So early as this I cannot trace the songs of Chivalry in English. The most ancient I have seen, is that of Hornechild described below, which seems not older than the twelfth century. However, as this rather resembles the Saxon Poetry, than the French, it is not certain that the first English Romances were translated from that language.1 We have seen above, that a propensity to this kind of fiction prevailed among all the Gothic nations: and, though after the Norman Conquest, this country abounded with French Romances, or with translations from the French, there is good reason to believe, that the English had original pieces of their

own.

The stories of King Arthur and his Round Table, may be reasonably supposed of the growth of this island; both the French and the Armoricans probably had them from Britain.3 The stories of Guy and Bevis, with some others, were probably the invention of English Minstrels. On the other hand, the English procured translations of such Romances as were most current in France; and in the list given at the conclusion of these remarks, many are doubtless of French original.

4

The first prose books of Chivalry that appeared in our language were those printed by Caxton;5 at least, these are the first I have

France, who died in 1364] qu'on ne voit plus de Rolands parmi les François, On y verroit encore des Rolands, lui repondit un vieux Capitaine, s'ils avoient un Charlemagne à leur tête.' Vid. tom. iii. p. 202, des Essaies Hist. sur Paris de M. de Saintefoix: who gives as his authority, Boethius in Hist. Scotorum. This author, however, speaks of the Complaint and Repartee, as made in an Assembly of the States, (vocato senatu) and not upon any march, &c. Vid. Boeth. lib. xv. fol. 327. Ed. Paris, 1574.

1 See on this subject, Vol. I. Note, S. 2. page lxxiii; and in note Gg. p. lxxxviii.&c.—2 The first Romances of Chivalry among the Germans were in metre: they have some very ancient narrative songs, (which they call Lieder) not only on the fabulous heroes of their own country, but also on those of France and Britain, as Tristram, Arthur, Gawain, and the Knights von der Tafel-ronde. (Vid. Goldasti Not. in Eginhart. Vit. Car. Mag. 4to. 1711, p. 207.)- The Welsh have still some very old Romances about K. Arthur; 3 but as these are in prose, they are not probably their first pieces that were composed on that subject. It is most credible that these stories were originally of English invention, even if the only pieces now extant should be found to be translations from the French. What now pass for the French originals were probably only amplifications, or enlargements of the old English story. That the French Romancers borrowed some things from the English, appears from the word Termagant, which they took up from our Minstrels, and corrupted into Tervagaunte. See Vol. I. p. 60, and Gloss. Termagant.'- Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy, 1471. Godfroye of Boloyne, 1481. Le Morte de

been able to discover, and these are all translations from the French. Whereas Romances of this kind had been long current in metre, and were so generally admired in the time of Chaucer, that his Rhyme of Sir Thopas was evidently written to ridicule and burlesque them.1

He expressly mentions several of them by name in a stanza, which I shall have occasion to quote more than once in this volume :

Men speken of Romaunces of pris
Of Horn-Child, and of Ipotis

Of Bevis, and Sire Guy

Of Sire Libeux, and Pleindamour,

But Sire Thopas, he bereth the flour

Of real chevalrie.2

Most, if not all of these are still extant in MS. in some or other of our libraries, as I shall shew in the conclusion of this slight essay, where I shall give a list of such metrical Histories and Romances as have fallen under my observation.

As many of these contain a considerable portion of poetic merit, and throw great light on the manners and opinions of former times, it were to be wished that some of the best of them were rescued from oblivion. A judicious collection of them accurately published with proper illustrations, would be an important accession to our stock of ancient English literature. Many of them exhibit no mean attempts at Epic Poetry, and though full of the exploded fictions of Chivalry, frequently display great descriptive and inventive powers in the Bards, who composed them. They are at least generally equal to any other poetry of the same age. They cannot indeed be put in competition with the nervous productions of so universal and commanding a genius as Chaucer, but they have a simplicity that makes them be read with less interruption, and be more easily understood: and they are far more spirited and entertaining than the tedious allegories of Gower, or the dull and prolix legends of Lydgate. Yet, while so much stress was laid upon the writings Arthur, 1485. The life of Charlemagne, 1485, &c. As the old minstrelsy wore out, prose books of Chivalry became more admired, especially after the Spanish Romances began to be translated into English towards the end of Q. Elizabeth's reign: then the most popular metrical Romances began to be reduced into prose, as Sir Guy, Bevis, &c.

1 See Extract from a Letter, written by the Editor of these volumes, in Mr Warton's Observations, Vol. II. p 139.-2 Canterbury Tales (Tyrwhitt's Edit.), Vol. II. p. 238.In all the former editions, which I have seen, the name at the end of the 4th line is Blandamoure.

of these last, by such as treat of English poetry, the old metrical Romances though far more popular in their time, were hardly known to exist. But it has happened unluckily, that the antiquaries who have revived the works of our ancient writers, have been for the most part men void of taste and genius, and therefore have always fastidiously rejected the old poetical Romances, because founded on fictitious or popular subjects, while they have been careful to grub up every petty fragment of the most dull and insipid rhymist, whose merit it was to deform morality, or obscure true history. Should the public encourage the revival of some of those ancient Epic Songs of Chivalry, they would frequently see the rich ore of an Ariosto or a Tasso, though buried it may be among the rubbish and dross of barbarous times.

Such a publication would answer many important uses. It would throw new light on the rise and progress of English poetry, the history of which can be but imperfectly understood, if these are neglected. It would also serve to illustrate innumerable passages in our ancient classic poets, which without their help must be for ever obscure. For, not to mention Chaucer and Spencer, who abound with perpetual allusions to them, I shall give an instance or two from Shakespeare, by way of specimen of their use.

In his play of King John our great dramatic poet alludes to an exploit of Richard I. which the reader will in vain look for in any true history. Faulconbridge says to his mother, Act i. Sc. 1.

"Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose.
Against whose furie and unmatched force,
The awlesse lion could not wage the fight,

Nor keepe his princely heart from Richard's hand;
He that perforce robs lions of their hearts
May easily winne a woman's: '-

The fact here referred to, is to be traced to its source only in the old Romance of Richard Ceur de Lyon,1 in which his encounter with a lion makes a very shining figure. I shall give a large extract from this poem, as a specimen of the manner of these old rhapsodists, and to shew that they did not in their fictions neglect the proper means to produce the ends, as was afterwards so childishly done in the prose books of Chivalry.

The poet tells us, that Richard, in his return from the Holy

1 Dr Grey has shewn that the same story is alluded to in Rastell's Chronicle. As it was doubtless originally had from the Romance, this is proof that the old Metrical Romances throw light on our first writers in prose: many of ou ancient Historians have recorded the fictions of Romance.

Land, having been discovered in the habit of 'a palmer in Almayne,' and apprehended as a spy, was by the king thrown into prison. Wardrew, the king's son, hearing of Richard's great strength, desires the jailor to let him have a sight of his prisoners. Richard being the foremost, Wardrew asks him, 'if he dare stand a buffet from his hand?' and that on the morrow he shall return him another. Richard consents, and receives a blow that staggers him. On the morrow, having previously waxed his hands, he waits his antagonist's arrival. Wardrew accordingly, proceeds the story, 'held forth as a trew man,' and Richard gave him such a blow on the cheek, as broke his jaw-bone, and killed him on the spot.1 The king, to revenge the death of his son, orders, by the advice of one Eldrede, that a lion, kept purposely from food, shall be turned loose upon Richard. But the king's daughter having fallen in love with him, tells him of her father's resolution, and at his request procures him forty ells of white silk 'kerchers;' and here the description of the combat begins:

The kever-chefes 2 he toke on honde,
And aboute his arme he wonde;
And thought in that ylke while,
To slee the lyon with some gyle.
And syngle in a kyrtyll he stode,
And abode the lyon fyers and wode,
With that came the jaylere,

And other men that wyth him were,
And the lyon them amonge;

His pawes were stiffe and stronge.
The chamber dore they undone,
And the lyon to them is gone.
Rycharde sayd, Helpe, lorde Jesu!
The lyon made to him venu,
And wolde hym have all to rente:
Kynge Rycharde besyde hym glente.3
The lyon on the breste hym spurned,
That aboute he tourned.

The lyon was hongry and megre,
And bette his tayle to be egre;
He loked aboute as he were madde;
Abrode he all his pawes spradde.
He cryed lowde, and yaned wyde.
Kynge Rycharde bethought hym that tyde
What hym was beste, and to hym sterte,
In at the throte his honde he gerte,

1 On this story Scott founds the interchange of blows between Richard and Friar Tuck in Ivanhoe.'—ED.—2 i.e. Handkerchiefs.

·

Here we have the

etymology of the word, viz., Couvre le Chef.' i.e. slipt asideyawned.

What follows is not so well, and therefore I shall extract no more of this poem. For the above feat the author tells us, the king was deservedly called

'Stronge Rycharde Cure de Lyowne.'

That distich which Shakespeare puts in the mouth of his madman in K. Lear, Act. 3, Sc. 4.

'Mice and Rats and such small deere

Have been Tom's food for seven long yeare,'

has excited the attention of the critics. Instead of deere, one of them would substitute geer; and another cheer.2

But the ancient

reading is established by the old Romance of Sir Bevis, which Shakespeare had doubtless often heard sung to the harp. This distich is part of a description there given of the hardships suffered by Bevis, when confined for seven years in a dungeon:

'Rattes and myse and such small dere

Was his meate that seven yere.'

Sign. F. iii.

III. In different parts of this work, the reader will find various extracts from these old poetical legends; to which I refer him for farther examples of their style and metre. To complete this subject, it will be proper at least to give one specimen of their skill in distributing and conducting their fable, by which it will be seen that nature and common sense had supplied to these old simple bards the want of critical art, and taught them some of the most essential rules of Epic Poetry.—I shall select the Romance of Libius Disconius,3 as being one of those mentioned by Chaucer, and either shorter or more intelligible than the others he has quoted. If an Epic Poem may be defined, a fable related by a poet, to excite admiration, and inspire virtue, by representing the action of some one hero, favoured by heaven, who executes a great design, in spite of all the obstacles that oppose him:' I know not why we

64

1 i.e. hurt.-2 Dr. Warburton.-Dr. Grey.-3 So it is intitled in the Editor's MS. But the true title is Le beaux desconus, or the fair unknown. See a note on the Canterbury Tales, Vol. IV. p. 333.- Vid. Discours sur la Poesie Epique,' prefixed to Télémaque.