[Footnote 10: _The Thornton Romances_, p. xxii f. ‘The romance of _Torrent_ is partly founded upon the story related in _Sir Eglamour_. The names are changed, but the resemblance is too striking to have been the result of chance. The treachery of the sovereign, the prowess of the knight, the indiscretions and misfortunes of the lady, and the happy conclusion of her misfortunes, these form the leading incidents of each romance . . . . there is, perhaps, a secret history attached to the source of these romances that remains to be unravelled.’] Upon it, the MSS. do not help us. The earliest MS. that can have contained _Sir Eglamour_ is the parchment one of the Duke of Sutherland,[11] written about the end of the 14th century. The other four MSS. of it[12] are still later. The only MS. of _Sir Torrent_ belongs to the 15th century, so that neither of these romances can be traced very far back. [Footnote 11: Cf. Koelbing’s _Englische Studien_, vii. p. 191 ff.] [Footnote 12: Cf. _The Thornton Romances_, p. xxv ff., and p. xxxvi.] _Sir Eglamour_ was printed several times in the beginning of the 16th century, and edited anew by Halliwell from the Cambridge MS. in his well-known collection. To judge from the numerous readings of the Lincoln, Cotton, and Cambridge MSS. which he has quoted, the Lincoln MS. shows best the original dialect, and offers in several passages a reading preferable as to rhyme and meaning.[13] Even slight differences in the contents occur now and then.[14] [Footnote 13: See the following passages which Halliwell has quoted in the notes: _Eglam._ 54, 96, 107, 111, 122, 128, 139, 153, 177, 195, 213, 247, 337, 347, 399, 445, 572, 605, 614, 737, 740, 765, 858, 883, 945, 985, 1081, 1143, 1206, 1216.] [Footnote 14: See _Eglamour_, notes on ll. 1064, 1082, 1267.] The metre and probably the dialect are the same in both romances; they are composed in the tail-rhymed twelve-line stanzas, and written in a North Midland dialect. In both of them the style is alike swelled with the habitual phrases; only the long prayers and pious reflections so frequent in _Torrent_ are not to be met with in _Eglamour_. On the other hand, the poet is wont to predict the fates of his heroes (ll. 204, 951); he often demands attention (ll. 15, 39, 343, 634, 904); he never omits, in describing the festivals, to mention the performances of the minstrels, and to praise the liberality of the lords. These characteristics render it probable that the author of _Eglamour_ was a minstrel, not a clerk or monk, as I suppose the author of _Sir Torrent_ to be.