Sche my3te me of my balys bete, 3ef that lady wolde." Forth sche wente ynto the halle, Ther was the quene and the ladyes alle, Her maydenes come ayens her ryzt, Kyng Artoure gan here fayre grete, That were of greet valoure. Up stod the quene and ladyes stoute, How evene sche stod upry3t; Than seyde sche to Artour the kyng, 66 Syr, hydyr I com for swych a thyng, To skere Launfal the knyzt, That he never, yn no folye, Besofte the quene of no drurye, Be dayes ne be nyзt. Therfor, syr kyng, good kepe thou myne, He bad nazt her, but sche bad hym, Here lemman for to be; And he answerede her and seyde, That hys lemmannes lothlokest mayde Was fayryr than was sche." Kyng Artour seyde, withouten othe, “Ech man may y-se that ys sothe, Bryztere that ye be." With that dame Tryamour to the quene geth, And blew on her swych a breth, That never eft my3t sche se. Wyth hys lemman away to ryde ; The lady rod dorth Cardevyle, Fere ynto a jolyf ile, Olyroun that hyзte; Every 3er upon a certayn day, Me[n] may here Launfales stede nay, And hym se with sy3t. Ho that wylle there axsy justus, To kepe hys armes fro the rustus, Dare he never forther gon, Thus Launfal, withouten fable, That noble kny3t of the rounde table, Was take yn-to fayrye; Seththe saw hym yn this lond no man, For sothe, without lye. D Good of chyvalrye. Jhesus, that ys hevene kyng, Yeve us alle hys blessyng, And hys modyr Marye! Amen. One leaf of Kynge's edition of Launfal is preserved in Douce's collection, and the whole of it is reprinted in the recent catalogue of that library, p. 311. It is in couplets, and agrees very nearly with the Rawlinson MS. I am at a loss to understand why the compiler of the Douce catalogue should conjecture this fragment to be "part of a translation of Syr Perceval," with which it has clearly nothing in common, or "a portion of an earlier version of Launfal than that in Ritson," for the style of Ritson's copy is decidedly more ancient than that in the Rawlinson MS., or the printed fragment. Percy mentions another copy in his folio MS. The Rawlinson MS. commences as follows: Sothly by Arthurys day Was Bretayne yn grete nobyle, He sojourned at Carlile ; He had with hyme a meyné there, As he had ellys where, Of the rounde table the kynghtes alle, With myrth and joye yn hys halle. The following extract from another part of the same MS. will prove the identity of the version with that of the Douce fragment : Thise xij. wist, withouten wene, The kyng was good alle aboute, And she was wyckyd oute and oute, She lovyd mene ondir her lorde; Longe one her, and not one Landewalle: And yef her may devyse bryght and shyne In maykyng, semblaunt and hewe, His borowys hyme brought before the kyng; The sewt and the answer also, And bad hyme bryng his borowis in syght, Tho were commaundyd the barons alle These extracts will be sufficient to show that the text I have adopted is superior both in language and antiquity to the version in the Rawlinson manuscript. II. ROMANCE OF KING ORFEO. This beautiful fairy romance-poem is founded on the classical tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, but metamorphosed in a manner that would lead us to believe that the compiler had either a very imperfect knowledge of his original, or that the variations were intentional. In the latter case, it is clear that much ingenuity and taste have been displayed; and even if the other supposition be correct, the metamorphosis of hell into fairyland cannot but be an improvement. Three copies of this romance, which has been conjectured with much probability to be a translation from the French, are known to exist; one in MS. Harl. 3810, printed by Ritson, another in the Auchinleck MS., printed by Mr. Laing, and a third in MS. Ashmole 61, the text we have here selected. According to the Auchinleck and Harleian MSS., Orpheo's father "was comen of King Pluto,” and Chaucer speaks of Pluto and Proserpina as the king and queen of the fairies. The Edinburgh MS. reads Juno for Proserpina, but the variation is immaterial. The circumstance, however, seems to add one more proof to those adduced by Mr. Wright, of the interchange between legends and popular fictions. The "Traitie of Orpheus kyng,” by Robert Henryson, printed at Edinburgh in 1508, and reprinted in 1827, merely relates to the classical story, and it will be |