The volume containing the poem was shown to me by Mr Stubbs, the
Librarian at Lambeth, in order that I might see the version of Sir
Gyngelayne, son of Sir Gawain, which Mr Morris is some day, I trust, to
edit for the Society in one of his Gawain volumes.[1] Finding the
present poem also on the paper leaves, I copied it out the same
afternoon, and here it is for a half-hour's amusement to any reader who
chooses to take it up.
The handwriting of the MS. must be of a date soon after 1460, and this
agrees well with the allusion to Edward the Fourth's accession, and the
triumph of the White Rose o'er the Red alluded to in the last lines of
the poem. The Garlond,
It was made ...
Of flourys most of honoure,
Of roses whyte ?at wy{l~l} nott fade,
Whych floure a{l~l} ynglond doth glade....
Vn-to the whych floure I-wys
The loue of God and of the comonys
Subdued bene of ryght.
For, that the Commons of England were glad of their Yorkist king, and
loved Duke Richard's son, let Holinshed's record prove. He testifies:
"Wherevpon it was againe demanded of the commons, if they would
admit and take the said erle as their prince and souereigne lord;
which all with one voice cried: Yea, yea....
"Out of the ded stocke sprang a branch more mightie than the stem;
this Edward the Fourth, a prince so highlie fauoured of the peple,
for his great liberalite, clemencie, vpright dealing, and courage,
that aboue all other, he with them stood in grace alone: by reason
whereof, men of all ages and degrees to him dailie repaired, some
offering themselues and their men to ioepard their liues with him,
and other plentiouslie gaue monie to support his charges, and to
mainteine his right.
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