with the opening of the Battle of Hastings, No I, the piece which happens to stand first in the new quarto edition of Chatterton's works.
Divested of its old spelling, which is only calculated to mislead the reader, and to assist the intended imposition, it begins thus:
“O Christ, it is a grief for me to tell
“How many a noble earl and val'rous knight
“In fighting for king Harold nobly fell,
“All slain in Hastings' field, in bloody fight.”
Or, as Chatterton himself acknowledged this to be a forgery, perhaps it will be more proper to quote the beginning of the Battle of Hastings, N2 2, which he asserted to be a genuine, ancient composition:
“O Truth! immortal daughter of the skies,
“Too little known to writers of these days,
“Teach me, fair saint, thy passing worth to prize,
“To blame a friend, and give a foeman praise.”
The first four lines of the Vision of Pierce Plowman, by William (or Robert) Langland, who flourished about the year 1350, are as follows: [I quote from the edition printed in 1561.]
“In a summer season, when set was the sunne,
“I shope me into shroubs, as I a shepe were,
“In habit as an hermet, unholye of werkes,
“Went wide in the Werlde, wonders to here.”
Chaucer, who died in 1400, opens thus: [ Tyrwhitt's edit. 1775.]
