There was in the olden time in Bristol a great merchant named William Canynge, who was remembered for his philanthropy; he had altered and improved the church of St. Mary, and had built the muniment-room: the reputed poems, some of which were said to have been written by himself, and others by the monk Rowlie, Chatterton declared he had found in the coffers. Thomas Rowlie, "the gode preeste," appears as a holy and learned man, poet, artist, and architect. Canynge and Rowlie were strong friends, and the latter was supposed to have addressed many of the poems to the former, who was his good patron. The principal of the Rowlie poems is the _Bristowe_ (Bristol) _Tragedy_, or _Death of Sir Charles Bawdin_. This Bawdin, or Baldwin, a real character, had been attainted by Edward IV. of high treason, and brought to the block. The poem is in the finest style of the old English ballad, and is wonderfully dramatic. King Edward sends to inform Bawdin of his fate: Then with a jug of nappy ale His knights did on him waite; "Go tell the traitor that to daie He leaves this mortal state." Sir Charles receives the tidings with bold defiance. Good Master Canynge goes to the king to ask the prisoner's life as a boon. "My noble liege," good Canynge saide, "Leave justice to our God; And lay the iron rule aside, Be thine the olyve rodde." The king is inexorable, and Sir Charles dies amid tears and loud weeping around the scaffold. Among the other Rowlie poems are the _Tragical Interlude of Ella_, "plaied before Master Canynge, and also before Johan Howard, Duke of Norfolk;" _Godwin_, a short drama; a long poem on _The Battle of Hastings_, and _The Romaunt of the Knight_, modernized from the original of John de Bergham.