recall the reader's attention to the poetry and language of the last century, by exhibiting fome extracts from the manufcript romance of YWAIN and GAWAIN, which has some great outlines of Gothic painting, and appears to have been written in the reign of king Henry the fixth ". Henry the fixth ". I premise, that but few circumstances happened, which contributed to the improvement of our language, within that and the present period.

The following is the adventure of the enchanted foreft attempted by fir Colgrevance, which he relates to the knights of the round table at Cardiff in Wales *.

Again,

On golden gates that glent as glas. Again,

But mylde as mayden fene at mas.
The poem begins,

Perle plefant to princes raye,
So clanly clos in golde fo cler".

In the fame manufcript is an alliterative poem without rhyme, exactly in the verfification of PIERCE PLOWMAN, of equal or higher antiquity, viz.

Olde Abraham in erde over he fyttes, Even byfor his house doore under an oke grene,

Bryzt blikked the bem P of the brod heven

In the hyze hete therof Abraham bides. The hand-writing of these two laft-mentioned pieces cannot be later than Edward the third. [See fupr. Vol. i. p. 312.]

Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre.
And als of knightes, war and wyfe,
And damefeles of mykel pryse,
Ilkan with other made grete gamen,
And grete folas, als thai war famen,
Faft thai carped, and curtayfli,
Of dedes of arms and of veneri,
And of gude knyghtes, &c.

It is a piece of confiderable length, and contains a variety of GESTS. Sir YWAIN is fir EWAINE, or OWEN, in MORTE ARTHUR. None of these adventures belong to that romance. But fee B. iv. c. 17. 27. etc. The ftory of the lion and the dragon in this romance, is told of a Chriftian champion in the Holy War, by Berchorius, REDUCTOR. p. 661. See fupr. Diss. p. lxxxvii. And GEST. ROMANOR. ch. civ. The lion being delivered from the dragon by fir YwAIN, ever afterwards accompanies and defends him in the greateft dangers. Hence Spenfer's Una attended by a lion. F. Qu. i. iii. 7. See fir Percival's lion in MORTE ARTHUR, B. xiv. c. 6. The dark ages had many ftories and traditions of the lion's gratitude and generofity to man. Hence in Shakespeare, Troilus fays, TR. CRESS. A& V. Sc. iii.

Brother you have a vice of mercy in you
Which better fits a lion than a man.

He faid, I can no wonders tell,
Bot her befyde es a We!!;
Wend yeder', and do ais I fay,
You paffes noght al quite oway,
Folow forth this ilk ftrete,

And fone fum mervayles fal you mete:

The well es under the fairest Tre

That ever was in this cuntre;

r

By that Well hinges a Bacyne
That es of golde gude and fyne,
With a cheyne, trewly to tell,
That will reche in to the Well.
Thare as a Chapel nere thar by,
That nobil es and ful lufely':
By the well standes a Stane ",
Take the bacyn sone onane ",
And caft on water with thi hand,
And fone you fal fe new tithand *:
A ftorme fal rife and a tempeft,
Al obout, by eft and weft,
You fal here' mani thonor2 blast
Al obout the the blawand faft,
And thar fal cum fike flete and rayne

b