‘De coniugii dignitate, Lib. 1, “Qualiter creator omnium rerum Deus.”
‘De regimine principum, “O deus immense, sub quo dominatur.”
‘Epigrammata quaedam, Lib. 1, “Alta petens aquila volat alitque.”
‘De amoris varietate, Lib. 1, “Est amor in glosa pax bellica.”
‘Carmina diuersa, Lib. 1, et alia plura.’
In regard to this list it may be observed first that in the two cases where the beginning of the book or piece in question is not cited, we may safely assume that Bale had not seen it. This applies to the Speculum Meditantis and the supposed piece De compunctione cordis, of which I can give no account. It will be observed that he makes the short prose preface to the Cronica Tripertita, ‘Opus humanum est inquirere’ &c., into a separate work in three books. The other items are all recognizable, except ‘Epigrammata quaedam, Lib. 1, “Alta petens aquila volat alitque.”’ Here we may observe that the quotation is from Vox Clamantis vi. 985, ‘Alta petens aquila volat alite celsius omni,’ &c. (a passage taken from the Aurora); and on referring to Bale’s unpublished papers[72] we find the description of this supposed book of epigrams in the following form, ‘Ex suo libro et sanctifidensi chron. Epigrammata edidit, li. 1, “Alta petens aquila volat alite,”’ whence we should gather that the book referred to was a collection of quotations. It is probable that Bale may have seen in some Gower MS. a selection of sententious passages from the Vox Clamantis and other places, such as we actually have on one of the blank leaves of the Digby MS. (f. 160), beginning ‘Vulturis est hominum natura cadauera velle,’ again one of those allegories of bird nature which were borrowed by Gower from the Aurora.
It may be noted here that in the same passage of Bale’s unpublished papers we have the following statement:
‘De triplici opere hoc carmen est super eius tumbam editum,
Quos viuens legi libro nunc offero regi,
Cuius habent legi secula cuncta regi.’