This poem and part of the note are also printed in Englische Studien, vol. ix. part i., 1885. I am indebted to Herr C. Stoffel of Amsterdam for several corrections of that print.
THE story that St. Patrick, in order to excite the tardy faith of his fellow-countrymen, built an abbey in Ireland, at the entrance to a cavern, in a valley (or, as some say, on the top of a mountain), and established a ceremonial by which those who would go through the horrors of passing a night locked up alone in the cavern, and should come out alive from it, should escape purgatory after death, became popular and widely spread from the twelfth century. The narration of the experiences of Sir Owen or Owain, an English knight, who victoriously made this expiation for his sins in A.D. 1153, has been left on record by Henry of Saltrey, a monk born at Huntingdon, living about that time. [Henry of Saltrey's account is printed in Triadis Thaumaturgæ seu Divorum Patricii, Columbæ, et Brigidæ acta, ed. Johannes Colganus, Lovan., 1647, tom. ii. pp. 274-280; also in Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum Hiberniæ, Paris, 1626, ed. Thomas Messingham.] It has been alluded to by several early chroniclers, including Math. Paris; and, developed or altered, is found in not a few Latin and French manuscripts and printed books. The poets Marie de France, Calderon, and it is thought even Dante, are indebted to the legend for inspiration.
The Legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory also gave rise to some other stories, such as the Visions of Tundalus, and the Vision of St. Paul; but these are distinct from the Visions of Sir Owen, which have an air of historic veracity given them by the mention of King Stephen, in whose time the events are supposed to have occurred.
Setting aside Latin, French, or Spanish redactions, we find in English three separate metrical versions, dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the first volume of Englische Studien, [Some literal corrections, made on a further collation of the MS., were printed by Prof. Kölbing in Engl. Studien, bd. i. p. 186, and bd. v. p. 493.] (pp. 57-121), Professor Kölbing printed the two later versions of the legend in English metre (commonly called "Owain Miles"), namely, that contained in the Auchinleck MS. at Edinburgh (fourteenth century), and that contained in a paper MS. of the fifteenth century, Cott. Calig., A II. at the British Museum. Of each of these but one
