Wright has kindly sent me, some Maxims on Behaviour, &c., which all end in -ly, and Roger Ascham's Advice to his brother-in-law on entering a nobleman's service, finish Part I. The woodcuts Messrs Virtue have allowed me to have copies of for a small royalty, and they will help the reader to realize parts of the text better than any verbal description. The cuts are not of course equal to the beautiful early illuminations they are taken from, but they are near enough for the present purpose. The dates of those from British Museum MSS. are given on the authority of trustworthy officers of the Manuscript Department. The dates of the non-Museum MSS. are copied from Mr Wright's text. The line of description under the cuts is also from Mr Wright's text, except in one instance where he had missed the fact of the cut representing the Marriage Feast at Cana of Galilee, with its six water-pots. The MS. of Russell is on thick folio paper, is written in a closeand seemingly unprofessional-hand, fond of making elaborate capitals to the initials of its titles, and thus occasionally squeezing up into a corner the chief word of the title, because the T of The preceding has required so much room. The MS. has been read through by a corrector with a red pen, pencil, or brush, who has underlined all the important words, touched up the capitals, and evidently believed in the text. Perhaps the corrector, if not writer, was Russell himself. I hope it was, for the old man must have enjoyed emphasizing his precepts with those red scores; but then he would hardly have allowed a space to remain blank in line 204, and have left his Panter-pupil in doubt as to whether he should lay his "white payne" on the left or right of his knives. Every butler, drillserjeant, and vestment-cleric, must feel the thing to be impossible. The corrector was not John Russell. To all those gentlemen who have helped me in the explanations of words, &c.,-Mr Gillett, Dr Günther, Mr Atkinson, Mr Skeat, Mr Cockayne, Mr Gibbs, Mr Way, the Hon. G. P. Marsh-and to Mr E. Brock, the most careful copier of the MS., my best thanks are due, and are hereby tendered. Would that thanks of any of us now profiting by their labours could reach the ears of that prince of 1 The MS. has no title. The one printed I have made up from bits of the text. Dictionary-makers, Cotgrave, of Frater Galfridus, Palsgrave, Hexham, Philipps, and the rest of the lexicographers who enable us to understand the records of the past! Would too that an adequate expression of gratitude could reach the ears of the lost Nicolas, and of Sir Frederic Madden, for their carefully indexed Household Books, to be contrasted with the unwieldy mass and clueless mazes of the Antiquaries' Household Ordinances, the two volumes of the Roxburghe Howard Household Books, and Percy's Northumberland Household Book1-They will be spared the pains of the special place of torment reserved for editors who turn out their books without glossary or index. May that be their sufficient reward! 3, St George's Square, N.W. 16 Dec., 1866. 1 Still one is truly thankful for the material in these unindexed books. HUMPHREY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. Mr C. H. Pearson has referred me to a most curious treatise on the state of Duke Humphrey's body and health in 1404 (that is, 1424, says Hearne), by Dr Gilbert Kymer, his physician, part of which (chapters 3 and 19, with other pieces) was printed by Hearne in the appendix to his Liber Niger, v. ii. p. 550 (ed. alt.), from a MS. then in Sir Hans Sloane's Collection, and now Sloane 4 in the British Museum. It begins at p. 127 or folio 63, and by way of giving the reader a notion of its contents, I add here a copy of the first page of the MS. ncipit dietarium de sanitatis custodia preinclitissimo principi ac metuendissimo domino, domino humfrido, duci Gloucestrie, Alijsque preclaris titulis insignito, Scriptum & compilatum, per venerabilem doctorem, Magistrum Gilbertum Kymer, Medicinarum professorem, arcium ac philosophie Magistrum & in legibus bacallarium prelibati principis phisicum, Cuius dietarij colleccionem (?) dilucidancia & effectum viginti sex existunt capitula, quorum consequenter hic ordo ponitur Rubricarum 2. Capitulum 1m est epistola de laude sanitatis & vtilitate bone diete. Capitulum 2m est de illis in quibus consistit dieta. Capitulum 3m de tocius co[r]poris & parcium disposicione. Capitulum 4m est de Ayere eligendo & corrigendo. Capitulum 5m de quantitate cibi & potus sumenda. Capitulum 6m de ordine sumendi cibum & potum. Capitulum 7m de tempore sumendi cibum & potum. Capitulum 9m de pane eligendo. Capitulum 10m de generibus potagiorum sumendis. 1 The letters are to me more like c, or coll than anything else, but I am not sure what they are. 2 The MS. runs on without breaks. Capitulum 11m de carnibus vtendis & vitandis. Capitulum 12m de ouis sumendis. Capitulum 13m de lacticinijs vtendis. Capitulum 14m de piscibus vtendis & vitandis. Capitulum 15m de fructibus sumendis. Capitulum 16m de condimentis & speciebus vtendis. Capitulum 17m de potu eligendo. Capitulum 18m de regimine replecionis & inanicionis. Capitulum 19m de vsu coitus. Capitulum 20m de excercicio & quiete. Capitulum 21m de sompni & vigilie regimine. Capitulum 22m de vsu accidencium anime. Capitulum 23m de bona consuetudine diete tenenda. Capitulum 24m de medicinis vicissim vtendis. Capitulum 25m de aduersis nature infortunijs precauendis. Capitulum 26m de deo semper colendo vt sanitatem melius tueatur. Sharon Turner (Hist. of England, v. 498, note 35) says euphemistically of the part of this treatise printed by Hearne, that "it implies how much the Duke had injured himself by the want of self-government. It describes him in his 45th year, as having a rheumatic affection in his chest, with a daily morning cough. It mentions that his nerves had become debilitated by the vehemence of his laborious exercises, and from an immoderate frequency of pleasurable indulgences. It advises him to avoid north winds after a warm sun, sleep after dinner, exercise after society, frequent bathings, strong wine, much fruit, the flesh of swine, and the weakening gratification to which he was addicted. The last (chapter), 'De Deo semper colendo, ut sanitatem melius tueatur,' is worthy the recollection of us all." It is too late to print the MS. in the present volume, but in a future one it certainly ought to appear. Of Duke Humphrey's character and proceedings after the Pope's bull had declared his first marriage void, Sharon Turner further says: "Gloucester had found the rich dowry of Jacqueline wrenched from his grasp, and, from so much opposition, placed beyond his attaining, and he had become satiated with her person. One of her attendants, Eleanor Cobham, had affected his variable fancy; and tho' her character had not been spotless before, and she had surrendered her honour to his own importunities, yet he suddenly married her, exciting again the wonder of the world by his conduct, as in that proud day every nobleman felt that he was acting incongruously with the blood he had sprung from. His first wedlock was impolitic, and this unpopular; and both were hasty and self-willed, and destructive of all reputation for that dignified prudence, which his elevation to the regency of the most reflective and enlightened nation in Europe demanded for its example and its welfare. This injudicious conduct announced too much imperfection of intellect, not to give every advantage to his political rival the bishop of Winchester, his uncle, who was now struggling for the command of the royal mind, and for the predominance in the English government. He and the duke of Exeter were the illegitimate brothers of Henry the Fourth, and had been first intrusted with the king's education. The internal state of the country, as to its religious feelings and interest, contributed to increase the differences which now arose between the prelate and his nephew, who is described by a contemporary as sullying his cultivated understanding and good qualities, by an ungoverned and diseasing love of unbecoming pleasures. It is strange, that in so old a world of the same continuing system always repeating the same lesson, any one should be ignorant that the dissolute vices are the destroyers of personal health, comfort, character, and permanent influence." After narrating Duke Humphrey's death, Turner thus sums up his character :— "The duke of Gloucester, amid failings that have been before alluded to, has acquired the pleasing epithet of The Good; and has been extolled for his promotion of the learned or deserving clergy. Fond of literature, and of literary conversation, he patronized men of talent and erudition. One is called, in a public record, his poet and orator; and Lydgate prefaces one of his voluminous works, with a panegyrie upon him, written during the king's absence on his French 1 Sharon Turner's History of England, vol. v. pp. 496-8. |