which were successively converted into French lays and fabliaux.

If we should search in real history for a model of that imaginary excellence, which constituted a hero of romance, we should find it in the person of our Richard I. He was profusely liberal, particularly to the minstrels: he was, perhaps, himself a minstrel; he possessed the most astonishing bodily strength, and the most intrepid valour, sufficiently blended with enthusiasm, and directed to no intelligible purpose. The poets whom he patronized, Iwould have been no less deficient in taste than in gratitude, had they failed to place him, after his death, among the heroes whom he imitated, and perhaps surpassed; particularly as the materials for his apotheosis were to be found in all languages and countries. Tanner mentions (says Mr. Warton), as a poet of England, one Gulielmus Peregrinus, who accompanied Richard I. into the Holy Land, and sung his achievements there, in a Latin poem entitled Odoeporicon Ricardi Regis, dedicated to Herbert, archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Turnham, a captain in the expedition. He is called "Poeta per eam ætatem excellens." The French minstrels in Richard's army were so numerous, that the writer of his life, would only be embarrassed by the trouble of selection; and it may be supposed

that his romance must have been finished by the middle of the thirteenth century, because it is referred to by Robert of Gloucester, as a work already in general circulation. When, or by whom it was translated, is not known; but as the exploits of so popular a monarch, were likely to find their way into the language of his subjects, as soon as the art of rhyming began to be generally practised in England, we may safely refer the translation to the reign of Edward II.

To the same period, Mr. Warton also assigns the popular stories of SIR GUY, THE SQUIRE OF LOW DEGREE, SIR DEGORE, KING ROBERT OF SICILY, THE KING OF TARS, IPPOMEDON, and La Mort Artur ; from all of which he has given us extracts. But as he suspects that they have, in common with the romance of Richard Cœur de Lion, undergone considerable alterations in their language, from frequent transcription, it may be proper to dismiss them for the present, and pass on to the only writer of English rhymes in this reign, whose name has been transmitted to us, and whose works appear to have been preserved in their original simplicity of language: this is Adam Davie. "He may "be placed (says Mr. Warton) about the year 1312. "I can collect no circumstances of his life, but "that he was marshall of Stratford le Bow, near

"London. He has left several poems, which are "almost as much forgotten as his name. Only 66 one MSS. of these pieces now remains, which 66 seems to be coeval with its author; it is in the "Bodleian library, MSS. Laud. i. 74. fol. mem"bran. It is much damaged, and on that account "is often illegible."

Adam Davie's works consist of Visions; the Battle of Jerusalem; the Legend of St. Alexius; Scripture Histories of fifteen tokens before the day of judgment; Lamentations of Souls; and the Life of Alexander. This last is his principal work, and, as we are told, well deserves to be printed entire. It is founded on Simeon Seth's history, lately mentioned, but with many passages that are apparently borrowed from the French Roman d'Alexandre.

The following is the description of a splendid procession made by Queen Olympias:

In they time, fair and jolif,
Olympias, that fair wife,

Woulden make a rich feast

Of knights, and ladies honést,*

Of burgess, and of juglers,

And of men of each mestiers.3

' Pretty. Fr.

Trade, occupation. Fr.

• Well-bred. Fr.

Mickle she desireth to shew her body,
Her fair hair, her face ruddy,

To have los, and all praising:

And all is folly! by Heaven's King!—
In fair attire, in diverse guise,
Many there rode in rich wise.
So did the dame Olympia's
For to shew her gentil2 face.
A mule, all so white so milk,
With saddle of gold, sambuc 3 of silk,
Was y-brought to the queen,
And many bell of silver sheen,
Y-fastened on orfraies of mound4
That hangen near down to ground.
Forth she fared mid her rout;
A thousand ladies of rich suit.

Commendation. Fr.
Elegant. Fr.

3 A saddle-cloth, or housing. Fr.

4 Orfrais, aurifrigium, is gold embroidery. It appears, however, from a passage in Mandeville, to have meant a border of embroidery. "And all the robes ben orfrayed alle "abouten the second thousand is all clothed in clothes "diapred of red silk, all wrought with gold, and the orfrayes "set full of great pearls," &c. 8vo. edit. p. 280. The meaning of the word mound is not easy to ascertain: Does it relate to raised or embossed work? or does it mean embroidery of pure gold, from the French word monder?

A sparrow-hawk that was honest
So sat on the lady's fist.
Four trumps tofore her blew;
Many men that day her knew:
A hundred thousand, and eke mo,
All alonton' her unto.

All the town be-hanged was,
Against the lady Olympias.

Orgues, chymbes, each manner glee,2
Was drynan3 ayen that lady free.
Withouten the town's muréy 5

Was mered each manner play.
There was knights tornaying,
also wrestling.

Of lions' chace, and bear-baiting,

A bay of boar, of bull slayting.
All the city was behung

8

With rich samyts7 and pelles long.

'Went; from aller, Fr. says Mr. Warton. Quere, if it be not alentour?

2

Organs, cymbals, and all sorts of music.

Ringing? drignon, Old Fr. is a chime of bells. Vide

La Combe, Dict. du Vieux Lang.

4 Against; in the presence of.

5 Walls. Fr.

• Probably seen, gazed at; miré. Fr. 7 Satins. Fr.

Palls, or perhaps furs; pelisses. Fr.