Ludo fatigatumque somno,

Fronde nova puerum palumbes
Texêre; mirum quod foret omnibus-
Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis

Dormirem et ursis; ut premerer sacro

Lauroque collataque myrto,

Non sine Diis animosus infans.'
Which may be thus englished:

'While yet a child, I chanc'd to stray,
And in a desert sleeping lay;
The savage race withdrew, nor dar'd
To touch the Muses future bard;
But Cytherea's gentle dove

Myrtles and Bays around me spread,
And crown'd your infant Poet's head,
Sacred to Music and to Love.' P.
Ver. 259. Scarce seem'd her stature, etc.]
'Methought that she was so lite,
That the length of a cubite
Was longer than she seemed be;
But thus soone in a while she,
Her selfe tho wonderly straight,
That with her feet she the earth reight,
And with head she touchyd heaven-' P.
Ver. 270. Beneath, in order rang'd, etc.]
'I heard about her throne y-sung
That all the palays walls rung,

sung

So the mighty Muse, she
That cleped is Calliope,

And her seven sisters eke-' P. Ver. 276. Around these wonders, etc.] 'I heard a noise approchen blive,

That far'd as bees done in a hive,
Against her time of out flying;
Right such a manere murmuring,
For all the world it seemed me.
Tho gan I look about and see
That there came entring into th' hall,
A right great company withal;
And that of sundry regions,

Of all kind of conditions,-etc.' P.
Ver. 294. Some she disgrac'd, etc.]

'And some of them she granted sone,
And some she warned well and fair,
And some she granted the contrair-
Right as her sister dame Fortune
Is wont to serve in commune.' P.

I grant, quoth she, for now me list
That your good works shall be wist.
And yet ye shall have better loos,
Right in despite of all your foos,
Than worthy is, and that anone.
Let now (quoth she) thy trump gone-
And certes all the breath that went
Out of his trump's mouth smel'd
As men a pot of baume held

Among a basket full of roses-' P.
Ver. 328, 338. ...behold another croud, etc.-
From the black trumpet's rusty, etc.]
'Therewithal there came anone
Another huge companye,

Of good folke

What did this Eolus, but he
Tooke out his trump of brass,
That fouler than the devil was:
And gan this trump for to blowe,
As all the world should overthrowe.
Throughout every regione

Went this foul trumpet's soune,
Swift as a pellet out of a gunne,
When fire is in the powder runne.
And such a smoke gan out wende,

Out of the foul trumpet's ende-etc.' P.
Ver. 356. Then came the smallest, etc.]
'I saw anone the fifth route,
That to this lady gan loute,
And downe on knees anone to fall,
And to her they besoughten all,
To hiden their good works eke?
And said, they yeve not a leke
For no fame ne such renowne;
For they for contemplacyoune,
And Goddes love had it wrought,
Ne of fame would they ought.

What, quoth she, and be ye wood?
And ween ye for to do good,
And for to have it of no fame?
Have ye despite to have my name?
Nay ye shall lien everichone:
Blowe thy trump, and that anone
(Quoth she) thou Eolus, I hote,
And ring these folkes workes by rote,
That all the world may of it heare;
And he gan blow their loos so cleare,
In his golden clarioune,

Through the World went the soune,
All so kindly, and eke so soft,

That their fame was blown aloft.' P.

Ver. 378. Next these a youthful train, etc.] The Reader might compare these twenty-eight lines following, which contain the same matter, with eighty-four of Chaucer, beginning thus:

'Tho came the sixth companye,

And gan faste to Fame cry, etc.' being too prolix to be here inserted. P.

Ver. 406. Last, those who boast of mighty, etc.]

'Tho came another companye,

That had y-done the treachery, etc.' P. Ver. 418. This having heard and seen, etc.] The Scene here changes from the temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almost entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow.

'Tho saw I stonde in a valey,
Under the castle fast by
A house, that Domus Dedali
That Labyrinthus cleped is,
Nas made so wonderly, I wis,
Ne half so queintly y-wrought;
And evermo as swift as thought,
This queint house about went,
That never more it still stent-
And eke this house hath of entrees
As many as leaves are on trees,
In summer, when they ben grene;
And in the roof yet men may sene
A thousand hoels and well mo,
To letten the soune out go;
And by day in every tide
Ben all the doors open wide,
And by night each one unshet;
No porter is there one to let,
No manner tydings in to pace:
Ne never rest is in that place.' P.

Ver. 428. As flames by nature to the, etc.] This thought is transferred hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verses, beginning thus,

'Geffray, thou wottest well this, etc.' P.

Ver. 448. There various news I heard, etc.]|

'Of werres, of peace, of marriages,
Of rest, of labour, of voyages,
Of abode, of dethe, and of life,
Of love and hate, accord and strife,
Of loss, of lore, and of winnings,
Of hele, of sickness, and lessings,
Of divers transmutations
Of estates and eke of regions,
Of truste, of drede, of jealousy,
Of wit, of winning, and of folly,
Of good, or bad government,

Of fire, and of divers accident.' P.
Ver. 458. Above, below, without, within,

'But such a grete Congregation

Of folke as I saw roame about,
Some within, and some without,
Was never seen, ne shall be eft-
And every wight that I saw there
Rowned everich in others ear

A new tyding privily,

Or else he told it openly

Right thus, and said, Knowst not thou
That is betide to night now?

No, quoth he, tell me what?

And then he told him this and that, etc.]
Thus north and south

Went every tyding fro mouth to mouth,
And that encreasing evermo,
As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a sparkle sprong amiss,

Till all the citee brent up is.' P.

Ver. 489. There, at one passage, etc.]
'And sometime I saw there at once,
A lesing and a sad sooth saw
That gonnen at adventure draw
Out of a window forth to pace-
And no man, be he ever so wrothe,
Shall have one of these two, but bothe, etc.'

P.