Then what were perjur'd Colin's thoughts?
How were those nuptials kept?

The bride-men flock'd round Lucy dead,
And all the village wept.

At once his bosom swell:

50

Confusion, shame, remorse, despair,

The damps of death bedew'd his brow,
He shook, he groan'd, he fell.

55

From the vain bride (ah, bride no more!)

The varying crimson fled,

When, stretch'd before her rival's corse,
She saw her husband dead.

60

And plighted maid are seen;

With garlands gay, and true-love knots,

They deck the sacred green.

But, swain forsworn, whoe'er thou art,
This hallow'd spot forbear;

70

Remember Colin's dreadful fate,

And fear to meet him there.

XVIII.

The Boy and the Mantle.

AS REVISED AND ALTERED BY A MODERN HAND.

MR. WARTON, in his ingenious observations on Spenser, has given his opinion, that the fiction of the Boy and the Mantle is taken from an old French piece entitled, Le Court Mantel, quoted by M. de St. Palaye, in his curious "Mémoires

sur l'ancienne Chevalerie," Paris, 1759, 2 tom. 12mo; who tells us the story resembles that of Ariosto's enchanted cup. "Tis possible our English poet may have taken the hint of this subject from that old French romance; but he does not appear to have copied it in the manner of execution: to which (if one may judge from the specimen given in the Mémoires) that of the ballad does not bear the least resemblance. After all, 'tis most likely that all the old stories concerning King Arthur are originally of British growth; and that what the French and other southern nations have of this kind, were at first exported from this island. Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xx. p. 352.

See

In the Fabliaux ou Contes, 1781, 5 tom. 12mo, of M. Le Grand (tom. i. p. 54), is printed a modern version of the old tale Le Court Mantel, under a new title, Le Manteau maltaillé, which contains the story of this ballad much enlarged, so far as regards the mantle, but without any mention of the knife or the horn.

IN Carleile dwelt king Arthur,

A prince of passing might;

And there maintain'd his table round,

Beset with many a knight.

And there he kept his Christmas

With mirth and princely cheare,

When, lo! a straunge and cunning boy

Before him did appeare.

A kirtle and a mantle

5

This boy had him upon,

10

With brooches, rings, and owches,

Full daintily bedone.

He had a sarke of silk

About his middle meet;

And thus, with seemely curtesy,
He did king Arthur greet.

Percy. III.

15

20

20

"God speed thee, brave king Arthur,
Thus feasting in thy bowre;
And Guenever thy goodly queen,
That fair and peerlesse flowre.

"Ye gallant lords and lordings,
I wish you all take heed,

Lest, what ye deem a blooming rose
Should prove a cankred weed."

Then straitway from his bosome
A little wand he drew;
And with it eke a mantle

Of wondrous shape and hew.

Beneath the green-wood tree:

Than here, base king, among thy groomes,

The sport of them and thee."

Sir Kay call'd forth his lady,

And bade her to come near: “Yet dame, if thou be guilty, I pray thee now forbear." This lady, pertly gigling,

With forward step came on,
And boldly to the little boy
With fearless face is gone.

When she had tane the mantle,
With purpose for to wear:
It shrunk up to her shoulder,
And left her b**side bare.

Then every merry knight,

That was in Arthur's court, Gib'd, and laught, and flouted,

To see that pleasant sport.