which pilgrimages were usually made. After which comes an account of the course of exchange, called "chaunge of moneye fro Englande to Rome, and to Venyse;" which is succeeded by some three or four pages of general hints, concerning provisions, conveyances, compacts with captains, &c. and a complete list of the havens to be touched at between Venice and Jaffa. A list of fees, or tributa in terra sancta," next occurs; after which the regular journal thus commences. 66 "In the seven and twenty day of the moneth of June, there passed fro Venyse under sayle out of the haven of Venyse, at the sonne goinge downe certayne pilgrymes towarde Jherusalem in a shyppe of a merchante of Venyce, called Johan Moreson. The patrone of the same shyppe was called Luke mantell. To the nombre of lx. and syxe pylgrimes every man paynge some more some lesse as they myght accorde with the patrone. Some that might paye well payed xxxii. ducates, and some xxvi. and xxiiii. for meet and drynke and passage to port Jaffe, and from thens to Venyse agayne." : The journal then proceeds to mention briefly the places which the pilgrims visited until their arrival at Jerusalem, when an enumeration is given of all the traces which remained, or which were said to remain, of the remarkable spots mentioned by the evangelists. After the reliques of the holy city itself have been carefully reckoned up, a number of paragraphs occur, each containing a " pilgrimage" into other celebrated districts of the holy land. These are, the " Pylgrymages in the vale of Josephat; of the mount Olyvete; in the vale of Syloe; of mount Syon of the Bethleem; in Bethany; of flume Jordan; in Nazaret." And here the writer changes his language from English to Latin, and proceeds in his enumeration, without assigning any reason for the alteration, or appearing to think that any was necessary. Though he speaks in a different language, his style is, however, preserved precisely the same. He goes on with " Peregrinationes Damasci, Montis Sinai, terre Egypti," until he comes to the chapter, entitled "Reditus et reversio dictorum peregrinorum versus Angliam." The next paragraph consists of a few lines "de brevitate et unitate hujus mundi;" after which, "Here foloweth the langage of Moreske withe other also:" and there does follow, a list of the numbers in figures, up to xl. with their names in " Moreske," and a few of the commonest words and phrases in use, such as "bread, wine, ye be welcome, what tidings," &c. explained in the same language, but in the old black letter character. After which, there is a similar account of "Greke," and "The nombres of the language of Turky." There next succeeds a list of the Stationes in Roma," and the tract concludes with a "Nota de significatione singulorum membrorum ecclesie.” 66 The writer of this curious little work was doubtless one of the pilgrims of whose motions he gives an account; but, concerning his name, we have no information. He invariably speaks in the third person of the pilgrims as a body, and never deviates into any particular account of either what they saw or what they did. In the times, indeed, when our traveller composed his journal, men did not print to satisfy idle curiosity. The book was not written to save his countrymen, at home, from the trouble of the voyage, but to serve as a faithful guide to all bound on the meritorious expedition; and it seems, indeed, to have been well adapted for its purpose, and was, we doubt not, much esteemed by those who were in want of such a manual. We will give our readers a specimen of the pilgrim's style, in an extract from his general hints prefixed to the journal. After various other useful directions, he says, "Also hyre you a cage for halfe a dozen of hennes or chekyns to have with you in the shyppe or galey. For ye shall have nede of them many times. And by you halfe a busshell of mele sede at Venyse for them. Also take a barrel with you for a sege for your chambre in the shyppe; it is full necessary if ye were seke, that you come not into the ayre. Also whan you come to haven townes, yf she shall tary there thre dayes go by times to lande; for than ye may have lodginge before another; it wyll be take up anone. And whan you come to dyvers havens beware of fruytes that ye ete none for nothynge; as melons and such colde fruytes; for they be not according to our complexion, and they gendre a bloody fluxe. And yf ony englyssheman catche there that sekeness, it is a great mervayle, but and he dye therof. Also whan you shall come to port Jaffe, take with you out of the shyp unto land two botelles or two gourdes, one with wyne another with water, eche of a potell at the leest, for she shall none have until you come to Rames, and that is right feble and dere. And at Jerusalem, there is good wyne and dere. Also se that your patron take charge of your harneys within the shyppe, tyl ye come agayne to the shyppe, ye shall tary there xii. days. Also take good hede to youre knyves and other small japes that ye bore upon you, for the Sarasyns wyll go talkynge by you and make good chere, but they will stele from you yf they may. Also whan ye take your asse at porte Jaffe, be not too longe behynde your felowes, for and ye come betyme, ye may chuse the best mule or asse that ye can, for ye shall pay no more for the best than the worst. Also ye must gyve your asseman there of curtesy a grote of Venyse, and be not to moche before nor to moche behynde your felowes, for because of shrewes." Speaking of Candy, this ancient writer says; "In this city, the sayd pylgrymes taryed a moneth. And then was great hete. For from Maye to ye feest of All Sayntes, then groweth no gras. It is so brent with the hete of the sonne. And than about ye feest of All Sayntes begynneth grasse, herbs, and floures, to springe. And it is there than as in somer is in Englande, soo in the wynter it is temperate, no cold but lyttell. There is never snowe nor froste with yse. And yf there come ony froste with a lytell yse, they will shewe it eche to other for a mervayle." He thus commences his account of what was seen in Jerusalem. "On a sondaye in the mornynge they began theyr pylgrymage. And a freer of Mount Syon wente with them to enfourme the places and the pardones of every place. These ben the pylgrymages within the cytee of Jerusalem. The fyrste is before the temple of the sepulcre dore. There is a foure square stone whyte, whereupon Chryste rested hym with his crosse whan he wente towarde the mount of Calvary, where is indulgence vii yeeres and vii lentes. Also the house of the ryche man whiche denyed Lazare ye crommes of breed," &c. &c. When we add, that the signs are A 8, B4, C 8, and that there are 32 lines on each full page, our account of this rare work will be, we think, considered amply sufficient. We should observe, that on the reverse of C 8 is the device No. 6. Dibdin, Typ. Ant. vol. 2, of W. de Worde. ART. IX. Gesta Romanorum. Colophon. Thus endeth the boke of Gesta Romanorum. Enprynted at London in Flete Strete. By me Wynkyn de Worde. BLACK LETTER. sm. 4to. No date. The following quotation, from the Typographical Antiquities of Mr. Dibdin, will shew the extreme rarity of this vofume, and excite an interest in the description which we are enabled to give of it. "The observations of Mr. Douce are well worth attending to, respecting this edition: As the English Gesta appears to have been extremely well known to both these writers (Lydgate and Gower) and also to Occleve, it is by no means improbable that the above translation was made by one or the other of them. Whether it has ever been printed is another question. Mr. Warton has twice mentioned (vol. ii. p. 18. vol. iii. p. lxxxiii.) an edition, without date, by Wynkyn de Worde; and Dr. Farmer has also, in a note prefixed to the Merchant of Venice, referred to the same edition. It had escaped the researches of the industrious Herbert, who has only mentioned it after Warton, and has, in vain, been sought for on the present occasion.' "I have examined numerous Bibliographical Treatises and Catalogues for this edition, without effect. It does not appear to have been in Dr. Farmer's own collection."-Dibdin's Typ. Ant. vol. 2, p. 366. The edition before us is doubtless the one to which Warton referred, and it is not improbable, that we have the same copy before us which Farmer had read. This curious volume consists of 164 full pages, in a close and beautiful black letter type. After the words Gesta Romanorum, on the title page, is a woodcut of an emperor, with a crown and sceptre; and on the reverse, a device of the same emperor, with a youth kneeling to him, behind whom stands a female, apparently in the act of introducing him; two guards are seen in the back ground. The same devices occur again in various parts of the "boke,” accompanied with others, alluding to and illustrating some of the Gesta. There are forty-three Gesta, or stories, each of which is followed by the moralization. We give the following story as a specimen; it is the fifth of the deeds of the Emperours of Rome. Sometyme there reygned, in ye cyte of Rome, a myghty Emperoure, and wyse, named Frederyk, whiche had onely but one sone, whom he loved moche. This Emperoure, whan he lay in the poynte of deth, he called unto hym his sone, and sayd, Drede sone, I have a balle of golde, whiche I gyve the, upon my blessynge, that you, anone, after my deth, shall gyve it to the moost fole that you mayest find. Than sayd his sone, My lorde, without doubt, thy wyll shall be fulfylled. Anone, this yonge lorde, after the dethe of his fader, wente and sought in many realmes, and founde many foles richeles, bycause he wolde satysfye his fader's wyll, laboured ferther, tyll he came into a realme, where the lawe was suche, that every yere a newe kynge sholde be chosen there, and this kynge hath only the gydynge of that realme but a yere's ende, he shall be deposed and put in exyle, in an ylonde whereas he sholde wretchedly fynyshe his lyf. Whan th'emperoure's sone came unto this realme, the newe kynge was chosen with grete honoure, and al maner of mynstralsie wente afore hym, and brought him with grete reverence and worship unto his regal sete; and whan the Emperour's sone saw that, he came unto hym, and salued him reverently, and sayd, My lorde, lo, I give to ye this balle of golde on my fader's behalfe. Than sayd he, I praye the tell me the cause why thou gyvest me this ball? Than answered this yonge lorde, and said thus, My father, quod he, charged me, in his deede bedde, under payne of his blessynge, that I sholde gyve this balle to the moost fole that I coulde finde, wherefore I have sought many realmes, and have found many foles, nevertheless, a more fole than thou arte founde I never, and therefore this is the reason. It is not unknown to the that thou shalt reygne but a yere, and at the yere's ende thou shalt be exyled into suche a place, where as thou shalt dye a myschevous deth, wherefore I holde the for the moost fole that ever I founde, that for the lordshyp of a yere thou woldest so wylfully lese thyself, and therefore, before all other, I have gyven to thee this balle of golde. Than sayd ye kynge, without doute, thou sayeth me sothe, and, therefore, whan I am in full power of this realme, I shall send before me grete treasoure and rychesse, wherwith I may lyve and save myself from myschevous deth whan that I shall be exyled and put doune; and so it was done: wherefore, at the yeere's ende, he was exyled, and lyved there in pease, upon suche goodes as he had sent before, and he deyed afterwards a good dethe.-Dere frendes, this Emperour is the fader of heven, &c." The signatures run from A to M inclusive, 8 and 4 alternately, with N 6, O 4; and on the reverse of O 4 is the Colophon. ART. X. Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh. London, 1675; 24mo. pp. 396. In this collection of the Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh, there are some pieces well worthy of perusal. They are all in prose, with the exception of his 'Pilgrimage,' a few verses found in his Bible, and the two lines written the night before his execution; and are composed in the spirit which might have been expected from the character of their extraordinary author. Sir Walter Raleigh, in a life of adventure and of peril, became learned in the ways of the world-Possessing a keen and penetrating mind, "He was a deep observer, and he look'd Nature made him acute-misfortune, cautious-and experience, wise; but his wisdom rather resulted from distrust than confidence. He had naturally "high thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy," but care fretted against it and wore away its softer fibres. His wariness was, indeed, warranted by the events of his life, and it is no wonder that his feelings retired into the centre of his own heart, as the flower which expands in the sunshine of a fair day, closes its bosom at night-fall when the air breathes cold and chill. Hence his wisdom is rather calculated to teach us how to eschew evil, than to sail placidly into the haven of felicity. Sir Walter Raleigh's thoughts are astute, and his language pregnant and expressive. There is something captivating in the mixture we find, in his writings, of forcible and uncommon thought and striking metaphor, which are so amalgamated as to be inseparable. The one is not appended to the other for the sake of ornament, but is its natural language; and is as necessary to its existence as the bark to the tree. His Advice to his Son on the Choice of a Wife is so excellent in its kind, that we shall introduce the whole of it; though, to say the truth, it betrays almost as much cunning as wisdom. |