age of queen Elizabeth. See Holinshead's Chronicles, vol. iii. p. 1315.

.

Among others, there is one romance which Spenser seems more particularly to have made use of. It is entitled, [La] MORTE [d'] ARTHUR, The Lyfe of King Arthur, and of his noble Knyghtes of the round table, and in thende the dolorous deth of them all. This was translated into English from the French, by one Sir Thomas Maleory, Knight, and printed by W. Caxton, 1485. It has been reprinted twice or thrice: the last edition is dated 1634. From this fabulous history our author has borrowed many of his names, viz. Sir Tristram, Placidas, Pelleas, Pellenore, Percivall, and others. As to Sir Tristram, he has copied from this book the circumstances of his birth and education with much exactness. Spenser informs us that Sir Tristram was born in Cornwall, &c. F. Q. vi. ii. 28.

'And Tristram is my name, the onely heire
'Of good king Meliogras, which did rayne
In Cornewale.'

And afterwards, st. 30.

The countrie wherein I was bred,
The which the fertile Lionesse is hight.'

These particulars are drawn from the romancè

above mentioned. 'There was a knight Meliodas [Meliogras], and he was lord and king of the country of Lyones-and he wedded king Markes sister of Cornewale.' The issue of which marriage, as we are afterwards told, was Sir Tristram, B. ii. C. 1. Mention is then made, in our romance, of Sir Tristram's banishment from Lyons into a distant country, by the advice, and under the conduct, of a wise and learned counsellor named Governale. A circumstance alluded to by Spenser in these verses, F. Q. vi. ii. 30.

'So taking counsell of a wise man red,

She was by him adviz'd to send me quight 'Out of the countrie, wherein I was bred, The which the fertile Lionesse is hight.'

Sir Tristram's education is thus described in the next stanza.

All which my daies I have not lewdly spent,
Nor spilt the blossome of my tender yeares
In ydlesse, but as was convenient

'Have trained bene with many noble feres

.

In gentle thewes and such like semely leres;

Mongst which my most delight hath alwaies been
To hunt the salvage chace among my peres

Of all that raungeth in the forest greene,

Of which none is to me unknowne that e'er was

seene.

Ne is there hauke that mantleth her on pearch,
Whether high-tow'ring, or accoasting low,

• But I the measure of her flight doe search,
And all her pray and all her dyet knowe.'

romance.

All this is agreeable to what is related in the After mention being made of Tristram's having learned the language of France, courtly behaviour, and skill in chivalry, we read the following passage. As he growed

in might and strength, he laboured ever in hunting and hawking; so that we never read of no gentleman, more, that so used himselfe therein. And he began good measures of blowing of blasts of venery [hunting] and chase, and of all manner of vermeins; and all 'these termes have we yet of hawking and "hunting, and therefore the booke of venery, of hawking and hunting, is called the book of Sir Tristram.' B. ii. C. 3. And in another place King Arthur thus addresses Sir Tristram. • For

S

of all manner of hunting thou bearest the prise ; and of all measures of blowing thou art the beginner; and of all the termes of hunting and hawking ye are the beginner.' B. ii.

6.91.

In Tuberville's treatise Of Falconrie, &c. Sir Tristram is often introduced as the patron of field-sports. A huntsman thus speaks, p. 96.

edit. 4to. 1611:

Before the King I come report to make,

Then hushe and peace for noble Tristram's sake.'

And in another place, p. 40.

'Wherefore who lyst to learn the perfect trade 'Of venerie, &c.

Let him give ear to skillfull Tristram's lore,'

Many of the precepts, contained in the Book of Sir Tristram, are often referred to in this treatise of Tuberville.

From this romance our author also took the hint of his BLATANT BEAST; which is there called the QUESTING BEAST, B. ii. C. 53.

Therewithall the King saw coming towards him the strangest beast that ever he saw, or heard 'tell of. And the noyse was in the beasts belly

like unto the Questin of thirtie couple of 'houndes.' The QUESTING BEAST is afterwards

more particularly described. • That had in shap

an head like a serpent's head, and a body like a 'liberd, buttocks like a lyon, and footed like a hart; and in his body there was such a noyse, 6 as it had been the noyse of thirtie couple of 'houndes Questyn, and such a noyse that beast 'made wheresoever he went.' He is also called the GLATISANT BEAST, ibid. B. ii. C. 98. • Tell them that I am the knight that followeth the Glatisant Beast, that is to say, in English, the QUESTING BEAST, &c.' Spenser has made him a much more monstrous animal than he is here represented to be, and in general has varied from

this description. But there is one circumstance in Spenser's representation, in which there is a minute resemblance, viz. speaking of his mouth, F. Q. vi. xii. 27.

And therein were a thousand tongues empight, • Of sundry kindes, and sundry quality;

'Some were of dogs that barked night and day, And some, &c.'

By what has been hitherto said, perhaps the reader may not be persuaded, that Spenser, in his BLATANT BEAST, had the QUESTING BEAST of our romance in his eye. But the poet has himselfe taken care to inform us of this: for we learn, from the romance, that certain knights of the round table were destined to pursue the QUESTING BEAST perpetually without success: which Spenser, speaking of this BLATANT BEAST, hints at in these lines, F. Q. vi. xii. 39:

'Albe that long time after Calidore The good Sir Pelleas him took in hand, And after him Sir Lamoracke of yore, And all his brethren born in Britaine land; Yet none of them could ever bring him into band.'

Sir Lamoracke and Sir Pelleas are two very valourous champions of Arthur's round table. This romance supplied our author with the