NOTES ON FYTTE THIRD,

AND THE

CONCLUDING STANZAS.

Wales.-P. 145. st. 1.

It has been observed in the Introduction, that Wales originally comprehended all the western parts of England, which long continued in the possession of the Gael or Aboriginal Celts. Triamour and Blaunche Flour are, however, names of Norman derivation.

Urgun.-P. 145. st. 1.

I do not find this personage in the prose romance, but he seems to be alluded to in the Fragments. See p. 213.

He was red, grene, and blewe,

His name was Peticrewe.-P. 150. st. 10.

The colours of this marvellous hound are not more extraordinary than those which decorated the person of Jourdain de Blaves, a champion of romance. He was pied like a jay; one of his legs being whiter than snow, the other blacker than ebony; one arm rose-coloured, and the other of a yellow or

citron hue: beside which, he had a blood-red crosslet imprinted on each shoulder. This childish taste for the marvellous marked the decay of romantic fiction. Peticrewe is the Cru of Mr Douce's Fragment. Out of the slight mention of Blaunche Floure, the daughter of Triamour, and of his dog, the author of the prose folio seems to have weaved the tragical adventure of Belinde, princess of France, who, desperately enamoured of Tristrem, slew herself upon his departure from the court of King Pharamond. On her death-bed she sent to the knight a fair "bratchet," and a letter, written with her own blood. "Comme celui meurt aisi, qui de amours meurt, et ne peust "de son amour trouver merci."-Tristan, ff. xxv.

Mark was fairly fain,

And Tristrem kist he.-P. 151. st. 12.

In the conduct of the story of Sir Tristrem, the most striking circumstance is the extreme ingratitude and profligacy of the hero. That a preux chevalier, who is held forth as the model of perfection, should, year after year, persist in an incestuous commerce with the wife of his uncle, and of an uncle to whom he owed his life and means of living, and by whose sword he was dubbed a knight, must appear monstrous to those who derive their notions of the romances of chivalry rather from theory than from perusing the originals. And certainly it forms an apology for those, by whom such romances, often containing matters of great interest and curiosity, were consigned to oblivion, that the morality which they taught was so vague and flexible in its nature, as to draw a veil over the most abominable crimes. In later times, indeed, the romance writers, who treated of Sir Tristrem, have endeavoured

+ Les Faits et Prouesses de Jourdain de Blaves, Paris, 1520.

in some degree to palliate the enormity of his guilt, by painting his uncle Mark as a base, felonious, and treacherous dastard, for whom no ignominy could be too vile; in short, "le

66

plus vil roy, et le plus imbecille recreu qui fut." In the French folio, he is accused of repeated attempts to murder Tristrem, because a certain dwarf had foretold that he should be dishonoured by him. He is stated to have murdered, by felony, his own brother, and many other good knights; and, what was yet more unpardonable, although his subjects were cowardly to a proverb, the king was more cowardly than them all. The author, in short, has been so successful in conjuring up all the circumstances which can apologize for his heroine's frailty, that Monsieur de Tressan thinks the reader must be very rigorous who can blame her. But, without examining how far, in a moral view, the vices of the uncle apologize for the incest and adultery of the nephew, it is certain that the dark shades in the character of Mark can neither be found in the legend of Tomas of Erceldoune, nor in the metrical French romance, which afforded, in all probability, materials for the massive prose volume. In these ancient poems, the king of Cornwall is merely represented as a good-natured uxorious wittol, the most prominent feature of whose disposition seems to have been a blind attachment to a wife and nephew, by whom he was deceived and betrayed. Neither is the profligacy of Sir Tristrem peculiar to that champion, being an attribute of many of the Knights of the Round Table, against whom the learned Ascham thus inveighs : " In our forefathers' "time, when Papistrie, as a standing poole, covered and over"flowed all England, few bookes were red in our toong, sa

vyng certayne bookes of chivalrie, as they sayd, for pastime "and pleasure, which, as some say, were made in monaste "ries by idle monkes or wanton chanons. As one, for ex"ample, Morte Arthure, the whole pleasure of whiche booke

"standeth in two specyall poyntes; în open mans slaughtre, "and bolde bawdrie: in which bookes those be counted the "noblest knightes thate do kill most men without any quar "rell, and commit fowlest aduoulteries by sutlest shifts: as "Sir Lancelot with the wife of King Arthure, his maister : "Sir Tristrem with the wife of King Mark, his uncle: Syr "Lamerocke with the wife of King Lote, that was his own "aunte. This is good stuffe for wise men to laughe at, or "honest men to take pleasure at. Yet I know when God's "Bible was banished the court, and Morte Arthure receaved "into the prince's chamber. What toys the daily reading of "such a booke may work in the will of a yong gentleman, or

a yong maide, that liveth welthely and idlely, wise men can "judge, and honest men doe pittie."-ASCHAM's Schoole Master.

The best apology in Sir Tristrem's case, may be the powerful effects of the boire amoureuse; but many curious inferences might be drawn from such loose morality being a distinguishing feature of books of chivalry.

He cleped Tristrem with this,

And bi toke him the quene,

And flamed hem bothe Y wis.-P. 152. st. 14.

The prose folio is far from making the retreat of Tristrem and Ysonde the effect of banishment by King Mark. Andret, according to that authority, had beset Tristrem with a body of men, as he returned unarmed, and, to say truth, almost naked, out of the queen's apartment. The champion escaped into a chapel which overhung the sea, and was at length compelled to throw himself among the waves. With great difficulty he gained a small rock, or island. Meanwhile Mark commanded that Ysonde should be delivered up to the lepers, as a worse punishment than that of burning, to which he had originally

destined her. From these miserable and diseased outcasts the queen is rescued by Gouvernail, with a body of Tristrem's friends; for his valour and liberality had attached to him a strong party in Cornwall. The same assistance rescues the knight from perishing on the island. When Tristrem and Ysonde are thus reunited, they dismiss their followers, and plunge into the depths of the forest of Moroys, where they reside in the manner mentioned in the text, and in the frag ment, p. 226.

In that forest fede,

Tristrem Hodain gan chast.-P. 153. st. 16.

To chastise the dog, is here metaphorically used for breaking him to the chase, which, as every sportsman knows, requires chastisement with no gentle hand. The prose folio, which mentions the retreat of the lovers into the forest, in consequence of their flight from the jealousy of King Mark, adds, " Illecques apprint Tristran a Huden (the Hodain of "Tomas) a chasser sans glattir, pource qu'il ne fut guitté en

aucun maniere." Poachers, I believe, fully understand the importance of training dogs to chase, without giving tongue. Hodain's fidelity and attachment figures in every edition of the romance of Tristrem. He alone could recognize him, when disguised as a fool (see p. 227); he alone knew him in his state of unaffected frenzy (Tristan, fueil. cxix.); and when the bodies of Ysonde and Tristrem were brought to Cornwall to be buried, Hodain left the wood, without turning aside to chase any of the stags with which it abounded, and run straight to the chapel, into which he was admitted by Pernus, the squire of Tristrem, who watched his corpse: "Illec demou"rent Pernus et Heudene sans boire et sans manger; et quant "ilz avoyent fait leur duil sur Tristan, ilz alloyent sur la "Royne Yseult."-Tristan, fueillet derniere.