350 Differtation on the Lives and Works, &c. Command of the lord of the church of St. Edmund ; and I know not whether to underftand the abbot of St. Edmund, or fome pri- vate lord. As to the other works compofed by Pyramus, while a courtier, it is difficult to fay whether any have reached us : I muft acknow- ledge that, in my literary refearches, I have not as yet found any which bore his name. Denis Pyramus advances nothing certain as to his origin; but for- tunately, in the proem to his firft work, a phrafe has efcaped him which difclofes it to us ; it is when he would imprefs the certainty of the miracles of St. Edmond, he fays, *' Nos Ancetrcs out ete les temoins ;" and, from that circumftance, there is no doubt but that he was an Englimman. As to his literary talents, the favourable reception which they procured to him, as well at the court of Henry the Hid. as at the courts of the Englifh barons, prove unequivocally that they were uncommon and diftinguimed. He was well verfed, it feems, in the literature of his time ; he treats of the poets of his own cen- tury; and the judgment, which he paffes on their works, mews him a man of a fure and enlightened tafte, of a found and critical judg- ments, and, above all, of an impartiality which will not withhold refpecl: to merit, even when found in rivals. In fhort, thefe qualities, fopraife- worthy, ought to make us ftill the more regret the lofs of the other works of Denis Pyramus. I am, with the profoundeft refpedl, Sir, Your moft obedient humble Servant, London, June 2,1, 1797. DE LA HUE. XXIV. A
