All which my dayes I have not lewdly spent, Have trained bene with many noble feres In gentle thewes, and such like semely leres ; Of all that raungeth in the forest greene, Of which none is to me unknown that e'er was seenes XXXII. Ne is there hawke that mantleth her on pearch All this is agreeable to what is related in the romance. After mention being made of Tristram's having learned the language of France, courtly behaviour, and skill in chivalry, we read the following passage As he growed in might and strength, he laboured ever in hunting and hawking; so that we never read of no gentleman, more, that so used himselfe therein.-And he began good measures of blowing of blasts of venery [hunting] and chase, and of all manner of vermeins; and all these terms have we yet of hawking and hunting, and therefore the booke of venery, of hawking and hunting, is called The Book of Sir Tristram*."-And in another place King Arthur thus addresses Sir Tristram-" For of all manner of hunting thou bearest the prise; and of all measures of blowing thou art the beginner; and of all the termes of hunting and hawking ye are the beginnert." In Tuberville's treatise of Falconrie, &c. Sir Tristram is often introduced as the patron of field-sports. A huntsman thus speaks Before the King I come report to make, Then hush and peace for noble Tristram's sake. And in another place *Book ii. chap. 3. Edit. 4to. 1611. p. 96. + B. ii. c. 91. Wherefore who lyest to learn the perfect trade Let him give ear to skilfull Tristram's lore*. Many of the precepts contained in the Book of Sir Tristram are often referred to in this treatise of Tuberville. From this romance our author also took the hint of his Blatant Beast, which is there called the Questing Beast." Therewithall the King saw coming towards him the strangest beast that ever he saw, or heard tell off-And the noise was in the beasts belly like unto the Questin of thirtie couple of hounds."-The Questing Beast is afterwards more particularly described, “That had in shap an head like a serpent's head, and a body like a liberd, buttocks like a lyon, and footed like a hart; and in his body there was such a * Page 40. † B. ii. c. 53. See also Mort. Arth. b. ii. c. 138. noyse, as it had been the noyse of thirtie couple of hounds Questyn, and such a noyse that beast made, wheresoever he went*”— Spenser has made him a much more monstrous animal than he is here represented to be, and in general has varied from this description. But there is one circumstance in Spenser's representation, in which there is a minute resemblance, viz.-speaking of his mouth, And therein were a thousand tongues empight, Some were of dogs that barked night and day. -6. 12. 27. So dreadfully his hundred tongues did bray. 5. 12. 41. By what had been hitherto said, perhaps the reader may not be persuaded, that Spenser, *He is also called the Glatisant Beast, ibid. B. ii. c. 98.—“ Tell them that I am the knight that followeth the Glatisant Beast; that is to say, in English, the Questing Beast, &c." in his Blatant Beast, had the Questing Beast of our romance in his eye. But the poet has himself taken care to inform us of this for we learn, from the romance, that certain knights of the round table were destined to pursue the Questing Beast perpetually without success; which Spenser, speaking of this Blatant Beast, hints at in these lines Albe that long time after Calidore, The good Sir Pelleas him took in hand, And all his brethren born in Britaine land, Yet none of these could ever bring him into band. Sir Lamoracke and Sir Pelleas are two very valourous champions of Arthur's round table. This romance supplied our author with the story of the mantle made of the beards of * *Immense beards seem to have had a wonderful influence in the proper economy of an enchantment. Thus |