as that which contains Minot's _Poems_: (2) _The Wars of Alexander_ (Early English Text Society, 1886), edited by myself; see the Preface, pp.

xv, xix, for proofs that it was originally written in a pure Northumbrian dialect, which the better of the two MSS.

very fairly preserves.

Others exhibit strong traces of a Northern dialect, such as _The Aunturs of Arthur_, _Sir Amadas_, and _The Avowing of Arthur_, but they may be in a West Midland dialect, not far removed from the North.

In the preface to _The Sege of Melayne_ (Milan) _and Roland and Otuel_, edited for the Early English Text Society by S.J.Herrtage, it is suggested that both these poems were by the author of _Sir Percival_, and that all three were originally in the dialect of the North of England.
_Iwain and Gawain_ and _The Wars of Alexander_ belong to quite the beginning of the fifteenth century, and they appear to be among the latest examples of the literary use of dialect in the North of England considered as a vehicle for romances; but we must not forget the "miracle plays," and in particular _The Towneley Mysteries_ or plays acted at or near Wakefield in Yorkshire, and _The York Plays_, lately edited by Miss Toulmin Smith.