2320. _Hwan he was king, ther mouthe men se_, &c. Ritson has justly remarked, Notes to _Ywaine and Gawaine_, l. 15, that the elaborate description of Arthur’s feast at Carlisle, given by Geoffrey of Monmouth, l. ix. c. 12, has served as a model to all his successors. The original passage stands thus in a fine MS. of the 13th century, MS. Harl. 3773. fol. 33 _b_. “Refecti autem epulis diversos ludos acturi campos extra civitatem adeunt. Tunc milites simulachra belli scientes _equestrem ludum_ componunt, mulieribus ab edito murorum aspicientibus. Alii _cum cestibus_, alii _cum hastis_, alii _gravium lapidum jactu_, alii _cum facis_, [_saxis_, Edd.] alii _cum aleis_, diversisque alii alteriusmodi jocis contendentes.” In the translation of this description by Wace we approach still nearer to the imitation of the Romance before us. A plusurs iuis se departirent, Li vns alerent _buhurder_, E lur ignels cheuals mustrer, Li altre alerent _eskermir_, V _pere geter_, v _saillir_; Tels i-aueit ki _darz lanconent_, E tels i-aueit ki _lutouent_: Chescon del gru [geu?] s’entremetait Dunt entremettre se saueit. --MS. Reg. 13. A. xxi. The parallel versions, from the French, of Laȝamon, Robert of Gloucester, and Robert of Brunne, may be read in Mr Ellis’s _Specimens of Early English Poets_. At the feast of Olimpias, described in the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_, we obtain an additional imitation. Withoute theo toun was mury, Was reised ther al maner pley; There was knyghtis _turnyng_, There was maidenes carolyng, There was champions _skyrmyng_, Of heom and of other _wrastlyng_, Of liouns chas, of _beore baityng_, And _bay of bor_, of _bole slatyng_. --l. 193. Cf. l. 1045. Some additional illustrations on each of the amusements named in our text may not be unacceptable: 1. _Buttinge with sharpe speres._ This is tilting, or justing, expressed in Wace by _buhurder_. See Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 96, sq. 108. 2. _Skirming with taleuaces._ This is described more at large by Wace, in his account of the feast of Cassibelaunus. Cf. _Laȝamon_, v. i. p. 347; l. 8144. In Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_ is a representation of this game, taken from MS. Bodl. 264, illuminated between 1338 and 1344, in which the form of the _talevas_ is accurately defined. It appears to have been pursued to such an excess, as to require the interference of the crown, for in 1286 an edict was issued by Edward I. prohibiting all persons _Eskirmer au bokeler_. This, however, had only a temporary effect in restraining it, and in later times, under the appellation of _sword and buckler play_, it again became universally popular. 3. _Wrastling with laddes, puttinge of ston._ See the notes on ll. 984 and 1022. 4. _Harping and piping._ This requires no illustration. 5. _Leyk of mine, of hasard ok._ Among the games mentioned at the marriage of Gawain, in the Fabliau of _Le Chevalier à l’Epée_, we have: