FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
97
of his youth, his early and long captivity, the in- cident which gave nse to his passion, its purity, constancy, and happy issue, are all displayed by invention and fancy, by genuine simplicity of sentiment, and by the felicity of poetical descrip- tion. To his knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, the last of which he is represented as having written with ease, he added an acquaint- ance with the philosophy of the age. But the studies to which he was more particularly de- voted were those of poetry and music. Various works were written by him, both in prose and verse, most of which are unfortunately lost. Four of James's pieces, which have happily escaped the depredations of time, are a Song on ku MUtress ; The Kiiig't Qitair ; Pehlis to the Play; and Christ's Kirk im the Green. The King's Quair is a poem of large extent, being dinned into six cantos. Its theme is the royal author's love to Jane, daughter to the Earl of Somerset, a beautiful lady, of whom he became enamoured while a prisoner at the castle of Windsor, and who was afterwards his queen. Several men of ingenuity and taste have con- tended that James is little if at all inferior to Chaucer. If the former's Court of Venus be compared to the larter's Court of Love, the royal author will lose nothing by the comparison. 'The Jtsne, in particular, of King James, is painted with a beauty and delicacy that are not equalled io Chaucer's Rotial. It is to be lamented that many of the graces of the King's Quair are con- cealed, at least from common view in the an- tionity of the language.
Three other Scottish poets are named in this period, but they are, on the whole, contemptible, vben compared with the monarch of the country. Andrew Winton,acanon regular of St. Andrew's, and prior of the monastery in Lochleveu, and who preceded James the First, wrote in verse a very luge chronicle of Scothind. Notwithstanding bis mode of composition, h« ought, perhaps, tatfaer to be considered as an historian than a poet. His work, which is valuable so far as it relates to his own country, and which contains materials not to be met with in Fordun, whom he had never seen, has not toour knowledge been published. It would be a desirable accession to the history of North Britain. Holland was the Mtbor of a poem entitled The Howlat, which appears to hare described the poetical employ- ments, and the musical entertainments of the age. Henry, the minstrel, who, on account of Im being blind from his birth, b usually called Blind Harry, composed the Lt/e o/ If a/(ac«. It is a romance, like Barbour's Bruce, but not to be adied with it in point of excellence. At the same time, it is not destitute of merit, and there are various tilings in it which cannot fail to gratify the curiosity of the antiquary and the critic.
John Lydgate, a monk of the Benedictine ab- bey of Bury, in Suffolk, was the poet whose reputation stands the highest among the English bards of this age. He possessed the advantage of as good an education as the times could afford.
After having studied at Oxford, he travelled for improvement into France and Italy. , Here he acquired the knowledge not only of the language, but of the literature of these countries, and paid a very particular attention to the poetry of Iwth nations. Besides obtaining an acquaintance with all the polite learning which was then cultivated, he was no inconsiderable proficient in the fa.shion- ablephilosophyand theology of his coteraporaries. The vivacity of his genius, and the versatility of his talents, enabled him to write a great number of poems, extremely diversified in their subjects, and in the nature of their composition. His three chief productions were the Fall of Princes, the Siege of Thebes, and the Destruction of Troy ; he likewise composed a procession of pageants from the Creation. Lydgate is to he reckoned among the improvers of the English tongue. His langut^ is uncommonlyperspicuous for the tim^ he lived in, and his verses frequently excite surprise from their modest cast. He seems to have been ambitious, at least in the structure and modulation of his style, of having rivalled Chau- cer; but undoubtedly he was far inferior to him in the grand requisites of poetical excellence. His mode of writing is diffuse, and he is not distinguished by animation or pathos. Never- theless, he is not destitute of beauties ; and his Destruction of Troy, in particular, displays much power of description, in conjunction with clear and harmonious numbers. He died in the year 1440, and was buried in the monastery at Bury.
Having dwelt so largely on the poetical his- tory of this period, for which the materials are more copious than for most other articles, and which will always comtitute a prime object in a view of the progress of taste and literature, we proceed to the rest of the polite arts, concerning the rest of which, however, there Ls little to be said. Although the civil wars of the fifteenth century were a great hindrance to the erection of magnificent buildings, at least by private per- sons, a skill in architecture, where there was an opportunity of displaying it, was by no means upon the aecline. That species of it which bath commonly, though improperly, been styled the Gothic, was gradually improved, and carried to its highest pitch of perfection. Of this several striking examples may be mentioned ; such as the chapel of King's College at Cambridge, the Divinity School at Oxford, the collegiate church at Fotheringay, and the chapel of St. George at Windsor. The most admired of these structures is King's College chapel at Cambridge, which was erected by that pious prince, Henry the Sixth. It is dlstinguisned by its lightness, lofti- ness, and beauty, and the contemplation of it will afford peculiar pleasure to men of taste and judgment.
Sculpture and statuary did not decline in this age, or fail of receiving ample encouragement. In tact, the artists in these branches had fuller employment, and obtained higher rewards than hau been conferred upon them in former times. The very opposite which was made, by the fol- lowers of Wiclif, to the veneration and woi-ship
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