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Bruma tandem revertente,

Tost unt sur la chape enté
Plerique capucium;
Alioquin dequadratur,
De quadrato retundatur,

Transit in almucium.

Si quid restat de morsellis
Cæsi panni sive pellis,

Non vacat officio:

Ex hiis fiunt manuthecæ,
Manutheca quidem Græcè
Manuum positio.

Sic ex veste vestem formant,
Engleis, Tyeis, Franceis, Normant,
Omnes generaliter;

Ut vix nullus excludatur.

Ita capa declinatur,

Sed mantellus aliter.

Adhuc primo recens anno,

Nova pelle, novo panno,
In arca reconditur;

fortune of Tiresias.-When, at length, winter returns, many engraft immediately upon the cape a capuce; then it is squared; after being squared it is rounded; and so it becomes an aumuce.-If there remain any morsels of the cloth or skin which is cut, it does not want a use of these are made gloves; a glove is called in Greek "the placing of the hands.”—This is the general manner they all make one robe out of another, English, Germans, French, and Normans, with scarcely an exception. Thus cape is declined; but mantle otherwise.— In the first year, while it is still fresh, the skin and the cloth being both new,

Récedente tandem pilo,
Juncturarum rupto filo,

Pellis circumciditur.

Sic mantellus fit apella;
Ci git li drap, e la pel là,
Post primum divortium;

A priore separata

Cum secundo reparata

Transit in consortium.

Quod delictum dices majus?
Istud palam est contra jus:
Nam si nupsit alteri,
Conjugium est violatum,
Dum fit novo copulatum
Reclamante veteri.

N'est de concille, ne de sene,
Deus dras espuser à une pene,
E si nus le juggium;
Permittunt hoc decreta? non:
Sed reclamat omnis canon

Non esse conjugium.

it is laid up in a box; when, however, the fur begins to be worn off, and the thread of the seams broken, the skin is circumcised. Thus the mantle is made a Jew; here lays the cloth, there the skin, after the first divorce: being separated from its former husband, after separation it passes in reparation to marriage with a second husband.-But what will you say is a greater crime? this is clearly against right; for if she have married a second, the marriage is broken, when a new conjunction is made in spite of the reclamations of the old partner. It is neither canonic nor wise to marry two cloths to one fur, and so we judge it. Do the decretals permit this? No: on the contrary, every canon declares, that it is no marriage.-The cloth having been first circum

Pannus primum circumcisus,
Viduatus et divisus

A sua pellicula,

Jam expertus Judaismum,
Emundatur per baptismum
A quacumque macula.

Circumcisus mundatusque,
Est adeptus utriusque
Legis testimonium;

Quem baptismus emundavit,
Cum secunda secundavit

Pelle matrimonium.

Pilis expers, usu fractus,
Ex Esau Jacob factus,

Quant li peil en est chaü,

Inversatur vice versa,

Rursus idem ex conversa

Ex Jacob fit Esau.

Pars pilosa foris paret,

Sed introrsus pilis caret

Vetustas abscondita;

cised, then widowed and separated from its skin, now having experienced Judaism, is cleansed by baptism, from every stain (i. e. it is dyed).- Being circumcised and cleaned, and having obtained the testimony of both laws, he whom baptism has cleansed, contracts a new marriage with a second skin.— Being devoid of hair, and worn by use, from Esau having become Jacob, when the hair is fallen from it, the process is inverted, and again conversely from Jacob it becomes Esau.-The hairy part is turned out, but the old part, con

Datur tamen, k'il n'i eit perte,

Servienti, pur deserte,

Mantellus hypocrita.

cealed inwardly, is bare of hairs. Now the hypocritical mantle, in order that there may be nothing lost, is given to the servant for his wages.

wars.

We are now approaching the eventful period of the Barons' The turbulent Welshmen were ever ready to seize an opportunity of invading the Marches; and the following song, whether it were composed by one of them, or be the work of one of the English who took the opportunity of satirising them, gives us a fair picture of the spirit in which they interfered.

THE SONG OF THE WELSH.

[From the Public Library of Leyden, MS. Vossius, No. 104, fol. 144, ro. of the 13th cent.]

TRUCIDARE Saxones soliti Cambrenses

Ad cognatos Britones et Cornubienses;
Requirunt ut veniant per acutos enses,
Ad debellandos inimicos Saxonienses.
Venite jam strenue loricis armati;
Sunt pars magna Saxonum mutuo necati,
Erit

pars residua per nos trucidati: :

Nunc documenta date qua sitis origine nati.

TRANSLATION.-The Cambrians, who are used to slay the Saxons, salute their relations the Britons and Cornish-men: they require them to come with their sharp swords to conquer their Saxon enemies.-Come now, vigorously, armed with coats of mail; a great part of the Saxons are fallen in mutual slaughter, the remainder shall be slain by us: now is the time for you to show of what blood

Mellinus veredicus nunquam dixit vanum ;
Expellendum populum prædixit vexanum.
Et vos hoc consilium non servatis sanum;
Cernite fallaces quorum genus omne profanum.
Prædecessor validus rex noster Arturus
Si vixisset hodie, fuissem securus
Nullus ei Saxonum restitisset murus;
Esset ei[s] sicut meruerunt in prece durus.
Procuret omnipotens sibi successorem
Saltem sibi similem, nollem meliorem,
Qui tollat Britonibus antiquum dolorem,
Et sibi restituat patriam patriæque decorem.
Hoc Arturi patruus velit impetrare,
Sanctus [qui]dam maximus, Anglum ultra mare;
Scimus festum Martis kalendis instare,-

Ad natale solum Britones studeat revocare.

Virtuosos filii patres imitantur;

Sic Arturum Britones virtute sequantur:

Quam probo, quam strenuo monstrant procreantur;

Ut fuit Arturus sic victores habeantur !

you are sprung.-The soothsayer Merlin never said a thing that was vain; he foretold that the mad people should be expelled. And you do not keep this wise counsel; observe deceitful people of whom the whole race is accursed.-If our valiant predecessor, King Arthur, had been now alive, I am sure not one of the Saxon walls would have resisted him; he would have been hard to them, spite of their prayers, as they have deserved.-May the Omnipotent procure him a successor only similar to him, I would not desire a better, who may deliver the Britons from their old grievance, and restore to them their country and their country's glory.-May it please the uncle of Arthur to obtain this for us, a certain very great saint, [to send] the Englishman over the sea; we know that his festival is approaching on the kalends of March (St. David's day), may he make it his study to recall the Britons to their native land.-Sons imitate their virtuous fathers, so let the Britons take Arthur for their example in valour; CAMD. Soc. 6.

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