66 'T)iffirta1ibn on the Life and Writings of

entitles the work a lay, and profc^Tes that he had rather engage in it than relate fables , it may afford a conjecture that Mary has Suf- ficiently developed herfclf in fpeaking of her labours of this kind. This, however, is merely a conjecture. It is not impoffible that the MSS. which monfieur le Grand confulted contained mere parti- cular details on this fubject; but he is certainly miftaken in one refpect, and that is, in fuppofmg Mary to have been the original author of this piece, whilft all the Latin MSS. that exift attefl that flie could have been only the translator ; and if the tranflation in the Harleian MS. actually be her performance, me there pofitively declares that flic had been defired to translate the work from Latin into Romance. This poem was at a very early period translated into Englim verfe ; it is to be found in the Cotton library, Calig. A. II. un- der the title of Owayne Miles, on account of Sir Owen being the hero of the piece, and the perfon whofe defcent into St. Patrick's Purgatory is related. Walter de Metz, author of the poem en- titled Image du Monde, mentions alfo the wonders of St. Patrick's Purgatory, the various adventures of thofe who defcended into it, and the condition of thofe who had the good fortune to return from it ; but I am uncertain whether he fpcaks from the original Latin of the monk of Saltrey, or from Mary's French tranflation. In the latter cafe it fhould appear that Mary finifhed her tranfla- tion before 1246, the year in which Walter fays he compofed his w r ork [b~. Whether Mary w r as the author of any other pieces I have not been able to afcertain : her tafte, and the extreme facility with which me wrote poetry of the lighter kind, induce a prefump- ,[/'] See hrs Works amongft the Harleian MSS. ^4333. tion