[Sir Frederic Madden supposed this ballad to be founded upon the _Weddynge of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell_, which he printed from the Rawlinson MS. c. 86, fol. 128 b, in his _Syr Gawaine_.
Mr. Hales writes as follows respecting the various forms in which the story appears in literature. "The wonderful 'metamorphosis' on which this story turns is narrated in Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, as the story of Florent and the King of Sicily's Daughter, taken by him, as Tyrwhitt conjectures, from the _Gesta Romanorum_, or some such collection. It appears again, as the reader will remember, in Chaucer's _Wyf of Bathes Tale_. 'Worked over,' says Prof. Child, 'by some ballad-monger of the sixteenth century, and of course reduced to ditch-water, this tale has found its way into the _Crown Garland of Golden Roses_, part i. p. 68 (_Percy Society_, vol. vi.), 'Of a Knight and a Faire Virgin.' On a similar transformation depends the story of 'King Henrie' in Scott's _Minstrelsy_, edited from Mrs. Brown's MS., with corrections from a recited fragment, and modernized as 'Courteous King Jamie' in Lewis's _Tales of Wonder_. 'The prime original,' says Scott, 'is to be found in an Icelandic Saga.'"[34]
Mr. Child prints (_English and Scottish Ballads_, vol. viii. p. 139) two versions of a Scotch ballad entitled _Kempy Kaye_, which he supposes to be an extravagant parody of _The Marriage of Sir_ _Gawaine_.]
King Arthur lives in merry Carleile, And seemely is to see; And there with him queene Guenever, That bride soe bright of blee.[35]
And there with him queene Guenever, 5 That bride so bright in bowre: And all his barons about him stoode, That were both stiffe and stowre.[36]
The king a royale Christmasse kept, With mirth and princelye cheare; 10 To him repaired many a knighte, That came both farre and neare.
And when they were to dinner sette, And cups went freely round; Before them came a faire damsèlle, 15 And knelt upon the ground.
A boone, a boone, O kinge Arthùre, I beg a boone of thee; Avenge me of a carlish knighte, Who hath shent[37] my love and mee. 20
At Tearne-Wadling[38] his castle stands, Near to that lake so fair, And proudlye rise the battlements, And streamers deck the air.
Noe gentle knighte, nor ladye gay, 25 May pass that castle-walle: But from that foule discurteous knighte, Mishappe will them befalle.