:

TRUE THOMAS,

AND

THE QUEEN OF ELFLAND.

THE following copy of this very curious old romance is given from a MS., said to be of the fifteenth century, in the public library at Cambridge, marked Ff. v. 48, 11. The different readings in the margin are from a MS. in the library of the cathedral of Lincoln, a transcript of which I owe to the politeness and industry of my very valuable friend, the Reverend William Gray of Lincoln; and from another MS. in the Cotton library; for a specimen of which, the reader must be referred to Vol. II. Edit. 2. of the "Border Minstrelsy." In the Camb. MS. none of the pieces have any titles: the Cotton copy is prefaced by Incipit prophesia Thome de Erseldoun; and the Lincoln MS. is intitled,

Thomas off Erseldoune, and is introduced in the following

manner:

"Lystyns, lordyngs, bothe grete and smale,
And takis gude tente what I will saye;

I sall you tell als trewe a tale,

Als ever was herde by nyghte or daye;
And the maste marvelle ffor owten naye,
That ever was herde by fore or syne;
And ther for prestly I you pray,

That ye will of youre talkyng blyne.
It is an harde thyng for to saye,

Of doghety dedis that have been done;

Of felle fightyngs and batells sore;

And how that ther knyghtis hase wonne.
Bot Jhu Cryst that syttis in trone,

Safe Inglysche men bothe ferre and nere;
And I sall telle yow tyte and sone,

Of batells done sythen many a yere ;

And of batells that done sall bee;

In what place, and how and whare;
And wha sall hafe the higher gree;
And whether partye sall hafe the werre;
Wha sall take the flyghte and flee;

And wha sall dye, and be tane, thare:

Bot Jhu Cryste, that dyed on tre,

Save Inglysche men whare so thay fare.”

From the prayer, with which this exordium concludes, it may fairly be inferred, that the writer was an Englishman ; and the prophetic part of the piece has been evidently intended to be used as a political engine against the Scots. In the introduction to the prophecies, however, there is so much more fancy and elegance than in the prophecies themselves, that they can hardly be supposed to be the composition of the