WALTER (or Map, which, according to some, is the proper orthography), one of the most noted writers of Latin poetry during the reign of Henry II., was born on the borders of Wales about the middle of the twelfth century. After studying at the university of Paris, Mapes returned to England, where, joining himself to the court, he became a great favourite of Henry II., who esteemed him alike for his extensive learning and courtly manners. This attachment on the part of the king gained for Mapes various ecclesiastical preferments, being made canon of the cathedral churches of Salisbury and St Paul's; and after the successive enjoyment of many other dignities and benefices, was ultimately created Archdeacon of Oxford in 1196. He is supposed to have died about the year 1210. Our information respecting Mapes is chiefly drawn from the Speculum Ecclesiae of his intimate friend Geraldus Cambrensis. (See the Camden Society's edition of The Latin Poems commonly attributed to Walter Mapes, edited by Thomas Wright, 4to, London 1841.)

"This genial archdeacon," as Warton calls him (Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. i., p. cxxvi., 1840), is generally supposed to have been the author of the greater part of the Latin poetry belonging to the latter half of the twelfth century. His vein was witty, festive, and satirical; and he seems to have been endowed with a decided taste for gay, elegant literature. The admirers of middle-age romance recognise him as the author of an important part of the cycle of King Arthur and his knights. The Cistercian monks had the misfortune to encroach on his territory and rights on some occasion, which so keenly roused the resentment of the jovial poet that he kept up a satirical fire against them, both in prose and verse, during the remainder of his life. A considerable number of the poems constantly and unhesitatingly attributed to Mapes, appear in the MSS. under the name of Goliass or of Goliass Episcopus. That this was a fanciful appellation given to the imaginary and burlesque representative of the clerical order there can be no doubt. The Goliardi are well known, as Mr Wright shows, to have been a riotous and loose class of clerical buffoons, who lived by practising their jests and ribaldry at the tables of the richer ecclesiastics. While a skilful satirist of the clerical vices would, perhaps, find wider scope for the exercise of his function by assuming the attitude of a Goliass than by any other mode of attack then open to him, it is nevertheless somewhat singular that Giraldus, who knew Mapes well, was not only led to believe that Goliass was the real name of the author, but also that, in the very book (Speculum Ecclesiae) in which he praises his friend Mapes so warmly, he takes occasion to censure these satirical verses in no measured terms, and to speak of their author with great severity. But, however this may be explained, there can be no doubt that these verses were ascribed to Mapes at a very early period. His name appears attached to the MS. of certain of these poems in the fourteenth century; and in several copies, belonging to the fifteenth century, of the Apocalypse Goliass, the most celebrated poem Maracaybo, of the class, and still preserved in the Bodleian Library, Mapes is said to be the author; yet Mr Wright expresses strong doubts as to Mapes being the author of any of them. He accordingly, in the volume already referred to, has arranged the "poems bearing the name of Goliass" those "attributed to Walter Mapes," and others "of a similar character, but not directly attributed to Walter Mapes," into separate classes. Of the first class, the most celebrated are the Confessio Goliass and Goliass de Conjugio non Ducenta,—the former containing the famous old drinking song of the "jovial toper," consisting of a number of leonine verses, commencing—

"Mens est propositum in taberna mori: Vinos sit appositum mortali ori," &c.

Besides gaining the epithet of "The Anacreon of the Twelfth Century," as Lord Lyttelton styles him, Mapes was likewise an industrious prose writer both in the Latin and Anglo-Norman languages. The only remains now known of this species of Mapes' literary labours are,—a treatise entitled De Nugis Curialium, edited by Thomas Wright, from the Bodleian MS., for the Camden Society, London, 4to, 1850; and a tract entitled Valerius ad Rufinam de non ducenta Uxore. The former is a very curious and interesting production, consisting of severe attacks on the vices of monasteries and courts, monastic stories, fairy legends, graphic notices of Welsh manners, and unceasing tirades against Cistercian monks.