“Sitteth alle stille, and herkneth to me;
    The kyng of Almaigne, bi mi leaute,
    Thritti thousent pound askede he
    For te make the pees in the countre,
          Ant so he dude more. 
      Richard, thah thou be ever trichard,
          Trichten shalt thou never more.”

53.  In the following examples, I substitute Roman letters for the Saxon.  At this period, we find the characters mixed.  The style here is that which Johnson calls “a kind of intermediate diction, neither Saxon nor English.”  Of these historical rhymes, by Robert of Gloucester, the Doctor gives us more than two hundred lines; but he dates them no further than to say, that the author “is placed by the criticks in the thirteenth century.”—­Hist. of Eng.  Lang., p. 24.

   “Alfred thys noble man, as in the ger of grace he nom
    Eygte hondred and syxty and tuelue the kyndom. 
    Arst he adde at Rome ybe, and, vor ys grete wysdom,
    The pope Leo hym blessede, tho he thuder com,
    And the kynges croune of hys lond, that in this lond gut ys: 
    And he led hym to be kyng, ar he kyng were y wys. 
    An he was kyng of Engelond, of alle that ther come,
    That vorst thus ylad was of the pope of Rome,
    An suththe other after hym of the erchebyssopes echon.”

“Clere he was god ynou, and gut, as me telleth me,
He was more than ten ger old, ar he couthe ys abece. 
Ac ys gode moder ofte smale gyftes hym tok,
Vor to byleue other pie, and loky on ys boke. 
So that by por clergye ys rygt lawes he wonde,
That neuere er nere y mad to gouerny ys lond.” 

                  ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER:  Johnson’s Hist. of E. L., p. 25.

54. Reign of John, 1216 back to 1199.—­Subject of Christ’s Crucifixion.

“I syke when y singe for sorewe that y se
When y with wypinge bihold upon the tre,
Ant se Jhesu the suete ys hert blod for-lete
For the love of me;
Ys woundes waxen wete, thei wepen, still and mete,
Marie reweth me.” 
ANON.:  Bucke’s Gram., p. 142.

VIII.  ENGLISH, OR ANGLO-SAXON, OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

55. Reign of Richard I, 1199 back to 1189.—­Owl and Nightingale.

“Ich was in one sumere dale,
In one snive digele pale,
I herde ich hold grete tale,
An hule and one nightingale. 
That plait was stif I stare and strong,
Sum wile softe I lud among. 
An other again other sval
I let that wole mod ut al. 
I either seide of otheres custe,
That alere worste that hi wuste
I hure and I hure of others songe
Hi hold plaidung futhe stronge.” 

                  ANON.:  Bucke’s Gram., p. 142.

56. Reign of Henry II, 1189 back to 1154.—­Example dated 1180.

“And of alle than folke
The wuneden ther on folde,
Wes thisses landes folke
Leodene hendest itald;
And alswa the wimmen
Wunliche on heowen.” 

                    GODRIC:  Bucke’s Gram., p. 141.