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The Temple of Glass
by
John Lydgate
Printed at Westminster
by William Caxton about the year
1477
Cambridge
at the University Press
1905
The unique book here reprinted in facsimile came to the Cambridge
University Library in a famous volume of tracts described by Mr Blades
(Biography and Typography of W. Caxton, 1882, p. 201).
The volume had formed part of the collection of John Moore, Bishop of
Ely, which was given to the University by King George the First in 1715.
The first leaf, which is wanting, was probably blank.
F. JENKINSON
* * * * *
I certify that I have printed 250 copies only of this facsimile, that
the impressions have been rubbed off the plates and the negatives
destroyed.
P. DUJARDIN
.The temple of glas.
For thought constreynt & greuous heuynes
For pensifhed and higħ distres
To bed I went now this other nyght
Whan that lucina witħ hir pale light
Was Ioyned last witħ phebus in aquarye
Amyd decembre, whan of Ianuarye
Ther be kalendes of the new yere
And derk dyane horned and nothing clere
Had her beames vnder a mysty cloude
Witħ in my bed for cold I gan me shroude
Al desolate for constraynt of my woo
The long nyght walowyng to and fro
Til at laste er I began take kepe
Me dyde oppresse a sodeyn dedly slepe
Witħ in the whiche me thougħt I was
Rauysshed in spiryte in to a temple of glas
I nyste how fer in wildernes
That founded was as by liklynes
Not vpon stele, but on a craggy roche
Lyke yse y froze, and as I did approche
Agayn the sonne that shone so clere
As ony Cristal and euer ner and ner
As I cam nyghe this grisly dredful place
I wex astonyed, the light so in my face
Be gan to smyte, so persing euer in one
On euery part wher that I gan gone
That I ne might no thing as I wolde
Aboute me considere and beholde
The wonder estres for brightnes of the sonne
Til atte last certayn skyes donne
Witħ wynde chaced han her cours y went
To fore the stremes of titan and y blent
So that I mighte witħ in and witħ oute
Wherso I wolde beholden me aboute
For to reporte the facōn and manere
Of aƚƚ this place that was circuler
In compas wyse, round by entayle wrought
And whan I had longe gone and sought
I found a wiket and entred in as fast
In to the temple and myn eyen cast
On euery syde now lowe eft alofte
And right anon as I gan walken softe
Yf I the sotħ a right reporte shal
I sawe depeynted vpon a wal
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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