Richard "Coeur de Lion," who rode a
horse possessed by the devil, and whose wife flew away like a bird.

In the romance of Sir Bevis of Hamtoun, (Earl of Southampton,) he is
represented as a kind of infant Hercules, who, when fifteen, killed
sixty Saracen knights. He afterwards was imprisoned at Damascus in a den
with two dragons, but destroyed them. He was kept in a dungeon, however,
and

"Rats and mice, and such small deer,
Was his meat that seven year."

During this time he was cheered by an angel visiting him. An adversary
shortly appears in Ascapard:

"This geaunt was mighty and strong,
And full thirty foot was long,
He was bristled like a sow;
A foot he had between each brow.
His lips were great, and hung aside,
His eyen were hollow, his mouth was wide,
Lothy he was to look on than,
And liker a devil than a man."

He was overcome, and became page to Sir Bevis. Ascapard is very useful,
as he is able to take Bevis, Josyan, and even the horse Arundel under
his arm. An attempt at humour is introduced here, which is said to have
amused the people of Cologne. The bishop prepared to christen the giant,

"For Ascapard was made a tun,
And when he should therein be done,
He lept out upon the brench (brink)
And said, 'Churl! wilt thou me drench?
The devil of hell mote fetche thee!
I am too much (big) christened to be!'"

We will finish this sketch of the romancing tendencies of our early
literature by a description of a dragon from "Sir Degore:"

"There was a dragon great and grymme,
Full of fyre, and also venymme,
Wyth a wyde throte, and tuskes grete,
Uppon that knygte fast gan he bete,
And as a lyon then was hys feete,
Hys tayle was long, and full unmeete;
Between hys head and hys tayle
Was xxii fote withouten fayle;
His body was lyke a wyne tonne,
He shone ful bryght agaynst the sunne;
Hys eyen were bryght as any glasse,
Hys scales were hard as any brasse:
And thereto he was necked lyke a horse,
He bore hys hed up wyth grete force;
The breth of hys mouth that did not blow
As yt had been a fyre on lowe.
He was to loke on, as I you telle
As yt had been a fiende of helle."

These romances were often called "Gestes," from the great "Gesta" or
exploits they recorded.

The author of "Cursor Mundi," a book of religious legends, says,

"Men lykyn jestis for to here
And romans rede in divers manere