Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

161 :\riXSTRELSY OF
" variis rerum hnaginibvs, adumhrare callebanl ; illicibusque
"formis veros obscurare conspectus. " Merlin, the son of Am-
brose, was particularly skilled in this art, and displays it often
in the old metrical romance of Arthou7' and Merlin :
Tho' thai com the Kinges neighe
Merlin hef his lieued on heighe
And kest on hem enchauntement
That he hem alle allmest blent
That none other sen no might
A gret while y you plight, &c.
The Jongleurs were also great professors of this mystery,
which has in some degree descended, with their name, on the
modern jugglers. But durst Breslaw, the Sieur Boaz, or Kat-
terfelto himself, have encountered, in a magical sleight, the
tragetoures of Father Chaucer, who
—
within a hall large
Have made come in a water and a barge.
And in the halle rowen up and down ;
Somtinie hath semed come a grim leoun.
And somtime flowres spring as in a mcdc ;
Somtime a vine and grapes white and rede,
Somtime a castel al of lime and ston ;
And when hem liketh voideth it anon.
Thus seemeth it to every mannes sight.
Fratikrkcnr!'.'! Talc.
And, again, the prodigies exhibited by the Clerk of Orleans
to Aurelius:
—
He shewd him or they went to soupere
Forestes, parkes, ful of wilde dere ;
Ther saw he hartes with hir homies liie.
The gretest that were ever seen with eie :
He saw of them an hundred slain with houndes.
And some with arwes blede of bitter woundcs :
He saw, when voided were the wilde dere,
Thise fauconers upon a fair rivere,