80
LITERATURE.
style, the respective couises of duty alternately assigned to the officers of the choir. Shakspeare alludes to this mode of writing, in his Timon of Atktm.
" My free drift
Halt! not parUcoluly, but movea Itsdf
In a wide tea o/ war."
1396. Froissart, the poet, on his 'introduction to Richard II. presented to the king a book beautifully illuminated, engrossed with his own hand, bound in crimson velvet, and embellished with silver bosses, clasps, and gold roses, containing all the matters of Armours and Moralitiet, which in the course of twenty-four years he had composed. When Froissart left England, in this year, the King sent him a massy goblet of silver, filled with one hundred nobles.
The matter of Froissart's History, and the candid simplicity of his manner, must please the reader of every age. His works abound so much in individual character, and are so truly dramatic. His History is a faithful record of the sentiments and manners, the stately port, and romantic honour, of the nobility and gen tjy of France and England at this ^mote but highly interesting period ; and are an inexhaustible source from which the poets of romance may deduce themes for the muse, that loves
- To sin; achievements high
And drcanutance of chivalry."'
Froissart lived at the period of the battle of Poictiers, at which King John was taken prisoner. His History or Chronicle commences in the year 1326, with the great comte Phillip first King of France of the line of Valois, and with the wars between him and Edward III. of England, and ending with the murder of Richard II. which is supposed to have taken place at Pontefract castle, in Yorkshire, on the 13th January, 1400. He had deposed himself in the preceding September.
1296, Oct. A quarter of wheat was valued at three shillings and sixpence ; a quarter of oats at two shillings ; a pound of wool three shillings.
1397. Adam Eston or Easton,an Englishman, educated at Oxford, became a Benedictine monk of Norwich, and successfully filled the sees of of Hereford and London. He was eminently skilled in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and appears to be the first of the moderns who attempted a translation of the Old Testament immediately fixtm the Hebrew. This work he is said to have completed, except the Psalms. Robert Wake- fiela (who died in 1538) savs, in the tract which he wrote on the Purity of the Hehreio Text, that for some time he had the work in his possession but that at length it was stolen. In the preface to his translation, he defends the integrity of the Hebrew original against Nicholas de Lyra and others, who supposed it to have been corrupted by the Jews. He was created a cardinal by Urban VL, but was afterwards thrown into prison, with five other cardinals by the same pontifi", where he remained for five years. After his release he wrote an account of his im- prisonment.
1398, The mystery of the conception, passion, and resurrection of Christ, was perfoimed at St Maur, about five miles from Paris, but were pro. hibited by the provost of Paris. Charles VI. went to see these shows, and was so well pleased with them, that he granted the actors letters patent, dated Dec. 4, 1402. They also built a theatre of the hospital of the Holy Trinity, on which, during the space of almost one hundred and ibj years, they acted the Mysteritt, or other pieces of a similar nature, under the common titles of Moralities. Francis I . by his letters patent, dated January, 1518, confirmed all the privileges of this fraternity. — Riccoboni's Historical and Cri- tical Account of the Theatres in £urope.
1399, Oct. 13. Henry IV. is inaugurated on the anniversaiT of his exile. That solemnity is also memorable for the institution of the Order of the Bath. No sooner had Henry gained possession of the throne than Arundel, archbishcHk of Canterbury, who had supported him in h? pretensions to the crown, applied, with his clergy, to the parliament that met at Westminster, to obtain the sanction of the legislature to his cruel and iniquitous measures. In this he was unfortn- nately successful, and a severe law was passed in 1400 against the Lollards. It has been shewn, that Wiclif had boldly advanced to an uncommon enlargement of thinking in religious matters, and Chaucer displayed a vein of poetry rich and new in this country. From such beginnings im- portant consequences might have been expected; and the writings of these eminent men must hare had no small effect on the minds of many indi- viduals. The opinions of Wiclif appear to hare been embraced by a larger number of persons than dare to avow them ; and the admirers of Chaucer could not avoid having their under- standing and their taste improved by a perusal of his works. Still, however, the prog^«ss of know- ' ledge was far inferior to what, from auspices so favourable to the cultivation and refinement of the human faculties, might rationally have been predicted. Henry IV. at his accession to the crown, was understood to be friendly to the senti- ments of Wiclif. But the conscience of this monarch, like tiiat of most other princes, was not of that obstinate kind which refused to bend itself to political views. When he considered the state of parties, he was convinced that nothing could so effectually strengthen his claims as the support of the clergy ; and, therefore, he determined to comply with the requisitions of the great ecclesiastics, however hostile these re- quisitions might be to the cause of reformation. The severest treatment of the advocates (or religious improvements was the price of the church's favour ; and it was a price to the pay- ment of which Henry readily submitted. Through the influence of Arundel, whose character was deformed by superstition and cruelty, the above act was obtained, by which the bishops were authorised to imprison all persons suspected of heresy, and to try them in the spiritual court. If these disciples of Wiclif proved either obsti- nate or relapsed heretics, the ecclemastical jndge
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