class="tdr">8.

The Spanish Virgin, or Effects of Jealousy 255 9. Jealousy Tyrant of the Mind. By Dryden 260 10. Constant Penelope 261 11. To Lucasta, on going to the Wars. By Col. Lovelace. 264 12. Valentine and Ursine 265 13. The Dragon of Wantley 279 14. St. George for England. The First Part 288 15. St. George for England. The Second Part. By John Grubb 293 16. Margaret's Ghost. By David Mallet 308 17. Lucy and Colin. By Thomas Tickel 312 18. The Boy and the Mantle, as revised and altered by a modern hand 315 19. The ancient Fragment of the Marriage of Sir Gawaine 323 APPENDIX. I. The Wanton Wife of Bath 333 II. Essay on the Ancient Metrical Romances, &c. 339 Glossary 377 Index 411

[Pg viii]
[Pg 1]

RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC.

SERIES THE THIRD.

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BOOK I.

POEMS ON KING ARTHUR, etc.

The third volume being chiefly devoted to romantic subjects, may not be improperly introduced with a few slight strictures on the old metrical romances: a subject the more worthy attention, as it seems not to have been known to such as have written on the nature and origin of books of chivalry, that the first compositions of this kind were in verse, and usually sung to the harp.[1]

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I.
THE BOY AND THE MANTLE

Is printed verbatim from the old MS. described in the Preface.[2] The Editor believes it more ancient than it will appear to be at first sight; the transcriber of that manuscript having reduced the orthography and style in many instances to the standard of his own times.

The incidents of the Mantle and the Knife have not, that I can recollect, been borrowed from any other writer. The former of these evidently suggested to Spenser his conceit of Florimel's Girdle, b. iv. c. 5, st. 3.