. I.

OLD POEM ON THE SIEGE OF ROUEN.

The city of Rouen makes too considerable a figure in the foregoing pages,
and its history, as connected with our own country in the earlier part of
the fifteenth century, is too interesting, to require any thing in the
shape of apology for the matter which the Reader is about to peruse. This
"matter" is necessarily incidental to the _present_ edition of the "Tour;"
as it is only recently made public. An "_Old English Poem_" on our Henry
the Fifth's "_Siege of Rouen_" is a theme likely to excite the attention of
the literary Antiquary on _either_ side of the Channel.

The late erudite, and ever to be lamented Rev. J.J. Conybeare, successively
Professor of the Saxon language, and of English Poetry in the University of
Oxford, discovered, in the exhaustless treasures of the Bodleian Library, a
portion of the Old English Poem in question: but it was a portion only. In
the 21st. vol. of the Archaeologia, Mr. Conybeare gave an account of this
fortunate discovery, and subjoined the poetical fragment. Mr. Frederick
Madden, one of the Librarians attached to the MS. department in the British
Museum, was perhaps yet more fortunate in the discovery of the portion
which was lost: and in the 22d. vol. of the _Archaeologia_, just published,
(pp. 350-398), he has annexed an abstract of the remaining fragment, with
copious and learned notes. This fragment had found its way, in a prose
attire, into the well-known English MS. Chronicle, called the
BRUTE:--usually (but most absurdly) attributed to Caxton. It is not however
to be found in _all_ the copies of this Chronicle. On the contrary, Mr.
Madden, after an examination of several copies of this MS. has found the
poem only in four of them: namely, in two among the Harleian MSS. (Nos.
753; 2256--from which _his_ transcript and collation have been made) in one
belonging to Mr. Coke of Holkham, and in a fourth belonging to the _Cotton_
Collection:--Galba E. viii. This latter MS. has a very close correspondence
with the _second_ Harl. MS. but is often faulty from errors of the Scribe,
See _Gentleman's Magazine, May_, 1829.

So much for the history of the discovery of this precious old English
Poem--which is allowed to be a contemporaneous production of the time of
the Siege--namely, A.D. 1418. A word as to its intrinsic worth--from the
testimony of the Critic most competent to appreciate it. "It will be
admitted, I believe, (says Mr. Madden) by all