P saluted.

Thai hailsed him ful curtaysly,
And also al his cumpany:

Thai said he was worthy to dowt¶,
That so fele folk led obowt":

That was grete joy, I yow bihete3,
With clothes spredt in ilka strete,
And damysels danceand ful wele,
With trompes, pipes, and with fristele:
The Castel and the Cetee rang
With mynstralsi and nobil sang.
Thai ordand tham ilkane in fer
To kepe the king on faire maner.
The Lady went withouten towne,
And with her many balde barowne,
Cled in purpure and ermyne,
With girdels al of gold ful fyne.
The Lady made ful meri chere,
Sho was al dight with drewries" dere;
Abowt hir was ful mekyl thrang,
The puple cried and sayd omang,
Welkum ertou, kyng Arthoure,

Of al this werld thou beres the floure!
Lord kyng of all kynges,

And blessed be he that the brynges!
When the Lady the Kyng saw,
Unto him fast gan sho draw,
To hald his sterap whils he lyght;
Bot sone when he of hir had syght,
With mekyl myrth thai samen met,
With hende wordes sho him gret;
A thousand sithes welkum sho says,
And so es syr Gawayne the curtayse.
The king said, Lady white so flowr,
God gif the joy and mekil honowr,
For thou ert fayr with body gent:
With that he hir in armes hent,
And ful faire he gan hir falde",
Thar was many to bihalde:
It es no man with tong may tell
The mirth that was tham omell;

in one of Alexander's battles, many a lady lost her drewery. Geste Alexander, MS. p. 86. Athens is called the Drywery of the world. ibid.

V

u

gallantries, jewels. Davie says, that

together.

Of maidens was thar so gude wane*,
That ilka knight myght take ane.

The king stays here eight days, entertained with various sports.

And ilk day thai had solace sere
Of huntyng, and als of revere1:
For thar was a ful fayre cuntre,
With wodes and parkes grete plente;
And castels wroght with lyme and stane,
That Ywayne with his wife had tane."

1 Logres, or Loegria, from Locrine, was the middle part of Britain.

2 counts. So in Sir Robert of Gloucester, we have Contass for countess. On which word his editor Hearne observes, that king James the First used to call a Countess a cuntys; and he quotes one of James's letters, "Come and bring the three Cuntys [for countesses] with you." Gloss. p. 635.

SECTION XLIV.

The Notbrowne Mayde. Not older than the sixteenth century. Artful contrivance of the story. Misrepresented by Prior. Metrical Romances, Guy, syr Bevys, and Kynge Apolyn, printed in the reign of Henry. The Scole house, a Satire. Christmas Carols. Religious Libels in rhyme. Merlin's Prophecies. Laurence Minot. Occasional disquisition on the late continuance of the use of waxen tablets. Pageantries of Henry's Court. Dawn of Taste.

I FEAR I shall be pronounced a heretic to modern criticism, in retracting what I have said in a preceding page, and in placing the NOTBROWNE MAYDE under some part of this reign*. Prior, who, about the year 1718, paraphrased this poem, without improving its native beauties, supposes it to have been three hundred years old. It appears from two letters preserved in the British Museum, written by Prior to Wanley, lord Oxford's librarian, that Prior consulted Wanley about this ancient ballada. It is, however, certain, that Wanley, an antiquarian of unquestionable skill and judgement in these niceties, whatever directions and information he might have imparted to Prior on this subject, could never have communicated such a decision. He certainly in these letters gives no such opinion. This is therefore the hasty con

and improved from the old simple Armo-
rican tale of which I have here produced a
short extract. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 306.
note.] [The original of [Ywaine and
Gawin] is Le chevalier au Lion, by Chre-
stien or Christian de Troyes, an eminent
French poet who died in 1191; [and]
the only ancient copy of the [English
version] is contained in the Cotton MS.
Galba, E. ix. which seems to have been
written in the time of Richard II., or
towards the close of the fourteenth cen-
tury.-RITSON.] The same perhaps may
be said of the English metrical romance
Emare, who marries the king of Galys, or
Wales, originally an Armorican tale, be-
fore quoted. MSS. Cott. Calig. A. 2. fol. 69.
[See Diss. III, prefixed to the first volume,]
[and Mr. Ritson's Metrical Romances, vol.
ii. where it is printed.-PRICE.] The last
stanza confirms what has been advanced
in the First Dissertation, concerning the
connection between Cornwall and Bre-
tagne, or Armorica. fol. ult.

A grette feste thar was holde
Of erles and barons bolde,

As testymonieth thys story:
Thys is on of BRYTAYNE LAYES,
That was used in olde dayes,

Men callys playn the GARYE.

I believe the last line means, "Made for an entertainment," "Which men call playing the GARYE." The reader may perhaps recollect, that the old Cornish Miracle interlude was called the Guary Mirakil, that is, the Miracle Play. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 20. note c. In Cornish, Plán an guare is the level place, the plain of sport and pastime, the theatre of games, &c. Guare is a Cornish verb, to sport, to play. In affinity with which, is probably garish, gay, splendid. Milton, Il Pens. v. 141. Day's garish eye. Shakspeare, Rom. and Jul. iii. 4. The garish sun. King Richard the Third, A garish flag. Compare Lye, Sax. Dict. v. geaɲpian. To dress fine.

Who was the translator of Emare, is not known. I presume it was translated in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and very probably by Thomas Chestre, the translator of Launval.

*[i. e. the reign of Henry VIII., but Herbert says he possessed an edition which was printed about 1502, i. e. the 18th year of Henry VII.-PARK.]

a MSS. Harl. 3777.

b These letters are printed in the Additions to Pope's Works, in two volumes, published about two years ago. [Namely in 1776. This publication has been at

jecture of Prior, who thought that the curiosity which he was presenting to the world would derive proportionable value from its antiquity, who was better employed than in the petty labour of ascertaining dates, and who knew much more of modern than ancient poetry.

The NOT-BROWNE MAYDE first appeared in Arnolde's CHRONIcle, or CUSTOMS OF LONDON, which was first printed about the year 1521. This is perhaps the most heterogeneous and multifarious miscellany that ever existed. The collector sets out with a catalogue of the mayors and sheriffs, the customs and charters, of the city of London. Soon afterwards we have receipts to pickle sturgeon, to make vinegar, ink, and gunpowder; how to raise parsley in an hour; the arts of brewery and soap-making; an estimate of the livings in London; an account of the last visitation of saint Magnus's church; the weight of Essex cheese, and a letter to cardinal Wolsey. The NOT-BROWNE MAYDE is introduced, between an estimate of some subsidies paid into the exchequer, and directions for buying goods in Flanders. In a word, it seems to have been this compiler's plan, by way of making up a volume, to print together all the notices and papers, whether ancient or modern, which he could amass, of every sort and subject. It is supposed, that he intended an antiquarian repertory: but as many recent materials were admitted, that idea was not at least uniformly observed; nor can any argument be drawn from that supposition, that this poem existed long before, and was inserted as a piece of antiquity.

The editor of the PROLUSIONS infers, from an identity of rhythmus and orthography, and an affinity of words and phrases, that this poem appeared after sir Thomas More's JEST OF THE SERJEANT AND FREER, which, as I have observed, was written about the year 1500. This reasoning, were not other arguments obvious, would be inconclusive, and might be turned to the opposite side of the question. But it is evident from the language of the NOTBROWNE MAYDE, that it was not written earlier than the beginning, at least, of the sixteenth century*. There is hardly an obsolete word, or that requires a glossary, in the whole piece; and many parts of Surrey and Wyat are much more difficult to be understood. Reduce any two stanzas to modern orthography, and they shall hardly wear the appearance of ancient poetry. The reader shall try the experiment on the two following, which occur accidentally d

HE.

Yet take good hede, for ever I drede
That ye could nat sustayne,
The thornie wayes, the depe valèis,
The snowe, the frost, the rayne,

tributed to the late George Steevens, Esq.;
but I heard from Mr. Isaac Reed that it
was culled by Baldwin from the commu-
nications of Mr. Steevens in the St. James's
Chronicle, and put forth with a preface
by William Cooke, Esq.-PARK.]

C Prolusions, or Select Pieces of Ancient Poetry, Lond. 1760. 8vo. Pref. p. vii., [edited by E. Capell.-PARK.]

* [But might it not be modernized to the style of 1500, in the edition of 1521? Herbert MS. Note.-PARK.] V. 168.

The colde, the hete: for, dry or wete,
We must lodge on the playne;

And us abofee none other rofe

But a brake bush or twayne.

Which sone sholde greve you, I believe;
And ye wolde gladly than,

That I had to the grene wode go
Alone a banyshed man.

SHE.

Among the wylde dere, such an archère,
As men say that ye be,
May ye not fayle of good vitayle
Where is so great plentè:

And water clere of the ryvère

Shall be full swete to me;

With which in hele, I shall ryght wele
Endure, as ye shall see:

And, or we go, a bedde or two

I can provyde anone.

For, in my mynde, of all mankynde

I love but you alone.

The simplicity of which passage Prior has thus decorated and dilated.

HENRY.

Those limbs, in lawn and softest silk array'd,
From sun-beams guarded, and of winds afraid;
Can they bear angry Jove? can they resist
The parching dog-star, and the bleak north-east?
When, chill'd by adverse snows and beating rain,
We tread with weary steps the longsome plain;
When with hard toil we seek our evening food,
Berries and acorns from the neighbouring wood;
And find among the cliffs no other house,
But the thin covert of some gather'd boughs;
Wilt thou not then reluctant send thine eye
Around the dreary waste; and weeping try
(Though then, alas ! that trial be too late)
To find thy father's hospitable gate,

And seats, where ease and plenty brooding sate?

Those seats, whence long excluded thou must mourn;

That gate, for ever barr'd to thy return:

Wilt thou not then bewail ill-fated love,

And hate a banish'd man, condemn'd in woods to rove?

e i. e. above.