De la cité es champs issirent: A plusors gieux se despartirent. I Li uns alerent botorder, 1 Et les ineaux 2 chevalx monstrer: Li autres alerent escrimir, Cil qui son compaignon vainqueit, Lor servise a celx rendi, Qui por terre l'orent servi: To just. • Fleet (isnel.) 3 To leap. 5 I cannot explain this. Bois dona, et chasteleriez, Et evesquiez, et abbaiez. A ceulx qui d'autres terres estoient, Dona coupes, dona destriers, Dona de ses avers plus chers. &c. An account of this author's remaining works will be found in the note below.* BENOIT was contemporary with Wace. `M. de la Rue supposes him to be the Benoit de St. More, who wrote the History of the Wars of Troy, a * Wace's second work is a History of the two Irruptions of the Normans into Neustria and England. Like the Brut, it is written in verses of eight syllables, with that facility which distinguishes Wace from all his contemporaries: it is compiled from the best chonicles, and evinces an extraordinary knowledge of general history. This work is only to be found in France, where there are two ancient copies, one in the Royal, and the other in the Colbertine Library; and a modern copy by M. Lancelot, with the variations added in the margin, is also in the Royal Library. The third poem of Wace is the famous Roman du Rou, that is to say, of Raoul or Rollo, first Duke of Normandy. It was written, as Wace himself declares, in 1160, and is composed in Alexandrine verse of twelve syllables. It is annexed to the MSS. just mentioned, as are also his fourth work, which is the Life of William Long-sword, son of French poem of about twenty thousand verses, imitated from the apocryphal Latin histories of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis. This work is preserved among the MSS. Harl. No. 4482, and Rollo; and the fifth, or Romance of Richard, son of William Long-sword; both in the same Alexandrine metre. Wace's sixth work is a poem of considerable length, containing near twelve thousand verses, and gives the remaining history of the Dukes of Normandy, which it carries down to the sixth year of Henry I. It mentions the coronation of Henry the Second's eldest son, who was associated to the crown in the year 1170, soon after which the poem may be supposed to have been written. It is in eightsyllable metre, and was mistaken by Mr. Tyrwhitt for the Roman du Rou. A copy of it is in the British Museum, Bib. Reg. 4. C. xi. The seventh work is a compendium of the History of the Dukes of Normandy, beginning with Henry II. and ascending to Rollo. It is in Alexandrine verse, and preserved in the Royal Library at Paris. The eighth is a History of the Origin of the Feast of the CONCEPTION, which is supposed to have been established by William the Conqueror, and was kept in Normandy with such magnificence, that it was usually called in France, the Feast of the Normans. It is to be found in the Royal Library at Paris. The ninth is a Life of St. Nicholas, written, like the preceding, in eight-syllable verse. It is to be found in the library of Trinity Coll, Cambridge, in the Bodleian, and a third MSS. is in the possession of Mr. Douce, F. A. S. Parts is supposed by M. Galland to have been written very soon after Wace's Brut d'Angleterre. It was perhaps the success of this poem that induced Henry II. to confide to Benoit the task of writing, in French verse, the history of the dukes of Normandy: and this royal mandate exciting the emulation of Wace (by whom the circumstance is mentioned) induced that poet to complete his own series of compositions on the same subject, in the hope of proving the inferiority of his rival's talent. Benoit, however, persevered and accomplished his task to the intire satisfaction of the monarch. This work, containing about twenty-three thousand verses of eight syllables, is preserved in the British of this poem are extracted by Hickes. Vide Thesaurus. P. 145, 149, &c. The tenth is the Roman du Chevalier au Lion. Fauchet, and others, ascribe this to Chretian de Troyes, who (says M. de la Rue) perhaps converted it into prose, as he did the Romance of Perceval le Galois. It is to be observed, however, that Fauchet's quotations from the Romance of the Chevalier au Lion are in verse. (Vide Fauchet, p. 103.) Lastly, it seems not improbable that Wace may have composed some parts of the Romance of Alexander; and Mr. Tyrwhitt suspects that he is the Robert Guasco who translated the Martyrdom of St. George. The number and excellence of Wace's compositions induced Henry II. to bestow on him a canonry in the Cathedral of Bayeux. Museum, MSS. Harl. No. 1717. Though inferior to Wace in perspicuity and elegance, Benoit is much commended by M. de la Rue for the accuracy of his facts, and for the various and lively pictures of contemporary manners which he has preserved, and which are not to be found in any other author. In descriptive poetry he seems to have possessed considerable merit; and, supposing him the author of the Song on the advantages of the Crusade, which M. de la Rue, with great probability, ascribes to him, he is to be considered as the father of French lyric poetry, so that the high reputation he enjoyed appears to have been well deserved. GUERNES, an ecclesiastic of Pont St. Maxence, in Picardy, wrote a metrical life of Thomas a Becket; and, from his anxiety to procure the most authentic information on the subject, came over to Canterbury in 1172. He states, that having begun his work in France, he had been inaccurate in many of his facts, but that by conversing with persons who had known St. Thomas in private life, he had been enabled to correct many of his mistakes, and to make a considerable progress in his poem, when his secretary robbed him of his manuscript: that this principally afflicted him from the fear that his name might be employed to cover untruths, and that purchasers might be deluded into buying |