"The Fight of Finsburg.

"The sun had climb'd the eastern sky-
But not by day the youthful band
May hear their leaders battle cry,
Nor yet, on Finsburg's fatal strand,

The warrior's winged serpent fly:

Pauses from blood the foeman's hand,

Nor strives he yet to fire yon hall's proud canopy.

Sweetly sung the birds of night,

The wakeful cricket chirrup'd loud,
And now the moon, serenely bright,

Was seen beneath the wandering cloud.
Then rous'd him swift our deadly foe,
To deeds of slaughter and of woe.
Now beneath the jav'lin's stroke

The buckler's massy circle rung.
Anon the chains of slumber broke
Our chieftain great and good,
He whose high praise fills ev'ry tongue,
First in valour as in blood,

The matchless Hengist to the battle woke.

Uprose in that eventful tide

Full many a warrior brave,
And don'd his armor's golden pride,
And girt bis glittering glaive.
At the high hall's portal wide,
Foremost of the noble band,
Sigvart and Æba proudly stand.
Where other pass the foe might find,
Ordlaf watch'd with Guthlaf join’d.

Garulf next with fiery speed

Rous'd Guthere from the slumb'rer's bed.

No care of dress their steps delay'd,

Each grasp'd in haste his shining blade,
And fierce the brother warriors flew
To guard the hall's high avenue.
He that prides him in the fight,
Had joy'd to see that gallant sight,

Aud

And now in accents loud
Our foeman's chieftain bold and proud
Sought, what Thane or Battle Lord
At the high gate kept watch and ward.
"Sigvart is here" (the champion cried,)
Sigvart oft in battle tried,

"Known to all the warrior train

"Where spreads the Saxon's wide domain.

Now, chieftain, turn thee to the fight, "Or yield thee to the Saxon might."

Soon the tented halls among
Loud the din of slaughter rung,
Closer now each hostile band
Grasps the shield with eager hand,
And many a chief is doom'd to feel
Thro' helm and head the griding steel.
First in that disastrous plain
Guthlaf's valiant son was slain,
Where Garulf lies untimely dead
Many a fated hero bled.

There to seek his destin'd food,

The dark and willow pinion'd raven stood :
And far around that field of blood

The sword's dread radiance beam'd to heav'n.
It seem'd as though that morn had giv'n
All Finsburgh to the rav'ning flame.
Ne'er heard I yet of fight might claim
A nobler or a sadder name.

At the high ball a chosen band,
Leaders brave that shine afar,
Full sixty sons of vict'ry stand

In all the golden pomp of war:
Little think they to forego

The hall of Mead for that proud foe.

Five live-long days the battle's sound

Was heard by Finsburg's earth-rais'd mound,

Yet undiminished and unquell'd

That hero band the portal held.

Till bleeding from the Saxon blade
Our foeman's lord his fear betray'd,

And told, in accents of despair,
How broken helm and corslet reft
Defenceless to the stroke had left

His head and bosom bare.

Then sought the vanquish'd foe relief
And safety for their wounded chief.
Finis."

ART.

¶ Fragments of a French Metrical Romance upon Gup Earl of Warwick.

The annexed fragments of a French Metrical Romance on the subject of Guy Earl of Warwick, were discovered on a half sheet of parchment, which had been used as a fly-leaf to a life of Thomas à Becket, printed early in the sixteenth century, and preserved in the Bodleian Library. They will afford sufficient proof that whether or no the story be (as Mr. Ellis has ingeniously suspected) of Saxon origin, its more modern relators were indebted for a part at least of its incidents to a French Minstrel of the thirteenth century.

*

It was possibly a copy of this Romance which formed the article entitled "Une Volum del Romaunce de Gwy & de la Reygne," in the collection of books bequeathed by Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, to the monastery of Bordeslye. +

No I.

En la sale par devant li

Re Dieu garist son seignours Guy.
De tel beuve & de tel manger

Cum ele soleit user,

A une fe quant ele mangoit,

Les XIII Poores demandoit,

E home tost les amena,

En heir devant li assisles a,
Guy un des xiu estoit,
Mult dote kil conu seit.
La Contesse les ad agardè,

C.

Porceo

In the hall before her that God might preserve her Lord Guy. When she ate (in public) on festivals, she asked these twelve paupers to share such drink and viands as she was herself accustomed to use, and men speedily brought them to her. In . . . . . she has placed them before her. Guy was one of the twelve. He fears much lest he should be recognized-The Countess

This seems the latest date which the style of the fragment will permit us to assign for its composition.

+ See this curious bequest in Mr. Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 161.

This word is not to be found in Roquefot.

Porceo k'il est plus meseise
De li en prist grant pite.
Checon mes dunt ele manga
A cel Pelerin enveia,

De son vin & de son Mie.*
En riches coupes de or tailè,
Par un giant l'ad mandè
Ke il remeine en la citè,
Checon jor a la cair venist,

Assee viande, av'eit cev dist.
È il en ad mult mercie,
Mes tut ad il en sun pensè,
Kant la cuntasse out mange,
E la table fu levè.

Mult tost de la sale Guy sen ist,
Hors de la cité tost se mist,
En vers Ardene dreit ala.
Un seint home ke il conua,
Ke en la forest maneit.
Cele past ala tut dreite.

Kant il vint al hermitage."
ttttttt

No. 2.

"Atant est venuz Colebrant

Ki tant est corsu § & grant,

Que

Countess viewed them, and because he appeared the most unfortunate object among them, she took great pity upon him. She sent to that pilgrim of every meat that she ate herself, of her wine and her Malmsey in rich goblets of carved gold. She commanded him by a that he should remain in the city, and come every day to court to her repast. She said this and Guy greatly thanked her, but much had he in his thoughts. When the Countess had feasted and the tables were broken up, he quickly départed from the hall, conveyed himself out of the city, and went straight to Arden, seeking an holy man whom he well knew, and who dwelt in that forest. He directly sought that quarter, and when he came to the bermitage

In the mean time Colebrant approached, who was so unwieldy

and

* I know not what this abbreviation stands for. It inay be Malvoisie, and I have ventured so to render it.

This word is unintelligible to me.

For a ses viandes ?

$ The word corsu is not to be found in Roquefort: if it be derived from cors, a body, it may signify, as I have ventured to render it, unwieldy or corpulent. The reader of early French MSS. will soon discover that even the dictionary of Roquefort, copious and Excellent as it is, will not unfrequently fail or disappoint him.

Que nul cheval ne'l peut porter,
De li ne les armes sustener.
A pe tut dis combaterent,
En bataille cheval ne guerreit,
Kar tant de man's armes avoit
Ke a peine un char les aportereit.
Mult estoit Colebraut corsu,
Un haubert avoit vestu,
Nért pas haubert maile,
Tut autrement fut forgè
De gros esplentes de asser
Jointz esent pour son cors garder,
E devant & derere

Jointz erent de'splentes d assere,
Le cors coverent & braz & poigns.
Chances out de tel fason,
Ke ni out si esplente non.
Heume out bon fort & fer,
Ne dote cop de branc d' assere.
Al Col li pent un targe ronde,
N'ad plus fort en tout le monde,
Tut de fer & d' asser liste."

and large, that no horse could carry him or sustain the weight of his armour. Both fought on foot; he sought not a horse for their combat, for he had such a weight of heavy armour that a chariot would scarcely have borne it. Colbrand was most unwieldy; he had armed himself in a hauberk not of mail; far differently was it forged. Great splints of steel were joined together to defend his body both before and behind; they covered his body, his arms, and his hands. He had cuisses of such a fashion, that there was no splint in them. He had a helm good, stout, and hard as iron. He feared not the stroke of the steeled blade-At his neck hung a round shield. There was none stronger in the whole world; it was entirely made of iron and polished steel.

¶ Of Gentylnes & nobplyte. A dpaloge betwen the marchaut, the knpght the plowman, opsputyng who is a very gentylman, who is a noble man, and how men shuld come to auctoryte, compilio in maner. of an enterlude with diucrs tops & gestis added therto to make merp pastyme and disport.

Of the author, some account will be found in Athena Oxonienses, Vol. I. Col. 348, edit. 4to. One

of