HUGH CAMPDEN. (Circa 1420.) Hugh Campden, a poet in the reign of Henry V., is known to us as the translator of several romances of great popularity in his time. The first of these was printed with the following title, at the expense of Robert Sallwood, a monk of St. Augustine's convent at Canterbury, in the year 1510: "The History of King Boccus and Sydrache; how he confounded his lerned men, and in the sight of them dronke stronge venyme, in the name of ye Trynytye, and dyd him no hurt. Also his divynities that he lerned of the Book of Noe. Also his profesyes that he had by revelation of the angel. Also his aunsweres to the questyons of wysdom, with muche wysdome contayned in (the) noumber ccclxv. Translated by Hugo of Caumpeden, out of French into Englyshe," &c. There is no sort of elegance in the diction, nor harmony in the versification. It is in the minstrel metre. ROBERT HENRYSON. (1425-1495.) The time and the place of this poet's birth are not certainly known, but he is supposed to have been born in 1425. Urry styles him chief schoolmaster of Dunfermline; and Lord Hailes conjectures that he officiated as preceptor in the Benedictine convent there. From the former of these writers we learn that he flourished during the reign of Henry VIII.; and that he died before Dunbar appears from the following couplet of that celebrated poet's Lament for the Deth of the Makkaris: "In Dunfermling deth has tane Broun, With gude Mr. Robert Henrysoun." The longest of Henryson's poems is The Testament of Faire Creseide, which, as Urry describes it, "learnedly undertakes, in a fine poetical way, to express the punishment and end due to a false inconstant wretch, which commonly terminates in extreme misery." This poem is printed in Urry's edition of Chaucer, and contains, according to Irvine, many strokes of poetical description, which only a writer of more than ordinary genius could have produced. Propriety, it must be admitted, is frequently violated; but the beauties of the work are more than sufficient to counterbalance its deformi 66 ties. Of his Morall Fabillis of Esope, several have been published. The best of his productions, the popular ballad of Robine and Makyne, is to be found, with other specimens of his muse, in Lord Hailes's extracts from the Bannatyne manuscripts. Irvine, with pardonable partiality, prefers this pastoral of his countryman to the similar attempts" of Spenser and Browne. One of Henryson's poems, also preserved by Hailes, is a singular production, entitled The Garment of Gude Ladys, a sort of paraphrase of 1 Timothy ii. 9-11, in which a comparison drawn between female ornaments and female virtues is carried so far as to become somewhat ridiculous. This strange conversion of the virtues into the stock-in-trade of an allegorical mantua - maker was not, however, original in our poet, but was first conceived by Olivier de la Marche, who, in a poem entitled Le Triomphe, ou Parement des Dames d'Honneur, recommends to the ladies slippers of humility, shoes of diligence, stockings of perseverance, garters of ferme propos (i. e. determination), a petticoat of chastity, a pincushion of patience, &c. The Abbey Walk, another of Henryson's poems, is of a solemn character, and not altogether incapable of impressing the imagination. Its object is to inculcate submission to the various dispensations of Providence; and in the management of this theme he evinces some degree of skill in the poetical art. His thoughts are such as the pious mind willingly recognises; nor are they debased by an unsuitable poverty of diction. JOHN AUDELAY. (Circa 1426.) Though an deemed the Among the Capellani of the quiet monastery of Haughmond, near Shrewsbury, at the commencement of the fifteenth century, lived one, a truly penitent and righteous monk, who atoned for the excesses of his early life by the devotion of an enthusiast, and called the priesthood to their duty by the voice of literature. anti-Wickliffite, he was a zealous advocate for what he reformed Church, and for the return of his leaders to discipline. His name was John Audelay or Awdlay. written when their author was blind and deaf, are religious cast; an exception, some lines on Henry VI., is among the specimens of his poetry printed by the Percy Society, under the care of Mr. Halliwell, from a rare if not unique manuscript in Mr. Douce's collection. This manuscript is imperfect; and even the small portion of it selected by Mr. Halliwell is mainly valuable as illus their early His works, chiefly of a trating the Shropshire dialect of that period. Among the works of this poet are an account of St. Paul's Journey to the Regions of the Wicked; a Prayer to St. Francis; a curious alliterative poem, De tribus Regibus, &c. HENRY THE MINSTREL. (Born circa 1440.) So little is known with respect to Henry the Minstrel, that we can scarcely pretend to add any thing to the meagre account which has been given of him by former writers. As we cannot certainly fix the time, we can form no conjecture even as to the place, of his birth. The only historical record concerning him is supplied by Major. "Henry, who was blind from his birth," says he, " in the time of my infancy composed the whole Book of William Wallace, and committed to writing in vulgar poetry, in which he was well skilled, the things that were commonly related of him. For my own part, I give only partial credit to writings of this description. By the recitation of these, however, in the presence of persons of the highest rank, he procured, as he indeed deserved, food and raiment. This account, as it merely respects the recitation of his poem, is not inconsistent with what Henry himself says, when he asserts his independence in the composition of it, and declares that the motive by which he was chiefly actuated was to preserve the memory of the illustrious deeds of Wallace from oblivion. Mr. Pinkerton has given 1470 as the date when Henry first appeared in the character of an author. It is generally admitted, indeed, that Major was born in the year 1469. Henry, by reason of his blindness, could not have himself written his own poetical effusions; and it may be reasonably supposed that, from his dependent and ambulatory mode of life, he could not employ an amanuensis properly qualified for the task. Hence may we account even for the apparent absurdity of some passages in his work. Bating these imperfections, his descriptions are often so vivid, and his images so just, that he undoubtedly ranks higher as a poetical writer than either Barbour or Wyntown, who had all the advantages of a liberal education-such, at least, as the times could afford. Mr. Pinkerton has thus expressed his sentiments concerning this work: "It has great merit for the age, and is eminently curious. The language in a few places is not sense. When, by altering a word or two, the sense may be restored, attention to this will not only be allowable, but laudable, in any proper editor, especially when we consider the singularity of the case, and that the poem is very good sense every where, save in perhaps a dozen lines at most." Mr. Ellis remarks: "That a man born blind should excel in any science is extraordinary, though by no means without example; but that he should become an excellent poet is almost miraculous, because the soul of poetry is description. Perhaps, therefore, it may be easily assumed that Henry was not inferior in point of genius either to Barbour or Chaucer, nor indeed to any poet of any age or country." Although, from his disastrous circumstances, the principal fountain of knowledge was shut up to poor Henry, it is evident that he had made trial of every other within his reach. Knowing the facts of his blindness, his itinerant life, and oral publication of his poetry, the generality of readers, it may be presumed, have previously formed a contemptuous idea of the author, as if he had been a common ballad-singer, and have either read his book under the influence of this prepossession, or have thrown it aside as unworthy of their attention; but it should be recollected that a bard or minstrel was once ranked very high among our forefathers; and although the profession had considerably fallen in repute by the time that Henry flourished, he did nothing that was deemed unworthy of the character when at its highest elevation. It were futile to seek to exculpate Henry from the charge of cre dulity. Far more, however, has been said on his ignorance than can be well supported; but even judging from this work, which there is every reason to believe is disfigured by unavoidable corruptions, there is sufficient evidence that, from his early years, he must have used all the means of information which were within his reach. He seems to have been pretty well acquainted with that kind of history which was commonly read in that period. He alludes to the history of Hector, of Alexander the Great, of Julius Cæsar, and of Charlemagne. His mode of expression is often very elliptical. He very often omits the pronouns, whether relative or personal. This gives his work an air of absurdity, and makes him appear far more illiterate than was probably the case. The manner and date of his death are entirely unknown. ANTONY WIDVILLE, EARL RIVERS. Antony Widville, Earl Rivers, was son of Sir Richard Widville, by Jacqueline, duchess dowager of Bedford, and brother of the fair Lady Grey. When about seventeen years of age, he was taken by force from Sandwich, with his father, and carried to Calais by some of the opposite faction. The credit of his sister, the countenance and example of his prince, the boisterousness of the times, nothing softened, nothing roughened the mind of this amiable lord, who was as gallant as his luxurious brother-in-law, without his weaknesses; as brave as the heroes of either Rose, without their savageness; studious in the intervals of business; and devout after the manner of those whimsical times, when men challenged others whom they never saw, and went barefoot to visit shrines in countries of which they had scarce a map. In short, Lord Antony was, as Sir Thomas More says, "Vir, haud facile discernas manuve aut consilio promptior." He distinguished himself both as a warrior and a statesman. The Lancastrians making an insurrection in Northumberland, he attended kthe ing into those parts, and was a chief commander at the siege of Alnwick Castle. In the tenth of the same reign he defeated the Dukes of Clarence and Warwick in a skirmish near Southampton, and prevented them seizing a guard-ship called the Trinity. He attended the king into Holland; on the change of the scene returned with him; had a great share in his victories; and was constituted governor of Calais, and captain-general of all the king's forces by sea and land. He had before been sent ambassador to negotiate a marriage between the king's sister and the Duke of Burgundy, and |