[Footnote P3: This refers to the edition printed in 1865. In executing the present reprint, the proof-sheets have been once more compared with the MS., and a very few insignificant errors have been thus detected and rectified.] II.--DESCRIPTION OF THE POEM. The poem itself is a loose paraphrase of not quite fourteen folios of the first of the three volumes of the French Romance of Lancelot du Lac, if we refer to it as reprinted at Paris in 1513, in three volumes, thin folio, double-columned.[P4] The English poet has set aside the French Prologue, and written a new one of his own, and has afterwards translated and amplified that portion of the Romance which narrates the invasion of Arthur’s territory by “le roy de oultre les marches, nomme galehault” (in the English _Galiot_), and the defeat of the said king by Arthur and his allies. [Footnote P4: “As to the Romance of Sir Lancelot, our author [Gower], among others on the subject, refers to a volume of which he was the hero; perhaps that of Robert de Borron, altered soon afterwards by Godefroy de Leigny, under the title of _Le Roman de la Charrette_, and printed, with additions, at Paris by Antony Verard, in the year 1494. For if thou wilt the bokes rede Of Launcelot and other mo, Then might thou seen how it was tho Of armes,” etc. (GOWER: _Confessio Amantis_, Book iv.) _Quoted from_ Warton’s English Poetry, vol. ii., p. 234, _ed._ 1840. I quote this as bearing somewhat on the subject, though it should be observed that _Le Roman de la Charrette_ is not the same with _Lancelot du Lac_, but only a romance of the same class. Chaucer also refers to Lancelot in his Nonnes Prestes Tale, l. 392; and it is mentioned in the famous lines of Dante (_Inf._ v. 127)-- “Noi leggevamo un giorno per diletto Di Lancilotto, come amor lo strinse,” &c.] The Prologue (lines 1-334) tells how the author undertook to write a romance to please his lady-love; and how, after deciding to take as his subject the story of Lancelot as told in the French Romance, yet finding himself unequal to a close translation of the whole of it, he determined to give a paraphrase of a portion of it only. After giving us a brief summary of the earlier part by the simple process of telling us what he will _not_ relate, he proposes to begin the story at the point where Lancelot has been made prisoner by the lady of Melyhalt, and to take as his subject the wars between Arthur and Galiot, and the distinction which Lancelot won in them; and afterwards to tell how Lancelot made peace between these two kings, and was consequently rewarded by Venus, who “makith hyme his ladice grace to have” (l. 311). The latter part of the poem, it may be observed, has not come down to us. The author then concludes his Prologue by beseeching to have the support of a very celebrated poet, whose name he will not mention, but will only say that