"many poems of high antiquity, composed by the Armorican bards, ftill remain, and are frequently cited by father Lobineau in his learned history of Baffe-Bretagne.' Chaucer, in his Frankeleines prologue, has the following lines: "Thise old gentil Bretons in hir dayes Of diverse aventures maden layes, Rimeyed in hir firste Breton tonge; Which layes with hir inftruments they songe, Or elles redden hem for hir plesance, And on of hem have i in remembrance,In Armorike, that called is Bretaigne, &c." See, too, what is say'd on this subject in the prologue to the romance of Sir Orphewe (or Orpheo). Chaucer, certainly, in the above inftance, and, perhap, the authour of Sir Orpheo, allude to the Armorican Britons. Again, in The erle of Tolous: "A laye of Bretayne callyd hyt ys." The old Engleith Ballad of fir Gowther (Royal MSS. *History of English poetry, Disfertation I. fig. a 2. In all this there is not a word of truth, any more than in his pretended migration into this country of a colony or army of the Welsh under Maximus, in the fourth century. The Bretons, as elsewhere mention'd, have but one fingle poem, of any confequence, in their native idiom, ancient or modern: the predictions of a pretended prophet, name'd Gwinglaff; the MS. whereof is dateëd 1450. According to the preface to Pelletiers dictionary, they never cultivateëd poetry; and the language they speak seems incapable of the measure, sweetness and harmony of verfe. 17 B XLIII), as mister Tyrwhitt has remark'd, is fay'd by the writeër to have been takeën out of one of the layes of Britanye: and, in another place, he fays the firft lay of Britanye. (Introductory discourfe, n. 24. In the old French romance of Merlin, that prophet comes into the presence of king Arthur and his court at a great feast, in the form of a beautyful blind harper, and harps “ung lai de Breton." (Fo.cix.) There is a curious and valuable collection of French lais, or fhort metrical tales, by Marie de France, moft of which are asferted to have been made by the Bretons. See Wartons History of Engligh poetry, Disfertation I. n. d. and Tyrwhitts Introductory discourse, n. 24, and note on V. 10985.* In the prologue to this collection we are told This fet of old French tales of chivalry in verfe was writen, as Warton pretends, by the bards of Bretagne. That it was the composition, but not the publication, of Mary the poetefs, who, likewise, profess'd to translate the fables of Æfop from an English or Saxon verfion of king Alfred, is manifeft: "Oez feignurs ke dit Marie, Ki en fon tens pas ne soblie :"+ whence it appears fhe was then dead; the editour, whofe addrefs it is, perfifting to praise her, though she were defame'd by perfons of great confequence. In the lays themselves the speaks of herself in the first person: "Marie ai nun, fi fui de France." The Varia Britannorum fabulæ, in the library of the univerfity of Upfal, which mister Tyrwhitt took to be a translation of these lays into one of the northern languageës, seems rather to be a copy of the original French. A metrical version of Lay le freine is extant in the Edinburgh manuscript, but ftil imperfect. + Soblie (f'oublie) for soblia, rythmi gratið. "Les contes he io fai venais Dunt li Bretun unt fait les lais." This, or a fimilar expresfion, occurs repeatedly; and Eliduc is exprefly call'd બી "Un mut ancien lai Bretun." The scene, allfo, is frequently lay'd in Bretayne, which, in one place, is exprefsly called Bretaigne la menur; and, in another, is ascertain'd by the mention of Nantes. She muft, however, mean Great Britain, in the lay of Lanval, where the mentions Kardoel, and that of Ywenet, where she speaks of Carwent (i. e. Venta Silurum, now Chepstow), which the placeës upon the Dulas, inftead of the Wye. She, likewife, in others, mentions Suht-Wales, Toteneis, and Excestre. Another of her scenes is lay'd in Normendie. There are other lays of the fame description, not attributeëd to Mary; as the Lai de Gruelan (Fabliaux ou contes, A, 125), which is likewise a lai de Bretagne. In the fame book is the extract of another lay of Bretagne, intitle’d “ Lai du buisfon d'épine." In the old profe romance of Merlin, that magician introduceës himself before king Arthur under the appearance of a handfome, young, and blind minstrel, “& il harpoit," fays the story, "ung lay de Breton, par telle façon que ceftoit melodie de louyr.' (Volume II, fo. 109.) The Roman de Tristan, an an. " * One of her lays, alfo, is intitle'd Lauftic, by mistake for Eauftic, or E'aufticg, which in Breton fignifys a nightingale. See the dictionarys of Pelletier and Rostrenen. Another is called Bisclaveret, a corruption, or intentional alteration of Bleiz-garv, a loupgarou, or wer-wolf. See Rostrenen, voce GAROU. The words of the tale are, "Bisclaveret ad nun en Bretan, Fo. 152. cient manuscript already mention'd, has the following pasfage; part of Tristans address to Yfolt: "Bons lais de harpe vus apris Lais Bretuns de nostre pais." This proves, what one might naturally enough have fufpected, that the Bretagne, or Bretuns, spokeën of in these lays are not the country and people of Armorica, but those of Great-Britain; Tristan being a native of Liones, an imaginary district, which adjoin'd to Cornwall, and, as Carew pretends, was devour'd by the fea. Tristan himself was famous for his lays, fome of which are preserve'd in his profe history; and, upon the death of this hero, fays one of the manuscripts, "li rois Artus en fift un lai, qui fu apellé le lai roial, & Lancelot en fit deus autres.” (20 D II.) In the Lai du buisfon d'épine, of which an extract is giveën by Le Grand (Fabliaux ou contes, D, 103), the authour says, of these lays, "They have been chanted in Bretagne and elsewhere. They preserve the originals at Carlion:" and, Carlion, or Caerleon, was one of Arthurs palaceës in modern S. Wales, as was allfo Caerwent all, ready alludeëd to. So that it is far from being certain that, by the Breton lays of the French romanceës, are intended the productions of Armorica; and, much morẹ probable, that they generally, by Bretagne and Bretons, mean the iland and inhabitants of Great-Britain, render'd famous upon the continent by the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth. It does not, at the fame time, appear that any such lays are preserve'd in Wales any more than in Basse-Bretagne, if, in fact, they ever existed in either country. V. 1032. Men callys playn the garye.] Playing the garye would feem, from this pasfage, to mean the publick recitation of such a story as the pre. fent, accompany'd by correfpondent action, and the melody of the harp. We are told by Carew, that "The Guary-miracle, in English, a miracle-play, is a kinde of enterlude, compiled in Cornish, out of fome fcripture-history, with that groffenes which accompa nied the Romanes vetus comedia. For reprefenting it," he ads, "they raise an earthen amphitheatre, in fome open field, having the diameter of his enclosed playne fome 40 or 50 foot. The country-people flock from all fides, many miles off, to heare and see it: for they have therein devils and devices, to delight as well the eye as the eare: the players conne not their parts with out booke, but are prompted by one called the ordinary, who followeth at their back with the booke in his hand, and telleth them foftly what they must pronounce aloud." (Survey of Cornwall, fo.71, b.) Some of thefe ordinalia, or interludes, in the Cornish language, are extant in manuscript. SIR ORPHEO. This lay, or tale, being rather too concise to be denominateëd a metrical romance, is a Gothick metamorphofis of the clasfical episode of Orpheus and Eurydice, fo beautyfully relateëd by Ovid. It professes, like the tales of Mary of France, to be a lay of Britain, (whether Great Britain or Armorica, has been allready discufs'd;) and, if it have not so much merit as fome others of these poetical compofitions, the most fastidious reader can scarcely complain of its prolixity. There |