After this there are still appended six pages, of small translations, with a dedication to Sir Richard Hutton, Judge of the Common Pleas. Sir Thomas Hawkins of Nash, in the parish of Boughton Blean, Kent, published a Translation of Horace's Odes, in 1638.* ART. XXI. Opusculum plane divinum de Mortuorum resurrectione, et extremo judicio, in quatuor Authore Joanne linguis succincte conscriptum. Clerco. Lattine, Englyshe, Italian, Frenche. Imprynted at London, in Aldersgate Street, by Joannes Herforde, Anno 1545. Cum privelegio ad imprimendum solum. It offers itself (je m'en vay au tres illustre Seigneur &c.) in a short dedication, in French, to Henry Howard Earl of Surry, which is followed by as short an address in Latin to the reader. It is neatly printed (the Latin and Italian in the Roman character, the English and French in black letter) in double columns, so that two opposite pages always give the text in the four languages. It contains 61 pages. I will copy, as a specimen, the first two English paragraphs of the book. "Albeit the cotinuall sighte of the Godhed permytted not that ye most holy soule of oure Saviour and very Messias sholde be fro the tyme of conceptio" of his carnall body in any wyse destitute of ye celestial glorie, yet neverthelesse ye diuine wil so totally deprived his body from the tast therof, as beynge hym • Wood's Ath. IL. 268, selfe selfe wyllyngly made a sacrifice for ma's offences, suffred cruell death in the crosse: passible in fleshe, impassible in deitie; very God and very man in either nature, and under one onely personne most perfccte: as beynge only God he could not die, so, beynge onely man, he coulde not ryse agayne. "The lively and eternal diuinitie dyd suscitate ye ded humanitie; and, as that most holye body, hauynge alredy suffred, and beynge eftsones unite to the soule, reuiued and rose by the only diuine vertue above the rules of man's nature, so every one, both good and yll, by vertue of his resurrection, shall in the momet and twinke of an eye in his commyng reuiue and ryse; suche as dyd good, to the enheritaunce of immortall lyfe; agayne, such as com ytted yll, to the eternall ponisshment of death. Albeit this earthly matter wherof the flesshe of mortal men is made, after that the soule shall be seperate from the body, be conuerted into any of thelementes of this worlde wherof all thinges are made, or into the meat of men or beastes, and so be cosumed as not the leaste parte therof remained to be seene, which yll is seen many tymes to have happed, yet neuerthelesse the hoole naturall substaunce of the body, the same membres, and the same joyncture, totally perfecte, shall in the commyng of Christ to the ferrible jugemente retourne to the soule by the divine prouidence in ye poynt of a tyme. We cannot dystruste all that herafter to succede in us, beyng the membres of Christ (in whome is a portion of the flesshe and bloud of every one of us) whiche we knowe to have ben accomplyshed in hym our head. Where our portion reygneth, where our flesshe is glorified, there we beleve we shall reygne and shalbe glori fied i fied; our substaunce requireth it, and the communion of nature doth not repcll it." The book once belonged to the typographical antiquary Herbert, whose autograph is on the page before the title. There is a loose MS. leaf in it, which I presume to have been extracted, or at least compiled, from him, or Ames, and written by some subsequent possessor of the book. It is as follows. "This very scarce book does not appear in the Catalogues of any of the celebrated libraries that have becn sold in this country. Even the Bibliotheca Harleiana, that was enriched with such a great collection of the early productions of the British press, had not copy of this work in it: neither had Dr. Ratcliffe, that celebrated collector of old English literature, a copy. It has escaped the researches of all the bibliographical antiquaries, except Mr. Herbert, and this was the identical copy he described it from, in his edition of Ames's typographical antiquities, Vol. I. page 577, which circumstance is substantiated by his autograph in the leaf preceding the title-page, and its corresponding in every respect with the description he has given of it. The printer of the book, John Hertford, Herford, Herforde, or Hereford, printed at St. Albans before he printed at London, and, by the earliest dates of his books, probably was the first who set up a press there, after the so long cessation thereof, that is from 1486 to 1537: the Reformation taking place, and not finding business among the Monks, he came and dwelt in Aldersgate Street, London, and served other persons besides himself. This was the second book of his printing that Herbert met with: in addition to its rarity, it is curious on account of some of the specu lations lations it contains, but, above all, as it affords a com parative view of the orthography and idiom of the English, French, and Italian languages at that period."* ART. XXII. The XIII Bukes of Eneados of the famose Poete Virgile Translatet out of Latyne verses into Scottish Metir bi the Reverend Father in God Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkel, and Unkil to the Erle of Angus. Every buke having his perticular Prologe. Imprinted at London, 1553. + Engraved title-page, and black letter, except the three first lines, and printer's date. There is a preface in verse, of eight pages. The book is a small thick quarto, containing 382 pages. The beginning of the First Book. "The battalis, and the man I will descrive, By fate to Italie came, and wist lavyne The description of Fame in the fourth book, and of Dido and Æneas retiring into the cave in the storm, are wholly omitted; probably from the good Bishop's The Editor is indebted for the favour of this article to Lord Aston, through his friend Mr. Lodge. Herbert I. 357, says "By William Copland; and adds that the title is"in a neat compartment of a gailand, or chaplet of flowers. At the bottom is a tablet supporting a boy at each end, holding Roman ensigns in their hands." Editor. Qu? Herbert says, " ccc xxx leaves." delicacy; delicacy; for in a very long prologue to this book he gives many exhortations to young women, in this manner: "Eschawe, young virgins, and fair dampcellis, Probably there is an older edition; for he was written in eighteen months, and finished in 1513. The work ends with the Translator's Rebus. "To knaw the name of the Translater. "The gaw unbrokin mydlit with the wine Seik no farther, for, lo, with lytil pyne Spye leile this vers, men clepis him sa at hame." M.P. Warton says "This translation is executed with equal spirit and fidelity: and is a proof that the lowland Scotch and English languages were now nearly the same. I mean the style of composition; more especially in the glaring affectation of anglicising Latin .words. The several books are introduced with metrical prologues, which are often highly poetical; and shew that Douglas's proper walk was original poetry. The most conspicuous of these prologues is a Description of May."* This translation was reprinted in folio at Edinburgh, Wart. Hist. E. Poetry, II. 281. |