CHAP. VII.

Savery de Mauleon a Provencial Poet. Teftimony of him. King R.I. His Verfes when Prifoner in Auftria. The Emperor Frederick Barbaroffa. His Poetry. Ramond Beringhier. Four Daughters, four Queens. Rob. Grofthead. His Provencial Poetry. Other Languages stubborn. Chaucer refined our English. Which in perfection by Waller. His Poem on the Navy Royal, beyond all Modern Poetry in any Language. Before him our Poets better expreffed their thoughts in Latin. Whence Hoveden might mistake, and his Malice. A Tranflation from Grofthead. The Harp a Mufick then in fashion. Five Tragedies from Joan Queen of Naples. Forreigners all call'd French. Plays by the Parish-Clerks of London. What under H. VIII. flourish under Queen Elizabeth. The Gorboduck. French much bebind-hand with us. Tragedy, with us, but a fhadow.

SAvery de Mauleon, mentioned in our English Histories, is reckoned another of thefe Provencial Poets of him an old * Bard, amongst them,gave this Teftimony:

Douffament fait motz & fos
ab amor que' m' a vencut.

(*) Guilhem Briton.MSS. with Signier Redi.

Sweetly

Sweetly could be fay and fing
of Love, that me bath vanquished.

And the fame Author fays of King Richard,

Coblas a teira faire adroitement
pou vos oillez enten dompna gentilz.

Stanza's he trimly could invent,
upon the Eyes of Lady gent.

One Stanza, of a Song made by him, when a Prifoner in Auftria, may serve for a tafte.

Or fachan ben mos boms, e mos Barons,
Anglez, Normans, Peytavins, e Gascons ;
"qu'yeu non ay ja fi paure Compagnon,
que per amer lou laiffefs en prefon.

Know ye, my Men, my Barons all,
In England, and in Normandy,
In Poicters, and in Gascony,
I no Companion held so small,
To let him thus in durance lie.

Our King Richard had not the Expedient of the French King St. Lewis, who,taken Prifoner by the Sarazens, pawn'd the Eucharist,

body

body for body, to the Infidels for his Ranfom.

Signior Redi, now with the great Duke of Tuscany, tells us the Mss. with King Richard's Poetry (*), and many other of the Provencial Poets are in his keeping. This of the Emperor Frederick I. is currant every where.

Plas my Cavallier Francez, e la donna Catallana, e l' ourar Gynoez, e la Cour de Kaftellana, Lou Kantar Provenfales, e la dansa Trivyzana, e la corps Arroganez e la perla Julliana, les mans e Kara d'Angles, e lou donzel de Thufcana. I like in France the Chivalry, The Catalonian Lafs for me, The Genoes for working well, But for a Court commend Castile. For Song, no Countrey to Provance, And Treves muft carry't for a dance. The finest shapes in Arragon, In Juliers they speak in Tune. The English for an hand and face, For Boys, troth, Tufcany's the place. (*) Redi Dithyrambick.

They

They who have written the lives of the Provencial Poets, with King Richard, and the Emperor Frederick Barbaroffa, give us alfo the life of Ramond Count of Provence, memorable for his four Daughters, married to fo many Kings, Margaret, to Lewis King of France. Elionor to our H. III. Sance, to Richard King of the Romans, Beatrice to Charles King of Naples and Sicily. On this occafion, thus Dante.

Quattro figlie hebbe, & Ciascuna reina
Ramondo Beringhieri.---

Four lovely Daughters, each of them a Queen,
Had Ramond Beringher.---

Neither were the Churchmen all of the fame Kidney with the Monks as may be gather'd from the famous Bishop of Lincoln Rob. Grofthead; the most eminent in his time for Piety and Learning, and the Man of greatest Authority, who when living made the old Gentleman in St. Peters Chair tremble, and the bare Ghost of him, afterwards fo thumpt off the Pope, that he died of the contufion. He compos'd several treatises in this Provencial Ryme and Language. One of them, in Bodleys Library, bears this title:

Tractatus

Tractatus in lingua Romana fecundum Domi. Rob. Groffetefte Lincoln Ep. de Principio Creationis Mundi.

The beginning is this:

Ki penfe ben, ben peut dire :
Sanz penfer ne poet foffire
De nul bon oure Comencer
Deu nos doint de li penfer
De ki, par ki, en ki font
Toz les bens ki font el mond.

He that thinks well, well can say:
Without thinking, nought he may :
Not a good work once begin.
God wou'd have us think of him:
From whom, by whom, in whom are all
The good things which the World we call.

This Provencial was the first, of the modern languages, that yielded and chim'd in with the mufick and sweetness of ryme; which making its way by Savoy to Monferat; The Italians thence began to file their volgare; And to fet their verses all after the Chimes of Provence. Our Intermarriages, and our Dominions thereabouts, brought us much fooner acquainted with

their