The
translator, Thomas Chestre, has, however, taken incidents from other "lais"
by Marie de France, and enlarged the whole until it is some three hundred
lines longer than the French original.
Shakespeare may have read the tale in print. _Sir Lambewell_ appears to
have been printed about 1558,[62] and to have remained in circulation at
least until 1575,[63] but no complete copy is now known. A single MS.
version of 1650 survives, however, in the Percy Folio.[64] This is another
translation from the same French original, but made by some one acquainted
with Thomas Chestre's version.
The story as told in the first of these manuscripts may be condensed as
follows. Launfal had been ten years a steward to King Arthur before the
King's marriage. He did not like Guinevere, who gave him no gift at her
wedding; so he asked leave of the King to go home and bury his father. He
went to Caerleon, with two knights given him by Arthur, and sojourned with
the mayor; but when his money was spent, he fell into debt, and his knights
returned to Arthur's court in rags; but at Launfal's request, they gave out
that he was faring well.
One day Launfal rode out in poor attire into the forest, and sat him under
a tree to rest. After a while, two fair damsels, beautifully attired and
bearing a gold basin and a silk towel, approached him, and bade him come
speak with their lady, Dame Triamour, daughter to the King of Olyroun, king
of fairy.
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