Explicit le Romãt de. T. et de yseut
qui fut fait lan mille. iijc. iiijxx. et xix.
la veille de pasques grans.
TRISTAN, FILS DE MELIADUS. No. 6773. A folio of almost unparalleled breadth of back;--measuring more than six inches and a quarter, without the binding. A beautiful illumination once graced the first leaf, divided into four compartments, which is now almost effaced. In the third compartment, there are two men and two women playing at chess, in a vessel. What remains, only conveys an imperfect idea of its original beauty. The lady seems to have received check-mate, from the melancholy cast of her countenance, and her paralised attitude. The man is lifting up both hands, as if in the act of exultation upon his victory. The two other figures are attendants, who throw the dice. Upon the whole, this is among the prettiest bits I have yet seen. It is worth noticing that the yellow paint, like our Indian yellow, is here very much used; shaded with red. The generality of the illuminations are fresh; but there is none of equal beauty with that just described. From the scription, and the style of art, I should judge this MS. to have been executed about the year 1400 or 1420; but a memorandum, apparently in a somewhat later hand, says it was finished in 1485:--Par Michean gonnot de la brouce pstre demeurant a croysant. Some lines below have been scratched out. The colophon, just before, is on the recto of the last leaf:
Explicit le rõmans de tristan et de la Royne
Yseult la blonde Royne de cornoalle.
TRISTAN: No. 6774. Folio. 2 vols. The illuminations are magnificent, but lightly coloured and shaded. The draperies are in good taste. The border to the first large illumination, in four parts, is equally elegant in composition and colouring, and a portion of it might be worth copying. There is a pretty illumination of two women sitting down. A table cloth, with dinner upon it, is spread upon the grass between them:--a bottle is plunged into a running stream from a fountain, with an ewer on one side in the fore-ground. One woman plays upon the guitar while the other eats her dinner. The second volume has a fine illumination divided into four parts, with a handsome border--not quite perhaps so rich as the preceding. Among the subjects, there is a singular one of Lancelot du Lac helping a lady out of a cauldron in a state of nudity: two gentlemen and a lady are quietly looking on. The text appertaining to this subject runs thus: "Et quant elle voit lancelot si lui dist hoa sire cheualiers pour dieu ostes moy de ceste aure ou il a eaue qui toute mait Et lancelot vint a la aure et prent la damoiselle par la main et lentrait hors. Et quant elle se voit deliure elle luy chiet aux pies et lui baise la iambe et lui dist sire benoite soit leure que vous feustes oncques nes, &c." The top of the last leaf is cut off: and the date has been probably destroyed. The colophon runs thus:
Cy fenist le livre de tristan et de la
royne yseult de cornouaille et
le graal que plus nen va.
The present is a fine genuine old copy: in faded yellow morocco binding--apparently not having been subjected to the torturing instruments of De Rome.
LE ROY ARTUS. No. 6963. Folio. I consider this to be the oldest illuminated MS. of the present Romance which I have yet seen. It is of the date of 1274, as its colophon imports. It is written in double columns, but the illuminations are heavy and sombre;--about two inches in height, generally oblong. There are grotesques, attached to letters, in the margin. The backgrounds are thick, shining gold. At the end:
Explicit de lanselot. del lac[41]
Ces Roumans fu par escris. En lan
del Incarnation nostre Segnor. mil
deus cens et sixante et quatorse le
semedi apres pour ce li ki lescrist.
It is in a fine state of preservation. Mons. Méon shewed me a manuscript of the ST. GRAAL, executed in a similar style, and written in treble columns.
LE MEME. This is a metrical MS of the XIIIth century: executed in double columns. The illuminations are small but rather coarse. It is in fine preservation. Bound in green velvet. Formerly the outsides of this binding had silver gilt medallions; five on each side. These have been latterly stolen. I also saw a fine PERCEFOREST, in four large folio volumes upon vellum, written in a comparatively modern Gothic hand. The illuminations were to be supplied--as spaces are left for them. There is also a paper MS. of the same Romance, not illuminated.