Leicester. 66 "Over the entrance of the court-gate was placed aloft upon a scaffold, as it had been in a cloud or skie, Arthur of Britaine, whom they com"pared to the earl*." Sydney, as appears from a curious converfation between B. Jonfon and Drummond of Hawthornden, recorded by the latter, intended to turn all the ftories of the Arcadia into the admired legend of Arthur and his Knights. In his Defence of Poefte he plainly hints at Caxton's roI dare fay, that Orlando Furiofo, or " honeft King ARTHUR [his hiftory] will never dif"please a foldier +." mance. Caxton's recommendation of this book to the knights of England, conveys a curious picture of the times 1. "O ye Knyghts of Englond! where is the custom ❝ and usage of noble chyvalry that was ufid in thofe "dayes? What do you now but go to the baynes, "[baths], and playe at dyfe? And fome not well "advised, use not honeft and good rule, agayn all "order of knighthood. Leve this, leve it: And Holling. Hift. Engl. vol. iii. pag. 1426. † Ad Calc. The Counteffe of Pembroke's Arcadia, edit. 1638, pag. 558. From the boke of the Ordre of Chyvalry, or Knighthood translated out of Frenfe, and imprinted by William Caxton. Without date; perhaps 1484. 4to. ❝ rede There fhall ye fee And loke in latter the conqueft: as in ❝rede the noble volumes of Saynt Greal, of Lancelot, ❝ of Galaad, of Triftram, of Perfeforest, of Percyval, "of Gawayne, and many mo: "manhode, curtoys, and gentlenes. "dayes of the noble actes fyth "king Richard's dayes, Cuer de Lion; Edward I. and "III. and his noble fones: Syr Robert Knolles, &c. "Rede Froiffart. Also beholde that victorious and "noble king, Harry the fifthe, &c." Afcham however tells us, "I know when God's bible was banished "the court, and MORTE ARTHUR received into the "princes chamber *." In the hall of the caftle of Tamworth, in Warwickfhire, there is an old rude painting on the wall, of Sir Lancelot du Lake, and Sir Turquin, drawn in a gigantic fize, and tilting together. On Arthur's round table, as it is called, in the castle of Winchester, faid to be founded by Arthur, are infcribed in antient characters, the names of twenty-four of his knights, just as we find them in MORTE ARTHUR. This table was hanging there, in the year 1484, and was even then very old, being at that time, by tradition, called Ar *Afcham's Scholemaster, &c. 4to. 1589. b. 1. pag. 25, verf. There is a manufcript Poem by Lydgate, Of king Arthur and the rounde Table, which, I think, was never printed. Bibl. Bodl. Laud, D. 31, f. 64. thur's round tablet. I prefume, that in commemoration of Arthur's inftitution, and in direct imitation of his practice, in later ages, a round table, infcribed with his knights, was ufually fixed in fome public place, wherever any magnificent turney was held, on which probably the combatants were afterwards feafted. It is well known that tournaments were frequently celebrated in high fplendor at Winchefter; and this is per haps one of those very tables. It was partly on account of a round table being thus actually exhibited, that these exercises were familiarly called by the hiftorians of the middle age, Tabula or Menfa Rotunda. Thus Walter Hemingford, to mention no more inftances. "Eodem anno [1280] Tabula rotunda tenebatur fump"tuofè apud Warewyk *." + Caxton's Preface to MORTE ARTHURI Some However, every common "Non ut in haftiludio * Vit. Edv. I. edit. Hearne, vol. i, pag. 7. See Note, fupr. p. 28. It was often a general name for a tournament. tournament was not always ftrictly called fo. “ illo quod communiter et vulgariter TORNEAMENTUM dicitur, sed po"tius in illo ludo militari qui MENSA ROTUNDA dicitur, vires fuas attemperarent," Matt. Paris, p. 1147. It was perhaps a peculiar Species of turney, fuch as was revived at Kenelworth-castle, by earl Mortimer. At such a tournament as this, Chaucer's knight had often been the leading or principal champion : At Alleffandre he was when it was won, Prol. 51. But Speght [Gloff. Ch.] fays, "that being often among the Knights "of Some writers fay, that king Arthur first instituted the round table, at Cairleon, in Monmouthfhire, others at Camelot, in Somersetshire. Both these are mentioned in Morte Arthur, as places where Arthur kept his court, with his knights. In the Parish of Lanfannan, in Denbighshire, on the fide of a ftony rock is a circular area, cut out of the rock, having twentyfour feats, which they call Arthur's round table. However, it's first and original establishment is generally supposed to have been at Winchester *. Harding, in his Chronicle of english kings from Brutus to Edward IV. in whose reign he wrote, tells us, that Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, founded the round table at Winchefter, chiefly for the recovery of Sangreal, but in commemoration of his marriage with Igerne. Jofeph of Arimathea is likewise introduced on this occafion. And at the day he weddid her and cround, "of the Teutonic order in Pruffia, he was, for his worthiness, placed " at the upper end of the table, before any, of what nation foever." Called Camelot in Morte Arthur, 3, 114. In In which he made the fige perilous, Of knights all, and of the round table CHIEF, The ONE most religious, who alone was qualified to fit in the fige perilous, and who atchieved and won the SANGREAL, is Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot's font. In Caxton's romance, king Arthur's dowry with queen Guenever, is faid to be the round table, made by her father Uther. Her father, king Leodegrance, fays, "I fhall fend him a gift that shall please him more, [than lands] for I fhall give him the table round, the which Uther Pendragon gave me ‡." There is another antient romance, for fo it may be called, though written in verse, which Spenser apparently copies, in prince Arthur's combat with the dragon it will be neceffary to transcribe the whole paffage, which, I believe, will not be thought too long. *Lond. 1543. edit. Grafton. fol. 61. Morte Arthur, i, 45. † Ibid. 3, 32. |