I am thy bride, mine own dear lord! The same which thou didst know, Now gentle Gawaine, choose, quoth she, My fair lady! Sir Gawaine said, Now blessed be thou, sweet Gawaine ! My father was an aged knight, And yet it chanced so, He took to wife a false lady, Which brought me to this woe. She witched me, being a fair young maid, In the green forest to dwell, And there to abide in loathly shape, Most like a fiend of hell. Midst moors and mosses, woods and wilds, To lead a lonesome life, Till some young, fair, and courtly knight Would marry me to his wife. 70 Nor fully to gain my own true shape,— Until he would yield to be ruled by me, She witched my brother to a carlish boor, But now the spell is broken through, [The original contains nine more stanzas, which describe the subsequent congratulations of the monarch and his courtiers]. thy chance is fallen arright for thou hast gotten one of the fairest maids I euer saw with my sight It is my fortune said S Gawaine for my Vncle Arthurs sake I am glad as grasse wold be of raine S' Gawaine took the ladye by the one arme they led her straight to K. Arthur K Arthur welcumed them there all K Arthur beheld that ladye faire for S Gawaine that gentle knight Soe did the knights both more and lesse reioiced all that day for the good chance y' hapened was to S Gawaine & his ladye gaye FFINIS. KING ARTHUR'S DEATH. THIS Composition, with several others, is taken from the old romance of MORTE D'ARTHUR; but in this, according to Dr. Percy, are several variations, coinciding with the traditions of the ancient Welsh Bards, who believed that this king was not dead, but in some secret and pleasant place, under the care of the fairies, from whence he should at some time return, to resume the sceptre of Britain: a fond and extravagant tradition, which obtained a very general reception, and is mentioned in several of the old Chronicles. "The Bretons supposed that he shall come yet, and conquer all Bretaigne; for certes, this is the prophecy of Merlin. He sayd, that his death shall be douteous; and sayd sooth (i. e. truth), for men thereof yet have doubte, and shullen (shall) for evermore, for men wyl not whether that he lyveth or is dede." An old Chronicle of Gerard de Leew. Antwerp, 1493.-Dr. PERCY. See also, Don Quixote, Chap. xiii. "Have you not read, sir," answered Don Quixote, "the Annals and Histories of England? wherein are recorded the famous exploits of King Arthur, whom in our Castilian tongue we perpetually call King Artūs, of whom there goes an old tradition, and a common one all over that kingdom of Great Britain, that this king did not die, but that by magic art he was turned into a raven; and that, in process of time, he shall reign again, and recover his kingdom and sceptre: for which reason it cannot be proved, that from that time any Englishman hath killed a raven." Of this story of the raven, wherever Cervantes procured it, no traces are at present discoverable. A similar tradition in the instance of Don Sebastian King of Portugal, is actually believed by some of the Portuguese to the present day. He was missing after the battle fought at Tangiers, 1578, in which he doubtless met with an honorable death; but, as in the case of King Arthur, he was supposed to exist corporeally, in some enchanted retreat, from whence he was to return, in kingly pomp and dignity, to his native realm. King Arthur actually died A.D. 542, after a distinguished reign of twenty-six years.-ED. ON Trinity-Monday in the morn, This sore battle was doomed to be, Ere the first crowing of the cock, When as the king in his bed lay, Now as you are mine uncle dear, And as you prize your life this day, O meet not with your foe in fight— Put off the battle, if you may. For Sir Lancelot is now in France, And with him many a hardy knigh The king then called his nobles all, His nobles all this counsel gave, That, early in the morning, he Should send away an herald at arms, To ask a parley fair and free. Then twelve good knights King Arthur chose, The best of all that with him were, To parley with the foe in the field, And make with him agreement fair. The king he charged all his host, And Mordred on the other part, Twelve of his knights did likewise bring, * Sir Gawaine was lately dead. E |