occasional insertion of a double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, &c., is an irregularity I do not remember to have seen elsewhere. 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 King 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 Mensæ Rotundæ. 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 even so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accomplishments of the ladies of her court, that the "eldest of them are skilful in surgery.'" See Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to Hollingshed's Chronicle, &c. 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. * See Northern Antiquities, &c., vol. i. p. 318, vol. ii. p. 100, Mémoires de la Chevalerie, tom. i. p. 44. The kynge proclaimed a tourneament, When lo upon the fourthe morninge 30 A hugye giaunt stiffe and starke, 35 Before him came a dwarffe full lowe, 40 75 And at his backe five heads he bare, 80 Sir, quoth the dwarffe, and louted lowe, Behold these heads I beare with me! The Eldridge knight is his own cousine, Whom a knight of thine hath shent: And hee is come to avenge his wrong, 45 And to thee, all thy knightes among, Defiance here hath sent. 50 But yette he will appease his wrath Thy daughters love to winne : And but thou yeelde him that fayre mayd, 85 90 Thy head, syr king, must goe with mee; 95 And there came lords, and there came knights, Or else within these lists soe broad And if thou wilt lend me the Eldridge sworde, And nowe the kinge with all his barons I trust in Christe for to slay this fiende 125 And downe he stepped into the listes, That curteous knighte to greete. 160 165 170 140 And now with swordes soe sharpe of steele, And shriekte and swound awaye. 185 |