"See yonder shameless woman, 185
That makes herselfe so clean:
Yet from her pillow taken
Thrice five gallants have been.
"Priests, clarkes, and wedded men
Have her lewd pillow prest: 190
Yet she the wondrous prize forsooth
Must beare from all the rest."
Then bespake the little boy,
Who had the same in hold:
"Chastize thy wife, king Arthur, 195
Of speech she is too bold:
"Of speech she is too bold,
Of carriage all too free;
Sir king, she hath within thy hall
A cuckold made of thee. 200
"All frolick light and wanton
She hath her carriage borne:
And given thee for a kingly crown
To wear a cuckold's horne."
⁂
⁂ The Rev. Evan Evans, editor of the specimens of Welsh Poetry, 4to. affirmed that the Boy and the Mantle is taken from what is related in some of the old Welsh MSS. of Tegan Earfron, one of King Arthur's mistresses. She is said to have possessed a mantle that would not fit any immodest or incontinent woman; this, (which, the old writers say, was reckoned among the curiosities of Britain) is frequently alluded to by the old Welsh Bards.
Carleile, so often mentioned in the ballads of K. Arthur, the editor once thought might probably be a corruption of Caer-leon, an ancient British city on the river Uske, in Monmouthshire, which was one of the places of K. Arthur's chief residence; but he is now convinced, that it is no other than Carlisle, in Cumberland; the old English minstrels, being most of them northern men, naturally represented the hero of romance as residing in the north: And many of the places mentioned in the old ballads are still to be found there: As Tearne-Wadling, &c.
Near Penrith is still seen a large circle, surrounded by a mound of earth, which retains the name of Arthur's Round Table.