Reliques of ancient English poetry: consisting of old heroic ballads ...

AND BALLADS. 335
XVIIL
THE BOY AND THE MANTLE,
As REVISED AND ALTERED BY A MODERN HAND.
Mr. Warton, in his ingenious Obfervations on Spenfer?
has given his opinion that the fiffion of the Boy and the
Mantle is taken from an old French piece intitledhE court
mantel quoted by M. de St. Palaye in his curious
" Memoires fur V ancienne Chevalerie," Paris, 1759.
2 torn. 1 imo. who tells us the jlory refembles that of Artsfd's
inchanted cup. 'Tis pojjible our Englijh poet may have
taken the hint of this fubjeSi from that old French Ro~
mance, but he does not appear to have copied it in the man-
ner of execution : to which (if one may judge from the fpecimen
given in the Memoires) that of the ballad does not
hear the leaf refemblance. After all ''tis mojl likely that all
the old ftories concerning K. Arthur are originally of Britijhgrowth^
and that what the French and other fonthem na-
tions have of this kind were at firfi exportedfrom this ifand.,
See Memoires de V Acad, des Injcrip. torn. xx. p. 352.
IN
Carleile dwelt king Arthur,
A prince of palling might
And there maintained his table round,
Befet with many a knight.
And there he kept his Chriilmas 5
With mirth and princely cheare,
When, lo ! a ftraunge and cunning boy
Before him did appeare,
3.
;
A kirtle,