Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

VIn. SIR THOMAS MALORY. 40at Dover, but one of his best knights, Sir Gawain, was killed in the fray,and buried in a chapel in Dover castle. Sir Mordred then withdrew withhis host to Canterbury.At this point our extract commences.Cap. III. I. Lete serche, caused to be searched. This use of lete isvery common in Malory. It is still a common idiom in German.20. Chaflet, a small scaffold or platform. In the old alliterativepoem called the ' Morte Arthure,' edited by Mr. Perry for the EarlyEnglish Text Society in \865, this dream of Arthur's is told in anotherplace, and at great length ; see 11. 3228-3394 in that edition. In thataccount also, the final battle is said to take place in Cornwall, whitherArthur had driven Mordred, after burying Gawain, not at Dover, but atWinchester.36. Systers sone. Gawain was son of King Lot, who married a sisterof Arthur's by the mother's side. Lot's sons were Gawain, Agravayn,Gaheret, and Gaheries; see 'Merlin,' a Prose Romance, ed. H. BWheatley, p. 1 79. Gawain's courtesy was proverbial, and is alluded toin Chaucer's Squyeres Tale, 1. 87.46. Afid ye fyghte, if ye fight. It is common to find a)id written in-and conversely, the copulative and is often written an.stead of an, if;53, As to tnorfie; this curious idiom is still imitated in the colloquialphrase ' as it may be to-morrow.'66. Charged theym, ' charged them (to do so), if in any wise theymight,' &c.73. By Arthires dayes, ' whilst Arthur lived; and afterwards,' &c.Cap. IIII. 21. Beamous, an error for beatnnSy a west-countiy form ofbeanies or be?nes, the plural of be7ne, a trumpet, from the A. S. beme orbyme, a trumpet.22. Dressyd hem to-gyders, arrayed themselves against each other.44. Becomen, gone to. In Old English we find to be becomen where wenow say to be gone to.59. On lyue, lit. in life; hence our modern alive.79.Wayliely, weakly, with difficulty.83. Do me to wyte, cause me to know, bring me word.Cap. V. I. Werches, aches; lit. works.7. The lyfte, the effort of lifting him.The parte, a part,13. For he wold, 'for he, who had more need of help than I had,would fain have helped me.'2 1 . Excalibur. Cf. ' Thou therefore take my brand Excolibnr,' and thewhole of the rest of Tennyson's poem entitled ' Morte d'Arthur.' Thefamous sword, also called Caliburn, was drawn by Arthur out of aDd