but these are so imperfect that I do not make distinct articles of them. See also in this volume, Book I. No. I., II., IV., V.
In the same MS. p. [203] [pr. ed. vol. ii. p. 58], is the Greene Knight, in two parts, relating a curious adventure of Sir Gawain, in stanzas of six lines, beginning thus:—
"List: wen Arthur he was k:"
10. The Carle of Carlisle is another romantic tale about Sir Gawain, in the same MS. p. 448 [pr. ed. vol. iii. p. 277], in distichs:
"Listen: to me a litle stond."
In all these old poems the same set of knights are always represented with the same manners and characters; which seem to have been as well known, and as distinctly marked among our ancestors, as Homer's Heroes were among the Greeks: for, as Ulysses is always represented crafty, Achilles irascible, and Ajax rough; so Sir Gawain is ever courteous and gentle, Sir Kay rugged and disobliging, &c. "Sir Gawain with his olde curtesie" is mentioned by Chaucer as noted to a proverb, in his Squire's Tale. Canterb. Tales, vol. ii. p. 104.
11. Syr Launfal, an excellent old romance concerning another of King Arthur's knights, is preserved in the Cotton Library, Calig. A 2, f. 33. This is a translation from the French[521], made by one Thomas Chestre, who is supposed to have lived in the reign of Henry VI. (See Tanner's Biblioth.) It is in stanzas of six lines, and begins,
"Be douyty Artours dawes."
The above was afterwards altered by some minstrel into the romance of Sir Lambewell, in three parts, under which title it was more generally known[522]. This is the Editor's folio MS. p. [60] [pr. ed. vol. i. p. 144], beginning thus:
"Doughty in king Arthures dayes."