And then bespake him gentle gawaine, said, Lady thats but a skill; And because thou art my owne lady, thou shalt haue all thy will.
Then she said, blesed be thou gentle Gawain this day y^t I thee see, for as thou see me att this time, from hencforth I wilbe:
My father was an old knight, & yett it chanced soe that he marryed a younge lady y^t brought me to this woe.
Shee witched me, being a faire young Lady, to the greene forrest to dwell, & there I must walke in womans liknesse, most like a feend of hell.
She witched my brother to a Carlist B....
that looked soe foule & that was wont on the wild more to goe.
Come kisse her, Brother Kay, then said S^r Gawaine, & amend the of thy liffe; I sweare this is the same lady y^t I marryed to my wiffe.
S^r Kay kissed that lady bright, standing vpon his ffeete; he swore, as he was trew knight, the spice was neuer soe sweete.
Well, Coz. Gawaine, sayes S^r Kay, thy chance is fallen arright, for thou hast gotten one of the fairest maids I euer saw w^{ th} my sight.
It is my fortune, said S^r Gawaine; for my Vnckle Arthurs sake I am glad as grasse wold be of raine, great Ioy that I may take.
S^r Gawaine tooke the lady by the one arme, S^r Kay tooke her by the tother, they led her straight to k. Arthur as they were brother & brother.
K. Arthur welcomed them there all, & soe did lady Geneuer his queene, w^{ th} all the knights of the round table most seemly to be seene.
K. Arthur beheld that lady faire that was soe faire & bright, he thanked christ in trinity for S^r Gawaine that gentle knight;
Soe did the knights, both more and lesse, reioyced all that day for the good chance y^t hapened was to S^r Gawaine & his lady gay.
[456] [Printed for the first time in the fourth edition.]
[462] Sic in MS. pro _feires_, i.e. Mates.
From an ancient copy in black-print, in the Pepys Collection. Mr. Addison has pronounced this an excellent ballad: see the _Spectator_, No. 248.
[This ballad was printed in the third volume of the first edition of the _Reliques_, Book ii. No. 12, but was afterwards expunged by Percy. Professor Child gives the following references in his collection of _English and Scottish Ballads_, vol. viii. p. 152:--"The same story circulates among the peasantry of England and Scotland in the form of a penny tract or chap-book, _Notices of_ _Popular Histories_, p. 16, (_Percy Soc._ vol. xxiii.); _Notes and Queries_, New Series, vol. iii. p. 49. This jest is an old one. Mr. Halliwell refers to a fabliau in Barbazan's Collection, which contains the groundwork of this piece, _Du Vilain qui Conquist Paradis par Plait_, Meon's ed. iv. 114."]