'Of mete ne drynke he ne roghte,
So fulle he was of care!
Tille the nynte daye byfelle
_That he come to a welle,_
_Ther he was wonte for to duelle_
_And drynk take hym thare_.'
These quotations set aside Mr. Jephson's interpretation, and solve
Tyrwhitt's difficulty. Tyrwhitt says that 'The Romance of Perceval le
Galois, or de Galis, was composed in octosyllable French verse by Chrestien
de Troyes, one of the oldest and best French romancers, before the year
1191; Fauchet, l. ii. c. x. It consisted of above 60,000 verses (Bibl. des
Rom. t. ii. p. 250) so that it would be some trouble to find the fact which
is, probably, here alluded to. The romance, under the same title, in French
prose, printed at Paris, 1530, fol., can be an abridgement, I suppose, of
the original poem.'
2107. _worthy under wede_, well-looking in his armour. The phrase is very
common. Tyrwhitt says it occurs repeatedly in the romance of Emare, and
refers to folios 70, 71 b, 73 a, and 74 b of the MS.; but the reader may
now find the romance in print; see Ritson's Metrical Romances, ii. pp. 214,
229, 235, 245. The phrase is used of ladies also, and must then mean of
handsome appearance when well-dressed. See Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii.
pp. 370, 375. Cf. l. 1979.
2108. The story is here broken off by the host's interruption. MSS. Pt. and
Hl. omit this line, and MSS. Cp. and Ln. omit ll. 2105-7 as well. [201]