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From Fabliaux or Tales, abridged from French Manuscripts of the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries by M. Le Grand, selected and translated into English Verse, by the late G. L. Way, Esq., with A Preface, Notes and Appendix, by the late G. Ellis, Esq., A New Edition, corrected in Three Volumes, Volume I, Printed for J. Rodwell, London; 1815; title pages.



[a]

FABLIAUX OR TALES,

ABRIDGED FROM FRENCH MANUSCRIPTS

OF THE

XIITH AND XIIITH CENTURIES

BY M. LE GRAND,

SELECTED AND

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE,

BY THE LATE G. L. WAY, ESQ.

WITH
A PREFACE, NOTES, AND APPENDIX,
BY THE LATE G. ELLIS, ESQ.

A NEW EDITION, CORRECTED
IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

_____________________________

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. RODWELL, (SUCCESSOR TO MR. FAULDER,)
NEW BOND STREET,
BY S. HAMILTON, WEYBRIDGE, SURREY.
________
1815.

[b]

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[c]

SONNET TO G. E.

(TO WHOM THE TRANSLATOR IS INDEBTED FOR THE PREFACE
AND MANY OF THE NOTES TO THIS VOLUME.)

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THOU, gentle friend, hast spied me how I pac’d
Through strange delightful realms of Fairy-land.
And tangled arbours trimm’d with rustick hand,
And alleys green, for lack of tread grown waste:


Then be the labour thine, for thy command
Hath wray’d my homely deeds to nicer eyes,
These scenes of long past ages duly scann’d
To teach our courtly throng their brave device.


The mickle toil be thine, and thine the price;
So I may roam, as likes my wandering vein,
To other bowers nigh lost in time’s disguise,
And must of loyal knights’ and ladies’ pain;
And, as I search each desert dark recess,
Lament such change of fortune favourless.

G. L. W.





[d]

SONNET TO THE REV. H. T. P.

(ON RECEIVING FROM HIM SOME TRANSCRIPTS OF WELCH
POETRY, SINCE INSERTED IN THE NOTES TO THIS VOLUME.)

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HENRY, by nature’s hand in blood allied,
By many a link of kindred fancy join’d,
Fair fall the hour that first thy youth confin’d
To Cambrian wilds by Usk’s romantick side!


There (with a pastor’s duty well combin’d,
Rude flocks among, that know none other lore,)
Love for the muse of Wales impell’d thy mind,
And to thy search unvail’d her bards of yore.


Now, led by thee, my ravish’d eyes explore
Great Arthur’s deeds embalm’d in Merlin’s song,
Ken how his worthies strive in conflict sore,
And save their rescued fame from sceptick’s wrong:
Hence! chilling doubt! — sustained by fairy hand
Still Arthur lives, to reign in Anglia’s land!*

G. L. W.





* Alluding to the hexameter said to have been written on Arthur’s tomb —

HIS LACET ARTHVRVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS.
Or, as Lydgate gives it —

Hys Epitaphie recordeth so certeyne,
Here lieth king Arthur yt shall reigne agein.






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