4029. is a small MS. on paper, containing a variety of tales in Latin. Mr. Twiss, in his very interesting work on chess, describes it in the following laconic terms: Cod. Sec. XIV. Sloan. 4029. Plut. xxiii. D. Fabula de ludo Scaccari. Two pages on paper, of which it is almost impossible to read a line.' Without doubting the truth of Mr. T.'s assertion when applied merely to himself, I must nevertheless beg leave to differ in the general application of his opinion; since, with little or no difficulty, I have been enabled to peruse every line of it. It, however, will not repay the labour of perusal, as it is a wretched morality on chess, similar to that ascribed to Pope Innocent, which will be presently noticed. In this MS. the eight squares (octo puncta) of the chess-board, are very sagaciously compared to the eight kinds of men living in the world, viz. Wyldhede, Wykkydhede, Clergy, Laymen, Rich, and Poor; the writer omitting, possibly from forgetfulness, to add the two remaining descriptions. He then mentions the names of the chess-men, and explains their various moves, which I shall advert to in their proper place. -Bibl. Reg. 12 E. xxi. consists of two pages in rhyme, written on vellum, and called, 'Incipit modus et scientia ludi Scaccorum ;' and the Morality of Pope Innocent, who was raised to the see of Rome in 1198. This morality (moralitatis de Scaccario per dominum Innocentium Papam) is supposed to be one of the earliest manuscripts extant on this game, but great doubts exist whether the holy father were really the author of so absurd and trifling a performance, it being likewise attributed to an English monk of the same name, who lived about the commencement of the 13th century.-MS. Harl. 1275. is a small 4to, of 50 leaves of parchment, and about twenty-nine lines on a page. This is the work of Jacobus de Cesulis, entitled Liber moralis de ludo Scaccorum. The first page has a border well illuminated in gold and colours, representing flowers, birds, angels, &c. The first letter, which is an M. of about an inch square, is ornamented with a miniature of a king playing at chess with a philosopher. The drawing is good, the colours vivid, and the whole of the writing in the manuscript extremely neat, and in perfect preservation. Dr. Hyde, speaking of this book, says, that it was written by Jacopo Dacciesole, a Dominican friar, before the year 1200. There is a Latin manuscript of this work in the library of Dresden, with the following title: 'Solatium ludi Scacchorum, scilicet regiminis ac morum hominum, et officium Virorum Nobilium, quorum formas si quis menti impresserit, bellum ipsum, et Ludi virtutem corde faciliter, vel feliciter poterit obtinere.' At the end are these facetious lines-

Finito libro, sit laus et gloria Christo!
Detur pro pœnâ Scriptori pulchra puella.

Penna, precor, cessa, quoniam manus est mihi fessa.
Explicit hic totum, pro pœnâ da mihi potum.*

I am indebted for this information to an exceedingly curious Catalogue of Writers on the Game of Chess, inserted in "A Treatise on the Game of Chess; containing the Games on odds, from the Trailè des Amateurs; the Games of the celebrated Anonymous Modenese; a variety of Games actually played," &c. By John Cochrane, Esq. 1822. 8vo. Mr. C. has done no little service to the chess world by giving, in this excellent Treatise on Cress, the games of the Anonymous Modenese. Some of the games, collected from actual play, evince great skill, particularly that at p. 250. His defence to what he terms "The Queen's Pawn two Game," at p. 251, and his notice of "The King's Pawn one Game," are also very

On Chess.

There are several other copies of this work in the British Museum, which need not be enumerated.-MS. Cotton. Cleop. B. ix. 1. is a very curious little treatise on chess, without date or title, written on vellum about the middle of the 13th century. Mr. Twiss says that it is contained" in seven octavo parchment leaves," but we must not infer from thence that the MS. extends throughout the whole of them, on the contrary it consists of only nine double-columned pages, each column having on an average forty lines of neatly written French verse, and illustrated with fifteen coloured diagrams. The work commences with the author's general address to his readers:

Seignors un poi mentendez.
Ki les gius de esches amez.
E ieo vne partie vus dirrai.
Solunc iceo ke apris enai.
Les gius partiz numeement.
Ke me vnt apris diuerse gent.
De plusurs meistres les ai apris.
G'nt veisie iad mest auis.
E mult si purra leu amender.
Kia tuz les esches voldra iuer.
Kar ki ke uoldra ententiuement.
Des gius aprender le doctnement.
Les sutils trez. les matesons.
Les defenses. cum les aprendrons.
Bien purra ueer e parteneir.
Ke giuspartiz a g'nt saueir.

En tutes curz aseurement
Juer purra plus afeitement.
Mes vne genz sount. ke endespit.
Vnt les giuspartiz. e prisent petit.
Pur ceo q' poi enseiuent ou nient.
Mes ceo net pas a dreit iugement.
De despire cco du't neu seit la u'ite.
Kar toust pest estre en curt galle.
Kar coment purra ben iuger.
Dunt il ne se seit riens aider.
Pur ceo ne iust deua't q'l seit certeins.
Kar sil fait. tenn ert pur vilains.

Lordings, a little to me attend,
Who the game of chess love,
And I a game will tell you,
According as I have learnt it;
Particularly the game-parties,
That divers people have taught me :
Of many masters I have learnt them,
Many times I have had advice:
And much it may be lawful to amend
For all who chess wish to play;
For he that would attentively
Of the game learn the science,
The subtle moves, the mates,

The defences, as we have learnt them,
May well see and perceive

That he who of game-parties has great know-
ledge,

In all courts assuredly

Can play more skilfully.

But there is one people who in despite
Have the game-parties, and esteem them little,
Because they know little or nothing of them:
But this is not from right judgment,

To despise that which none knows the truth of;
(For all may be at the French court.)
For how can he judge well of that
To aid which he knows nothing:

For it is not just before he knows for certain,
For if he does so, it will be done wrongfully.

Then follows a particular address to a friend, which, as a specimen of the argumentative powers of the writer, is too curious to be omitted:

Beal frere souent mauez requis.
Ke ieo solum le mien auis.
Les giuspartiz t'nslatasse.
En romans. e vus les enueasse.
Fet les ai. ore les receuez.
Si dit en ai poi. ne me blamez.
Kar mult est grief u'rayment.
De prendre les gius p' enɛeynement.
Ki ne fust assis a leschekier.
V'lom peust les traiz iuger.
Fet est nekedent ore le receuet.
Mun liueret. e pas nel peoplez.

Fair brother, you have often requested me,
That I, according to my advice,

The gameparties should translate
Into romance*, and to you send them;
I have done them-now receive them.
If I have said little, do not blame me,
For truly there is much pain
To learn the game by instruction,
Who is not seated at the chess-board,
Where he may judge of the moves.
It is nevertheless done, now receive
My little book, and do not publish it;

good; the frontispiece to the work exhibits a specimen of one of the most beautiful positions in Chess. On the whole, Mr. C.'s Treatise will be found extremely useful to amateurs, and not undeserving the attention of more experienced players.

This word does not bear in ancient writers the modern acceptation of the term: it significs generally the French language, and, by implication, works of either history or fable, composed in that tongue.

2 K2

Kar chose ke trop est poplee.
Meins valt. e meins est amee.
E sens. e aueir. plus uil ensunt.
Kant co'mun est a tut le mond.
Kar si les set sages de Rome.
Neu seusent plus ke altre home.
Nient plus ne fust de eus parle.
Ke daltres ke del siecle sunt ale.
E si li or fut si communs.
E um fer. v acer. v plumbs.
Nient ne fut de greignur chirte.
Ke lautre metal ke ai nome.
Pur ceo beal frere par icele fei.
Vus coniur, q' feistes amei.
Ke vus cest liuere pas naprestez.
Si vus congie de moi ne aiez.

For a thing that is too common,
Is less valued and less loved;

And sense and knowledge become more vile,
When they are common to all the world:
For if the seven wise masters of Rome
Knew not more than other men,
Nothing more would be said of them
Than of others of that age that are passed:
And if gold were as common

As iron, or steel, or lead,

It would not be of greater dearness
Than the other metals that I have named.
Therefore, fair brother, by this faith,
I entreat you, as you profess friendship,
That you do not lend this book,

If you have not leave from me.

The principal merit of this author is, that he appears to have been the earliest writer on the subject; for, in other respects, his book contains no openings, and his ends of games are many of them so obscure, and his directions to play them so imperfect and unsatisfactory, that they almost defy elucidation. Still many of them undoubtedly merit commendation, and afford no inconclusive argument, that the knowledge of this game, at that early period, was not only far from being contemptible, but, on the contrary, exhibited a considerable portion of skill. Some of the parties in this manuscript are designated by a particular title, allusive either to the situation of the pieces, or nature of the game; a custom introduced probably for the sake of assisting memory, and forming a species of memoria technica for the amateur. The following list shews the names given in this treatise to many of the parties and ends of games:

the

Game 3.. Ki peot si prenge. 4..Covena'nt lei ueint.

5.. Ki ne done chose amee.

Ne prendra chose desiree.

6.. Muse uilain. 12.. Giu des alfins. 13. Fol sil prent.

The remaining eight games are without titles to them.

The first game in this manuscript is introduced by the following short tale, no doubt inserted by the writer to induce his readers to examine the work, which even the interesting game of chess would have failed in effecting, without the additional temptation of a romance, and that a love one!

Dui baron estient iadis.
Ke des esches vrent apris.
A vn ior paratie sasistrent.

As esches giuer. e g'ntment mistrent.
Li vns mist sa teste pur copore.
Lautre sa fille, sil nel pout mater.
Tant iuerent kil fust suspris.
Ke sa teste al giu ont mis.
Mult fut dolent pur mort se tint.

Kant la nouele a la pucele vint.
Ke sil amis a mort ert liuerez.
Kant ele lentent. auale les desgrez.

There were formerly two barons,

Who had learnt chess;

One day they sat down

To play at chess, and greatly they staked.
The one staked his head to be cut off,
The other his daughter, if he could not mate him.
They played until he was surprised*
Who had staked his head on the game.
He was much troubled, preparing himself for
death,

When the news to the maid came

That her lover to death was delivered.
When she heard it, down the steps

* A chess term, the precise meaning of which is not clear.

De la chaumbre en la sale entra.
Vit sun ami susps. mult li peisa.

G'nt feice estut e estudia.
Coment deliuerer le purra.
Puis dit. m'lt est fols e bricun.
Ke sa teste met en raancun.
As esches. si bien ne purueit.
Vltre le neofime tret. e aparceit.
Quele chose aider la porra.
Plus ne dit. sis peres se coroca.
E iura ke mal ot parlee.
La pucele en chaumbre reestalee.
Le chiualer a ki ele ceo ot dit.
Mult estudia. e tant puruit.
Kil vit la defense e la mateson.
Si cum nus ici le aprendrum.

From her chamber* into the hall she entered.
She saw her lover surprised-much she was
concerned,

Long time she stood and studied
How she might deliver him :
Then she said, "He is very foolish
Who his head puts in ransom

At chess, unless he can well perceive
Beyond the ninth move, and see
What thing may aid him."

More she said not: her father was angry,
And swore it was ill-spoken.

The maid returned to her chamber.
The Knight on what she had said

Studied much, and so long surveyed it,

That he saw the defence and the check-mate,
As we have here learnt it.

That the author was not an ecclesiastic is evident from the uncomplimentary allusions to the clergy, in various parts of the Manuscript. Thus, in pag. 5. col. 1.—

Cist giu resemble nos lettrez.
Nos eueskes, e nos abbez..
Ke tant riche sunt de g'nt auer.
E tant sages de terrien sauer.
E a degre e tut aesuent.

Lur almes liuerent a turment.

Si ke le diable uoillent v nun.
Les liuerent a perdicion.

Kar il alieuent filles e fiz.

E lur porenz (?) e lur norriz. &c. &c.

At the end of this MS. are the following Latin lines on the moves of the pieces at Chess:

It pedes ad bellum prior incipit ip'e duellum.
Pergit in obliquum punctum feriens inimicum.
Alpheus in triueis parat insidias inimicis.
Pugnat potenter temptatq' ferire latenter.
Miles in aduerso puncto mediante relicto.
Prosilit & fortem prosternit fortior hostem.
Linea si pateat roco. capit omne q'd obstat
Pergit in obliquum regalis femina punctum.
Si scacces regem regalem perdere sedem.
Cogitur. & totus sit de sede remotus.

Dic regi scaccum. si semita non patet illi.
Matus erit factus. nusq'ın latuisse coactus.

These lines are taken, with a slight variation, from a short poem on chess, (Bibl. Regia 12 E. xxi.) entitled, "Incipit modus et scientia ludi Scaccorum," which will be mentioned in its proper place, as will likewise another treatise (in the same Manuscript) attributed to Pope Innocent, and entitled, "Sequitur quædam moralitas de Scaccario, per Domi-. num Innocentium Papam."

There is a Chess MS. in the King's Library, marked 13 A. xviii.,

The chambers of the ladies about the period of this manuscript were constructed of wooden boards or shingles, and called chambers or bowers, probably from their resemblance to an arbour. The hall, in which the noblemen and their feudatories resided, formed 2 separate building, connected either by a flight of steps: r a long and narrow passage.

considerably longer than that just described, and containing not only all the positions in that treatise, but many additional games. The writer has evidently formed his book on the foundation of the former, and has extended it to nearly two thousand lines. The names of the games are as follows:

The MS. opens with the following preface, taken from that prefixed to the Cotton Manuscript:

Icy come'cent les iup'tiez des Esches.