Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/298

 2^6. DiJertatJon on the Lives and Writings. the two foregoing works, to j udge by the ftyle and character of the verfes, one may eafily believe that it is the production of the fame- author. In mort, it is the compofition of a minftrel, intended to be recited in the courts of the Englifh barons. At the outlet the poet addreffes kimfelf to them ^ but as the dialogue between the two difputants is kept up very well till the conclufion,. we are led to> think that this work was either fpoken, or fung,, by two actors.. Independently of this piece being the offspring of the imaginations only of the poet, it greatly excels the two foregoing; inafmuch as it. is more interesting from the leflbns of morality and"philofophy con- tained in it ; and, as it is the young man, who gives them to the old- man, the reprefentation becomes more affecting, and furprifingly fixes the attention^ I know of no other work cofcnpofed in verfe by Chardry ; but it- is probable that the three above defcribed are not the whole- of his* productions,
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WILLIAM OF WADINGTQN: . ' The name of this poet fufficiently announces his origin ; and he himfelf informs us that he was born in England; We find in the Rolls of the I4thyear of Henry IF. many proprietors of land of the fame name in Lincolnmire ; and it is by no means improbable thatT he was defcended from this family. This poet was of the order of priefts ; and, judging from his ftyle, .he lived, I believe, about the middle of the thirteenth century. This work is entitled Manuel. It forms a complete treatife on the dogmas, morals, and precepts, of the chriftian religion. He profeffes to have tranilated' it into French verfe,- from a Latin au- thor, whofe name he does not mention ; but it feems that the ori- ginal work muft have been Le Floretus, a Latin poem, by fome af- cribed