[For Percy's further notes on this ballad see the modernized version (book iii. No. 18). Professor Child prints the ballad in his English and Scottish Ballads (vol. i. p. 1) with a full notice of the various forms of the story by way of introduction. He writes:—"No incident is more common in romantic fiction than the employment of some magical contrivance as a test of conjugal fidelity, or of constancy in love. In some romances of the Round Table, and tales founded upon them, this experiment is performed by means either of an enchanted horn, of such properties that no dishonoured husband or unfaithful wife can drink from it without spilling, or of a mantle which will fit none but chaste women. The earliest known instances of the use of these ordeals are afforded by the Lai du Corn, by Robert Bikez, a French minstrel of the twelfth or thirteenth century, and the Fabliau du Mantel Mautaillé, which, in the opinion of a competent critic, dates from the second half of the thirteenth century, and is only the older lay worked up into a new shape (Wolf, Ueber die Lais, 327, sq., 342, sq.). We are not to suppose, however, that either of these pieces presents us with the primitive form of this humorous invention. Robert Bikez tells us that he learned his story from an abbot, and that 'noble ecclesiast' stood but one further back in a line of tradition which curiosity will never follow to its source."
Here follows a list of "the most remarkable cases of the use of these and similar talismans in imaginative literature." To these may be added the garland described in the curious old story of the Wright's Wife, which has been printed since the publication of Mr. Child's work.
"Haue here thys garlond of roses ryche,
In alle thys lond ys none yt lyche;
For ytt wylle euer be newe.
Wete þou wele withowtyn fable,
Alle the whyle thy wyfe ys stable
The chaplett wolle hold hewe;
And yf thy wyfe vse putry,
Or tolle eny man to lye her by,
Than wolle yt change hewe;
And by the garlond þou may see,
Fekylle or fals yf þat sche be,
Or ellys yf sche be trewe."
The Wright's Chaste Wife (E. E. Text Soc. 1865, 1. 55-66).]
In the third day of may,
To Carleile did come
A kind curteous child,
That cold[3] much of wisdome.
A kirtle and a mantle 5
This child had uppon,
With 'brouches' and ringes[4]
Full richelye bedone.[5]
He had a sute of silke
About his middle drawne; 10
Without he cold of curtesye
He thought itt much shame.
God speed thee, king Arthur,
Sitting at thy meate:
And the goodly queene Guenéver, 15
I cannott her forgett.