the Library in the Louvre, in 1373, we find notices of volumes described, as, "No. 287. De Merlin, et des fais de Lancelot du Lac et de Gauvin, em prose," and again, “No. 302. Du Saint Graal, de Lancelot, de Gauvain, en grant volume plat, em prose." In the same manner must the passage of Caxton be understood, where he speaks of "the grete and many volumes of Seint Graal, Ghalehot, and Launcelotte de Lake, Gawayne, Perceval, Lyonel, and Tristram," which renders Southey's conjecture as to their separate form of no force. If we now turn to our English writers, we shall find the fame of Gawayne in full vigor from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The stream of romance which brought down the name of Arthur, invariably joined to it that of his courteous and valiant nephew; and his reputation in the popular estimation continued to retain its hold, in spite of the misrepresentations of the authors of the Tristan and the Gyron. John Hautville, author of the Archithrenius, written previous to the year 1207, places the following noble sentiments in our Hero's mouth, Et Walganus ego, qui nil reminiscor avara In some prefatory lines to the collection of Metrical Legends of the Saints, written shortly before the year 1300‡, we read,— * Proheme to Godefrey of Boloyne, fol. 1481. Compare his Preface to the Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry, fol. no date, but about 1484. + MS. Cott. Vesp. B. xxiii. f. 30, and MS. Harl. 4066, 2, f. 30. The knight previously says of himself, Et genus et gentem tribuit Lodonesia nutrix, Prebuit irriguam morum Cornubia mammam. ‡ Warton, in Hist. Engl. Poetr. says 1200, vol. i. pp. 14, 126, and is incautiously followed by Ritson, Metr. Rom. p. civ. I am surprised to find the same error repeated in Mr. Guest's valuable work on English Rhythms, vol. ii. p. 220. The same writer persists, p. Men wilnethe more yhere of batayle of kyngis Of Roulond and of Olyuere, and Gy of Warwyk, Of Wawayne and Tristram, that ne founde here ylike. MS. Bodl. 779, ap. Warton, vol. i. p. 126. Again, in the romance of Richard Cœur de Lion, composed probably within ten years of the same period, Many romances men make newe, Of good knyghtes, strong and trewe ; And of euery doseper; Of Alisandre and Charlemain, Off kyng Arthour and off Gawayn; How they were knyghtes good and curteys, Off Turpyn, and of Ogier Daneys*. In a curious poem in the Digby MS. No. 86, intitled "Le Cuntent parentre le Mauvis et la Russinole, written in the reign of Edward the First, is the following stanza: Nizttingale, thou hauest wrong, Wolt thou me senden of this lond, For ich holde with the ri3tte; I take witnesse of Sire Wawain, That Ihesu Crist 3af mi3t and main, And strengthe for to fiztte.-fol. 137+. my Preface 412, in assigning the year 1278 to Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, although in to Havelok I have pointed out a passage in it which proves it not to have been completed till after 1297. * Weber's Metr. Rom. ii. 4; see also ii. 261. He is greatly mistaken in supposing the romance of Ywaine and Gawin to be here alluded to. ↑ A fragment of the same poem, written thirty years later, is preserved in the Auchinleck MS., and is thence quoted by Leyden, in Complaynte of Scotland, p. 159. Chaucer's lines in reference to our hero are well known*, and so are the passages in the romance of Ywaine and Gawin†, composed nearly at the same period. In a legendary MS. work, intitled Cursor Mundi, of the same age, we read in the prologue, Man yhernes rimes for to here, And romans red on manere sere,— MS. Cott. Vesp. A. 111. fol. 11. In the fifteenth century there are numerous allusions to Sir Gawayne, and the vernacular translations of the Saint Graal and Merling, Mort Artus, Perceval¶, Launfal**, the Squyr of Lowe Degre††, and other romances, united with the publication of Malory's diffuse work towards the close of this period, must have powerfully operated in diffusing a knowledge of his romantic career. In a metrical version of Guido de Colonna's War of Troy, which has erroneously been attributed to Lydgate, the writer thus enumerates the popular fictions of the day, Canterbury Tales, 1. 10,409, and Rom. of the Rose, 1. 2209. Tyrwhitt's Glossary, in v. Gawain. L. 1419, ap. Ritson, Metr. Rom., vol. i. This copy of the poem is written in the northern dialect. See the same passage, with numerous variations, quoted from the Laud MSS., No. 416, Bodl. Library, in Warton, Hist. E. P., i. 127. § Preserved in Corpus Chr. Coll. Cambr., No. 80, and hitherto unpublished. The trans lator names himself Herry Lonelich: see Nasmyth's Catalogue, p. 55, 4to, 1777. || MS. Harl. 2252. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to. 1819. TMS. Eccles. Lincoln., A. 1. 17. ** Ritson's Metr. Rom., vol. i. ++ Ibid., vol. iii. Off Bevis, Gy, and of Gawayn, Off kyng Richard, and of Owayn, Off Rouland Ris and Aglavale. MS. Laud. 595, fol. 1. Bodl. Libr. And in the inedited romance of Syr Degrevante, a composition of much merit, we are told, Wt kyng Arthure, I wene, This comly knyghte; MS. Linc. A.1.17. In the reign of Henry the Eighth we learn from a curious passage in Skelton's Litle Boke of Phillip Sparow, what were the principal romance-stories then in vogue, and among them is "Gawen and Syr Guy," as well as Lancelot, Tristan, and Libius Diosconius, Gawayne's son. The repeated editions of such romances in the course of the sixteenth century must have rendered the name of Gawayne familiar to all, and at length, by the natural course of all popular literature, the ballad-makers succeeded the minstrels in the commemoration of his exploits. Perhaps one of the latest passages in which his name is used as a bye-word occurs in Laneham's amusing account of the actors in the Coventry pageant before Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth :-" But aware! keep bak, make room noow, heer they cum! And fyrst captin Cox,-an od man, I promiz yoo,-by profession a mason, and that right skilfull; very cunning in fens, and handy as Gawin, for hiz tonsword hangs |