Oct. 31. Mr. URBAN, UNDERSTANDING that your pages are open to receive stray facts of a literary nature, I venture to submit the following to you, in the hopes that you may consider it worth preserving for the use of students of Chaucer and lovers of our old poetry. Lately, in the Bodleian Library, I inquired into the manuscripts of Chaucer, with a view of seeing what possibility there was of materially correcting the text of his minor Poems-a work which has not as yet been attempted. There are three MSS, there; each containing a good many of Chaucer's smaller poems, with others of his successors, such as Lidgate. These are, Fairfax 16., Bodl. 638., and Arch. Seld. B. 24. Perhaps there may be others, which escaped my notice; but what I wish to call your attention to is not a general account of the value of these MSS. but some remarkable variæ lectiones.

Cuckoo and Nightingale.

In both Fairf. 16. and Arch. Seld. B. 24, the following stanza is found inserted between the 40th and 41st of the present editions:

"With such a lorde wolde I never be,
For he is blynde and may not se,
And when he lyeth he not, ne when he
fuyleth,

In this courte full selde trouthe avayleth,
So dyverse and so wilful is he."

Instead of the 43rd, which runs thus:

"Methought than that he stert up anone,
And glad was I that he was agone.
And evermore the Cuckow as he flay
Said, Farewell, farewell, Popingay;'
As though he had scorned me alone."
we find two stanzas supplying_an
idea, without which the story, such as
it is, is defective. This, then, is valu-
able and worth noting:

"Methoght then that I sterte out anone,
And to the broke I ran and gatte a stone,
And at the Cuckow hertily I cast,
And he for drede flyed away ful fast,
And glad was I when that he was gone.
And evermore the Cuckow as he fley,
He seyde, Farewel, farewel, Papyngay.'

*The MS. Seld. gives better:

As thogh he had scorned, thought me :
But ay I hunted him fro tre to tre,
Till he was fer al out of sight awey."

Both the MSS. which I have made
notes of give this improvement, which
must undoubtedly be the right reading;
the third, I believe, agrees; but I have
not made any memorandum.

The other fact which I have to men-
tion, is not a true various reading,
but a false one, of a rather extraordi-
nary kind. The MS. mentioned above,
Arch. Seld. B. 24., is of Scotch ori-
gin: it contains the Troilus and Cre-
seide; at the end of which is written
a date of time and place, Edinburgh,
1472. After this, among other of the
smaller poems, is found the Assembly
of Fowls, or Parliament of Birds. To
this poem the Scotch scribe or his em-
ployer has thought proper to make a
new conclusion of eleven stanzas, sup-
planting thirteen of the common copy.
They are put in after the 85th stanza,
which ends properly with these two

lines:

"Thy kind is of so low wretchedness
That what love is thou canst not se nor
gess."

But in this MS.

"So fare thou, and other mo that I know;
Now sitt down, cherll, upon the rebald
rowe."

From hence to the end is entirely dif-
ferent; and I transcribe the whole, only
premising that the MS. is very il-
legible:

'Orpes, orpes,† sires,' sed the Cok,
And gan to crowe as loud as he were wood:
'I have seven loves,' said he, in my flok,
And al are they, douteless, ry' of one
brood,

And it I durst lay wed my hat and hood,
And I were absent fro thame hours XI.
I shuld be cokwold of thame all sevyn.'
The Nightingale, with his noble notis
[Papingay,

newe,

The Roddok, the Thresh, and als the
Upon ther loves thei gan full sore rewe,
And all thai said for sorowe welawaye,
That er we schulde abide this wikked day,
For to here thir loves thus defamyt,
And, losinge ours(?), escape away un-
blamyt.

"Quhom he hurteth he not nie quhom he heleth."

To orp is explained by Jameson to fret.

POETRY.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, RECTOR OF BARHAM,
ON HIS BRIDGEWATER TREATISE.§

Nor for its learning, venerated Sir,

As men call learning, do I so prefer

Thy interesting Treatise, late put forth,
But for its far superior pious worth.

A law word-to visit, to examine accurately Jamieson's Dictionary. These lines, by the Rev. Robert Francis Walker, translator of a "Memoir of the Life and Writings of that wise and good man John Albert Bengel," were lately sent to the Rev. William Kirby, with the following letter from the Rev. James Tate,

Though plentifully stored with gems of mind,
Such as delight the many of mankind,

It yields a warmer and more genial glow,
Which speaks thy heart above the things below;
Speaks to this heart of mine, that loves the man
Who, in thy spirit, undertakes to scan
Creation's works for the Creator's name,
Not for mere science, or a scholar's fame.
Thus, in thy book, I recognition view
Of rev'rence to the Holy Scriptures due ;-
These hast thou claim'd as man's best guide to see
The wisdom, goodness, pow'r of Deity;
These as the nucleus of nature's light,
The key to knowledge of the things of sight.
'Twas thus thy genius could rise and swell,

"Twas thus thou learn'dst of God to write so well.
And shall not works like thine thy name adorn?
They "follow" thee, that thousands yet unborn
May seek the track those works shall leave behind,
And see more clearly the Almighty mind;
May through deep waters trace the paths of God,
And read his name on rocks thy feet have trod;
May read it 'lumined by those Bethlehem rays
That kindled heretofore thy prayer and praise.
Champion of wisdom! in her lovelier form,
Not as she shakes the mountains, rules the storm,
Wings the dread lightning, balances with death
Earth's living hosts, supplies new life and breath;
Nor only as she tells how much is spared

To thankless man of what, unfall'n, he shared :-
Well hast thou pleaded truths like these, and more;
But better still, has taught us to explore

Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's. Such testimonials being most gratifying to his family, were printed with the leave of their authors, for private circulation only. A copy of them having come into our possession, we are happy to have the power of placing them upon more enduring record. Mr. Tate's letter is as follows:

"Revd. Sir, 'Hutton, by Brentwood, July 21, 1838. "The best excuse in my power to make for thus intruding, unknown, upon your leisure, is to tell briefly and plainly the cause which led to it.

"One day last week I was engaged in reading with great interest your Bridgewater Treatise; and having been much delighted with the just censure so ably and acutely passed on La Place and Lamarck, in the prefatory pages, I was endeavouring to recollect also, without books, what I had once read of Paley's remarks in refutation of similar atheism, speciously spun out by Darwin. Just at the time when employed in such thoughts, a very pious, learned, and altogether excellent clergyman, having been at a clerical meeting in this neighbourhood, (Mr. Walker, of Purleigh, near Malden,) called here at the Rectory; and to him, amongst other things, I told what had recently been the subject of my meditations, and how much I was deeply gratified with those pages in particular here alluded to.-Mr. Walker immediately exclaimed that he, too, had experienced the same impressions, and told me that he had embodied his feelings in verse, expressive of gratitude and admiration generally on account of the spirit which had guided your pen. 'If,' said he,' poetry be, according to Lavater, language of the heart, then my verses may be so called.'

"The impulse of my mind at the moment was to declare, that, as the best reward of an author lay in the approbation of congenial and approving readers, he should send to you his verses testimonial; nay more, if he disliked the task, I would undertake to do it for him. Such is my story; and here are his verses.

"To the Rev. William Kirby.

"Believe me, Rev. Sir, with the truest respect,

66

Faithfully yours, JAMES TATE."

The Bible, heav'nly wisdom's choicest mine,
Teeming with wealth exhaustless and divine;
A field of treasure for the mind and heart—
Oh! how more rich than nature, science, art.
Here would'st thou show us how by thought to gain
Truths without which our other thoughts are vain,
But graced with which, "fair science," truly fair,
Not vainly pants for her own native air,
Springs into life immortal, lives indeed;
Borrows from Heav'n all help for time of need;
Lures to a fount where mortals thirst no more;
Points to a realm for souls in spirit poor,
Where smiles a home to faith's far-seeing eyes,
Not made with hands, eternal in the skies!
Be strong, dear Sir, meanwhile to rise or fall,
"The way, the truth, the life "—thy all in all.
May but His spirit in our hearts abide,

Rend'ring His word our comfort, strength, and guide;
So shall we soon, from sin's decreasing load,
Rise to full likeness of th' incarnate God;

Nor longer darkly, as in mirrors, here,
Shall see Him as He is for ever, ever near.

RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

The MSS. of the Royal Library at Paris.*

THE Bibliothèque du Roi at Paris contains, without any doubt, the richest collection of manuscripts in Europe, and, perhaps, on the whole, has generally done more service hitherto to the cause of letters than any other. We found this latter opinion on the extensive contributions which have been made from its stores to the purifying our printed texts of classical authors, and to such works as the Notices des Manuscrits, the Histoire Litteraire de France, &c. In its internal arrangements, we think, at the present day, there is room for improvement; and, in spite of all that has been said of our own great national collection, the British Museum, the general reader has much greater facility in the latter in finding MSS. and sometimes in using them, than in the Royal Library in France. However, in both instances, the want of a knowledge of their contents is less felt by those who are in the constant habit of consulting them, than by those who have seldom an opportunity of going there, and yet who, by their studies and pursuits, would often be able to use them to more advantage than those by whom they are better known. In this manner, a good and detailed catalogue of their contents becomes an invaluable acquisition to a private library. For our own part, we are entirely in favour of the publication of such catalogues in separate divisions, according to the general subjects of the MSS. because by this measure people may purchase at a more moderate expense that part only which is interesting to them. Thus M. Paulin Paris turned his attention at present only to the publication of the French manuscripts contained in the Royal Library. So Dr. Endlicher of Vienna has recently published in a very portable volume the catalogue of the Philological manuscripts of the Imperial Library; a book, by the way, which we would instance as the most perfect specimen of a good catalogue that we have ever seen.

...

Les Manuscrits François de la Bibliothèque du Roi Par M. Paulin Paris. Tom. I. et II. Formats in-folio maximo et in-folio magno. Evo. Paris, Techener, London, Pickering, 1836-1838.

Inventaire ou Catalogue des livres de l'ancienne Bibliothèque du Louvre, fait en l'année 1373, par Gilles Mallet, garde de la dite Bibliothèque. 8vo. Paris. 1836.

The foundation of the present Bibliothèque du Roi was laid chiefly in the sixteenth century. Some of its most splendid volumes came from the collection made at Bruges by the magnificent Louis Seigneur de la Gruthuyse, who during a long life employed, at a vast expense, most of the distinguished artists of his time in illuminating and writing manuscripts for his cabinet. Various gifts and purchases increased it during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but it is to the reign of Louis XIV. and to the administration of the famous Colbert, that it owes its first great extension. That minister not only caused great acquisitions to be made, but he employed distinguished scholars, such as Baluze, Doat, &c. to make exact copies of the most important pieces in the archives of the distant departments, which were all lodged in this grand depôt.

"This great man had an extraordinary passion for collections of books. With the object of making a great improvement in the collection of the King, he had, in 1656, caused his brother Nicholas Colbert to be nominated to the place of Librarian, vacant by the death of the two brothers Dupuy. The abbé Colbert did not retain the place long; made in 1661 bishop of Luçon, he left to his brother, the minister, the care of fulfilling the duties of keeper of the library, of which, however, he still retained the honorary title, though he acted but as the secondary. It was under the auspices of John Baptist Colbert that the Bibliothèque du Roi was successively increased by the admirable collections of Béthune, of Brienne, of Gaston Duke of Orleans, of Mazarin, and by a multitude of other partial acquisitions of the highest importance. Not content with these valuable augmentations, Colbert employed in foreign countries scholars of the first order, charged with the acquisition of whatever they thought worthy to hold an honourable place in the cabinets of engravings, medals, manuscripts, or printed books. He caused the library to be transported from the rue de la Harpe to two houses in the rue

Vivienne, which belonged to him, and which formed a kind of continuation of the hôtel which he inhabited. It was a happy time for this admirable establishment when the chief minister chose to see with his own eyes, and as it were day by day, the gradual ameliorations of which he believed it susceptible. It was by his orders that a general catalogue of the manuscripts was drawn up, the same which we still use; it was by his orders that they took an account of the duplicates of books which might be exchanged for others which they did not possess. Nothing seemed to him impossible, which might conduce to the enormous accessions, might diminish the expense, and promptly facilitate the use of them by studious and serious persons. In a treaty with the States of Barbary, Colbert took care to have an article inserted obliging them to an annual present of a certain number of skins of Marocco leather, especially destined for the bindings of the Royal Library. This was the origin of the beautiful covers of manuscripts and printed books which are the admiration of amateurs of this kind of ornament." Paulin Paris, Les Manuscrits François, I. p. 7, 8.

This tribute was received constantly till the time of the great Revolution. Since that time, the MSS. of all the monasteries, &c. of Paris and the neighbourhood, have been thrown into the grand national collection.

Before the first foundation of this library, there was a much more ancient library of the Kings of France, an inventory of which, made by the librarian, Gilles Mallet, in 1373, is still preserved, and has been published with some others in the volume whose title we have given in a note at the beginning of the present article. This early catalogue contains a great number of most interesting articles, all described somewhat in detail. We may mention, as an instance, that there are no less than two copies of the curious metrical life of Eustace the Monk, both differing from the one preserved in the present Bibliothèque du Roi, which was published three or four years ago. This library was preserved in the Louvre until the occupation of Paris by the English in the fifteenth century, when it fell into the hands of the Duke of Bedford, made Regent of France by Henry the Fifth of England, who is said to have bought it, and is supposed to have brought it into England, where it was dispersed. A few of the volumes which belonged to it have been identified in modern collections, bearing still the Duke of Bedford's signature as their possessor. One