Anno 1411. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW. Printed in the "Evergreen," by Allan Ramsay, from (as supposed) a modernised copy. Any edition prior to that of 1668. SIR EGEIR, SIR GRYME, AND SIR GRAY STEILL. A good text of this story occurs in Bishop Percy's Folio MS., as edited by Furnivall and Hales. Any edition prior to that of 1687. Comp. introductory notice to the text, infra. The present work must necessarily have a very limited circulation, yet trusting that such a Collection is neither unworthy of public attention, nor of the care that has been bestowed in forming it, the Editor, with all due feeling of grateful esteem, would inscribe it as a slight but sincere tribute of respect to the Distinguished Author, to whom, of all others, the literature of his native country is most deeply beholden :-Whose zeal in its cause has been shown, no less in a friendly and generous encouragement of those engaged in its cultivation, than in his own successful exertions in behalf of the unregarded and traditionary productions of former ages;-and who has, at the same time, so eminently sustained and extended the reputation of our national literary character, by those original compositions which have shed so much lustre over the Minstrelsy and Romance of Scotland, and have happily displayed the extent and fertility of his own surpassing genius. [EDINBURGH, 1822–6.] [DAVID LAING.] The awntyrs off Arthure at the ΤΗ HE Romance which follows bears such a close resemblance in subject, style, and manner to "the Knightly tale of Golagrus and Gawane,"1 that both have generally been attributed to one and the same author. It was a style of composition for which, for a length of time, the Northern Poets were particularly renowned; for although the use of alliteration was not entirely peculiar to them, it was, at least, one distinguishing feature of their compositions. Thus Chaucer makes "his Persone" to say 66 I am a Sotherne man I can not geste, Rom, Ram, Ruf, by my letter, George Gascoigne, in his Certayne Notes of Instruction, has the following reference to this curious passage:-"In making a delectable poem," he says, "it is not enough to roll in pleasant woordes, nor yet to thunder in Rym, Ram, Ruff by letter, (quoth my maister Chaucer,) nor yet to abounde in apte vocables, or epithets, unlesse the invention have in it also aliquid salis." The antiquity of these tales is unquestionably considerable; and but for our knowledge of other similar alliterative poems, of which the dates are ascertained, and go far to rival these in point of obscurity, we might be justified in 1 Reprinted, with other similar pieces, from the original copies, under the editorship of David Laing, 4to, 1827. 2 Works by Hazlitt, 1869, i. 500. VOL. I. A carrying them back to a very remote period. The only conjecture that can be offered respecting their author is founded on the slight allusion in Dunbar's "Lament for the Death of the Makaris," where he says Clerk of Tranent eik he hes tane That made the aventers of Sir Gawane. 1 As different poems of the Adventures of Sir Gawane are known, we are prevented from ascribing one or other of them to Clerk with any degree of certainty; besides, we have the authority of Andrew of Wyntoun for assigning them to Hucheon, another of our early Poets (by whom the reader will find a specimen, in the same alliterative style, in the present volume). Wyntoun says "He made the gret Gest of Arthure, And the Awntyre of Gawane." The Editor has been favoured by his friend, Dr. Robert Anderson, whose attachment and valuable contributions to our national literature are well known, with a sight of some remarks on this ancient romance, by the late Alexander Thomson, Esq. They occur among the Collections which he had made for a History of Scotish Poetry. The following extract will evince the discrimination which he was capable of showing, and the value that might have been attached to his labours had he proceeded farther in completing such an important undertaking : : The most glaring imperfections of this Romance [Gawan and Galoran of Galloway] is undoubtedly its deficiency in unity of action, the two parts being entirely unconnected. In this respect it is inferior to the former, although the appearance and behaviour of the ghost displays more of fancy and of poetry than anything to be found in the Gawan and Gologras. It is, however, to be wished that this marvellous incident had constituted the latter half of the poem, as the entrance of Galoran, at the banquet of Arthur, would have opened the piece in a striking manner; and the whole of that story must have been more interesting had it pre 1 See them collected and edited by Sir F. Madden, 4to, 1839; and some have been re-edited for the E. E. Text Society. |