Page:Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782).pdf/9

Rh with the opening of the Battle of Hastings, No I, the piece which happens to stand first in the new quarto edition of Chatterton's works.

Divested of its old spelling, which is only calculated to mislead the reader, and to assist the intended imposition, it begins thus:

Or, as Chatterton himself acknowledged this to be a forgery, perhaps it will be more proper to quote the beginning of the Battle of Hastings, N2 2, which he asserted to be a genuine, ancient composition:

The first four lines of the Vision of Pierce Plowman, by William (or Robert) Langland, who flourished about the year 1350, are as follows: [I quote from the edition printed in 1561.]

Chaucer, who died in 1400, opens thus: [ Tyrwhitt's edit. 1775.] 7