THE original of this romance is that of "Le chevalier au lion," by Crestien, or Christian, de Troyes, an eminent French poet, who died in 1191. That original, which is still extant, though not in this country, consists of 7784 verses. See the Bibliotheque universelle des romans, Avril, 1772, premier volume, p. 95. It is presumed to be the same with that which Du Fresnoy calls "Le roman d'Yvain, in folio, manuscrit."

This Ywaine, Ewen, or Owen, was the son of Urian, the brother of Augusel, king of Albania, now Scotland, and of Lot, the consul of Loudonesia, being himself honoured by king Arthur with the sceptre of Murray, according to that veracious historian, Geoffrey of Monmouth, who calls him Eventus: Augusel, king of Albania, he says, who fell in the battle of Camblan [anno 542], was succeeded in his kingdom by Eventus, his brother Urian's son, who afterward performed many famous exploits in these wars." (B. 11, C. 1). In Mort d'Arthur he is called Ewen as blanches mains.

The Welsh have the story of Ouen ab Yrien, in their own language; but whether an original, or a translation from the French or English, cannot be ascertained. See Lloyd's MSS. Britan. Cata. (Archæologia Britan. P. 265.) He is mentioned, however, by Taliesfin and Llywarch Hen, two celebrated British bards, of the sixth century; both of them his contemporaries, and the latter, his relation. (bi. P. 259, 264; Lewis's History of Great Britain, P. 201, &c.; and "Heroic Elegies &c. of Llywarch Hen," P. 29, &c.) Urien, the father of Owen, petty king or prince of Reged in Cumbria, a little kingdom, part of England and the south-west of modern Scotland, was treacherously slain about the year 567. He was one of the greatest encouragers of the bards of his age. Owen, his son, is celebrated in the ancient Welsh Triades, a composition, it is pretended, of the seventh century, as one of "The three blessed

princes of the isle of Britain," and one of "The three blessed burdens of the womb of the isle of Britain." The name of his bard was Dygynelw, one of the three "who tinged spears with blood" (Lly. Hen, P. xix.) In a curious fragment of the life of St. Kentegern, written by an unnamed author, at the instance of Herbert bishop of Glasgow (1147 to 1164), the lover of that saint's mother is pointed out in these words: "Erat namque procus ejus juvenis quidam elegantissimus, Ewen videlicet, filius Erwegende, nobilissima Britonum prosapia ortus. . . . In gestis hystrionum vocatur Ewen filius Ulien [r. Urien]." (Vita SS. qui habitaverunt in Scotia, p. 203.) Kentegern, who was born about 516, is, in the Welsh pedigrees, made the son of this Ewen or Owain, the son of Urien: so that he would seem to have come into the world before his father, no unusual anticipation in Welsh pedigrees. (See Owen's account of Llywarch Hen, &c.) Carte, speaking of Ida, king of Northumberland, says, “He was slain in battle by Owen, son of Urian Rheged, as Taliessin says in an elegy which he composed upon the death of this gallant Britain, to whose bravery, vigilance, and conduct, his country had been chiefly indebted for its defence and security." (History of England, I, 209.) The actual existence, therefore, of these two persons seems unquestionable. Urien [Urbgen] is mentioned by Nennius, or his interpolator, C. 64: and this misnomer seems to have given birth to the "Urbgennius Badonensis" of Geoffrey of Monmouth.

King Urience, in the old romance of Mort d'Arthur, is the husband of Morgan le fay (half-sister to king Arthur), who unnaturally attempts to kill him sleeping; but is prevented by their son sir Ewaine. Now, it seems, the death of Urien was actually procured by the instigation of Morgant Mwynvaur, another of the four princes of Cumbria. Urien's wife, however, was not the sister of Arthur, but Modron, daughter of Avallach. Owain himself was twice married, first to Penarwen, daughter of Cul Vanawyd Prydain, and, secondly, to Denyw, daughter of Llewddyn Luyddawg of Edinburgh: according to what the literary Welsh idiots publish, in the eighteenth century, as authentic history; and which Geoffrey of Monmouth, lyar as he was, would have disdained to retail in the twelfth. See the Life of Llywarch Hen, prefixed to his "Heroic elegies, &c." P. vii.

Gawain, called, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Walganus, was another nephew of Arthur, being the son of Lot of Loudonesia, the

1 The death of Ida is placed by the Saxon chronicle in 560; but it does not appear, from that authority, to have happened in battle. The pretended antiquities of the Welsh abound with imaginary victories.

? The old romance of Merlin, (vo. I, fo. 116.) calls Yvain a bastard, son, it adds, to king Urien, whom he begot on the wife of his seneschal, who was of such great beauty that for the love of her he forgot his wife, and left her for more than five years, and held her in his castle in spite of his steward so long that he begot this child but all this is scandal.

nephew and successor of Sichelin, king of the Norwegians, who had married Anne his sister. According, however, to Mort d'Arthur, when Uther-Pendragon married the lady Igrayne (or Igerna), the widow of Gorlois, "king Lot of Lowthan and of Orkeny then weded Margawse [one of her three daughters by Gorlois], that was Gawayns mother." (Part 1, C. 3.) This Gawain, or Walwenus, as we learn from William of Malmesbury, reigned in that part of Britain which is called Walwertha, and his burying-place was found in the time of king William I. in the province of Ros, in Wales, upon the margin of the sea, being fourteen feet long;' he having, as was asserted by some, been wounded by enemies, and cast up by shipwreck; or, hy others, been killed, by the citizens, at a public feast. (De gestis regum, L. 1.) He appears to have been highly celebrated. His death, of course, is otherwise represented by the old romancers, who were not particularly conversant with William of Malmesbury.

Sir Ewaine and sir Gawain were sincere friends; and, when the latter knew that sir Ewaine was banished from court by king Arthur, on suspicion that he was of council with his mother Morgan, who was constantly practising treason against that monarch, he accompanied him into banishment. See Mort d'Arthur, P. 1, C. 75.

The only ancient copy of the present poem is contained in the Cotton MS. Galba E. IX. which seems to have been written in the time of Richard II., or toward the close of the fourteenth century; and not, as appeared to Warton, who knew nothing of the age of MSS. and probably never saw this, " in the reign of king Henry the sixth " (III, P. 108). The language of all the poems in this MS. is a strong northern dialect, from which it may be reasonably inferred that they are the composition of persons, most likely monks, resident in that part of England, where, in former times, were several flourishing monasteries. One singularity of this MS. is that the y is generally used at the commencement of a syllable for th, instead of the Saxon p [properly þ], (as Yai, yat, ye, &c. for thai, that, the, &c.) which sometimes, though rarely, occurs: a singularity which is still in use for the abbreviations yt, y3, yTM, &c. The letter z also is frequently used for y consonant at the beginning of a syllable.' These, however, have not been retained, though the ancient orthography is carefully preserved in every other respect.

1 This seems the established size of an ancient hero. "In Murray-land," according to that most veracious historian maister Hector Bois, "is the kirke of Pette, quhare the banis of LYTILL JOHNE remanis in gret admiratioun of pepill. He hes bene fourtene fut of hycht, with square membris effering theirto." (Historie of Scotland, translatit be maister Johne Bellenden, Edin. fo. b. 1.)

2 It may be proper to observe here, once for all, that in the MSS. made use of in this collection, and most others in English of the same age, this letter or character , beside its usual pronunciation, as in grantz, is used with the powers of y consonant, and gh, as in ze, zing, rizt, knyzth, &c. and, to avoid a false or equivocal

The present, or some other, romance on the story of sir Ywain, may possibly have been printed, though no copy of it is known to be preserved. In Wedderburn's Complainte of Scotlande, St. Andrews, 1549, among the "storeis" or "flet taylis," rehearsed by the shepherds, whereof "sum vas in prose and sum vas in verse, we meet with "The tail of syr Euan, Arthours knycht." See also the adventures of sir Percival in Mort d'Arthur.

A romance of "Syr Gawayne," mentioned in Laneham's Letter from Killingworth, 1575, was "Imprynted at London in Paules churcheyarde at the sygne of the Maydens heed by Thomas Petyt " (4to. b. 1.) It was in six-line stanzas, but no more than the last leaf is known to be preserved. "A jeste of syr Gawayne," probably the same book, was licensed to John Kynge, in 1557-8. Two other romances on the same subject, but in a dialect and metre peculiar to Scotland, are printed in Pinkerton's Scotish poems; the one from an edition at Edinburgh in 1508; the other from a MS. the property of the present editor, which the said Pinkerton came by very dishonestly.

The history of Ywaine seems to have been popular in the north. In the library of Stockholm is a MS. intitled " Sagan af Ivent Eingland kappe: Historia de Ivento regis Arturi in Anglia pugile inter magnates carissimo: continens ejus cum gigantibus atque Blamannis plurima atque periculosa certamina. Cap. 12.” (Hickesii Thesaurus, III, 315). Two modern copies of the same, or a similar article ("Artur kongs og Iventi saga," and "Ivents saga"), expressly from the French ("Von Franseysen i Norrænu"), are in the B. Museum (Sloane's MSS. 4857, 4859). The sig, or tale, of herr Ywan und herr Gawan, was extant in German in the year 1450. (Symbolæ ad literaturam Teuto. Hauniæ, 1787 4to, P. xxxvi.)

YWAINE AND GAWIN.'

Almyghti god that made mankyn,

He schilde his servandes out of syn,

And mayntene tham, with might and mayne,
That herkens Ywayne and Gawayne:

pronunciation, those letters, in the proper instances, have been substituted in its place. Though, probably, a corruption of the Saxon 3, it never, as some pretend, had the power of that letter in old English; which is the more evident from the words zef, zong, &c. being in contemporary MSS. actually written with a y, as yef, yong.

The MS. reads "Here begyns Ywaine and Gawin."