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prison. That the second would be king, but a wicked king, and that he would be killed. That the third, on the contrary, would be a noble prince, that would reign in glory, and die in peace.

I must repeat that I cannot say with certainty, whether this history is derived merely from the imagination of the poet, or whether he has followed some other historian. In the first case we must allow him a happy invention; in the second we must say that the original has not reached us; at least I know not of any historian, who has handed down these details to us, and I leave to the critics to determine, which of the two opinions is most founded in reason. However, after having observed that this historical anecdote consists of two hundred and fixty-eight verses, I am bound to say that it is found in detached parts in Bibl. Cotton. Cleopatra, A. XII. I know not, therefore, whether it has not from the first been separately worked up as a fable, which might have been afterwards inserted as an authenticated fact in this history, by the poet; or, if it has not been truly any part of this history, by the copier of the manuscript of the Cottonian Library.

Robert Grosse-Tête, bishop of Lincoln, was one of the most learned prelates of the thirteenth century. But as we consider him only as a poet, we refer to the English biographers for information, as to his numerous works in theology, and the different parts of literature and science. We have from this author a poem of more than one thousand seven hundred verses upon the Sin of the First Man, and his Restoration. Leland and bishop Tanner call this workLe