"Jesu þat ys kyng in trone."
16. Chevelere assigne, or The Knight of the Swan, preserved in the Cotton Library, has been already described in vol. ii. Appendix, Essay on P. Plowman's Metre, &c., as hath also
17. The Sege of Fēr̄lam (or Jerusalem), which seems to have been written after the other, and may not improperly be classed among the romances; as may also the following, which is preserved in the same volume, viz.,
18. Owaine Myles (fol. 90), giving an account of the wonders of St. Patrick's Purgatory. This is a translation into verse of the story related in Mat. Paris's Hist. (sub. Ann. 1153.) It is in distichs beginning thus:
"God þat ys so full of myght."
In the same manuscript are three or four other narrative poems, which might be reckoned among the romances, but being rather religious legends, I shall barely mention them; as Tundale, f. 17; Trentale Sci Gregorii, f. 84; Jerome, f. 133; Eustache, f. 136.
19. Octavian imperator, an ancient romance of chivalry, is in the same vol. of the Cotton Library, f. 20. Notwithstanding the name, this old poem has nothing in common with the history of the Roman Emperors. It is in a very peculiar kind of stanza, whereof 1, 2, 3, & 5 rhyme together, as do the 4 and 6. It begins thus:
"Ihesu Þat was with spere ystonge."
In the public library at Cambridge[523], is a poem with the same title, and begins very differently: