In the _Letters on the British Museum_, 1767 (referred to Vol. iii., p.
208.), at p. 33. is given a short Latin poem, which the writer states he
"found among the manuscripts;" and adds, "It was written by John Seward in
the time of Henry V., who conquered Charles VI. of France." The poem is as
follows:
"Ite per extremam Tanaim, pigrosque Triones,
Ite per arentem Lybiam, superate calores
Solis, et arcanos Nili deprendite fontes,
Herculeumque sinum, Bacchi transcurrite metas,
Angli juris erit quicquid complectitur orbis.
Anglis rubra dabunt pretiosas aequora conchas,
Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres,
Dum viget Henricus, dum noster vivit Achilles;
Est etenim laudes longe transgressus avitas."
If these lines are compared with the contemporary Leonine verses in praise
of Henry V., preserved in MS. Cott. Cleop. B. i. f. 173. beginning:
"Ad Salvatoris laudes, titulos et honores."
their great superiority, in point of Latinity, will be perceived, and this
Query forthwith arises: Who was John Seward?
In reply to this, the following information has been collected. The name of
the author was not _Seward_, but _Seguard_. He is not mentioned by Leland,
but Bale calls him "insignis sui temporis rhetor ac poeta;" and states
further, that in the city of Norwich, "non sine magno auditorum fructu,
bonas artes ingenue profitebatur." He then gives a list of his writings,
among which is a work on Prosody, entitled _Metristenchiridion_, addressed
to Richard Courtney, Bishop of Norwich, who held the see only from Sept.
1413 to Sept. 1415, and therefore composed during that interval. He notices
also a tract _De miseria hominis_, together with _Carmina diversi generis_
and _Epistolae ad diversos_; all of which, he says, he himself saw in
manuscripts in Merton College, Oxford, and in the Royal Library of Edward
VI. Pits, the next authority in point of date, chiefly follows Bale in his
account of John Seguard; but adds, "Equestris ordinis in Anglia patre
natus," and among his writings inserts one not specified by Bale, _De
laudibus Regis Henrici Quinti, versu_. Tanner copies the first of these
statements, yet, singular enough, omits all notice of the poem on Henry V.,
the very one, apparently, cited in the _Letters on the British Museum_. But
there are further difficulties. It was natural to suppose, that the MS.
seen by Bale in the Royal Library would be there still; and Tanner
unhesitatingly refers to the volume marked 15 A. xxii. art. 5., as the one
which contained the poem _De miseria hominis_, noted by Bale. On looking,
however, at this manuscript, it became apparent that both Bale and Tanner
are in error in ascribing this poem to Seguard. The handwriting is of the
early part of the thirteenth century, and consequently full a century and a
half before the Norwich poet was born! At the conclusion is this note, by
the same hand:
"Hos versus, sicut nobis quidam veridicus retulit, Segardus junior de
Sancto Audomaro composuit."
The writer here named is not mentioned in Fabricius, nor in the _Histoire
Litteraire de la France_. Besides the MS. in Merton College, Oxford,
referred to by Bale, which still exists there under the signature Q. 3. 1.,
I find another in Bernard's _Catt._ {262} _MSS. Angliae_, 1697, vol. ii. p.
216., among the manuscripts of Sir Henry Langley of Shropshire, "No. 22.
Jo. Segnard [_read_ Seguard] Poemata." I would therefore close these
remarks by requesting attention to the following Queries:--
1. As Blomefield is silent on the subject, is anything more known
respecting the biography of John Seguard?