Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/62

42 mance, but not always; and when, upon the other hand, she makes a constant practice of translating them into English, she proves to what sort of readers she was principally addressing herself, and that the monarch to whom me inscribed her dedication was Henry III.

Mary's Lays are twelve in number.

The first is the Lay of Guiguemar, Son of Oridial, Lord of Leon in Lower Brittany. Of this monsieur le Grand gives an analysis in his Tales of the 12th and 13th Centuries, It consists of 860 verses.

The second is that of Quitan, Lord of Nauns, or Nantois, and contains 314 verses.

The third is the Lay of Fresne. This is the history of the Son of a Bas-Breton Knight, who, although legitimate, is left exposed under an ash-tree as a bastard. It consists of 550 verses.

The fourth is that of Bisclaveret, and relates the history of a Bas-Breton Knight who is changed into a Warwolf. It has 384 verses.

The fifth is the Lay of Lanval, one of the Knights of king Arthur's Round Table. The queen of this monarch having falsely accused Lanval of insulting her beauty, Arthur causes the knight to be tried for the offence at Cardiff. At the instant that he was about to be unjustly condemned, a benevolent fairy comes to his assistance, delivers, and conveys him to the Isle of Avalon. This poem contains 646 verses. It occurs separately in the Cotton library, Vesp. B. XIV. Monsieur le Grand has translated it into prose amongst his Fabliaux ; and there is an ancient English metrical version of it by Thomas Chestre.

The sixth is the Lay of the Two Lovers. It is the story of two persons who perish at the same instant, victims to their own love Rh