gence and accuracy of Mr. Nasmith have furnished me with the following transcript from Lonelich Skynner's translation in Bennet college library. Now of al this storie have I mad an ende That is fchwede of Celidoygne and now forthere to wend Of the storye that we clepen prophet Merlynne This ftorie he drowgh be adventure and chaunce Of my neclegence and unkonnenge On me to taken swich a thinge Into owre modris tonge for to endite The swettere to fowne to more and lyte And more cler to zoure undirstondyng Thanne owthir Frenfh other Latyn to my fuppofing A pater noster ze wolden for me preye For me that HERRY LONELICH hyhte Hartelich Hartelich with an ave that ze hir bede Thanne Merlyn to Blafye cam anon This fewrawnce hav they mad to her kyng gon And thou into othir partyes schalt wel fon And has that will knowen in fertaygne There scholen ze it fynde, and ze weten look C Which Which that MARTYN DE BEWRE tranflated here After this latter extract, which is to be found nearly in the middle of the manufcript, the scene and perfonages of the poem are changed; and king Enalach, king Mordrens, Sir Nefciens, Jofeph of Arimathea, and the other heroes of the former part, give place to king Arthur, king Brangors, king Loth, and the monarchs and champions of the British line. In a paragraph, very fimilar to the fecond of these extracts, the following note is written in the hand of the text, Henry Lonelich Skynner, that tranflated this boke out of Frenfhe into Englyfbe, at the inftaunce of Harry Barton. The QUEST OF THE SANGREAL, as it is called, in which devotion and necromancy are equally concerned, makes a confiderable part of king Arthur's romantic history, and was one grand object of the knights of the Round Table. He who achieved this hazardous adventure was to be placed there in the fiege périllous, or feat of danger. When Merlyn had or"dayned the rounde table, he faid, by them that be fellowes "of the rounde table the truthe of the SANGREALL fhall be "well knowne, &c.—They which heard Merlyn say soe, said "thus to Merlyn, fithence there fhall be fuch a knight, thou "shouldest ordayne by thy craft a fiege that no man should "fitte therein, but he onlie which fhall paffe all other knights. " —Then Merlyn made the fiege perillous, &c." Caxton's MORT D'ARTHUR, B. xiv. cap. ii. Sir Lancelot, who is come but of the eighth degree from our lord Jefus Chrift, is represented as the chief adventurer in this honourable expedition. Ibid. B. iii. c. 35. At a celebration of the feaft of Pentecoft at Camelot by king Arthur, the Sangreal fuddenly enters the hall, "but "there was no man might fee it nor who bare it," and the knights, as by fome invifible power, are inftantly supplied with a feast a feast of the choiceft dishes. Ibid. c. 35. Originally Le BRUT, LANCELOT, TRISTAN, and the SAINT GREAL were separate histories; but they were fo connected and confounded before the year 1200, that the fame title became applicable to all. The book of the SANGREAL, a feparate work, is referred to in MORTE ARTHUR. "Now after that the quest of the "SANCGREALL was fulfylled, and that all the knyghtes that "were lefte alive were come agayne to the Rounde Table, as "the BOOKE OF THE SANCGREALL makethe mencion, than "was there grete joye in the courte. And especiallie king "Arthur and quene Guenever made grete joye of the remnaunt "that were come home. And paffynge glad was the kinge and quene of fyr Launcelot and fyr Bors, for they had been paffynge longe awaye in the queft of the SANCGREALL. " Then, as the Frenfhe booke sayeth, fyr Lancelot, &c." B. 1 xviii. cap. I. And again, in the fame romance. " Whan "fyr Bors had tolde him [Arthur] of the adventures of the "SANCGREALL, fuch as had befallen hym and his felawes,— "all this was made in grete bookes, and put in almeryes at "Salisbury." B. xvii. cap. xxiii'. The former part of this paffage is almost literally tranflated from one in the French romance of TRISTAN, Bibl. Reg. MSS. 20 D. ii. fol. antep, Quant Boort ot conte laventure del Saint Graal teles com eles "efloient avenues, eles furent mifes en efcrit, gardees en la"mere de Salibieres, dont Meftre GALTIER MAP l'eftreft a fait "fon livre du Saint Graal por lamor du roy Herri fon fengor, qui fift leftoire tralater del Latin en romanz." Whether Salisbury, or Salibieres is, in the two paffages, the right reading, I cannot ascertain. [But fee Not". p. 117. vol. ii.] But in the royal library at Paris there is "Le Roman de TRISTAN ET ISEUlt, "traduit de Latin en François, par Lucas chevalier du Gast pres de Sarisberi, Anglois, avec figures." Montfauc. CATAL. The romance fays, that king Arthur "made grete clerkes com before him that "they should cronicle the adventures of "these goode knygtes." [See fupr. vol. i. p. 336.] See fupr. vol. ii. p. 235. C 2 MSS. lish word. 4 MSS. Cod. Reg. Paris. Cod. 6776. fol. max. And again Cod. 6956. fol. max. “Liveres de TRISTAN mis en François par "Lucas chevalier fieur de chateau du Gat "." [See fupr. vol. i. p. 115. Notes.] Almeryes in the English, and l'Amere, properly aumoire in the French, mean, I believe, Prefes, Chefts, or Archives. Ambry, in this sense, is not an uncommon old EngFrom the second part of the first French quotation which I have distinguished by Italics, it appears, that Walter Mapes, a learned archdeacon in England, under the reign of king Henry the fecond, wrote a French SANGREAL, which he translated from Latin, by the command of that monarch. Under the idea, that Walter Mapes was a writer on this subject, and in the fabulous way, fome critics may be induced to think, that the WALTER, archdeacon of Oxford, from whom Geoffrey of Monmouth profeffes to have received the materials of his history, was this Walter Mapes, and not Walter Calenius, who was also an eminent scholar, and an archdeacon of Oxford. [See vol. i. p. 65.] Geoffrey fays in his Dedication to Robert earl of Gloucester, "Finding nothing said in Bede or Gildas of "king Arthur and his fucceffours, although their actions highly "deserved to be recorded in writing, and are orally celebrated by the British bards, I was much surprised at so strange an "omiffion. At length Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, a man "of great eloquence, and learned in foreign hiftories, offered "me an ancient book in the British or Armorican tongue; "which, in one unbroken ftory, and an elegant diction, re"lated the deeds of the British kings from Brutus to Cadwal"lader. At his request, although unused to rhetorical flou"rishes, and contented with the fimplicity of my own plain "language, I undertook the translation of that book into "Latin." B. i. ch. i. See alfo B. xii. ch. xx. Some writer's suppose, that Geoffrey pretended to have received his materials There is printed, "Le Roman ầu "noble et vaillant Chevalier Triftan fils "du noble roy Meladus de Leonnoys, par Luce, chevalier, feigneur du chaf"teau de Gaft. Rouen, 1489. fol." from |