OF PAINEFULL ADVENTURES. 233
some of his " Minor Poems," by the Percy Society, will tend to elevate him in the scale of our early poets. The " Confessio Amantis" was three times printed prior to the reign of Elizabeth, viz. by Caxton in 1483, and by Berthelet in 1532 and 1554. We have appended Gower's versified history of "Appollinus, the Prince of Tyr" to our reprint of Twine's prose version of the romance, because it is pretty evident, from particular expressions, that Shakespeare, or his dramatic precursor (always supposing two separate writers to have been engaged on the subject) had reference to it when composing the play of " Pericles." Malone inferred this fact also from the circumstance that Pericles is called " Prince of Tyre " in the play, and in Gower's version, whereas, in Copland's translation, he is called "King of Tyre;" but the com-^mentator omitted to remark that Prince de Tkyr are the words of a French translation by Corozetin 1530 ; and the hero is spoken of as "Prince Apollonius'"7 in Twine's " Patterne of Painefull Adventures," which the play more immediately follows. Our readers will be enabled to judge from what succeeds of the precise degree of obligation to the one or to the other.
For our text of Gower's poetical narrative we have not resorted to either of the three printed copies of the " Confessio Amantis:" we were anxious to give the story, with as much fidelity as possible, in the words of the old poet, and for this reason we have gone to a fine and nearly contemporary MS. upon vellum preserved in the British Museum (Harl. 3940),1 cor-
1 For the following description of this MS. we are indebted to the kindness of J. Holmes, Esq. :—" At the foot of some of the pages are emblazoned various Coats of Arms, being those of Reade, James, Handlo, Borstall, St Amand, De la Pole, Cottesmore, &c. In all probability, therefore, the MS. belonged to (if indeed it were not written for him) Sir William Reade of Borstall, Co. Bucks, living temp. Henry VII. All the above were quartered by him." [The text of the story has now been given from Pauli's edition, 1857.]