The next extract is from the description of heaven

"Of verray ryches, gret plenté es thare,
That er a hundreth thowsand-fald mare
Than alle the ryches of the world here,
That ever was sene, fer or nere,
That fayles and passes oway;

Bot the rychesce of heven salle last ay,
That er alle thing, als God vouches save,
That men in heven yhernes to have.

Oboven the ceté of heven salle noght be sene,
Bot bright bemes only, als I wene,
That sal schyne fra Goddes awen face,
And sprede obout and over that place.
His bright face sal alle thas se,
That sal duelle in that blisful cité;
And that syght es the mast ioy of heven,
Als men mught here me byfor neven.
And alle-if that cité be large and wyde,
Men salle hym se, until the ferrest syde,
And als wele thas that sal be fra hym fer,
Als thas that sal thar til hym be nerrer;
For als men of fer landes may haf sight
Of the son, that we se here schyne bright,
And als the same son that shynes byyhond the se
Shewes it here, and in ilka cuntré

Alle the day, aftir the ryght course es,

Bot when cloudes fra us hydes hir brightnes;
Right swa the face of God alle-myghty,

Sal be shewed in heven appertely,

Tille alle the men that thider sal wende,
Thogh som suld duelle at the ferrest ende.
Bot ilk man, als he lufes God here,

Sal won thar, som fer and som nere,
For som lufes God here mar than sum,

And som lufes hym les that til heven sal com
Alle thas that God here lufes best,

When thai com thar sal be hym nerrest,
And the nerrer that thai sal hym be,
The verreylyer thai sal hym se;
And the mare verraly thai se his face,
The mare sal be thair ioy and solace.
Bot tha that here lufs hym les,
Thai sal won thar, aftir thair luf es;

The Old Anglo-Scottish Dialect.
Bot ilk man sal se hym in his degré
In what syde of heven swa he sal be.
Here haf yhe herd of many fayre sight,
That ay salle be sene in heven bright;
Ful glade and ioyful all thas may be
That swilk fayre sightes, ay, thar sal se
And of mykel ioy may thai ay telle
That in that cité of heven sal
ay
duelle.
Alswa ilkan sal haf in thair heryng,
Grete ioy in heven and grete lykyng,
For thai sal here thar aungel sang
And the haly men sal ay syng omang,
With delitabel voyces and clere;
And, with that, thai sal ay here
Alle other manere of melody,
Of the delytable noys of mynstralsy,
And of alkyn swet tones of musyke,
That til any man's hert mught like;
And of alkyn noyse that swete mught be,
Ilkan sal here in that cité,

With-outen instrumentes ryngand,
And with-outen movyng of mouth or hand
And with-outen any travayle,

And that sal never mar cese ne fayle.
Swilk melody, als thar sal be than,

In this werld herd never nan erthely man
For swa swete sal be that noyse and shille
And swa delitabel and swa sutille,
That all the melody of this werld here
That ever has bene here, fer and nere,
War noght bot als sorowe and care
Als to the lest poynt of melody thare.
Omang tham alswa sal be swete savour,
Swa swete com never of herbe ne flour,
When thai war in seson mast,

Or war mast of vertu for to tast;

Ne of spicery mught never spryng,

Ne yhit of nan othir thyng,

That thurgh vertu of kynde suld savour wele

Swa swete savour als thai sal fele;

For na hert may thynk, ne tung telle,
How swete sal ilkan til other smelle;
That savour sal be ful plenteuouse,
And swa swete and swa delicious,
That alkyn spicery that men may fele,
And of alle othir thyng that here savours wele,
War noght bot als thyng that stynked sour,
Als to regarde of that delycious savour."

467

The Poems of Minot have been so long known in the excellent edition of Ritson, that it would be a waste of time and

space to make extracts from them here. He seems to have written a few years earlier than Chaucer or Barbour, and his writings produce upon us a singular impression, arising from the almost perfect identity of his language with the Scottish idiom, and from his animosity against those very Scots with whom he thus shows himself to be so nearly allied in speech and origin. Minot has long been noted for the ease and smoothness of his rhythms.

The Romance of Iwaine and Gawaine, also edited by Ritson, and inserted in his collection of Romances, is, in our opinion, an excellent poem, as well as an admirable specimen of very pure and racy Anglo-Scottish. We do not profess to assign any precise date to its composition; but it contains many archaic forms and phrases.

The last work we shall at present notice is the Towneley Mysteries, one of the most interesting of the publications of the Surtees Society. These compositions are somewhat multifarious in style and manner, and as we now have them, they are probably in a different and more modern garb than that which they originally wore. They seem to belong for the most part to the region near Wakefield, in Yorkshire, and to be marked with some of the peculiarities of the West Riding dialect. But in substance and in the main structure of the language, they appear to us to be decidedly Anglian, and they are, with some simple explanations, quite intelligible to those who know the ordinary Scottish idiom. Some of them, such as the "Mactatio Abel" and the "Secunda Pastorum," descend to a very low depth of vulgar ribaldry; while in others, such as "Abraham," we meet with a touching vein of tenderness and true feeling.

We subjoin here, as a curiosity, some examples from these Mysteries," of the double bob-wheel, which, after it had come to be disused in England, was so happily made popular by the genius of Burns.

In the "Resurrectio Domini," the centurion says (we somewhat modernize the spelling):

"The sun for woe it waxed all wan,

The moon and starnes of shining blan,
And earth it trembled as a man

Began to speak;

The stone that never was stirred or than
Insonder [brast &] brake.

The Saviour speaks:

"Earthly man, that I have wrought,

Wightly wake & slepe thou nought,

The Old Anglo-Scottish Dialect.

With bitter bale I have thee bought,
To make thee free;

Into this dungeon deep I sought
[And all] for love of thee.

Sen I for love, man, bought thee dear,
As thou thyself the sooth sees here,
I pray thee heartly, with good cheer,
Love me again;

That it liked me that I for thee
Tholed all this pain.

If thou thy life in sin have led,
Mercy to ask be not adread,
The least drop I for thee bled
Might cleanse thee soon;

All the sin the warld within

If thou had done."

469

We have thus travelled over, in rather a desultory manner, the interesting ground that is presented to us in the Anglian dialects, as used on the south of the Tweed, and we shall here pause for the present. We think it cannot fail to have been seen how important a form of old English is thus presented to us, and how closely it is identified with our Scottish tongue. We do not say that the more southerly idioms of old English are not also to be studied as illustrations on this subject; for in all the varieties of English speech there is much that is common and universal. There can be no better proof of this fact than the excellent annotations of Mr. Albert Way on the Promptorium Parvulorum, a book written in the language of Norfolk, but which has received in those Notes a copious elucidation from all the forms of Old English. It is obvious, however, that the dialects which prevailed from East Anglia to the Forth, and latterly even to the Moray Firth, are those which are most nearly allied together, and that the study of these in their whole extent is the best and only true way of understanding any one of them. Without seeking to draw invidious comparisons, we cannot help remembering how much these eastern districts have in every way contributed to the prosperity of England, and the formation of the English character. Their inhabitants have, from the earliest times, been remarkable for untiring energy and industry, as well as for practical prudence and good sense. They have carried out, in the highest perfection, on their own ground, the two concurring, and yet contrasted pursuits of agriculture and seamanship, which are the main supports of England's greatness; their genius and taste pre-eminently appeared in their early architecture and poetry; and their language, though it could not supersede, has insensibly modified the forms of the southern and

midland dialects, and has communicated much of that force, compactness, and precision, for which classical English is now remarkable.

Dr. Guest observes, that " as the northern dialect was retreating northwards, two vigorous efforts were made to fix it as a literary language; the first, in the thirteenth century, by the men of Lincolnshire-the same whose taste and genius yet live in their glorious churches; and a second in the fifteenth century by the men of Lothian." We find here indicated the history and progress of the Anglian speech. Reduced gradually in England to the position of a provincial dialect, it had still a refuge in the Scottish Lowlands, and flourished for the space of more than two hundred years as the language of the Court and clergy, as well as of a large portion of the common people, of an important and independent kingdom. The Scottish is thus the Anglian tongue, not neglected and left to run wild, like flowers in a deserted garden, but enclosed, cultivated, and watered by courtly favour and the care of learned men. This Scottish dialect, however, received its death-blow at the Reformation. The circulation of the English Scriptures undermined its ascendency, and no Scottish Bible was ever authorized. Knox and

his followers were accused of Anglicizing in their language as well as in their politics; and Ninian Winzet, the Popish antagonist of Knox, was among the last who wrote the ancient Scottish in its primitive purity. The union of the Crowns in the beginning of the following century, placed Scotland, in a great measure, in the condition of a province; but left it, at the same time, in possession of a noble literature, the product of the two centuries that had intervened from Barbour to James the Sixth, the last of our purely Scottish kings, and who may be called also the last of our Scottish poets perhaps in more senses than one. The body of poetry which had thus arisen, together with the admirable compositions of Ramsay and Burns, which have since been produced, ought to be regarded, not as the exclusive property of Scottish men, but as belonging also to all their countrymen of England, among whom the Anglian dialect ever prevailed. Its foundations were laid, and the first cultivation of the language was carried on to the south of the Tweed, and the peculiarities of phraseology, and perhaps of thought and feeling, which distinguish Scottish poetry, are common and congenial to the whole Anglian race.