else he would enter into his lands, and brenn and slay, and never leave till he have thy head and thy beard. Well, said king Arthur, thou hast said thy message, which is the most villainous and lewdest message that ever man heard sent to a king. Also thou mayest see my beard is full young yet for to make a purfell of, but tell thou the king that—or it be long he shall do to me homage on both his knees, or else he shall leese his head." [B. i. c. 24. See also the same Romance, b. i. c. 92.]

The thought seems to be originally taken from Jeff. Monmouth's Hist. b. x. c. 3, which is alluded to by Drayton in his Poly-Olb. Song iv., and by Spenser in Faer. Queen, vi. 1, 13, 15. See Warton's Observations on Spenser, vol. ii. page 223.

The following text is composed of the best readings selected from three different copies. The first in Enderbie's Cambria Triumphans, p. 197. The second in the Letter above mentioned. And the third inserted in MS. in a copy of Morte Arthur, 1632, in the Bodl. library.

66 some

Stow tells us, that king Arthur kept his round table at "diverse places, but especially at Carlion, Winchester, and Camalet, in Somersetshire." This Camalet, times a famous towne or castle, is situate on a very high tor or hill," &c. [See an exact description in Stow's Annals, ed. 1631, p. 55.]

As it fell out on a Pentecost day,

King Arthur at Camelot kept his court royall, With his faire queene dame Guenever the gay; And many bold barons sitting in hall;

With ladies attired in purple and pall ;

And heraults in hewkes, hooting on high,
Cryed Largesse, Largesse, Chevaliers tres-hardie'.

A doughty dwarfe to the uppermost deas
Right pertlye gan pricke, kneeling on knee;
With steven fulle stoute amids all the preas,
Sayd, Nowe sir king Arthur, God save thee, and

see!

Sir Ryence of North-gales greeteth well thee,
And bids thee thy beard anon to him send,
Or else from thy jaws he will it off rend.

For his robe of state is a rich scarlet mantle,

2

With eleven kings beards bordered 2 about,
And there is room lefte yet in a kantle,

For thine to stande, to make the twelfth out:
This must be done, be thou never so stout;
This must be done, I tell thee no fable,
Maugre the teethe of all thy round table.

When this mortal message from his mouthe past, "Great was the noyse bothe in hall and in bower: The king fum'd; the queene screecht; ladies were aghast ;

1 Largesse, Largesse. The heralds resounded these words as oft as they received the bounty of the knights. See Mémoires de la Chevalerie, tom. i. p. 99.-The expression is still used in the form of installing knights of the garter.

9 i. e. set round the border, as furs are now round the gowns of magistrates.

VOL. III.

F

Princes puff'd; barons blustred; lords began lower;

Knights stormed; squires startled, like steeds in a

stower:

Pages and yeomen yell'd out in the hall,

Then in came sir Kay, the 'king's' seneschal.

Silence, my soveraignes, quoth this courteous knight,
And in that stound the stowre began still :
'Then' the dwarfe's dinner full deerely was dight;
Of wine and wassel he had his wille :

And, when he had eaten and drunken his fill,

An hundred pieces of fine coyned gold

Were given this dwarf for his message bold.

But say to sir Ryence, thou dwarf, quoth the king,
That for his bold message I do him defye;
And shortlye with basins and pans will him ring
Out of North-gales; where he and I

With swords, and not razors, quickly shall trye, Whether he, or king Arthur will prove the best

barbor;

And therewith he shook his good sword Escalàbor.

*

Strada, in his Prolusions, has ridiculed the story

of the giant's mantle, made of the beards of kings.

IV.

King Arthur's Death.

A FRAGMENT.

THE subject of this ballad is evidently taken from the old romance Morte Arthur, but with some variations, especially in the concluding stanzas ; in which the author seems rather to follow the traditions of the old Welsh bards, who "believed that King Arthur was not dead, but conveied awaie by the Fairies into some pleasant place, where he should remaine for a time, and then returne againe and reign in as great authority as ever."-Holinshed, b. v. c. 14; or, as it is expressed in an old Chronicle printed at Antwerp 1493, by Ger. de Leew," The Bretons supposen, that he [K. Arthur]-shall come yet and conquere all Bretaigne, for certes this is the prophicye of Merlyn: He sayd, that his deth shall be doubteous; and sayd soth, for men thereof yet have doubte, and shullen for ever more, for men wyt not whether that he lyveth or is dede." See more ancient testimonies in Selden's Notes on Poly Olbion, Song iii.

This fragment, being very incorrect and imperfect in the original MS., hath received some conjectural emendations, and even a supplement of three or four stanzas composed from the romance of Morte Arthur.

*

ON Trinitye Mondaye in the morne,

This sore battayle was doom'd to bee;

Where manye a knighte cry'd, Well-awaye !
Alacke, it was the more pittìe.

Ere the first crowinge of the cocke,

When as the kinge in his bed laye,
He thoughte sir Gawaine to him came1,
And there to him these wordes did saye.

Nowe, as you are mine unkle deare,
And as you prize your life, this daye.
O meet not with your foe in fighte;

Putt off the battayle, if yee maye.

For sir Launcelot is nowe in Fraunce,

And with him many an hardye knighte: Who will within this moneth be backe, And will assiste yee in the fighte.

The kinge then call'd his nobles all,

Before the breakinge of the daye;

And tolde them howe sir Gawaine came,

And there to him these wordes did saye.

His nobles all this counsayle gave,
That earlye in the morning, hee
Shold send awaye an herauld at armes,
To aske a parley faire and free.

Then twelve good knightes king Arthur chose, 25 The best of all that with him were:

1 Sir Gawaine had been killed at Arthur's landing on his return from abroad. See the next ballad, ver. 73.