please a foldier." Ad Calc. The Counteffe of Pembroke's Arcadia, edit. 1638, p. 558.

66

Caxton's recommendation of this book to the knights of England, conveys a curious picture of the times *. "O ye Knyghts of Englond! where is the custom and ufage 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, ufe not honeft and good rule, agayn all order of knighthood. Leve this, leve it: And rede the noble volumes of Saynt Greal, of Lancelot, of Galaad, of Triftram, of Perfeforest, of Percyval, of Gawayne, and many mo: There fhall ye fee manhode, curtoys, and gentlenes. And loke in latter dayes of the noble actes fyth the conqueft: as in king Richard's dayes, Cuer de Lion : Edward I. and III. and his noble fones: Syr Robert Knolles, &c. Rede Froiffart. Alfo 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 La Morte d'Arthur received into the prince's chamber." See his Scholemafter, &c. 4to. 1589. b. 1. p. 25.

In the hall of the caftle of Tamworth, in Warwickshire, there is an old rude painting on the wall, of Sir Lancelot du Lake, and Sir Turquin, drawn in a gigantick 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 ancient characters, the names of twentyfour of his knights, just as we find them in La Morte d'Arthur. This table was hanging there, in the year 1484, and was even then very old, being at that

* From the boke of the Ordre of Chyvalry, or Knighthood: tranflated out of Frenfhe, and imprinted by William Caxton. Without date; perhaps 1484. 4to. T. WARTON.

time, by tradition, called Arthur's round table. I prefume, that in commémoration 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 publick 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 perhaps 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 fumptuosè apud Warewyk *.*

y See Caxton's Preface to La Morte d'Arthur. T: WARTON. z It was partly on account &c.] Harington, in the Notes on his tranflation of Orlando Furiofo, B. iv. tells us, that Arthur "instituted an order of the knights of the round table onely (as it feemes) of fome meriment of hunting, or some pleafant exercifes." TODD.

a Vit. Edv. I. edit. Hearne, vol. i. p. 7. See Note, fupr. p. lxxv. It was often a general name for a tournament. However, every common tournament was not always ftrictly called fo. "Non ut in haftiludio illo quod communiter et vulgariter TORNEAMENTUM dicitur, fed potius 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-caftle, by earl Mortimer. At fuch a tournament as this, Chaucer's knight had often been the leading or principal champion, Prol. 51.

"At Alleffandre he was when it was won,
"Full oft timis he had the BORDE begon,
"In Pruce."-

But Speght (Gloff. Ch.) fays, "that, being often among the Knights of the Teutonick order in Pruffia, he was, for his worthiness, placed at the upper end of the table, before any, of what nation foever." T. WARTON.

Some writers fay, that king Arthur first instituted the Round Table, at Cairleon, in Monmouthshire; others, at Camelot, in Somersetshire. Both thefe are mentioned in La Morte d' 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 twenty-four feats, which they call Arthur's Round Table. However, its firft and original eftablishment is generally fuppofed to have been at Winchefter. Harding, in his Chronicle of English Kings from Brutus to Edward IV. in whofe 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. Lond. 1543. edit. Grafton. fol. 61. Jofeph of Arimathea is likewife introduced on this occafion.

"And at the day he weddid her and cround,
"And fhe far forth with child was then begonne,
"To comfort her he fet the ROUND TABLE
"At Winchefer, of worthiest knights alone,
Approved beft in knighthood of their fone,
"Which TABLE ROUND, Jofeph of Arimathie,
"For brother made of the Saint Gral only.
"In which he made the fige perilous,
"Where none should fit, without grete mischief,
"But ONE that should be most religious

"Of knights all, and of the round table CHIEF,
"The Saint Gral that fhould recover and acheve..

The ONE most religious, who alone was qualified to fit in the fige perilous, and who achieved and won the fangreal, is Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot's

fon.

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 fhall please him more, [than lands] for I fhall give him the Table Round, the which Uther Pendragon gave med

There is another ancient romance, for fo it may be called, though written in verfe, which Spenfer apparently copies, in prince Arthur's combat with the dragon, F. Q. i. xi. 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. The miraculous manner in which the knight is healed, our author drew from this old poem, entitled, Sir Beris of Southampton.

"What for weary, and what for faint,
"Sir Bevis was neere attaint:

"The dragon followed on Bevis fo hard,
"That as he would have fled backward,
"There was a well as I weene,

"And he stumbled right therein.
Then was Sir Bevis afraid and woe,
"Left the dragon fhould him floe:
"Or that he might away paffe,
"When that he in the well was.
"Then was the well of fuch vertu.

66

Might no venomous worme come therein,
By the virtue of that virgin,

"Nor nigh it seven foot and more:
"Then Bevis was glad therefore,
"When he faw the Dragon fell

"Had no power to come to the well.
"Then was he glad without faile,
"And refted awhile for his availe,
"And drank of the water of his fill,
"And then he leapt out of the well,

La Morte d'Arthur, i. 45. T. WARTON.

"And with Morglay, his brand
"Affailed the Dragon, I understand:

"On the Dragon he ftrucke fo faft, &c, e"

After which the Dragon strikes the knight with fuch violence, that he falls into a fwoon, and tumbles as it were lifeless into the well, by whofe fovereign virtue he is revived.

"When Bevis was at the ground

"The water made him whole and found,
"And quenched all the venim away,
"This well faved Bevis that day."

And afterwards,

"But ever when Bevis was hurt fore,

"He went to the well and washed him thore;
"He was as whole as any man,

"And ever as fresh as when he began."

T

It may be observed, that this poem of Sir Bevis is in that short meafure, which was frequently fung to the harp even in queen Elizabeth's time: a cuftom which probably defcended from the ancient bards. The author of The Arte of English poefie, printed in 1589, thus fpeaks of it. "So on the other fide doth the overbufie and too speedy returne of one manner of tune, too much annoy, and, as it were, glut the eare, unless it be in fmall and popular mufickes fong by thefe cantabanqui upon benches and barrels heads, where they have none other audience than boyes, or country fellowes, that paffe by them in the streete; or elfe by blind harpers, or fuch like taverne-minstrels, that give a fit of mirth for a groat; and their matters being, for the moft part, ftories of old time; as, the Tale of Sir Topas, the Reportes of Bevis of Southampton, Guy of IVarwicke, Adam Bell, and Clymme of the

• We have much the fame Miracle in the Seven Champions. 1. 2. T. WARTON.