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SIR CAULINE.
From lieliques of English Poetry, i. 44.
" This old romantic tale," says Percy, " was preserved in the Editor's folio MS., but in so very defective and mutilated a condition, (not from any chasm in the MS., but from great omission in the transcript, probably copied from the faulty recitation of some illiterate minstrel,) that it was necessary to supply several stanzas in the first part, and still more in the second, to connect and complete the story."
Many of the interpolations acknowledged in such general term3 might with some confidence be pointed out. Among them are certainly most, if not all, of the last twelve stanzas of the Second Part, which include the catastrophe to the story. It is difficult to believe that this charming romance had so tragic and so sentimental a conclusion.
The first part of this ballad is preserved in Scotland, under the title of King Malcolm and Sir Colvin, and is printed in our Appendix from Buchan's collection. In this, Sir Colvin weds the princess after his victory over the Elrick knight. |
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