interest in our early romances, which has led to their reinvestigation and study with greater critical exactness and thoroughness than had previously been applied to them. To do more than briefly indicate the chief points of the controversy to which the authorship and the nationality of Sir Tristrem has given rise, would here be out of place. This now famous romance was discovered in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, by Ritson, the well-known antii quarian, and forms part of a vellum manuscript volume presented to the Library in 1744 by a judge of the Court of Session, Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, father of James Boswell, Johnson's biographer, and thence called the Auchinleck MS. It contains upwards of forty poems, and fragments of poems, an account of which is given by Scott as an appendix to the introduction to Sir Tristrem. The volume has been much mutilated from the cutting out of the illuminated initials; and the concluding stanzas of Sir Tristrem are lost, but have been supplied, in the published copy, by Scott, after a French romance of the same name, with which it corresponds. The subject, it is admitted, was a favourite one with the romance writers, and appears to have occupied the pens of the early poets of France, Germany, Denmark, and Iceland, before the time of Thomas; and in 1821 a German professor, in a work on the literature of the Middle Ages, has produced a Greek poem on the Knights of the Round Table, of which Sir Tristrem is a conspicuous member. But for the unsupported evidence of Robert Mannyng, an English monk, a native of Malton, in Yorkshire, who translated into English rhyme the French Chronicle of England, by Peter de Langtoft, a canon of Bridlington, while resident in the Priory of Brunne, and hence called Robert de Brunne, there was nothing to connect Thomas of Erceldoune with the authorship of Sir Tristrem before the discovery of the Auchinleck MS. De Brunne began his Chronicle in 1303, about seven years after the death of Thomas, and may therefore be considered a contemporary, and, from the ecclesiastical intimacy between the churches of the north of England and the south of Scotland, may be supposed to be well acquainted with Scottish affairs. His reference is as follows: "I see in song, in sedgeyng tale If men it sayd as made Thomas; There is considerable obscurity about some parts of this, and, consequently, some diversity of opinion as to its exact meaning; but it may be taken as establishing the fact, that the author was acquainted with a romance of Sir Tristrem that was held in higher esteem than any other known to him; that its author's name was Thomas; and that the minstrels, the reciters of it, were in the habit of repeating it imperfectly, and with omissions, on account of its quaint English. That he heard no man say it as Thomas made it, implies that he must have seen it as made, in writing, or have heard Thomas himself recite it—by no means an impossibility, as he became a monk in 1288, eight years before the death of Thomas. But the principal difficulty lies in the manner in which the names, Erceldoune and Kendale, are coupled. Warton, in referring to the matter, remarks, that they are written as if they were names of romances, and adds, "that of the latter he finds no traces in our ancient literature." The former, he supposes, may refer to Thomas of Erceldoune, or Ashelington, who wrote prophecies like Merlin, and refers to the MS. romance in the library of Lincoln Cathedral, entitled Thomas of Erceldown, the introduction of which is as follows: "Lystnys, lordyngs, bothe grete and small, Als euer was herde by nyghte or daye. It es an harde thynge for to saye, Of doghety dedis that hase been done; Of felle feghtyngs and battels sere; And of batells that done sall bee; In what place, and how and whare; And whethir partye sall hafe the werre. Ritson also failed to find any trace of Kendale; but Sir Frederick Madden, who ranges himself on the side of those who consider the claims of Thomas of Erceldoune to Sir Tristrem as apocryphal, says, in his notes to Sir Gawayne, &c., Bannatyne Club, 1839, that a passage in the unedited portion of De Brunne shows Kendale's Christian name was also Thomas, and that he wrote a tale about Flayn, the brother of the giant Skardyng, the lord of Scarborough Castle; "a piece of information," he adds, "which I believe to be new to all writers on the subject." It would have been more satisfactory had he given the passage; but since he has withheld it, we may conclude that it does not help his side of the controversy. Instead of stating his belief that Sir Tristrem is not the work of a native of Scotland, it would have been more ingenuous to have given the grounds on which he came to this conclusion. Besides, his great authority is here much weakened by the way in which, in his notes and glossary, he exhibits his animus against Dr Jamieson. Mr Price, the editor of Warton's History of Eng And how that knyghtis hasse wonne thair lish Poetry, has shown that Scott was schone. But Thesu Christ, that sittis in trone, Safe Inglysche bothe ferre and nere ; And I sall telle yow tyte and sone, Of batells done sythen many a yere ; in error in claiming, unwittingly, for his Thomas a fame on the continent which belongs to Thomas of Brittany; but that does not affect the authorship of the Scottish Sir Tristrem. His objection to Scott's supplying the missing word in the first line of the poem, he does not support by suggesting any word that would suit the measure or the rhyme, and Erceldoune suits both. But the fact of the first line being used as a catchline at the bottom of the preceding page is conclusive on this point. The argument from the language not answering to De Brunne's description | of "quainte Inglis," is equally forcible against an English authorship. It would remove a difficulty on both sides if we suppose Kendale to be the mysterious "Y" who was at Erceldoune, and there spake with Tomas and heard rede in roune (told conversationally) "who Tristrem gat and bare." It is a singular coincidence that all manuscripts in reference to Thomas should be English ones, and that they all coincide in speaking of him in the third person, and yet all agree in making him the author of that of which the first person is only the narrator. Can it be that Thomas' papers shared the fate of the national records at the hands of Edward I.? We find a nameṣake, John Rymour, a freeholder of Berwickshire, in the list of those who did homage to Edward in 1296. THE STORY OF SIR TRISTREM. [Constructed from the Romance.] THE writer, or reciter, relates that being | his chamber, and to this interview Trisat Erceldoune, he there spake with Thomas, trem owes his birth. Duke Morgan, who and heard read the story of Sir Tristrem's appears to have returned from Cornwall birth, lineage, and adventures. After before Rouland, breaks the truce and inmaking some Nestor-like reflections on the vades Ermonie. Rohand, a faithful vaschanges of the times, he enters upon a sal, writes Rouland of this breach of description of a war between two chiefs faith, and he returns accompanied by whose territories, for convenience' sake, Blaunche Flour, whom he marries on his we may locate in Wales, or what was an- arrival at the castle of Rohand. Morgan ciently Cumbria. The one is named advances with a large army, and a sanDuke Morgan, and the other Rouland guinary battle ensues, in which Rouland Rise, Lord of Ermonie. The war in- falls through treachery, after having clines in favour of the latter; however, achieved prodigies of valour. Blaunche they agree to a truce for seven years, and Flour receives tidings of his death at the resolve to visit together the court of Mark, time of Tristrem's birth, and having conKing of Cornwall. Here, at a tourna- signed her child to the care of Rohand, ment in which the Lord of Ermonie dis- along with a ring well known to King tinguishes himself, he captivates the Mark, his uncle, she expires. heart of the fair Blaunche Flour, the sister of the king. She, being skilled in medicine, on pretence of curing a wound of which he was suffering, visits Rouland in Morgan seizes Ermonie, and Rohand is constrained to yield him a feigned submission; but, to secure the safety of young Tristrem, he brings him up as his own child, and changes his name to Tramtris. He is carefully educated and trained in all knightly accomplishments, in which he excels. When he is fifteen years old, a Norwegian ship, freighted with hawks and treasure, calls at the port. The captain challenges any one to play him a match at chess for twenty shillings. Rohand and his sons, and along with them Tristrem and his tutor, go on board the vessel. Tristrem wins six hawks and a hundred pounds, and continues the game after Rohand and his sons have left the ship. To avoid paying his losses, the captain put to sea with Tristrem and his tutor on board, but the latter is put ashore in a boat. After being at sea for nine weeks, they are overtaken by a violent tempest, which the sailors considering due to their treatment of Tristrem, they restore all his winnings and rich gifts besides, and land him in an unknown country, which he soon discovers to be Cornwall. After several adventures, he is presented to the king, in consequence of his skill in the art of breaking up a stag, with which King Mark is highly delighted. Tristrem's skill in hunting, in playing the harp, and in other amusements of the court, make him a favourite with Mark, who regards him, under his assumed name, as the son of Rohand. He Rohand is in the meantime inconsolable for his loss, and searches for him through seven kingdoms, but at length traces him to the court of Cornwall. informs King Mark of Tristrem's real history, who is convinced by the production of the ring of Blaunche Flour. Tristrem is then acknowledged as the king's nephew, and for the first time learns the secret of his parentage, and the particulars of his father's death. Having been knighted by his uncle, he determines to recover his paternal possessions, and with a thousand men, furnished him by the king, he sails for Ermonie, and takes up his residence at the castle of Rohand. After some time he presents himself disguised at the court of Duke Morgan, accompanied by fifteen of his knights. Morgan demands his name and business, which leads to an angry altercation, in which Tristrem throws off his disguise, and is struck by Morgan. He draws his sword, and Rohand having at that instant appeared with his followers, an engagement ensues, in which Morgan is slain and his followers routed. Sir Tristrem, of course, recovers his paternal dominions, and after conferring them on Rohand as his vassal, he returns to Cornwall. On his arrival, he finds Mark in great perplexity on account of a demand made upon him by the King of Ireland for a yearly tribute of three hundred pounds of gold, silver, and tin, and every fourth year three hundred children. Tristrem advises the king and his council to dismiss the claim, and undertakes to intimate to the Irish ambassador, Moraunt, a knight of gigantic size and renown, that no tribute is due. Moraunt gives Tristrem the lie direct, whereupon they exchange gages of battle, and retire to a small island to decide the combat. Tristrem turns his boat adrift, saying one would suffice for the return of the victor. A terrible combat ensues, in which the Irishman is slain, and Tristrem wounded in the thigh. As a mark of gratitude for having saved the country from so humiliating an exaction, Tristrem is declared his uncle's heir to the crown of Cornwall; but his wound, which was inflicted by a poisoned weapon, becomes so offensive that no one can abide the stench, and he is deserted by all save his faithful servant Gouvernayl. In this forlorn condition, Tristrem de |