willed them to go into the queen's chamber, who so did. And in the mean season, the king, with fifteen other, apparelled in Almayne jackets of Ermosyne, and purple satin, with long quartered sleeves, with hosen of the same suit; their bonnets of white velvet, wrapped in flat gold of damask, with visors and white plumes, came in with a mummery; and after a certain time that they had played with the queen and the strangers, they departed. Then suddenly entered six minstrels, richly apparelled, playing on their instruments; and then followed fourteen persons, gentlemen, all apparelled in yellow satin, cut like Almaynes, bearing torches. After them came six disguised in white satin and green, enbroudered and set with letters and castles of fine gold, in bullion. The garments were of strange fashion, with also strange cuts, every cut knit with points of fine gold, and tassels of the same; their hosen cut and tied in likewise; their bonnets of cloth of silver, wound with gold. First of these six was the king, the earl of Essex, Charles Brandon, sir Edward Howard, sir Thomas Knevet, and sir Henry Guilford. Then part of the gentlemen bearing torches departed, and shortly returned; after whom came in six ladies, apparelled in garments of Ermosyne, satin, enbroudered, and traversed with cloth of gold, cut in pomegranets and yokes, stringed after the fashion of Spain. Then the said six men danced] with these şix ladies; and after that they had danced a season, the ladies took off the men's visors, whereby they were knowen: whereof the queen and the strangers much praised the king, and ended the pastime. This will suffice for a specimen of the sort of matter frequently to be found in this author. Hall's Chronicle is one of the principal authorities for that dark period of our history, comprehending the wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster. But his narrative, (like those of his predecessor Fabian, and of his successors, Grafton and Holinshed,) is dull and tedious, often puerile. Nicholson says of him-" If the reader desires to know what sort of clothes were worn in each king's reign, and how the fashions altered, this is an historian to his purpose." It may be remarked, however, that all the ancient chroniclers derive no small portion of their value to a modern reader, from this minuteness of description relative to objects which would be disregarded by modern historians, as degrading the dignity of history for it is by means of such descriptions chiefly, that we are enabled to trace the : progress of manners, and to comprehend the state of society in any given period. In this view, we find some compensation for their dullness and want of judgment. TYNDALE, COVERDALE, ROGERS. Versions of the Bible. TYNDALE. THIS celebrated reformer was born on the borders of Wales, about the year 1500. At the usual age, he entered at Magdalene College, Oxford, where he early imbibed the tenets of Luther, and engaged with great zeal in their propagation. He subsequently removed to Cambridge, which he quitted to become an inmate in the house of sir Welch, in Glocestershire, in quality of tutor to his children. Here he displayed such zeal for Luther, and such enmity to the pope, that he was compelled to quit his place of residence. While he remained here, however, he trans lated into English, "Erasmus's Manual of a Christian Soldier," with the view (as he says himself,) of curing the vulgar error of men's placing religion in ceremonies, and more than Jewish observations of corporal things," &c. As the history of this distinguished reformer now becomes interwoven with the brief historical narrative I am about to give of the translations of the Bible, I shall say nothing more of him in this place. Versions of the Bible. About twenty-four years after the death of Wicliffe, archbishop Arundel, in a convocation of the clergy of his province assembled at Oxford, published a constitution, by which it was decreed, "that no one should thereafter translate any text of Holy Scripture into English, by way of a book, a little book, or tract; and that no book, &c. of this kind should be read that was composed lately in the time of John Wicliffe, or since his death." The Latin Bible, or Vulgate, was first printed in 1462, and by several succeeding edi |