The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. ..., Volume 5

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A. and C. Black, 1880 - Ballads, Scots

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Page 461 - And thou were the truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrad horse. And thou were the truest lover of a sinful man that ever loved woman. And thou were the kindest man that ever struck with sword.
Page 436 - This is good stuff for wise men to laugh at, or honest men to take pleasure at: yet I know, when God's Bible was banished the court, and Morte Arthur received into the prince's chamber.
Page 436 - In our forefathers tyme, whan Papistrie, as a standyng poole, couered and ouerflowed all England, fewe bookes were read in our long, sauyng certaine bookes of Cheualrie, as they sayd, for pastime and pleasure, which, as some say, were made in Monasteries, by idle Monkes or wanton Chanons: as 'one for example, Morte Arthure...
Page 85 - ... later age, but more especially in the popular romances, a tedious circumlocutory style is perhaps the most general feature. Circumstantial to a degree of extreme minuteness, and diffuse beyond the limits of patience, the minstrels never touch upon an incident without introducing a prolix description.* This was a natural consequence of the multiplication of romantic fictions. It was impossible for the imagination of the minstrels to introduce the variety demanded by their audience, by the invention...
Page 202 - VII. In his schip was that day, Al maner of gle ; And al maner of lay, In lond that might be : To the Quen tho, seyd thay, Morauntes soster the fre, Y wounded swiche a man lay, That sorwe it was to se, And care ; — " A miri man were he, Gif he olive were.
Page 107 - ... century. The pages are divided into two columns, unless where the verses, being Alexandrine, occupy the whole breadth of the quarto. In two or three instances there occurs a variation of the hand-writing ; but as the poems regularly follow each other, there is no reason to believe that such alterations indicate an earlier or later date than may be reasonably ascribed to the rest of the work ; although the Satire against Simonie, No.
Page 81 - The History of Tristrem was not, so far as I know, translated into English as a separate work ; but his adventures make a part of the collection called the Morte Arthur, containing great part of the history of the Round Table, extracted at hazard, and without much art or combination, from the various French prose folios on that favourite topic.
Page 64 - I made it not for to be praysed, Bot at the lewed men were aysed. If it were made in ryme couwee, Or in strangere, or enterlace, That rede Inglis it ere inowe That couthe not have coppled a kowc.
Page 461 - ... with sword. And thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among press of knights. And thou wert the meekest man, and the gentlest, that ever ate in hall among ladies. And thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest.
Page 457 - Then anon they heard cracking and crying of thunder, that them thought the place should all to-drive. In the midst of this blast entered a sunbeam more clearer by seven times than ever they saw day, and all they were alighted of the grace of the Holy Ghost. Then began every knight to behold other, and either saw other, by their seeming, fairer than ever they saw afore.

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