romance of EMARE, a tranflation from the French, which has this fimilar paffage, St. ult.

Thys ys on of Brytayne layes

That was used of old dayes.

MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A ii. fol. 69. (fee f. 70.) The SONG of SIR GOWTHER is faid by the writer to be taken from one of the Layes of Brytayne: and in another place he calls his story the first Laye of Britanye. MSS. REG. 17 B. xliii. Chaucer's FRANKELEIN'S TALE was also a Bretagne Lay, Urr. p. 107. In the Prologue he says,

The olde gentill Bretons in their dayės
Of divers aventoures madin their Layes,
Rymeyed firft in their owne Breton tonge,

Whiche layis with ther inftruments thei fonge.

Here he translates from Marie, although this story is not in her manuscript, viz. fol. 181.

Li auntien Bretun curteis.

But in his DREME, he seems to have copied her LAY of ELIDUS. [See Diff. i.] To the British Lais I would also refer LA LAI DU CORN, which begins,

De un aventure ci avint

A la court del bon rei Artus.

1

MSS. DIGB. 86. Bibl. Bodl. membran. 4". It probably existed before the year 1300. The ftory, which much resembles the old French metrical romance, called LE COURT MANTEL, is flightly touched in MORTE ARTHUR. ii. 33. A magical horn, richly garnished, the work of a fairy, is brought by a beautiful boy riding on a fleet courfer, to a sumptuous feast held at Carleon by king Arthur, in order to try the fidelity of the knights

and

The only

and ladies, who are in number fixty thousand. Those who are falfe, in drinking from this horn, fpill their wine. fuccefsful knight, or he who accomplishes the adventure, is Garaduc or Cradok. I will here give the defcription of the

horn.

Un dauncel,

Mout avenaunt et bel,

Seur un cheval corant,

En palleis vint eraunt:
En fa main tont un cOR
A quatre bendel de or,
Ci com etoit diveure
Entaillez de ad trifure',
Peres ici ont affifes,
Qu en le or furent mifes,
Berreles et fardoines,

Et riches calcedoines;

More properly written daunzel, or danzel. As in the old French romance of GARIN.

Et li danzel que Bues ot norris. And in other places. So our king Richard the firft, in a fragment of one of his Provencial fonnets.

In

E lou donzel de Thufcana. "For Boys Tufcany is the couutry." Spanish, Lo Donzell. See Andr. Bofch, Dels Titols de honor de Cathalanya. L. iii. c. 3. §. 16. In fome of these instances, the word is reftrained to the fenfe of Squire. It is from the Latin DOMICEL LUS. Froiffart calls Richard the fecond, when prince of Wales," Le jeune Damoi"fel Richart." tom. i. c. 325.

í Or rather trifore. Undoubtedly from the Latin triforium, a rich ornamented edge or border. The Latin often occurs under Dugdale's INVENTORY of faint Paul's, in the MONASTICON, viz. “ Mor

fus [a buckle] W. de Ely argenteus,

66

crefta ejus argentea, cum TRIFORIO "exterius aureo et lapillis infitis, &c." tom. iii. ECCL. CATH. p. 309. TRIFORIATUS repeatedly occurs in the fame page, as thus. "Morfus Petri de Blois TRIFORIATUS de auro.' -" Medio "circulo [of a buckle] aurato, TRIFORIATO, inferto groffis lapidibus, &c." "Cum multis lapidibus et perlis infitis "in limbis, et quadraturis TRIPHORATUS "aureis," &c. &c. ibid. p. 309. et feq. It is fometimes written TRIFORIA. "Pannus cujus campus purpureus, cum "xiv liftis in longitudine ad modum TRI

66

As,

FORIÆ Contextis." ibid. p. 326. col. 2. TRIFURE, in the text, may be literally interpreted jewel-work. As in CHRON. S. Dion. tom. iii. Collect. Hiftor. Franc. p. 183. "Il eftoient de fin or esmere et "aourné de tres riches pierres precieuses "d'uere [œuvre] TRIPHOIRE." Which Aimon calls, "gemmifque ornata Opere in"cluforio," that is, work confifting of jewels fet in. De GEST. FRANC. Lib. ii. cap. ix. p. 44. G. edit. Parif. 1603. fol.

Il fu fuft de ollifaunt,

Ounques ne ni fi graunt,
Ne fi fort, ne fi bel,
Defus ont un anel,
Neèle de ad argent,
Efchelettes il ont cent
Perfectees de or fin,
En le tens Conftantin,
Les fift une Fee,
Qu preuz ert, et fenee,
E le corn deftina
Si cum vous orres ja:
Qu four le corn ferroit
Un petit de foun doit,
Ses efchelettes cent
Sounent tant doucement,
Qu harpe ne viele
Ne deduit de pucelle,
Ne Sereigne du mer
Neft tele defconter.

Thefe lines may be thus interpreted.

"A boy, very graceful

" and beautiful, mounted on a swift horse, came into the pa"lace of king Arthur. He bore in his hand a horn, having "four bandages of gold; it was made of ivory, engraved with "trifoire: many pretious ftones were fet in the gold, beryls,

fardonyces, and rich chalcedonies: it was of elephant [ivory]:

nothing was ever fo grand, fo ftrong, or fo beautiful: at "bottom was a ring [or rim] wrought of filver; where were "hanging an hundred little bells, framed of fine gold, in the "days of Conftantine, by a Fairy, brave and wife, for the purpose which ye have just heard me relate. If any one gently ftruck the horn with his finger, the hundred bells "founded so sweetly, that neither harp nor viol, nor the sports "of a virgin, nor the fyrens of the fea, could ever give such "mufic." The author of this Lai is one Robert Bikez, as

દ

appears

appears by the last lines; in which the horn is said still to be feen at Cirencester. From this tale came Ariofto's ENCHANTED CUP, ORL FURIOS. xlii. 92. And Fontaine's LA COUPE ENCHANTEE. From the COURT MANTEL, a fiction of the fame tendency, and which was common among the Welsh bards, Spenfer borrowed the wonderful virtues and effects of his FLORIMEL'S GIRDLE, iv. 5. 3. Both stories are connected in an antient Ballad published by Percy. vol. iii. p. 1.

In the Digby manuscript, which contains La Lai du Corn, are many other curious chansons, romantic, allegorical, and legendary, both in old French and old English. I will here exhibit the rubrics, or titles, of the most remarkable pieces, and of fuch as feem most likely to throw light on the subjects or allufions of our antient English poetry. Le Romaunz Peres Aunfour [Alfonfe] coment il aprift et chaftia fon fils belement. [See Notes to CANTERB. T. p. 328. vol. iv.] De un demi ami.De un bon ami enter.— De un fage homme et de i fol.— De un gopil et de un mul.-De un roi et de un clerc.-De un homme et de une ferpente et de un gopil.—De un roi et de un verfifiour.—De ii clercs efcoliers. -De un prodome et de fa male femme. - Del engin de femme del nelons.— Del efpee autre engin de femme. De un roy et de un fableour.- De une veille et de une lifette. De la gile de la per e el pin. De un prodfemme bone cointije. [Pr. "Un Espagnol ceo vy counter."] — De ii meneftreus. [i. e. Minstrels.]- De une roy et de Platoun.

De un vilein de i lou et de un gopil. De un roy fol large. - De maimound mal efquier.-De Socrates et de roi Alifaundre.-De roi Alifaundre et de i philofophe.-De un philofofel et del alme.—Ci commence le romaunz de Enfer, Le Sounge Rauf de Hodenge de la voie denfer. [Ad calc. " Rauf de Hodeng, faunz mensounge,— Qu cest romaunz fist de sun songe.” See Verdier, BIBL. FR. ii. 394. v. 394. Paris, 1773.]—De un vallet qui foutint dames et dammaifales.-De Romme et de Gerufalem.-La lais du corn.Le fabel del gelous.-Ci comence la bertournee.-La vie de un vaillet amerous. De iiii files. "Un rois eftoit de

[Pr.

graunt pouer."]-How Jheu Crift herewede belle, &c. [See

vol.

vol. ii. p. 207.]—Le xv fingnes [fignes] de domefday. [Pr. "Fifteene toknen ich tellen may." Compare vol. i. p. 219.]— Ci comence la vie feint Eustace ci ont nom Placidas.

[Pr. "Alle þat loveþ godes lore

"Olde and yonge laffe and more."

See MS. VERNON, fol. 170. ut fupr.]-Le diz de feint Bernard. [Pr. “ þe bleffinge of hevene kinge."] - Vbi font ci ante nos fuerount. [In English.]- Chaunçon de noftre dame.. [Pr. "Stond wel moder ounder rode."]-Here beginneth the fawe of feint Bede preeft. [Pr. "Holi goft þi migtee.]—Coment le faunter notre dame fu primes cuntrone. [Pr. "Luedi fwete and milde."] Les peines de enfen. [Pr. "Oiez Seynours une de"mande."]- Le regret de Maximian. [Pr. Herkenep to mi "ron." MSS. HARL. 2253. f. 82. See vol. i. p. 32.]— Ci comence le cuntent par entre le mavis et la ruffinole. [Pr." Somer "is cumen wip love to tonne." See vol. i. p. 30.]—Of the fox and of the wolf. [Pr." A vox gon out of Le wode go."]Hending the hende. [MSS. HARL. 2253. 89. fol. 125.] — Les proverbes del vilain.-Les miracles de feint NICHOLAS.-Ragemon le bon.-Chancun del fecle. [In English.]-Ci commence le fable et la courtife de dame firi. [Pr. "As I com bi an waie.”]— Le noms de un leure Engleis. [i. e. The names of the Hare in English.]-Ci comence la vie noftre dame.-Ci comence le doctrinal de enfeignemens de curteifie. Ci comence les Aves nouftre dame.De ii chevalers torts ke plenderent aroune. Bonne prieur a noftre Seigneur Fbu Crift. — Ci comence lefcrit de ii dames. — Hic incipit carmen inter corpus et animam. [A Dialogue in English verse between a body laid on a bier and its Soul. Pr. "Hon on "ftude I ftod an lutell efcrit to here."]-Ci commence la manere que le amour eft pur affaier. [Pr. "Love is foft, love is fwete, "love is goed fware."]Chaunçon de nouftre feigneur. This manuscript seems to have been written about year 1304. Ralph Houdain, whose poem called VISION D'ENFER it contains, wrote about the year 1230.

VOL. II.

i

The