——­Hic ille est, cujus de gurgite sacro,
  Combibit arcanos vatum omnis turba furores.

The deservingly honoured Sir Philip Sidney, in his Defence of Poesie, thus writeth of him, Chaucer undoubtedly did excellently in his Troylus and Crescid, of whom truly I know not whether to marvel more, either that he in that misty time could see so clearly or we in this clear age walk so stumblingly after him. And Doctor Heylin, in his elaborate Description of the World, ranketh him in the first place of our chiefest Poets.  Seeing therefore that both old and new Writers have carried this reverend conceit of him, and openly declared the same by writing, let us conclude with Horace in the eighth Ode of his fourth Book;

  Dignum Laudi causa vetut mori.

The Works of this famous Poet, were partly published in Print by William Caxton, Mercer, that first brought the incomparable Art of Printing into England, which was in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth.  Afterward encreased by William Thinne, Esq; in the time of King Henry the Eighth.  Afterwards, in the year 1561. in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Corrected and Encreased by John Stow; And a fourth time, with many Amendments, and an Explanation of the old and obscure Words, by Mr. Thomas Speight, in Anna 1597.  Yet is he said to have written many considerable Poems, which are not in his publish’d Works, besides the Squires Tale, which is said to be compleat in Arundel-house Library.

* * * * *

JOHN LYDGATE.

John Lydgate was born in a Village of the same name, not far off St. Edmondsbury, a Village (saith Cambden) though small, yet in this respect not to be passed over in silence, because it brought into the World John Lydgate the Monk, whose Wit may seem to have been framed and fashioned by the very Muses themselves:  so brightly reshine in his English Verses, all the pleasant graces and elegancy of Speech, according to that Age.  After some time spent in our English Universities, he travelled through France and Italy, improving his time to his great accomplishment, in learning the Languages and Arts; Erat autem non solum elegans Poeta, & Rhetor disertus, verum etiam Mathematicus expertus, Philosophus acutus, & Theologus non contemnendus:  he was not only an elegant Poet, and an eloquent Rhetorician, but also an expert Mathematician, an acute Philosopher, and no mean Divine, saith Pitseus.  After his return, he became Tutor to many Noblemens Sons, and both in Prose and Poetry was the best Author of his Age, for if Chaucer’s Coin were of greater Weight for deeper Learning, Lydgate’s was of a more refined Stantard for purer Language; so that one might mistake him for a modern Writer.  But because none can so well describe him as himself, take an Essay of his Verses, out of his Life and Death of Hector, pag. 316 and 317.