disposed to say, better for all parties that it and the rest should slumber on. But the Confessio Amantis' is altogether a remarkable production. It is said to have been written at the command of Richard II., who, meeting our poet rowing on the Thames, near London, took him on board the royal barge, and requested him to book some new thing. It is an English poem, in eight books, and was first printed by Caxton in the year 1483. The Speculum Meditantis,' 'Vox Clamantis,' and Confessio Amantis,' are, properly speaking, parts of one great work, and are represented by three volumes upon Gower's curious tomb in the old conventual church of St Mary Overies already alluded to-a church, by the way, which the poet himself assisted in rebuilding in the elegant shape which it retains to this day.

The 'Confessio' is a large unwieldy collection of poetry and prose, superstition and science, love and religion, allegory and historical facts. It is crammed with all varieties of learning, and a perverse but infinite ingenuity is shewn in the arrangement of its heterogeneous materials. In one book the whole mysteries of the Hermetic philosophy are expounded, and the wonders of alchymy dazzle us in every page. In another, the poet scales the heights and sounds the depths of Aristotelianism. From this we have extracted in the 'Specimens' a glowing account of 'The Chariot of the Sun.' Throughout the work, tales and stories of every description and degree of merit are interspersed. These are principally derived from an old book called 'Pantheon; or, Memoriæ Seculorum,'—a kind of universal history, more studious of effect than accuracy, in which the author ranges over the whole history of the world, from the creation down to the 1186. This was a specimen of a kind of writing in which the Middle Ages abounded-namely, chronicles, which gradually superseded the monkish legends, and for a time eclipsed the classics themselves; a kind of writing hovering between history and fiction, embracing the widest sweep, written in a barbarous style, and swarming with falsehoods; but exciting, interesting, and often instructive, and tending to kindle curiosity, and create in the minds of their readers a love for literature.

year

Besides chronicles, Gower had read many romances, and

alludes to them in various parts of his works. His 'Confessio Amantis' was apparently written after Chaucer's 'Troilus and Cresseide,' and after 'The Flower and the Leaf,' inasmuch as he speaks of the one and imitates the other in that poem. That Chaucer had not, however, yet composed his 'Testament of Love,' appears from the epilogue to the 'Confessio,' where Gower is ordered by Venus, who expresses admiration of Chaucer for the early devotion of his muse to her service, to say to him at the close

'Forthy, now in his daies old,
Thou shalt him tell this message,
That he upon his later age
To set an end of all his work,
As he which is mine owen clerk,
Do make his Testament of Love,
As thou hast done thy shrift above,
So that my court it may record'—

the 'shrift' being of course the 'Confessio Amantis.' In 'The Canterbury Tales' there are several indications that Chaucer was indebted to Gower-The Man of Law's Tale' being borrowed from Gower's Constantia,' and 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' being founded on Gower's 'Florent.'

After all, Gower cannot be classed with the greater bards. He sparkles brightly chiefly from the depth of the darkness. through which he shines. He is more remarkable for extent than for depth, for solidity than for splendour, for fuel than for fire, for learning than for genius.

THE CHARIOT OF THE SUN.

Of golde glist'ring spoke and wheel
The Sun his cart hath fair and wele,
In which he sitteth, and is croned1
With bright stones environed:
Of which if that I speakë shall.
There be before in special

1 'Croned:' crowned.

Set in the front of his corone
Three stones, whichë no person
Hath upon earth; and the first is
By name cleped Leucachatis.
That other two cleped thus
Astroites and Ceraunus ;
In his corone, and also behind,
By olde bookës as I find,
There be of worthy stones three,
Set each of them in his degree.
Whereof a crystal is that one,
Which that corone is set upon :
The second is an adamant:
The third is noble and evenant,
Which cleped is Idriades.
And over this yet natheless,
Upon the sides of the werk,
After the writing of the clerk,
There sitten fivë stonës mo.1
The Smaragdine is one of tho,2
Jaspis, and Eltropius,

And Vendides, and Jacinctus.

Lo thus the corone is beset,

Whereof it shineth well the bet.3

And in such wise his light to spread,

Sits with his diadem on head,

The Sunnë shining in his cart:

And for to lead him swith 4 and smart,
After the bright dayë's law,

There be ordained for to draw,

Four horse his chare, and him withal,

Whereof the names tell I shall.

1 Mo:' more.

2 Tho:' those.-3 Bet:' better.- 'Swith:' swift.

Eritheus the first is hote,1

The which is red, and shineth hot;
The second Acteos the bright;
Lampes the thirdë courser hight;
And Philogens is the ferth,
That bringen light unto this earth,
And
go so swift upon the heaven,
In four and twenty hourës even,
The carte with the brightë sun
They drawen, so that over run
They have under the circles high,
All midde earth in such an hie.2
And thus the sun is over all
The chief planet imperial,

Above him and beneath him three.
And thus between them runneth he,
As he that hath the middle place
Among the seven and of his face
Be glad all earthly creatures,
And taken after the natures
Their ease and recreation.
And in his constellation
Who that is born in special,
Of good-will and of liberal
He shall be found in allë place,
And also stand in muchel grace
Toward the lordës for to serve,
And great profit and thank deserve.
And over that it causeth yet

A man to be subtil of wit,
To work in gold, and to be wise
In everything, which is of prise.3
But for to speaken in what coast

1 'Hot:' named.-2 'Hie:' haste.-3 Prise:' value.

Of all this earth he reigneth most,
As for wisdom it is in Greece,
Where is appropred thilk spece.1

THE TALE OF THE COFFERS OR CASKETS, &C.
In a chronique thus I read:
About a kingë, as must need,
There was of knightës and squiers
Great rout, and ekë officers:

Some of long time him had served,
And thoughten that they have deserved
Advancement, and gone without :
And some also been of the rout,
That comen but a while agon,
And they advanced were anon.

These oldë men upon this thing,
So as they durst, against the king
Among themselves complainen oft:
But there is nothing said so soft,
That it ne cometh out at last:
The king it wist, anon as fast,
As he which was of high prudence:
He shope 2 therefore an evidence
Of them that 'plainen in the case
To know in whose default it was:
And all within his own intent,
That none more wistë what it meant.
Anon he let two coffers make,
Of one semblance, and of one make,
So like, that no life thilkë throw,3
The one may from that other know:

They were into his chamber brought,

2

1 'Thilk spece:' that kind.- 'Shope:' contrived.—3 Thilkë throw:' at

that time.