I

With playing at tables, other at chekere,

With casting, other with setting, other in some

ogyrt 4 manere.

And which-so of any game had the mastery,

The king hem of his gifts did large courtesy.

Up the alures 5 of the castles the ladies then stood, And beheld this noble game, and which knights were good.

All the three hext days y-laste this nobleye,

In halls and in fields, of meat, and eke of play. These men came the fourth day before the king there,

And he gave them large gifts, ever as hii worth

were.

Bishopricks and churches clerks he gave some, And castles and towns, knights that were y-come.* (Vol I. p. 191.)

• Or.

• Chess. Chekere is properly a chess-board.

3 This may possibly refer to tric-trac, or back-gammon ; but casting and setting may also relate to throwing the bar. 4 Other.

5 The walks on the roof of the castle:

6 Highest, or feast-days.

* For the purpose of shewing how exactly Robert of Gloucester translates from his original, I shall here add the whole corresponding passage from Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Rex et regina-ille ad suum palatium cum viris, hæc ad aliud cum mulieribus, epulatum incedunt; antiquam nam

The reader who compares the foregoing extract with the satirical piece contained in the last chapter, will probably think that Robert of Gloucester's

que consuetudinem Trojæ servantes Britones, consueverant mares cum maribus, mulieres cum mulieribus, festivos dies separatim agere.

Collocatis postmodum cunctis ut singulorum dignitas expetebat, Caius dapifer, hermenio ornatus, mille vero nobilissimis juvenibus comitatus est, qui omnes, herminio induti, fercula cum ipso ministrabant. Ex aliâ parte vero Bedverum pincernam, totidem vario amicti sequuntur, qui in scyphis diversorum generum multimoda pocula cum ipso distribuebant. In palatio quoque reginæ, innumerabiles ministri, diversis ornamentis induti, obsequium suum præstabant, morem suum exercentes; quem si omnino describere pergerem, nimiam historiæ prolixitatem generarem. Facetæ autem mulieres, consimilia indumenta habentes, nullius amorem habere dignabantur, nisi tertio in militiâ approbatus esset. Efficiebantur ergo castæ mulieres, et milites amore illarum meliores. Refectæ tandem epulis, diversi diversos ludos composituri, campos extra civitatem adeunt. Mox milites, simulacrum prælii ciendo, equestrem ludum componunt: mulieres, in edito murorum aspicientes in curiales, amoris flammas more joci irritant. Alii telis, alii hastâ, alii ponderosorum lapidum jactû, alii saxis, alii aleis, cæterorumque jocorum diversitate contendentes, quod dici restabat, postpositâ lite prætereunt. Quicumque vero ludi sui victoriam adeptus erat, ab Arthuro largis muneribus ditabatur. Consumptis ergo primis in hunc modum diebus tribus, instante quarto vocantur cuncti qui ipsi propter

language very nearly resembles that of his contemporaries, and is not particularly marked with Saxonisms or provincial phrases. The oddest peculiarity in his style is the strange use of the word me, which we have seen once used by Layamon, but which here occurs as a mere expletive in almost every page. There is an instance of it in the following couplet, which is not quoted for this reason, but because it relates to our literary history. Our author, speaking of Richard I. says,

"Me ne may not all tell here, ac whoso it will "y-wite,

"In romance of him y-made me it may find "y-write."

The simple meaning of which seems to be, that he refers such of his readers as shall wish for farther details, to the French or Romance history of this monarch. Mr. Hearne, however, in his note on this passage, assures us that our grave historian here quotes a fictitious narrative; that it is in English,

honores obsequium præstabant, et singuli singulis possessionibus, civitatibus videlicet, atque castellis, archiepiscopatibus, episcopatibus, abbatiis, cæterisque honoribus dotantur.

(Galfredi Monum. lib. vii. cap. 4.) The reader has already seen Wace's curious amplification of this picture.

in short verse, that he remembers to have seen it in print, and that for this reason, and because it is a very indifferent performance, it is not worth transcribing from his copy, which he distinguishes as Codex. Ar.; and lest we should doubt the fact, he tells us all this in Latin. If there exist a printed English metrical romance on the life of Richard Cœur de Lion, anterior to Robert of Gloucester, it is a great curiosity.

It is, however, very probable, that a few of those compositions which we now call metrical romances, and which, by older writers, are termed gests (from the Latin word gesta, which was become the fashionable appellation of every learned story-book) were written about this time; because Robert de Brunne expressly mentions two poets, Thomas and Kendale, as excelling in this mode of writing, and says, of the story of Sir Tristram, that

Over gestes it has th' esteem:
Over all that is or was,

If men it said, as made Thomás.

The bard who is thus distinguished from a crowd of competitors, is supposed to be Thomas Leinmouth of Erceldoun, or Ersilton, in the shire of Mersh, generally known by the honourable appellation of Thomas the Rymer, who lived in the reign

of Edward I. and was reputed (though it seems falsely) to be the author of some metrical prophecies not yet forgotten in Scotland. His contemporary Kendal is only known by the accidental mention of Robert de Brunne. There is, however, an unclaimed metrical Romance apparently belonging to this period, which the generosity of future critics may possibly assign to him. This is the Gest of King Horn, which is preserved in a very curious miscellany in the British Museum, (Harl. MSS. No. 2253) and mentioned by Chaucer as one of the romances of price. Mr. Warton has given an excellent abridgment of it, together with a considerable extract, in the first volume of his Poetry, p. 39.*

In the same manuscript which contains this romance, are found some political satires of considerable merit; one of which was certainly com

* Having procured from the Museum a transcript of this very curious work, I should not have failed to insert it entire, but that I had reason to hope that the task of editing it will fall into much better hands. The reader will certainly learn with pleasure that Mr. Ritson has it in contemplation to publish a series of our old metrical romances, many of which exist only in manuscript. Such a work executed by him, is likely to prove the most valuable repertory of early language and manners that has yet been presented to the public.