Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THIS old romantic tale was preserved in the Editor's folio MS. but in so very defective and mutilated a condition (not from any chasm in the MS. but from great omission in the transcript, probably copied from the faulty recitation of some illiterate minstrel), and the whole appeared so far short of the perfection it seemed to deserve, that the Editor was tempted to add several stanzas in the first part, and still more in the second, to connect and complete the story in the manner which appeared to him most interesting and affecting.

There is something peculiar in the metre of this old ballad: it is not unusual to meet with redundant stanzas of six lines; but the occasional insertion of a double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, &c. is an irregularity I do not remember to have seen elsewhere.

[ocr errors]

It may be proper to inform the reader before he comes to Pt. 2, v. 110, 111, that the Round Table was not peculiar to the reign of K. Arthur, but was common in all the ages of Chivalry. The proclaiming a great tournament (probably with some peculiar solemnities) was called "holding a Round Table." Dugdale tells us that the great baron Roger de Mortimer" having procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred on his thre sons' by K. Edw. I., he, at his own costs, caused a tourneament to be held at Kenilworth; where he sumptuously entertained an hundred knights, and as many ladies, for three days; the like whereof was never before in England; and there began the Round Table, (so called by reason that the place wherein they practised those feats was environed with a strong wall made in a round form :) And upon the fourth day, the golden lion, in sign of triumph, being yielded to him; he carried it (with all the company) to Warwick."-It may further be added, that Matthew Paris frequently calls justs and tournaments Hastiludia Mensa Rotunda.

As to what will be observed in this ballad of the art of healing being practised by a young princess; it is no more than what is usual in all the old romances, and was conformable to real manners: it being a practice derived from the earliest times among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, for women even of the highest rank, to exercise the art of surgery. In the Northern Chronicles we always find the young damsels stanching the wounds of their lovers, and the wives those of their husbands*

And

See Northern Antiquities, &c. vol. i. p. 318, vol. ii. p. 100. Mémoires de la Chevalerie, tom. i. p. 44.

even so late as the time of Q. Elizabeth, it is men-
tioned among the accomplishments of the ladies of
her court, that the "eldest of them are skilful in
See Harrison's Description of England,
surgery."
prefixed to Hollingshed's Chronicle, &c.

[ocr errors]

THE FIRST PART.

IN Ireland, ferr over the sea,
There dwelleth a bonnye kinge;
And with him a yong and comlye knighte,
Men call him Syr Cauline.

The kinge had a ladye to his daughter
In fashyon she hath no peere;
And princely wightes that ladye wooed
To be theyr wedded feere.

Syr Cauline loveth her best of all,
But nothing durst he saye;

Ne descreeve his counsayl to no man,
But deerlye he lovde this may.

Till on a daye it so beffell,

Great dill to him was dight;
The maydens love removde his mynd,
To care-bed went the knighte.

One while he spred his armes him fro,

One while he spred them nye :
And aye! but I winne that ladyes love,
For dole now I mun dye.

And whan our parish-masse was done,
Our kinge was bowne to dyne:
Where is Syr Cauline,
sayes,
That is wont to serve the wyne?

He

Then aunswerde him a courteous knighte,
And fast his handes gan wringe:
Sir Cauline is sicke, and like to dye
Without a good leechìnge.

Fetche me downe my daughter deere,
She is a leeche fulle fine :

Goe take him doughe, and the baken bread,
And serve him with the wyne soe red;
Lothe I were him to tine.

10

18

20

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Ile fight for thee with his grimme soldàn,

Thoughe he be unmacklye made.

He wan the prize eche daye.

His acton it was all of blacke,

His hewberke, and his sheelde,

Ne noe man wist whence he did come, Ne noe man knewe where he did gone, When they came from the feelde.

And now three days were prestlye past In fentes of chivalrye,

When lo upon the fourth morninge

A sorrowfulle sight they see.

A hugve giaunt stiffe and starke,
All foule of limbe and lere;

Two goggling even like fire farden,
A mouthe from eare to eare.

Before him came a dwarffe full lowe,
That waited on his knee,

[blocks in formation]

And at his backe five heads he bare,

All wan and pale of blee..

Sir, quoth the dwarffe, and louted lowe, Behold that lend Soldain!

Behold these heads I beare with me!
They are kings which he hath slain.

The Eldridge knight is his own cousine,
Whom a knight of thine hath shent :
And hee is come to avenge his wrong,
And to thee, all thy knightes among,
Defiance here hath sent.

But yette he will appease his wrath
Thy daughters love to winne;

And but thou yeelde him that fayre mayd,
Thy halls and towers must brenne.

Thy head, syr king, must goe with mee;
Or else thy daughter deere;

Or else within these lists soe broad
Thou must finde him a peere.

65

[blocks in formation]

75

And sayd, Awaye, awaye :

I sweare, as I am the hend soldàn,

Thou lettest me here all daye.

[blocks in formation]

The king he turned him round aboute,

[blocks in formation]

And in his heart was woe:

100

All recklesse of the pain:

Is there never a knighte of my round table, This matter will undergoe!

Quoth hee, But heaven be now my speede,

Or else I shall be slaine.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
« FöregåendeFortsätt »