Robert Longlande.

FLOR. CIRC. A. D. 1350.

It deserves to be spoken to the praise of poetry, that those who have cultivated the art have, in numerous instances, shown themselves very superior to the age in which they lived. Philosophers have frequently received this praise; and every anticipation, however slight, of improvements in science, every glance they have given at a world advancing in light and intelligence, has been justly regarded as a token of the loftiest intellectual power. But the noble elevation of poetical freedom,-its superiority to the fashions of the day,--its enmity to real prejudices and whatever else betokens an advance on the age, are far less carefully noted; and poetry is thus deprived of the credit which in some instances has been remarkably its due. This is especially the case with more than one of our early English writers, who, living in an iron age, when superstition was at its height, when every art that peculation could invent to keep the people in ignorance was exercised, stood boldly forth from among their brethren, and ventured to proclaim the laws of plain sense and reason. Robert Longlande belongs eminently to this number, and it is a matter of regret that tradition has not preserved more memorials of a man who deserves so well of his country and posterity. Antiquaries differ as to the precise period when he flourished, but the dates 1350 and 1362 point out with some degree of certainty the time at which he completed the work to which he owes his fame. It is also known, that he was a fellow of Oriel college, Oxford, and a secular priest. To the latter circumstance may probably be ascribed some portion of the freedom and intelligence, and still more the keen, biting sarcasm, which characterize his poem. The opposition which long prevailed between the secular and regular clergy, combined with the greater intercourse with society which the former enjoyed, gave to that class of the clerical order a very important advantage over their monastic brethren. Obliged to defend themselves and their conduct by continual appeals from the prejudices which had been fostered by the long reign of darkness to those practical rules of wisdom which it was their interest to inculcate, they naturally acquired a readiness in judging of men and affairs which could scarcely fail of enlarging their views, and rendering them useful instructors. To a man of good natural powers it must have afforded an immense advantage to stand in this position. While his professional character would give him innumerable opportunities of studying the world, it would prevent his being ruined with it; and while he would enjoy much of the reverence with which all orders of the clergy were then regarded, he would be free from the trammels which the regulars wore as the price of their respectability. That Longlande possessed ample qualifications for making the best use of his experience, his work abundantly proves, and the labours of critics have rarely been more profitably employed than they have been in elucidating or correcting the pages of this author. The Vision of Pierce Plowman' is a satire on the most conspicuous follies and superstitions of his cotemporaries. No rank or profession escapes his bold and sweeping sar

casın. He looks on the world with the eye of a severe moralist, but not without the gay feeling of a poet. His blows are quick and heavy, but he fights with a well-polished weapon; and while we may fairly give him the honour due to a useful instructor, we may, at the same time, consider his poem as deserving a high rank, as such, among the earliest of our classics. His own order suffers most severely under his hand, but he was too good a satirist to confine his views to one class of mankind, and in the introduction to the poem he represents himself as contemplating a vast and mixed multitude, composed of men of every age and degree :—

"And as I beheld on hey, est on to the sonne,

I saw a towr on a toft, ryaly emaked,

A depe dale be nethe, a donjoun therein,
With depe dykys and dyrke, and dredful of sygth;
A fayr feld ful of folke fond I ther betwene,-
Of al maner of men, the mene and the ryche,
Werkynge and wanderynge, as the werld askyth;
Summe put hem to the plow, pleyid hem ful seelde,
In syttynge and sowyng swonken full harde,
And wan that wastors with gloteny dystroid;
And somme put hem to pryde," &c. &c.

This vision and the others, in the description of which the poem consists, was seen by the author, as he represents, while he was sleeping, after having enjoyed a long and solitary ramble among the Malverne hills. In this respect he has followed the plan of more than one other early poet; and the student of Italian literature will remember that the famous Brunetto Latini, the preceptor of Dante, has formed his principal work on this system. The love of allegory rendered such a method of introducing the subject almost necessary, or, at least, gave a species of natural existence to the personages of the fable, and a verisimilitude to the relations, which they would not otherwise have possessed. In the land of dreams we may allow a man to converse with Avarice, Bribery, &c., as living visible personages; and if the poet has the art to lead his reader over the shadowy threshold, his descriptions thenceforth assume the form and air of realities. We find in Longlande's work some personifications which we with difficulty admit in the present day to intercourse with our fancy. Simony and Theology have too many grave associations in their train to flow easily into verse; but in the age when Longlande wrote, there was little nicety of taste in this respect, and whatever could be named was considered as lawfully subject to the process of personification. Thus, among his chief characters are Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best; Do-Evil is another; Wit and Thought are both active characters in the plot; See-Well, SayWell, and Hear-Well, have also distinct offices to perform. The last mentioned personages are honoured with the appellation of Sir; and accompanying them is 'Sir Godfray Go-Well.' The great object of their labour is to preserve the Soul, represented as a lady with the name of Anima, and the following lines will show how skilfully the author manages his numerous train of shadows :—

"Sir Dowel dwellith, coth Witt, nogt a day hennes

In a castel that kynde (nature) made, of four kynnes thinges;
Of erthe and of aier is hit made, medled togedris

With wynde and with watir, wittirly enjoyned.
Kynde hath closed therynne, craftely withalle
A Lemman that he loveth, lyk to hym selve,
Anima she hatte, ac Envy hire hateth,

A proud prikier of Fraunce, princeps hujus mundi,
And wold wynne hire away with wiles and he myghtte;
Ac Kynde knoweth this wel, and kepith hire the bettre,
And doth hire with Sire Dowel is duk of these marchis;
Dobest is hire damsel, Sire Dowellys dougtter,

To serve this lady leely, both late and rathe.
Dobest is above both a bieschoppis pere,

That he bitt mot be don he reuleth hein alle.

Anima that lady, is led by his leryng;

Ac the constable of that castel, that kepith al the watche,

Is a wise knightte withalle, Sire Inwitt he hatte,

And hath fyve fair sones bi his first wyf,

Sire Seewel and Saywel, and Huyrewel the end,

Sir Worchewel with thyn hond, a wyghtte man of strengthe,
And Sire Godfray Gowel, grete lordis forsothe

These fyve ben y sette, to save this lady Anima
Till Kynde come or send," &c.

The boldness of the poet, as well as his ingenuity, is shown in many spirited descriptions of the luxury of the clergy, and of the corruptions to which it led. Destitute as we are of all other means of judging of Longlande's personal character, we have so clear an image in his poetry of a free and lofty minded man,-of one whose sagacity gave vigour to his talents, and whose sense of moral right was equal both to his talents and his sagacity, that we can scarcely be mistaken in ascribing to him a portion of the praise belonging to those qualities.

John Gower.

BORN CIRC. A. D. 1326.-DIED A. D. 1402.

On arriving at the name of Gower, the literary historian finds himself entering on a new and wider track of inquiry. Poetry—when that celebrated man began to write-had been long cultivated in this country; and the metrical romances of 'Sir Guy,' of 'the Squire of Low Degree,' 'Sir Degore,' and others, evince considerable power of imagination, and no slight mastery over the strong but yet unsettled idioms of the Saxon English. The poems of Adam Davie, who lived at the commencement of the fourteenth century, of Richard Hampole, an Augustine monk, who wrote about forty years later, and those of Robert Longlande, the author of the far-famed Vision of Pierce Plowman', connect the period of wild fanciful romance with that of Gower and Chaucer. But these early productions created a taste which they could not satisfy. There were glimpses of beauty in the rude conceptions they embodied,—an occasional sweetness in the construction of the hardy verse; but these only made the readers of those times long for demonstrations of a power which the art of the poet had not yet attained. It required a period of luxury and refinement to give that polish to language which renders it a sure and mirror-like medium for the operations of genius. The same refinement was necessary to give the poet a field sufficiently wide and fruitful in subjects for the exer

cise of his talent. In a rude age, it is only the wildest creations of the imagination which can secure attention, and these, however modified, will always belong to the same class, and be imbued with the same spirit. Nothing can be more erroneous than the common notion that an uncivilized period is the most favourable to the developement of the imagination. The freedom with which it is allowed to act, is far more than counterbalanced by the barrenness and poverty of ideas with which that freedom is accompanied. Imagination, like all other faculties of the mind, requires nourishment; but it is only in civilized communities-in which, though passion may be concealed, there are stronger sympathies at work, more varied combinations of feeling, more both to fear and love,-that it can find enough to preserve it in a state, not of seeming, but of real activity. Hence it is, that the poetry of barbarous times is so generally monotonous though wild, and that the grandest triumphs of the imagination have been witnessed in ages of advanced civilization. Homer, Æschylus, and his followers, Shakspeare and Milton,-bear ample testimony to the truth of this observation; and if their works be compared with the productions of authors who lived in more unpolished periods, it will be at once seen how little the imagination owes to a barbarous freedom to what it does to polish and cultivation.

Gower and his distinguished cotemporary were the first English po ets who enjoyed all the advantages to be reaped from an improved age, from a highly refined education, and from constant intercourse with the noblest personages of the land. The reign of Edward the Third is celebrated in our national annals, as not less remarkable for the splendour of its events than the luxury which it introduced among the people. Every art by which domestic comfort could be increased was favoured by the wealthy populace, now growing into estimation as one of the orders of the state. The greater importance attached to the decisions of parliament conferred a respectability upon them which they had not before possessed, and hence not only diffused a general desire for the improvements of life, but taught them to appreciate better the qualifications of men of genius. While the people were thus prepared for a purer species of poetry than any that had yet been cultivated, and while the progress of intelligence was every day increasing its materials, and widening its range, the language was also undergoing an alteration strongly calculated to improve its harmony and flexibility. The growing pride of the nation, as well as its obvious interests, made the law which prohibited the further use of French in public deeds, as acceptable as it was politic. But the worst impediment to the refinement of the native language was thence removed. The Saxon words and idioms which yet stood out sharp and knotty obstacles to the smooth flow of its current, admitted of being worn down by the stream as it strengthened and enlarged itself; but the hitherto allowed superiority of French prevented any systematic attempts to improve it, and but for the conquests of Edward, and the advancement of national independence, the 'well of English undefiled' might never have existed.

It was under these circumstances that Gower and Chaucer laid the foundation of their school of poetry. The reign of Richard the Second gave a further impulse to the love of luxury, and the passion

for improvement which manifested themselves in the time of his predecessor. A spirit of religious independence and inquiry then began to appear, and the corruptions which had shortly before been the prey only of a few keen wits, were exposed by Wickliffe to the examination and censure of the people at large. The attention of all classes was thus by turns excited to political and religious inquiry, and the popular mind every where outgrew the garments which had been woven for it by ignorance and superstition.

We unfortunately possess few records of the personal history of Gower, but the little which is known of it shows him to have enjoyed from early youth all the literary advantages that could be procured in the period when he flourished. The patience of antiquaries has traced his origin to a wealthy family of the same name, settled at Stitenham, in Yorkshire; but the genealogy thus made out for him has been since disputed, and the descent of Gower may, therefore, be considered as still unsettled. That his education, however, was of the most liberal kind, is allowed by all his biographers, but where he received it is as much a matter of dispute as his origin. All we know is, that having finished his preliminary studies, he became a student of law in the Inner Temple, where he was distinguished for his great professional acquirements, and enjoyed the character of being as accomplished in general literature as he was in jurisprudence.

Both fortune and reputation rewarded the industry with which he cultivated his various talents. It has been conjectured by some writers that he received the honour of knighthood, and held a high legal appointment, but there is not sufficient foundation for this opinion, and the only well-authenticated part of the relation is, that he amassed considerable wealth, and that the greater portion of it was the fruit of his professional skill and perseverance. The knowledge of this circumstance explains the allusions which are made by Chaucer to the sober and moral character of his friend, and affords an interesting picture of a man of genius, combining, in this early period of our history, the love of letters with the regular habits of business.

It was while actively engaged in his professional occupations, that he composed the greater part of the works which entitle him to be ranked among the restorers of literature; and it has been recorded to his honour, that the chief object he had in view, in most of what he wrote, was the correction of those follies and vices which had already sprung from the luxury of the nobles, and the corresponding grossness of the people. He appears, however, to have advanced some way in his literary career, before he escaped the trammels which the fashionable love of French had imposed on so many minds. His principal work consists of three parts, the titles of which are, Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis. Of these, the first is written in French, and the ten books into which it is divided are occupied with general delineations of virtue and vice, with exhortations and advice to the reprobate for their restoration to hope, and with eulogies on the virtues to be cultivated in the marriage state. The second part, or the 'Vox Clamantis,' shows the disinclination he still entertained towards English, or at least his unwillingness to trust the fame he was desirous of reaping to his native tongue. Seven books of Latin elegiacs were the production of his laborious pen, under the above title, and they