'firmaculis hapsis et clavis argenteis ad magnum librum ROMANCIS regis.' [Rot. Pip. an. 21. Henr. III.] That this superb volume was in French, may be partly collected from the title which they gave it: and it is highly probable, that it contained the Romance of Richard I., on which I shall enlarge below. At least the victorious achievements of that monarch were so famous in the reign of Henry III., as to be made the subject of a picture in the royal palace of Clarendon near Salisbury. A circumstance which likewise appears from the same ancient record under the year 1246. Et in camera regis subtus ca'pellam regis apud Clarendon lambruscanda, et muro ex transverso 'illius cameræ amovendo et hystoria Antiochiæ in eadem depingenda 'cum DUELLO REGIS RICARDI'.' To these anecdotes we may add, that in the royal library at Paris there is, 'Lancelot du Lac mis en 'Francois par Robert de Borron, du commandement d' Henri roi de 'Angleterre avec figures! And the same manuscript occurs twice again in that library in three volumes, and in four volumes of the largest folio. [See Montf. ibid.] Which of our Henrys it was who thus commanded the romance of LANCELOT DU LAC to be translated into French, is indeed uncertain: but most probably it was Henry the third just mentioned, as the translator Robert Borron is placed soon after the year 12003. '[In Bennet college library at Cambridge, there is an English poem on the SANGREAL, and its appendages, containing 40,000 verses. MSS. LXXX. chart. The MSS. is imperfect both at the beginning and at the end. The title at the head of the first page is ACTA ARTHURi Regis, written probably by Joceline, chaplain and secretary to archbishop Parker. The narrative, which appears to be on one continued subject. is divided into books, or sections, of unequal length. It is a translation made from Robert Borron's French romance called LANCELOT, abovementioned, which includes the adventure of the SANGREAL, by Henry Lonelich Skynner, a name which I never remember to have seen among those of the English poets. The diction is of the age of king Henry VI. Borel, in his TRESOR de Recherches et Antiquitez Gauloises et Francoises, says, ' Il y'a un Roman ancien intitule LE CONQUESTE 1 Rot. Pip. an. 36. Henr. III. Richard I. performed great feats at the siege of Antioch in the crusade. The Duelum was another of his exploits among the Saracens. Compare Walpole's Anecd. Paint. i. 10. Who mentions a certain great book borrowed for the queen, written in French, containing GESTA ANTIOCHIE et regum aliorum, &c. This was in the year 1249. He adds, that there was a chamber in the old palace of Westminster, painted with this history, in the reign of Henry the third, and therefore called the ANTIOCH CHAMBER: and another in the Tower. Cod. 6783. fol. max. See Montfauc. Catal. MSS. p. 785. a. 3 Among the infinite number of old MSS. French romances on this subject in the same noble repository, the learned Montfaucon recites, Le Roman de Triftan et Iseult traduit de Latin en Francois par Lucas chevalier sieur du chastel du Gast pres de Salisberi, Anglois, avec 'figures.' Cod. 6776, fol. max. And again, Livres de Tristan mis en Francois par Lucas chevalier sieur de chateau du Gat.' Cod. 6956. seq. fol. max. In another article, this translator the chevalier Lucas, of whom I can give no account, is called Huc or Hue. Cod. 6976. seq. Nor do I know of any castle, or place, of this name near Salisbury. Cod. 7174. 80 SEYNT GRAAL BY HERRY LONELICH, HYHTE. 'DE SANGREALL, &c.' Edit. 1655. 4to. V. GRAAL. It is difficult to determine with any precision which is Robert Borron's French Romance now under consideration, as so many have been written on the subject. The diligence and accuracy of Mr. Nasmith have furnished me with the following transcript from Lonclich Skynner's translation in Bennet college library. Thanne passeth forth this storye with al Of mochel peple with owten mys * * * * * Now of al this storie have I mad an ende That is schwede of Celidoygne and now forthere to wend Of the storye that we clepen prophet Merlynne This storie he drowgh be adventure and chaunce The swettere to sowne to more and lyte Thanne owthir Frensh other Latyn to my supposing * * * * * * Thanne Merlyn to Blasye cam anon I schall be sowht quod Merlyne tho This sewrawnce hav they mad to her kyng And thou into othir partyes schalt wel son Which that is icleped the SEYNT GRAAL There scholen ze it fynde and ze weten look But leve me now of BRWTTES book And aftyr this storye now lete us look. After this latter extract, which is to be found nearly in the middle of the manuscript, the scene and personages of the poem are changed; and king Enalach, king Mordrens, sir Nesciens, Joseph of Arimathea, and the other heroes of the former part, give place to king Arthur, king Brangors, king Loth, and the monarchs and champions of the British line. In a paragraph, very similar to the second of these extracts, the following note is written in the hand of the text, Henry Lonelich Skynner, that translated this boke out of Frenshe into Englyshe, at the instaunce of Harry Barton. The QUEST OF THE SANGREAL, as it is called, in which devotion and necromancy are equally concerned, makes a considerable part of king Arthur's romantic history, and was one grand object of the knights of the Round Table. He who achieved this hazardous adventure was to be placed there in the siege perillous, or seat of danger. 'When 'Merlyn had ordayned the rounde table, he said, by them that be 'fellowes of the rounde table the truthe of the SANGREAL shall be 'well knowne, &c.-They which heard Merlyn say soe, said thus to 'Merlyn, sithence there shall be such a knight, thou shouldest ordayne by thy craft a siege that no man should sitte therein, but he onlie which shall passe all other knights.-Then Merlyn made the siege 'perillous, &c.' Caxton's MORT D'ARTHUR, B. xiv. cap. ii. Sir · 82 SIR LANCELOT, KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNYHTS' GUEST. Lancelot, who is come but of the eighth degree from our Lord Jesus Christ, is represented as the chief adventurer in this honourable expedition. Ibid. B. iii. c. 35. At a celebration of the feast of Pentecost at Camelot by king Arthur, the Sangreal suddenly enters the hall, 'but there was no man might see it nor who bare it,' and the knights, as by some invisible power, are instantly supplied with a feast of the choicest dishes. Ibid. c. 35. Originally LE BRUT, LANCELOT, TRISTAN, and the SAINT GREAL were separate histories; but they were so connected and confounded before the year 1200, that the same title became applicable to all. The book of the SANGREAL, a separate work, is referred to in MORTE ARTHUR. 'Now after that the quest ' of the SANCGREALL was fulfylled, and that all the knyghtes that were 'lefte alive were come agayne to the Rounde Table, as the BOOKE OF 'THE SANCGREALL makethe mencion, than was there grete joye in the 'courte. And especiallie king Arthur and quene Guenever made grete 'joye of the remnaunt that were come home. And passynge glad was 'the kinge and quene of syr Launcelot and syr Bors, for they had been 'passynge longe awaye in the quest of the SANCGREALL. Then, as 'the Frenshe booke sayeth, syr Lancelot, &c.' B. xviii. cap. I. And again, in the same romance. 'Whan syr Bors had tolde him [Arthur] ' of the adventures of the SANCGREALL, such as had befallen hym and 'his felawes,—all this was made in grete bookes, and put in almeryes at 'Salisbury.' B. xvii. cap. xxiii.1 The former part of this passage is almost literally translated from one in the French romance of TRISTAN, Bibl. Reg. MSS. 20 D. ii. fol. antep. Quant Boort ot conte ' laventure del Saint Graal teles com eles esloient avenues, eles furent 'mises en escrit, gardees en lamere de Salibieres, dont Mestre GALTIER 'MAP l'estrest a faist son livre du Saint Graal por lamor du roy Herri son sengor, qui fist lestoire tralater del Latin en romanz1? Whether Salisbury, or Salibieres is, in the two passages, the right reading, I cannot ascertain. But in the royal library at Paris there is 'Le Roman 'de TRISTAN ET ISEULT, traduit de Latin en Francois, par Lucas 'chevalier du Gast pres de Sarisberi, Anglois, avec figures.' Montfauc. CATAL. MSS. Cod. Reg. Paris. Cod. 6776. fol. max. And again Cod. 6956. fol. max. 'Liveres de TRISTAN mis en Francois par Lucas 'chevalier sieur de chateau du Gat?! Almeryes in the English, and l'Amere, properly aumoire in the French, mean, I believe, Presses, Chests, or Archives. Ambry, in this sense, is not an uncommon old English word. From the second part of the first French quotation which I have distinguished by Italics, it appears, that Walter Mapes, a learned archdeacon in England, under the reign of king Henry III., wrote a French SANGREAL, which he translated from Latin, by the 1 The romance says, that king Arthur 'made grete clerkes com before him that they should 'cronicle the adventures of these goode knygtes." There is printed, 'Le Roman du noble et vaillant Chevalier Tristan fils du noble roy Me'liadus de Leonnoys, par Luce, chevalier, seigneur du chasteau de Gast. Rouen, 1489. fol." command of that monarch. Under the idea, that Walter Mapes was a writer on this subject, and in the fabulous way, some critics may be induced to think, that the WALTER, archdeacon of Oxford, from whom Geoffrey of Monmouth professes to have received the materials of his history, was this Walter Mapes, and not Walter Calenius, who was also an eminent scholar, and an archdeacon of Oxford. Geoffrey says in his Dedication to Robert earl of Gloucester, 'Finding nothing said 'in Bede or Gildas of king Arthur and his success ours, although their 'actions highly deserved to be recorded in writing, and are orally cele'brated by the British bards, I was much surprised at so strange an 'omission. At length Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, a man of great 'eloquence, and learned in foreign histories, offered me an ancient 'book in the British or Armorican tongue; which, in one unbroken 'story, and an elegant diction, related the deeds of the British kings 'from Brutus to Cadwallader. At his request, although unused to 'rhetorical flourishes, and contented with the simplicity of my own 'plain language, I undertook the translation of that book into Latin.' B. i. ch. i. See also B. xii. ch. xx. Some writers suppose, that Geoffrey pretended to have received his materials from archdeacon Walter, by way of authenticating his romantic history. These notices seem to disprove that suspicion. In the year 1488, a French romance was published, in two magnificent folio volumes, entitled HISTORIE de ROY ARTUS et des CHEVALIERS de la TABLE RONDE. The first volume was printed at Rouen, the second at Paris. It contains in four detached parts, the Birth and Achievements of king Arthur, the Life of Sir Lancelot, the Adventure of the Sangreal, and the Death of Arthur, and his Knights. In the body of the work, this romance more than once is said to be written by Walter Map or Mapes, and by the command of his master king Henry. For instance, tom. ii. at the end of PARTIE DU SAINT GRAAL, Signat. d d i. 'Cy fine Maistre 'GUALTIER MAP son traittie du Saint Graal.' Again, tom. ii. La DERNIERE PARTIE, ch. i. Signat. d d ii. 'Apres ce que Maistre 'GUALTIER MAP eut tractie des avantures du Saint Graal, assez 'soufisamment, sicomme il luy sembloit, il fut ad adviz au ROY HENRY 'SON SEIGNEUR, que ce quil avoit fait ne debuit soufrire sil ne racontoys 'la fin de ceulx dont il fait mention.-Et commence Maistre Gualtier 'en telle manier ceste derniere partie.' This derniere partie treats of the death of king Arthur and his knights. At the end of the second tome there is this colophon, 'Cy fine le dernier volume de La Table 'Ronde, faisant mencion des fais et proesses de monseigneur Launcelot 'du Lac et dautres plusieurs nobles et vaillans hommes ses compagnons. Compile et extraict precisement et au juste des vrayes histores 'faisantes de ce mencion par tresnotable et tresexpert historien Maistre 'GUALTIER MAP, et imprime a Paris par Jehan du Pre. Et lan du grace, mil. cccc. iiiixx. et viii. le xvi jour du Septembre.' The passage |