The copy of this ballad in the Percy manuscript, the only one known to exist, shows very great carelessness on the part of the transcriber, or of some predecessor. It begins with two stanzas, which manifestly belong to an historical ballad, and have only a verbal connection with what follows. There is a large omission after the 125th verse (the 2Sth stanza as here printed), though the writing is continuous. There are also several difficult or unintelligible passages, even more than are usually met with in this manuscript. As published in the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 'Sir Cawline' is extended to nearly twice the amount of what is found in the manuscript, and a tragical turn is forced upon the story.
'Sir Cawline' may possibly be formed upon a romance in stanzas which itself was composed from earlier ballads. The first adventure resembles one in the romance of Eger, Grime and Gray-Steel. Gervase of Tilbury has a story of an ancient entrenchment in the bishopric of Ely, where anybody could have a passage at arms with an unearthly warrior, by moonlight only, by simply calling out, "Come, knight, and meet knight." Scott has introduced a spectral combat of this sort into his Marmion, Canto iii, sts. 23-25. Cf. also the Old French Lai de l'Espine, wrongly ascribed to Marie de France. There is a close resemblance between 'Sir Cawline' and the story of Sir Eglamour (Thornton Romances, p. 121; Percy Manuscript, Hales and Furnivall, n, 341).
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