ART. X. The Proverbes of Lydgate. BELOW is the portraiture of a gentleman with a stick in his hand, standing with two holy fathers in conversation. On the other side of the title-page is another very curious print which represents an holy father sitting under a canopy with a number of books before him on a table, and an ancient reading-desk thereon. It is comprized in 56 pages, also in black letter, prologue, title, &c. included. At the end, "Here endeth the Proverbes of Lydgate upon the Fall of Princes." Imprinted by Wynkin de Worde, with his usual marks. ART. XI. Skelton Laureate agaynst a comely Coystrawne, that curyously chawntyd and curryshly cownted, and madly in his maskys mokkyshly made agaynst XI Musys of Polytyke Poems and Poettys Matryculat, UNDERNEATH is a wood cut of the Laureat, as it seems, a man in a loose robe, with a book in his hand, which he is holding up, and an inscription in the background: he is decorated with a crown of laurel, and seated under a Gothic canopy. His poem begins, "Of all nacyons under the hevyn;" it closes thus: "Wryten at Croydon by Crowland in the clay, * See Herbert, I. 230. Editor. This edition is not mentioned by Ritson, who says the poem was included in Skelton's Works by T. Marsh, 1568. Editor. This and the two following are "Imprinted by Richard Pynson, Printer to the King's most noble Grace." ART. XII. Here followyethe the dyvers Balletys and Dyties salacyous divised by Master Skelton Laureat. It begins with, "Lullay, lullay, lyke a chylde;" and is comprized in eight pages, black letter, printed as above. ART. XIII. Honorificatissimo, Amplissimo, longeque Reverendissimo in Christo patri ac domino Domino Thom. &c. &c.-A Replycasion against certain young Scholairs, abjured of late, &c. &c. by Master Skelton, Laureat. COMPRIZED in 20 pages of black letter, printed as above.. ART. XIV. Syrs, spare youre good. [The fragment of a poem printed in quarto by Wynkyn de Worde.] OF the shattered remains of two leaves the first page has apparently the customary ribband, for title which begins, "Sy." Beneath, a wood-cut of an old man and a young one in the attitudes of walking, and the last pointing to the preceding figure, yet looking at an object past; probably meant to represent the intention of youth to follow the course of experience. A tree between the figures and a blank label over each person. The same cut appears noticed in Herbert, 1780, as prefixed to "the complaynt of a louer's lyfe." On the second page the poem commences, and might have been entitled prologe." Some letters of the rhime of the first couplet remain, as follows: aye ye gesse haue I blesse it well by a thynge whiche I hauh had knowlegynge As here after ye shall here full well ་ Of a knyghtes sone howe it befell A ryche knyght there was in Fraunce I vnderstande And was a man of grete lande And hyght Syr Thomas perlore A sone he hadde wyth his wyfe and no more And she was called fayre ysaungrayne And theyr sone was called Rafeleyne And of this chylde ye shall here Of his fader he was lefe and dere So was he of his moder I you ensere So it happened vpon a daye That this yonge man sholde sporte and playe His fader badde hym go amonge wyse men That he might lerne some good of theym But this yonge man hym bethought That after his faders counseyll he wolde do nought [Conclusion of second side.] Whan soeuer in the world of ryote my be th[ought] Wherefore sholde not I take no sorowe agayne And yf good locke dyde rayne, I sholde not be wete It cometh to hym that shall haue it at a clappe Thyr fore spare your good that ye haue in hande A man maye well a good felawe be In the wine in good ale in bere where so it be Thus maye a man haunte myrth and game Fare well I sette you all this testamente Who well lerne this shall be vnshente Shall be fre of all sorowe and miserye Who so euer taketh this testament in remembraunce FINIS [Conclusion of third side.] [Her]e endeth a lytell treatyse very profytable for [euery] yonge man and yonge women called Syrs spare [youre] good. Emprynted at London in the Fletestrete [at the] sygne of the Soone by me Wynken de Worde. AMEN. After the colophon the printer's device in three compartments, viz. 1. An irradiated sun central of two blazing stars, with lesser ones black. 2. Caxton's small sign. 3. "Wynkyn de Worde" on twisted riband, greyhound couchant, sagittarius with arrow discharged; a rose central with border of leaves at bottom; the whole square on a white ground. From the errors of the press, and entire neglect of punctuation, this tract appears to have been one of the earliest attempts by Wynken de Worde. The alteration of measure in the verse also implies that the first portion contained an introductory description of the whole relation, and the hiatus a deficiency of four pages. * It is difficult to ascertain the deficiency of such fragments. To ascertain at what period printers first adopted the plan of occasionally printing by sixes of a quarto size, or inserting a half sheet in the middle, is become material from the many titles and ends discovered as above described. I believe it was not practised so early as Wynken de Worde's time. |