the wound. This doth Caxton and the book of Houth deliver at large. But I may not end thus with Sir Tristrem. He also was sore wounded with a spear, whose head was venomed; and could not be cured, until that, by counsaille, he repaired to the country where the venome had been confected. Whereupon he came to Ireland, and to King Anguish his court, and having great skill upon the harpe, he recreated himself, delighted the house, and fell in love with La belle Isod, the king's daughter, and she with him. In processe of time the queene had learned, that he had given her brother Morogh his death's wound; and, comparing the piece of the sword's edge, which was taken out of his scull, with his sword, found them to agree, and banished him the land.

"Not long after, upon conference had with Marke, King of Cornewall, of marriage, and commending the beautie and vertues of La belle Isod, spoken of before, he cometh to Ireland to entreat of marriage between King Marke and her. And having effected his purpose, taketh her with him to Cornwall, where Marke espoused her with great joy and solemnity; but the old secret love between Tristrem and her had taken such impression in both, and so inflamed their hearts, that it could not easily be quenched; so that, in processe of time, Marke espied it, and, in his furious jealousy, slue him, as he played upon the harpe to recreate Isod; and thus, as his love began with the harpe, so it ended with the harpe. It is recorded, that Isod came to his grave, and swooned. She was, saith mine author, so fair a woman, that hardly who so beheld her, could not choose but be enamoured with her. In Dublin, upon the wall of the citie, is a castle, called Isod's Towre; and, not farre from Dublin, a chappell, with a village, named Chappell-Isod: the original cause of the name I doe not find; but it is conjectured, that her father, King Anguish, that doated on her, builded them in remembrance of her-the one for her recreation, and the other for the good of her soule."-HANMER'S Chronicle, apud Cumpion, p. 51. Edit. 1653.

I am enabled to gratify the reader's curiosity respecting the person and manners of Moraunt, by recurrence to a MS. in the library of his Grace, the late John, Duke of Roxburghe. It would appear, that the ingenious author was, like Don Quixote, desirous to picture to his audience the very figure and complexion of the principal heroes of chivalry; and thus he describes Moraunt :

"L'Amorant d'Irlande fut, en son temps, ung des bons chevaliers du monde. Il estoit grant, et de si belle taille que chevalier pouvoit avoir; les cheveulx eust aucques crespes, le visage bel et plaisant; moult chantoit bien; les espaules eust droictes et larges; les bras et les poinges eust longs, gros, et carrez. Par le cas estoit maigre, les cuisses et les jambes eust belles et grosses a mesure. Armé et desarmé, estoit ung des plus beaulx chevaliers qu'on ponvoit veoir; et chevauchoit mieulx que tout autre. Trop estoit bon ferreur de lance, et meilleur d'èspée. Si hardy et si aspre estoit, qu'il ne craignoit riens a rencontrer. Tousjiours cerchoit les plus perilleuses avantures qu'il pouvoit trouver. Moult estoit craint et doublé par le monde. Doux et courtois estoit, fors aux damoselles errantes, car il les hayoit a mort. Moult estoit aymé de bons chevaliers, guyers ne hautoit gens de religion."

xii. buk of Bestiall, in all parellis he schawis him ryght glorious and ryght valiant; for, quhen he is pursewit with the hunter and the hundis, he fleis not, nor hydis him not, bot sittes in the field, quhair he may be seine, and puttes him to ane defens. And his nature is, quhen he is hurt be ony person, throw all the leif he will cheis him, and revenge him, suld he dé: and he is ane right sweit beist, and tuffand to theme that dois him gude: and, as Aristotle sayis, the banis of the lyon ar as hard, that, quhen thai strike on thame, the fire fleis, as it does quhen thai strik on ane hard stane. And of himself is sa curtes, that quhen he hes tane his prey, he skantlie eittis italane, bot callis cumpany ta eit it, or leifes a part to thame. Tharefor, thai that bure first the lyon in their armes, and presently beires, suld be hardy, vaillant, stark, and assurit, and gratious amang their compaignionis."—MS. on Heraldry, Advocates' Library.

Tristrem that was wight, Bar him thurch the dragoun,

In the scheld.-P. 342, st. 95.

The dragon, like the lion, had his typical signification in heraldry, derived from the supposed conditions of that fabulous animal. "Dragone, serpent, or yvre, [wyvern,] has a lyk signification, and ar mekle beistis, ardante and scellouse, that skantlie may be fillit of watter; and, therefore, thai opin their mouthis to the wind, that thai may sloken their byrning. Quhairof men may say, he that bure them first, wes ryght desyrand to conquest, and wes ane man of grit vailliance, and desyrand to have grit dominatioun; and it is convenient to be borne with men of grit valor.”— SIR DAVID LINDSAY'S MS. Later authorities differ from Thomas of Erceldoune, assigning to Moraunt of Ireland, instead of the dragon, a shield, thus blazoned by Richard Robison, citizen of London, in his Booke of Armes and Archerie :

"In silver shield, on fesse of peeCes five, throughout the same, Be bare a lion rampant red,

And armé greene: whose name Might seem to signifie, in truthe, Each mighty enterprise,

A prey most fit for his courage,
As is the Irish guise."

The Duke of Roxburghe's MS., already quoted, nearly agrees with Robison, as to Moraunt's arms. "Portoit en ses armes d'argent une fesse de cinq pieces d'azur, et dessus le tout ung lyon a gueules armé di sinople." To conclude a subject, which the preux chevalier himself would have deemed of the last importance, I observe, that in the corresponding drawing in the MS., the lion is armed vert, as according to Robison, and not sinople, as in the text.

With sorwe, thai drough, that tide, Moraunt to the se.-P. 342, st. 100.

The prose folio, which rarely improves the simple tale of Thomas of Erceldoune, makes Moraunt finally disgrace his knightly fame. "Quand Morhoult se sent navré a mort, il gecte jus son escu et son espee, et soy returne fuyant, et entre en son bastel."

Moraunt band his biside, (1, e. his vessel,)
And Tristrem lete his go.-P. 341, st. 93.

This is literally copied into the prose folio :-"Tristan. renvoye le bastel en l'eane, si que il fut, en peu d'heure, eslougné de l'isle. Morhoult dist à Tristan, pourquoy il avoit ce fait? Pour ce, deist il, se tu me occis, tu te mettras en ton bastel; et se je te occis, je te y mettray aussi, et te porteray en ton pays."

He smot bim in the lyoun.-P. 342, st. 95.

This is an allusion to the armorial bearing of Sir Tristrem, which, according to all authorities, was a lion rampant, corresponding to the name of his country. Liones, and also to his own disposition. For, according to Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, "The lyon is callet king of beastis, and, as Isodore sayes, in his

His swerd he offred than,

And to the auter it bare.-P. 312, st. 101.

The sword of Sir Tristrem was broken in the engagement. It will be presently seen, that he continued to wear the same weapon, and was recognised by it in the court of Ireland. Although, therefore, in imitation of David, in Scripture, he had hallowed, or offered it to the altar, it would seem he had redeemed it by an oblation of a more current nature. This was a usual compromise, suiting both the warrior and the clergy better than the actual deposit of a sword, of inestimable value to the former, to the latter a useless trophy. In the creation of Knights of the Bath, something of this kind made part of the ceremony.-STOWE'S Annals, p. 856. It would seem, from the following extract, that

This is a mistake. It is true, that the father of Tristrem, according to some authorities, dreamed he saw Mark slay his son, but this was only typlcal. "Sicomne il le songea luy advint, car le Roy Mare l'occit; non pas comme aucuns pensent, ne l'occist mye le Roy Marc, de ses propres mains,

mais il donna l'achoison [l'occasion] par laquelle Tristan fut occis; c'èst que il forbannit Tristan de royaulme de Cornouaille."-Meladius de Leonnoys, chap. xcili,

an ancient king of the Lombards had boasted the possession of Sir Tristrem's sword.

"Eodem anno (sc. 1339) sub castro Seprii in monasterio de Torbeth, flante quodam vento terribili, quædam magna arbor divinitus est evulsa radicitus, subque inventa fuit sepultura ex marmore multæ pulchritudinis. In hoc sepulcro jacebat Rex Galdamus de Turbet, Rex Longobardorum, in cujus capite erat corona ex auro, in qua erant tres lapides pretiosi, scilicit Carbunculus pretii II. millia florenorum, et unus Achates pretii D. florenorum. In manu sinistra habebat unum pomum aureum, a latere erat unus ensis habens dentem in acie satis magnum, qui fuerat Tristantis de Lyonos cum quo interfecerat Lamoranth Durianth. Unde in pomo ensis sic erat scriptum, Cel est l'espee de Meser Tristant, an il occist l'Amoroyt de Frlant.

"In manu sinistra habebat scripturam continentem hos versiculos :

"Zezu, Salde de Turbigez

Roy de Lombars inceronez,
Soles altres barons aprexies

Zo que vos veez emportes
Per Deo vos pri ne me robez."

GUALVANECI de la Flamina de rebus gestis
Azonis Vicecomitis.

The epitaph may be thus rendered :

"Rests here, in Jesu's blessed name,
Gaidan de Turbet, chief of fame,
Highest prized mid barons high,
And crowned King of Lombardie.
I won the spoils before me spread :
Rob not the honours of the dead."

NOTES ON FYTTE SECOND.

Carlioun.-P. 344, st. 4.

The Carlion of Thomas of Erceldoune was a seaport, and apparently the capital of Cornwall. It cannot, therefore, be the same with Caerleon upon Uske. From the etymology of the word (Castrum Leonense), I apprehend that it must have been the chief town of the district of Leonnais, or Leonesse, the native country of our hero, from which he derived his usual appellation, as well as the Lion, which he bore in his shield. I am more confident on this subject, because there has flourished in Cornwall, from time immemorial, a family called Carlyon of Tregrahan, a name not occurring ont of that county, being therefore, in all probability, a local appellation, derived from the capital of Lionesse. We can, with great ease, account for that capital being now unknown, since the whole district of Lionesse has been totally inundated, as we are assured by Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall.

"The sea, gradually encroaching on the shore, hath ravined from Cornwall the whole tract of country called Lionesse, together with divers other parcells of no little circuit; and that such a country as Lionesse there was, these proofs are yet remaining. The space between the Land's End and Isles of Scilley, being about thirty miles, to this day retaineth that name, in Cornish, Lethowsow, and carrieth continually an equal depth of forty or sixty fathom, (a thing not usual in the sea's proper dominion,) save that about midway there lieth a ridge, which, at low water, discovereth its head. They term it the Gulph, suiting thereby the other name of Scilla. Fishermen, also, casting their hooks thereabouts, have drawn np pieces of doors and windows. Moreover, the ancient name of St. Michael's Mount was Caracloase in Cowse, in English, The Hoare Rocke in the Woode; which is now, at every flood, encompassed by the sea, and yet at low ebbe, roots of mighty trees are desc:ied in the sands about it. The like overflowing has taken place at Plymouth Haven, and divers other places."-See, upon this subject, ELLIS's Notes to WAY'S Fabliaux, vol. ii. p. 179.

In the French MS. and prose folio, the abode of King Mark is

fixed at the Castle of Tintagel, renowned in romance as the birthplace of King Arthur. See p. 572.

Fowe and griis.-P. 345, st. 9.

Fowe, from the French fourure, signifies furs in general; Griis, a particular kind of fur, so called from its grey colour. The words occur repeatedly in the poem. Griis was in high esteem. The Monk of Chaucer had

--" his sleeves purfiled, at the bond,

With gris, and that the finest of the lond."

In the beautiful Lay of Launfal, the mantles of the fairy
-" were of green felwet,

Ybordured with gold, ryght well ysete,
Impelvered with grys and gro."

Froissart tells us, that Richard II. provided for the Irish Kings, who came to reside with him, robes of silk, furred with minever and grey. Certain German nobles, who had slain a bishop, were enjoined, amongst other acts of penance, " ut varium, griseum, ermelinum. et pannos coloratos, non portent."-TRITHEMII Cron. Hirs. ad annum 1202.

Gris appears, however, to have been inferior to ermine; for in a statute passed in 1455, for regulating the dress of the Scottish Lords of Parliament, the gowns of the Earls are appointed to be furred with ermine, while those of the other Lords are to be lined with "criestay gray, griece, or purray." According to Ducange, griseum is synonymous to vair, which appears to have been the skin of the Hungarian squirrel. They are, however, distinguished in stanza 24 of this fytte :

"A schip with grene and gray,

With vair, and eke with griis."

The proper griis was perhaps equivalent to minever (menu vuir), an inferior kind of vair, made from the skins of the small weazel and marten.

Furs were a valuable article of trade, and, as such, were particularly noticed in maritime regulations. "Nullus mercator non debet dare fidem, ad exitum portæ, de rebus quas portat vel mercat, nisi de fourura et armatura ferri." Cart. apud DUCANGE. Hence Tristrem, in his assumed character of a merchant, describes himself as robbed of "fowe and griss." In the romance of Sir Gy, a merchant thus narrates his bill of lading :

"Fowe and griss anough lade we,

Gold and silver and riche stones,

That vertu beere mani for the nones;
Gode clothes of Sikelatown and Alexandriis,
Velour of Matre and puper and biis."

In another passage of the same romance, we find "Gy him schred in fou and gray."

His barp, his croude was rike;

His tables, his ches he bare.-P. 345, st. 10.

The croud (Welsh crwth) was a rude kind of violin: hence Butler's Crowdero, as the name of a fiddler. Tables was a favourite game during the middle ages. Two games of this nature are mentioned by Wace, the greater and the less.-ELLIS's Specimens, p. 59. The same amusement occurs in an old romance quoted by Cervantes :-

"Jugando está a las tablas Don Gayferos,

Que ya de Melisandra está oblivado."

It was, perhaps, analogous to backgammon, which is of Celtic derivation, as appears from its name : Back, parvum, and Cammon, prælium. This game is mentioned in an old Irish poem, called the Death of Cuchollin, where it is said, "the hours passed away in drinking and lively discourse, in playing at backgammon, and listening to the soft strains of the harp."

From a passage of Brompton we learn, that the skin of the wild-cat was used by the clergy. Bishop Wolfstan preferred lambskin, saying in excuse, “Crede mihi, nunquam audivi, in ecclesia, cantari calus Dei, sed agnus Dei; ideo calefieri agno volo." Decem Scrip. p. 953.

2 The badger is termed a grey; but his skin seems greatly too coarse to answer the purpose of trimming.

For thi was Tristrem oft,

To boure cleped fele sithe.-P. 345, st. 12.

The familiarity of Tristrem with the queen and princess, during his residence at the court of Dublin, is perfectly consistent with the manuers of the age, but more especially with those of the Irish. When Richard 11., endeavoured to reform the manners of that people, the knight, to whose tutelage he committed four of their petty kings, complained to Froissart, "they wolde cause their mynstrelles, their servauntes, and varlettes, to sytte with them, and to eate in their own dyshe, and to drinke of their cuppes. And they shewed me, that the usage of their countrie was good; for they sayd, in all thynges (except their beddes) they were and lyved in common."-BERNERS' Froissart, fo. cclvii. Much offended were these potentates with their knightly tutor, who insisted upon their disusing this liberal custom, as well as that of going without breeches, and other rude practices.

A picture of similar manners occurs in the ancient Irish poem, quoted in the last note. Cuchollin, according to evil presages, was to fall in battle, if he encountered an army of the Irish, commanded by the Queen of Connaught, before three inauspicious days had passed over. The wiles of the enchanters, by whose arts he fell, are, for two days, baffled by the skill of his attendant bards, through whose alluring music and sage counsel the hero is long withheld from the fated combat: during this occupation, the chief bard reclined upon the same bed with the chieftain. These are circumstances peculiar to Celtic manners, Although the Gothic minstrels were highly rewarded and honoured, they were not placed by their lords upon so familiar a footing. Glasgerion, whose story is preserved in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, was a Celtic bard, as appears from his high birth, and fatal intimacy with the daughter of a prince, as well as from the epithet of Chaucer, who terms him "the British Glaskerion." A copy of his legend has been preserved in the remote parts of Scotland, by oral recitation. His musical powers are curiously described :

The accomplishments displayed by Sir Tristrem, while in Dublin, were those of a complete minstrel, who, besides the science of music, was generally master of every game known in the middle ages, and of all other amusements which could chase away the lingering hours of a martial nobility, delighting only in war and the chase. Juggling, and feats of legerdemain, were often added to these qualifications.

Indeed, it is hardly necessary to remark the prominent figure which is made by the harper and minstrel, in this and in all other romances. It was their privilege to find a free admittance to the courts of monarchs, and the casties of barons. In the fine old romance of Guerin de Montglaive, Gérard, Lord of Vienne, being desirous to prove the spirit of his nephew Aimeri, cominands the porter, when the young man presents himself before the gates, to refuse him admittance, under pretence of mistaking him for a wandering minstrel. Aimeri breaks into a violent rage, forces his entry into the great hall, and upbraids his uncle for his churlish and inhospitable mode of housekeeping. vallez rien, qui ainsi faictes fermer votre palais. La cour d'un gentilhomme doit estre deffermée a toutes gens; messagers, menestriers, heraux doivent trouver les cours ouvertes: et si y doivent manger, et avoir de l'argent. Car c'est la coutume." There are repeated allusions, in the Fabliaux of Le Grand and Barbazan, to the public reception of the minstrels on all joyous occasions :

Quant un hom fait noces ou feste,

Où il a gens be bone geste,

II menestreils, qubant ils l'entendent

Qui outre chose ne demandent,

• Vous ne

Vont la soit, amont soit aval, L'un a pié, l'autre a cheval."

That maiden Ysonde hight;

That gle was lef to here,

And romaunce to rede aright.-P. 345, st. 13.

1

These two lines comprise all the literary amusement of the middle ages. Glee was used generally to express a piece of poetry adapted to music, as the fabliau, and perhaps the lay, as well as the music itself; while the romance meant a work of much greater length, to be read or chanted. I do not mean, that romance already bore the modern acceptation: it signified, generally, the French language, and obliquely, the long works written in it, whether of history or fable. These were usually read, and to read them was not an object of general attainment. Some particular intonation was probably necessary beyond the mere art of reading; for the mode of slurring verse into prose, by reading it as such, is a modern refinement. When Robert the Bruce ferried his few faithful followers over Lock-Lomond, in a boat which held but three men at a time, he amused them by reading the famous romance of Fierabras :

"The King the quhiles, meryly

Red to thaim, that war bym by,
Romanys of worthi Ferambrace."

BARBOUR, Book iii.

The night before the murder of James I., of Scotland, was spent by that accomplished prince " yn redyng of romans, yn syngyng. and pypynge, in harpynge, and in other honest solaces of grete pleasance and disport."-PINKERTON'S History, Appendix to vol. i. p. 467.

It is not, however, to be supposed, that what we now call metrical romances were always read. On the contrary, several of the romances bear internal evidence that they were occasionally chanted to the harp The Creside of Chaucer, a long performance, is written expressly to be read, or else sung. It is evident, indeed, that the minstrels, who were certainly the authors of the French romances, and probably of the English also, could derive no advantage from those compositions, unless by reciting or singing them. Some traces of this custom remained in Scotland till of late years. A satire on the Marquis of Argyle, published about the time of his death, is said to be composed to the tune of Graysteel, a noted romance, reprinted at Aberdeen so late as the beginning of the last century. Within the memory of man, an old person used to perambulate the streets of Edinburgh, singing, in a monotonous cadence, the tale of Rosewald and Lilian, which is, in all the forms, a metrical romance of chivalry.

Riche sail thai drewe,

White and red so blod.-P. 316, st. 17.

Our forefathers decorated their vesseis with useless and absurd magnificence. The lords of France, when about to invade England, (a sort of epidemic disease, which has frequently seized the rulers of that country, and generally spent its force in an eruptive expense of preparation,) “made baners, penons, standerdes of sylke, so goodlye, that it was marvayle to beholde them: also they paynted the mastes of theyr shippes fro the one end to the other. glytering with golde, and devyses, and armes ; and specially it was shewed me, that the Lord Guy of Tremoyle garnyshed his shippe rychely; the paintyngs that were made cost more than two thousande frankes."-BEGNERS' Froissart, vol. ii. fol. Ixi. In elder times, Earl Godwin is said to have given to Edward the Confessor a galley having a gilded prow, manned with eighty chosen warriors, armed in suitable splendour. Each wore bracelets of gold, a triple hauberk, a gilded helmet, and a sword with gilded hilt : a Danish axe, inlaid with gold and silver, was suspended at the back; the left hand held a buckler with a gilded boss, the right a lance, called in English tegar.-SIMEON of DURHAM, apud an. 4040.

This has been doubted; but the conclusion of Orfeo and Herodiis, in the Auchinleck MS., seems to prove that the lay was set to music :

"

Harpours in Bretaine after than,

Herd how this mervaile began,

And made herof a lay of gode lykeing,

And nempned it after the King;

That lay Orfeo is yhote,

Gode is the lay, swete is the note."

See, also, the anecdote of the Irish harper, p. 351, who is expressly said to sing to the harp a merry lay.

Now hat be Tristrem trewe.-P. 346, st. 17. That is, now he is called by his proper name, Tristrem, instead of the inverted appellation, Tramtris, which he had borne in Ireland.

-Tristrem hath teld,

Of Ysonde that was kene.-P. 346, st. 19.

The romancer represents the passion of Tristrem for Ysonde as arising solely from the drink of might, of which they unfortunately partook. The praises, therefore, which inflamed King Mark, were those of dispassionate admiration, or, at most, of gratitude. The prose folio does not entirely follow Tomas in this particular. Tristrem loves Ysolt from their first interview, and fights against Palamedes upon her account, during his residence in Dublin. It was, however, but a transient passion, being superseded by that which he afterwards entertained for the lady of Segurades, in whose affections, as afterwards in those of Ysonde, he successfully rivalled his uncle Mark. Ysonde perceived neither the passion of Tristrem nor Palamedes, nor their mutual hatred, "Comme celle qui oncques n'avait pensé à amour."

The barouns hem bi thought,

To fel Tristremes pride.-P. 346, st. 21.

In the prose romance, the plan of procuring Tristrem's death. by sending him to ask in marriage the niece of Moraunt, whom he had slain, is imputed to Mark himself.

For donte of o dragoun.-P. 347, st. 27.

It may be objected, by those who adhere to Mr. Warton's derivation of romantic fiction from the Moors and Saracens, that the introduction of a dragon, the creature of Oriental fancy, savours of a closer acquaintance with the fables of the East, than could have been acquired in Scotland during the 13th century. According to Warton, "Dragons are a sure mark of Orientalism." -Dissert. on Origin of Romantic Fiction. To this it might be sufficient to answer, that the Scottish nation sent many warriors to the Crusades. But, in fact, the idea of this fabulous animal was familiar to the Celtic tribes at an early period; and it is stated to have been borne on the banner of Pendragon, who from that circumstance derived his name. A dragon was also the standard of the renowned Arthur. A description of this banner, the magical work of Merlin, occurs in the romance of Arthour and Merlin, in the Auchinleck MS., and is not unpoetical:

"Merlin bar her goinfanoun;
Upon the top stode a dragoun,
Swithe griseliche a litel croune.
Fast him biheld al tho in the toune,
For the mouth he had grinninge,
And the tong out flatlinge,

That out kest sparkes of fer,

Into the skies that flowen cler;

That dragoun had a long taile,

That was wipper hoked saun-faile."

The dragon cast fire when the conflict deepened, like the Chimæra upon the crest of Turnus :

"Tam magis illa fremens, et tristibus effera flammis,
Quam magis effuso crudescunt sanguine pugnæ."

In the Welsh Triads, I find the dragon repeatedly mentioned; and, in a battle fought at Bedford, about 752, betwixt Ethelbald, King of Mercia, and Cuthred, King of Wessex, a golden dragon, the banner of the latter, was borne in the front of combat by Edelheim, or Edelhun, a chief of the West Saxons.-BROMPTON. Chron. Indeed, even supposing that, during the long residence of the Romans in Britain, they had not imparted to the inhabitants their traditions concerning dragons, it is hard to see why the Celtic or Gothic imagination might not conceive such a monster, without borrowing the idea from the East. Serpents and lizards were well known to the northern nations to equip them with wings (although these are neither mentioned in the case of Merlin's dragon, nor of Tristrem's) seems to be no great stretch of fancy; and the burning heat, induced by the bite of an adder, may at first, by poetical license, and afterwards, by the literal

interpretation of the audience, have given rise to the supposed quality of vomiting flames.

The mention of the dragon leads to another remark. The word dragon is, in Owen's Welsh Dictionary, translated a leader, as pen-dragon is rendered a generalissimo, and dragonawl a supreme chief. Such being the case, there seems no great violence in the supposition, that the dragon slain by Sir Tristrem (one of the very few marvellous incidents in the tale) was some chief or leader, the enemy of the Irish monarch. This exposition seems less forced than that of Regnar Lodbrog's slaughter of two snakes, which one commentator explains to mean his having surmounted the winding and misshapen wall of the fortress in which a lovely virgin was confined; and another, his having conquered and slain a seneschal, whose name was Orme, or Serpent. In truth, the hyperbolical and enigmatical descriptions of the British bards, and the Gothic scalds, may often lead us to confound with fiction what was used as metaphor and parable. The crusaders, in passing through the Archipelago, made a yet more ridiculous mistake, believing that the water-spouts, which often occur there, were owing to the frolics of an immense black dragon, whom they endeavoured to drive away by shouts and clashing of arms. -BROMPTON, Chron. apud Decem Scriptores, p. 1246.

It seems that the minstrels did not know, or did not regard the tradition, that St. Patrick freed Ireland from poisonous animals. Not only the dragon in the text, but another, slain by Guy of Warwick, were natives of the Land of Saints. This last is described at length :

Never was best no so bie,

Gret heued It bath, and grislich to sele;

Bis nek is greter than a bole,

His bodi is swarter than ani cole;

It is michel, and long, and griselich,

Fram the naval upward unschapeliche
The smalest scale that on him is,

No wepen no may attaine y wis;

As a somer it is brested before in the brede, And swifter ernend than ani stede.

He bath clawes als a lyoun,

Men saith that it is a dragoun ;

Gret winges he bath with to fle,

Bis shaft to tell alle ne mowe we."

The adventure of the dragon in the text is literally copied into the prose folio, but is placed during Tristrem's first residence in Ireland, and previous to the discovery of his real name. He succeeds in his embassy, by succouring the King of Ireland when hard beset in a tournament.

Treacle.-P. 348, st. 37.

Treacle, or theriaca, was long accounted a choice remedy against poison, and was held, accordingly, in high reputation. Chaucer mentions

"medicine more fine than treacle."

In a MS. poem on the praise of women, it is used as an emblem of fidelity.

"Trewe as treacle er thai to fend."

Theriaca is derived from the Greek Onpiov, bestia venenata. The use and composition of the medicine may be found in the 20th book of Pliny, cap. 24.

Ysonde, bright of bewe,

Thought it Tramtris ware.-P. 348, st. 41.

This seems to be an error of the transcriber. Ysonde did not suspect the stranger to be Tramtris, her old preceptor, but Tristrem, who had slain her uncle Moraunt; and her conjecture is confirmed by the broken sword. The prose work mentions this discovery, which it places during Tristrem's first abode in Ireland. With greater plausibility, it represents the Queen, not Ysonde, as the lady who threatened the hero with personal vengeance; while the King, moved by the laws of hospitality, and by the "bounty of chivalry," which Tristrem had displayed, saves him from death, but banishes him from Ireland. But Mr. Douce's Fragment, as usual, concurs with Tomas of Ercildoune, Vide p. 374.