SIR TRISTREM. FYTTE FIRST. ARGUMENT. Stanza 1.-The narrator announces, that he is about to relate the birth and adventures of SIR TRISTREM, as they had been communicated to him by THOMAS of Erceldoune. 2.-He bewails the degeneracy of his age, which he likens to the change which the approaching winter must produce upon the appearance of the fields and groves. 2. 3. 4. 5.—There is introduced, somewhat abruptly, an account of a war betwixt two feudal chiefs, the Duke Morgan, and Rouland Rise, Lord of Ermonie, in which the latter is victorious. 6.-A truce having taken place for seven years, Rouland repairs to the court of Mark, King of Cornwall. 7.-A tournament is held at the court of Cornwall, in which Rouland gains the victory, and, at the same time, wins the heart of the Princess Blaunche Flour, sister to King Mark. 8.-The Princess discovers her passion to her preceptors. 9.-The praise of Rouland Rise, with an obscure account of his being wounded in battle, and of the consequent distress of Blaunche Flour. 10.-The Princess repairs in private to the chamber of the wounded knight, and SIR TRISTREM owes his birth to this stolen interview. 11. 12.-Rouland is informed by a trusty vassal, called Rohand, that Duke Morgan has invaded his dominions in breach of truce. 13. 14. 15.-The Princess elopes with her lover, who returns to the defence of his country; they arrive safely at a castle belonging to Rohand, where, it would seem, they are married. 16.Duke Morgan comes against Rouland with a great army. Stanzas 17. 18. 19.-A dreadful battle, in which Rouland has at first the advantage; but the Duke, being reinforced, defeats and slays him by treachery, after he has achieved prodigies of valour. 20. 21. 22.-Blaunche Flour, then in the pains of child-birth, learns the death of her husband. Under these distressing circumstances Tristrem is born; and his mother, after recommending him to the care of Rohand, and bequeathing him a ring, as a token of his propinquity to King Mark, expires amid the lamentations of her attendants. 23.-Rohand, to secure the safety of his ward, passes him for his own child, under the inverted appellation of Tramtris. 24. 25.-Morgan attains the absolute dominion of Ermonie, and Rohand pays him constrained and dissembled homage. 26. 27.—The education of Tristrem, during the first fifteen years of his life. His skill in minstrelsy, in the mysteries of the chase, and in all knightly games. 28.-A Norwegian vessel arrives, freighted with hawks and with treasure. Tristrem learns that the captain had challenged any one to play at chess, for a stake of twenty shillings. 29. 30. 31.-Rohand and his sons, with Tristrem, go on board the Norwegian vessel. Tris |