II.
ON THE DEATH OF K. EDWARD THE FIRST.
We have here an early attempt at elegy. Edward I. died July 7, 1307, in the 35th year of his reign, and 69th of his age. This poem appears to have been composed soon after his death. According to the modes of thinking peculiar to those times, the writer dwells more upon his devotion than his skill in government, and pays less attention to the martial and political abilities of this great monarch, in which he had no equal, than to some little weaknesses of superstition, which he had in common with all his contemporaries. The king had in the decline of life vowed an expedition to the Holy Land, but finding his end approach, he dedicated the sum of £32,000 to the maintenance of a large body of knights (140 say historians, eighty says our poet), who were to carry his heart with them into Palestine. This dying command of the king was never performed. Our poet, with the honest prejudices of an Englishman, attributes this failure to the advice of the king of France, whose daughter Isabel, the young monarch, who succeeded, immediately married. But the truth is, Edward and his destructive favourite, Piers Gaveston, spent the money upon their pleasures. To do the greater honour to the memory of his heroe, our poet puts his eloge in the mouth of the Pope, with the same poetic licence as a more modern bard would have introduced Britannia or the Genius of Europe pouring forth his praises.
This antique elegy is extracted from the same MS. volume as the preceding article; is found with the same peculiarities of writing and orthography; and tho' written at near the distance of half a century contains little or no variation of idiom: whereas the next following poem by Chaucer, which was probably written not more than fifty or sixty years after this, exhibits almost a new language. This seems to countenance the opinion of some antiquaries, that this great poet made considerable innovations in his mother tongue, and introduced many terms, and new modes of speech from other languages.
[When Henry III. died, highly laudatory songs were sung in honour of the new king, but when Edward I. died the people were too grieved at their loss to sing the praise of his successor. The present song is printed by Mr. Thomas Wright in his Political Songs of England (Camden Society, 1839, p. 246), where he also prints a French version, and points out that the one is clearly translated from the other, adding that the French song was probably the original. In verse 27, Percy printed hue (i.e. she) with a capital H, under the impression that it was "the name of the person who was to preside over the business.">[
Alle, that beoth of huerte trewe,[41]
A stounde herkneth[42] to my song
Of duel,[43] that Deth hath diht[44] us newe,
That maketh me syke, ant sorewe among;
Of a knyht, that wes so strong, 5
Of wham God hath don ys wille;
Me-thuncheth[45] that deth hath don us wrong,
That he so sone shall ligge stille.[46]
Al Englond ahte[47] for te knowe
Of wham that song is, that y synge; 10
Of Edward kyng, that lith[48] so lowe,
Yent[49] al this world is nome con springe:[50]
Trewest mon of alle thinge,
Ant in werre war ant wys,[51]
For him we ahte oure honden wrynge,[52] 15
Of Christendome he ber the prys.