To niht a mine slepe, At night in my slepe Their ich læi on bure, Where I lay in bower [chamber] Me imæette a sweuen; I dreamt a dream-- Ther oure ich full sari æm. Therefore I full sorry am. Me imætte that mon me hof I dreamt that men lifted me Uppen are halle. Up on a hall; Tha halle ich gon bestriden, The hall I gan bestride, Swulc ich wolde riden As if I would ride; Alle tha lond tha ich ah All the lands that I owned, Alle ich ther ouer sah. All I there overlooked. And Walwain sat biuoren me; And Walwain sate before me; Mi sweord he bar an honde. My sword he bare in hand. Tha com Moddred faren ther Then approached Modred there, Mid unimete uolke. With innumerable folk. (_b_) =Robert of Gloucester= is known only through his rhyming history. From internal evidence it is considered likely that he wrote about 1300. From his dialect, and from local details that he introduces into the poem, it is probable that he belonged to Gloucestershire. Drawing largely upon Layamon, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and other chroniclers, he begins his history of England with Brutus and carries it down to the year 1270. The style of the poem is often lively enough; and the meter, though rough and irregular, often suggests the later “fourteener.” As a rule the lines are longer than those of the _Brut_, and the number of accents is greater. (_c_) =Robert Manning (1264–1340)= is sometimes known as Robert of Brunne, or Bourne, in Lincolnshire. In 1288 he entered a Gilbertine monastery near his native town. His _Story of Ingelond_ (1338) begins with the Deluge, and traces the descent of the English kings back to Noah. The latter portion of the book is based upon the work of Pierre de Langtoft, and the first part upon Wace’s _Brut_. The meter is a kind of chaotic alexandrine verse; but an interesting feature is that the couplet rhymes are carefully executed, with the addition of occasional middle rhymes. Manning’s _Handlyng Synne_ (1303) is a religious manual based on a French work, _Manuel des Pechiez_. The poem, which is thirteen thousand lines in length, is a series of metrical sermons on the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Sacraments. The author knows how to enliven the work with agreeable anecdotes, and there are signs of a keen observation. The meter is an approximation to the octosyllabic couplet. Manning’s language is of importance because it marks a close approach to that of Chaucer: a comparative absence of old words and inflections, a copious use of the later French terms, and the adoption of new phrases.