SECTION XXIV.

Two more poets remain to be mentioned under the reign of Henry VI., if mere translation merit that appellation. These are Hugh Campeden and Thomas Chester.

The first was a great traveller, and translated into English verse the French romance of SIDRAC2. This translation, a book of uncommon rarity, was printed with the following title, at the expence of Robert Saltwood, a monk of St. Austin's convent at Canterbury, in the year 1510. 'The Historie of king Boccus and SYDRACK how 'he confoundyd his learned men, and in the fight of them dronke 'stronge venyme in the name of the trinite and dyd him no hurt. 'Also his divynite that he lerned of the boke of Noc. Also his 'profesyes that he had by revelation of the angel. Also his aunsweris 'to the questyons of wysdom both morall and naturall with much 'wysdom contayned in [the] noumber CCCLXV. Translated by Hugo 'of Caumpeden out of French into Englisshe, &c.' There is no sort of elegance in the diction, nor harmony in the versification. It is in the minstrel-metre2.

Thomas Chestre appears also to have been a writer for the minstrels. No anecdote of his life is preserved. He has left a poem

1 With a wooden cut of Bocchus, and Sidracke. There is a fine MSS. of this translation, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud. G. 57, pergam.

MSS. Laud. G. 57, Princip.

Men may fynde in olde bookes
That men may mooche here
I shall teche yoowe a lytill jeste
There was a kynge that Boctus hyght
His londe lay de grete Inde
After the tyme of Noee even
The kynge Bochus hym be thought
The rede Jewes fro hym spere
A yenst a kyng that was hys foo
His name was Garaab the kyng
And smartly a towre begenne he
And it was right at the incomyng
The masons with grete laboure
And all that they wroghten on day
On morn when Bochus hit herde
And dyd hyt all new begynne
Off worke when they went to reste
Well vii monthes this thei wrought
Boccus was wroth wonderly
Councellith me lordinges seyde hee
They sayde sir sendith a noon
And the astronomers of your londe
Afterwards king Tractabare is requested to send

Who soo yat in them lookes

And yerefore yff yat yee wolle lere
That befell oony's in the este
And was a man of mooche myght
Bectorye hight hit as we fynde
VIIJte hundred yere fourty and seven
That he would have a citee wrought
And for to mayntene his were

And hath moste of Inde longyng hym too
Bocchus tho proved all this thing
There he wolde make his citce
Of Garabys londe the kyng
Beganne to worke uppon the toure
On night was hit done away
Hee was wroth that hit so ferde
At even whan they shuld blynne
In the night was all downe heste
And in the night avaylid yt nought
And callid his folke that was hym by
Howe I may beste make this citce
Aftir your philosophers everychon
Of hem shall yce counseill fonde.

That whilom Noe had in baylye,

And that Hugh of Campedene
And untoo Englysh ryme hit brought.

Sidrake, who is a christian, at length builds the tower in Nomine S. Trinitatis, and he teaches Bocchus, who is an idolater, many articles of true religion. The only MSS. I have soen of this translation is among MSS. Laud. G. 57, fol. ut sup.

382

ROMANCE OF LANVAL, OR OF SIR LAUNSALE.

entitled Sir LAUNSALE, one of Arthur's knights: who is celebrated with other champions in a set of French metrical tales or romances, written by some Armorican bard, under the name of LANVAL'. They are in the British Museum3.

I think I have seen some evidence to prove, that Chestre was also the author of the metrical romance called the ERLE OF THOLOUSE3. This is one of the romances called LAIS by the poets of Britany, or Armorica: as appears from these lines,

1 It begins thus.

In romance this gest

A LEY of BRITAYN called I wys, &c.

Le douzty Artours dawes
Ther fell a wondyr cas,

LAUNFAL MILES.

That hyzt LAUNFAL and hatte zette.
Douzty Artour some whyle
With joye and greet solas,

With Artour of the rounde table,

Sere Persevall, and syr Gawyn,
And Lancelot du Lake,

That well couthe fyzt yn playn,
Kyng Ban Boort, and kyng Bos,
Men sawe tho no wher 2 her 3 make.
Whereof a noble tale

With Artour ther was a bachelor
LAUNFAL for soot [Soth] he hyzt,
Gold and sylver and clothes ryche,
For hys largesse and hys bounte
Ten yer I you plyzt,

So large ther was noon y founde,
So hyt befyll yn the tenth zere
He radde him for to wende
And fette hym ther a lady bryzt

In the conclusion.

THOMAS CHESTER made thys tale
Good of chyvalrye:

Zeve us all hys blessyng

Never printed. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2, f. 33. I am obliged to doctor Percy for this transcript. It was afterwards altered into the romance of sir LAMBWELL.

MSS. Harl. 978, 112, fol. i. 154.

'En Bretains l'apelent LAUNVAL.'

See a note at the beginning of Diss. i.

3 Never printed. MSS. Ashmol. Oxon. 45, 4to. [6926.] And MSS. More. Camb. 27. Princip.

Jesu Crist in trinite,

Lefe frendys I shall you telle

Far in unkouthe lade,

Only god in persons thre, &c.

Of a tale that sometyme befell
Howe a lady had grete myschefe, &c.

These

4 Perhaps ley in the fourth line of sir LAUNFAL may mean Lay in this sense. BRITISH LAIS, of which I have given specimens at the beginning of the FIRST DIS SERTATION, and of which sir LAUNFAL is one, are discovered to have been translated into French from the language of Armorican Bretagne, about the thirteenth century, by Marie a French poetess, who made the translation of ESOP abovementioned. See CANT. T. vol. iv, p. 165, edit. 1775. But Marie's was not the only Collection of BRITISH LAIS, in French: as appears not only from the EARL of THOLOUSE, but by the romance of EMARE, a translation from the French, which has this similar passage, St. ult.

Thys ys on of Brytayne layes

That was used of old dayes.

MSS. Cotton. Calig. A ii, fol. 69. The SONG of SIR GOWTHER is said by the writer to be

1 Or, Kerdevyle. f. Caerlisle.

2 Ther.

3 Match.

And that it is a translation, appears from the reference to an original, 'The Romans telleth so.' I will however give the outlines of the story, which is not uninteresting, nor inartificially constructed.

Dioclesian, a powerful emperour in Germany, has a rupture with 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 dayes
Rymeyed first in their owne Breton tonge,

Of divers aventoures madin their Layes,
Whiche layis with ther instruments thei songe.

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. 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.

MSS. DIGD. 86, Bibl. Bodl. membran. 4to. It probably existed before the year 1300. The story, which much resembles the old French metrical romance, called LE COURT MANTEL, is slightly 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 conrser, to a sumptuous feast held at Carleon by king Arthur, in order to try the fidelity of the knights and ladies, who are in number sixty thousand. Those who are false, in drinking from this horn, spill their wine. The only successful knight, or he who accomplishes the adventure, is Garaduc or Cradok. I will here give the description of the horn.

Un dauncel1,

Seur un cheval corant,
En sa main tont un COR
Ci com etoit diveure
Peres ici ont assises,
Berreles et sardoines,
Il fu fust de ollifaunt,
Ne si fort, ne si bel,
Neele de ad argent,
Perfectees de or fin,
Les fist une Fee,
E le corn destina
Qu sour le corn ferroit
Ses eschelettes cent

Qu harpe ne viele

Ne Sereigne du mer

Mout avenaunt et bel,
En palleis vint eraunt;
A quatre bendel de or,
Entaillez de ad trifure,
Qu en le or furent mises,
Et riches calcedoines;
Ounques ne ni si graunt,
Desus ont un anel,
Eschelettes il ont cent
En le tens Constantin,
Qu preuz ert, et sence,
Si cum vous orres ja:
Un petit de soun doit,
Sounent tant doucement,
Ne deduit de pucelle,
Nest tele desconter.

These lines may be thus interpreted. A boy, very graceful and beautiful, mounted on a 'swift horse, came into the palace of king Arthur. He bore in his hand a horn, having four

1 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 I., in a fragment of one of his Provencal sonnets. E lou donzel de Thuscana.

For Boys Tuscany is the country.' In Spanish, Lo Donzell. Andr. Bosch, Dels Titols de koner de Cathalanya. L. iii. c. 3. § 16. In some of these instances, the word is restrained to the sense of Squire. It is from the Latin DOMICELLUS. Froissart calls Richard II., when Prince of Wales, Le jeune Damoisel Richart.' tom. i. c. 325.

2 Or rather trifore. Undoubtedly from the Latin triforium, a rich ornamented edge or border. The Latin often occurs under Dugdale's INVENTORY of St. Paul's, in the MONASTICON, viz. Morsus [a buckle] W. de Ely argenteus, cresta ejus argentea, cum TRIFORIO exterius aureo et lapillis insitis, &c.' tom. iii. ECCL. CATH. p. 309. TRIFORIATUS repeatedly occurs in the same page, as thus. 'Morsus Petri de Blois TRIFORIATUS de auro. 'Medio circulo [of a buckle) aurato, TRIFORIATO, inserto grossis lapidibus, &c.'-' Cum multis lapidibus et perlis insitis in limbis, et quadraturis TRIPHORATUS aureis,' &c. &c. ibid. p. 309. et seq. It is sometimes written TRIFORIA. As, Pannus cujus campus purpureus, cum xiv listis in longitudine ad modum TRIFORIE contextis, ibid. p. 326. col. 2. TRIFURE, in the text, may be literally interpreted jewel-work. As in CHRON. S. Dion. tom. iii. Collect. Histor. Franc. p. 183. Il estoient de fin or esmere et aourne de tres riches pierres pre•cieuses d' uere [œuvre] TRIPHOIRE. Which Aimon calls, gemmisque ornata Opere inclusorio,' that is, work consisting of jewels set in. DE GEST. FRANC. Lib. ii. cap. ix. p. 44. G. edit. Paris 1603. fol.

384 DIOCLESIAN OF GERMANY AND BARNARD OF THOLOUSE.

Barnard earl of Tholouse, concerning boundaries of territory. Contrary to the repeated persuasions 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. earl is victorious, and carries home a great multitude of prisoners,

The

'bandages of gold; it was made of ivory, engraved with trifoire; many precious stones were 'set in the gold, beryls, sardonyces, and rich chalcedonies: it was of elephant [ivory]: 'nothing was ever so grand, so strong, or so beautiful: at bottom was a ring [or rim] wrought 'of silver; where were hanging an hundred little bells, framed of fine gold, in the days of Con'stantine, by a Fairy, brave and wise, for the purpose which ye have just heard me relate. If any one gently struck the horn with his finger, the hundred bells sounded so sweetly, that neither harp nor viol, nor the sports of a virgin, nor the syrens of the sea, could ever give such music." The author of this Lai is one Robert Bikez, as appears by the last lines; in which the horn is said still to be seen at Cirencester. From this tale came Ariosto's ENCHANTED CUP, ORL FURIOS. xlii. 92. And Fontaine's LA COUPE ENCHANTEE. From the COURT MANTEL, a fiction of the same tendency, and which was common among the Welsh bards, Spenser borrowed the wonderful virtues and effects of his FLORIMEL'S GIRDLE, iv. 5. 3. Both stories are connected in an ancient Ballad published by Percy. vol. iii. p. 1.

In the Digby MSS., which contains La Lai du Čor 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 such as seem most likely to throw light on the subjects or allusions of our ancient English poetry. Le Romaunz Peres Aunfour [Alfonse] coment il aprist et chastia son fils belement. [See Notes to CANTERB. T. p. 328. vol. iv.] De un demi ami.-De un bon ami enter.-De un sage 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 serpente et de un gopil.-De un roi et de un versifiour.-De ii clercs escolieres.-De un prodome et de sa male femme.-Del engine de femme del nelons.-Del espee autre engin de femme.-De un roy et de un fableour.-De une veille et de une lisette.-De la gile de la per e el pin.-De un prod femme bone eointisc. [Pr. Un Espagnol ceo vy counter."]-De ii menestreus. [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 esquier-De Socrates et de roi Alisaundre.-De roi Alisaundre et de ị philo sophe.-De un philosofel et del alme.-Ci commence le romaunz de Enfer, Le Sounge Rauf de Hodenge de la voie denfer. [Ad calc. 'Rauf de Hodeng, saunz mensounge,-Qu cest romaunz fist de sun songe. Verdier, BIBL. FR. ii. 394. v. 394 Paris, 1773.1-De un vallet qui soutint dames et dammaisales.-De Romme et de Gerusalem.-La lais du corn.—Le fabel del gelous.-Ci comence la bertournee.-La vie de un vaillet amerous.-De files.. [Pr. Un rois estoit de graunt pouer.'-How Fheu Crift herewede helle, &c. Le xv singnes [signes] de domesday. [Pr. Fifteene toknenich may.' Ci comence la vie seint Eustace ci ont nom Placidas.

MSS. VERNON, fol. 170, ut supr.–Le diz de seint Bernard.. [Pr. 'þe blessinge of hevene kinge.'-Vbi sont ci ante nos fuerount. [In English.]-|———Chauncon de nostre dame. [Pr. Stond wel moder ounder rode.']-Here beginneth the sawe of saint Bede preest.. [Pr. 'Holi gost þi migtee.]-Comment le saunter notre dame fu primes cuntrone. [Pr. 'Luedi swete 'and milde.'-Les peines de enfen. [Pr. 'Oiez Seynours une demande,']—Le regret de Maximian. [Pr. 'Herkenep to mi ron." MSS. HARL. 2253, f. 82.]-Ci comence le cuntent par entre le mavis et la russinole. [Pr. Somer is cumen wip love to tonne.'-Of the tox and of the wolf. [Pr. A vox gon out of pe wode go.']—Hending the hende. [MSS. HARL. 2253, 89, fol. 125.]—Les proverbes del vilain.-Les miracles de seint NICHOLAS.-Ragemen le bon.-Chancun del secle. [In English.]-Ci comence le fable et la courtise de dame siri [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 nostre dame.-Ci comence le doctrinal de enseignemens de curteisie-Ci comence les Aves noustre dame.-De ii chevalers tortske plenderent aroune.-Bonne pricur a nostre seigneur Thu Crist.-Ci comence lescrit de îi 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 stude I stod an lutell escrit to here."]-Ci commence la mauere que le amour est pur assaier. [Pr. Love is soft, love is swete, love is 'goed sware.']— -Chauncon de noustre seigneur. This MSS. seems to have been written about year 1304. Ralph Houdain, whose poem called VISION D'ENFER it contains, wrote about the year 1230.

The word LAI, I believe, was applied to any subject, and signified only the versification. Thus we have in the Bodleian library La LUMERE AS LAIS, par Mestre Pierre de Feccham.

Verai deu omnipotent

Kestes fin et commencement.

MSS POPL. 399. It is a system of theology in this species of metre.

the most respectable of which is sir Tralabas of Turky, whom he treats as his companion. In the midst of their festivities they talk of the beauties of the empress; the earl's curiosity is inflamed to see so matchless a lady, and he promises liberty to sir Tralabas, if he can be conducted unknown to the emperour's court, and obtain a sight of her without discovery. They both set forward, the earl disguised like a hermit. When they arrive at the emperour's court, sir Tralabas proves false: treacherously imparts the secret to the empress that he has brought with him the earl of Thoulouse in disguise, 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, enjoyns the knight not to communicate the secret any farther, and desires to see 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,
If ever I have grace of the,

Of the to have thys thyng!
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 consort in the custody of two knights, who attempting to gain her love without success, contrive a stratagem to defame her chastity. She is thrown into prison, and the emperor returns unexpectedly1, in consequence of a vision. The tale of the two treacherous knights is believed, and she is sentenced to the flames: yet under the restriction, that if a champion can be found who can foil the two knights in battle, her honour shall be cleared, and her life saved. A challenge is published in all parts of the world; and the earl of Tholouse, notwithstanding the animosities which still subsist between him and the emperour, privately undertakes her quarrel. He appears at the emperour's court in the habit of a monk, and obtains permission to act as confessor to the empress, in her present critical situation. In the course of the confession, she protests that she was always true to the emperour; yet owns that once she gave a ring to the earl of Tholouse. The supposed confessor pronounces her innocent of the charge brought against

1 The emperour's disappointment is thus described.

Anon to the chamber went he,

That was so swete a wyght:

Where is my wif is she on slepe?
The traytors answeryd anon,
The yonge knyght sir Artour,

For bale his armys abrode he sprede,

He longyd sore his wyf to se,

He caltyd theym that shulde her kepe,
How farys that byrd so bryght?

And ye wist how she had done, &c.-
That was her hervour, &c.

And fell in swoone on his bed.