Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

376 NOTES.:(B) From the Stone of Thebes.Besides the Arundel and Trinity MSS., there are several others, ofwhich the best seem to be MS. Addit. 18632 and the Royal MS. 18 Dii.both in the British Museum. Warton gives a long account of this poem.He says : 'Our author's originals are Guido Colonna, Statins, andSeneca the tragedian. . . . Lydgate, in this poem., often refers to myneauctor, who, I suppose, is either Statins or Colonna. He sometimescites Boccaccio's Latin tracts ;particularly the Genealogiae Deorura,a work which at the restoration of learning greatly contributed tofamiliarise the classical stories; De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, thegroundwork of the Fall of Princes ; and De Claris Mulieribus, in whichPope Joan is one of the heroines. . . . He also characterises Boccacciofor a talent, by which he is not now so generally known, for his poetry ;and styles him, "among poetes in Itaile stalled." But Boccaccio'sTheseid was yet in vogue.' With respect to the execution of the poem,he says : 'This poem is the Thebaid of a troubadour. The old classicaltale of Thebes is here clothed with feudal manners, enlarged wdth newfictions of the Gothic species, and furnished with the descriptions, circumstances,and machineries, appropriated to a romance of chivalry.''He also thus refers to the story of Tydeus : Tydeus having a messageto deliver to Eteocles, king of Thebes, enters the hall of the royal palace,completely armed and on horseback, in the midst of a magnificentfestival. This palace, like a Norman fortress, or feudal castle, isguarded with barbicans, portcullises, chains, and fosses.' And again*Tydeus, being wounded, sees a castle on a rock, whose high towers andcrested pinnacles of polished stone glitter by the light of the moon :gains admittance, is laid in a sumptuous bed of cloth of gold, and healedof his wound by a king's daughter.' The latter passage will be foundin the extract, lines 1217-1379.heLine 1065. His massage, his message. The argument of the precedingpart of the story is as follows : Eieocles and Polynices, having dethronedtheir father CEdipus, king of Thebes, agree to reign alternately, each fora year. Eteocles is chosen to reign the first year ; at the expiration ofwhich he refuses to resign. Polynices therefore goes to Adrastus, kingof Argos, to solicit aid against his brother. He there chances to meetTydeus, and, to quote Warton, ' Tydeus and Polymite [Polynices] tilt atmidnight for a lodging, before the gate of the palace of King Adrastus; whois awakened with the din of the strokes of their weapons, which shake allthe palace, and descends into the court with a long train by torch-light.He orders the two combatants to be disarmed, and clothed in rich mantles