Before I quit the subject of Sir Guy, I must observe, that if we may believe Dugdale in his Baronage (vol. i. p. 243, col. 2), the fame of our English Champion had in the time of Henry IV. travelled as far as the East, and was no less popular among the Sarazens, than here in the West among the nations of Christendom. In that reign a Lord Beauchamp travelling to Jerusalem was kindly received by a noble person, the Soldan's Lieutenant, who hearing he was descended from the famous Guy of Warwick, "whose story they had in books of their own language," invited him to his palace; and royally feasting him, presented him three precious stones of great value, besides divers cloaths of silk and gold given to his servants.
6. The romance of Syr Bevis is described in page 216 of this vol. Two manuscript copies of this poem are extant at Cambridge, viz., in the public library[519], and in that of Caius Coll. Class A. 9. (5.)—The first of these begins,
"Lordyngs lystenyth grete and smale."
There is also a copy of this romance of Sir Bevis of Hamptoun, in the Edinburgh MS. Numb. XXII. consisting of twenty-five leaves, and beginning thus:
"Lordinges herkneth to mi tale,
Is merier than the nightengale."
The printed copies begin different from both, viz.,
"Lysten, Lordinges, and hold you styl."
7. Libeaux (Libeaus, or Lybius) Disconius is preserved in the Editor's folio MS. (page [317]) [pr. ed, vol. ii. p. 415], where the first stanza is,
"Jesus Christ christen kinge,
And his mother that sweete thinge,
Helpe them at their neede,
That will listen to my tale,
Of a Knight I will you tell,
A doughtye man of deede."