Royal MS 20 C VI

LANCELOT DU LAC: the concluding part of the prose romance, including also the Quest of the Saint-Graal and the Morte Arthur. Attributed, as often, to Walter Map. See Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, p. 350, and cf. 19 B. VII, 19 C. XIII, &c. The text is collated in H. O. Sommer's Vulgate Text of the Arthurian Romances (1912, 1913). A table prefixed (f. 2) divides the contents of the three sections into 76 sections lettered (a-z, &, aa-&&, aaa-&&&, aaaa-dddd) and numbered (i-lxxiiii, several mistakes in numbering). These divisions are indicated by larger initials and arabic numerals written with a plummet in the margin. The main divisions are as follows:-

1. Equivalent to vol. v of Sommer. Without title, except the 15th cent. addition 'Vne part de Launcelot'. Beg. 'Or dit li cuntes que quant Agrauains li orguelleus se fu partiz'; ends 'nus se il les ueist qui ne sen peust merueillier'. Colophon, 'Si fenist ci mestres Gautiers Map son liure. et commence Le GRAAL'. f. 3.

2. Equivalent to Sommer, vi, pp. 1-199; the Quest of the Saint-Graal. Without title. Beg. 'La ueille de la pentecoste quant li oompaingnon'; ends 'et fu effoie el palais esperitel'. Colophon, 'Si se test ore li contes des auentures du saint graal. Et commence LA MORT LE ROI Artu'. f. 113.

3. Equivalent to Sommer, vi, pp. 203-end : the Morte Arthur. Without title. Beg. 'Apres ce que mestre Gautier Map ot tretie des auentures du saint graal'; ends 'la remenant de sa uie por lamor de nostre seingnor. Si se test ore mester Gauter Map de lestoire de Lancelot quar bien a tot mene a fin selonc les choses qui en auindrent. Et define ci son liure si outreement que apres ce nen porroit nus raconter chose qui nen mentist apertement', Colophon, 'Ci fenist la mort le roi Artus'. f. 150.

Art. 4 is in another hand of about the same date.

4. 'Ci comence le regne des Bretons et puis des E[n]gleys': brief account of kings in England from Brutus to Edward I. The narrative ends with the rebellion of Llewelyn in 1282, but has an entry in another hand for 1283. Though very short, this narrative is not without interest, parts of it (Egbert-Cnut) being evidently adapted from a lost verse chronicle (in English?), which seems also to have been used by William of Malmesbury and the author of the longer version of Robert of Gloucester. Some portions of f. 187 have been torn away. Beg. 'Auant la natiuite nostre seingnor mil. et ii. cenz anz ke Brutus le fuiz Silui uint en Engletere'; ends (originally) 'vint ii et conquist Snowdone et tote Wales'. The added passage beg. 'E pus fist le rey asemler vn grant parlement a Syrovesbyri'; ends 'de la traysun ke il aweyt fet a sun sengur'. f. 186 b.

On the fly-leaf (f. 1 b) is written out the alphabet (a-z, &).

Vellum; ff. 187. 15 in. x 10 in. Written in England (West of England?). Circ. A.D. 1283. Gatherings (beg. f. 3) of 12 leaves (last⁵), numbered at beginning and end, with catchwords. Double columns. Sec. fol. 'li autre'. Illuminated initials and miniatures to artt. 1 and 3, Other initials flourished in red and blue. On the lower margins of ff. 4 b and 11 are contemporary pen-drawings of knights and grotesques, fairly well executed. Above one is written 'Boch. Bochard.' The subjects of the miniatures are :-

1. Agravain riding, with Druas' head on his saddle; a damsel standing behind. f. 3.

2. Lancelot rescues Guinevere as she is led to the fire. f. 150.

Perhaps no. 99 of the Richmond Palace inventory of 1535 (see 15 D. 1) ; cat. of 1666, f. 11 or 11 b ; not in CMA.