Thomas Chestre appears also to have been a writer for the minstrels. No anecdote of his life is preserved. He has left a poem entitled Sir LAUNFALE, one of Arthur's knights; who is celebrated with other champions in a fet of French metrical tales or romances, written by fome Armorican bard, under the name of LANVAL. They are in the British Museum'.

And dyd hyt all new begynne
At even whan they shuld blynne
Off worke when they went to reste
In the night was all downe hefte
Well vii monthes this thei wrought
And in the night avaylid yt nought
Boccus was wroth wonderly

And callid his folke that was hym by
Councellith me lordinges feyde hee
Howe I may befte make this citee
They fayde fir fendith a noon
Aftir your philofophers everychon
And the aftronomers of your londe
Of hem shall yee counfeill fonde.

Afterwards king Tractabare is requested to
fend

the booke of aftronomye
That whilom Noe had in baylye,
together with his aftronomer Sidracke.
At the end.

And that Hugh of Campedene
That this boke hath thorogh foght
And untoo Englyfsh ryme hit brought.
Sidrake, who is a chriftian, at length builds
the tower in Nomine S. Trinitatis, and he
teaches Bocchus, who is an idolater, many
articles of true religion. The only manu-
fcript I have seen of this tranflation is
among MSS. Laud. G. 57. fol. ut fupr.
* It begins thus.

LAUNFAL MILES.

Le douzty Artours dawes

That held Engelond in good lawe,
Ther fell a wondyr cas,

*

Cia ley that was yfette,

That hyzt LAUNFAL and hatte zette.

Now herkeneth how hyt was;

Douzty Artour fome whyle
Sojournede yn Kerdenylet,
With joye and greet folas,
And knyzts that wer profitable,
With Artour of the rounde table,
Never noon better ther was.
Sere Perfevall, and fyr Gawyn,
† Or, Kerdevyle.

Liege.

Caerlife.

Syr Gyherther, and fyr Agrayn,
And Lancelot du Lake,
Syr Kay, and fyr Ewayn,
That well couthe fyzt yn playn,
Bateles for to take.

Kyng Ban Boort, and kyng Bos,
Of ham ther was a greet los,
Men fawe tho no wher || her ‡ make.
Syr Galafre, and fyr LAUNPALE,
Whereof a noble tale

Among us fhall a wake.

With Artour ther was a bachelor
And hadde y be well many a zer,
LAUNFAL for foot § he hyzt,
He gaf gyftes largelyche

Gold and fylver and clothes ryche,

To fquyer and to knyzt.

For hys largeffe and hys bounte

The kinges fteward made was he

Ten yer I you plyzt,

Of alle the knyztes of the table rounde
So large there was noon y founde,
Be days ne be nyzt.

So hyt befyll yn the tenth zere
Marlyn was Artours counfalare,
He radde him for to wende
To kyng Ryon of Irlond ryzt,
And fette hym ther a lady bryzt
Gwenere hys doughter hende, &c.
In the conclufion.

THOMAS CHESTER made thys tale
Of the noble knyzt fyr Launfale
Good of chyvalrye:

Jefus that ys hevene kyng
Zeve us all hys bleffyng
And hys moder Marye.

EXPLICIT LAUNFALE. Never printed. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2. f. 33. I am obliged to doctor Percy for this tranfcript. It was afterwards altered into the romance of fir LAMBWELL.

MSS. Harl. 978. 112. fol. i. 154. "En Bretains l'apelent LAUNVAL." See anote at the beginning of Diss. į. ‹ Ther. + Match. $ Soth,

I think I have feen fome evidence to prove, that Cheftre was alfo the author of the metrical romance called the ERLE OF THOLOUSE". This is one of the romances called Lais by the poets of Britany, or Armorica: as appears from thefe lines,

In romance this geft

A LEY" of BRITAYN callyd I wys, &c.

And that it is a tranflation, appears from the reference to an original, "The Romans telleth fo." I will however give the outlines of the ftory, which is not uninteresting, nor inartificially conftructed.

Dioclefian, a powerful emperour in Germany, has a rupture with Barnard earl of Tholoufe, concerning boundaries of territory. Contrary to the repeated perfuafions of the empress, who is extremely beautiful, and famous for her conjugal fidelity, he meets the earl, with a numerous army, in a pitched battle, to decide the quarrel. The earl is victorious, and carries home a great multitude of prifoners, the most refpectable of which is fir Tralabas of Turky, whom he treats as his companion. In the midst of their feftivities they talk of the beauties of the emprefs; the earl's curiosity is inflamed to see so matchless a lady, and he promifes liberty to fir Tralabas, if he can be conducted unknown to the emperour's court, and obtain a fight of her without discovery. They both fet forward, the earl dif guised like a hermit. When they arrive at the emperour's court, fir Tralabas proves falfe: treacherously imparts the fecret to the empress that he has brought with him the earl

of Tholoufe in difguife, who is enamoured of her celebrated beauty; and proposes to take advantage of so fair an opportunity of killing the emperour's great and avowed enemy. She rejects the proposal with indignation, injoyns the knight not to communicate the secret any farther, and defires to fee the earl next day in the chapel at mass. The next day the earl in his hermit's weeds is conveniently placed at mass. At leaving the chapel, he asks an alms of the empress; and she gives him forty florins and a ring. He receives the present of the ring with the highest satisfaction, and although obliged to return home, in point of prudence, and to avoid detection, comforts himself with this reflection.

Well is me, I have thy grace,
Of the to have thys thyng!
If ever I have grace of the,
That any love betweene us be,
This may be a TOKENYNG.

He then returns home. The emperour is called into some distant country; and leaves his confort in the custody of two knights, who attempting to gain her love without fuccefs, contrive a ftratagem to defame her chastity. She is thrown into prifon, and the emperour returns unexpectedly °, in confequence of a vifion. The tale of the two treacherous knights is believed, and fhe is fentenced to the flames: yet under the restriction, that if a champion can be found who fhall foil the two knights in battle, her honour shall be cleared, and her life faved. A challenge is published in all

• The emperour's disappointment is thus defcribed.

Anon to the chamber went he,
He longyd fore his wyf to fe,
That was fo fwete a wyght:

He callyd theym that halde her kepe,
Where is my wif is she on slepe?

How farys that byrd fo bryght?
The traytors answeryd anon,

And ye wift how she had done, &c.—
The yonge knyght fir Artour,
That was her hervour, &c.

For bale his armys abrode he fprede,
And fell in fwoone on his bed.

parts

parts of the world; and the earl of Tholoufe, notwithstanding the animofities which still fubfift between him and the emperour, privately undertakes her quarrel. He appears at the emperour's court in the habit of a monk, and obtains permiffion to act as confeffor to the empress, in her present critical fituation. In the course of the confefsion, she protests that she was always true to the emperour; yet owns that once she gave a ring to the earl of Tholoufe. The supposed confeffor pronounces her innocent of the charge brought against her; on which one of the traiterous knights affirms, that the monk was fuborned to publish this confeffion, and that he deserved to be confumed in the fame fire which was prepared for the lady. The monk pretending that the honour of his religion and character was affected by this infinuation, challenges both the knights to combat: they are conquered; and the emprefs, after this trial, is declared innocent. He then openly discovers himself to be the earl of Tholouse, the emperour's antient enemy. A folemn reconciliation enfues. The earl is appointed seneschal of the emperour's domain. The emperour lives only three years, and the earl is married to the emprefs.

In the execution of this performance, our author was obliged to be concife, as the poem was intended to be fung to the harp. Yet, when he breaks through this restraint, inftead of dwelling on some of the beautiful fituations which the story affords, he is diffufe in displaying trivial and unimportant circumstances. These popular poets are never fo happy, as when they are defcribing a battle or a feast.

It will not perhaps be deemed impertinent to observe, that about this period the minstrels were often more amply paid than the clergy. In this age, as in more enlightened times, the people loved better to be pleafed than inftructed. During many of the years of the reign of Henry the fixth, particularly in the year 1430, at the annual feast of the fraternity of the HOLIE CROSSE at Abingdon, a town in Vol. II. Berkshire,

Р

Berkshire, twelve priefts each received four pence for finging a dirge: and the fame number of minstrels were rewarded each with two fhillings and four pence, beside diet and horfe-meat. Some of these minstrels came only from Maydenhithe, or Maidenhead, a town at no great distance in the fame county". In the year 1441, eight priests were hired from Coventry to affift in celebrating a yearly obit in the church of the neighbouring priory of Maxtoke; as were fix minstrels, called MIMI, belonging to the family of lord Clinton, who lived in the adjoining caftle of Maxtoke, to fing, harp, and play, in the hall of the monastery, during the extraordinary refection allowed to the monks on that anniversary. Two fhillings were given to the priests, and four to the minstrels: and the latter are faid to have fupped in camera picta, or the painted chamber of the convent, with the fubprior', on which occafion the chamberlain furnished eight maffy tapers of wax'. That the gratuities allowed to priests, even if learned, for their labours, in the fame age of devotion, were extremely flender, may be collected from other expences of this priory'. In the fame year, the prior gives only fixpence for a fermon, to a DOCTOR PRÆDICANS, or an itinerant doctor in theology of one of the mendicant orders, who went about preaching to the religious houses.

We are now arrived at the reign of king Edward the fourth, who acceded to the throne in the year 1461". But