Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/562

 49^ Correspondence.

one to four, or even five, the starting-point being the identification of Morgain as sister to the king, which, of course, in the chronicles, she is not.

Another note of lateness is the passage on p. 283, relating to the knights slain in the Quest. Some years ago, in my Lancelot Studies, I pointed out that this passage originally formed part of the Qiieste, and in the earlier and better versions we find it as the conclusion of this romance. It is so in the Dutch trans- lation, and in the printed edition of 1533 (Lenoire); in the later Mss. and editions it is found as here, at the beginning of the final, Afort Artus, section. The light in which it represents Gawain, as slayer of so many of his brother knights, is in harmony with the character assigned to him in the Quesie, but not with that which he bears in the Mort Artus. The correct number slain is 22, not 42, but Gawain is always held accountable for the death of iS.

The critical interest of the text lies in the fact that it aflfords evidence that this " Map " cycle was known in Italy, of which we had before no proof; the Tavola Rito?tda is largely composed of Tristan material.

Another point of interest is the form of the proper names ; certain of them, such as Melil Tomeil for Gorlois, and Adelfot as one of the sons of the knight of Askalot, are otherwise unknown to Arthurian tradition. Askalot recalls the Astolat of Malory, and may well be a form intermediate between that and the original Escarloet. The fact that these sons are named also accords with the tendency shown by the English compiler to name his minor characters, and it is possible that the Ms. at the root of this final section belonged to the same family as that used by Malory.

It seems to me not impossible that the peculiar form of the text may be due to the source having been abridged for the purposes of oral recitation. I can, however, assure Dr. Gaster that there is nothing here which he will not find in Mss. belonging to the later cyclic redaction, such as, for example, the Huth Merlin, in the edition of the Societe des Anciens Textes Fran^ais.

Jessie L. Weston.