court of King Mark at Tintagel, and the other at London.*

It will, perhaps, be thought, that these observations render the question sufficiently uncertain to allow the statement of some arguments, which seem to point out, as the work so often referred to by the minstrels of the continent, not the Auchinleck romance, but a French poem on the subject, by an Anglo-Norman Thomas, already well known at the earliest date to which we can refer the composition of Ry

mour.

They are, 1st, That the style of the Fragments would, were other evidence wanting, be ascribed to the 12th century.-Sir Tristrem, p. xliii.

2. That the first Fragment differs so materially from the Auchinleck romance, as to make it difficult to believe, that both ground their rela

* In the Auchinleck romance, I do not find any thing which seems at all to determine the place of the royal residence.

tion on the authority of the same Thomas. Unfortunately the Auchinleck MS. is torn off just before it reaches that passage of the history, at which the French poet refers expressly to his Thomas.

3. In 1250,* Godfrey of Strasburg, in his German romance of Sir Tristrem, refers to Thomas of Britain as his original, as appears from the concluding lines of the work:

Si in einander minnenklich
Vlechten weren und weben

Den rosenbusch u. den winreben
Gar bescheidenlich man sach

Als Thomas von Brittannien sprach

Von den zwein suezen jungen

In lampartischer zungen

Also han ich die warheit

In dutsche von in zwein geseit. †

* The date is from Eichhorn's Gesch. d. Cultur. p. 224. (See Leyden's Comp. of Scotland, p. 257.) where the translation is said to be from the Norman French.

+ These lines, describing the usual miracle which distinguishes the graves of true lovers, appear to me somewhat obscure. They speak of Thomas of Britain as an author

The earliest date which Mr Scott finds it justifiable to assign to the romance of Thomas of Erceldoune is this very year, 1250; and even this supposes the minstrel to have completed his researches, and his poem, at the age of twenty-four.

At the same time, the correspondence between the Auchinleck romance and the second Fragment is so close, that they must be connected; and it seems not unreasonable to suppose, that the Scottish work is a translation of that original French poem, (corrected by Thomas of Erceldoune's researches,) from which the interwoven narrative of the Fragment is compressed. It may be added, that the absence of all reference to a romance original is no argument against its

in the Lampartisch (I suppose the Lombard) tongue; yet I know of no authority for applying that term to any branch of the Roman language, except the Italian. The extract I have given from the Teutsche Museum, for April 1780. Į have no opportunity of consulting the original poem, which would probably throw considerable light on the whole enquiry.

existence; as it was not natural that the reporter of Thomas's poem should refer to should refer to any authority but that of Thomas himself.

If the existence of this Anglo-Norman Thomas * be admitted, he may, perhaps, be identified with the author of the French Horn Child, which is assigned, by Ritson, to the 12th century.

Of the three other extant romances to which Mr Scott is inclined to ascribe a Scottish origin, two, Sir Egeir, (which is analyzed by Mr Ellis,) and the Awntre of Gawain, acknowledge

their Norman source; one in the words," In Romane stories who will read ;" and the other in the expression," As the boke telles.”

Mr Scott also mentions a romance of Wade,

* I find, that an Anglo-Norman poet of this name, a Thomas of Kent, wrote a romance of Alexander, in the 13th century; but I know no reason at present for connecting him with the romance of Sir Tristrem.. For an account of his work, which he entitles the "Roman de toute Chevalerie," see Notices des MSS. de la Bibl. Nation. par Le Grand d'Aussy. An. 7.

which he supposes to have been of northern growth; a supposition which seemed to rest on very strong ground, as Wade was a border hero, and no romance of his exploits was known to have existed in French. Yet it appears that even this may be doubted; for I find that Montfaucon, in his Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum, p. 792. Bib. Reg. Parisiens, has mentioned the "Roman de Gaides, en vers." Its being in verse is, of itself, a proof of its high antiquity, as the French romances of later times were almost universally in prose.*

In Major's History of Scotland, I observe the name of one other Scottish romance; and it will appear surprising, that even this, though founded on late national history, is spoken of in connection with a French one on the same subject,-probably its original. "Monasterium de Londoris, David Huntingtonus fundavit. Iste

* At p. 928. I also find the Roman de Gaidon, which means, I presume, Little Wade.