ANONYMOUS AUTHORESS

Address to a Child, during a Boisterous Winter

426

To Sir William and my Lady Persall, &c.

SPECIMENS

OF

BRITISH POETESSES.

JULIANA BERNERS,

Flourished about 1460.*

This female, daughter of Sir James Berners, of RodingBerners, in Essex, knight, and sister of Richard Lord Berners, was prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell. She wrote three tracts on Hawking, Hunting, and Armory or Heraldry, which were first printed in the neighbouring monastery of St. Albans. "From an abbess disposed to turn author," says Warton, (Hist. of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 172), we might more reasonably have expected a manual of meditations for the closet, or select rules for making salves, or distilling strong waters. But the diversions of the field +

* According to Bale. See the Prolegomena to Mr. Haslewood's edition of her Works. Warton says, she wrote about 1481.

That she followed the chase is by no means certain.

B

were not thought inconsistent with the character of a religious lady of this eminent rank, who resembled an abbot in respect of exercising an extensive manorial jurisdiction, and who hawked and hunted in common with other ladies of distinction...... The second of these treatises is written in rhyme. It is spoken in her own person; in which, being otherwise a woman of authority, she assumes the title of dame. I suspect the whole to be a translation from the French and Latin.

The barbarism of the times strongly appears in the indelicate expressions which she often uses; and which are equally incompatible with her sex and profession."

The Opening of her Poem.

Mi dere sones, where ye fare, be frith, or by fell,
Take good hede in his tyme how Tristrem wol tell ;
How many maner bestes of venery
there were,
Listenes now to oure Dame, and ye shullen here.
Ffowre maner bestes of venery there are,

The first of hem is a hert, the second is an hare;
The boor is one of tho,

The wolff, and no mo.

And whereso ye comen in play or in place, Now shal I tel you which ben bestes of chace; One of tho a buk, another a doo,

The ffox, and the marteryn, and the wilde roo;

And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,
Where so ye hem finde, rascall hem call,
In frith or in fell,

Or in fforest, y yow tell.

And to speke of the hert, if ye wil hít lere,
Ye shall cal him a calfe al the first yere;
The seconde yere a broket, so shal he be,
The third yere a spayard, lerneth this at me;
The iiii yere calles hem a stagge, be eny way
The fift yere a grete stagge, my dame bade you
say.

The foregoing lines of Juliana's very curious production are quoted by Warton," (H. of E. P.) from a MS. in the Bodleian, which differs considerably from the printed copies. The following specimen is given from Mr. Haslewood's beautiful reprint of The Book of St. Albans, printed at Westminster, by Wynkyn de Worde, 1496.

The season of the boore is from the Natyvyte,
Tyll the puryficacōn of our lady soo fre.
For at the Natyvyte of our lady swete,
He may fynde where he gooth onder his fete,

* Since the above transcript from Warton's work was made, I have found that the early part of the same MS. is quoted by Mr. Haslewood, with some variations; and, as I have no doubt that Mr. H. has given it most correctly, I have altered my specimen according to his text.

Bothe in wodes and feldes, corne and other frute, Whan he after foode makyth ony sute:

Crabbes and oke cornes, and nottes there they

grow,

Hawys and hepes, and other thynges ynow:
That tyll the puryfycacōn lastyth as ye se,
And makyth the boore in season to be,

For whyle that fruyte maye laste, his tyme is never paste.