Yef ye take hede, yet is noo nede suche wordes to say bee me;
For ofte ye preyd, and longe assayed, or I you lovid perdee;
And though that I of auncestry a baron's doughter bee,

Yet have you proved how I you loved, a squyer of lowe degree,
And ever shal, what so befalle; to dey therfore anoon;
For in my mynde of al mankynde I love but you alone,

A Baron's childe to be begyled, it were a curssed dede;
To be felow with an outlawe Almyghty God forbede:
Yet bettyr were the power squyer alone to forest yede,
Than ye shal saye another day that be wyked dede

Ye were betrayed; wherfore good maide, the best red ye
Is that I too the greene wode goo alone a banysshed man.

I

can,

Whatsoever befalle, I never shal of this thing you upbraid;
But yf ye goo, and leve me soo, than have ye me betraied.
Remembre you wele, how that ye dele, for yf ye, as the sayde,
Be so unkynde to leve behynde your love the notbrowne maide,
Trust me truly, that I dey, sone after ye be gone,

For in my mynde of all mankynde I love but you alone.

Yef that ye went, ye shulde repent, for in the forest now

I have purveid me of a maide, whom I love more than you.
Another fayrer than ever ye were; I dare it wel avowe;
And of you bothe eche shulde be wrothe with other as I trowe.
It were myn ease to lyve in pease; so wyl I yf I can ;
Wherfore I to the wode wyl goo alone a banysshid man.

Though in the wood I understode ye had a paramour,

All this may nought remeve my thought; bat that I wil be your;
And she shal fynde me softe and kynde, and curteis every our,
Glad to fulfylle all that she wylle commaunde me to my power;
For had ye, loo, an hondred moo, yet wolde I be that one.
For in my mynde of all mankynde I love but you alone.

Myn owne dere love, I see the prove, that ye be kynde and trewe;
Of mayde and wyf, in all my lyf, the best that ever I knewe.
Be mery and glad; be no more sad; the case is chaunged newe;
For it were ruthe that for your trouth you shuld have cause to rewe.
Be not dismayed; whatsoever I sayd to you whan I began,

I wyl not too the grene wod goo; I am noo banysshyd man.

Theis tidingis be more glad to me than to be made a Quene,

Yf I were sure they shuld endure; but it is often seen,

When men wyl breke promyse, they speke the wordis on the splene.
Ye shape some wyle me to begyle and stele fro me I wene;
Then were the case wurs than it was, and I more woo begone;
For in my mynde of all mankynde I love but you alone.

Ye shal not nede further to drede: I wyl not dispage,
You God defende; sith you descende, of so grete a lynage,
Now understonde, to Westmerlande, whiche is my herytage,
I wyl you bringe, and wyth a rynge, be wey of maryage,
I wyl you take, and lady make, as shortly as I can,
Thus have ye wone an Erles son, and not a banysshyd man.

Here may ye see, that wymen be in love meke kinde and stable.
Late never man repreve them than, or calle them variable;
But rather prey God that we may to them be comfortable,
Whiche somtyme provyth suche as loveth, yf they be charitable.
For sith men wolde that wymen sholde be meke to them echeon,
Moche more ought they to God obey, and serve but hym alone."

ART. III. Richard Hampool's Devoute Medytacyon in sayenge devoutly the Psalter of our Lady, with diuers ensamples. Emprynted at London, in Flete strete at the signe of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde, MCCCCCVII, the furthe daye of Februarie.

THIS Volume did not appear to have any regular title-page. The above is a correct + copy of the

* Qu? disparage?

+ The circumstance of having by chance corrected the catalogue by the original, will account for its varying both from that and the hand-bill afterwards distributed. The work does not appear to be mentioned by Herbert.

head title (a mode occasionally found adopted by the early printers) which immediately preceded the prayers. It was a quarto printed on vellum, in black letter, and formed an article in the catalogue of the library of the late Mr. Voight; but on the morning of sale it was not to be found. Several instances of similar depredation have occurred lately at different auction rooms. In the present instance, harsh as the allegation may appear, yet the craving of a blackletter appetite can alone be suspected. So little was known of its real value, that had it been taken by one of Newgate notoriety, he would scarcely have found a pawnbroker to give it hoarding room with the advance of a crown; and if offered to a bookseller, was there one in the metropolis, who would appreciate its value above waste, but knew of so singular an article being exhibited for public sale, or has since seen the hand-bill distributed from Bowstreet? If it was taken by a mercenary purloiner, a hunting jackall of the more indolent and wealthy collector, this registry may yet be the means of tracing it to its present lodgment, and induce a restoration; if the possessor reflects, neither Russian surtout nor Morocco mantle will be sufficient disguise to parry recollection within the memory of man. Its singular rarity renders it perhaps matchless, and in what manner can it hereafter appear without condemning the possessor? Unless it is intended to form an inchoated article in the Bibliotheca Purloiniana, it must be kept more sacred than a cabinet curiosity, unknown, unseen, or the publicity of the theft may lead to a discovery. Where is the opportunity for ostentatious display, too often the parsimonious gra

tification which alone delights the sordid collector of old books? The unique copy must hide its guilty head, doomed to an unexplored nook, and decreed at last to destruction, in order to save the fair fame of its possessor from posthumous censure and obliquity. Purchase may be alleged, but that is such equivocal transfer, where only a solitary copy is known, that it must appear a vain attempt to screen connivance at an act founded on fraud, covin, and petty larceny. Let it be hoped this register may help to check such acts in future, perhaps deter, which is much better than to detect.

Conduit Street.

J. H.

ART. IV. Here begynneth a lytel treatyse of the byrth and prophecye of Marlyn. (Beneath this labelled title is a neat wood cut of Marlyn, Uter, and Pendragon.) The Colophon runs-Here endeth a lytell treatyse of Marlyn, whiche prophesyed of many fortunes or happes here in Englande. Enprynted in London in Flete strete, at the signe of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde: the yere of our Lorde, a MCCCCC and X. (44 leaves, 4to. about 32 lines in a page.)

THIS printed edition of the romance of Merlin was unknown to Herbert; neither is it adverted to by Dr. Percy in his Essay on our Metrical Romances, nor by Mr. Ellis in his abstract of the romance itself, both of whom only speak of manuscript copies. From those copies this tale appears to differ in many respects,

particularly in its curtailment of some incidents and enlargement of others. The diction of the poem (as was commonly the case, even in coëval transcripts) varies also considerably, from the MSS. that have been preserved; as will be shewn by citing a few passages which run parallel to those Specimens exhibited by Mr. Ellis.

The first leaf of the printed relique I quote from, is a little mutilated, which has rendered four of the lines imperfect; but notwithstanding this defect I am led to introduce the exordium, because it presents a diversity of metre from the rest of the work, which is in short couplets; and also because it differs so widely from those introductory lines which have been printed by Dr. Percy and Mr. Walter Scott,* from the Percy and Auchinleck MSS.

* See Reliques of English Poetry, III. xxxix, and Introduction to Sir Tristram, p. cxix.