Suddene(I suppose Sweden), by his queenGodyldeorGodylt.Athulfand Fykenyld
are the names of subjects.EylmerorAylmereis King ofWestnesse(a part of Ireland),
Rymenyldis his daughter; asErminyldis of another kingThurstan; whose sons are
AthyldandBeryld.Athelbrusis steward of King Aylmer, &c., &c. All these savour
only of a Northern origin, and the whole piece is exactly such a performance as one
would expect from a Gleeman or Minstrel of the north of England, who had derived
his art and his ideas from his Scaldic predecessors there. So that this probably is the
original from which was translated the old French fragment of Dan Horn, in the
Harleian MS. 527, mentioned by Tyrwhitt (Chaucer iv. p. 68,) and by T. Warton
(Hist. i. 38), whose extract fromHorn-Childis extremely incorrect.
Compare the style ofHorn-Childwith the Anglo-Saxon specimens in short
verses and rhyme, which are assigned to thee century succeeding the Conquest, in
Hicke's Thesaurus, tom. i. cap. 24, pp. 224 and 231.
(T)The different production of the sedentary composer and the rambling minstrel.]
Among the old metrical romances,a very few are addressed to readers, or mention
reading; these appear to have been composed by writers at their desk, and exhibit
marks of more elaborate structure and invention. Such isEglamour of Artas, of which
I find in a. MS. copy in the Cotton Library, A. 2, folio 3, the Second Fitte thus
concludes,
"... thus ferr have I red."
Such isIpomydon, of which one of the divisions (Sign. E. ii. b. in pr. copy)
ends thus,
"Let hym go, God him spede
Tyll efte-soon we of him reed [i.e.read]."
So in Amys and Amylion[21], in stanza 3d we have
"In Geste as we rede,"and similar phrases occur in stanzas 34, 125, 1411, 198, &.c.
These are all studied compositions, in which the story is invented with more
skill and ingenuity, and the style and colouring are of superior cast to such as can with
sufficient probability be attributed to the minstrels themselves.
Of this class I conceive the romance ofHorn-Child(mentioned in the last note
(S2), which, from the naked unadorned simplicity of the story, I would attribute to
such an origin.
But more evidently is such theSquire of Lowe Degree, in which is no
reference, to any French original, nothing like the phrase, which so frequently occurs
in others, "as the Romance sayth,"[22] or the like. And it is just such a rambling
performance as one would expect from an itinerant bard. And
Such also isA lyttel Geste of Robyn Hode, &c., in 8 Fyttes, of which are extant
two editions, 4to, in black-letter, described more fully in the introduction to Robin
Hood and Guy of Gisborne below.-- This is not only of undoubted English growth,
but, from the constant satire aimed at abbots and their convents, &c., could not
possibly have been composed by any monk in his cell.
Other instances might be produced; but especially of the former kind isSyr
Launfal(vol. ii. no. 11), the 121st stanza of which has
"In Romances as we rede."