And bids thee thy beard anon to him send,
Or else from thy jaws he will it off rend.

For his robe of state is a rich scarlet mantle,
With eleven kings beards bordered* about,
And there is room lefte yet in a kantle,

For thine to stande, to make the twelfth out:
This must be done, be thou never so stout;
This must be done, I tell thee no fable,
Maugre the teethe of all thy round table.

When this mortal message from his mouthe past,
Great was the noyse bothe in hall and in bower:
The king fum'd; the queene screecht; ladies were
aghast ;

Princes puffd; barons blustred; lords began lower; Knights stormed; squires startled, like steeds in a

stower;

Pages and yeomen yell'd out in the hall,

Then in came sir Kay, the king's' seneschal.

Silence, my soveraignes, quoth this courteous knight,
And in that stound the stowre began still:
Then' the dwarfe's dinner full deerely was dight;
Of wine and wassel he had his wille:

And, when he had eaten and drunken his fill,

An hundred pieces of fine coyned gold

Were given this dwarf for his message bold.

* i. e. set round the border, as furs are now round the gowns of Magistrates.

But say to sir Ryence, thou dwarf, quoth the king,
That for his bold message I do him defye;
And shortlye with basins and pans will him ring
Out of North-gales; where he and I

With swords, and not razors, quickly shall trye, Whether he, or King Arthur will prove the best barbor;

And therewith he shook his good sword Escalàbor.

** Strada, in his Prolusions, has ridiculed the story of the Giant's Mantle, made of the Beards of Kings.

IV.

KING ARTHUR'S DEATH.

A FRAGMENT.

The subject of this ballad is evidently taken from the old romance Morte Arthur, but with some variations, especially in the concluding stanzas; in which the author seems rather to follow the traditions of the old Welsh Bards, who "believed that King Ar"thur was not dead, but conveied awaie by the Fai"ries into some pleasant place, where he should re"maine for a time, and then returne againe and reign "in as great authority as ever." Holinshed, B. 5. c. 14. ; or, as it is expressed in an old Chronicle printed at Antwerp 1493, by Ger. de Leew, "The Bre"tons supposen, that he [K. Arthur]-shall come yet "and conquere all Bretaigne, for certes this is the "prophicye of Merlyn: He sayd, that his deth shall "be doubteous; and sayd soth, for men thereof yet "have doubte, and shullen for ever more,—for men "wyt not whether that he lyveth or is dede." See more ancient testimonies in Selden's Notes on Polyolbion, Song 3.

This fragment, being very incorrect and imperfect in the original MS. hath received some conjectural emendations, and even a supplement of 3 or 4 stanzas composed from the romance of MORTE Arthur.

*

ON Trinitye Mondaye in the morne,

This sore battayle was doom'd to bee; Where manye a knighte cry'd, Well-awaye! Alacke, it was the more pittìe.

Ere the first crowinge of the cocke,

When as the kinge in his bed laye,

He thoughte sir Gawaine to him came.'
And there to him these wordes did saye.

Nowe, as you are mine unkle deare,

And as you prize your life, this daye
O meet not with your foe in fighte;
Putt off the battayle, if yee maye.

For sir Launcelot is nowe in Fraunce,
And with him many an hardye knighte:
Who will within this moneth be backe,

And will assiste yee in the fighte.

The kinge then call'd his nobles all,
Before the breakinge of the daye;

And tolde them howe sir Gawaine came,

5

10

15

And there to him these wordes did saye. 20

His nobles all this counsayle gave,

That earlye in the morning, hee

Shold send awaye an herauld at armes,

To aske a parley faire and free.

Then twelve good knightes king Arthure chose,

The best of all that with him were:

To parley with the foe in field,

And make with him agreement faire.

26

• Sir Gawaine had been killed at Arthur's landing on his return from abroad. See the next Ballad, ver. 73.

The king he charged all his hoste,

In readinesse there for to bee:

But noe man sholde noe weapon sturre,
Unlesse a sword drawne they shold see.

And Mordred on the other parte,

Twelve of his knights did likewise bringe;

The beste of all his companye,

To hold the parley with the kinge.

Sir Mordred alsoe charged his hoste,
In readinesse there for to bee;
But noe man sholde noe weapon sturre,
But if a sworde drawne they shold see.

For he durste not his unkle truste,

Nor he his nephewe, sothe to tell: Alacke! it was a woefulle case,

30

35

40

As ere in Christentye befelle.

But when they were together mette,

And both to faire accordance broughte;

And a month's league betweene them sette,
Before the battayle sholde be foughte;

An addere crept forth of a bushe,

45

Stunge one o' th' king's knightes on the knee:

Alacke! it was a woefulle chance,

As ever was in Christentie.

Ver. 41, 42. the folio MS. reads father.

.....

sonne.

51