it at Cologne 1471. This is the earliest typographical production in the English language, and is now very scarce, and therefore of very great value. Soon after this event he returned to England, and in 1476, established a printing press in Westminster Abbey, the first work issued from which was the Game and Playe of Chesse. From this period he continued his typographical labors for about eighteen years, and died 1492, in his eighty-third year. From the writings of this author we quote the following characteristic passage, found at the conclusion of his translation of the Golden Legends.

LEGEND OF ST. FRANCIS.

Francis, servant and friend of Almighty God, was born in the city of Assyse, and was made a merchant unto the 25th year of his age, and wasted his time by living vainly, whom our Lord corrected by the scourge of sickness, and suddenly changed him into an other man; so that he began to shine by the spirit of prophecy. For on a time, he, with other men of Peruse, was taken prisoner, and were put in a cruel prison, where all the other wailed and sorrowed, and he only was glad and enjoyed. And when they had repreved1 him thereof, he answered Know ye,' said he,' that I am joyful: for I shall be worshipped as a saint throughout all the world,' * * * On a time as this holy man was in prayer, the devil called him thrice by his own name. And when the holy man had answered him, he said, none in this world is so great a sinner, but if he convert him, our Lord would pardon him; but who that sleeth himself with hard penance, shall never find mercy. And anon, this holy man knew by revelation the fallacy and deceit of the fiend, how he would have withdrawn him fro to do well. And when the devil saw that he might not prevail against him, he tempted him by grievous temptation of the flesh. And when this holy servant of God felt that, he despoiled his cloaths, and beat himself right hard with an hard cord, saying, 'Thus, brother ass, it behoveth thee to remain and to be beaten.' And when the temptation departed not, he went out and plunged himself in the snow, all naked, and made seven great balls of snow, and purposed to have taken them into3 his body, and said, 'This greatest is thy wife; and these four, two ben thy daughters and two thy sons; and the other twain, that one thy chambrere, and that other thy valet or yeman; haste and clothe them: for they all die for cold. And if thy business that thou hast about them, grieve ye sore, then serve our Lord perfectly.' And anon, the devil departed all confused; and St. Francis returned again unto his cell glorifying God.

He was ennobled in his life by many miracles * * * and the very death, which is to all men horrible and hateful, he admonished them to praise it. And also he warned and admonished death to come to him, and said, 'Death, my sister, welcome be you.' And when he came at the last hour, he slept in our Lord; of whom a friar saw the soul, in manner of a star, like to the moon in quantity, and the sun in clearness.

1 Reproved.

2 Took off.

3 Unto.

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