d them there all,
& soe did lady Geneuer his queene,
With all the knights of the round table
Most seemly to be seene.

56.
King Arthur beheld that lady faire
That was soe faire and bright,
He thanked Christ in Trinity
For Sir Gawaine that gentle knight;

57.
Soe did the knights, both more and lesse;
Reioyced all that day
For the good chance that hapened was
To Sir Gawaine & his lady gay.

[Annotations:
34.2: 'swire,' neck: the Folio reads _smire_.
37.4: 'slaine': the Folio gives _shaine_.
41.2: 'was' (Child's suggestion): the Folio reads _with_.
43.1: 'feires,' = feres, mates: the Folio reads _seires_.
44.2: Folio: _but a skill_: see note on 28.3.
48.1: 'carlish,' churlish.]

[Illustration]

THE BOY AND THE MANTLE

+Text.+--The Percy Folio is the sole authority for this excellent lively
ballad. It is here given as it stands in the manuscript, except for
division into stanzas. Percy printed the ballad '_verbatim_,'--that is,
with emendations--and also a revised version.

+The Story+, which exists in countless variations in many lands, is told
from the earliest times in connection with the Arthurian legend-cycle.
Restricting the article used as a criterion of chastity to a mantle, we
find the elements of this ballad existing in French manuscripts of the
thirteenth century (the romance called _Cort Mantel_); in a Norse
translation of this 'fabliau'; in the Icelandic _Mantle Rhymes_ of the
fifteenth century; in the _Scalachronica_ of Sir Thomas Gray of Heton
(_circ._ 1355); in Germany, and in Gaelic (a ballad known in Irish
writings, but not in Scottish); as well as in many other versions.

The trial by the drinking-horn is a fable equally old, as far as the
evidence goes, and equally widespread; but it is not told elsewhere in
connection with the parallel story of the mantle. Other tests used for
the purpose of discovering infidelity or unchastity are:-- a crown, a
magic bridge (German); a girdle (English; cp. Florimel's girdle in the
_Faery Queen_, Book iv. Canto 5); a bed, a stepping-stone by the
bedside, a chair (Scandinavian); flowers (Sanskrit); a shirt (German and
Flemish); a picture (Italian, translated to England--cp. Massinger's
_The Picture_ (1630), where he localises the story in Hungary); a ring
(French); a mirror (German, French, and Italian); and so forth.

Caxton, in his preface to _Kyng Arthur_ (1485), says:-- 'Item, in the
c