Bannatyne Club > Syr Gawayne

xl INTRODUCTION.
Off Bevis, Gy, and of Gawayn,
Off kyng Richard, and of Owayn,
Off Tristram, and of Percyvale,
Off Rouland Ris and Aglavale.
MS. Laud. 595, fol. 1. Bodl. Libr.
And in the inedited romance of Syr Degrevante, a composition
of much merit, we are told, —
W kyng Arthure, I wene,
And dame Gaynore, the quene,
He was knawene for kene
This comly knyghte ;
In haythynnes and in Spayne,
In France and in Britayne,
W Perceuelle and Gawayne,
For hardy and wyghte.
MS. Line. A. 1.17.
In the reign of Henry the Eighth we learn from a curious pas-
sage in Skelton's Litle Boke of Phillip Sparow, what were the
principal romance-stories then in vogue, and among them is
" Gawen and Syr Guy," as well as Lancelot, Tristan, and Libius
Diosconins, Gawayne'sson. The repeated editions of such romances
in the course of the sixteenth century must have rendered the name
of Gawayne familiar to all, and at length, by the natural course
of all popular literature, the ballad-makers succeeded the minstrels
in the commemoration of his exploits. Perhaps one of the latest
passages in which his name is used as a bye-word occurs in Lane-
ham's amusing account of the actors in the Coventry pageant be-
fore Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth : — " But aware ! keep bak,
make room noow, heer they cum ! And fyrst captin Cox, — an od
man, I promiz yoo, — by profession a mason, and that right skilfull ;
very cunning in fens, and handy as Gawin, for hiz tonsword hangs