life and writings of the author, and the second on Scotish music. A strange fatality seems to have attended the literature of this period. It has been just observed, that King James's work has been lately recovered by the casual preservation of a single manuscript. His contemporary, Charles duke of Orleans, father of Louis XII. is still very imperfectly known to the public, by means of some short specimens of his poetry, given in the Annales Poetiques (Paris, 1778), and of a few more published in M. de Paulmy's Mélanges d'une grande Bibliotheque. It is singular enough, that the two best poets of the age; both of royal blood; both prisoners at the same court; both distinguished by their military as well as literary talents; both admired during their lives, and regretted after death, as the brightest ornaments of their respective nations; should have been forgotten by the world during more than three centuries, and at length restored to their reputation at the same period. The duke of Orleans, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, acquired such a proficiency in our language, during a stay of twenty years in this country, as to write several small pieces of English poetry, which are said to be still preserved in MS. in the Royal Library at Paris. These may possibly not be worth transcribing; but whatever be their poetical merit, they may fairly be adduced as a * Mr. Ritson has inserted (page 49 of his Dissertation on Ancient Songs and Music, London, 1790) a specimen of this prince's English poetry, copied from No. 682 of the Harleian MSS. It is a dialogue between a lover and his mistress, but being founded on a strange sort of pun or play on words, it is very obscure, and apparently not worth unriddling. Another MS. in the Museum (Bibl. Reg. 16. F. ii), solely consisting of poems by the Duke of Orleans, affords three specimens of his attempts at English poetry; and, as they are very short, and never were printed, I shall here subjoin them all, in their original orthography. CHANÇON I. Ne were' my trewe innocent hert, How ye hold, with her, aliaúns, That, somtym, with word of plésaúns, Daceyved you under covért. Thynke how the stroke of love com smért, Without warnyng or deffiaúns.3 Ne were, &c. And 3 ye shal, pryvely or appert, See her by me in Love's dauns, With her faire feminyn contenauns, Ye shal never fro her astert! Ne were, &c. Query, if a mistake of the transcriber, for beware ?. or, perhaps, for nay!'ware. Mistrust. Fr. 3 An if. proof that our language had, at this time, acquired some estimation in the eyes of foreigners. CHANÇON II, My hertly love is in your governaúns, 1 The MS. from which the foregoing extracts were made, contains some illuminations of exquisite beauty. One of these represents the duke, in the white tower, writing, and 1 On. 4 If that? 2 Care, attention. * Lowliness. 5 At any time? 6 I cannot understand the word iniust; perhaps it means exactly. Helis is perhaps hele-less, i. e. unhealthy, diseased. It has been observed, that King James is represented to have been a complete master of music: this art, indeed, was considered, perhaps from someindistinct notion of its effects, in humanizing the savage inhabitants of the earth, as a part of education, not only essential to the accomplished knight, but to the sovereign and legislator; and as closely connected with every branch of learning, whether abstract or political. In Pierce Ploughman, Science says, Logic I learned her, and many other laws, And all the unisons in musick I made her to know. Fordun, in his Scoti Chronicon, has employed a whole chapter in describing James's uncommon excellence in the art; and Mr. Tytler, combining this testimony, with a very curious passage in the works of Alessandro Tassoni, has inferred, that James I. was the "reformer, if not the inventor of "the Scotish songs, or vocal music." By this he means, not that the peculiar melody of Scotish airs, took its rise in the fifteenth century, but that James I. adapted it to modern harmony, and attended by guards: at a distance is London bridge, with the houses and chapel built upon it; and the latter building is so minutely drawn, as to afford a very good idea of what it really was. The MS. was written for the use of Henry VI. introduced it into regular composition, by which means, it became known to the musical professors of Italy and the rest of Europe. Mr. Pinkerton, on the contrary, is of opinion that the "Giacomo, "Re di Scozia," mentioned by Tassoni, is not the first but the fifth king of that name. The reader must decide between them. After the death of the duke of Albany, the incapacity of his successor, induced the Scotish nobility to enter into serious negotiation for the liberty of their captive sovereign; who, after agreeing to pay a heavy ransom for his freedom, was married, in 1424, to his beloved mistress, and at the same time restored to his kingdom. In 1437 he was assassinated at Perth, after a reign of twelve years, equally honourable to himself, and beneficial to his people. |