The poem opens with the marriage of Richard's father, Henry the Second, with the daughter of Carbarryne, a king of Antioch. But this is only a lady of romance. Henry married Eleanor the divorced queen of Louis of France. The minstrels could not conceive any thing less than an Eastern princess to be the mother of this magnanimous hero.

His barons hym sedde1

That he graunted a wyff to wedde.
Hastely he sente hys sondes

Into many dyuerse londes,

The feyreste wyman that wore on liff

Men wolde2 bringe hym to wyff. *

The messengers or ambassadors, in their voyage, meet a ship adorned like Cleopatra's galley.

Swylk on ne seygh they never non;

All it was whyt of huel-bon,

And every nayl with gold begrave:
Off pure gold was the stave3;
Her mast was [of] yvory;
Off samyte the sayl wytterly.
Her ropes wer off tuely sylk,
Al so whyt as ony mylk.

[The present text has been taken from the edition of this romance by Mr. Weber, who followed a manuscript of no very early date in Caius College library, Cambridge. The variations between this and the early printed editions, consist principally in the use of a more antiquated phraseology, with some trifling changes of the sense. The most important of these are given in the notes below. Mr. Ellis, who has analysed this romance (vol. ii. p. 186), conceives the fable in its present form to have originated with the reign of Edward I.; and that the extravagant fictions it contains were grafted by some Norman minstrel upon an earlier narrative, more in uni

son with Richard's real history. Of the story in its uncorrupted state, he considers a fragment occurring in the Auchinlech MS. to be an English translation; and as this document was "transcribed in the minority of Edward III." the following declaration of Mr. Weber may not exceed the truth :-"There is no doubt that our romance existed before the year 1300, as it is referred to in the Chronicles of Richard [Robert] of Gloucester and Robert de Brunne; and as these rhymesters wrote for mere English readers, it is not to be supposed that they would refer them to a French original."-Edit.]

164

That noble schyp was al withoute,
With clothys of golde sprede aboute;
And her loof* and her wyndas",
Off asure forsothe it was.

In that schyp ther wes i-dyght,
Knyghts and ladyys of mekyll myght;
And a lady therinne was,

Bryght as the sunne thorugh the glas.
Her men aborde gunne to stonde,
And sesyd that other with her honde,
And prayde hem for to dwelle
And her counsayl for to telle:
And they graunted with all skylle
For to telle al at her wylle:

"Swo wyde landes we have went
For kyng Henry us has sent,
For to seke hym a qwene

6

The fayreste that myghte fonde bene."
Upros a kyng off a chayer

With that word they spoke ther.
The chayer was [of] charboncle ston,
Swylk on ne sawgh they never non:
And tuo dukes hym besyde,
Noble men and mekyl off pryde,
And welcomed the messangers ylkone.
Into that schyp they gunne gone....
They sette tresteles and layde a borde;
Cloth of sylk theron was sprad,
And the kyng hymselve bad,
That his doughter were forth fette,
And in a chayer before hym sette.
Trumpes begonne for to blowe;
Sche was sette forth in a throweb

bimmediately.

4 [loft, deck.]

5 [wyndlace.]

6 ["To dyverse londes do we wende."]

With twenty knyghtes her aboute

And moo off ladyes that wer stoute....
Whenne they had nygh i-eete,

Adventures to speke they nought forgeete.
The kyng ham tolde, in hys resoun
It com hym thorugh a vysyoun,
In his land that he cam froo,
Into Yngelond for to goo;

And his doughtyr that was so dere
For to wende bothe in fere,
"In this manere we have us dyght
Into that lande to wende ryght."
Thenne aunsweryd a messanger,
Hys name was callyd Bernager,
"Forther wole we seke nought

To my lord she schal be brought."

They soon arrive in England, and the lady is lodged in the Tower of London, one of the royal castles.

The messangers the kyng have tolde

Of that ladye fayr and bold,

Ther he lay in the Tour

Off that lady whyt so flour.

Kyng Henry gan hym son dyght,

With erls, barons, and manye a knyght,
Agayn the lady for to wende:

For he was curteys and hende.

The damysele on lond was led,

And clothes of gold before her spred,

And her fadyr her beforn

With a coron off gold icorn;

The messangers be ylk a syde

And menstralles with mekyl pryde
Kyng Henry lyght in hyyng

And grette fayr that uncouth kyng....
To Westemenstre they wente in fere
Lordyngs and ladys that ther were.

c company.

Trumpes begonne for to blowe,

To meted they wente in a throwe, &c.©

The first of our hero's achievements in chivalry is at a splendid tournament held at Salisbury. Clarendon near Salisbury was one of the king's palaces'.

Kyng Rychard gan hym dysguyse,

In a ful strange queyntyse.

He cam out of a valaye

For to se of theyr playe,
As a knyght aventurous.
Hys atyre was orgoloush:
Al togyder cole black

Was hys horse withoute lacke;
Upon hys crest a raven stode,
That yaned as he wer wode.-

He bare a schafte that was grete and strong,
It was fourtene foot long;

And it was grete and stout,

One and twenty ynches about.*

d to dinner.

e line 135. In the pipe-rolls of this king's reign, I find the following articles relating to this ancient palace, which has been already mentioned incidentally. Rot. Pip. 1 Ric. I. "WILTES. Et in cariagio vini Regis a Clarendon usque Woodestoke, 34s. 4d. per Br. Reg. Et pro ducendis 200 m. [marcis] a Saresburia usque Bristow, 7s. 4d. per Br. Reg. Et pro ducendis 2500 libris a Saresburia usque Glocestriam, 26s. 10d. per Br. Reg. Et pro tonellis et clavis ad eosdem denarios. Et in cariagio de 4000 marcis a Sarum usque Suthanton, et pro tonellis et aliis necessariis, 8s. et 1d. per Br. Reg." And again in the reign of Henry the Third. Rot. Pip. 30 Hen. III. "WILTESCIRE. Et in una marcelsia ad opus regis et reginæ apud Clarendon cum duobus interclusoriis, et duabus cameris privatis, hostio veteris aulæ amovendo in porticu, et de eadem aula camera facienda cum camino et fenestris, et camera privata, et quadam magna coquina quadrata, et aliis operationibus, contentis in Brevi,

inceptis per eundem Nicolaum et non perfectis, 526l. 16s. 5d. ob. per Br. Reg.' Again, Rot. Pip. 39 Hen. III. "SUDHAMT. Comp. Nova foresta. Et in triginta miliaribus scindularum [shingles] faciend. in eadem foresta et cariand. easdem usque Clarendon ad domum regis ibidem cooperiandam, 6l. et 1 marc. per Br. Reg. Et in 30 mill. scindularum faciend. in eadem, et cariand. usque Clarendon, 11l. 10s." And again, in the same reign the canons of Ivy-church receive pensions for celebrating in the royal chapel there. Rot. Pip. 7 Hen. III. "WILTES. Et canonicis de monasterio ederoso ministrantibus in Capella de Clarendon. 35l. 7d. ob." Stukeley is mistaken in saying this palace was built by king John.

See Du Cange, Gl. Lat. COINTISE. h proud, pompous. i yawned. [It is "One and twenti inches aboute." So doctor Farmer's manuscript, purchased from Mr. Martin's library. See supr. p. 124. Note. This is in English.--ADDITIONS.]

The fyrst knyght that he there mette,
Ful egyrly he hym grette,

With a dente amyd the schelde;

His hors he bar doun in the felde, &c. *

A battle-ax which Richard carried with him from England into the Holy Land is thus described.

King Richard, I understond,

Or he went out of Englond,

Let him make an axe1 for the nones,
To breke therwith the Sarasynsm bones.
The head was wrought right wele;
Therin was twenty pounde of stele;
And when he came into Cyprus lond,
The ax he tok in his hond.
All that he hit he all to-frapped;
The griffons" away fast rapped;
Natheles many he cleaved,

And their unthanks ther by lived;
And the prisoun when he cam to,
With his ax he smot right tho,

Dores, barres, and iron chains, &c.°

This formidable axe is again mentioned at the siege of Acon or Acre, the antient Ptolemais.

Kyng Rychard aftyr, anon ryght,
Toward Acres gan hym dyght;

* line 267.
1 Richard's battle-ax
is also mentioned by Brunne, and on
this occasion, Chron. p. 159.

The Crusades imported the phrase Jeu Sarrazionois, for any sharp engagement, into the old French romances.Thus in the ROMAN of ALEXANDER, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. ut supr. P. i. Tholomer le regrette et le plaint en Grijois,

Et dist que s'il cussent o culz telz vingt

et trois,

Il nous eussent fet un JEU SARRAZIONOIS.

"The Byzantine Greeks are often called Griffones by the historians of the

middle ages. See Du Cange Gloss. Ville-Hard. p. 363. See also Rob. Brun. Chron. p. 151. 157. 159. 160. 165. 171. 173. Wanley supposes that the Griffin in heraldry was intended to signify a Greek, or Saracen, whom they thus represented under the figure of an imaginary eastern monster, which never existed but as an armorial badge.

° line 2196.