Dialogue by Geofroy Tory of Bourges in praise of his teacher, Wilhelm de Ricke of Ghent.[195]
Speakers: MONITOR and LIBER.
M. Sacred book, who in song mourn Christ's Passion, now speak: whose holy work can you be?
L. Whose work? Behold! Rich's work am I.
M. Well done! That Rich who to the people of Bourges has given so many rich examples?
L. You judge rightly.
M. Rich truly has a wise heart.
L. No fitter name than this can be given him.
M. He it is who taught the people of Bourges to speak with flowery tongue and to make facile verses with the mouth.
L. He not only taught them to speak and to weave song, but he also gave them the power to see Christ's wounded body.
M. If one wished to see the arms of God fixed to the cross, could even Rich grant him that to the life?
L. Should you desire to carry the cross of God, his cruel wounds, the crown, hold me in hand, you will carry all.
M. May Rich's every prayer be ever happily granted, such good he grants to pious hearts.
L. May he live and continue on earth through Nestorian years, and after death gain the rich kingdom of Heaven.
CIVIS.
The little book comes to an end with the poem by Lactantius mentioned on the title-page. It fills the third and second last leaves, and the recto of the last, at the foot of which we read: 'Finis. Ex ædibus Ascensianis ad v idus martias MDIX.' This date corresponds with March 11, 1510, new style.
M. Jules de Saint-Genois, librarian of the University of Ghent, writes me as follows concerning his fellow-townsman, the author of the verses on the Passion:—
'The name of the person in whom you are interested was not le Riche, but de Rycke, in Flemish, which in the Latin rendering becomes Dives. This is what Sanderus says of him in "Flandria Illustrata," 1, 386 (edition Hagæ-Comitis, 1735): "Gulielmus Dives, vulgo de Rycke, Gandavensis poeta: ejus exstat 'Carmen elegiacum de Passione Dominica,' artificiosæ pietatis plenissimum, quod inter illustrium poetarum opera impressit Judocus Badius Ascensius Parisiis."
'Valère André, too, devotes a few lines to him in his "Bibliotheca Belgica" (Lovanii, 1623, p. 344): "Elegiam de Passione Dominica edidit Antverpiæ cum Dominici Mancini, Phil. Beroaldi et aliorum similis argumenti libellis, 1527, Mich. Hellenii typis."
'P. Hofmann Peerlkamp says in his "Liber de vita, doctrina et facultate Nederlandorum qui carmina latina composuerunt" (2d edition, Harlem, 1838, p. 29): "Gulielmus Dives Gandensis floruit 1520. Scripsit 'Carmen elegiacum de Passione Dominica,' artificiosæ pietatis plenissimum.... Hæc sæpius prodiit, addita etiam uatuor virtutibus Dominici Mancini, Antverpiæ, a. 1562. Si vocabulum his illic excipias minus latinum, Carmen est melioris notæ quam multa ejusdem temporis de hoc argumento."
'As for the edition which you mention, said to have been printed "in ædibus Ascensianis," in 1509, the library does not own it; but Gulielmus Dives' little poem is printed in "Dominici Mancini Poemata," Antverpiæ, 1559, 12mo.'
This is all that I have been able to learn concerning Guillaume le Riche or de Rycke; we do not know how this burgess of Ghent became a professor at Bourges. And yet the fact itself is not extraordinary, for, not long after, about 1530, another Belgian, named Hanneton, gave instruction in feudal law there.
Tory published also at the end of his edition of Valerius Probus [see number 5, infra], the following Latin distich,—an enigma,—written by his master:—
Dic age, quæ volucres gignunt animalia foetæe