Vago, indeed, in pure Latin, means to wander, but, in barbarous times, the classical fenfe of a word was not much regarded: of this, however, one cannot be confident. Tip, or Typ, in Saxon, and the ancient Cimbrick, was the name of Odin, or fome other northern deity, and, metonymically, any great leader, prince, lord, or emperour; and is occafionally apply'd, in compofition, to god the creatour. See Lyes dictionary, and Hickeses Thefaurus. But, admiting Tervagante or Termagant to have fome connection with the Saxon or Cimbrick term, it wil, by no means, prove that we did not obtain the word from the French, whofe language, every one knows, was as much a dialect of the ancient Cimbrick as that of the Anglo-Saxon. The word three had fome mystick fignification with the ancients : "Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae." Vir. Æ. IV.

Termagant, therefor, has been corrupted, by the Engleifh, from Tervagant, precisely in the fame manner as we have corrupted cormorant from corvorant, and malmfey from malvefie. The Italian poets have it Trivigante. Thus Ariosto

"Beftemmiando Macone, e Trivigante."

It, likewife, occurs in the Gierufalemme liberata of Tasfo, They, too, doubtlefs, were indebted for it to the French.

*** King Herod, in the Coventry Corpus-Christi play, constantly swears by Mahomet, but never by Termagant. So in fo. 173.

"Now be Mahound, my god of grace." One of the foldiers, who are fet to watch the fepulchre, calls him "Seynt Mahownde."

"Tervagant, l'un des dieux prétendus des Mahomé

tans," is a character in "Le jeu de S. Nicolas," a very ancient French mystery (see Fabliaux ou contes, II, 131); but no fuch perfonage, or even name, occurs in any Engleifh mystery or morality now extant, or of which we have any account; though, from the following pasfage, in Bales Acts of English votaries, it would feem that fome fuch character had, in his time, been known to the stage:

"Grennyng upon her, lyke Termagauntes in a play.” V. 1333. Fram the our of pryme

Tyll hyt was eve-fong-tyme

To fyghte they were well thro.]

It was customary with the christian kings, knights, and foldiers, to cease fighting at even-song, or vespers, obferve'd at fix o'clock. Thus, in the ancient Catalan romance of Tirant lo blanch, Barcelona, 1497, folio, it is fay'd, " E continuant tostemps la batailla era ja quafi hora de vespres, &c. So, likewise, in the Histoire de Guerin de Montglave, Lyons, 1585, 8vo. " & maintint la guerre jufques à l'heure de vespres." In the old ballad of The hunts of Cheviat:

"When even-fong-bell was rang the battell was nat half done;" and it became finful, of course, to fight any longer. The fame circumftance is thus notice'd in the more modern ballad of Chevy-chace:

"The fight did last, from break of day,

Till fetting of the fun;

For, when they rung the evening-bell,
The battle scarce was done."

Doctor Percy has confounded the vesper-bel with the curfew. The reafon of this temporary cesfation of bloodshed, proceeded from respect to the virgin Mary;

for, at this hour, the angelical falutation was fung; whence it was fometimes call'd The Ave-Maria bel. It is ftil customary, upon the Spanish stage, for the actours, in the midst of the grossest and most indecent buffoonry, to fall down on their knees, and pul out their beads, at the found of this bel. V.1337. Lybeaus thurftede fore,

And feyde Maugys, thyn ore.]

Thus, in Chaucers Milleres tale, V. 3724:

"Lemman, thy grace, and, fwete bird, thyn ore.” In the learned editours note on this pasfage he ex. plains ore to fignify "grace, favour, protection:" and cites, as an additional instance, in fupport of that explanation, the present text, "where," he fays, "thyne ore must be understood to mean with thy favour, as in this pasfage of Chaucer.'

The fame phrafe occurs frequently in Syr Bevys, though not precisely, at least, in every inftance, with mister Tyrwhitts fignification;

"She faide, Bevys, lemman thyn ore,
Thou art wounded wonder fore."
"Mercy, faide Bradmodde, thyn ore."
"There is no man, by goddys ore."

"Then fayd Bevys, for Crystes ore.”

Thus, likewife, Robert of Gloucester, P. 39: "The maister fel adoun on kne, and criede mercy

Again:

and ore."

"Therfore the erl of Kent he byfought milc and ore." Again, in The erl of Tolous, V. 583:

"Y afke mercy for goddys ore."

V. 1423. For thys fayr lady, &c.]

This lady bears a strong resemblance to the no less

magical than beauteous fairys, the Calypfo of Homer, and the Alcina of Ariosto; both of whom deludeëd and detain❜d Ulysses and Rogero in the manner la dame d'amour here treats Lybeaus.

V. 1998. This is the onely stanza in which the poet has neglected the recurrent rimes; in other respects it appears to be perfect.

THE GESTE OF KYNG HORN.

This romance, the most ancient, it is believe'd, that exifts in the Engleish language, (unless we except the Tristrem of Thomas Rymour), and of which no more than one fingle copy is extant, is preserve'd in a MS. of the Harleian library, in the British museum, number 2253, and writen, apparently, in the time of king Edward the fecond, by fome French or Norman scribe, by whom, likewise, the poem itsfelf may have been compose'd in the precedeing reign. Doctor Percy, indeed, brings it down as low as king Richard II. which is utterly improbable; and Warton placeës it in the reign of Edward I. which is abfolutely impossible; fince, as he wel knew, it contains an elegy upon the death of that monarch. The prefent poem, for the falvation of parchment, is writen with two lines in one. The letters and y (vowel) are in the Saxon form (t, y); þ is everywhere ufe'd for th and z for y (confonant), or, occafionally, gh. The ufe of the z might have been retain'd, after the example of refpectable editours; but, with the Saxon charaçters, is facrifice'd to publick taste or prejudice.

This romance is mention'd, among many others, in Chaucers Rime of fir Thopas,

"Men fpeken of romaunces of pris,

Of Horn-child and Ypotis,

Of Bevis and Sir Gy ;”

as wel as in an old metrical translation, in the Bodleian library, of Guido de Colonna, on the Trojan war, quoteëd by, Warton, but not writen, as he fuppofeës, by Lydgate:

66 Many fpeken of men that romaunces rede, &c. Of Keveloke, Horne, and of Wade,+

In romances that of them be made,

*History of Engleish poetry, II, n. 9. Keveloke, in the extract, should be Haveloke, the hero of a famous ftory, not entirely perifh'd.

† We, unfortunately, have loft the writeings, and even the history of this celebrateëd perfonage; except as to a very few anecdotes or allufions, which onely serve to whet our anxiety for the reft: Chaucer, in his Merchaunts tale, has this couplet: "And eke thise olde widewes (god it wote)

They connen fo moch craft in Wades bote." V. 9297. "Upon this," quoth the worthy Tyrwhitt, very hapyly, "Speght remarks as follows: "Concerning Wade, and his bote called Guingelot, as also his ftraunge exploits in the fame, because the matter is long and fabulous, i paffe it over.""Tantamne rem tam negligenter? Mr. Speght probably did not forefee, that posterity would be as much obliged to him for a little of this fabulous matter concerning Wade and his bote, as for the graveft of his annotations" (IV, 284). "The ftory of Wade," he ads, " is mentioned again by our author in his Troilus, iii, 615:

"He fonge, the playde, he tolde a tale of Wade."

Sir Francis Kinaston, in his Commentary on "The loves of Troilus and Crefeid," fays that " Chaucer means a ridiculous romance...for, in his time, there was a foolish fabulous legend