Sir Thopas was written to ridicule the romancers; its incidents must therefore accord with theirs, and the Feerie in it in fact resembles those in Huon de Bordeaux. It has the farther merit of having suggested incidents to Spenser, and perhaps of having given the idea of a queen regnante of Fairy Land. Sir Thopas is chaste as Graelent. Full many a maidè bright in bour They mourned for him _par amour_; When hem were bete to slepe; But he was chaste and no lechour, And sweet as is the bramble flour That bereth the red hepe. He was therefore a suitable object for the love of a gentle elf-queen. So Sir Thopas one day "pricketh through a faire forest" till he is weary, and he then lies down to sleep on the grass, where he dreams of an elf-queen, and awakes, declaring An elf-queen wol I love, ywis. All other women I forsake, And to an elf-queen I me take By dale and eke by down. He determines to set out in quest of her. Into his sadel he clombe anon, And pricked over style and stone, An elf-quene for to espie; Till he so long had ridden and gone, That he found in a privee wone The countree of Faerie,[86] Wherein he soughtè north and south, And oft he spied with his mouth In many a forest wilde; For in that countree n'as there none That to him dorst ride or gon, Neither wif ne childe. The "gret giaunt" Sire Oliphaunt, however, informs him that Here is the quene of Faërie, With harpe and pipe and simphonie, Dwelling in this place. Owing to the fastidiousness of "mine hoste," we are unable to learn how Sir Thopas fared with the elf-queen, and we have probably lost a copious description of Fairy Land. From the glimmering of the morning star of English poetry, the transition is natural to its meridian splendour, the reign of Elizabeth, and we will now make a few remarks on the poem of Spenser. FOOTNOTES: [74] Avalon was perhaps the Island of the Blest, of Celtic mythology, and then the abode of the Fees, through the Breton Korrigan. Writers, however, seem to be unanimous in regarding it and Glastonbury as the same place, called an isle, it is stated, as being made nearly such by the "river's embracement." It was named Avalon, we are told, from the British word _Aval_, an apple, as it abounded with orchards; and _Ynys gwydrin_; Saxon [Old English: Glastn-ey], glassy isle; Latin, Glastonia, from the green hue of the water surrounding it. [75] See Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. ix., for a further account of Ogier. [76] Tant nagea en mer qu'il arriva pres du chastel daymant quon nomme le chasteau davallon, qui nest gueres deca paradis terrestre la ou furent ravis en une raye de feu Enoc et Helye, et la ou estoit Morgue la faye, qui a sa naissance lui avoit donne de grands dons, nobles et vertueux.