Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/294

 232 Dtffertatlon on the Lhes and Works The orator then enforces each particular verfe, and applies it myftically to the Holy Virgin. The allegorical turn which he gives to the whole of the above ftanza is very happily handled, and the preacher in fpeaking of his fubjecl:, cries out, at frequent intervals, with enthufiafm, " Cefte eft la Bele Aliz " Cefte eft la flur, cefte eft le lis. There can be no doubt that the tafte for French poetry muft have been at that time very general in England, fmce the metropo- litan of the kingdom thought to conciliate to himfelf more eanly the attention of his auditors, by taking this poetic flight ; and he muft have himfelf been well perfuaded, that it neither violated the rules of rhetoric then received, nor the dignity of his miniftry; iince he did not think it below him to infert in his difcourfe a fon- net, which in itfelf prefents no other than ideas entirely of an amor- ous nature. But we have already feen that, in the preceding cen- tury, Guernes de Pont St. Maxence had pronounced in the metro- politan cathedral of Canterbury the life of Thomas a'Becket in French verfe [b] ; Co that the difcourfe of Stephen of Langton con- tains nothing unufual ; and many other examples of fermons in verfe may be found by thofe who ftudy the hiftory of the Anglo- Norman Poets. The fermon of Stephen of Langton is found in one of the ma- nufcripts of the Library of the duke of Norfolk, N 292, in which alfo are two other pieces, which feem to me to be the production of the fame poet. The firft is a Theological Drama, in which Truth, Juftice, Mercy, and Peace, debate among themfelves what ought to be the fate of [>] Archaeoiogia, Vol. XII.