After this interview, she is reconciled to him, as he only in self-defence had slain her husband, and she promises him marriage.

Than hastily she went to Hall,

Thar abade hir barons all,
For to hald thair parlement,
And maric hir by thair asent.

They agree to the marriage.

Than the lady went ogayne
Unto chameber to sir Ywaine;
Sir, sho said, so God me save,
Other lorde wil I nane have:
If I the left I did noght right,
A king son, and a noble knyght.
Now has the maiden done hir thoghte,
Syr Ywayne out of anger broght.
The Lady led him unto Hall,
Ogains him rase the barons all,
And al thai said ful sekerly,
This Knight sal wed the Lady:
And ilkane said thamself bitwenes,
So fair a man had thai noght sene,
For his bewte in hal and bowr:
Him semes to be an emperowr.

We wald that thai war trowth plight,
And weded sone this ilk nyght.
The lady set hir on the dese1,
And cumand al to hald thaire pese1;
And bad hir steward sumwhat say,
Ork men went fra cowrt away.
The steward said, Sirs, understandes,
Werl is waxenm in thir landes;

falcon. In MSS. Laud, I. 174. ut supr. it is peny, for falcon. 83 her lace.

35 be left, stay, even.

k ere.

m

grown.

32 catched.

34 Here, y is the Saxon i. See Hearne's Gl. Rob. Glouc. p. 738. 36 neither affrighted nor angry.

The king Arthur es redy dight
To be her byn this fowre-tenyght:
He and his menye" ha thoght
To win this land if thai moght:
Thai wate° ful wele, that he es ded
That was lord here in this stedep:
None es so wight wapins to welde,
Ne that so boldly mai us belde,
And wemen may maintene no stowr',
Thai most nedes have a governowr:
Tharfor mi lady most nede

Be weded hastily for drede",

And to na lord wil sho take tentt,
Bot if it be by yowr assent.

Than the lordes al on raw u

Held them wele payd of this saw".
Al assented hyr untill

To tak a lord at hyr owyn will.
Than said the lady onone right,
How hald ye yow payd of this knight?
He profers hym on al wyse

To myne honor and my servyse,
And sertes, sirs, the soth to say,
I saw him never, or this day;
Bot talde unto me has it bene
He es the kyng son Uriene:
He es cumen of hegh parage,
And wonder doghty of vasselage",
War and wise, and ful curtayse,
He yernes me to wife alwayse;
And nere the lese, I wate, he might
Have wele better, and so war right.
With a voice halely thai sayd,
Madame, ful wele we hald us payd:
Bot hastes fast al that ye may,
That ye war wedded this ilk day:

P mansion, castle.

active to wield weapons.

attention.

on a row.

s fear.

opinion, word. It is of extensive sig

nification, Emare, MS. ut supr.

I have herd minstrelles syng in SAW.

unto. So Rob. Brunne, of Stonehenge, edit. Hearne, p. cxci.

courage.

b wholly.

• Fr. Plevine.

VINA.

d baronage.

And grete prayer gan thai make
On alwise, that sho suld hym take.
Sone unto the kirk thai went,

And war wedded in thair present;
Thar wedded Ywaine in plevynec
The riche lady ALUNDYNE,
The dukes doghter of Landuit,
Els had hyr lande bene destruyt.
Thus thai made the maryage
Omang al the riche barnaged:
Thai made ful mekyl mirth that day,
Ful grete festes on gude aray ;

Grete mirthes made thai in that stede,
And al forgetyn es now the dedee
Of him that was thair lord fre;

Thai say
that this es worth swilk thre.
And that thai lufed him mekil mor
Than him that lord was thare byfor.
The bridalf sat, for soth to tell,
Til king Arthur come to the well

See Du Fresne. PLE

e death.

f Bridal is Saxon for the nuptial feast. So in Davie's Geste of Alexander. MS. fol. 41. penes me,

He wist nouzt of this BRIDALE,
Ne no man tolde him the tale.

In Gamelyn, or the Coke's Tale, v. 1267.
At every BRIDALE he would sing and hop.
Spenser, Faerie Qu. B. v. C. ii. st. 3.

-Where and when the BRIDALE cheare
Should be solemnised.

And, vi. x. 13.

-Theseus her unto his BRIDALE bore.
See also Spenser's Prothalamion.

The word has been applied adjectively,
for CONNUBIAL. Perhaps Milton remem-
bered or retained its original use in the
following passage of Samson Agonistes,
ver. 1196.

And in your city held my nuptial feast:
But your ill-meaning politician lords,
Under pretence of BRIDAL friends and
guests,

Appointed to await me thirty spies.
"Under pretence of friends and guests in-
vited to the BRIDAL." But in Paradise
Lost, he speaks of the evening star hasten-
ing to light the BRIDAL LAMP, which in

another part of the same poem he calls
the NUPTIAL TORCH. viii. 520. xi. 590.
I presume this Saxon BRIDALE is Bride-
Ale, the FEAST in honour of the bride or
marriage. ALE, simply put, is the feast
or the merry-making, as in Pierce Plow-
man, fol. xxxii. b. edit. 1550. 4to.

And then satten some and songe at the
ALE [nale].

Again, fol. xxvi. b.

I am occupied everie daye, holye daye and other,

With idle tales at the ALE, and otherwhile in churches.

So Chaucer of his Freere, Urr. p. 87. v. 85. And they were only glad to fill his purse, And maden him grete festis at the NALE. Nale is ALE. "They feasted him, or entertained him, with particular respect, at the parish-feast," &c. Again, Plowman's Tale, p. 125. v. 2110.

At the Wrestling, and at the Wake,

And the chief chaunters at the NALE. See more instances, supr. vol. i. p. 56. That ALE is festival, appears from its sense in composition; as, among others, in the words Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitson-ale, Clerk-ale, and Church-ale. LEET-ALE, in some parts of England, signifies the dinner at a court-leet of a manor for the

When he was dight in seker wede,
Than he umstradem a nobil stede:
Him thoght that he was als lyght
Als a fowl es to the flyght.
Unto the Well fast wendes he,
And sone when thai myght him se,
Syr Kay, for he wald noght fayle,
Smertly askes the batayle.

And alsone than said the kyng,

Sir Kay, I grante the thine askyng.

Sir Ywaine is victorious, who discovers himself to king Arthur after

the battle.

And sone sir Ywaine gan him tell

Of al his far how it byfell,

With the knight how that he sped,
And how he had the Lady wed;

And how the Mayden him helpid wele:
Thus tald he to him ilka dele.

Sir kyng, he sayd, I yow byseke,
And al yowr menye milde and meke,
That ye wald grante to me that grace,
At" wend with me to my purchace,
And se my Kastel and my Towre,
Than myght ye do me grete honowre.
The kyng granted him ful right
To dwel with him a fowretenyght.
Sir Ywayne thanked him oft sith,
The knyghtes war al glad and blyth,
With sir Ywaine for to wend:
And sone a squier has he send
Unto the kastel, the way he nome,
And warned the Lady of thair come,
And that his Lord come with the kyng.
And when the Lady herd this thing,

It es no lifand man with mowth

That half hir cumforth tel kowth.
Hastily that Lady hende
Cumand al hir men to wende,
And dight tham in thair best aray,
To kepe the king that ilk day:
Thai keped him in riche wede
Rydeand on many a nobil stede;